Shark attack

La Mona, Bahia de los Angeles, BC, Mexico

After a few days parked just off of the village of Bahia de los Angeles, we have moved some 5 miles south to the SE corner of the bay, a beach known as La Mona. It is much quieter here, without the local pangas zooming back and forth past us at all hours of the day and night. A couple of mornings by the village, particularly on Sunday morning, we found ourselves surrounded by fishing boats, trolling and casting for bait before heading out to deeper water to catch bigger prey - a little disconcerting for Susanne who was sleeping in the cockpit and awoke to find a couple of local pangas filled with fishermen watching her from a few feet away.

The highlight of our stay by the village was a visit by some whale sharks. There were 3 of them slowly cruising around the boats at anchor, with some tourist boats following them and jumping in the water to swim with them. These fish are about 15 to 20 feet long and are mostly mouth. They just swim very slowly along at the surface of the water with their mouth wide open, to catch the tiny organisms that keep them fed. They are absolutely magnificent to see up close. After all of the local boats and tourists had left, one of the sharks came by our boat several times and actually collided with our dinghy (which was tied on behind and was swinging around with us as we were sailing around our anchor in a light wind at the time). I got some great pictures but was not able to post them as what internet connection we previously had, had now gone away.

Here in La Mona there is only one other boat currently at anchor, so we have the place pretty much to ourselves. Being at the end of the large bay, it would appear to be very exposed from the NW, but so far the only winds we have seen have been from the East and NE and we have not had any problem. The winds are very welcome here too as it is very hot and humid. We hit a high of 41C a couple of days ago, although it has been much cooler since - normally around 37 or 38 as a high, dropping to around 30 at night. Yesterday we took the dinghy to shore, along with our pump - it seems that the poor thing is losing some of its integrity in the sun, especially the high-pressure inflatable floor. I pumped it back up but it most likely will not last. Note: Most of the cruisers we have met down here refer to their dinghies as "deflatables"; I wonder why?

The marine life here at La Mona has been spectacular. We had a large pod of dolphins passing back and forth past our boat most of the day yesterday, hunting for food we assume. There are a couple of whale sharks that are cruising around, but have not gotten very close to us as yet. And there are quite a few rays of some kind that leap out of the water and do acrobatic tricks in the air - we have no idea why, but they do put on quite a show. At night the phosphorescence of the water is incredible - the fish darting all around and leaping out of the water make for a sort of fireworks display on the surface - we sat and watched this for a long time last night. All and all, this is our favorite anchorage in the BLA area so far.

{GMST}28|54|N|113|29.5|W|Playa La Mona, BC, Mexico|Playa La Mona, BC, Mexico{GEND}

Calm before the storm?

Bahia de los Angeles Village, BC, Mexico

We had a very nice peaceful night anchored here off of the village of BLA.  Listening to the experienced cruisers on the radio nets and in person, we hear that this can be a very tricky place to be at times.

This area of the Sea of Cortez is subject to violent, but short-lived squalls called Chabascos, usually accompanied by thunder, lightning, rain and strong winds.  These are summertime convection storms that can come up with very little warning; in some ways not so different from what we have seen in the prairies back in Alberta.  So far, we have only experienced the edge of one such blow, while we were safely tucked in at Puerto Don Juan - the winds there never exceeded 30 knots, but we heard that some nearby areas were hit by up to 50 and 60 knot winds.  One boat limped into the anchorage with broken back stays and shrouds and a mast that was being held up only by jury-rigged lines, so we do try and keep an eye on the sky at all times.  Not sure what we would do different though.

To make matters worse, here off the village of BLA they often experience another type of wind called an Elefante.  These are localized, strong, westerly winds that funnel through the valleys between the high mountains on the peninsula - basically what we would call a katabatic wind.  They are usually experienced when both the west and easy coast of the Baja peninsula are experiencing calm conditions, exactly like we have now.  Rumor has it that these winds can top 100 mph and last for several hours, but only occur in a few specific spots along this east coast, including where we are right now.  So far, we have not seen any sign of these winds either, but that is most likely what we caught the edge of during our overnight passage from San Francisquito about a week ago - they were westerly winds that fortunately never exceeded 25 knots where we were at the time.

