Debra and Andy
05/16/2012, Puerto Ballandra

On Saturday morning, we took the dinghy ashore to the Loreto Marina and set out for provisioning. Andy went to the fish tackle store to get lures and hooks to set up our newest rod and reel which Andy had purchased at the swap meet which was part of the Loretofest. We decided that it was time to try some bottom fishing since our trolling was not producing much other than more of the Skipjacks which are not particularly good eating. Debra headed for the supermarket for food supplies. Andy discovered several tortillerias and bought some fresh tortillas, both harina (wheat flour) and maiz (corn flour), still warm from the oven. After returning to the boat, we made final preparations for Rick's arrival that afternoon. Andy took the dinghy to the marina at 3:30 since Rick's plane was scheduled to arrive at the Loreto Airport, about 3 miles away, at 3:15, but he was pleasantly surprised to find Rick walking out the dock, having just arrived by taxi. They quickly boarded the dinghy and returned to Murar's Dream. As soon as Rick was settled in, we quickly set sail across the channel to Bahia Ballandra on Isla Carmen. After setting anchor, it was time to get together with August Moon, and they joined us aboard Murar's Dream for some of Andy's Thai curry. After dinner, we taught Rick how to play Mexican Train and had a delightful evening with a five person game of all twelves. Debra came out the winner, and Rick experienced the pleasure of coming in last at his first try at this most challenging game.

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Debra and Andy
05/12/2012, Loreto

Rick arrives tomorrow afternoon, so we decided to make our way to Loreto and anchor outside the marina today to be ready for his arrival. First, however, we took the dinghy for a tour of San Juanico bay, paralleling the shore and looking down through the crystal clear waters at the coral reefs and sandy bottoms which outline the bay. The large number of rays were a special feature along the sandy bottoms as they would dart along as we approached them in less than 10 feet of water, a few of them being quite large (more than 2 foot wing spans). We then left San Juanico at about 10AM, and the winds dictated a total trip by motor sailing. Either the wind was too much on our nose, or there just was not enough wind to sail. This is the first time we have had to motor for an entire trip in a very long time. However, it did mean that we were not heeling, so Debra took advantage by cleaning the interior of the boat during the journey. Upon arriving outside the marina in Loreto, we set anchor, and it was time for Andy to do his part by cleaning the outside of the boat. So as not to use up valuable fresh water, this meant washing the boat using boat soap and salt water which worked surprisingly well. We really won't be able to do a proper, fresh water wash until we make our way to the marina at Costa Baja, just north of La Paz, later in June. After finishing all our chores, we launched the dinghy and went ashore to do a little shopping and have dinner. Our first stop was the government subsidized market which has limited items but at really great prices. We then stopped for margaritas at the hotel bar which we had visited on our prior, day trip to Loreto. Andy hit another supermarket to pick up some additional items before we decided to try La Palapa, a restaurant recommended both by fellow cruisers and our tour book that we have faithfully used for both navigation and recommendations. It was a delightful setting underneath a large, open air thatched roof restaurant where we enjoyed whole red snapper and some more of those local delicacies-chocolate clams. It was then back to the boat before dark where we wound down for the day. Tomorrow, we will stock up on some fresh verduras (vegetables) and fruitas before meeting up with Rick at the marina dock. We then plan to go, hopefully under sail, to one of the adjacent islands for the evening before returning to San Juanico to further explore that great location.

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Debra and Andy
05/12/2012, Caleta San Juanico

Our final night at Isla Coronados proved to be quite the adventure. We had been warned by Double Diamond about the scout bees which come to your boat looking for fresh water. If they find it, they go back to their hive and bring back a swarm to feast on your fresh water since it is so dry on the island. It can be something as simple as spilled water or wet swimming suits hanging out to dry after being rinsed with fresh water. Sure enough, in late afternoon, two scout bees showed up at Murar's Dream. You are supposed to kill them if you can, but we were unsuccessful since they would not land anywhere to be swatted. We did have two bathing suits hanging out to dry, so we knew that we should plan on a visit from the swarm. Sure enough, just as it was time to cook our chicken on the grill, about a couple of dozen bees appeared and were flying all around the deck. Fortunately, we had our mosquito netting up over the gangway, but a couple of bees managed to find their way in anyway. Andy was able to get them out by opening the netting for just a moment, as you could tell that they wanted out. Andy cooked the chicken without further problems, and we then settled down to watch a movie in the salon. At one point Debra went to open the door to the rear head, forgetting that the two open windows there do not have screens. She immediately shut the door after observing the swarm inside the head. Andy then peeked in and estimated that there were several dozen bees in the head. Andy knew that bees do not fly at night, so we expected the swarm to leave the head at dusk. Andy started checking the head after it was dark, and he eventually determined that there were only 3 or 4 bees still in the head, so he entered with a cup and piece of paper and trapped each bee, releasing it out one of the open windows. He then decided to check the drain to the shower which usually had some standing water below the grate. He then discovered about 30 dead bees floating in the standing water-They apparently drowned after they landed in the water and were unable to fly out. He scooped them up in a cup and discarded them over the side, ending this episode.

