Crossing back

Well, we had a weather window for crossing back to the mainland.  It was just as we started looking,and the next looked a week out.  So we left Ballandra, near Loretto at noon.  It's a 120kn trip due north to San Carlos so we planned to be in mid morning.  We had good  SSE winds off and on throughout the day and night so we made really good time and had to slow up a bit off of San Carlos to wait for daylight.  Checking the tides it looked good to get in the entrance so we pulled into the fuel dock and waited for Isabel to open the Harbor Office.  She had a slip for us and was able to move up our haul out date a bi, awesome.  We are wrapping up the trip a little early, but when the weather cooperates for a nice crossing we take advantage.  Crossings can be really uncomfortable if he weather is not watched carefully.  All's good and we will be working to put the boat away and head back north to Montana.  

Being Connected

Well, this is a first.  I'm underway from Escondido to Ballandra this morning.  What is new is that I'm sitting in the cockpit and connected to the internet.  Internet access on the Baja side of the Sea of Cortez is, well, sparse.  We have a Wilson cell booster, and have our Telcel USB modem plugged into a TPLink wireless hotspot to provide access.  We need to be somewhat line of sight to a tower though we can be up to 30mi offshore.  Next year we will look into one of the new Irriduim Go devices that provide data anywhere anytime.  The prices are becoming reasonable and both Susan and I have needs t get online regularly.  The addition of vastly improved access to weather info and another method to send emergency communications makes this easy to justify.  Now, if I could only see my screen a little better with all the sunshine.....

School's in

Cooper and Susan's classroom while in La Paz.  Pretty rough.  This is the Puerto Bello restaurant at the marina in Puerto Escondido.  Wiz is anchored in the distance just above the bill of Susan's hat.  This is really the only stop with any services between San Carlos and La Paz.  It's a good place to catch up on any internet needs, bills, work, blogs.  We also report in with the parents that all is well.  There are laundry machines and a small store for fresh bread and milk, gas and diesel, and of course a nice meal off the boat.  When we leave here we will have a bit over a week to move a bit further north and hopefully catch a nice weather window for the 100mi crossing to the mainland.

Cooper has finally discovered that he has the power to make school easy or a real pain and has been making the smarter choice reliably.  It took a fair amount of explaining and Susan has been very dedicated and patient with the process. The process has involved large doses of carrots and sticks, but they have it worked out at this point.  It's been rewarding watching the changes from the start of the trip until now.  Cooper has become much more helpful and is getting into the habit of asking what he can do to help when he sees the opportunity.       

Sailing

We had a great sail from Agua Verde to Escondido.  We did 7+kn for a couple of hours hard on the wind nearly burying the rail.  It felt really good to get Wiz in the groove and let it rip a little.  Pepper the cat was the only one not so keen on the conditions.  Here is a shot from the bow. 

Puke and Rally.

We sailed from Evaristo to Aqua-Verde.  There was a lot of residual swell from the previous blow so we bypassed one of our favorite anchorages Los Gatos.  It looked like it would be very rolly with the swell size and direction.  Plus we knew we had only a day or two before more northerlies were predicted and we wanted to be in Escondido during the blow.  As it was, Coop blew chunks in the cockpit.  We learned that Coop was what another cruiser called a “Puke and Rally” kind of sailor as he was just fine afterwards.  When we arrived Cooper and Susan had a good hike ashore and saw the goat herd.  I met them on the beach after comparing weather notes with another boat.  We found a sea turtle shell and a great stick that Cooper used as a spear. 

Cooper is becoming a master beachcomber and explorer  A lot of the finds including an entire hermit crab colony in a plastic drawer find their way aboard WIZ, at least temporarily.  

Working our way north between weather.

After swimming with the sea lions we sailed up to San Evaristo.  Just after we passed Isla San Francisco the wind shifted, straight on the nose about 20kn.  The sea’s quickly built to the short period, steep form the Sea of Cortez is famous for.  Soon we were burying the bow every 20^th wave or so.  It got a little wet and uncomfortable.  We were only making about 4.5kn good to our destination and it took us a couple of hours.  We tucked up under the point in Evaristo for the night.  The next day I spent repairing the leaking forward hatch for the 4^th time.  The polyurethane (Dow 4200) seems to stick to the aluminum and the polysulfide (Sikaflex 295UV) seems to stick well to the polycarbonate.  The window popped loose from the 4200 bedding so I trimmed it back with a razorblade to allow me to re-bed with the polysulfide between the polycarbonate and the polyurethane layer I left on the aluminum.  What a pain.  If this fails I’ll add some mechanical fastening.  

