05/15/2007, La Paz, BCS, Mexico
I was unfaithful. To Hooligan. I sailed another boat. Actually, Hooligan was very understanding since it was her dear friend Endless.
Tim and Les from Gemini brought Endless to Pureto Vallarta, but schedules changed and the original plan did, too. What started as Tim and Les taking Endless to La Paz became buddy boating with Hooligan in jumps, with Tim single-handing Hooligan and Donna and I moving Endless. First jump was from Punta Mita in Bandaras Bay to Mantanchan Bay, the land of the no-see-um bugs. We waited for a weather window to open, and then moved from San Blas (the town at MB) toward Mazatlan. And so, Team Bimbo, Delivery Crew was created! We even got soccer shirts for the trip.
It was odd, having Tim row me across to another boat, settle me in and then row away. Since he had to raise the dingy without me, he didn't want the motor on it. I have to admit that there is nothing quite so beautiful as seeing your boat under full sail moving along next to you. There is also nothing quite so weird. Wait??"That's my boat!!
Donna and I switched off watch schedules, kept an eye on Hooligan on the radar screen and by watching the light, as well as taking to Tim via radio. While the second leg was longer, and we were worried about Tim not getting sleep, the trips were smooth. (Well, there was the frigate bird blocking my view of Hooligan's running lights, but we figured that one out.) Endless sails wonderfully. Sails are smaller than Hooligan's, easy to muscle around. Main drops right into place. Engine performed flawlessly (which when you read the next entry, you will find DIDN'T happen on Hooligan's crossing.)
Most importantly, Endless was in La Paz on time for her Dockwise appointment, Hooligan made it after so we were able to get help load her and play in La Paz for a few days, and I got to sail without my usual captain, and show that I do know something about boats, too. All in all, a successful trip was had.
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05/15/2007, La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
This is what it looks like at dawn when you're becalmed (no freaking wind at all) 100 miles out to sea. Beautiful but frustrating. Let me backtrack.
Paula and I crewed for our friend Donna when she brought her lovely Wauquiez Pretorian from Puerto Vallarta to La Paz. Not together, though. Paula and Donna sailed Endless north to Mazatlan, while I singlehanded Hooligan alongside. After we arrived safely in Mazatlan, and I caught up on my sorely missed sleep, Donna and I motorsailed Endless the 250 miles across the Sea of Cortez to La Paz. It was a lovely trip and Donna and I slept well, ate well, and caught up on our reading. And managed to boat a 40+ pound dorado 30 miles East of the Cerralvo Channel. Yummy.
I flew back to Mazatlan(my first air travel in over a year--Jeez this thing is FAST!) and Paula and I left in Hooligan for our own crossing the next evening. It was not a benign trip. We had winds on the nose and choppy seas for the first 18 hours before conditions settled. Just when we were getting into the swing of things, our venerable Perkins 4-108 engine gasped and died, roughly halfway to La Paz. At midnight. Of course. After working unsuccessfully for two hours to restart the motor while Hooligan sailed herself towards La Paz, we gave up and resigned ourselves to sailing the last 120 miles. We're a sailboat, right. We'll just sail.
Then the wind just died. As in not even a ruffle on the surface of the water. Mierda, Merde, Crap. We then spent the next 36 hours sailing very, very slowly toward Baja, covering a not very uplifting 90 miles at a speed slower than walking to the mailbox. Just Dandy.
We did have an encounter with a juvenile Blue Whale, perhaps 60 feet long, who spent two hours investigating the motionless sailboat as we wallowed in the swell. At times he/she came within 20 feet of the boat, which is great for taking in the beauty of nature but a bit close when you're concerned for your vulnerabe rudder which is the only way to steer the boat. Finally the whale got bored with our game of Bob and left us in peace.
We'd been in touch with Donna and Marvin in La Paz, via our SSB radio and e-mail. On the third day, as we were resigning ourselves to a third night at sea, Marvin e-mailed a suggestion he'd researched on the internet that might get our engine started. We tried it and were amazed when it worked. We were under way again, belching smoke from astern but moving along again. We limped into our destination at Marina Costa Baja just after sundown, Donna and Marvin taking our lines as the engine died again when we entered the fairway. Another passage successfully completed. And I was really looking forward to some R&R--Since late March, I'd sailed almost 1200 miles in Endless and Hooligan. Good fun but a bit tiring.
I'll move on to engine repair on my next installment.
