Steve
04/01/2011, La Paz

Yesterday afternoon we pulled into our slip in La Paz where we will spend the next month, we will be coming and going out to the islands for few days here and there, then coming back to the marina for a few days. Around the end of April I will continue up the Sea of Cortez anchor hopping as I go.
When I think back on the past month it's been pretty amazing, all of the places we've stopped and all of the people we've met, it's hard to imagine that it's all happened in a one month period. Our leg down Baja was pretty hard core, even the adventurous Peter commented that it was MUCH more intense than he thought it would be. Since we rounded Cabo we've become cruisers, no real plans, no real agenda...anchoring in bays and coves along the way, watching the weather and deciding when we would move along to the next piece of paradise. I would say again to people that are thinking about cruising "IT'S NOT THAT DIFFICULT", and to anyone with a dream, whatever it may be, set your goals, make your plans and do it, it's nice to dream, but it's nicer to "live the dream", remember that I'm just a regular dude, I'm a decent sailor (not some crusty old salt) and I've learned to do some basic repairs in an emergency (not a mechanic), but that's it, I set goals, I planned and I executed the plan...and here I am.
Soooo.....still no horror stories to tell....and still no fish.
God bless.

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Catherine
03/29/2011, Ensenada de Los Muertos

Ensenada de los Muertos has a few surprises. After nearly a month in wild places with only a few stops in marinas it took us by surprise to stumble onto, of all things in this remote bay, a model train museum. The entire area is slated for development with a golf course and a hotel already established. Thereís an open air restaurant on the opposite side of the harbor with a dingy dock nearby. The hotel is exquisitely designed with pools, artwork, fountains and the unexpected train museum on the mezzanine of the restaurant. The hotel and grounds are laid out with so much thought given to the details of comfort and beauty that it is simply stunning. Roads, lagoons, cliff side homes and shopping centers are planned, but for now it is economically stalled.
With all this going on it would seem that something as simple as a dock for dinghies would be a somewhat stable affair. It is not. Assembled from large snap together plastic pieces it looks deceptively friendly like a Playskol product. We tied the dingy up and jumped onto the platform which is when the fun began. The innocuous plastic dock held an unexpected surprise. The surge sent it slamming it into the rock wall it was tied to, knocking us off our feet. The only safe way to traverse it was on all fours, which none of us were willing to do. We simply could not have successfully sailed down the notoriously difficult Baja coast only to discover the most difficult passage turned out to be fifteen feet of plastic gangway. Big tough sailors cannot exactly walk into a local bar with their heads up after crawling up a kiddy dock. We had merely a moment of warning, when the surge tugged the dock away from the wall, to prepare for the next jolt, arms flailing, knees bent, as it careened into the rock wall. A rubber fender or a few old tires would easily cure the problem, but in a billion dollar development complete with a mile of tiny trains and scads of marble water features it must be have been considered an unnecessary expense to ensure the safety of transient sailors. The surge swept the dock away from the stairs making the leap too far to risk between them. Timing was everything. Missing the chance required bracing for impact, then waiting for the next wave to shove the dock toward the wall, altogether quite challenging for a toy dock.
The steep stairway leading to the path to the restaurant must have been constructed by the decedents of ancient pyramid builders or they were an afterthought chipped randomly out of the vertical wall. I love Mexico, this would not be allowed north of the border and it was actually quite amusing after the initial near dunking when the dock first revealed its crafty little secret. The molded plastic ladder attached to the end of the dock, a modest convenience for the people who have been launched into the water, proudly displayed the logo EZ Dock, which is insultingly oriented toward the person climbing it soaking wet.

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Steve
03/27/2011, Ensenada de Los Muertos