Swimming with sea lions

After a night in Caleta Partida we woke early to light south winds.  There was still a fair swell running from the Corumel wind overnight.  We motored up to Los Islotes which is a rock formation a mile off the north end of Isla Partida.  Los Islotes is a famous sea lion rookery.  We were able to anchor in 110’ just off the rocks on the lee side.  We all got our snorkel gear on a jumped in.  Susan brought her underwater camera.  Swimming with the sea lions is magical.  They are so playful, especially the juveniles.  They really seem as interested in you as you are in them.  They make a lot of eye contact as they swoop and dart around you.  At times they swim right up to you and float inverted about a foot away and check you out.  They also like to sneak up behind you and sometimes nip at your fins.  As I was not wearing fins that made me a bit concerned for my toes!

This is the place to swim with sea lions.  Wiz is anchored right behind us in 110 feet of water.  It's quite calm  here on the lee side.

Smiling Fish with the neon blue lips. Straight out of Finding Nemo

Getting checked out by an inquisitive juvenile. These guys are really playfull. The big bulls cruising around are a little more on the intimidating side. By far they were most interested in Cooper. He is probably one of the smallest humans they have seen here.

Cooper and his buddy.

"Come back and play soon"

Pictures

Coop and Alex playing chess at Club Cruseros

Coop's not falling over.  Wiz is healed over and going about 7kn.  In the cabin Cooper has to stand at this angle to be straight up.  We are also bouncing around a bit so it took a couple tries to get this picture.

Hermit Crab Races

(Agua Verde) Cooper's crab won every single heat.

Sunset Bahia La Paz

We spent over a week anchored in the bay.

View from the top of the mast

I pulled Susan up to the top of the mast to retrieve the main halyard that I skyed while working on the new backstay. Bad Captain!  I had spent about an hour and a half up there the day before.  The mast is 65 feet tall and the boat is 44 feet in length for scale.  We waited for a calm morning as any movement in the boat from wave action is greatly magnified at the end of a 65' stick!

La Paz

We have been in La Paz for bout 5 day now and they have been very busy with Boat Projects and friends both newly made and from past years.  I'm sitting here having taco's so I'll have to come back and post the pictures in a later post.

One of the boat projects was setting up a hotspot on WIZ that utilized a Banda Ancha USB stick.  We used a TP-Link 3G router for this and I wired it all right into the main panel.  All we do now is flip the switch and we can all share network and internet.  We also have a Wilson cell booster and antenna mounted on the radar pole that effectively quadruples our cellular range.

I have also knocked a fair number of projects off my list by working each morning before it gets too hot.  Mounted mini turning blocks and cleats to the mas to upgrade the lazy-jacks.  (super smooth now).  The generator shredded an impeller and the temp alarm sounded.  Luckily I had the spare for this and it was pretty easy to rectify.

The large project was replacing our backstay.  It was 3/8 SS with an insulated section for the HF radio.  It was pretty old and i was getting uncomfortable with the state of the plastic in the insulators.  I brought down a 75' piece of 11mm Dynex Dux.  Which is like Amsteel, but has been stretched under heat.  I spliced in Colligio thimbles, strung a 14gauge tinned and insulated wire alongside and covered the entire length with heat shrink.  The tricks were getting the splice at exactly the correct length accounting for the slice "setting" under load.  I was very happy with the antenna this morning listening to the sonrisa net.  It's only one day but it seemed to work better than the replaced backstay.   This whole setup cost less than having a rigger replace the 3/8SS and insulators.  It's also got no conectors and is much easier to inspect for damage.  The 11mm synthetic wire is about 4 times stronger than the 3/8 SS wire and has similar stretch.  I'm quite happy with this, we will see how it holds up.  I'll be adding another length and fittings to replace my spare emergency stay kit.

Escondido to La Paz

We left La Paz intending to spend 4 or 5 days getting to La Paz.  The first day we sailed about 45 miles from Escondido to Agua Verde.  This is a beautiful anchorage and we were able to anchor off the south bay as the wind was light Southerly.  There was a large group of kayakers on the beach.  They were on a month long trip from Escondido to La Paz.  I talked with the guide for a while and he said the group were relatively inexperienced and were only making 8 miles a day but were planning to pick it up a bit.  They practiced capsize recovery for a while before retreating under some shade for te afternoon.  I did a fairly long kayak exploration and Susan did some snorkling just before sundown.  We also had a school,pod, whatever of Mobua Rays feeding right by the boat for about an hour.


In the morning we got an early start and the winds were fair so we decided to go all the way to Isla San Francisco.  We saw a fair amount of sea life, many dolphins, a couple of whales and several jumping manta rays.  There were about 14 boats anchored there and Cooper and I went ashore for a while beachcombing and having a water fight.  La Paz, started to call to us and the next day we pushed on to La Paz.