Regardless of the risks, we have decided to stay put here for another day.  This morning we were off the Guillermo's for breakfast before some further exploration of the village - I think we have seen most of it now (it is not that large).

Here are a few pics from the last few weeks...

Sailing Close-hauled north of Santa Rosalia

Sunset on overnight passage

The usual dolphin escort

I would post more pictures but this Internet connection really sucks.   What you here see has taken me the best part of 2 hours to upload, and even using our little Toshiba netbook, this does take power we can ill afford right now.  Maybe tomorrow?

{GMST}28|57|N|113|33|W|Bahia de los Angeles Village, BC, Mexico|Bahia de los Angeles Village, BC, Mexico{GEND}
 

Blah blah BLA

Bahia de los Angeles Village, BC, Mexico

Today we made the big move all the way to Bahia de los Angeles Village (hereinafter referred to as BLA), a trip of more than 6 miles.  No wind to speak of so we made the trip in a little over an hour using the engine.  These days we do need to use the engine once in a while anyway, just to keep the batteries full - our solar power is just not quite adequate for our needs right now - a bit disappointing!

We were led to believe that there would be phone service here by the village (an thus our investment in our Internet stick would be of some use) but no such luck.  I did manage to find an Internet connection via my big wifi antenna which, while it is not the greatest, is better than no connection at all.  Now that we have the connection we are able to catch up to what is happening in the world.  Apparently as soon as we stopped watching, the entire economy of the USA has gone into the dumpster, dragging the US and Canadian stock markets down with it.  Maybe we were better off not knowing.  I guess we are a little bit poorer now, but being down here in the Sea of Cortez it somehow does not seem all that important.

As soon as we got our anchor down here in BLA, we took the dinghy to shore to grab lunch at Guillermo's restaurant, then headed off to the market to stock up on a few essentials - primarily fruits and veggies.  I made the strategic mistake of deciding we did not need the motor on the dinghy for the short haul to the beach.  What I failed to take into consideration was the effort involved in rowing back to the boat against the prevailing wind and waves - inflatable dinghies are notoriously bad as rowing dinghies.  Somehow we made it back OK - placing Susanne in the bow to block the water from coming into the boat and not letting me get wet was an inspired move.  Of course as soon as we got back the wind died and seas calmed down.

{GMST}28|57|N|113|33|W|Bahia de los Angeles Village, BC, Mexico|Bahia de los Angeles Village, BC, Mexico{GEND}

Time passes

Puerto Don Juan, BC, Mexico

Puerto Don Juan is one of the north Sea of Cortez's best natural hurricane holes, with protection from wind and waves from all directions. Of course this means that when there is no hurricane, this is just a very quiet, peaceful spot to watch time slowly pass - nothing too exciting ever happens here.

We have done some exploring - there is a hike from this bay to the next one over at Ensenada el Quemado. We chose an overcast day because otherwise the hot sun can be somewhat overwhelming. The only wildlife we saw were a lot of little crabs scurrying along the beach and a pack of four coyotes that like to come down to the shoreline at low tide, foraging for food. When we did this hike, we were the only boat in the bay, but by our third night here there were another 6 boats sharing the anchorage, so at least we have some company now.

The weather has been really quite nice. A little cooler here at night than it was down around Santa Rosalia, making it easier to sleep. When I say cool, it has dipped as low as 27C at times - the daytime highs are still hovering closer to 35. People tell us it is likely to get hotter over the next couple of months. At this point we are not sure we are really very prepared for that kind of heat, but only time will tell. Oh, and a real first for us since getting to Mexico - we had some real live actual rain around 6AM one morning - it lasted almost 5 minutes; quite a deluge by local standards. Just enough to get us scrambling to get all the portlights and hatches closed, then open them all again before we suffocated.

Today, we went clamming. This is a strenuous exercise, consisting of taking the dinghy ashore during low tide and just walking around in the sand with your bare feet, dislodging the huge quantity of clams that hide no more than an inch below the surface. 5 minutes will net you as many clams as you could possibly want. We had some steamed clams for lunch and Sue is working on some clam chowder for later. Note: This is the first time we have actually utilized the harvest from the sea. I have dragged a fishing line in the water a bit, but so far no takers.

To add some excitement to our lives we will most likely move the boat over to the Village of Bahia de los Angeles in the next couple of days - rumor has it that Friday is "veggie" day.

