07/07/2012, El Burro Cove
Ok, I know, I have been remiss in my posting of our activities! So in a quick review, i will try to catch everybody up.
July 2nd, we were able to catch a ride into Mulege and do some shopping with Baja Geary, the reason for this 4th of July party, and weather man extraordinary. Riding in the back of a pickup truck, doing 60 MPH thru the 100 degree desert heat is a new experience. We were able to take care of every single thing that was on our shopping list. Then back to the boat to off load of booty, before joining a few of the other cruisers in the cove for a cold beverage on the beach.
July 3rd, we spent most of the morning doing a few boat jobs, Jeanne polishing more stainless steel, and i mounted our BBQ o it's newly drilled rail mounts and hooked up all the gas lines. That evening we hosted Diane and Terry from SV Harmony, out of Anacortes, Wa for drinks and stories on Eagle.
July 4th, the big beach party hosted by Baja Geary, with a pot luck, hotdogs, beer, fire works, Pit doing his fire eating, and New Zealand poi balls on fire show. There were 40 boats here for the celebration. early that morning, by 6 AM I had left the boat and hiked up to he top of the highest ridge so that I could get some pictures of the boats that had gathered.
July 5th, a sleep in, recovery day. Richard off of SV Dream Ketcher came by to try to help me with the issues that my Ham radio were having, but we were not able to get a complete fix on it. ARGH!! We went snorkeling, took a nap in the hammock, took Rick and Kyra from SV Nyon around the corner in our dinghy to the little tienda that is located in the cove to the south of us, in Bahia Coyote. Then back to the beach for a couple of games of Farkle.
Today, we were up early for a quick breakfast, caught the morning net and then went fishing. We caught quite a few, but they were all to small to keep. About the time we were done, John on Time Piece sailed into the bay with his new crew member, Ginger. We have only just met her, but so far she seems to be pretty awesome. Fits right in with this crowd. She even kicked our butts in two out of three games of Farkle tonight.
It is warm tonight...we have had warm days but always with a nice breeze....tonight, no breeze. It is now 11 PM and we have a cabin temp of 91 degrees
we will probably stay here another night or two, and then continue heading north.
manana
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07/01/2012, El Burro Cove
As we began our merry little journey north, we mentioned to several "experienced" cruisers that we were going to try to make it to El Burro Cove for the 4th of July party that is thrown here by Geary every year. Most of them showed a small little amount of shock, mixed with a barely concealed sadistic smile. "Oh that's a great party, if you can stand the heat" they would say. Bah, what heat...this is Mexico, we are ready for some heat. OK we got our heat now! I am typing this post, at 5:30 PM in the direct blast of two of our strongest fans, here in the cabin, with our thermometer showing a chilly 96 inside. Chilly I say, because it is also showing a warmish 106 with the heat of the lowering sun blasting into the cockpit. Now that folks is warm. But at least we are on the water so we can jump in there for relief right? Well, the water temp is 88 degrees, it is wet, but sure not cold!
Now you might think that the sun has gotten to my brain, but we are having a blast! We start our day a little earlier, getting boat chores done, and then nap, swim, eat and stay out of the sun until it starts to set, behind the mountain range right at the base of our cove, sometime around 6:45 PM. Then perhaps a dinghy ride, a visit to some of the other boats in the cove, another swim, as it cools down, perhaps a walk on the beach. there is a small little cantina and as soon as I am done, here, I have promised Jeanne something cold to drink there.
As far as my boat repairs go, today I took all of the rivets out of the spinnaker pole, repaired the internal roller, and put it all back together again with new stainless rivets. Then I pulled out the stainless steel brackets we had welded in Loreto for the B-B-Q, and fitted them to the rail, drilled the mounting holes, fitted a bracket to hold an accessory tray and put it all together on the starboard stern rail. Jeanne went around the boat polishing stainless steel parts. and assisting me as needed.
Just another day in Paradise!!