3/17/14 - Puerto Escondido

We pay very close attention to the weather. Knowing that some northerly winds (30knots) were predicted for Saturday and Sunday, we got up early on Saturday and headed into the inner harbor in Escondido on the high tide.  By Saturday evening the wind had built to 20kn or so and continued to build through the night.  It was a bit hard to sleep.  Sunday morning it was more like 35 knots.  By late morning we were up to 40kn or so and boats were startig to have some issues with dragging or swinging close to others.  We were well anchored and had 175ft out in 40ft of water.  Around noon we were getting gusts up to 55kn.  This is enough wind to flat bow the tops of waves into a mist called spindrift.  The boat next to us drug and had to re-anchor.  In the process their dinghy flipped upside down and they were unable to get it flipped over.  With the wind, waves, and dragging an upside down dinghy, they decided to cut it loose at the upwind end of the bay.  They alerted everyone by VHF.  I was just finishing deploying a second anchor to dampen our swing and saw the dinghy floating by.  I hopped into our dingy and was able to snare the loose dingy and eventually get it flipped and towed back to our boat.  There were a couple boats that drug into the mangroves and one that went up on the rocks.  By Sunday evening the wind had subsided.  Everyone was safe but there was a fair amount of incidents reported on the morning net.  We will be heading down to La Paz from here and with a few stops plan to be there in 5 days or so.  That will likely be our next access to internet.

2/11/14 – Ballandra Bay.

After a single night in Jaunico we sailed about 24nm to Ballandra bay on the northwest end of Isla Carmen.  On the way we passed through a large pod of dolphins.  A group of tem stayed with us for a while and Cooper really enjoyed watching them from the bow of the boat.  A bit later Cooper shouted “Whale” Susan and I rushed to see and sure enough there was a large humpback whale about 150ft away on a converging course with WIZ.  I slowed Wiz to allow the whale to pass ahead but ended up having to veer away hard to starboard when the whale got within about 30ft.  Way to close for me!  About 2:00 we pulled into Ballandra and felt our way around the bay looking for a good spot to anchor.  There is a canyon that runs through the center of the bay and you need to anchor up on the shelf nearer to shore than I typically like.  Once settled we took the kayak in and explored a bit.  The next day Gypsy Wind arrived and we did some more exploring and working on the boat.  The deck is finally really clean from the long storage.    

2/10/14 – San Juanico

We sailed from Bahia Conception to San Juanico today.  At the point we saw a bunch of mobula rays jumping out of the water and landing flat on the surface making  a slapping noise.  At times there were so many it sounded like popcorn popping.  The rays were a foot and a half to two feet across.  

Serious adventure vehicle

We met this German couple with one of the most serious off-road adventure vehicles.  They have been all over South America for the past 7 years in this rig. 

2/7/14 – A little relaxing.

After school today Susan and Cooper went ashore with the crew of Gypsy Wind and I worked on getting the watermaker running so that we would have better drinking water than the San Carlos dock water in our tanks.  There were a couple of leaks so I had to remove some parts and re-assemble until the leaks were all addressed.  Success, the watermaker is working.  My boat maintenance list is getting pretty small so I spend much of the day reading the latest Reacher book by Lee Child.  In the afternoon Susan and the crew from Gypsy Wind hitched to Mulege.  Susan wanted to get some milk and more importantly get some internet connection and send an all is well after the crossing message to mom and dad.  While she was gone I saw a small sailboat very close to shore nearby.  I couldn’t tell with binoculars whether they were on the rocks or not so I hopped in the dingy to investigate.  When I got there the guy from a small trawler “Lilianna” anchored nearby was trying to pull the two guys in the 20 foot sailboat off the rocks.  Turns out that he had already busted the shear pin on his outboard.  He cleared away and I had the guys throw me a line.  I rigged a quick bridal and lined up to give a pull. Nothing. Had to have one of the guys jump ashore and give a push.  Once free, I towed them to their mooring.  One job and one rescue – that’s a good day, back to my book for a bit before reading with Cooper and helping him build a robot kit.  

needlefish from previous post (glad it didn't stab anyone)

2/6/14 – First day at anchor away from San Carlos.

