Take to the sea

The (mis)adventures of two dreamers that do

Passage notes: Isla San Francisco to San Evaristo (via Bahia Amortajada)

It wasn’t a great day for sailing, per se, since the wind was so light, but we were pretty eager to move on to the next anchorage. We also wanted to check out the mangroves and lagoon at Bahia Amortajada, which was en route to San Evaristo. We motored to Bahia Amortajada past Isla Coyote, which is a very small inhabited island in the Sea (I think the only inhabited island). The beach at Isla Coyote appeared to be very active with sea kayaks and pangas.

How to fry a fish in a 40 knot blow

While we were holed up in Isla San Francisco during the Norther that would never end our fishing adventures were not terribly fruitful. Fortunately we were visited by James on SV Pyxis who had gone diving with his (homemade!) speargun and was able to spear not one, not two, not three…but FOUR large fish. Three of the fish were big, bright, Pacific dog snappers, the other was a yellowtail, with more muted coloring, but still stunning.

We were in day three of the six day blow and most of the charter boats left after day one or two to head south to La Paz, leaving just a few boats at Isla San Francisco. Asking nothing in return, James gave each of his neighbors an entire snapper and then later in the evening he returned with his girlfriend Eva to give us a huge yellowtail steak. We reciprocated with fresh-made banana bread.

Waiting out the northers

We’re in a holding pattern at Isla San Francisco. We’ve been here for almost a week now. Tomorrow marks a week. For the last seven days we have had gusts up to 40 knots on several days and the waves around the point look menacing. On the AmigoNet (the ham radio net for Mexico, where they dispense useful knowledge, including a weather forecast) we learned that 8 boats have been stranded at San Evaristo (a couple miles northwest of us) for 12 whole days waiting for a good enough weather window to move north.

Cruising is as much about knowing when to stay put as it is about sailing. You won’t make much Northern progress in a 40 knot blow in the Sea of Cortez. It doesn’t take an old salt to figure that out.

The stowaway

Promise me you won’t get totally grossed out when I tell you about our newest passenger. We have a cockroach on our boat. I debated not saying anything about it, because who would ever admit to having cockroaches in their home?

I knew in my heart of hearts that this day would come…but I really hoped and prayed that it would be delayed (in perpetuity). All the books that I’ve read, especially food oriented books warn about bringing any cardboard onto your boat. Roaches like cardboard…they lay their eggs in cardboard. I think the Raisin Bran box was the Trojan horse in this particular instance.

Isla San Francisco

Every place we visit has its own magic. Isla San Francisco was probably one of my favorite stops. Isla San Francisco was so colorful, especially the beach on the north side of the island. The guide book we have on board always points out when there is a white sand beach, but I find that I prefer more heterogenous, rocky, multi-colored beaches. This island was incredibly fecund – so many neat creatures! From the easily visible (lots of birds) to the nearly invisible (bugs and sea life).  It was a great place to be stuck for a week. Here’s a visual tour of Isla San Francisco:

Passage notes: Ensenada Grande to Isla San Francisco, Mexico

When we awoke we were pleased to find the vestiges of a southwest “coromuel” (as they’re called here), where the temperature differential between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez drives wind across Baja in a southwesterly direction. The weather report predicted a northwesterly arriving on Monday and we wanted to be well anchored in Isla San Francisco by then. We’ve also decided that we want to try to be early morning sailors.

Although it was cold, grey, and cloudy, we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to swim with the seals at Los Islotes, so we started with a quick detour. Absolutely worth it.

Swimming with the seals

As we left Ensenada Grande en route to Isla San Francisco, we decided to take a small side trip to Los Islotes to swim with the seals there, something we intended to do before the transmission fell out. It was early in the morning and less than an ideal day. Cold, windy, grey, cold…very cold. The wind was blowing from the South, so we sought shelter on the north side of the island. The mooring balls were too small to hold our boat in the wind and waves and it was too deep to anchor comfortably (around 60 feet), so we decided to take turns motoring around in circles while the other swam with the juvenile seals.

February 2013: cruising budget

Better late than never, eh? February was another expensive month! I’m gonna go ahead and blame the engine fix this time around. We decided to procure all new parts rather than scrounging around for used spares (turns out a friend had a spare coupling…two actually, just lying about – darn). Jeff really wanted to re-purpose a rusted coupling, but I like shiny things and I don’t need any more reasons to distrust our engine. The parts we bought for the fix are as follows: a new output coupling, a new lock nut, new flexible feet and a flexible coupling (it didn’t have a flexible coupling before). All told, the engine fix (which was much more involved than it needed to be, but in a good way) set us back about $600. Man does she purr! It greatly helped with the “vibration problem.”

Ensenada Grande, round dos

The first time we anchored at Ensenada Grande it was purely by accident, since our transmission broke down just a mile or so from this lovely anchorage. But, we had such a nice time (in spite of our busted engine) that we decided to return, which is truly a testament to the specialness of this place. Our second time around had its moments as well. Here’s the skinny.

Passage notes: La Paz to Ensenada Grande

We’re on the move again after 1.5 months in La “Pause”! On our way out to the island we decided to do a “quick” loop around La Paz Bay (Bahia de La Paz) outside of the channel to see if we could find Tiger Sharks. Swimming with the Whale Sharks is a popular tourist attraction in La Paz. Apparently they hang out on the outside of the mogote and you can find them by following the pangas (local fishing boats) that shuffle tourists back and forth from town.