Sunny and bright.
17 February 2010 | Honeymoon Cove, Isla Danzante
Bill Hudson
Well, it's now Thursday and the Sun is out bright and beautiful. It's in the mid-70's and actually hot in the cabin. It's about time to start installing the fans we bought in San Diego. Not sure how many we bought but 8 to 10 I think is about right. Where we are going, even that may not be enough to keep us cool. The first two will go in the main cabin to keep the air circulating. Then to the stern berth area so Tracy can stay cool at night. It gets down to 55 or so at night but without air flow, it still feels warm.
We got here on Tuesday and settled in nicely. As I said in the last post, we had a big party on board that night with 8 of us getting together from the three boats here at anchor. One left on Wednesday for Escondido but is due back tomorrow. They had to drop off some guests that had been visiting. So far, no other boats have come in and tried to take their space. We could have moved over, but we really like it in the South cove of the three in Honeymoon.
On Wednesday, we took Puff over to the North cove and beached her so we could walk the trails on the island. It's all part of the National Park system of Mexico. While the trails aren't great(certainly wouldn't pass for access for the disabled)lots of crushed stone(heaven only knows there are tons of it on the island)makes the hiking easier though you have to watch your footing so you don't slide. They have signs along the path telling what different plants are as we headed up the hills. We got there just as the folks from Guenivere 1 were leaving. They've done lots of hiking on the island and have been here for the best part of a week. After our hike, a couple in a kayak showed up. Being(I would guess) in their late 60's, they were in good physical shape. As we were putt putting out of the cove, the woman had stripped off her swim suit and was swinging it in the air as she skipped along the beach. To each their own I guess.
I swam ashore to bury some chicken that had gone bad in the freezer. The bag leaked big time and it had gone well over the hill. It was some of the last from San Diego. Oh well. I walked the beach and found it quite clean considering that it gets used regularly by groups of kayakers. The eleven that had been there the previous night were long since gone and didn't leave a piece of trash anywhere. It's great to see people so concerned that they actually clean up after themselves.
Later in the afternoon, we got another visit from the park patrol. A different group than the set that arrived on Tuesday. I'm not sure they had ever seen the type of passes that we carry allowing us entrance to the park. Since we bought them in Pa Paz, few ever make it this far North. Most people simply buy wrist bands for each day they expect to spend out here. There is a problem in Loreto in that the folks from Escondido that have tried to get the yearly passes can't get them as the local park office doesn't have any and has no idea when they will be getting them. They pay for them so when they do arrive, they can pick them up but there are questions on what to show the Park Patrol folks when they show up. Some of the folks from the marina were told just to show them their receipt and some were told to just wait till the passes arrive but meanwhile, give us the money for the passes. I'm glad we got ours back in December even though they say they are a year pass, they expire at the end of June. With luck we will be gone by then and safely on the hard in San Carlos to avoid the hurricanes that come that time of year.
We had expected Linda and Dale from Moxie to come over today to explore the island with us, but Dale came down with some sort of sore throat and they didn't want to contaminate us so they begged off till we come back in a month or so. We had hoped to get them to take our trash back to Escondido and get rid of it for us. Since they didn't show up, I hopped into Puff and started Dragon and took off across the channel back to Escondido and got rid of it. With just one of us in Puff, she will get up and plane and can really get a good chunk of speed out of her. I was across the channel in well under 15 minutes. It took us almost a hour to do the same on Tuesday on Zephyr. Before I left, I started making another loaf of bread. This one with dried cranberries and walnuts. It was the only recipe I could find that was actually bread and not some piece of quick bread. I had plenty of time to get back and forth to Escondido as it had to rise for two hours. Once back, I split the dough into three pieces and braided the dough for a cool look to the loaf. I'll post pictures the next time I have access to the internet. It came out beautiful. It took until past 1430 before it came out of the oven so it took a good bit of time. Once it was I out, I took off for the cove behind Zephyr.
It was time for some hill climbing. I waded ashore and changed into hiking shoes and headed up into the hills. As I said earlier, while there are paths, they are far from ideal. It's more like a path less traveled than an honest to God path. Tracy stayed on board and read as I headed up into the hills. At least one of us was smart. I made it easily to the ridge that separates the West side from the East side and took some really cool pictures of the far side of the island as well as an aerial view of Zephyr from far above on the hills. Once at the ridge, I took a left and headed farther up the hills. The trail got steeper and was covered in loose gravel. Going up was no real problem but I knew coming back down was going to be a bit risky with all that loose stone under foot. As I expected, I took a fall shortly after leaving the crest of the hill and tumbled down about 10 feet of slope before coming to a stop. A few scrapes and I'm sure there will be some bruises tomorrow but no broken bones(a good thing). The trail was so badly marked, I was way off it for most of the way down but finally made my way back to it as I was making the final decent. I changed back to my reef shoes that can get soaked and dragged Puff back into the water and made my way back to Zephyr. A bit tattered but fine.
I talked earlier last week about the Valentines Day specials that some of the restaurants were having here at Escondido and in Loreto. The one here(Portobello Restaurant) had a special of a petite filet mignon steak dinner for $10.00(US). Tracy found out today while listening to the VHF radio(we always monitor channel 16 for emergencies)that the $10.00 steak was actually a petite filet that had been cut in half so you got about three bites out of it if you were lucky. Plus, that was all you got--no salad, no veggies, nothing but the steak and it had been cut in half. If you wanted a salad or veggie, they cost extra off the menu. They had allowed for 30 people to take advantage of the special and that was it. It's like I said, we aren't in the USA any more. From what Tracy heard on the radio, many of the locals complained to the owner about what they had received and from what was said, he didn't really care. Many told him they would never come back. He had just destroyed his prime customer base in one afternoon. The bad thing is that not only does he own the restaurant, but he also owns the small tienda(store)at the marina that sells some food and drinks to the cruisers that have no way into town. It's not a good situation. He also operates the internet connection that the folks in the "Waiting Room"(small anchorage outside the harbor) use all the time. Apparently he charges them $35.00 a month(each boat)for the service and it is only up about 60 percent of the time. Now the folks in the "Waiting Room" are discussing setting up their own internet service at the anchorage as they are fed up with having bad service and the person who is responsible doesn't care. He gets his money. At $35.00 per boat, and with there being 25 boats(or more) in the "Waiting Room" he could be kissing off a big chunk of cash each month if they go ahead with their plan. I guess we will find out when we return here in a month or so.
Tomorrow, we are off for Isla Carmen and a new anchorage. Not sure which one yet, but we will let you know when we get there. It all depends on which way the winds are scheduled to blow. If from the South, only certain places are fit for dropping the hook and if the winds are from the North, that allows for different places to drop the hook. We'll let you know where we end up.