Once the family had cleared out we were left to figure out where to go next. We had already decided that Barra would be our furthest point south and so it was time to make plans to return north to La Cruz. The weather, however, had other ideas. For several days in a row the winds blew hard from the north, leaving us all but stranded aboard – the wind would tear through the lagoon every afternoon kicking up a pretty good chop and making the rather long dinghy trip to town quite undesirable.
Our second afternoon of hanging out at the boat we were down below when we were hailed on the radio – a boat was letting us know that we should really head up on deck because another boat was dragging past us. I popped up on deck to see our neighbors flying past us – going impressively fast, I might add. She was frantically trying to get all of the screening off the dodger and he was trying to get the wheel back on (having taken it off to store on the side deck to allow for greater room in the cockpit). They had, by now, missed all of the boats in their path but were quickly heading for very shallow water!!! Finally they were able to get the boat put back together and fired up and got their anchor reset – crises averted!!!
The next day someone felt the need to post an article about different anchors (of course arguing that only a rocna anchor would have held up in those conditions) along with commentary to remind people that boats dragging in the lagoon is a regular event. Owen was actually reading the article when I suddenly felt an odd blurp in the motion of the boat – I popped up on deck to realize we were now moving behind the boat that had dragged the day prior – even though we had been quite ahead of them only a short while before… we were dragging!!!! I quickly fired up the engine and started moving her forward while Owen grabbed the anchoring fob and got up on deck – the event was thankfully very un-dramatic and we were very shortly reset – it seems no one had even noticed we were going for a walk-about!! Because the lagoon does not really flush out very well, the bottom is very soft silt and in the big winds and chop the anchor just pulled out – as mentioned by another boater this is a common theme in the anchor – that and going aground on the sand bar. Someone described it as her two favorite things – mud-wrestling and drag racing! We later had a conversation with the other boat that had dragged – they had been there for 2 weeks without moving – it was just dumb luck. It was a bit of a confidence shaker though – in the 12 years Owen and I have boated together, we have only dragged once and that was while we were stern tied at Jedediah, on a rocky bottom, after a wicked storm. It was also a bit unnerving to realize how many days we had been away from the boat during those big winds – what if she had dragged then!!
We had decided to hang out in Barra until after my Mom’s service – I wasn’t able to go home but my sister was going to live feed it for me and for all of our family back east. The internet was reliable in Barra and we didn’t want to end up somewhere that it was not reliable.
We spent an afternoon exploring at Colimilla – a fishing village inside the lagoon (which, like home, is built on a hill – it is uphill to go everywhere!!) and enjoyed a wonderful meal (and very inexpensive Pina Coladas) at a restaurant aptly named The View.
We were finally beginning to make plans to head out and realized that we were quickly running out of cash. There is not a bank or bank machine in Barra so we needed to make a trip into Melaque to hit the bank. We opted to take the bus and were pleasantly surprised to run into Tommy Transit – fellow BC boaters will recognize Tommy as the driver of the Hummingbird Pub Bus on Galiano Island – taking that bus is always a musical and entertaining experience. He was tickled to have been recognized out of context! We took advantage of being in town to do a final grocery shop and then took a cab back to Barra – we were now ready to head out.
Our first stop on heading north was Tenacatita – I had been itching to get back to that paradise!!! Lucky for us, Tera and Gentry (Freia) had been planning to head south from there to Barra but opted to hang around with us for a couple of days. We enjoyed dinner (and several bottles of wine!) aboard Solstice Tide the first evening and then took our dinghies to do the Lagoon trip up to a Raicilla tour. The lagoon trip was so cool – trying to meander our dinghy through ever narrowing mangrove trails – fully tunnels at the middle – trying not to impale us on the stumps that stuck out everywhere!!! We finally ended up in an opening in the lagoon and were picked up from there by Pancho and ferried in the back of a truck outfitted with seats on each side and a canopy top. The tour consisted mainly of videos explaining the process of mezcal production (and how it differs from tequila) and explaining that the various names for Mezcal were regional – we were in an area where it was called Raicilla but if you get it in Chihauha it will be called Sotil. We were dropped back at the beach where we enjoyed a wonderful lunch and great pina coladas with our toes in the sand before making the return trip through the mangroves – for some reason we seemed to do even worse at controlling the boat on the way back, crashing into the mangroves at least 3 times!!! Luckily there was no damage to the dinghy!
