La Paz, Islas Espiritu, and the Crossing

I must admit I have no idea where I left off last time, so I’m starting blindly (no internet, but if I don’t write now I’ll forget everything!)…

Our cruise from Ballandra to La Paz was short and sweet. We had one run in with some shallow water due to our inability to stay between the green and red, but corrected before anything to eventful happened. Pulling into Marina Palmira, we were greeted by our friends on Di’s Dream, as well as some other familiar Haha faces. La Paz is a gorgeous little city. The malecon (promenade) runs the length of the bay, and the sculptures that decorate it are absolutely beautiful. When I hunt down the pics I’ll post some, but again, you’ll have to forgive my forgetfulness when it comes to bringing my camera with me anywhere. We had a lovely dinner with Roger and Di the first night, where we were all serenaded by the local talent. Kat cried… of course. I think the guy was shocked that he could be so moving. The next morning I ran down the malecon to Marina de La Paz, where we went to breakfast and met up with the other cruisers. While Kat and Jay went to the hospital to x-ray Kat’s hand, I sat under a Palapa and welcomed Triumph in. Jamie, Gary and I went inland a bit to grocery shop and explore La Paz. When I finally got back to the Kat Den Rie, I was pleasantly surprised with the news that Kats hand is fine (they had a wonderful hospital experience), and that our friends on Beyond had come into Palmira. We met up with Triumph, Beyond, and Cameron from MorningCalm for dinner, all venturing inland for some authentic Mexican food. Gary and I had another run in with birds… I caught one with my bare hands (Toby was more worried about me getting some weird Mexican bird disease than impressed with my skills). After dinner we all walked down to see the rest of the sculptures and get some Fuentes for Jamie and me (its ice cream).

I jumped ship the next day, Conner and I both hopped on Triumph for our sail to Isla Espiritu, an island off of La Paz. It was really fun, we even had a little dip in the middle of the ocean on the way. Our first stop was Caleta Partida, where at low tide you can walk between the two islands, and can kayak between them at high tide, which is exactly what we did. Us kids had our kayaking adventure, then Gary and I hiked up to caves while Kat, Jay, Di, and Roger befriended the local fisherman. They traded a hat, two cokes, and a beer for about 5 pounds of fresh calamari, and with another similar trade gained a huge quantity of Dorado. They also discovered a great snorkel/fishing spot a couple coves up that they decided to share with us kids the next day. We had a fantastic hike up an old ravine and did some free diving, again, pics to come (my marine biologist is also the photographer so we’ll have to wait to get them from him in cali). We moved up the island that afternoon to Ensenada Grande, another perfect anchorage. Triumph had us all for dinner and Kat and Conner “jammed” on their guitars for entertainment. From Grande we took all took Triumph up to Los Islotes for the day to snorkel with the sea lions. I’m not going to lie, I was terrified, and even though no one else admits it but Jamie, I think everyone was a little scared. But they sea lions turned out to be pretty mellow, and spent the day playing around us and putting on a show. One little guy entertained us by playing around with a feather, and included Gary in his game. Jamie and I each had a scary moment, but Jay takes the cake. We heard him scream like a little girl and look around to see if we had heard him. When he realized we were all staring at him, he claimed that a little sea lion had bit him on the butt… I’m not convinced, there were no marks. In his defense, Kat did have to convince him to stay in the water, so maybe there is some truth in his tale. Di had a little bit of an incident, not sea lion related, getting back onto Triumph. All of a sudden, the dinghy wasn’t under her, wet hands were slippery, and long story short, she has quite the shiner. But being the good sport she is, she laughed it off. When we got back to the boats, the kids came over for some ceviche and beer, then we headed for Di’s Dream for rum cake and, of course, rum. The original plan was to exchange pictures on our last night together, but Jamie had us with her night dive suggestion. Hey, we had just overcome snorkeling with sea lions, why not jump in the ocean in the dark? (I had preciously claimed you couldn’t pay me to do that, I guess I was wrong). So Toby, Jamie, Conner, Gary, and I got all fitted up in wetsuits, and took the plunge. It was the most amazing thing. I cannot do the bioluminescence (spelling?) justice with any description, but it felt like we were swimming through stars that light up at the slightest movement. We all happily played around in them, then headed to the caves to check out the night crawlers. It wasn’t at all scary, it was just breathtakingly beautiful. A perfect way to spend the last night with Triumph. I hated to say goodbye, especially to my marine biologist Gary and Conner who are both headed home. But luckily I’ll see Toby and Jamie on the mainland in a couple weeks.

