02/25/2012, Ballandra Bay on Isla Carmen

- So our next stop was Ballandra Bay on Isla Carmen. This picture shows the bad weather over on the coast. Bahia of Conception ended up w/2.5 inches of rain! The next day, we got internet from anchoring on the roadstead of Loreto. This is open ocean but if the weather is 'ok', the anchorage isn't bad. We were the only ones there. We took the dinghy to town on our 2nd stop but it wasn't as nice as when Dale of 'Free Spirit' drove us the 14 miles from Puerto Escondido into Loreto and we sat at a restaurant and used free internet. Thanks again Dale for doing that.

The low point of our trip was finding weevils in the flour. This was common place in 'third world countries' but the flour was bought in San Diego! True, it hadn't been used for months but this is the first time since '95, probably.

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Its a good protected harbor
02/05/2012, Pt Escondido

So our list of islands/ports so far: Isla Partida to Isla San Fran to San Evaristo to Puerto Los Gatos to Bahia Agua Verde to Puerto Escondito and road trip to Loreto.
Its so quiet here and its a 14 miles ride into Loreto but we had to go see the Mission church from the 1600s. They have a lovely malecon to walk along also although the sewers were being worked on while we were there.

I love all the colors; red, green, brown, yellow in the hills. We walked to a local cemetery which is the picture I'll include later. This is a hammerhead shark that was on the beach. The local fishermen must have pulled in a net because there were manta rays, regular shark heads, tons of fish heads and this.

Internet was impossible and Mexican cell phones were only working way up on the hills but enjoyed meeting new people. One couple came on an RV but Scott helped them look over a boat for sale here in Pt. Escondito. Their 38 ft RV was HUGE compared to our 47ft sailboat. We drove 3 of us on a Honda Goldwing 3 miles to go see it! What those boaters won't do!

The water has been cold but we got in a few times and enjoyed under the sea. Brought home some rock scallops to try. Not enough meat but they were good. I'm keeping my 100 feet of waterline clean as well!

We added a hermit crab to our family. Scott enjoys hearing him climb around and they do stay on the move! Victoria doesn't seem to mind the activity either. She's still doing fine (our tortoise). Glad I can find cactus in the stores to feed her.

Next we'll explore some more islands then start planning our trip to Hawaii for March.

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overcast, no wind right now-time to leave
01/21/2012, Sea of Cortez

We are moving on after sailing into La Paz on Dec. 3rd. Needless to say we feel we know it pretty well and would gladly spend more time here; lots of good people and places to eat and enjoy their fellowship. The picture of the 'anciano del mar' (old man of the sea) in his boat made of paper is right on the main strip of town and we've biked, walked, driven by it many times. The town does have quite a few statues and items of interest.

Our plan is to go up north in the Sea of Cortez quickly while the wind is quiet. Then as the cycle turns back to 20-30 knot winds every 3-4 days, we'll use it to come back south.

Still can't say enough about Club Cruceros - http://www.clubcruceros.org/. It has been great for borrowing DVDs, talking with everyone during the coffee hour, getting the Gringo Gazette and more. We got directions to a dentist Jesus who worked on both Scott and I, we got rides to further out businesses and last night we got to watch two acrobatic shows - www.voilierspectacle.com sitting on shore. I hear they were in the Northwest sometime in the last 7 years so you may have already seen them. What a neat way to make a living as you cruise.

Met a couple from Bellevue who have a condo down here and when they went back we got to see them in their home and have them come to ours! It was fun to share their lives in both places. They're part of a great English speaking church we attended.
We flew home 12/25 to 1/10 for our nephew's wedding and to see the 'fam' again. We took mail back to the states and brought back lots of boat parts, coffee, mail and gifts back for yachties here.
We still hope to see the Whale sharks everyone tries to see when they're here and the huge colony of sea lions off in Los Islotes, Espiritu Santo. S/V Panta Rhei has a great picture of the whale sharks. We mentioned before that we were interviewed by Livia of IWAC and we met her here in La Paz!! What fun. Here's the link: http://interviewwithacruiser.blogspot.com/2011/03/10-questions-for-celestial.html She calls us the old salts and the newbies are the 'newly salted'--love it. Great info for people who want to hear what others have done.

So hopefully we'll have great hiking and fishing stories to tell next month for all the armchair sailors stuck in the snow!

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Scott / Lots of wind and waltzing
12/05/2011, La Paz

We spent a fun week in Mazatlan getting caught up with the Seattle cruisers that were in Mexico a whole year ahead of us. The one resort we visited had lots of iguanas just 'hanging out'. On Thursday, the 24th, we volunteered at the Vina/Vine Church and helped build 300 tortas/ sandwiches and distributed them to the "Displaced people of the dump". It was a humbling experience to see people in such dire-straights that they subsist on garbage scrounging in a stinking Mexican landfill. It was especially poignant as it was on Thanksgiving Day and our turkey dinner that evening seemed to be a special blessing. Also,(Donna mentions)there was a hospital that they are building close to the dump that has been worked on for over 3 years and not finished. I wish they'd use these people to do manually labor and get it finished, but what do I know?

