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10:00 - Stopped at the Harbor Police and Customs dock for a final water fill, garbage dump, and mail drop. They made us walk about a quarter of a mile to the Koni Kai Club to mail a couple of envelopes; amazing how unhelpful people in the big cities can be.
Called Shirl and made a date for she and Don to meet us in Ensenada on Friday morning. They'll bring our package from Doc Freeman's plus another that just arrived.
10:30 - Heading out, this time for Mexico! It's kind of a hazy day, but sunny and just a very light breeze. By the time we clear the Point Loma horn buoy we can make out the outlines of Los Coronados about 15 miles away. We set our course for the one on the left, Isla Coronado Sur.
11:45 - Lois spots a whale spouting. She sure has a good eye for whales; always sees them before I do. This one blows, sounds, and disappears. From what the books say, we'll soon be seeing lots of them.
13:30 - Dropped our hook in a four fathom bight on the east side of Coronado Sur. As I let out the chain I saw a large dark patch which I thought was kelp until I suddenly realized I was seeing the shadow of our boat on the white sand bottom. In 25 feet of water I could clearly see the anchor with the one hundred and fifty feet of chain curving up to the boat. It's going to be fun diving in this kind of water! The island itself is about a mile long and maybe four hundred feet high with very steep sides rising straight up out of the water. At this time of year it appears quite lush, even though the only vegetation is Cactus and some kind of a green ground cover. We are anchored just below a few buildings, one of which shows a painted sign identifying it as Infanteria de Marina. A lone donkey, or burro, grazes on the skyline above us and a dog barks somewhere. Other than that there is no sign of habitation.
Spent most of the afternoon studying our several guide and cruising books on Mexico and preparing for our official entry tomorrow in Ensenada. Sure sounds like we have a bunch of interesting and beautiful places to see in the next few months.
08:00 - Several whales blow, then sound, too far ahead of us to identify.
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12:30 - We are met at the entrance to Ensenada Harbor by a young man in a skiff who asks us if we want to rent a buoy. The books say that is the best thing to do here so we agree on $15.00 for two nights, probably too much but we are learning. I hadn't pictured Ensenada Harbor as big or as busy as it is. There are ships of all sizes and shapes here, from a few cruisers like ours to big cargo ships and tankers. |
| It seems to be the major outfitting harbor for the huge tuna boats on the west coast. There are dozens of them here, more than we've seen anywhere, in all stages, from ships going and coming to those out in the yard being repaired or painted. Most seem in very good condition. There may be a major economic advantage in being serviced here. | 
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Wandered around town for a while getting my bearings; found a place to change some dollars for pesos at 2150 to one (a sign in one of the markets says they take the dollar at 2500 to one), tried unsuccessfully to make a phone call, then back to the boat to get Lois. We went ashore again for dinner at one of the local US style places where we got a good lobster and shrimp dinner plus margaritas for about $30.00 US, and that was obviously in the high rent district. Wait 'till we learn the ropes!
Went back to Migracion this morning and got all our papers signed and stamped, then to the office of the Capitan de Puerto where another earnest clerk carfully reviewed the five copies of our crew lists, asked for our copy of our vessel documentation and visa from the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco, and proceeded to record the data in a log he kept. He then informed us that the "chief" wasn't in and we would have to wait. After about 1/2 hour the "chief" arrived and immediately called an office conference. I was beginning to wonder if we would ever get cleared when our earnest young man appeared and handed our crew lists back, all signed and stamped. Back to Migracion again, this time to deliver one copy of our crew list which had been signed by the Capitan de Puerto. That was it. When I asked about Aduano (Customs) a uniformed officer who spoke pretty good English told us that customs was not necessary here but would be in Cabo.
Paperwork done, we started looking for Don and Shirl. About an hour and a half later we found them driving down the main street. They and been here a couple of hours and waiting for us near our boat, which they found. We had a great day driving around the town (all the way to the top of the mountain where we had a spectacular view of the city and harbor), walking through the streets and shops, visiting Hussong's and the Papa & Beer, and finally having a super dinner of barbequed chicken. Ended the evening by watching "The High Road to China", a funny movie that Dick and Allyn gave us some time ago.
| Did some more sightseeing with Don and Shirl this morning. Started off in search of some fishing lures that Don wanted to give me for a Christmas present. We found some in a sportfishing place near the fisherman's pier but decided to look on. Walked through the fish market which was overflowing with fish and other seafood of all kinds - more than we ever saw in San Fransisco, then drove out to a resort beach to the south of town in search of lures. They directed us back to the place we started! Had fun looking though, and the ladies got a chance to look through some out-of-the-way shops. | 
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12:00 - Sent Don and Shirl on their way back to San Diego and we headed out of the harbor. Checking on the way out, I found that Gennie's exhaust is several inches below water when we are running! I started her and ran her on the way out to Todos Santos but will have to find a way to plug her pipe until we burn off some fuel.
14:00 - Anchored in a small cove on the east side of south Todos Santos Island. I'm sure glad we were there early because we had a devil of a time getting squared away. The cove is small and another boat, the "Queen Anne", was anchored right in the mouth. The book says to anchor, then take a line over the stern to shore to keep from swinging. The stern line went pretty well, although it was a bit of a challenge landing on the rocks with a pretty good surge, but I couldn't get the bow anchor to set. It took three tries and two hours before we finally got a hook we felt comfortable with! I sure got my exercise because I did all the cranking while Lois handled the stern line.
| 09:20 - Sighted the first of several pods of grey whales. Never got
really close while the were on the surface; they seem more timid than the
humpies.