The next morning Kat Den Rie headed back to Los Meurtos with Di’s Dream. We had a lovely dinner at the restaurant and started our crossing of the Sea of Cortez this morning at 5 am. This is, hopefully, our last overnight for a long long time…

More when we get to Mazatlan!

Oh Mexico...

My last blog was a bit brief about Cabo... and a little premature. We spent a couple more days there provisioning, doing laundry, and recovering (yachting is a lot of work!). I also spent quite a bit of time sneaking into 5 star hotels to use their hot tubs and poolside bars. Kat needed some major recovery after taking a header down the compainionway... Our first day in Cabo we swam in to the beach, and I got stung by a jellyfish pretty bad. After begging for vinegar from the palapa bar, and being the good mom she is, Kat ordered us a couple of grade drinks to "ease my pain". Let's just say we needed an escort while swimming back to the boat (thank you Gary), and after deciding to strip down in the cockpit, mom "went down like a greased refrigerator" so to speak. Luckily nothing lifge threatening, but a couple of black butt cheeks and a bruised wrist made the next few days a little, uh, tender.

Our first sail out of Cabo was quite the beat. We set sail to Los Frailes, a beautiful little anchorage about 45 miles around the point into the Sea of Cortez. After a wonderfully relaxing day of running, snorkeling, and reading, the local, Phillipe, put on a fish taco and margarita party. There is absolutely nothing like a bondfire on a private, white sand beach. The next day we all headed to the reef to snorkel (Toby, Jamie, Kat, Jay, Gary, and me). The kids kayaked and spear fished, and Gary and I almost made friends with some Dolphins that were passing though. We had a wonderful dinner of fresh red snapper with Di's Dream (Suebee left us for Mazatlan) and met some other cruisers that we hope to see along the way.

Our sail to Ensenada de Los Muertos was perfect. We sailed the whole way in calm seas and good winds. We dropped our hook and went in to meet Triumph (and Torsen and Elka) for drinks and dinner at the charming little restaurant. We pulled our dinghy onto the beach and let Jay coach us on exactly how to beach it. He, of course, did not heed our warnings to tie off to a rock. Can you guess where this is going? Yes, we got back from dinner, in the dark, and found our dinghy was no longer on the beach. So the search began, and our new friends not only got up, but put their motor on and offered to drive us around to find the drifter. Just as we were about the pull up the hook to search the ocean blue, Toby pulled up in our missing boat, he had found it on his kayak. We are buying Triumph a lot of beer. Disaster averted.

We headed out this morning for Puerto Ballandra. It was another wonderful sail, a little lacking on wildlife and fish though... Aside from Dolphins, our most exciting discovery was a floating goat in the middle of the Sea of Cortez. This anchorage is stunning, the shoal is only a few feet deep for about 2 hundred yards off the beach. Tomorrow dad and I are free diving a 10ft bronze statue and sank right off the point (without my marine biologist/free dive instructor), it should be interesting. Then we're off to La Paz for provisions and then islands for some diving.

I'm not sure this counts with the family bet, but I am probably jumping ship in La Paz...

Not for good though, I just plan to join my Triumph friends for a couple of days of sailing and diving.

SD to Cabo!

So our true adventure has begun. I’ll do my best to make this a catch up blog… we haven’t had much of a chance to update in the last couple weeks…

We ended up in Sunroad Marina in San Diego, which was much closer to the action then our original Pier 32 slip. The first day in SD was spend tracking down visas and fishing liscenses. We fortunately finished the chores in time to spend the day touring Balboa Park and the Natural History Museum. The special was “Oasis: Baha California”. The video of the wildlife got us very excited to head down the coast, but all my newfound confidence with snorkeling was demolished (too many creatures), we’ll have to see if I can regain some by the time we get there. The rest of the weekend we spent with Suebee and we were lucky to visit with Jesse and Shanna, boating friends who moved down the coast.

