Sailing HONU

I've heard it said that the only difference between a fairy tale and a sea story is the introduction. A fairy tale starts with "Once upon a time." A sea story starts with the title of this blog entry.

I started this season with a promise to myself that I would be religious with blog entries, but like everything else I have attempted in my 71 years that was related to any religious conviction, it got side-tracked. I have not looked back at what I last wrote, probably should before I continue, but won't.

We're in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Nayarit, Mexico. Being here in La Cruz is a good thing as we love it here. We've been here since taking sixteen days to travel to the mainland from La Paz in January. The trip here was one of the best trips we have ever done, and we feel as if we finally touched on the actual "cruising" concept in the passage. We entered each anchorage with an over night stay expected, but got involved in the place, the people, the anchorage, the beer, or all of the above and stayed longer than expected in each place, except Mantenchen Bay, where the no-see-ums, hehenes in Spanish, were so pesky that we left after one night with welts all over our bodies. Thank you to our "buddy boat" Karvi, for traveling with us during the entire time and agreeing to be "cruisers" in the best sense. We managed to watch the blood moon and full eclipse at Isla Isabel, 18 miles off the coast of Mexico, and called the "Galapagos of Mexico" for its isolation and amazing wildlife. We also experienced, nesting Frigate Birds we could have reached out and touched, Blue and Brown Footed Boobies that were so unaccustomed to humans that you could walk right up to them on their nests. We sat on lava rock beaches and watched whale mothers and calves broach right off the beach. I drank so much tequila that I fell off the dinghy on the way back to HONU from Karvi, but I'm told I did it with style, somewhat like Lloyd Bridges in Sea Hunt. (That will send youngsters to Google looking for answers.)_

We set our first stern anchor in Chacalla, a small village on a beautiful beach North of La Cruz. Judy was amazing in backing the boat so that we had 200 feet of anchor chain out for the main anchor and then moving 100 feet forward as we played out 100 feet of stern anchor rode. The one night we were gong to spend turned into four as we found life on the beach including a micro-brew pub that had great beer and good food in the small village. If you're ever there you must try it, but they're only open on Friday and Saturday nights. They have a very small batch system and they need the other days of the week to make enough beer to take care of customers on those two nights.

For sixteen days and nights our lives were not cluttered or constrained by calendars, or clocks. We did what we wanted, pretty much when we wanted to do it. That is the mind-set we came to Mexico to live and explore. We tasted it, we want more ... next season.

Judy's sister, Jeanne, and husband, Gary, visited us for three weeks in March. They are the only family to visit us since we left San Francisco in 2015. We sailed, with Jeanne at the helm, motored, where we caught fish for fresh ceviche, visited a Tequila factory, where we bought too much Tequila, danced, dined, listened to to music only La Cruz can provide, and did touristy trips to surrounding communities. It was a lot of fun and we look forward to getting other family to join us in the future.

Friends / almost family, Tom and Maria visited us for two weeks shortly after Jeanne and Gary left us. They have spent time with us on HONU before and we once again thoroughly enjoyed their visit. We planned, (planning is an error in judgement) to spend time sailing and touring around Banderas Bay with them. The touring around happened, the sailing didn't. The weather, and a knee injury Judy sustained, kept us from sailing, but not from having fun. We look forward to them joining us again in the near future and getting them off the dock for an extended period of time.

We have developed a deep love and appreciation of La Cruz, it's people, and the cruisers who spend their season here. We visited California for pretty much the whole month of April to get Judy's knee attended to by US doctors and felt a bit down when we returned to Mexico and felt our season was coming to an end without the time at sea and anchor we had expected during our sixteen day adventure earlier in the season. Fred and Judy, on S/V Wings were waiting for us to be ready to head South for a few weeks before we put HONU away for the season, but they were also waiting for their permanent Mexican visas to arrive, so they couldn't move more than a day away from La Cruz in case they were called back to sign papers. We found a solution by spending a week at anchor at Punta de Mita, nine miles West of La Cruz. We were joined by Steve and Janet on S/V Southern Cross III in the anchorage. We had a great time having happy hour on each other's boats, visiting Punta de Mita, and taking over a table in a bar for a rousing game of dominoes over drinks.