{GMST}28|56.5|N|113|27|W|Puerto Don Juan, BC, Mexico|Puerto Don Juan, BC, Mexico{GEND}

Fast passage

Puerto Don Juan, BC, Mexico

What a difference a couple of days can make.

Our two nights at San Francisquito were a rocky and rolly trial. The wind blew from a variety of directions, from East, SE, SW, West and even NW at times. There did not appear to be much swell but what there was kept us either rocking from end to end or rolling back and forth alternately as the boat sailed around as it is wont to do whenever the wind blows. Our anchorage was very secure but we found it hard to get much sleep due to the motion. We thought about trying to get into the smaller inner bay (Cala San Francisquito) which was more sheltered, but there were already several boats in there and it is a very small bay.

When we left San Francisquito, we were determined to find an anchorage with a better chance of calm seas, which really left only one alternative - Puerto Don Juan - about 46 miles further to the north-west. With this in mind, we left early, around 7:30AM, so we would have time to do some sailing.

 For whatever reason, we had virtually no wind (nothing over 5 knots) for the entire day, so we ended up just motoring the whole way, arriving in Puerto Don Juan around 2:30PM - a very fast passage for us.

Being only 7 miles from the village of Bahia de Los Angeles, we are now effectively as far north as we planned to go for this hurricane season. Now we just have to figure out what to do with ourselves for the next couple of months. Note: We were the only boat in the anchorage when we arrived and, so far, only one other boat has come in after us (coincidently, also from Nanaimo). We suspect that the bulk of the boats are currently just around the corner at La Mona, where they are going to have some sort of full moon party tomorrow - not sure it is our cup of tea though.

{GMST}28|56.5|N|113|27|W|Puerto Don Juan, BC, Mexico|Puerto Don Juan, BC, Mexico{GEND}

Surprise passage

Bahia San Francisquito, Baja California (BC), Mexico

The astute reader will have noticed that we are no longer in Baja California Sur. That's right! We are now in Baja California. For those who don't know, the Baja peninsula is divided into two states; the northern half is Baja California and the southern half is Baja California Sur. It is just this kind of information that could win you a round of Trivial Pursuit someday - so pay attention!

We left Santa Rosalia at 2:45 in the afternoon. Almost immediately we got our double-reefed main and full genoa launched. The weather forecast called for NE winds, changing to east, then SE overnight - should be perfect for our planned 77 mile passage to the NW.

Everything started well, with the 10 to 11 knot NE winds finding us close-hauled on a starboard tack, averaging over 4 knots, until about 5PM when the wind veered to the east and seemed to be dying.After bobbing around for about 15 minutes, the wind came up from the SE and we enjoyed a broad reach (downwind sail), still in about 10 to 11 knots of wind, now at a sedate 2.5 to 3.5 knot pace. Just before midnight, the winds shifted to the SW and we were forced to gybe to a port tack. To gybe this boat, we needed to furl in the headsail, and before we had a chance to let it out again, the winds freshened to 15 knots and we found ourselves moving along at better than 4 knots with only the double-reefed main.

 Over the next couple of hours the winds kept increasing and shifting till they were coming directly from the west. At this point we had to unfurl a scrap of the headsail to keep the boat pointed the way we wanted and soon found ourselves screaming along at better than 6 knots, close hauled, in 20 knots of wind and seas that were beginning to build. Needless to say, Susanne was seasick - the motion was really quite bad, and we were starting to get occasional splashes over the side of the cockpit.

With the ever building winds (around 24 knots), we elected to "heave to" around 3 AM. This is a maneuver that we have seldom used - the basic idea is to let the bow of the boat come through the wind, without allowing the headsail to tack. Then you turn back into the wind until the headsail and back-winded foresail are balanced and the boat makes no more forward motion. Once I achieved this, I locked the wheel in that position and we both went below to see if we could get some sleep. The boat's motion was much better and we were just drifting backwards on our course at less than 2 knots.

