10/14/2009, then here are some thing to consider.
So you are getting ready to either come down to Mexico with this year's Baja Ha-ha or on your own and are frantically finishing your boat preparations. I'm not trying to panic you or add extra things to your already huge buy list, but in addition to all the standard spar parts and engine consumables here are a few things that if you don't already have aboard, you should consider.
Food Saver Vacuum Sealer
If you have used a vacuum sealer in the past, then you most likely already know the value of one on a boat. We use our vacuum sealer to extend the life of cheese in our ice box, for packing away and protecting spare electronic parts, to keep bugs out of our flour and dry food staples and basically almost every other day. You will want to stock up on provisions in the major cities in Mexico and a vacuum sealer will help keep your provisions fresh and can help you pack them away in the bilge safe and sound. If you are buying a new vacuum sealer of already have one, make sure to stock up on rolls of the bag material because they are available down in Mexico, but at a much higher price.
Fans, fans and more fans
When we left San Diego, we only had a few fans aboard and those were still in their boxes, not really being needed in central California. But like us, we ran into several cruising boats that were bringing back some good quality low amp draw, high volume fans during their trips to the States. If there is a seat or berth on your boat that does not have a fan capable of blowing air on it, then consider it a worthless seat or berth once it gets warm! Without air movement you will be warm and uncomfortable. We have 5 Caframo model No 748 fans aboard THIRD DAY that we bought from West Marine and life without them would not be as pleasant. These fans weren't cheap but we can leave them on 24hrs/day with their low amp draw and quite operation, which we did for weeks at a time not only in the Sea of Cortez for the summer but while in mainland Mexico in January and February!
Fishing Gear
The fishing in Mexico and the outside of Baja in particular is fabulous and we were surprised at how many cruisers entered Mexico without any fishing gear aboard. With the exception of bad weather, we always have a hook trailing behind THIRD DAY while underway. Not only is it a free meal, but nothing beats the taste of fresh fish. In our tackle box you will find cedar plugs (excellent for tuna on the outside of Baja) along with a various assortment of feather lures. What you won't find is light line. Why risk losing your $7 lure along with dinner? We had our two Pen 4.0 reels loaded with 80lb test line and have yet to loose a lure to a snapped line. We also love the ease and simplicity of using hand lines. Our two hand lines have landed everything from a 33lb tuna to a 15lb Dorado and with much more ease than a more expensive rood and reel set-up. Not to mention the ease of storage for the hand lines. Don't forget a good gaff and filet knife, even if you have never cleaned a fish before, you will want to learn while out cruising! I'd say that for under $100 you could put together all the fishing gear you would need to successfully enjoy fish tacos.
Honda Generator
Almost every cruiser we know either has a Honda generator aboard their boat or wishes they had one for keeping the batteries topped off and for easy (and quiet) 120V power. Rare is the boat that can find enough room (or budget) for enough solar to completely meet their power needs and lets face it, who wants to run their main engine simply for battery charging while at anchor. There's the extra maintenance, noise and added boat heat to deal with when running your main engine at anchor and the Honda won't even be noticed on the boat next to you in the anchorage. I know you have calculated your amp usage and like every cruiser before casting off, you think your solar will carry your boat, and perhaps it has for weekending and up in your cool climates where your refrigerator barely needs to run to keep your beer cold and make ice. However, once you get down here, trust me, you will be stunned on how many more amps hours you use on a daily basis. A Honda 2000 can be bought for about $850 in the States, while they run $1000 in La Paz.
Snorkel Gear
The water temp is like your bathtub and in many places it's like swimming in an aquarium, so having some simple snorkel gear (mask, snorkel, fins) is a must for everyone aboard. You will also be amazed at how fast things grown on the bottom of your boat down here in the warm water, so cleaning the waterline every few weeks will become one of your new chores. Regardless of which high tech brand of expensive bottom paint you just applied prior to heading south, if you don't keep an eye on the growth, you can easily knock a knot of so off your boat speed. Sure while in a marina you can have your bottom cleaned for $1US per foot, but what about when you are away from the marina?
WiFi Booster Antenna
Other than the time we spend in a marina where WiFi access is included, we have never needed to pay for WiFi access here in Mexico and have always found a open signal when in an area large enough to have internet access. This isn't the case for many boats simply relying on their built-in laptop WiFi antenna. We purchased ours form www.getmarinewifi.com and have been completely happy with it and would recommend it to anyone. Now if a stop in La Paz is in your plans, you can purchase a WiFi antenna form Maraki Computers (he does the weather on the local cruisers net every morning) for $150 US I believe and his unit has many happy customers cruising Mexico and beyond.