On Friday we were set to fly home for a week to check on things and see Ceejmo, who got leave before shipping off to Alaska. It was nice to be home and see the dogs, the house, friends, and family, but I think we all found the short trip oddly stressful. I ended up changing my flight to head back to SD on Tuesday in order to take care of some final touches and have time to see some friends. It was so great to catch up with everyone… and also to have a couple days to myself before the folks came back into town and we headed down the coast. Once their plane landed the following Friday it was nonstop go. Who knew that this cruising thing got to be stressful? We made sure to break it up a little with fun stuff. Saturday night we joined the NorCal crew on MorningStar (a beautiful and luxurious motor yacht Patricia was nice enough to host on!) Haha, I don’t think I had ever had better food in a prettier place, so thank you very much Mimi and Patricia! Sunday was the infamous Baha-Haha costume party, and we also welcomed our fourth crew member Barry White (dads lifelong friend). I ran into my new friends Jaime and Toby, met their fellow crew Gary and even made another friend my age who went to De La Salle! Needless to say, I was THRILLED…

We headed south Monday, October 27. One hundred and eighty boats, all with colorful spinnakers, crossed the starting line at 11 o’clock. The sight was beautiful. The first leg was set to be 350 miles, 3days and two nights. The first 24 hours the sailing was fantastic. I had my first night watch, which was less scary than I had imagined and went by rather quickly. Day two the winds died and the motor went on. Again. But all wasn’t lost, we fished our hearts out. Apparently the Bonitos love us, we couldn’t put a line in the water without hooking one of those guys within the hour. Unfortunately, I came down with a terrible headcold and enjoyed none of it. I was condemned to my room so my germs wouldn’t spread and hated life for the next 24 hours. Luckily for me, the fish still liked us when I was feeling a little better. We even hooked a huge Dorado (Mahi Mahi anyone?) but it got away. I won’t go into specifics, but my Dad blames me. Too bad he doesn’t get that it was too big to fit in the net! Knowing that we weren’t going to make it to Turtle Bay in the daylight, we anchored off of Cedros Island for night three. It was a perfect spot. We witnessed a beautiful sunset, BBQed up some fresh Bonito fish tacos (Barry was pissed we threw all of the fish back after that, they were delicious!) and we witnessed a breathtaking lightning storm. The next morning we pulled up the anchor to a perfect sunrise and headed for the Bay. Day four marks the best day thus far in our fishing careers. Two Yellowtail before ten. Haha, Kat was trying to take a shower off the stern and behind the “curtain of privacy” when we hooked the second. We all rushed back, and had to inform her that fishing trumps privacy, so she should put her clothes on and let us bring in our catch! All was good, we brunched on fresh sashimi. Plus, pulling into Turtle bay the Dolphins decided to escort us in, and both my mom and I reached down off the bow and got to pet our new friends.

Turtle Bay wasn’t exactly what I expected. There wasn’t the clear, torquiose water I was expecting, and the red tide and dead fish (a fisherman apparently decided to dump his tons of dead bait in the water) weren’t convincing me to jump in and swim around. But the weather was nice and I got to hang out with my new friends and eat fresh Yellowtail steaks so I guess there can’t be any complaining. And I do love my new friends, I definitely lucked out.

Wow, this is getting too long! Baja Santa Maria was beautiful. We had an AMAZING hike to the top of the world and I went snorkeling and tide-pooling with my new marine biologist friend (very convenient huh?). After a couple of fun days and a rowdy party, we headed for Cabo!

Cabo has been wonderful. Aside from the hustle and bustle, whistles and drinks, I have snorkeled everyday, swam, tanned, and kayaked to my little hearts desire. It’s been a blast. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to some new friends we’ve met along the way (Cabo is the end of the official Baja Haha). But we’re still traveling with an entourage… Di’s Dream, Suebee, Eager Dreamer, and of course, Triumph will all be headed in the same direction so we plan to meet up at anchorages along the way.

I promise I’ll try and get better about this blog thing…

Miss you all!