08/07/2012, Animas Slot
After a very nice snorkel this morning, the decision was made to make the 11 mile run from Isla Partida to Animas Slot, back on the Baja side. Whiled the under water part of Partida is awesome, the land part is truly nothing to look at, and the bulk of the land formations are very white. Not from any thing natural as far as rocks go.....bird poop, lots and lots of bird poop. Enough to make small islands look like they have been snowed on. The when you get a nice warm day, say in the mid to high 90's,I am pretty sure you will have an idea of what the aroma will be like. We decide that the best underwater visibility and snorkeling in a long time wasn't worth the smell.
We had hoped for some wind to fill in, but no luck there, I guess the wind did not get the memo. Sounds to me like the memo machine is out of order as we had a couple of fishing lures out the whole way and no fish showed up either. Gotta check on the memo machine.
Animas Slot is pretty much what it sounds like, a slot in the rocks big enough for one or maybe two boat to fit into, with good wind protection for all angles except the east. Now that we are anchored, guess which way the wind is blowing from??? Yup the east, but only about 8-9 knots, so it keeps things cooled down a bit. Cooled down to 93 in the cabin and 96 in the cockpit. There is a white sandy beach at the head of the slot with a couple of trails that go up and over the ridges to see down into the two adjoining bays to our north and south. Maybe tomorrow I will hike them and get a couple of pictures.
I am saving up a bunch of pictures to post as soon as we get some internet. Maybe in Bahia De Los Angekes
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08/07/2012, Isla Partida
We have the anchor down here in the north cove of Isla Partida, in what is referred to as the mid-drift islands. We left San Fransisquito, under sail, with forecasted wind of 9-13 knots. NOPE!! After one good hour of sailing we had to motor as the winds died down to less than 4 knots. It turned out to be a very boring 31 mile day. No fish caught, no real amount of sailing, just a mostly flat run up here. We did see a couple of Pilot Whales but that was pretty much the high light of the trip.
When we turned the corner to enter the bay, we both must have dropped our jaws open, as this is the most desolate, barren island I have ever seen. Jeanne looked at me and said that she felt like we were landing on the moon.
We plan on doing some snorkeling tomorrow, as we have heard that it is amazing here, but we don't see our selves staying here very long
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08/05/2012, Bahia San Fransisquito
Not a whole lot to report, as we are just sorta doing what we do down here on these hot humid days. We do start our days a little earlier than we used to, with it pretty common to be up around 6-6:30. We listen to the morning nets, get the weather, and check in with some of the other boats all doing the same thing, around the sea of Cortez. Then by 8-8:30 we are off to go snorkeling, hiking or fishing unless we have some important boat jobs to work on. If we had breakfast before we left the boat, then we do a little tidying up around the boat, before lunch. By then the heat is up and our desire to do much is pretty weak, so this is when we work on the computer, read, play cards, or just plain old nap!
A couple of days ago we pulled our Racor duel fuel filter system apart and gave it a good cleaning, as after our nasty little bit of bashing on our way in here we broke some junk loose in the fuel tank. It was stopped by the filters, but there was quite a bit gathered in the bottom of the fuel filter bowl. So far my wiring project looks to be a success, as everything is running good! The only thing so far in our systems that are under performing are the solar panels. Don't get me wrong they are doing their part, is just so much hotter, keeping the refrigeration running is now requiring so much more energy than we had thought it might. Since we make water about every three days, we run the battery charger at the same time, and get the batteries all charged back up. At this time we also recharge the hand help VHF radio, the cell phone (we use it as an alarm) the Ipod, the Kindle, and the flashlights.
Last night was our first real brush with a Chubasco. About 2:30 AM the winds started picking up, and then the lightening started popping about 8 miles away. Fortunately the winds stay just under 30 knots, and the electrical part moved away with out an issue. We pretty much never go to bed, unless the boat is ready to handle 50 knots of wind, so it was really a non issue, just lost a little sleep.
Depending on weather tomorrow, we might pull anchor and head north to either Isla Partida, or Animas Slot.....or not!!