We finally got out of Bahia Los Frailes yesterday, we had planned to spend 2-3 days and ended up being there a week, we are now anchored in a medium sized cove called Ensenada de Los Muertos, which translates to Cove of the dead. On our way here we trolled a fishing line, as we have most of the time since leaving Ensenada. Last night we all marveled at the fact that despite all of the time we've had a line in the water, we still have not caught a fish, and we are pretty sure that that is some kind of world record for not catching fish. You have to be aware that we are currently in some of the best fishing grounds in the world, so we feel that we are now experts at not catching fish, we have not caught some of the largest marlin ever to be not caught in these waters, we have also not caught very large yellowtail, dorado, sailfish and just about any other kind of fish here. We have not caught fish with every type of lure, jig and cedar plug you can imagine, we were given some squid by a local fisherman who assured us we would catch fish with it...but still no fish, we've trolled in Si Bon, we've trolled in the dinghy, we've fished off a dock and of the stern of Si Bon at anchor...and still we've not caught a fish, and in fact we are so damm good at not catching fish that we haven't even had a nibble, or strike or whatever it's called. We decided last night that not catching fish is actually a lot more fun than catching fish, we can still play out the line, open a can of beer and turn on some country music and we can still BS about large fish we haven't caught, but we don't get all tired out pulling in some hapless fish, we don't get fish blood all over our boat and our fishing equipment will last forever without the stress of actually catching a fish, plus our refrigerator doesn't smell all fishy. Well I gotta go now I heard the fish aren't bitting this morning so I'm dropping in a line, opening up a brewski, and turning on some Tim McGraw.

Comments [4]

Steve
03/24/2011, Bahia Los Frailes

We're still here waiting out the norther, the wind was slightly calmer yesterday and the temperature warmed back up. We may be able to get going tomorrow, we'll see, we don't expect to many people to feel sorry for us being "stuck" in this beautiful place, besides we really don't have to be anywhere until April 3 when I pick up Shaybo at the La Paz airport...it will be really good to see her again and give her a big hug. Yesterday Peter and I walked to the Regional House restaurant, a nice little place in the middle of nowhere, the Bartender was a guy from San Diego named Pablo, he came down here on vacation and was asked to watch the restaurant for a few days while the owner went to take care of some medical condition, that was 5 weeks ago and Pablo is really pissed. We also walked around the camp ground that is on the beach and met some of the people camped out here, most are Canadian.
The crew is holding up really well, we seem to have formed a sort of bond or mutual respect for each other, sailing down the desolate Baja coast together definitely builds character and is something that most people will never do.

Comments [5]

Steve/sorta calm for now
03/23/2011, bahia Los Frailes

Los Frailes is a medium sized bay which "offers good protection from north winds", yesterday we had sustained winds of 15-20 knots and wind chop of a foot or so in this well protected bay. As we gazed out beyond the protection of the point into the Sea of Cortez, it resembled a raging river, Peter and I put it in the range of some of the class 4 rapids that we have both run on rafts. The current weather guess is calling for this to last until Saturday.
Yesterday we all stayed on the boat, we read, we napped and we studied our spanish. Si Bon's anchor is now pretty well dug into the soft sand bottom and other than looking around occasionally to check our position and ensure we're not dragging anchor, there's not much to do.
Today we're going to put the motor back on the dink, which the crew affectionately now calls Bon Bon, and go in to find the camping kayak fisherman that warned us about the wind. This dude, John, has lived on this beach for something like 10 years, sleeping on a cot and fishing for food. I want to pick his brain about the wind and about fishing, there is also some sort of restaurant in the area that we want to try to find...and I might ask John to join us in gratitude for saving our sorry gringo asses.

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Steve/windy
03/22/2011, Bahia Los Frailes

I checked the weather this morning and the guess was calling for 10-15 knot wind going up to our next anchorage, it would be on our nose but didn't look like anything we couldn't handle. As I was down below getting ready, some local dude who I had met on the beach yesterday, paddles up in his fishing kayak and tells us that he just came from around the point and we might want to wait a day or so, I told him I had checked the weather and it looked OK, to which he responded " oh, you checked the weather and everything looked good? then you should be fine". I think he was probably thinking "good luck asshole, I've been camped out on this beach for the past ten years, but your stupid weather guesser knows more than me" But instead he gave us some bait for fishing and with a friendly smile paddled away. About that same time a large catamaran, Santosha, that had been anchored next to us, and left in the early morning hours pulls back into the bay and drops their hook. Peter and I rowed over to Santosha and ask them if they had headed north, to which they responded "yes, and don't bother"
There is a weather pattern in the Sea of Cortez somewhat similar to a Santa Ana in So Cal, it's called a Norther...that appears to be what we have right now, the wind is howling at probably 20+ knots, there are now white caps in our bay, and we have decided...as recommended by the local camper/kayak fisher, to stay put.

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