We expected to see a return of bees the following morning, and, sure enough, several bees appeared on deck, but this time we made sure that the head windows were closed and that there was no fresh water to be had on deck. Eventually these bees gave up and departed before we decided to lift anchor and head for Caleta San Juanico. There was just enough wind to sail most of the 20 miles, so we enjoyed a leisurely journey in calm seas until about 5 miles from the bay when we doused the sails and turned on the engine for the final leg of the trip, finally anchoring in what we both agree is one of the most scenic places we have visited to date. We had heard about plans for a potluck dinner on one of the beaches, so Andy prepared his chicken and yellow rice casserole for our contribution. There were about 10 boats in the bay, and all participated in the event which included a small campfire on the beach. We were able to meet several new cruisers, one couple being involved in Doctors Without Borders. It was fascinating to hear from them about their visits to Darfur, Somalia and Indonesia. As the sun set, everyone returned to their boats for the night, and we, too, called it an evening since tomorrow we will return to Loreto to prepare the boat for Rick's arrival on Saturday. We should then likely return to this bay, as it has so much to offer that we will want to share with Rick during his visit to the Sea of Cortez.

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Debra and Andy
05/09/2012, Isla Coronados

We arose on Tuesday to another typical sunny and calm day, so we started out the day with paddleboard excursions, first to the old shipwreck protruding out of the water about 1/4 of a mile away from Murar's Dream and then near the shore with a return to the boat, close to a mile of paddling for our daily exercise. We then prepared the boat for the next leg of our journey while we awaited the daily, thermal (land-sea) effect winds to build since the weather report showed no pressure gradient whatsoever in the Sea, which meant no other mechanism to create wind. Around 11AM, it looked like the winds were building, so we, along with Double Diamond, our buddy boat accompanying us since leaving Puerto Escondito, set out hoping to sail to our next anchorage, Isla Coronados, about 30 nm away. Unfortunately, the winds decided to hover in the 3-5 knot range, but we were determined to sail, so we set sail, killed the engine, and bobbed along at 2-3 knots as we headed north along the east side of Isla Carmen before turning west to Isla Coronados. It was about 2PM, when the thermals finally began to set in out of the ESE, so we set the gennaker for the first time in months and sailed at 4-5 knots for the last 12 miles of the journey. Due to the direction of the wind and where we wanted to go, it involved a bit of zigzagging which required one jibe of the gennaker. This enabled us to try my latest method of letting out the tack (the bottom-forward connection) as a part of the jibing of the sail, and it seemed to work well, so we will add this procedure to future jibes. As we reached the Isla, we doused the gennaker just in time for some gusting winds caused by the geography of the island and finished our sail, finally setting anchor in the well-protected cove on the west side of the island. After dining aboard, we joined Double Diamond on their boat for a final and farewell game of Mexican Train since they will be heading across the Sea to San Carlos on the mainland side to meet up with some friends driving down from Arizona. They will then likely be putting their boat "on the hard" for the summer and returning to Seattle, and we will be heading back to Los Angeles aboard Murar's Dream via a Baja Bash after completing our exploration of the western side of the Sea in June. We completed an entire game of double 12s which took over 3 hours, and Debra came out the victor. We hopped in the dinghy and returned to Murar's Dream, enjoying the bright green flourescence created by our wake and ending a long but enjoyable day.

Wednesday was our day to climb the extinct volcanic cone on Isla Coronados. After breakfast, we took the dinghy ashore and started the climb in beautiful weather-sunny and not too hot. After finding the trail, we hiked to the base of the final climb, about half of which was across a huge field of volcanic rocks which had obviously spewed out of the volcano during its last eruption. Based upon the jagged edges to most of the rocks, that eruption had to be fairly recent in geological history. We abandoned our attempt at the final ascent because it was starting to get hot, our water supply was dwindling, and we had been advised by Double Diamond that it consisted of much smaller volcanic rocks that you would sink into ankle deep, as we only had our athletic shoes which were not suitable for this type of hiking. Nevertheless, with all the distance that we did cover, it was more than 3 hours of physical activity which started with Andy taking a wrong turn at the beginning which made us backtrack for about 45 minutes to find the actual trail. Upon returning to Murar's Dream, we agreed that this most beautiful anchorage with its crystal clear, turquoise water was worth another day's stay, so it is a day of leisure, a swim in the cool water and dinner aboard before moving on to our next destination-Caleta Juanico, about 20 nm north of here, before we return to Loreto to pick up Rick Ruskin for his week-long visit.

