05/23/2011, Playa Santispac

As you may have figured out by now...we haven´t had internet access since leaving Loreto. I´m currently sitting in a resturant in Mulege checking email and of course updating my blog. Si Bon is on the hook in a cove called Santispac, which is in a bay called Bahia Coyote, which is in another bay called Bahia Concepcion, which is in the Sea of Cortez....so we are in a cove in a bay in a bay in a sea. We stopped in a beautiful bay on the way here called San Juanico (SJ) and spent three nights there. So many things have happened since leaving Loreto that I don´t know where to start. I´ll give a quick rundown and will go into more details later. I got into my first argument with a fellow cruiser while anchoring in SJ, homie didn´t seem to think that the 200 feet seperating us was enough room. Lucky for me that several other criuisers in the anchorage went to bat for me thru the VHF radio and the guy has now turned into a kinda joke among those of us working our way up the sea. We attended our first bonfire/clambake on the beach in SJ. I was given some fishing advice while at the bonfire and I caught my first fish within minutes of deploying the new system. I fileted the little sucker the next day and Bob and I had a fish appetizer before happy hour. We have now seen our first Whale Sharks (pic). Whale Sharks are the largest fish on the planet and can grow to 60 feet. So far the ones that slowly and silently swim around the cove we´re in are only about 25-30 feet long. Whale Sharks are harmless and as soon as they come around again I plan on swimming with them. We are getting ready to head back to Si Bon and are going to move Si Bon to another cove in Bahia Coyote tomorrow. I hope we will have better internet access there and once I do I´ll go into more details and hopefully will be able to add some pics.

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Steve
05/16/2011, Puerto Escondido

Loreto is a coastal town about 15 miles north of Puerto Escondido. Loreto doesn´t have any reliable anchorage, so the best way to visit it is by road. A cab ride to Loreto costs around $50 USD dollars each way. Bob and I had decided on the way here that we would like to check out Loreto while in the area and that we might just as well spend a night or two there since it was going to cost us 100 buck just to get there and back. As luck would have it one of the workers at the Marina here was just getting ready to go to Loreto so we hitched a ride with him and gave him 300 Pasos (25USD). We checked into a really nice hotel called the Sante Fe and each got our own room, thus not only getting a boat break but also getting a little break form each other. Let´s face it, living together on a 42 foot sailboat doesn´t give you a lot of personal space.
Loreto Is a nice little town that supposedly has a lot of retired gringos living in it. We saw very few retired gringos, or anyone else for that matter, the town was VERY quiet, in fact with the exception of hordes of teenagers on rollerblades, there was almost no one to be seen. We never the less enjoyed our time in Loreto and ended up staying two nights. When we were getting ready to leave some dude in the hotel lobby that had been trying for the past two days to sell us hiking and kayak tours, offered us a ride back to Puerto Escondido and a free breakfast. All we had to do was listen to a "short" presentation that he swore up and down wasn´t a time share. Well of course it was a time share, but we got a nice tour of a beautiful resort, a free breakfast and a free ride back to PE....and all I had to do was say no 136 times and in half a dozen different ways.
Tomorrow we´ll be leaving PE and working our way up to Santa Rosalia, I should have internet access along the way, but may not be able to blog everyday.

Comments [2]

Steve
05/15/2011, mmmm...Puerto Escondido

I think I´ve now finally caught up on my trip up to Puerto Escondido (PE). So is´s now time to actually tell you a little about PE. PE (pic) is a nearly landlocked bay which offers protection from almost all wind and swell directions. PE is used as a hurricane hole for this entire region of the Sea of Cortez, A hurricane hole is a bay or port that if you´re unlucky enough (or dumb enough) to be caught in an approaching hurricane, allows you to drop your anchor (or tie up to a mooring ball), take all of your sails and other canvas off the deck, go below decks, put your head between your legs...and kiss your ass goodbye. Just kidding (sort of). PE offers several things that a cruiser looks forward to, they have showers (hot from 10-2) a laundry room, a small store, a nice little resturant and of course plenty of other cruisers to share informatioin with. PE now has mooring balls throughout the bay thereby limiting the ability to anchor. Since we didn´t have to worry about my anchor dragging in the middle of the night, Bob and I decided to take a land trip over to Loreto Thursday and Friday night for a little boat break and a little private time for ourselves.
Tomorrow I will tell you a little about Loreto and how to avoid the $100.00 round trip cab fare.

Comments [1]

Steve
05/13/2011, Puerto Escondido

Both Bob and Myself had enjoyed our time in Agua Verde. We had walked around the village, taken hikes, snorkled and are starting to become submersed into the unique culture of the panga fishing community. That said it was time to move on. I don´t think I´ve mentioned yet that now that we are away from the La Paz area, we no longer have the nighttime coromuel winds. The nights at anchor have been VERY calm, sometimes it´s hard to tell if you´re at anchor or tied up to a slip. Then a panga will buzz by and you´ll remember that you are indeed at anchor. As we were raising the anchor with the gimpy windless on Tuesday morning, we noticed that there was a breeze starting to kick up. I´m saying to myself " this is great, maybe we´ll actually get to sail for awhile". As we headed out of the cove the wind continued to increase and I wasted no time in getting my sails out. The wind continued to build and the sea surface started to get whitecaps on it, there was some spray starting to come over the bow of Si Bon and I started to think about reefing the sails (reducing the sail area). There´s an old saying (there are a lot of old sayings in the sailing world), that if you´re thinking about reefing, you probably already should have". This saying was turning out to be true in our case as we were now having some problems holding our course and we also had some major spray coming across the deck, Bob had a sort of deer in the headlights look on his face and I knew it was time to reef. Once reefed Si Bon settled down and we were sailing along in somewhere around 20 knot winds. After about an hour and a half the wind died out and on went the iron sail. After lunch we were able to sail again for awhile before getting to Puerto Escondido, making it a nice sailing leg up the sea.
We are now in Loreto doing a land trip and staying in a nice hotel, we´ll be here again tonight before heading back to Si Bon in Puerto Escondido tomorrow.