I'm sure I could come up with a few other items for the list, but these are the items that have popped out to me right away. I'll add to this list as things pop into my head, but seeing that I've already added to your pre-cruise departure list, I'll stop here for now. Besides part of the excitement of starting off a cruise is finding some of this stuff out for yourself, and I wouldn't want take away some of your fun.
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Comments [1]
09/25/2009, how do we rate Puerto Penasco?
As I should start every blog post where I give advice, the following is only our opinion and is influenced by our cruising style and view of life. I'm in no way trying to sound like an authority on cruising or how others should cruise. All I know, and sometimes poorly, is what works for us and what we like. So with that said, maybe I can cut off the hand-full emails that I often get for expressing an opinion that may be against the standard cruiser itinerary or flow of thinking. (Na, who am I kidding, no one reads warning labels!)
From the moment we arrived in Puerto Penasco, we felt like we were missing something, like something wasn't right, but we just couldn't figure it out. The harbor entrance was easy and well marked with plenty of depth for our 4ft 6in draft, even larger boats would have no problem. There were five marinas's to choose from for moorage and we are paying $10.4/day US, which is dirt cheap for Mexico. Taxi service will take you anywhere in town for $1.75US. There is a Super Ley with a fabulous selection and prices of meats and veggies. Everyone we have met around the marina and town has been exceptionally nice and welcoming to us. A great ice cream shop is within easy walking distance down the Malacon from our marina. There is a haul out facility here for standard bottom painting and such, although it is a bit dirty and old.
So what's wrong? What are we missing? What doesn't feel right?
What's wrong is that we can't find anything wrong, nor anything missing; however, according to almost everything we heard about Puerto Penasco before getting here, something doesn't feel right because everything IS so right about this town!
We are frankly amazed that a great place like this to provision, and make a 4hr drive by rental car to the States, isn't a cruisers hot spot after seeing only small low selection tiendas since leaving La Paz. A constant complaint we have heard about the northern Sea of Cortez and the Bahia de Los Angeles (BLA) area is the lack of provisions, now we don't necessarily agree with that after finding everything except meats in BLA, but here we are in provisioning paradise only 100nm north of one of the best anchorages we have found to date (Refugio) in the BLA area. To us, this seems like a natural stop during a Sea of Cortez summer to reprovision before turning around and starting to work your way south again.
Sure there is a 23ft tidal movement here, but that just means the marina dock polls are taller when at low tide and maybe the walk up the marina ramp is more steep than typical. It's actually cool to see, rather than something that worries us. Along the lines of negatives we can think of, would be the lack of anchoring out, but with five marinas all wanting your business, it didn't take us long to have a bidding war going for where we would be keeping THIRD DAY. The water is shallow up here (we motored for 50 miles in 120ft of water) and that can cause some nasty chop if strong winds pop up, so that's a negative. And lastly, here is all there is. I mean, besides Puerto Penasco, you have San Felipe 67 miles to the SW and then the Puerto Refugio anchorage 100 miles to the south. Ok, that is a negative when you compare it to most of the Sea of Cortez where you can easily anchorage hop without the need for an overnight trip. But when you consider you are only 4hrs away form the States with a $40 rental car and have a Super Ley only a $1.75 taxi ride away form the harbor, I think the positives by far outweigh the negatives.
What about the tourist town nature of Penasco? Absolutely, this is a gringo tourist Condo town, no doubt about it and in that; Puerto Penasco has the same feel to us as La Paz. But the location of the harbor puts you on the outskirts of the touristy parts of town and I actually like the feel of Penasco better than that of La Paz. To not give a false comparison, La Paz by FAR blows away Penasco when it comes to availability and selection of marine gear and supplies. If you are not a rusty old shrimp boat then you most likely won't find anything here that isn't carried at the local Ace hardware.
Knowing what we now know about spending the summer in the Sea of Cortez, we would recommend a stop in Puerto Penasco for those going north for hurricane season. We looked for the monsters, we looked for the missing things and the negatives that seem to have kept most cruisers from coming this far north, but all we have came up with is another hole in the cruising conventional wisdom - again.
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08/23/2009, useful information for cruisers in Mexico
As we prepare to leave Santa Rosilia sometime before dawn tomorrow, our destination north will take us into a part of the Sea of Cortez with very heavy tidal action, as much as 15ft between low and high tide. So keeping an eye on the tide information becomes much more important. We were shown the following website by Leta and Jim on S/V Panoya and if you plan on coming into the Sea of Cortez, or Mexico for that matter, it's a great website for getting local tide information.
Website for Predicting Mexican Tides
A second must have website is
www.eebmike.com
The site gives a lot of great weather information complete with satellite images. If you are planning a trip to Mexico, add these two sites to your Favorites for sure!
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