The second morning we were in Tenacatita we were just waking up when I heard a “whoosh” and then another. I popped up on deck and found two humpback whales just off our bow – they were so close. Of course, I didn’t have my camera and missed taking a picture. A few minutes later I was sitting out enjoying the peaceful morning when I heard the whoosh again and watched the whales surface right beside our neighbors’ boat – this time I got a picture! Unfortunately, our neighbor left before I had the chance to head over to get their email address but managed to track them down though social media and were able to send the pic their way.
We spent a couple more days in Tenacatita enjoying the 28 degree water, and then decided to do a run directly to La Cruz – it seemed like a good idea at the time. It ended up being alternately windless and then too much wind. At one point we were seeing 20+ knots and really big seas – we had already passed Chamela so, barring going backwards (which I HATE to do), we had no choice but to tough it out for a few hours. Everything finally calmed down (and then of course died out completely) in the middle of the night – we fired up the engine and motored to the corner of Banderas Bay where we were finally able to sail (though slowly!) across the bay, dropping the hook in La Cruz about 7:30 pm.
La Cruz represented a good spot to get everything stocked up and ready to go further North. We did a grocery run into the La Comer and spent days ferrying jerry cans of water back and forth from the marina store to the boat (we need a watermaker!). The wind would kick up every afternoon making the transit across the bay to our boat long and wet – even after we moved in a bit it was still a long slog. We did manage a beach party the first Saturday that we were there (a send off for the boats heading off to cross the Pacific) complete with a bring your own meat barbq, pot-luck sides, big bonfire and good visits with other boaters. We also made a trip to the weekly market (we really need to stay away from the bakery booths!) and enjoyed the outdoor movie night (Belfast – such a good movie!).
Finally, after a little over a week there, we checked out with the port captain, spent a final day ferrying water and then finally headed out again – next major stop: Mazatlan.
We flew back into La Cruz on the evening of Wednesday, the 15th of February and Owen’s brother, Harvey, and his girlfriend, Linda, were due to arrive the evening of Saturday, February 18th. To say that we had a lot to do to get ready for their arrival would be an understatement!!!
We had tried to get things started before we left to go home but between planning our trip back and tempting Sunday markets, we had not gotten far!!
We had decided that our first task should be a good restock of the boat stores – the last time we had access to a Costco was in Ensenada and I was desperate to stock up some coffee, soda water, canned chicken and other items that could not be obtained elsewhere. I knew it would also be a good opportunity to grab some good, thick bacon (bacon here is paper thin!) and to stock up the freezer. My Aunt had flown into Puerta Vallarta the same day we returned and she was eager for us to come for a visit. We arranged to meet up for a quick lunch and then to do Costco after. We were lucky to be able to order an Uber from La Cruz (not always available – it just depends on whether a driver is in the area or not) and had them deliver us to the building that my Aunt was staying at. After having gone over ten years not seeing each other, it was pretty cool to be able to meet up again so soon after seeing her in Chemainus! After a quick trip to see their unit, we wandered to go for lunch at a nearby “food court” – unfortunately that was not yet open so we settled on a sport bar across the street and enjoyed a long, leisurely lunch. My Aunt and her partner had had a sailboat on Lake Ontario, and Francesca has long had a love affair with Mexico so there was no shortage of things to talk about!! We finally pulled ourselves away and walked over to Costco to begin the restock. After a frightfully expensive trip, we ordered another Uber and had possibly the most terrifying drive of our life back to La Cruz – I was sure happy to get out of that car!!! As is usually the case after a Costco trip, it was probably a couple of hours before everything was separated, wrapped and into the freezer, with everything else stowed away.