So here we are. We spend the beginning of each season putting HONU together so that she can carry us on to whatever adventure we decide to chase. She has always done an exceptional job, and it is hard to take her apart at the end of the sailing season and leave her for hurricane season. She now sits in her slip with no sails, no lines, no canvas bimini or dodger. She will be prepared for what ever the off-season brings, she will be clean and her stainless will shine when we leave her this week, but she won't be the same as she was when we put her back together last December. We'll be back in October. We'll put her together again, hopefully better than she was in previous seasons. She'll be ready, and so will we. Meanwhile, we have grandchildren, children, friends, and places to the North we are looking forward to visiting. Hasta Luego!

This season's photos to be added later, and that ain't no ...

Winter settled into La Paz, so we got out. We had many good times there, which I may write about at some point, but we were starting to feel a little trapped and cold.

Yesterday we officially entered the tropics when we sailed South of the Tropic of Cancer at Latitude 23.5 degrees N. It sure didn't feel tropical as we were wearing foul weather jackets and trying to pass between two squalls that were full of thunder and lightning.

Today we're at anchor in Bahia de Los Frailes at Latitude 23.25 where there is a little breeze and it's 88 degrees in the cockpit. It seems that a quarter of a degree in Latitude can make a difference. We're preparing to start the journey Southeast to Isla Isabel 217 Nautical Miles from here 18 miles off the coast of the Mexican Mainland.

We have been traveling with Dan and Nancy on Sailing Vessel Karvi and plan to travel with them in our crossing to the mainland and South to Banderas Bay sometime late next week. We left Marina Costa Baja on Jan 10 for Playa Bonanza 18 miles to the Northeast on Isla Espiratu Santo. We spent a night there off a beautiful white sand beach. Jan 11 we sailed 43 miles South through the Cerralvo Channel to Bahia de Los Muertos. Winds were favorable and we traveled under sail for over three hours. It was a great day.

We spent three nights in Muertos enjoying the beautiful little bay, walks on the beach, lunch at a small resort,and margaritas at a small palapa bar and restaurant. Muertos has managed to enchant us each of the five times we've anchored there.

So, we're moving on tomorrow. The winds look like they will support sailing, but I'm sure we'll find a need for the engine sometime during the crossing. We're looking forward to spending a few days anchored off Isabel. It is a national park and is know as the Galapagos of Mexico.

We don't know when we'll have Internet connectivity again. When we do we'll try and post some photos.

We feel we're making pretty good progress in getting HONU to sea again, especially when you consider Christmas and our 50th wedding anniversary happened in the middle of it. We enjoyed a great hike on the beach and a wonderful evening in La Paz for dinner and relaxation on our anniversary. We had dinner and drinks at a marina-side restaurant on Christmas Eve. Christmas day was spent with cruising friends Pat and Celine from S/V Voila with lunch at the beach club and beers around the pool. We've also managed to get together for drinks and food with Steve and Sherri from S/V Pablo, and Peter and Eileen from S/V Appleseeds. We've also managed to restock the ship's larder by visiting stores and the farmer's market in town.

Our sails should be back tomorrow or Saturday, all of the standing rigging and most systems have been checked and adjusted where needed, but I've yet to check out the engine, or install and configure our new single-sideband modem which should allow us to get weather information and limited email almost anywhere. There are many other items on the checklist, but these are the most important.

It's not all work and no play. We decided on our way back to Mexico that we would make time to enjoy ourselves and not get hung up in the calendar. It seems to be working.

Somehow a year has passed since my last entry here. It has been a pleasant, interesting, fun, year. It seems we got sidetracked by everything from broken bones to sailing in huge pods of dolphins and enjoying the company of friends and family in Mexico and the US. For details you may have to find us. We'd be happy to explain more over a beer.

This Solstice finds us in Marina Costa Baja, La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. We flew in with our 200 pounds of boat parts on December 13 and have been putting HONU back together for another season of sailing Mexican waters. We found her in good shape on our return, but we need to have some sewing done on our sails and to install the pile of replacement parts and upgrades we brought with us in our checked luggage, (thank you Southwest Airlines). We currently plan to cross the Sea of Cortez shortly after the first of the year, whenever weather and boat status permit.

I will try and make more regular entries here this season, but the distractions are plentiful so I make no promises.