Comments [1]

Steve
05/12/2011, Bahia agua Verde

As we prepared to leave San Evaristo on Saturday we really had no idea what we would be facing with the now broken windless. When the accident happened two days earlier we slowly took up about 50 feet of chain just so wouldn´t be swinging all over the anchorage with 200 feet out. We how had to bring up the other 150 feet and then move to another anchorage and drop the hook there, at this point we both felt that we would be OK dropping the hook, but were very nervious about raising it with the now gimpy windless. As it turned out we figured out a system of raising the anchor without jamming the chain into the windless, it is a slow process and leaves me with a bruise on my forearm that is about the size and color of an apple.
Originally we were going to stop somewhere between San Evaristo and Agua Verde for a night or two, once underway I made the decision that we would continue straight to Agua Verde, thus limiting the times we would have to raise and lower the anchor. We arrived in Agua Verde around 1700 and dropped the hook in about 20 feet of water, as we had thought dropping it went smooth.
Agua Verde (pic) is a small fishing village that I would describe as charming. It was a stark difference from Evaristo, the waters are a beautiful green/blue, the village sits in a lush valley at the base of the majestic Sierra de la Giganta mountain range. While walking around the small village I was surprised to see that most of the simple casas (homes) had beautiful gardens around them. We found a small tienda and needed to replenish our fruit supply. We not expecting much in this out of the way village at the end of a 25 mile dirt road and were very pleased to find better fruit and veggies than what we had been getting in La Paz.
On Sunday night PT208 a mexican patrol boat (see pic) pulled into the anchorage. PT208 dropped their hook outside of the rest of the boats at anchor, launched their dinghy and proceeded to stop all of the outbound panga fisherman. I wasn´t really sure what to expect but decided to end happy hour early and put together my ships papers....just in case. PT208 ended their questioning of the panga guys at around dark and went back to their boat. They ended up staying in the anchorage all night and first thing in the morning they headed my way. There were four guys in the dinghy, an officer, a dude driving and two dudes dressed in cammies, helmets, flack jackets and with very large automactic machine guns. As they approached Si Bon the officer said in pretty decent english " Hola, we are the mexican navy and we are here to inspect your papers" the young officer was having a little trouble getting onto Si Bon so I offered him a hand and once aboard asked if he or his men would like something to drink, he declined but the three amigos in the dink said they would take a coke. The young officer was professional and friendly as he wrote down my info and asked me questions, he then gave me a brief safety check and told me that they were available on channel 16 if I ever needed help.
The Mexican navy carries out many of the jobs that the US Coast Guard does in the US, I look at both as a mariners friend and I´m sure I´ll be seeing PT208 again.
Tomorrow I will update the blog with the trip from Agua Verde to Puerto Escondido and explain why if you are thinking about reefing your sails you probably already should have.

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Steve
05/11/2011, Puerto Escondido, B.C.S.

We are currently in Puerto Escondido. Bob and I left La Paz one week ago today. We anchored overnight at the now very familar Balandra and left early the following morning for San Evaristo, a 40 NM trip which took us about 8 hours. We were dropping the hook in about 30 feet of water and 15 knots of wind when the fun started. With about 75 feet of chain out the windless (winch) that raises and lowers the anchor slipped a foot or so then held. I made a decision (not a very good one as it turns out) to use my ratchet to tighten it up, I accidently pulled the winch the wrong way and Bob and myself looked on in horror as 125 feet of chain came flying off the windless, I tried to tighten the drum but the ratchet was rusted and I couldn´t change the ratchet direction. Things were not looking very good as the 15 knot wind was blowing us back and the chain was reeling off the windless uncontrolled. Once my 200 foot chain reached it's end and we started in to my 200 feet of rode (rope), the rode became snarled in the windless, thus bring us to a very quick stop. This turned out to be good news and bad news. The good news was we were now stopped, the bad news was that we now had a MAJOR rode jam in the windless. I was able to pull the rode enough to wrap it around my bow cleat and Bob and I started working on untangling the mess. Once we untangled the snarled rode it became apparent that when the rode jammed it also snapped off a small plastic piece that keeps the chain/rode from wrapping all the way around the windless. This means that when we are raising the anchor one of us now has to hand feed the chain through the windless while the other one works the control, this is a slow, and some times painful process....oh well, no one ever said cruising was going to be easy.
We ended up staying in San Evaristo for two nights. San Evaristo is a very busy fishing village where the panga fisherman come in from all around the area to drop off their catches and restock their fuel and ice before heading back out. One of my cruising books calls it a charming mexican fishing village...one mans definition of charming isn´t the same as another mans. I would call it more like a dusty, dry, kinda dumpy Mexican fishing village...just my opinion.
Tomorrow I will blog about our next stop which was Bahia Agua Verde, and our first encounter with the Mexican Navy.

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