Manana
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06/30/2012, El Burro Cove
we got up at 5:30 this morning, so we could be on our way by 6. We were going to make our longest runs since coming down the coast in November. La Ramada to El Burro Cove, inside Bahia Conception is nearly 60 miles. We were supposed to have nice 10-15 knot winds, and a nice sail north. It was a great plan, but the wind machine did not get the memo, so we had to motor the whole way. Jeanne was able to land, and relaes a 10 pound` tuna, and she hooked a small, 80-100 pound`sailfish, but was note able to get him to the boat before he got off the hook.
Our new crew member is an un-invited guest. His name is know to many by monikers that are shall we say, less flattering. We just call him "Murphy" We knew that when we took off from Seattle, we had done as good a job as possible in preparing the boat, with upgrades and the newest gear possible. All of this was in an effort to reduce our breakdowns along the way. We also knew that is was not a matter of if something would break, but when. This is where Murphy moved in...when the first thing broke, it was no surprise. But when a long, and bothersome series of things started to fail, it just plain got old!
The first was actually a reoccurring item, our macerator pump. It has been a source of aggravation 4 or 5 times now, so it's failure came as no surprise. When the expanding spinnaker pole, decided to no longer to expand, the right side o my fuel filter system became clogged, the anchor chain started to jump out of the windlass jaws, the watermaker sprang a small leak, the DC side o the electrical panel gained a mysterious short, that comes and goes as it pleases, the #2 bilge pump just plain gave up the ghost, and after several upgrades, the SSB/ham radio will no longer send out voice messages to anyone more than a few miles away, it became apparent that "Huston we have a problem" Any one of these, or in fact a couple of them would be just something to do, but all of these in a matter of a few days is really starting to ....well not make me very happy!
Our buddy Jim has sent me a couple of notes requestion stories and pic of me actually doing some work with pictures of proof. Well Jim, the pics will be hard, but you will get a few stories about repairs in the next few days!
We will stay here in this area thru the July 4th holiday, and yes there are enough Americans to get together and have a party, even if it is Mexico. But more on that and the repairs later. It is very hot here, 96 degrees at 10:00 PM, and the water temps are now in the high 80. I am going out on the fore deck to see if i can get cooled off!
Manana
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06/28/2012, La Ramada Cove
In get an effort to get farther north, today was the first leg in that direction. We motored the 20 miles north headed towards San Jaunico, but as many of our trips go, we fell back to the infamous "Plan B" . As soon as we cleared the land on Isla Coronado, we were hit by a nasty set of rolling seas, any where from 4-8 feet...right on the beam, with no wind. But, we got to make water for nearly four hours, so there was our sliver lining.
As we neared the San Jaunico it became obvious that with this amount of swell in the water, there was no way we would be comfortable there, so we traveled two more miles, around the corner to a small little bay called La Ramada Cove. Well, it looked like every other cruiser in the area had the same idea. By the end of the day, we had 12 boats all nicely packed in here.
We will stay here one more night, do some hiking, and exploring before heading north the 56 miles to Bahia Conception.
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06/27/2012, Puerto Coronado
We had a very un-eventful run of 8 miles over flat calm seas, with little or no wind this morning on our first leg north from Escondido. Our new boat friends Scott and Lisa, on their yet to be named Trimaran had joined us in Ballandra, and followed along to Coronado as well. Also here in the bay with us is SV Nyon, SV Camille, and SV Tequila Mockingbird
We had heard a lot of good things about this bay, but like everything else, we have our opinion, and are a little less impressed. The water was pretty clear here a few days ago, but now is a green pea soup.
So we will move on pretty quickly, probably day after tomorrow. I am having a bit of a carburetor problem on the outboard, so i will take it to the beach tomorrow and see if i can get it figured out.
our next planned stop will be San Juanico
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06/25/2012, Puerto Balandra
We have left Escondido for a quick stop back in Ballandra. We need to catch up with John Time Piece to pick up a few things that his friend Chuck brought down with him from the PNW.
I have somehow gotten a glitch in my computer and it won't let me post any pictures...!!! so we will have to get that sorted out and get those fish pictures up. sorry 'bout that.
We are going to try to head north to Bahia Coronados tomorrow in our slow craw farther north.
Manana
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