After the week, we said goodbye to our friends and motored out into the Sea of Cortez with slowing building wind and seas on the nose. Later that night we rediscovered the joy of slamming into the short steep waves of this sea. Sailing into Los Muertos Bay at midnight was interesting, but the next day was great as we swam, kayaked and sat in the sun. That night we watched the third in Donna's series of Christmas movies (Christmas in Connecticut).

As these things sometimes go, the beautiful calm, warm and friendly bay during the day became an angry maelstrom of rolly sea, broken eggs and crashing dishes. In all our years at sea, this may have been the worst night yet. We left before dawn as it was more comfortable to be at sea, go figure! Sailing into La Paz was great as we tried to remember how it was 23 years ago when we first sailed here.

Sunday they had a great festival right in the Marina to support children of La Paz and we won two raffle prizes! Unfortunately, the wind kicked up after we left the boat and we heard the announcer saying the boat Celestial went on a 'walkabout'. We dragged onto the side of a sand bar but were able to back up and get into the deep water again with no repercussions.

Club Cruceros is the local hangout (www.clubcruceros.org) where you can get help with whatever you need at the 9:30 coffee.

This is the 2nd windy night and they predict a week of this weather with gusts up to 25mph even in the harbor. La Paz is famous for it's waltz. When the winds kick up one direction and the currents pull you in another direction, boats dance around each other so you always have that to look forward to as well.

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12/04/2011, Mazatlan

Had a super week in Mazatlan with s/v's Panta Rhei, Sirena, Grace and Ponderosa. I included a picture of the 'ladies' who went walking every morning at 7am. (In 1988, the ladies that went walking we called the Ladies of the Wall.) I got some great shots with the beautiful sunrise colors as well. Unfortunately the last day we walked, we thought we heard gun shots and later did hear a policeman was shot. Still checking into the details.

There are so many great places to eat and you have to check out Panama for their sweet breads, yummmm. We swam at the El Sid Resort twice; they have waterfalls, a HOT hot tub, iguanas, etc. The bus system takes you wherever you want to go. We weren't sure we'd get to the Sunday Mercado as we headed out of town on our 2nd bus but we got there and found lots of fresh veggies and more. After walking, there was a local farmer who came to the Marina Mazatlan 3x a week, I believe to sell his wares. Karen off Panta Rhei convinced me to soak all items in a bleach water solution so we were bug free! We didn't get the termites that they did but we've been on the move more.

Right now we're FLY CENTRAL, something we haven't dealt with for awhile, so we are using our food covers and bug zappers. Paradise has its drawbacks. I even had to wear a sweatshirt as I went kayaking in Bahia Balandra yesterday! I know, hard to feel sorry for me.

My piece of coral fan is decorated as our Christmas tree for the 2nd year, we strung some light and hung our stockings on the hinges of our salon cabinets so we're ready for Christmas as well. Still have tons to write about, till then...

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Sunny Mexico
11/23/2011, 23.16N 106.29W

We left San Diego with a cold front approaching and had to beat into moderate winds, as the front approached all we could see was a black wall of rain squalls coming at us.

Entering the gloom we beat thru the extra wind when the rain hit as hard as I have ever seen anywhere, it was so hard that it knocked down the waves and soaked right thru all my rain gear.

After the front passed we got the heavy NW wind shift I was counting on and really started to smoke down the coast. On our second day out we logged 209 NM and a top surfing speed of 15.8.
With diminishing winds we sailed into Santa Maria Bay and after 3 days at sea, dropped the hook and got some glorious sleep. Our extremely fast passage left us ahead of schedule enabling us to take a lay day and work on some projects around the boat. Santa Maria is a large sandy bay surrounded by 3000 ft mountains, we all climbed them last time with Nate going all the way to the top. Sailing out at the crack of dawn in very light air we passed Magdalena Bay where the humpbacks winter and give birth to there calf's. I was bummed to have to motor most of the night but at dawn a nice Sou-westerly came in and we started close reaching straight for Cabo San Lucas. Now as we were hitting 8-9 knots we were able to make up time and anchor in the crystal clear water of Cabo just before sunset.

We spent most of the next week (12-19th) doing the resort thing with our friends Dick and Ann Tracy in their beautiful timeshare laying in the pool, snorkeling, eating out and generally being the gringo tourist. It was a good thing we were able to spend most of the day off the boat as the bay is very exposed and rolly, but the worst problem is the jet-skis, pangas, tour ship shuttles, water taxis, and fishing boats turning the bay into a dishwasher of waves and noise.

We left Cabo with a light wind forecast but there was a nice little breeze as we started our 199 NM sail to Mazatlan. As predicted the wind disappeared over night and we had to motor for 10 hours. Morning the wind filled in and we sailed to the coast very fast but our landfall was late and we finally anchored off a small outlaying island at midnight. The next night was very windy and very rough so in the morning of the 21st, we motored into the marina and met up with our friends on Grace, Panta Rei, and Ponderosa, all from Seattle. We will be here about a week then back to the Sea of Cortez for some lazy anchorages.

Fair Winds
Capt Scott

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