We left Bahia de Los Frailes in Baja California Sur at 7:00 AM on Thursday December 14. It was cloudy and warm with calm winds and seas. It had been a beautiful night in a very calm anchorage. Rain started to fall lightly at about 9:00 AM, continued until about midnight and varied from a light mist to a real downpour at times. It was odd motoring in full foul weather gear on calm seas with no wind. The rain brought to mind how much we need to do a little water-proofing of the canvas of our bimini. The skies started to clear when the rain stopped, but the wind didn't come up enough for us to sail.

Dawn on the 15th was grey, but the clouds began to break up and we were able to get in about four hours of sailing under a full set of three sails until the wind dropped so low that we had to bring up the engine and motorsail. The rest of the day was uneventful. We saw the occasional ship on the AIS, but rarely were they close enough to see. The sunset was spectacular, however and seemed to last for a very long time. Our night watches were uneventful as we motored under scattered clouds with no moon and a awesome number of stars visible between the clouds.

Dawn on Saturday the 16th was a little grey but the entrance to Banderas Bay was visible in the distance. The air carried the scent of vegetation. The sea and wind that had been comfortable all night decided to show us a little action. The wind rose to 10 knots with gusts to 15. HONU has no trouble with winds of this speed and we left the mainsail up for stability, but it gave us no additional speed because it was blowing directly onto the bow. If the sea had been calm we could have fallen off the wind and had a great sail. Instead the sea was rough with a four to five foot swell and a very strong current coming out of the bay onto our bow. The current, wind, and waves required us to go directly into them. There were times during the three hours it took us to get into the bay when we were unable to move faster than one knot as we climbed a wave only to surf quickly down the backside, bury the bow in the trough of the wave only to repeat the process for the next wave. Once inside the bay the wind and sea calmed and the current disappeared. From there it was a ten mile motor into the marina. We were in our slip in Marina La Cruz by 1:00 PM, 285 miles and 54 hours from weighing anchor in Bahia de Los Frailes.

It's good to be back to a place we feel is our home base in Mexico. We didn't plan it and found it interesting that this entry into Banderas Bay was two years to the day from the day we first arrived here in 2015. As always after a crossing we have a boat to clean, things to fix, lies to tell, provisions to purchase, and friends to get reacquainted with. We plan to be here through Christmas, but are starting to plan for New Years in Barra de Navidad, about 140 miles South of here.

We're comfortably at anchor in Bahia de Los Frailes on the Southeastern coast of the Baja Peninsula. It was a good day. We did 46 nm of motor-sailing which is ok. We're now 104 nautical miles from the slip in Costa Baja Marina in La Paz where HONU spent hurricane season. It took us four days shy of a month to get her underway again. We have to admit we spent some of that time enjoying cheap beers, good food, and great friends, not all of it working on the boat. That's progress.

We spent last night in Ensenada de Los Muertos. It too is a beautiful bay with a palapa bar and restaurant where we had dinner. We got back to HONU after dark and had to put the dinghy and motor away. Judy was the first on HONU, tied the dinghy and then helped me raise the motor onto the stern of HONU. All went well until I went down the stern ladder to prepare to raise the dinghy into the davits. No dinghy! Judy grabbed our spotlight and we were able to watch our untethered dinghy head out to sea like it had a hot date in Mazatlan it had to make. I was going to swim for it, but Judy nixed that plan. A call to S/V Orca, anchored next to us, for help pulled its skipper and mate from a game of dominoes and rum. John and Jane hopped into their kayak, stopped by HONU for our handheld VHF radio and big spotlight, and took off in hot pursuit. It took them over an hour in the pitch dark night to find and tow the errant dinghy back to us. They will never pay for a beer in any bar we happen to be in. The dinghy immediately went up in the davits. That was delayed progress.

This is a beautiful little Bay. We could see it raining in this bay while we were about 10 miles away and Judy is ecstatic because of the earthy smell the rain left. We were escorted into the bay by a pod of at least 35 dolphins. They came out of nowhere, were with us for a while, and then were gone.

We are one of 8 boats here. There aren't any facilities that would draw us ashore, and that's good because we want to leave here about 5:00 AM for our 270+ mile trip to Banderas Bay. It's going to take a while at 5 knots per hour. That's slow progress.

The questionable progress relates to the cell phone signal we find here. It didn't exist here when we stopped in April of this year. Next thing you know there will be a palapa bar here. That could be progress.