13:15 - What had been a superb day kind of petered out as we ran into a dense fog bank but were compensated somewhat by some really spectacular displays by hundreds of dolphins leaping around the boat. 14:15 - Almost clear again for a while, but then hit another bank as we rounded Punta Colonet heading for our planned anchorage. |
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Since there is a pretty good swell coming around the point I tried bridling for the first time, attaching a line from the stern to the anchor chain so that (theoretically) you can keep the bow into the swells. Didn't work! Wind was too weak and variable to keep us pointed. Oh well, I learned a little something.
11:30 - Isla San Martin (Pronounced San Marteen') an inactive volcano about three miles off the coast. The east anchorage in Caleta Hassler is remarkably calm, considering the swell we've been riding and the fact that it is open to the north. There are three sailing vessels anchored there plus many fishermen and hundreds of floats for lobster pens. Since it is early and the weather isn't good enough to encourage exploring, we decided to keep going to Bahia San Quintin (Pronounced San Kinteen')
14:00 - Anchored in front of El Presidente hotel on the north shore of Bahia San Quintin. The hotel is a modern resort hotel with it's own airstrip, guides, and rental boats. Thought about going ashore but the wind was rising to twenty knots plus and the surf looked pretty intimidating, so we spent the afternoon getting weather fax data and doing maintenance chores. By nightfall the wind died down and we had a comfortable night. The weather hasn't been bad, or cold, but it ain't been what we came to Mexico for so we'll keep running until we find some warm wind and water.
11:50 - Cleared the infamous Arrecife Sacramento (Sacramento Reef) and took up a heading of 100 degrees for Punta Escarpada, our destination for the night. We are out about ten miles here, past the 500 fathom line, and now know what the term "Azure blue" means; must be beyond the coastal upwelling zone! Other than sighting a couple of whales and being joined now and then by our +dolphin friends we have had a pretty boring ride.
15:50 - Dropped the hook off Punta Escarpada after wondering if we had picked a bad spot. The afternoon wind kicking up to about twenty now, and the swell rolls though the point like it wasn't there. Since our only alternative is to go back to Punta San Carlos, seven miles away, and since we aren't sure it would be any better, we decide to tough it out. Glad we did! As soon as the afternoon wind died it got almost calm, a little rolely during the night but not bad.
09:45 - We sight Cedros, still over fifty miles away, and a small sailboat heading north at the same time. The visibility is superb, the wind warm and light, the sky cloudless. This is the kind of weather we've been looking for! We never get close enough to identify the sailboat but it, and more other boats than I would have expected, are heading north in January.
15:30 - At the north end of the island after a smooth ride across we see a very large group of whales spouting. Then, as we cruise by the north anchorage, there are thousands of Sea Lions lining every little curved gravel beach. It's quite a sight! Remembering our experience with the noisy creatures in Monterey Bay, Lois elects to go on a ways to anchor in a tiny cove past the big community. Cove isn't really the right name; it's more of an indentation, with a deserted house and just a few Sea Lions on the beach. The wind is blowing pretty good now, so we stay headed into the swell, but I can tell that we will spend another rolely-polely night when the wind dies down.
It's a nice easy run down the east shore of Isla Cedros, past the fishing village on the south end, across Canal de Keller and through Canal de Dewey between Punta Eugenia and Isla Natividad, and finally down the coastline for eleven miles to the entrance to Bahia Tortugas. On the way we cross the twenty-eighth parallel, the border between Baja California Norte and Baja California Sur and change our clocks to Mountain Standard Time. There is a 15 knot wind out of the northeast which puts a three to four foot chop on our beam and sprays our windows for the first time in a long time. The wind is so warm and dry that the spray immediately dries, leaving salt over everything.
12:30 - Anchored off the village pier in Turtle Bay we feel we have finally found the Baja! The temperature is about 70 degrees; the wind which is still blowing at 20 knots warm and dry; the hills surrounding the bay remind me of New Mexico or Arizona. There are three power cruisers and three sail boats in the bay plus many Pangos, skiffs the fishermen use. The town looks from the boat to be about the size of Friday Harbor, our favorite size city.
We got down the dinghy but because of the wind, and the warmth, we gave in to the Manana feeling and spent a lazy afternoon watching the other power boats do the fuel dance routine at the pier. They are charging $1.25 per gallon for fuel here (vs the $0.609 we paid in San Diego) but that is only the half of it. To get it you manuever your boat upwind of the pier, drop your anchor, then back down to the pier and throw two lines, one from each side of the stern, to the men on the pier. If you've done it right they can then hold you steady and pass the fuel hose over your stern for the fill. We watched one boat make seven trys before he got it right! Fortunately, we won't need fuel for another 4000 miles!
