06/26/2012, Puerto Escondido
Luxury Cruising Brake:
With the "kids" in town we enjoyed the best of both worlds. Beach clam bakes; to traditional mesquite wood stove dinners, inland travel and short sea passage to a fantastic resort spa. Anchoring Magic Carpet in Ensenada Blanca enjoying shore side amenity's made us feel like we were on the east coast of America for just a short time. Then sadly it was time for the Adios again. We are lucky in life to be able to turn our dream into reality, but it's always hard to be so far from family and friends. Magic Carpet has been based out of Porto Escondido, Baja California Sir the last few weeks. Now sailing out of her hidden harbor we are excited to be returning to our Island hopping way of life. The water has started to warm up and the fish have started to move in. The bit is on , dinners are great - Dorado - Yellow Tail - Serra-
Grouper - Snapper and even Wahoo last night. Interesting enough no Skipe Jack so far this year. We almost miss the great fighting fish, even though it's a catch and release ( not good eating).
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05/17/2012, Puerto de la Lancha Isla Carmen
Wow fantastic to be back at sea, it was tuff putting Magic Carpet back into sea readiness for the second time this year. The call of the sea is a strong force for us. As hard as we try to carry all the wonderful things we do and see with us always, life sometimes clouds the memory. But Oh just sailing out of our safe harbor wakens our senses and deep love for our life style. Dolphins welcome us back like we are long lost friends. Manta rays flip flop around as young dolphins tail dance, birds diving, flying fish scoot across the water. Phosphoresces light Magic Carpets way and announces incoming dolphins, whales blow a quick howdy we feel at home. Fishing is good, breads rising, sprouts are growing sea life is being good to us. Loreto Fest gave us a chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones. We danced under the stars celebrating Cinco de Mayo in style. We attended cruising seminars and for Donna craft classes. Open mike showed how talented may fellow cruiser are. Colorful local dancers entertained us; local food was a super treat a good time was had by all. We often think as we grow older that it's been slower making new friends, yet in the cruising world how fast and strong new friendships develop. We guess it's because even though we all come from so many different walks in life we share one strong driving force the call of the sea. In many ways our safety and independence is linked with each other. Everyone shares learning experiences and equipment knowledge with each other. The Sonrisa ham net and the Amigo and Southbound marine nets keep us all connected providing weather, sea conditions, water temperature & local knowledge. Greg is the Saturday morning Sonrisa net controller and Donna will soon be handling an evening southbound net. Magic Carpet has been cruising around the middle waters of the Sea of Cortez there is so much we have not seen before. We sailed for twenty four hours to Isla Coronado's from our berth at Marina San Carlos three hours on three hours off, averaging 4 1/2 knots. We were greeted by friends and a pot luck beach party, it felt great to back. So far we visited V Cove on Isla Carmen (a favorite) Punta Perico South (new this season) and Peurto De La Lancha. We are enjoying late spring weather the best in years, warm days and cool nights, water temperatures range from 74 to 80 degrees, winds moderate, sea swells 0 to 5 feet. Sometimes it's a pond and sometimes the sea reminds us to keep our PFD's handy and check out tether lines out. Magic Carpet doing great all systems are working well! It's said one week at sea is like one year at the docks for ware and tear on a boat. We try hard to take good care of her as she is taking very good care of us. We thank Bill Lee for the Lancer 36 great design. Fully loaded she still sails fast, she quick to respond smooth and comfortable and we like to go fast! The last few days we have had strong East South East winds with Five to eight foot swells, so we are hanging out on the North side of Isla Carmen. Some rap around swell invades the north of the Island but it's better than being south. Our wind generator and solar stick are doing a super job, batteries are fully charged, and water tanks are full, freezer full, Ice cubes are ready and waiting, soft music fills the cabin, it's so good to be home. AND the Admiral has more fish credits than the Captain on the tally card!
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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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