The first task on Friday was to take literally everything out of the v-berth (which truly acts as our garage normally) and to wash everything down to be sure it was fresh and clean when our guests arrived. While we had the mattresses out we stored a few more things in the abyss (the storage beneath the v-berth) and Owen installed a cell phone charger, 12 volt fan and connected the reading light that had been installed, but not connected, for years!!!
We managed to stash a few more things under our bed, our sailing gear bags were stored outside for the next couple of weeks and we were finally left with just a few things that would need to be shuffled out of the v-berth every night.
Saturday, we got our laundry back, the bed made up and everything that we could was tucked and tidied in anticipation of our company arriving!
Harvey and Linda arrived on a 5pm flight on Saturday and grabbed an Uber to La Cruz. We barely gave them a chance to catch their breath when they arrived, dumping their stuff on board and whisking them off to Blanca Ballena for Pina Coladas and dinner. During dinner, we had a chance to discuss our upcoming itinerary – it was only at that point that we realized Linda had never been sailing! You sure have to respect someone who is ready to jump on board a boat to travel 200 miles over the course of nearly a week having never sailed before!! We sure had to hope we didn’t ruin her for sailing!
We had originally intended that we would likely leave the dock on Sunday but as that was market day we decided to stay put through to Monday. That let everyone explore the market, and let me stock up on fresh bread, fruit and veggies. We were now truly bursting at the seams and ready to go!!!
We got away a little after noon on Monday, after Owen, Linda and Harvey made a trip to the Port Captain to check us out and to add them to our crew list. Our first destination was Yelapa, an afternoon’s sail across Banderas Bay. We arrived just at dinner time and were guided to a mooring ball. It didn’t take to long to figure out that this was not going to be a really comfortable night – Yelapa is exposed to the swell coming in from Banderas Bay and as soon as the afternoon wind stopped, we turned sideways into the swell and were rocking from side to side. Linda was feeling the motion pretty quickly but stayed on deck and seemed to manage to keep her spirits up. I was below trying to make dinner, alternately trying to hold the plates in place and fighting my own queezyness!!! When my freshly made Chimi-churri dumped into the sink, spilling all the contents all over the dishes, I nearly cried!!! We managed to eat dinner without any other mishaps and everyone headed to bed early, mostly in hopes that the rocking would lull us to sleep rather than driving us crazy!!! We had actually intended to leave the next day but we really, really wanted to visit Yelapa so instead crossed our fingers that night two wouldn’t be so bad and called for the water taxi to take us to shore. Yelapa is very isolated – in our original reading we had understood that there was no road in and everything arrived by water. In fact there is a very crude road into the community, but old habits die hard and pretty much everyone and everything still arrives by water. In the old days, the supplies, food and even people who were arriving would be transported up the rather steep streets of town on donkeys – unfortunately the mighty ATV has now mostly replaced the donkeys but it was pretty easy to picture them when we were wandering in and around the narrow, winding, cobblestone streets!!! We enjoyed breakfast on the beach, watching a steady stream of tour boats arrive, barely finish a drink and be rounded up again for the next part of their tour. We were sure happy to be doing this at our own pace!!! We followed the hoards of people up the hill to the waterfall behind town. When we arrived there was a huge tour group – all doing quasi-photo shoots in the pool underneath the waterfall (that tour guide missed his calling!) and we reluctantly joined the throngs. But then, we heard the “boat 5 let’s go” and just like that we were the only people there!!! We explored a bit more of the town and then headed back to the beach for a round of Pina Coladas and then got the water taxi back to the boat for the night. Night two was quite a bit more settled and pleasant, thankfully!!!