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Neat day today! By 9:00 AM it was actually hot, like pushing eighty degrees here on the boat! Lois put on her fruit salad pajamas and we went to town. We took the Metz in to the pier where we climbed a rickity steel ladder attached to the pier with rope and were met by two boys about ten years old. Their first proposition was to watch the Metz but, when I started asking questions, they became our guides. We went to the Panaderia where we got lots of bread and cookies, then to the Banco where we bought $132,000+ worth of pesos for $60.00. After that we hunted for a telephone (Found one good only in Mexico), got tortillas and a few other groceries, and replenished our beer supply with a couple of cases of Tecate, a not bad Mexican beer. |
The village of Tortugas is one of interesting contrasts. The streets are narrow and unpaved but all are clean and uncluttered. Street names are neatly painted on the corner of each house on a street intersection and almost every adobe house has the family name lettered near the front door; on some of the better homes this is on a cast plate mounted on the wall. Almost every house has hot and cold running water which is piped, not from a central water system, but from one to four fifty gallon blue plastic drums mounted on the roof. These are filled by a water truck which brings the water from thirty miles north. Maybe half the homes have a garden of some kind and very much to our surprize, the per capita ownership of satellite antennas must rival that of any place in the world. In one block of an obviously better district every one of the eight houses had an antenna!
All loaded down, we came back to the boat where we washed down the decks and I spent a few hours in the engine room changing oil and doing other maintenance chores. Then we just laid around in the sun until 5:30 when we took the Metz, picked up Tony and Cara Dibnah (A couple we met in Todos Santos) from their boat, the "Captain Musick", and went back to town for dinner. Tony and Cara quit their jobs in the LA area and are headed out for wherever. We had a good dinner of yellowtail with butter and garlic at one of the three restaurants in town, the name of which I never got sorted out. It was not the Bahia which was the one recommended to us by the crew of the "Columbine", a sailboat anchored near us, because that one was closed. I'll get that sorted out tomorrow.
It's such a neat little city that we have decided to stay around tomorrow. We've still got to see the Hotel, the cemetery, and the airport (An ancient DC 3 arrives every afternoon at about 2:30) and I think we need to get some more of that good bread!
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Another fun day exploring Tortugas. We went into town in the morning and just wandered around, joined soon by one of our little friends of yesterday whose name is Sergio. He is nine years old and in the fourth grade in school; spent most of the morning with us. We went first to the cemetery which is on a little rise to the west of town. It is unique in that many of the graves are in their own little houses, nicely finished adobe buildings on a concrete footing, about 5 x 10 feet, open on one end and surrounded by a neat picket fence. Others had only the fence protecting a large concrete monument and headstone. Almost all were decorated with real or plastic flowers. |
| While in the cemetery we met a young man of maybe thirty-five who was obviously interested in practicing his English. He went to a lot of effort to communicate with us and did pretty well. He told us his family was buried there and that he was working on a building for their grave. Then he showed us a bucket full of some terrible looking stuff and started talking about tortillas and eating and we couldn't understand what he was saying. Fortunately Lois had the Spanish/English dictionary that Nan sent us for Christmas with her; and, after pouring through it for a while he found the word "puerco" which means pig. He had been pointing off to some metal roofed shacks behind the cemetery which I thought were the slums of Tortugas, but now it all came together ---- the slop in the bucket was for the pigs! When we said we'd like to see them, he grabbed the bucket and led us to the pens where he proudly showed us his sow and a couple of three month old pigs. He said she had had a little of twelve and that he was saving two for butchering in the fall. | 
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After that little adventure we walked up the hill to the Hotel which overlooks the town and bay, then were led by Sergio to the post office (Correo) where we mailed off a letter to Girl Friday telling her to send our mail to Cabo, then back to the gas station where Sergio left us and we climbed in an ancient chevy which is the town taxi. By taxi we visited the airport, a paved strip on a barren hilltop with nothing but a rickity boarding ladder for a terminal, and then the Cantina which is far out in the hills. Now the book says Cantina means bar or saloon and the place our young driver took us was certainly that, although it was closed when we arrived at about noon, but it also had several numbered rooms at the rear of the main building and some very nice looking young ladies doing their laundry in the common area between. They seemed to know our young, good looking cab driver pretty well and were probably quite amused to be visited in mid-day by a couple of old farts like us.
Back in town we had some excellent fritos (french fries) and a beer at the Restaurante Bahia, bought some fresh milk at the mercado, and then headed back to the boat. It's been a little cooler today with a nice breeze but still warm enough for Lois to lay in the sun in her shorts while I take an afternoon nap. Tough life!
About this time we are running parallel to the coast and watching whales almost constantly blowing around us when we find ourselves in the middle of a huge school of dolphins, maybe five hundred to a thousand of them jumping, diving, playing all around the boat and in the distance, as far as we could make them out; another one of those things that you can't record on film or tape.
It's about 9:00 now and I'm listening to the Baja HAM radio net while I'm waiting to get the first weather map on the fax. Things there aren't sounding to good; storm warnings are up for the whole California coast and they are saying that the front might extend into the Baja, carrying 30 to 40 knot winds with it. I'd had a hint of the forecast when the map of the jetstream yesterday showed it pointing straight at San Diego but I haven't had enough experience to know what it might mean. Well, the cruising guides show Bahia Asuncion to be a nice anchorage in the prevailing NW winds, but it is wide open to the southeast and could be a very uncomfortable place to be in south or southeast winds. We think about it about a half hour before doing a 180 and heading back for Turtle Bay. If winds are going to howl it's best to be in a place where you are at least protected from the seas. Glad we did! "Sea Turtle" opts to continue on so we take a rain check on the fish dinner.