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After leaving Las Hadas Marina on March 15, we had a 150 yard passage to the anchorage outside the marina. After such an exhausting trip, we rested and restored ourselves on rum and pineapple juice. We also installed the new autopilot control head that Diane from Gemini had brought with her from San Francisco. We noodled around Manzanillo for another day then moved Hooligan around the peninsula to the La Boquita anchorage on the West side of Santiago Bay. After a short stay, we moved 25 miles up the coast to Barra de Navidad, arriving mid afternoon on March 18 after a sunny passage surrounded by Spotted and Common dolphin, leaping marlin, basking sailfish, and who knows what other marine life. Nothing that wanted anything to do with our trailing lures, at any rate.
We'd spent a week in Barra back in February and were quite familiar with the lagoon anchorage's idiosyncrasies. It's a shallow (12 feet or less) lagoon with a mud bottom and needs a careful anchor set to avoid dragging when the winds come up, which they do each and every afternoon, usually beginning at 1400. Just about daily, some boat will take off backward through the anchorage, usually with no one aboard. This usually results in a swarm of dingies attempting to corral the dragging boat before it damages itself or another vessel. It's fun and educational to watch or participate in (as long as it's not your boat dragging) and shows how tightly knit the cruising community can be. We now always carry a hand-held VHF radio with us so that if Hooligan takes off when we're ashore, we can at least buy some beer to thank whoever it is that rescues her. Our first afternoon in Barra was no exception as a Morgan 45 backed through the anchorage accompanied by 6-7 dingies. No damage done. On the next two afternoons, another boat, who we'll not name since they're nice people, dragged past Gemini, who arrived in Barra a day after us and had anchored nearby. Another time, we were returning to our boats from a visit to town when a boat we know ran aground as she strayed out of the channel into the lagoon. It took 5 dingies to push her off the mud bank. Again, no lasting damage done, except possibly to the Skipper's ego.
While we were in Barra, we took the opportunity to get a third reef put into our mainsail. Bob Hogin, a well-known sailmaker from the Caribbean and San Francisco Bay, moved to Barra last year and came well recommended, so we laboriously humped the heavy sail into the dingy and took it to the Sands hotel where Bob picked it up and drove it the short distance to his house. For a fraction of what it would have cost stateside, he installed the third reef and got the sail back to us in two days. Bob's a great guy and we heartily recommend him if you're in Barra and need some sail repair. Just hail him on VHF channel 22 and tell him Hooligan sent you.
We left Barra on March 22, buddy boating with Gemini, bound for the notoriously rough and windy Cabo Corrientes (Cape of Currents) and Punta Mita, 125 miles away. We had a good forecast for Southerly winds during the day and a "flat calm motorsail" around Corrientes in the wee hours of the night. Boy, were they wrong. We did have a lovely sail until we were perhaps 10 miles south of the Cape. Then the wind shifted around until it was coming from directly where we wanted to go (Noserlies) at 25+ knots and the seas became confused, lumpy and much larger than we'd had all day. We double reefed the main and pressed on grimly, taking solid water over the deck every few minutes. At times our Speed Over Ground (SOG) was less than one knot, despite our engine running at a speed that normally sees Hooligan along at seven knots. It took us nine hours to cover the last 27 miles of the passage and it was with profound relief when we finally dropped anchor at Punta Mita, on the outskirts of Banderas Bay. While normally we hide from rough weather and wait for ideal conditions for our passages, it's ALWAYS rough and windy going around Corrientes and the weather we encountered is considered mild by most people familiar with the Cape. We arrived at 0730 on March 23 and spent the day napping and tidying the boat, then slept like the dead. On March 24 we were still a bit tired from the trip. After listening to the weather forecast on the Amigo net this morning, a daily ritual, we took the dogs for a long beach walk and had a fantastic cheeseburger at a small café in Punta Mita. Back on Hooligan, we cleaned the bottom of a weeks worth of accumulated growth, then took another nap.
We're not sure how long we'll be in Banderas Bay. A friend on another boat became ill and had to return home, leaving his boat in Manzanillo. Since our friend won't be able to return to his boat for some time, Les from Gemini and I are going to deliver her to La Paz where she can be shipped home via Dockwise Transport. It's a five hundred mile trip to La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur, with a lot of weather-related variables so we need a good weather window before we can set sail. Which we don't have for at least a week. And since we'll be away from our own boats for at least a week during the delivery, we've come into Marina Vallarta so that the boats will be safe while we're both gone. It's now Wednesday, March 28, 2007 and we're leaving for Manzanillo tomorrow. I'll try to update the blog regarding the delivery if we stop anywhere enroute to La Paz.
PS??"for those who want to know where Banderas Bay is, please refer to previously posted route maps.
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