This lasted till about 5:30AM, when the boat tacked back over by itself (I probably did not have enough of the headsail unfurled) and I had to scramble to get it under control. I decided we may as well continue on our way (the winds were still around 18 to 20 knots) but then the autopilot started screaming at me "RFU NOT FOUND", and refused to engage. I was able to get the boat going in the right general direction, still close-hauled on a port tack, and locked the wheel to let it find its own way. This worked so well that I was able to spend some time tracking down the "RFU" problem. Turns out that this is the "Rudder Following Unit" which had a little mechanical problem, caused primarily by the fact that I had the wheel turned so forcefully during the heaving to. I was able to correct the problem and get the autopilot on track again, but continued without it while the boat was so happy to set its own course, until around 8:00AM when the wind shifted to the SW.

We then continued on a beam-reach, turning into a broad-reach as the winds continued to veer to the south. At 9:20AM, the winds died to less than 10 knots and I started the engine and furled in the genoa. We motorsailed the remainder of the way to our current location in Bahia San Francisquito, where we arrived around 1:30PM. A real highlight was encountering a large pod of dolphins around 11AM who kept us company for about 1/2 an hour, playing in our bow wave and showing off their athletic abilities with leaps out of the water.

All in all, an exciting passage, with a few surprises thrown in to keep us honest. We sailed for over 18 hours and only motored for about 5 - some kind of record for us.

{GMST}28|26|N|112|52|W|Bahia San Francisquito, BC, Mexico|Bahia San Francisquito, BC, Mexico{GEND}

Plan "B"

Santa Rosalia, BCS, Mexico

The Mexican navy is not going to budge, at least for a week, or two, or three - hard to say...
More information leads us to believe that there is no guarantee that the fuel dock will actually have fuel even if the navy ships were to leave.  Add to that the fact that the marine station charges a 20% surcharge for fuel over and above the regular price at the pumps and it becomes less and less inviting to wait to find out if we will ever be allowed to try it.

Which leads us to plan "B", or possibly plan "M" (for Manual labour).  Fortunately for us, there is a Pemex station just a block down the highway from the marina.  If you look very closely at the picture on the left, you will see the green-striped Pemex station peaking out from behind another building - not really very far at all.  And as a bonus, the marina has a spiffy cart that holds our two diesel jerry cans quite nicely, making it an easy haul to and from the station (We are so glad we bought a couple of used diesel jerry cans before we left Mazatlan).  Five trips to the gas station and back provided the 200 liters of diesel we needed to fill our tank and we are good to go.  Note:  Even with the help of the cart, this seems like really hard work when it is 36 degrees and 70% humidity outside in the sun.  BTW: the price of diesel here in the middle of nowhere is about 77 cents CDN a liter.

While I was hauling the diesel, I noticed that a diver was cleaning the bottom of several boats next to us in the marina, so I hired him to do ours tomorrow morning as well - things grow so quickly in the 30+ degree water here that it is hard to keep up.  Once that is done, we should be ready to leave at any time - maybe wait for the south winds, that have left us for the first time for a long time today, to return.  Probably by tomorrow afternoon.  We plan on a late departure as we intend to do an overnight passage to our next destination, about 77 miles further north - just a little too far for us to comfortably do all in daylight and we would rather arrive early in the day rather than at dusk in a new anchorage.

We have taken the opportunity of these extra couple of days to revisit our favorite pizza place, and of course, our favorite bacon-wrapped hotdog stand.  Cuisine just doesn't get any better than this!

{GMST}27|20.415|N|112|15.93|W|Santa Rosalia, BCS, Mexico|Santa Rosalia, BCS, Mexico{GEND}

Gas crisis

Santa Rosalia, BCS, Mexico

Mexico - you've got to love it!

The bus trip back down the peninsula was the usual adventure. We left San Diego on Greyhound around 11AM, bound for the Mexican border and the Tijuana bus depot.  All went smoothly.  They let us out just outside of the border and took our luggage off; then when I inquired about how we were to proceed through the border they told us to put our bag back on the bus and get back on ourselves - I guess they just sort of figure you should somehow know all this.  Then, at the border, we were stopped by the US Border Patrol who looked us all over carefully, complete with a large drug-sniffing dog that went up and down the isle and took a particular liking to me, before letting us go on to the Mexican customs and immigration.  There, one person on the bus was delegated to go push the "go, no-go" button for the whole bus - he got a green light.  So, since we did not have to actually have our baggage unloaded for inspection, all we had to do was pay one dollar apiece as a bribe to the baggage handlers to get them off the bus and the next thing you know we were in Mexico.  At no time did anyone want to see any documentation of any kind from anyone.