12:30 - Back at the entrance to Bahia Tortugas along with several other boats that had heeded the warnings. Because of the possibility of southerly winds we opted for the south anchorage which is about four miles from town but protected from the south and west. All afternoon the winds gradually increased and more and more boats joined us until by nightfall we had thirteen in the anchorage. Just for the record, they are:
Alpinisto 35' Sail - Bill & Josie
Arjumand 40' Sail - Ralph & Connie
Black Sheep 28' Sail - Felix, Elisbeth & Fred
Captain Musick 42' Sail - Tony & Cara Dibnah
Liebchen 40' Sail - Roy, Anita & Gordon
Mare'va 40' Sail - red hull & junk sails
Neeltje 40' Sail
Pas Time 35' Sail - Bob & Joan
Queen Anne 55' Sail - Bob, John, Marcel + 2
Santa Maria 35' Sail - Peter & Mary
Sea Raven 53' Power Vessel
Vominos 40' Sail - Mike & Loretta(?)
Windsome 35' Sail
| Liebchen organized a watch schedule, the purported purpose of which was to allow one crew to watch all boats while the other crews slept. Needless to say, when the winds started howling at forty and fifty knots nobody was sleeping! As I write this it is 12:00 midnight the winds are still at it at about thirty plus out of the west, but everybody seems to be holding well. Liebchen started dragging her anchor and made a run for the north anchorage which is probably better now that the wind has swung round to the west. Santa Maria also pulled out and went north. The remaining eleven are sitting here waiting out the night and wind. Lois is taking the whole thing like a veteran, just one more chapter in the adventures of the Sea Raven! | 
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I'd planned on hauling anchor at daylight and heading for the north anchorage which Liebchen had now confirmed had about the same winds but much lower seas, but Arjumand has us blocked. She parked a little too close and when the wind shifted she swung right over our anchor. That is the second time that has happened to us and I've made a note to watch closer for that possibility in the future!
As we started getting the morning weather reports it became appearent that we were getting the southern edge of a major storm! Three hundred thousand people were without power in San Diego where, we learned later, they had experienced a record low pressure reading of 987 millibars. Storm warnings are out for the whole lower coast of California.
09:30 - Arjumand, the skipper of which is a HAM radio operator who has been makeing calls to the States to let people's relatives know they were OK, is finally ready to go. We are still bouncing in three to four foot seas and twenty-five knot winds so it's some trick to haul anchor. The seas actually help in breaking the anchor out though, it must have dug itself half way to China during the night. As we come across the bay, the mouth of which is open to the southwest, we are running in the trough of eight to ten foot swells which almost appear to be breaking as the wind blows the spray off their tops. The one foot chop in the north anchorage near the village is a welcome sight even though the wind is still whistling.
10:30 - Safely anchored, this time behind a fishing barge a bit away from the group of sailboats which, in my opinion, are huddled to close together for safety. Within a few hours all the yachts have moved. Two boats have broken anchor rollers, one had a bent CQR anchor, another lost a $500 anchor while trying to get away, but all are safe. The wind keeps blowing all afternoon, which we spend napping and doing little things that don't take much effort. We crash into bed at dark and by the time we awake, wonder of wonders, even the wind has died!
After making my little tour I went to town hoping to mail some letters. The Correo was closed but I ran into some more of the Yachties on the street and, after a bit of conversation, we decided to get together for dinner at El Moroco, the restaurant we ate at the other night. I had the hand held radio with me so in about five minutes, with me talking and Connie from the Alpinisto writing, we had forty people signed up. When I went to the El Moroco to tell them that mucho Americanos would be there at 5:30 the little guy running the place was ecstatic.
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After cleaning up back at the boat we were just about ready to leave for a pre-dinner glass of wine on the "Captain Musick" when on of the pangos comes roaring up with two Mexican fishermen and a box of lobsters. I didn't even try to talk them down from the $6.00 they asked for five big lobsters. They were beautiful! (The lobsters, that is!) |
| The dinner was great! The food was good, not very hot but good, and the company was something special. We sat across from a couple, Ed and June, from England who have been cruising for eight years on their Fisher 37, the "Ascott". They've been to the Mediterranean, Virgin Islands, Carribean, through the Panama, to New Zealand, Tonga (Their favorite place), Hawai, British Columbia, and now here. They started in 1980 when he was 56 and plan on continuing to cruise for a couple of more years before "retiring" to an RV to cruise the United States. Neat couple! | 
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11:55 - Got a call from a boat called the "Monday Morning" with a message from "Sea Turtle". They had continued on to Asuncion and spent the last three days there. All OK, headed south again this morning.
13:30 - Off Punta San Pablo, a spectacular black lava point which contrasts greatly with the generally light colored hills of the coastline.
15:00 - Another huge school of dolphins. No way to estimate the actual number from the boat because they are spread out over such a large area, all going in different directions. Ten or fifteen at a time stop what they are doing to come over and play with us.
We've been keeping in touch with the "Captain Musick" who has decided to also stop at Asuncion rather than making an overnight run. Invited them to join us for a lobster dinner tonight. Either because they are sailing, or because they have been running farther from shore, they've seen more whales up close to their boat so we ask them to bring their video tape with them to dinner.
16:15 - Anchored in Bahia Asuncion, the place we started for last Sunday. It's a nice big shallow bay, well protected from all but south to southeast seas but so low that it is pretty much open to winds from all directions. As it turned out we'd have probably done fine here since the storm came mostly from the west but we couldn't have gone farther until today anyway.
Had a super lobster dinner and a nice evening with Tony and Cara. They have some really nice pictures of a dozen sea lions (They call them the "Ladies") at Isla Cedros begging for food around the boat - also some very good closeup shots of whales. We copied some of their shots of the storm.