Cooper woke up wanting to go to the beach. I told him as soon as he finished his school-work.  While Cooper and Susan did school I blew up the inflatable kayak and had a nice paddle around some of the islands here.  The water is clear and 68, so just warm enough for a quick swim.  It’s around 85 during the day, and the sun is pretty intense as we still are working on tanning up. As soon as Cooper finished school he wanted to go to the beach.  I pointed to the kayak and told him to get his lifejacket.  Without hesitation he donned it and climbed down into the kayak and asked for the paddle.  I gave it to him, untied the painter and he just took off for the beach alone and full of confidence.  Grandma and Grandpa would be so proud of the kayak skills they have taught Cooper.  We watched from Wiz while Cooper landed the kayak between some rocks and pulled it well up on shore.  When we looked a little later Cooper had climbed up the rocks and into a cave on the hillside.  We knew he hadn’t taken any sandals so we ran some in with the dingy and played on the beach for a while.  We had some hermit crab races and Cooper’s crab was the undisputed champ.

Later we took the dingy exploring and found Gypsy Wind in el-burrough cove.  They had seen a whale shark around their boat that morning and we were green with envy.  That afternoon they moved over next to us and we had beers at their boat on the way in to the beach for diner.  We were planningto leave before dark but that didn’t happen and it was full dark before we loaded into the dingys to go ashore.  On the way in shining flashlights ahead of the boats showed many fish jumping.  This was pretty cool until one of them jumped into our boat and (some of us) freaked out a little… It turned out to be a 8 inch long needlefish.  Looked like it could have actually given someone a fair poke.  Dinner was ok but the company was exceptional.  It was fun to catch up on what we both knew of all of our mutual cruising friends.  What a great “first-day” of our cruise!

Crossing the Sea of Cortez

2/6/14  We woke at 2:30am and got ready to leave.  There was no moon and it was full dark so I fired up the radar.  On the way out the entrance there were a couple of pangas that I was picking up on the radar.  No way to see these guys as they run with no lights whatsoever.  We slowed and one of them started yelling Spanish.  Sure enough, with a strong light we found their milk jug floats holding up their nets running across the entrance just ahead.  A couple 360’s while they pulled them in enough for us to pass and we were on our way.  We kept close watch for more pangas until well offshore.  By mid-morning there was enough wind to sail and we made 5-6 knots for several hours.  By mid afternoon we needed to put some speed on to arrive in Bahia Conception before dark so we fired up the iron genoa and arrived just before 6pm.  About as easy a crossing as I have ever done.  The only sea life we saw was a large pod of dolphins a ways off and I saw 4-5 surface in our bow wake for about three breaths and they were gone.  We anchored, squared away the boat, had diner and pretty much crashed.  Cooper was insistent on going to the beach but we put him off till the next day.

03/05/14:  Cooper and Susan caught up with "Gypsy Wind" and "Otter", another boat with another boy aboard. The boys are coming over to play today. Looks like we are going to cross to the Baja tomorrow with Gypsy Wind.  It Should be   calm crossing.   Just doing the last few items to get ready.   It's 87nm across to Bahia Conception. I budget 6kn/hour so I figure 15hrs.   We are faster under Sail and slower under power.   As there is no moon I'd prefer to arrive in daylight so we will likely leave around 2am.  There are about 30 sailboats anchored or moored in the bay with us.  At least three are from Montana, one right next to us from Frenchtown and another from Libby.   I guess the word is out, or it's just a good place to be "from" this time of year.

03/04/14: ALL Right  . We left the marina today after settling up at the marina and a quick stop at the fuel dock   One glitch was the port was officially closed so we where not able to get our paperwork to clear the port .   With today's daytime high tide last for several days we wanted to get out the channel.    It was blowing a bit and there was some rocking to rolling on the short sail over to the San Carlos bay.   The cat was NOT happy initially, but seemed to settle in after an hour.   We dropped the hook in time for lunch and Susan barbequed up a couple of giant T-bones to celebrate being out on the water.   After lunch Susan and Cooper went to the marina to find Gypsy Wind, a boat that we found on a mutual friend's blog.   They are on the same schedule as we are and have a are Cooper's age.   While they were off the boat I tore it up and finished wiring the new solar panel and charge controller.   It's nice to put amps in the batteries during the day and Should cut down the need to run the generator at anchor. 

Cooper driving the dinghy

02/03/14 For the past three days info we have been getting things ready to leave the marina.  No big surprises as far as getting things going.   The main engine is working, the diesel generator, fridge, head, bilge pump, tanks are not leaking, etc. We did have some trouble with the pressure pump for fresh water.   I took it apart and the seals Were starting to go so I replaced it With the spare and will need to get a rebuild kit.   Susan and Cooper Have Been keeping really busy also.   School, provisioning, passing me tools, beachcoming  etc ...