At the Tijuana bus terminal, we got seats on the 16:05 bus to Santa Rosalia.  The bus predictably left about a half hour late but made up for it by being a much nicer bus than we had on the way north.  We cruised down the highway for the first hour and a half to Ensenada in comfort.  In Ensenada however, things changed for the worse.

For reasons not made clear to us, after sitting in the small Ensenada bus station parking lot with the engine idling for about 15 minutes, the driver came back and turned the engine off and he, along with any other official looking persons, disappeared for about 2 hours, leaving us all sitting there wondering what was up.

Eventually the next bus on this route caught up to us, as they had left about 2 hours after us from Tijuana.  Again with no explanation of why, we had to get off the bus, find our luggage and board the later bus for the remainder of the journey.  Seating could have been a bit tricky as we had been on a pretty full bus to begin with and there were passenger already on the new bus, but fortunately the new bus had lots more seats, primarily because it did not have near as much leg room.  Thus we continued on overnight for another 15 hours of relative discomfort, trying to get some sleep on the, at times, non-existent road.  We arrived in Santa Rosalia around 10AM, a little shaken but generally in good health.

Santa Rosalia had not changed much in our absence - it was still as hot and muggy as we remembered - it was overcast when we arrived which actually made it a bit more bearable.  One noticeable difference was the smaller number of boats in the marinas and at anchor - it appears that more and more people are heading north, although there still does not seem to be any real rush.  There are no threatening hurricanes in the near forecast at this time.

Marina Santa Rosalia Office

We have decided it is time for us to move on as well.  So we have spent the last couple of days going to every tienda (small store), super-mercado (slightly larger store), fruteria (produce market), convenience store, and the government subsidized ISSSTE store,. to try and re-provision for the next couple of months.

Our plan was to leave tomorrow, Monday, but the navy has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works.  The harbour here is created by a couple of large breakwaters built from slag from the old copper mine.  The Pemex fuel station has been built on top of one of these breakwaters with a convenient stairway down to a short dock provided to tie up to when refueling.

Apparently there is some dispute over the ownership of the dock.  The navy feels that they own the breakwater and thus all structures attached thereto.  To prove their point, they have parked a couple of navy boats semi-permanently at the fuel dock, preventing anyone else from using it.  This presents somewhat of a problem for us as we need to refuel before we head any further north.  Talking to some of the other cruisers that have been here a while, they seem to think that the navy boats will leave tomorrow or shortly thereafter, as they have to do their regular patrols.  Meanwhile, we sit and wait and wonder when we will actually get out of here.  Welcome to Mexico!

{GMST}27|20.415|N|112|15.93|W|Santa Rosalia, BCS, Mexico|Santa Rosalia, BCS, Mexico{GEND}

Too much of a good thing?

San Diego, California, USA

Maybe we overdid it.

Yesterday we had a very full day, trying to make the most of our short stay in town.  We bought a couple of day passes for the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, a very well thought out system of buses and trolley cars that blanket the area - these are such a good deal that I am not sure why we did not use them more on our previous visits here ($5.00 for unlimited travel).

We visited some of the areas that we had missed on previous visits, notably Old Town (area of restored buildings with restaurants and shops) and the Gaslamp Quarter just a few blocks from our hotel (probably the most dense concentration of restaurants and clubs that we have ever seen).  We indulged a bit with some fine dining and even took in a big league baseball game at Petco park - San Diego Padres (dead last in the conference standings) vs the Los Angeles Dodgers (next to last in the conference standings).  Along with about 22,000 other fans, we watched San Diego lose yet another game.  The crowd was nonetheless very supportive.

In addition we managed to make our way to the Shelter Island area where we got a few boat related items from the Downwind Marine and West Marine stores, and I finally got a much needed haircut.

This morning we were scheduled to leave for the long arduous journey back to Santa Rosalia but Susanne is not well - just a bit of over-indulgence perhaps.  So we have booked another night in hopes that she will get over this - I can't imagine a 16 hour bus trip when you are not feeling your best.  We have to change hotels as this one seems to have gotten a bit greedy and wants to charge us a huge premium for another night.  With any luck we will be on our way tomorrow.

{GMST}32|43|N|117|10|W|San Diego, California|San Diego, California{GEND}