07:30 - Anchor aweigh and out on a heading of 120 degrees for Punta Abreojos (Point Open Your Eyes). From the cruising guides and charts we'll do just that - lots of reefs around.
Pretty uneventful run. In the morning the wind was fairly strong and directly off our beam which soon built enough seas to make us put down the F/S's for a more comfortable ride. With the entertainment provided by more hundreds of dolphins and a few whales it was just a nice easy running day.
14:46 - Finally around the last of the reefs and anchored off the village at Punta Abreojos. The "Sea Turtle" is here; has some kind of an engine problem they are trying to work before going on. Said they faired pretty well during the storm in Asuncion with no damage. Apologized for being out of fish, said they caught a nice dorado on the way but have eaten it all.
It was a nice windless afternoon so I decided to find out why our anemometer isn't working. I did; it's gone! Evidently one of those fifty knot gusts took the paddle wheel with it. It was mounted with a piece of 1/2 inch plastic pipe threaded into a pipe coupling welded to the top of the mast. The plastic and wires from the paddle wheel are just broken off!
09:00 - Wind really starting to blow now, up to about thirty-five I'd guess since we don't have any indicator. That starts us wondering but the thing that did it was listening to the Baja HAM net weather reports, predicting up to 70 mph winds over the Gulf and reporting gusts to 50 knots at Turtle Bay. They were recommending that people stay put for today. We did a 180 again!
09:40 - Back at Abreojos after a whistley, wet and bouncy ride back we're at anchor and still bouncing. The wind is almost directly off the shore of the little "cove" we are in but the waves are refracting around the point and hitting us almost broadside. Most of the day it wasn't too bad, we were at enough of an angle to keep the roll down even though we were doing lots of bouncing. Lois made screens for the doors (just in case we ever get to warm country) while I played with the HF radio. Along toward evening the wind started to die down and, as usual the old Sea Raven took her normal position lying 90 degrees to the waves which, if anything, were getting bigger, finally feeling the full effect of an all day wind blowing across a 15 mile wide bay. Before long we were rolling bad enough to throw things around the cabin.
Deciding to try doing something to keep our night from being miserable, I got the little lunch hook ready then, while still anchored, maneuvered the boat around until we were heading into the waves, crossed my fingers, and dropped it off the stern. Damned if it didn't work! As we swung back toward the trough I fed out line until we were just a little away from the uncomfortable point and then cleated it off. The hook set! There was just enough wind left to keep us positioned without putting too much stress on the little 5/16 inch anchor line. For once today we lucked out. About midnight I the wind came up and I had to let the line go but by then the seas had laid down so we had a very comfortable night.
09:00 - Talked to the "Tool Pusher", a sportfishing boat headed north. Gave him the weather report (Good) and he reciprocated by giving us some advice on fishing.
11:32 - The Satellite update says we are doing 8.3 knots, too fast. If we keep this up we'll have to run at 2 knots tonight to keep from getting to Cabo Lazaro before daylight. Reduced RPM to 1200.
13:18 - Still too fast - RPM down to 1100. Put out a couple of handlines over the stern with tuna lures about two and three boat lengths behind. We're riding directly down 8-10 foot swells and it's looking like it's going to be a joy ride to Santa Maria.
15:00 - Got a slightly panicky call from the "Sea Turtle" saying that they were dead in the water near the beach north of San Juanico about 35 NM from us. Reluctantly changed heading to start bucking the seas which had been pushing us southward. No sooner got turned around when Lois looked back and found a fish on each line, two nice 3-4 lb Bonita!
18:20 - Sea Turtle called to say they had the engine running again but pleaded with us to keep coming. We finally negotiated a deal; we'd intercept their path if they would run with us to Bahia Santa Maria rather than trying to get into the shallow and dangerous Bahia San Juanico in the dark. Took a new heading of 130 degrees and slowed to an idle so they could catch up. I filleted the fish and Lois followed Fred, the Sea Turtle's skipper,'s instructions on cooking it for dinner. It was superb! The first fresh fish dinner we've had in a long time.
24:00 - Running behind the Sea Turtle now on a course to Cabo San Lazero just north of Bahia Santa Maria. His engine is running fine now (He found a plugged screen in a fuel pump) but he's got smoke coming out of his transmission and his lady's ears! He is so grateful for the company that he keeps up a running conversation on the radio with Lois while I try to catch a little sleep.
05:00 - Nearing Lazaro now and dawn starts to show in the sky off the port bow. It's slow in coming though, and it seems to get darker as true dawn approaches. I think it's harder to run with another boat; I'm always fussing about what it's doing while on our own I can just relax and let George do the driving.
07:30 - The sun rise is spectacular, and right over the isolated mountain that marks Cabo San Lazaro. The sea is smooth, the swell behind us, and dozens of whales blowing as we round the corner into Bahia Santa Maria. A panga comes roaring out to meet us as we turn into the bay; he's got lobsters but I'm too tired to negotiate and wave him away.
| 09:00 - Anchored in the huge (3 x 10 mile) Santa Maria Bay. Three boats are here; the Captain Musick, the Queen Anne, and the Pas Time, all of which were with us in Turtle Bay. We are glad to see Captain Musick safe; they made the long crossing in the big wind of Thursday night. No sooner got anchored than Fred, of the Sea Turtle, and his son Brian were over in his dinghe bring us gifts of on-the-shelf dinners and lobsters. He sure was happy to have had our company through the night; said his wife was about to jump ship! | 
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It's sure warm here, must have been pushing eighty during the afternoon before some high cloud cover came over to keep it comfortable. Good swimming weather if we'd had the energy, maybe tomorrow. Today we just laid around, cleaned up the boat, laid around some more, did a few maintenance chores, had a good lobster dinner and went to bed early.