Yalapa Harbour
We were up before the sun the next day, intending to make Ipala before dark. We had a lovely slow sail out of the bay and made it around Cabo Corrientes with no drama (though a little rolling!). Linda even took the wheel at one point! We arrived in Ipala and anchored beside the only other boat in the small bay. Our intention was actually to only stay for a few hours and get rested up before pushing to do an overnight to Bahia Chamela.
We are making a sailor of Linda!
At some point that day we had sailed into some brief cell service and I had received an e-mail that Mom was not having a good day. Shortly after we arrived in Ipala I received a message on the Zoleo asking me to phone home – I sent a message that I would not have cell service for a couple of days and that I hoped all was well. Unfortunately, my sister then had to send me a message to let me know that my Mom had passed away that afternoon. I was shocked and destroyed. I had spoken to her while we were in Yelapa and she had been telling me she was terrorizing Costco on a motorized scooter on the weekend. I would later learn that she was happily visiting with friends the day before and after a pretty rough start to the day that day, she went back to sleep and just did not wake up. Though I was destroyed that she was gone and so saddened that I had not been able to say goodbye to her, I was comforted by the fact that she went exactly as she wanted to: at home, not having wasted away for months. We considered staying at Ipala for a night to let me wrap my head around what had happened but, more importantly, I wanted to get to cell phone service so we decided to head out as planned.
To say the night did not go well would be an understatement!!! As soon as Linda tried to go to sleep in the V-berth (which of course did not now have the big hatch open), the pitching waves made her feel sea-sick. Owen suggested that she should lay down on the floor in the salon as it is the most stable place to be – this was a great suggestion as she was able to get to sleep there. It should perhaps have been considered, however, that all of the stuff on the settees was not likely to stay put all night!! I had given up on sleeping, both because I was not enjoying the movement in our bed, and because I couldn’t quite shut my brain off, so I sent Owen off to sleep and took over the wheel. We did have the windvane driving but with crazy gusts and big rolling seas, it was having a hard time. I was giving the wheel a bit of an assist every once in a while when we suddenly had a big gust and a contrary wave – the combination of which caused us to pitch first one direction and then the other – in one fell motion, all of the items on the settees went raining down on poor Linda. I was frantically banging on the back hatch to get Owen’s attention to come to her aid as the wind was still being uncooperative and I didn’t want to leave the wheel. Owen dug through the suitcase, back pack and various other items to free Linda, who, in her miserable state, had barely noticed how buried she was!!!! Unfortunately, that would not be the last attack on her – a few hours later another pitch of the boat caused all of the books, etc. that were roped in on the starboard side behind the settee (and which had not moved up to this point in the trip), once again raining everything down on Linda!!! Owen once again dug her out (joking that he hadn’t even thought to hit the buttons on the electrified tennis racket bug zapper that was squarely on her face!).
The conditions finally began to improve around sun up and by mid-afternoon we were setting anchor in Bahia Chamela – although we were still in about 20 knots of wind, at least it was flat!!! I was finally able to call home and had tearful conversations with my sister and Bob, reassured to know that they were holding up okay. Understandably, Linda really rather wanted to touch shore at that point!!! She had been a trooper through a tough night but just wanted to feel ground under her feet! We launched the dinghy and headed into shore where we were able to wander around and then enjoy dinner and very strong pina coladas at a beach side restaurant. Our departure from the beach did not go as planned – we pushed the boat out, everyone but Owen jumped in and Harvey and I were ready to row as soon as Owen got in – unfortunately he hesitated just long enough for a huge wave to completely swamp and flood the dinghy! Miraculously none of us ended up out of the dinghy and Owen managed to launch himself in and, with the help of someone who had been fishing on the beach, we got away from the beach and past the surf. So there we were, with water half way up the inside of the dinghy, Harvey first trying to bail with his flip-flop before I dug out the bailing cup, everyone’s belongings soaked!!! Linda was remarkedly unphased by this most recent disaster!!! We were going to make a sailor of her yet!! After hanging up everyone’s clothes to dry, we all had an early night.