Pretty sure this is an Alien skeleton (the movie)

2/27/14 (my birthday) we put Wiz back in the water!  All the water stayed on the outside where it belongs.   After a bit of coaxing the diesel started, whew.   We moved from the ramp to a slip on the far side of the marina.   Settled Once we started the process of re-rigging.  This is a 3-day process for us getting mixed in with getting all the systems on-line. 

Wiz on the launch trailer

Two days on the hard.  Wiz was a god-awful mess topsides with a solid coating of bird guano caked on the deck.   Remains of many sea animals from the ospreys and other birds is camping on the spreaders.

  We spent half a day scrubbing it off (mostly).   Below-decks everything looked good. A Few dead crickets and some dust but otherwise perfect.   I spent the rest of the two days disassembling all the seacocks and re-greasing them, polishing up the prop, putting on new zincs, popping off the last remaining barnacles, and giving the hull a once over with the buffer.   At the end of each day we went back to the hotel and crashed, too tired to even go out for tacos.

Buen Viaje

"Have a Good Trip".  Must have read that on about 96 signs on the drive from Phoenix to San Carlos today.  We left Phoenix at 5:00am to beat traffic.  Reached the border in Nogales around 8:30.  Crossing into Mexico is kind of interesting. At the actual border you weave through some jersey barriers and some booths, none of which were manned this morning.  Then you drive 21km into Mexico through a couple of towns and pull in at the immigration stop.  Here you present your passport and fill out a form just like if you fly in.  Once you have the forms filled out you walk over to the bank to pay the immigration fee (about $70) for the three of us.  Then back to the first stop and exchange the bank paperwork for new forms and passport stamps.  All said, this is easier than it used to be as there is no longer any paperwork required for the car within the area we are driving.  I had to forge a car registration one year.  The roads are generally quite good although I'd say the shoulders are sure and sudden death. We had a easy trip.  We arrived in San Carlos at 2:30 and had lunch at JJ's street taco stand (our favorite).  Then we went to the boatyard to check on WIZ.  Had a little concern when our 15hp outboard was not on the pushpit.... No problemo, Miguel, the yard foreman had removed it for safe keeping when they pulled Wiz two years ago.  At the time, we HAD to go, and their large tractor used to to pull the trailer up the ramp was broken, so we had left WIZ in the water for them to pull when manyana finally came for the tractor.  They have taken very good care of us.

Wiz was horribly dirty on the outside.  Imagine many birds dining on sea creatures while perched on the spreaders and boom for nearly two years.  All kinds of animal remains and bird doo.  Inside was another story.  Things looked good.  There was a little evidence of a leak at the forward hatch.  I switched the main disconnect on the house batteries and they still had 12.3V after sitting for 20 months.  These Lifeline batteries are about 13 years old and have been outstanding.  I'm adding a 100w solar panel this year - more on that later.    

Sunny Arizona

Woke up at 4:30 am yesterday, wind and snow blowing everywhere.  Checked my flight, on-time.  Finished shutting down the house. It stopped snowing shortly after 5.  Bob showed up right at 6 to take me to the airport.  Thanks Bob, I owe ya big (again).  My flight got out on time and arrived in Az at 12:30.  Susan picked me up and we met our good friends Tosha and Matt for lunch downtown.  It's sunny and 80 degrees here, which is quite a change from home in Polson, MT.  We have 2 days here visiting my parents and doing some last errands like going to home deport for solar panel mounting hardware, and getting some of the thinks that we have learned are really tough to get in Mexico. Good paper towels, peanut butter, good cheese, etc..

Monday morning we'll leave early for San Carlos which is an 8 hour drive if the boarder crossing is smooth.

Darrell 2/22

Reviving this blog from our first year cruising Mexico (2006-2007).

We have been spending a few months each winter since cruising Wiz.  We typically range from San Carlos (midway up the Sea of Cortez on the mainland)  south to Manzanillo.  We skipped last winter as I started a new job as an Engineer at Black Mountain Software.  I have been very fortunate that they are allowing my to have time of to cruise for two months again this winter.  Susan and Cooper are also very excited to be returning to Wiz.  This is the first year that Cooper, now 8, really remembers being on the boat.  Susan and I are thrilled that he is so enthusiastic about going to Mexico.  He remembers hunting little sea creatures in tide pools for a Tupperware aquarium, playing in the surf, exploring in the dingy and carne asada street tacos.

Susan and Cooper are taking off tomorrow morning to spend a few days with Grandma and Grandpa in
Az.  I'll follow by plane on Friday.  We'll be driving to Mexico on the 24th and Wiz will be put back in the water on the 27th.

We'll work on keeping this blog and Coopers Blog at wherescoop.com updated with our adventures.