After we got our work done we took the Metz and went visiting Peter and Mary on the "Santa Maria" which came in yesterday afternoon. This is their third trip to their namesake bay, the first was in 1974. They are headed to Cabo, then plan to spend a year in the Sea of Cortez before going on down to Costa Rica; quite a plan for two people on a 32 ft sailboat.
I tried to get Lois to the beach which is beautiful white sand, but she'd have none of it. There was a small swell which was making 1 to 2 foot breakers at a depth of about three feet and she thought sure she be killed! I didn't force it; hope she'll get used to the idea if we get to a place where she can get into the surf from the other side.
A panga came by with three kids who didn't really have anything to sell or trade but who were sure interested in our boat. They had been out hunting and had a bunch of chitons, a Pulpo (Octopus), a small Manta (Stingray) which they had speared with a homemade spear, and one good sized Langosta (Lobster) which they gave to us. We gave them cervesa and pop, and took their picture which seemed to please them very much. Later, almost at dark, another panga came by with a couple of young men holding up a broken "V" belt. I found one almost the same size which they took, promising to bring back Lobster. We may be gone by the time they get back but I'm sure they meant it.
More Bonita for dinner, and just as good as it was the other night. We'll see if we can catch some more tomorrow on the way to San Carlos.
12:30 - We rounded the point, passed the whales at the entrance, and started hunting for the channel entrance. The Mexican buoy system is a bit challenging - none of the buoys are numbered as shown on the charts and there may be more or fewer than shown. They also are small and without radar reflectors so I was very happy to have a bright, good visibility day to navigate the 10 mile zig-zag channel to San Carlos. We managed to do it with only two false starts.
Met the "Executive Explorer", a catameran cruise boat we last saw in Glacier Bay, in the channel and talked to the skipper. They are taking whale watching tours out of San Carlos, hoping to make the boat pay for itself during the winter months.
15:15 - Anchored at San Carlos too late for the Capitan de Puerto so we will just stay on the boat and check in in the morning. San Carlos is a cotton exporting port, the only semi-deepwater port south of Ensenada. They've a modern concrete pier and loading facility. Just behind the pier there are huge piles of something that look like the piles of grain we see in Washington. We're guessing they are cotton seed; we'll find out tomorrow.
| The "Black Sheep" is here. They went to town today - said there are
three grocery stores, a good restaurant, and a telephone which you can
use to make collect calls to the States. We'll see if we can make contact
with some of our family. Other than for a HAM radio message we hope got
out of Turtle Bay, we've not had any contact for over two weeks.
Had another lobster dinner! Might as well take advantage of the supply. Every night we've been eating meals that would cost $20.00 each in the States! |
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The town of San Carlos is about 1/2 mile from the 1/4 mile long pier. We had a nice time wandering around the little town which is the smallest we've actually visited. Most of the businesses are near the Plaza in the center of town. We found three grocery stores, a pretty good hardware, a marine supply store, and quite an assortment of other vendors. Also found the Cerreo (Post Office) and mailed off several letters. There is one telephone in town and, after waiting for a couple from Port Townsend who we had met before to finish a call, we got to place a collect call to the States. The only person we could find was Nancy - at work, so we asked her to let others know we were OK. We had a good fish lunch for which we were overcharged at the restaurant, but then bought a quart of milk, four small loaves of bread, and some tomatoes at the grocery and got $550 change for two one dollar bills. On the way back we picked up a six pack of beer and headed for the Emigracion office which is near the head of the pier.
At Emigracion the nice young man, Richardo, had our papers ready for us. He kept another copy of our crew list, gave us the final one and said we needed to go back to the port captain's office to have it stamped. I had expected this and was resigned to the half mile trip back to town. Leaving Lois in the shade of a palm tree, I trudged back through the now 80 degree plus heat of the afternoon sun. At the office of the Capitan del Puerto another pleasent young man took my last copy of our crew list and said that I had to go back to Emigracion to have more of copies of my already prepared crew list signed and stamped! Struggling with the language, I wasn't quick enough to realize what had happened and assumed that what he told me was true.
Back again at Emigracion, Richardo said, no way, he was not about to go through the trouble of signing and stamping five more copies of a crew list that weren't necessary. Only after some pleading and discussion with his "Chief", did he agree, for $5.00 U.S., to prepare some more papers. While he was doing this I took Lois back down the pier and out to the boat, fearing that our milk wasn't doing well in the heat. Then back up the 1/4 mile pier to Emigracion again where the "Chief" had my papers ready and was very apologetic about the Port Captain's mistake, back the 1/2 mile to the port captain's office where the other nice young man stamped and signed them and said, "Fin!", the end! By the time I got back again to the boat I was pooped!
15:30 - Pulled anchor and headed down through the channel glad for the afternoon breeze which soon cooled my body and my mind.
17:30 - Anchored off the lagoon at Puerto Magdalina, a small village not far from the entrance to the bay. Bought a few Cameron (Shrimp) from a panga for a quarter bottle of whiskey and had them for dinner. Long and somewhat frustrating day but one that ended right.