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08/02/2012, Bahia San Fransisquito
While we rarely ever need an excuse for a party or pot luck down here, last nights full moon was certainly as good as it gets for a reason to get all the bats together and celebrate. In addition, it was Lisa on SV Beyond Reason's Birthday, it was a little cooler, with a very light, cooling breeze. Lots of great food, a few cold beverages, a little joke telling, and some improvised bocci ball. I took a few of my extra golf balls and and maked them to be used as Bocci balls. I painted one yellow to be the target. If we get some internet when we get to Bahia De Los Angeles, I will post a few pics.
Looks like we will stay here until Saturday, and then head north with a stop in Animas Slot it there is room for us.
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07/30/2012, Bahia San Fransisquito
Well, as you've read before, Murphy joined us somewhere back a few miles. He hasn't left,yet.
After a nice evening with Trisha and Derrick of S/V Interabang, for pizza and farkle, we discovered that the refrigeration system didn't seem to be working. Great! It's 10 pm, and we're now pulling out the tools and wiring supplies. My hero, Tom, bypassed the main system, and at least got us a working refrigerator to keep our full of food freezer cold. Off to bed, and we'll tackle it in the morning.
We'd been watching our panels very closely over the past several weeks, suspecting something was amiss, but not sure where it was. Murphy, again. So, after a quick breakfast of toast with PBJ on it, Tom basically rewired the entire 12V side of our panel. He mounted a couple of new bus bars for the grounds, and moved them off of the panel. In doing so, he discovered that we had two partially melted wires. Aha! and Oh, no! So with a careful look at all the wires, connections, it was all rewired and re- labeled. The meter is now reading properly and most important, the refrigerator is keeping things cold again.
The boat is certainly getting more use than ever before, especially compared to being tied to a dock. She's constantly in motion, which means all the systems, fittings and connections are too. We're also dealing with pretty high humidity and that is also having an effect. We're hearing of other boaters starting to have issues with computers, kindles, electronics, pumps and other refrigeration units.... so Murphy is not exclusively on our boat.
As I said before, Tom's my hero. There have been many times on this adventure of ours where he's pulled a new talent out of his sleeve, impressed me with his knowledge of our systems or those of others and VOILA - the problem is solved, the 'ordeal' averted, and the adventure can continue on.
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-Nicole
Have a great time up North.
Laura
07/28/2012, Bahia San Fransisquito
After deciding that he Chubasco storm was going to break down, and not effect us on our way north, we both took short naps, and then were under way at 12:15 AM. After clearing the breakwater and stowing all the fenders and dock lines, we set the sails and had a very nice sail....for about 4 hours. Then the winds died down. So, we motored and used that engine time to top off our water tanks. Around 8:00 AM we set the sails again, only to have the wind die down again after 3 hours of sailing. We still have nearly 40 miles to go, so we motored, and finished making water. The sea kept getting rougher and rougher, but the winds did not pick up. With the 3-4 foot seas, the ride was not really comfortable, and it stirred up some junk in our fuel tank, so I had a bit of a fire drill, cleaning the fuel filter housing and putting in new filters.
We tried fishing, with no luck. We had a couple of fish on but they were quickly off so we don't know what or how big they were. We had to keep bringing in the lures as the Boobys keep flying over the boat and then trying to catch the lure. I am pretty sure we had them in and out o the water 2 dozen times. Finally, we did not get them min fast enough, and juvenile brown Booby got caught. We reeled him in and removed the hook as carefully as possible. We set him free and off he went, but i am pretty sure he is now one of the "Punk" Boobys and is going to get a ring in his new lip piercing.
The last 5 miles of the trip were just plain awful!! As we got closer to the opening of the bay, the water current, the rapidly changing depth and the increasing (finally!!) wind all worked against each other to make a very nasty piece of water. The results were very large waves, coming from three directions, and no choice but to bash right thru it. We took three waves over the side into the cockpit, something that has not happened since we left on this trip even once, let alone three times.
Trips facts: 78.4 miles 9.3 engine hours three different rain squalls with lightening no fish, one booby caught Back above 28th latitude again engine hours rolled over 1000
It was a long day but we are now anchored, and ready for a rest.
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