04/29/2012, San Carlos Marina San Carlos Sonora MX
Picture of Great White Shark caught north of San Carlos, by Panga Fisherman.
Dreams do not always turn into reality Magic Carpets planned sail to the Mexican Rivera was postponed, until next season. The fast approaching hurricane season prevents us from sailing south at this late date. An unexpected Business problem forced our return to the states. We were ready to go! Magic Carpet was fully commissioned provisioned & fueled up waiting for our weather window. Than we had to reverse the process, hurricane proof again (not knowing when we could return) sent the provisions to the orphanage, fuel to fellow sailors, close her up and head north. For the second year in a row we did a fifty day turn around trip. We are now heading out! We will go where the wind takes us, some where on the Baja. We will be meeting with family & friends in the Loreto area. Hoping to make up for lost time. This will be Magic Carpets fourth season in the Sea of Cortez. There are islands we have not visited yet, ship wrecks to dive on, shores we have not hiked, and sea shells to be found, fishes to catch and people to meet. We look forward to our last season in the Baja and continue our journey. News flash a Great White Shark 20 feet long two thousand lbs. was caught just north of us. A fantastic site, we have just learned two or three are sited in the Sea of Cortez each season.
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02/15/2012, Marina San Carlos
Picture of Magic Carpet in her slip in Marina San Carlos B17
Yes unbelievable Magic Carpet was boarded while we were aboard either watching a movie or sleeping, sometime between 9 pm and 7am. We had left them in the cockpit ready for another day's work. The tools included the most used on Magic Carpet and several custom machined exclusively for our boat. A great loss and set back. After Marina reports, police reports, guard reports we offered a reward for their return. We than started a personal search of Mexican swap meets a eye opening south of the boarder adventure. All of our efforts failed! We felt uncomfortable sailing south with out several of these tools. Louise Hernandez was contracted to recreate several of the lost tool's.
Life in San Carlos, Sonora Mexico offers a very active social & culture life style. It's easy to understand why so many "gringo" live here six months out of every year. This season visit for us included local charity fund raisers and seminars by Dr. Whitney Azoy, Cultural Anthropology, Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World. Helping us better understand the times we live in. Donna's acceptance in the Liga de Arte, offering her a chance to paint and study & show with noted Artist. Greg's busy up grading the boat. Our new spinnaker is beautiful, packed and ready to fly. Cruisers dock side circle of knowledge gather regularly exchanging ideas and lending hands when needed. The Captains Club hosted several great football party's. Magic Carpet is now fully provisioned and ready to sail south. Were waiting for our weather window. We will soon be on the high sea sailing south "fast" chasing our dreams. We hope the winds takes us to Z town than back to the Sea of Cortez for Hurricane season. June 15 thru Oct 31, last year was a very quite season! It makes us wonder if Mother Nature will hit hard this season. We try to always be prepared & hope and pray we are never in a hurricanes path.
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Ford F250 Running After Computer Scare
After our safe arrival at Marina San Carlos we hurried to Hurricane proof Magic Carpet so we could return to the USA and travel to our Son's wedding in Boston and Harvest a Crop of Olives in California But Murphy's Law struck us again our bullet proof Ford Diesel truck waiting in storage would not start, After lots of conversations and inspections challenging our command of the Spanish languish it was determined it as the computer. Greg ordered a new computer ASAP There were none available in Mexico none available in USA, the only way to get one was to have the old one remanufactured 3 to 6 weeks. After a big trying personal search we found one near our home in California, we had it overnighted t some friends in Tucson Arizona who personally rushed it across the boarder and hand carried it to Magic Carpet it was just what we needed. Our truck was running again. The drive to California was uneventful the wedding was fantastic harvest was OK. We have returned to San Carlos and Magic Carpet, it takes about 10 days to hurricane proof her and about 6 weeks to set her back up and upgrade her for this season. We hope to head south early February or sooner.
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01/02/2012
Convection Clouds starting to Brew
All was well aboard Magic Carpet when we anchored in the calm waters of Bahia San Pedro we were thinking of all the work putting her away for Hurricane Season. After a leisurely Breakfast we pulled the anchor (35lb CQR with all chain road). All weather information had reported light winds out of the N/E . All Hell Broke Loose The light winds were building from the S/W the Seas were building the sky was filled with convection clouds over San Carlos area being close to shore we reefed down turned on the Yanmar and still made very little head way soon we were making no head way, we dropped the main rolled up the head sail and tuned around, seas were building winds were building we flew back to San Pedro dropped the hook behind a big mountain set up anchor watch using our Radar and 2 sets of BIG eyes. As the wind built to a reported 70MPH the wind was blowing the tops off the building seas like a great sheet fantastic sight, we keep our eyes on the lee shore but the anchor held tight no drag. Our little dinghy which we were towing turned turtle, but we had to leave it for a while, about midday the wind died. ( a Chabasco for sure). We righted our inflatable everything was tied in so all was well.(our out board engine always rides on Magic Carpets rail) The rap around swell was now tossing and turning Magic Carpet like a washing machine it was time to get out of there. Our mighty Yanmar started plowing our way back home, the sea's were big the wind was down, Once again we thank Bill Lee for his great design of our Lancer 36 she's lively fast and most important she's strong, she serve us well. We were tired that evening and did not check into the net they called us to if we were Ok ,it felt good to know we were not alone. Several cruisers had a harder time then we did but in the end all was well.
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01/02/2012
La Mona Float Party
La Mona was the location for the Net Controllers Float party our first! About 26 Boats arrived Fun was had by all accompanied by a great Beach party pot luck Campfire Stories and a few songs. Sadly the morning we had to head for San Carlos, we Island hopped always listening to the Marine Radio and Ham Radio for weather reports hoping to avoid a Chubasco,( winds for 3 to 4 hours up to 70MPH). We were off, Bay of LA to Isla Partita Norte, Isla Partida Norte to Willard on Isla Tiburon, Willard to Bahia Kino, Bahia Kino to Bahia San Pedro. The Passages were challenging because of the large tides. Strong currents & rip tides.
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01/02/2012
Mexican Navy Boarding Magic Carpet
The Mexican Navy boarded Magic Carpet while we were there they were very nice and polite and offered us food and water. We thanked them but assured them we were well supplied with provisions. They said just call if we needed anything, nice guys. We enjoyed our time with them. Sailing South back to Bay of LA area to La Mona anchorage we were passed by a school of Pilot Whales heading North straight at us at fast pace what a fabulous sight. Dorado were so plentiful we could no longer fish, we never take more than we can eat and our freezer was full the job now was to eat it all up before we reached San Carlos.
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