After we decided that we'd had about the limit of sun bathing we went back to the boat, rigged our "African Queen", and sat on the deck watching the pangas in the bay. One came bay loaded with four civilians plus two men in Army uniform carrying very mean looking automatic weapons. They asked if we spoke Spanish and, when I said, "No.", seemed disappointed, thanked us and roared off in the general direction of the town. They must have wanted to question us on something they were looking for but were stumped by the language barrier.
While we were sitting and resting from our hard day's work we heard a call on the radio from the "Flying Cloud" saying that they had lost all of their water and were going to try to get some in Puerto Magdalina. Because I was pretty sure that that would bea pretty difficult chore for them, I called them and offered to give them some water. They were delighted! We had been planning on going to town anyway to see if we could get some shrimp or lobster, so we jumped in the Metz and ran the two miles over to where Jerry and Carol on the "Flying Cloud" were anchored. Somehow a hose fitting had come loose and all their fresh water had gone into the bilge. After saying hello we went on to the beach where we were met by a half dozen tiny Muchachos who helped us carry the Metz up onto the sand and then had a ball bouncing on it while we went in search of our langosta and cameron. Couldn't find any! "Noches or manana" was the word. Evidently the fishermen were all out doing their thing. Disappointed, we went back to the boat and prepared to receive our guests.
It wasn't long before the Flying Cloud arrived and rafted to us for the evening. We got acquainted while filling their water tank and then Lois and Carol fixed dinner while Jerry gave me a lesson in how to receive RTTY (Teletype) signals on our HF receiver. Really fun day! I didn't even get badly sunburned, just a little bit too much on the tops of my feet.
Next on the list was one of our fishing reels. I decided that it needed servicing, not because it was broke, but just because it had never been lubed. I shouldn't have broken that cardinal rule, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!". Got it apart and couldn't get it back together again! Took hours, and another reel, to get it working again; and it doesn't work as well as it did before I started messing with it. Usually I can fix anything but this one had me stumped. I still don't know how the thing is supposed to work!
To top things off, about noon the wind started to blow and it got cloudy and cool (Temperature down to maybe 68 degrees, poor us!) so we hauled anchor and move down to Belcher Point about five miles away ands just inside the bay entrance. We'll head out from there tomorrow. The forecast is good for the long run to Cabo San Lucas, nothing for thousands of miles except a very weak front causing our cloudiness.
10:50 - Passed near Roca Pinaculo, a tiny 20 fathom bank about 15 miles out in the Pacific that is supposed to provide good fishing. We've got our lines out but nada!
13:00 - Another "hot" fishing bank produces nothing! We're running directly with the swell and wind now and are making good eight knots plus so I come back on the power a bit; don't want to get to Cabo San Lucas while it is still dark! We are standing two hour watches during the day to practice for the night run. In the past we haven't scheduled our watches and this is an experiment to see if it will make things a little easier.
| 17:50 - Finally, a "Hookup"! Nice eight to ten pound yellowtail. Lois is due to go off watch at 18:00 but continues while I filet him on the aft deck. We get about five pounds of boneless meat. By the time I'm through it's almost dark so I pull in the lines. | 
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05:00 - We're there! Coming around Cape Falso dodging fishermen in the dark. The big seiners aren't so bad, they have lights and show a big blip on the radar, but the pangas are terrible. They have only a hand held light, if any, and will only put a blip on the screen when they are very close, and then only every third or fourth scan. And there seem to be hundreds of them out there! We are both on deck now, me driving and Lois peering into the dark trying to see them.
06:30 - Finally light enough to make our approach to San Lucas. We shut down the water maker, which we had been running for the last 20 hours replacing the water we gave to the "Flying Cloud", and slowed to almost an idle waiting for the dawn. Now we can make out the boats at anchor along the north shore beach.
07:15 - Anchored on the north beach, tired and happy to be here, but not wishing to explore the other potential anchorages. We fall into bed as the sun rises.
About 10:30 we wake up and find that a boat called the "Feeling Good" has come in and anchored right over our anchor. It's amazing to me that people can be so stupid! We waited until it appeared that the wind was right and blowing him away from us, then started to haul our anchor. Unfortunately, our chain pulled us right toward him. Only with Lois driving, backing away from him while I hauled in the anchor, could we keep from hitting him.
We tried another anchorage near the entrance to the inner harbor for a while; it provided a front row seat from which to watch all the glass bottom boats, sport fishers, and divers going in and out. A boat pulling a guy in a parachute buzzed near us. Good way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon. Later we moved into the inner harbor and found a nice spot to anchor right near the entrance in front of the sportfishing docks and what appears to be an outdoor market, again where we can watch all the activity. Cara on Captain Musick called and invited us to go to dinner with she and Tony. They've been here a week and gave us a rundown on the town while we ate in a sort of Americanized Mexican restaurant called the "Rey Sol".
Cabo San Lucas is a very busy place with hundreds of big boats, several big, modern hotels, and lots and lots of tourists and fishermen. We are told that it is one of Mexico's few economic hot spots. We'll take a better look tomorrow after we are rested.