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Debra and Andy
05/09/2012, Bahia Salinas

After a quiet night in the cove at Honeymoon Cove, the four of us hopped in Double Diamond's dinghy for a hike along the trails on Isla Danzante. At first, it was a relatively easy climb, but the trail began a very steep angle up the side of one of the peaks overlooking the cove. Unfortunately, the loose gravel was such that it became somewhat hazardous to continue since a slip might mean having to grab one of the very spiny cacti along the trail to break the slide, and it would be no fun having a handful of cactus thorns to deal with, so we turned around and returned to the dinghy and the boats.

We then decided to head to our next stop-Bahia Salinas on the island just to the north. Our hopes for being able to sail the 12 or so miles were dashed when the winds did not exceed 4 knots so we motored along the lake like conditions of the Sea. Upon arriving, we anchored offshore, and Double Diamond launched their dinghy for a trip ashore to explore the abandoned salt production facility. There were a few buildings still occupied and a very nice church which seemed to be well kept as it was left open so that we could go inside. There were numerous signs posted in both English and Spanish warning against trespassing on the property, but Andy managed to communicate with one of the inhabitants who seemed not to be concerned with our presence. We could see the old salt flats where they would evaporate the sea water in the distance, so we proceeded to walk out there. Our first view was of all the abandoned machinery which had rusted away. Once we reached the actual salt flats, it was pretty amazing. Portions were totally dried out with white salt crystals coating the bottom, and others still had thin layers of water but were still stark white from the layer of salt below. Overall, it was quite a dramatic scene and well worth the walk there. We returned to the beach which was one of the pure white sand beaches we have experienced in this part of the Sea. Many of them are either covered in small rocks (like Honeymoon Cove) or consist of crushed shells which have yet to reach the consistency of sand. After returning to our respective boats, it was an afternoon of enjoying the nice breeze which had set in while we rested in our cockpit. We then decided to test out the water with a swim over to Double Diamond, a few hundred feet away. We sat on the trampolines on their bow (it is a catamaran) sipping limonadas while enjoying the late afternoon and early evening as the sun was getting lower in the sky. We decided to swim back to Murar's Dream before sunset and then dined onboard before calling it a day.

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Debra and Andy
05/09/2012, Puerto Escondito

Wednesday was the day for the final leg of our journey to Puerto Escondito and Loretofest, a short trip of about 3 nm across the channel from Honeymoon Cove. Because Loretofest is the biggest event for cruisers in the Sea of Cortez, we quickly set out to our final destination to make sure that we arrived before things got too hectic with the last-minute arrivals, the festival starting on Thursday. We arrived inside the lagoon shortly after 8AM and explored the area and the large number of mooring buoys, one of which was reserved for us. We quickly determined that anther sailboat had already moored at our assigned buoy, so we had to wait for the marina office to open at 9AM to find out where we should moor Murar's Dream. We found the fuel dock and were able to tie up and fuel the boat, something that we had not done since leaving Mazatlan, taking on 45 gallons in our 53 gallon fuel tank-a safe margin considering that we also had 3 five gallon jerry cans as additional backup. Puerto Escondito is one of the few places to obtain fuel on the eastern shore of the Baja Peninsula, and we should now have more than adequate fuel for our travels throughout the Sea before our next fueling stop in La Paz, which we should reach sometime in later June. If not, there should be fuel in Santa Rosalita to the north, or we will be leaving the boat in Puerto Escondito while we return to the U.S., so we can also top off here, as well. After sorting out the mooring situation at the marina office, we found our mooring buoy and tied up for our four day stay, awaiting the start of Loretofest tomorrow. We ran into some of our friends on August Moon, and we agreed to take a taxi to the town of Loreto about 25 kilometers to the north for a bit of landlocked exploration. Upon arriving in town, we first had lunch at an open air restaurant before going our separate ways for a bit of shopping/provisioning. After walking quite a ways and asking twice for directions, we found a market recommended by some other cruisers and stocked up primarily on fresh vegetables which we had exhausted since leaving Mazatlan. We then rendezvoused at a bar at one of the local hotels in the historic part of town where we finalized the reservation for our first leg back to Colorado-Loreto to LAX on Alaska Airlines on May 18th, the only commercial airline that flies into Loreto only 4 days a week. After returning to Puerto Escondito, we discovered that our friends from Double Diamond had made their way back from having explored the Sea further north, so we joined them for drinks and a light dinner at the restaurant overlooking the lagoon. Both the marina and the restaurant had wifi, so we were able to complete our reservation for flights to and from Denver which worked with the timing of our Alaska Airlines flights. We returned to Murar's Dream by dinghy under full darkness of night-something that is both eerie and potentially dangerous as there are numerous mooring balls which are still unoccupied and therefore difficult to see in the darkness of night. Fortunately, the ride was uneventful, and we safely returned for another good night's sleep aboard.