We left Chamela at daylight the next day. We had originally hoped to be able to make it to Barra de Navidad as that day was Owen’s birthday and his Mom, along with his other brother and his wife, were all awaiting our arrival in Melaque. Unfortunately, we realized that the only way to do that would have been to do another over-night and instead headed for Tenacatita.
We arrived in Tenacatita mid afternoon and what a paradise it is!!! The water was 28.7 and calm!! We finally inflated the paddle board and launched the kayak and Harvey and Linda took a trip into shore – I went for a swim in the glorious water and Owen and I took the toys for a turn once they were back at the boat. This was a place we would have loved to have hung out for a few days, but with family waiting in Melaque and the date that Harvey and Linda were due to go back to Puerta Vallarta fast approaching, we knew we had to move on.
We headed out early the next day and slowly sailed/ motor sailed around to Barra de Navidad. We finally managed to work our way up the narrow channel through the sand bars (thankful to a fellow sailor who had earlier this year posted his GPS coordinates for getting in) and anchored in the Lagoon – such a strange thing to be anchored in about 9 feet of water that was flat calm!!! We tried to call for the water taxi but, realizing that they were busy running people back and forth to a wedding at the Island Resort, we finally launched the dinghy and went in to meet up with Owen’s family for his birthday dinner (albeit one day late). It was so good to see everyone and to get healing hugs from family members – so very needed at that moment.
The next day started off on a high note as the French Baker arrived in the lagoon. We had heard tales of this wonderful event but weren’t sure we believed them. But then, sure enough, just after the morning net we hear “zis is the zee French Baker entering zee Lagoon” over the radio – we anxiously starting watching for him and were so excited to see the panga, decked out with display tables of fresh baked pastries, coffee urns and even bottles of wine, approach. We all chose a treat to enjoy for breakfast.
We later took a cab to Melaque and joined in on a barbq at the hotel where the family was staying. Owen’s parents had stayed at this same hotel for all of January and February for many, many years before Covid, and then Owen’s dad’s declining health, stopped their trips. This was his Mom’s first trip back and it was so nice that Dennis and Cindy were able to accompany her – they only did the month of February and did not stay in the same unit of course, but it was nice for them to get away from the miserable weather and to meet up with friends who had all been staying at the same place for years. As we had been to visit a couple of times in past years, we were also able to greet people that we had met in our past visits.
Harvey and Linda were set to catch a bus on the Monday morning from Melaque and decided that morning that, as they did not want to worry about getting themselves and all of their bags to the beach in Barra and then by cab to Melaque in order to make their bus, they would stay at a unit at their Mom’s hotel that night– this would give them a night with air conditioning and they would be a very short cab ride to the bus. It had been quite a scene that morning – we were again unable to raise the water taxi so we had all four of us, all of their bags, our back pack and the garbage loaded into our very small dinghy!!! That night we left everyone at the hotel and made our own way back to Barra and our suddenly empty boat!!
We headed in again the next day and spent the afternoon hanging out by the pool before going to dinner with Mom, Dennis and Cindy. We would spend a couple more days in that routine, heading into Melaque, hanging out with the family and cabbing back to Barra at the end of the day.
View from under the Almond Trees
Finally it was March 1 and everyone else was set to fly out. We again made the trip into Melaque, did a quick trip around the Tanguis (weekly outdoor market) and then handed out hugs, seeing Owen’s Mom, Dennis and Cindy off in their cab for their trip home.
Just like that, everyone was gone and we were left alone in Barra. It was now time to make plans to start returning north.
And just like that, in 5 and a half hours, we covered the ground that had taken us 5 and a half months to cover by boat. We arrived in Vancouver fairly late at night and stayed at a local hotel. What a shock it was to wake up the next morning to a cold, rainy day! We had not seen rain in months and though we weren’t enjoying it, we were so thankful it was not snow! The day got off to a good start with a call from my hair salon, to whom I had sent an urgent message begging for an appointment – they were able to fit me in that week which meant my hair, which was approaching a cross between Einstein and Kramer, could finally be tamed!!!