After the official business was over Tony and Cara led us around to some of the more important spots: the bakery, the laundry, the Deposito (Beer store), and Papi's. Papi's Ice Cream Parlor and Delicatessen is a neat place performing a needed communication service for the boating people on the Baja. Every morning at 8:00 they run a radio "net" during which they answer questions, forward calls to boats, tell newcomers where to find what, and get boaters with problems get together with others who may help them. They will put out a call for such and such a boat and invariably someone will have seen it somewhere. At their shop they keep a log of boats, receive mail for boats and arrange to get mail to the States (Evidently Mexican mail service is a disaster), and sell a variety of good meats, cheeses, and real ice cream.
We had a lunch of tacos made the way tacos ought to be made at a place called Taqueria del Cheff where a jolly Mexican owner and chef served us huge bowls of guacamole, salsas, and fresh avacado with our tacos. We left the Dibnahs then and went in search of a telephone. The telephone system here is the same as elsewhere in Mexico; you stand in line for a lone girl at a desk to place your call for you and take it on the phone she then hands you. This time it took about 45 minutes for our turn to come up. It costs $10.00 US for three minutes and $7.00 for each added minute so you don't want to waste words. She charged us $2000 pesos for placing two calls, about $1.00 US. There was no mail for us at the Port Captain's office and, when we finally got a call through to Girl Friday, she said she still hadn't received our letter mailed two weeks ago in Turtle Bay. I told her to forget what we said in the letter and send our mail to Nancy. Nan can at least open the mail and let us know when we call if there is something important.
After that we were hot and dry so we stopped at the Giggling Marlin for a tall Margarita. The temperature was pushing ninety here while John, at the Prints and Pauper in Seattle where I had tried to contact Nancy, said it was snowing there. We sat in the shade of a palm tree, sipped our Margarita, then swung by the bakery and produce store on the way back to the boat. There we watched the tenders from a cruise ship, the "Fairsea", load and unload passengers at the nearby open air market. Later we went over and visited the market which is purely tourist oriented, just lots and lots of T shirts, carvings, Mexican dresses, silver jewelry, etc.
Ran the Metz out to the Captain Musick to say goodby to Tony and Cara, then Roy from the Liebchen and his eight-year-old son, Gordon, came over for a visit. Had our Yellowtail for dinner. I think it is even better than the Bonita!
Don't know where the rest of the day went. We had lunch, picked up a few groceries, and went back to the boat where I was starting to fix a couple of small leaks in the Metz when I found that all our hardener for the two part glue had gone bad. Ended up doing the job with Hypolon paint - we'll know tomorrow if it works.
| Ferry from Puerto Vallarta was due to come in this morning so we had
to move out of the inner harbor about 7:00. We went out to the north beach
anchorage near where we anchored the first morning and set both bow and
stern anchors. It worked out pretty well and, at least for the wind conditions
we had today, without undue stress on the lines.
Lois had a date to go shopping with Carol from the Flying Cloud and took a water taxi in about ten o'clock. About an hour later I was working around the boat and started to feel sort of woosey so I laid down and for the next 18 hours I didn't care whether school kept or not. I think it must have been a dose of flu (Lois had eaten everything that I had). I hurt all over, had the chills even in the eighty degree heat, and didn't have the energy to move - just stayed in bed all day and night. One lost day! |
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Feeling lots better this morning, still a little sore in spots, but able to sit up and take notice. I'm sure glad that didn't last very long! Took it sort of easy, took a water taxi to town this morning, strolled up to the phone office and got a call through to Nancy, picked up a few groceries, and were back at the boat by about 1:00 PM. Then just laid around and wrote a few letters for the rest of the day.
There's kind of an interesting contrast of cultures here where we are anchored off the beach with maybe a hundred other yachts worth from $100,000 to $3,000,000. On shore, just behind the beach is the Hacienda Hotel, a huge modern hotel worth maybe $50 million, and on the beach between us and the hotel is the "Cabo San Lucas Yacht Club". It's even shown on one of our charts that way, including the quotation marks. Took me a while to figure out what it really was. What you see from the water is a bunch of blue and white boats pulled up on the beach in front of rows of blue tents. When we moved over closer we could see that it is a modern day fish camp where fishermen are doing the thing they have done for thousands of years in much the same way but with a little different equipment. It looks very much like the pictures I've seen of the fish camps of the Northcoast Indians if you substitute blue plastic tents for lean-to's, and fiberglass pangas with 50 horse motors for dugouts and paddles.
The fishermen have an interesting way of beaching their boats: starting about 100 yards from shore they open the throttle and hit the beach fast enough to put the boat completely upon dry sand. The engine is still screaming as they step out! There on the beach they clean the fish, with the pelicans doing the cleanup detail. Kneeling in the sand one fisherman cuts long fillets from three foot long fish, while another wades out in the water for rinsing before piling them in blue plastic milk containers, presumably for delivery to market. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll get to feeling good enough to go over and get a better look at the goings on.
With her safely home, I took the six gallon gasoline jug and went off to stock up on Metzeler fuel and beer. Ran into Roy from Liebchen who told me that Mike on the Vominous was also going to the Pemex station so joined forces with him. We got a cab, went to the Pemex where we filled the jugs, went by the Deposito to pick up four cases of beer, and back to the dock. Cost us $6.00 US.
Lois was feeling a little better in the evening so we invited Jerry and Carol over to watch while we dubbed a video tape for Dad & Mom. I hadn't realized how long it had been since we sent them a tape - back before Christmas! Two hours of tape takes an awful lot of pictures! I've taken a lot of pictures of blue water in the last month trying to get a really good shot of a whale. Still haven't made the grade! Click here for MORE.