Loretofest began on Thursday and ran through Sunday. It was an interesting experience that was worth experiencing once, but it is something that does not need to be repeated. There were about 100 boats in port for the event which consisted of several seminars on boating issues, competition games (horseshoes, bacci ball, canasta, and dinghy races), a food court with full bar, and music each night. They had set up numerous tents in the concrete pad adjacent to the water with seating and tables under them to get out of the daily sun and heat which was around 90 degrees each afternoon. The crowd was quite varied with some cruisers who had been living in the marina for years to newbies like us. This event was put on by the local yacht club as a fund raiser for itself and local charities, so there were also a silent auction and raffle. We were pretty low key in our participation, only trying our hand at bacci ball and enjoying the company of some of our friends as well as others whom we met for the first time. Andy did his good deed for the event by helping to clean one section of the surrounding shorline, doing the task on the paddleboard (see lead photo). We unfortunately missed most of the seminars, but we heard that they were very informative on subjects ranging from fishing to communications to radar to bashing back to the U.S. We did enjoy some of the live music performed one night by a mariachi style group from the local university and the final night by a local blues group. However, our highlights were really unrelated to the event, itself. We played Mexican Train with friends on two of the evenings, and we enjoyed dinner first aboard Murar's Dream on Thursday night with our friends from Double Diamond to finish the lobster which we had purchased in Los Gatos. We then had dinner on Saturday night aboard Double Diamond along with our friends from August Moon and the crew of Freya, friends of Double Diamond, where they served fresh Chocolate Clams, a local delicacy, grilled in the shell with garlic butter. Everyone brought some additional food items including some tasty, local bay scallops and assorted salads. We concluded our stay in Puerto Escondito with a final taxi ride into Loreto to check out the Sunday street market where we were able to purchase some nice veggies and fruits from local vendors. We also purchased a bag of nice sea scallops. After completing our experience at the street market, we went for lunch at a local restaurant where Doreen of August Moon had won a free lunch at the raffle. We returned to the lagoon after topping off our dinghy gas tank at the local Pemex station. Tonight was the first night that we decided to use the air conditioner to cool off the rear cabin at bedtime as the temperature in the cabin had peaked at 82 degrees. After about ½ hour, we were again comfortable at about 72 degrees and were able to shut off the A/C for the night when the cooler temperatures finally rolled in.

We had booked our stay in the marina through Sunday so, upon returning to the boat, we began final preparations to depart and continue our travels in the Sea. I was able to finally reach Rick Ruskin by Skype and confirm that he will be joining us for a week's visit starting on the 12th. We will spend this week visiting coves near Loreto and then pick him up at the Loreto Marina, a place without moorings but a dinghy dock where we can bring the dinghy to take him back to the boat for a week of further exploration. After our final preparations, we released the line to the mooring to which we had been attached since arriving here, cleared the lagoon and headed across the channel to anchor once again at Honeymoon Cove for the evening. It was really nice to be away from the madding crowd, but we were joined by Double Diamond with whom we will be exploring the area for at least a few days before they go on to Guaymas and San Carlos on the mainland side to meet up with some friends who will be driving down from Arizona. They joined us onboard for a dinner of sweet and sour scallops and some more Chocolate Clams, completed with a piece of mint dark chocolate which they brought for dessert. We were all pretty tired from all the activities at Loretofest, so they returned to their boat via dinghy at dusk, and we were quick to wash the dishes and retire. We once again used the air conditioner to cool down our cabin as the temperature inside was at 82 degrees-a little uncomfortable for sleeping, and it eventually cooled down for the night as the outside temperature made its way slowly into the 70s.

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