After a quick (and so not inexpensive!) breakfast, we ordered an uber to take us to the ferry and we were on our way to the Island! Somewhere mid-strait the sun came out and so, when we finally landed in Nanaimo, it was actually much warmer than I had expected. Harvey picked us up and took us to Owen’s Mom’s house – as she was already in Melaque, awaiting our eventual arrival by boat, we were able to stay at her house and use her car. A short visit with Harvey later, and we headed over to my Mom’s.
There were tears and smiles and hugs and surprises!!! My aunt, who had been scheduled to leave the day before we arrived, had changed her flight to be there when we got in!! What a surprise!! My sister had already been staying at Mom and Bob’s and so we had one big family reunion that night, with Mom’s stew, bottles of wine and great conversation. Although Mom had a bit of paralysis on her left side, she was otherwise just Mom – the same funny, engaging, wonderful person that she always was!! It did our hearts so good to see that, though she was facing her terrible diagnosis, she was doing so with smiles and laughter.
After a long day of travel, and knowing my Aunt had a frightfully early flight the next day, we headed back to Owen’s Mom’s for the night. The next day, after a quick grocery trip to stock up the house, was spent visiting at Mom’s – really just talking about everything and anything. We all headed out for dinner at a local restaurant and enjoyed yet more great conversation and laughter. When we got home that night we both had a little tickle in the back of our throats. Owen was particularly concerned that he might be getting sick – “oh no”, I said, “we do not have time for a man cold – pop some Tylenol, lets get some sleep and suck it up!!!”
The next day, we both had sniffles and Owen was feeling particularly under the weather. He dropped me off at the house and went back to get some sleep – I drove into the hair salon later that afternoon and was just finishing up when I got a text from Owen that put a huge damper on our trip – “I have covid”. Oh god – we had just spent time with my family and now this (stupid airplanes!). I went home and tested negative. Owen had already sequestered himself in the basement rumpus room so I delivered his dinner on a tray outside the door, along with a handful of extra blankets and pillows.
The next day I again tested negative and so, after talking with Mom and Gwen about it, did go over to visit – though this time everyone was wearing masks and keeping their distance. Mom had a bit of a cough and I was worried that we had not in fact dodged that bullet. The next day I was not feeling great and decided to not go for a visit (so hard to do when I knew that we only had a few days left!). Owen stayed hidden away in the basement and I curled up with a blankie and watched bad daytime television. My only real symptom was a never-ending runny nose, and I was still testing negative.
I went over to the house the next day and found both Mom and Bob not feeling entirely themselves. We kept the visit short and sure enough – not long after I got home, Gwen sent me a text to let me know that both my Mom and Bob had Covid – oh God!!! We felt so truly terrible – here we were coming home to get a visit in and instead we were trying to make the entire family sick!!! Sure enough, the next morning I also tested positive!!! At least Owen could let himself out of his basement hideaway at that point!!
The next morning Mom and Bob let us know that we should come over since we were all now in the same boat – Gwen was planning to keep to other rooms while we were there since she still had managed to avoid a positive test. Despite the odd coughing fit and runny noses, we did manage to have good visits over the next few days. Negative tests were finally coming in and we were all starting to feel on the mend. We had pushed our flights back a couple of days once we knew we had tested positive but our trip quickly wrapped up and we were soon headed back home.
Despite the fact that nearly all of us ended up sick, it was still such a good visit. We were glad to have been able to spend so much time with Mom. We had so wanted to be able to meet up with a few very dear friends while we were home but of course, a Covid diagnosis does not make you great company! Lots of hugs were given before we left, with the fervent hope that we would all be seeing each other in just a few months.
Before we were ready, we took the ferry back to Vancouver, stayed over another night and then flew back to Puerto Vallarta. On landing, we went to grab a cab, only to find that they wanted double what we had paid to get to the airport!!! No thank you!! