02/17/2010, Chemela
Update on Periclees
This is our second season cruising the west coast of Mexico. We've been busy with people we met last year, new friends and entertaining visitors and family. The difference between last year and this is the exoticness of Mexico has slipped away. It's like sailing in our own back yard, making the same voyages and visiting the same anchorages. We love sailing in Mexico but miss the adventure so we've been spending a lot of time thinking about new territory to explore. Early in the season we thought we might like to visit Central America but when we got to PV we joined the Puddle Jumpers (people who sail to the South Pacific) so we could get cheep moorage at La Crux marina. It seems more and more of our energy is going in that direction (SW). Rolande has made up her mind already and is all set to go. We enjoyed Barra de Navidad as planned and now have started to go North towards The Sea of Cortez. We may get to La Crux and sail south west towards the South Seas if the weather doesn't look too unpredictable or we may have another relaxing Spring sailing up the Baha to Guaymas and then return home in late May.
This season was much more windy than last. We enjoyed a perfect crossing from Guaymas to Isla Carmen almost completely under sail. It was a moonless night, the sky was filled with stars, the wind was from the north west blowing between ten to twenty knots. All night long the sky was filled with meteor trails and close to morning a bright green trail crossed the entire sky disappearing behind the Baha mountains to the west. It was a magical night ending when we sailed into Bahia de Salina and anchored in the early morning. We spent the day there sleeping and then walking the beach and doing a bit of inland hiking. We were alone and never saw another soul on that beautiful sun drenched island. When we got back to the boat it sounded like a beehive. Bees on the Baha really like fresh water and they discovered a wet face cloth in our galley accessible through the port light above the sink. We spent some time shooing them out. They aren't mean and don't seem interested in stinging. After some urging they left and we sailed to Agua Verdi. The wind was blowing hard from the North and we tucked in beside another boat named En Vera.
Alicia and Alfredo greeted us the next morning when we were our walking. Alicia obtained the boat after a failed marriage and sailed it around the world. She met Alfredo in the Indian Ocean. They had returned the previous season from a trip across the South Pacific by sailing from New Zealand to Chile. They crewed on a charter boat in Chile working Antarctica and then sailed back to Mexico down South America and had stored their boat in Guaymas. Last summer they hiked the Crest Trail from San Diego to Manning Park. Alfredo is Italian and two years older than me. It was wonderful to rub shoulders with such adventurers. This year they plan to cycle around the US north to Seattle across the prairies down the east coast and return along the South border. Wow!
We sailed to Isla San Francesco in a very rolly sea. We sailed very fast. We met Reno there again and some others that make that area a permanent winter home. The next day we sailed to La Paz stopping at another of our favourite places Cardonal on Isla Isperitu Santos.
We were on time to meet our family in La Paz. Mary managed to find us a slip in Marina de La Paz which is beside a beautiful walk down the malacon. There wasn't much time to relax between reconnecting with old cruisers and visiting with Stan and Margaret our good friends from Comox who were taking Spanish lessons there.
Robert came first into San Jose del Cabo. We rented a car and drove through Todo Santos where we looked up our friend Iker. We had trouble finding Robert because there are two terminals an old one and a new one but finally we found him and managed to get back to La Paz before the cows started migrating to the highway. (It gets cold on the Baha and the cows like to obstruct traffic by lying on the warm pavement at night.) Suzanne, Justin and Athena came the following day. In the end we rented another car because the rental price was less than the ten minute taxi ride to the boat. There is a strong taxi monopoly at the airport.
Athena was assigned the largest cabin on the boat. It was like a huge soft play pen she couldn't fall out of. She looked so cute when we peeked through the door. A little baby in the corner sleeping soundly.
. We had a wonderful time eating and drinking too much. Rolande prepared the most increadable Christmas dinner of smoked turkey and that night we attended a Pasada at the home of Stan and Margaret's host family. We had too much fun and stayed up till after two in the morning. This is ridiculously late for us as cruiser midnight is 9:30. It was a wonderful party with gifts for all and the awakening of innocence when a four year old girl recognized her father who was dressed up as Santa. Everyone she met got a stern talking to about Santa not being the real Santa. She didn't care that we didn't speak Spanish.
We left La Paz with a forecast of unsettled weather. We did have a wonderful day anchored at Esperito Santos with a wonderful hike ending the evening with dinner cooked over a beach fire We left early the next morning and were rewarded when Robert caught a fine looking ten pound Dorado, however the day was spoiled by the big swell in the Cerralvo channel. In the end we motor sailed around to Los Mortos. There was a large south swell to contend with if we wanted to go ashore and that was no fun. The next morning clouds lined the southern horizon and by 9 AM they had obstructed the sun. We decided to sail to Los Frailies since we couldn't get to the beach. We spent some time watching dolphins play around the boat. The clouds thickened and soon it started to rain and then it pored. It was wonderful to see spirits still high as we made out way around the tip of the Baha. The next morning the sun came out but still we couldn't get to the beach because of the big south swell so we proceeded to San Jose.
We stayed in the new San Jose marina there for ten days. It was wonderful to see Jennifer and her family. (our God Daughter)
We encountered some heavy weather here on Feb 2nd. Usually this season is warm and rain free in Mexico but this EL NIno year...... We were going to leave the anchorage first thing in the morning. I think someone was looking after us because when I turned the start switch on the engine it wouldn't turn over. This happened to me 10 years ago and I knew exactly what had happened. I didn't break the siphon and didn't fully turn off the water inlet valve. There was water in the cylinders. I became very anxious but soon had my tool box out and felt better as I pulled the injectors. We had arranged to pick up a friend at the Sands Hotel at 930 and I was planning to go to the fuel dock. We phoned her before she left and told her the sad news. The weather didn't look good anyway. I felt very lucky to find only one cylinder was involved and quickly pumped out the water and put light oil in the cylinder. I made a terrible mess of the bath room with all the huffing and puffing and light oil finding its way out even though I'd put cloths over the injector holes. It all went very smoothly and soon I had the engine running and when I checked I couldn't find any water in the oil. I changed the oil anyway and by 11 am we were in business. It started to rain so we put up our rain tree shelter and felt smug sitting comfortably in the cockpit with evening drinks in the poring rain. Life was good for a while and then we heard it. It was thunder off in the distance. Soon we could see lightning so I grounded the mast and shrouds with jumper cables and a long aluminum rod going into the water. It was blowing twenty when I went to bed leaving Rolande on deck as she was enjoying the light show. I woke up at midnight. We healed so violently that I almost fell out of bed. Poor Rolande chastised me. "How can you sleep through this?" Well I couldn't. For a while the boats in the anchorage could be seen tacking madly about in the light from about ten lightning strikes a minute but slowly they disappeared in the almost solid water falling sideways around us. There was nothing to be done. I clung to the companionway and watched the brilliant flashes illuminating the blindness around us while the boat healed and tacked madly. It was very frightening, I was positive we were dragging and was braced for impact but none came. After about an hour it stopped as suddenly as it started. Our first bad day. This morning we woke to stories of boats dragging and lifting other boats anchors and boats trying to maintain station with their engines, abandoned dingys snagged in other boats anchor chains, winds clocked at 55 knots and one boat got out of the mud when the wind changed direction.
Today is a better day, It's just raining heavily and I am working out a system to fill the tanks with rain water. My outboard engine is just fine. I cleaned the sand out of the engine and now it's running like a top. I had to change the transmission oil because I didn't seal the case properly but now all is fine and I learned a lot. I'm glad we put down the extra anchor. I don't know how much difference that made, but in the end we didn't drag at all. I like the Idea of using a big heavy anchor.
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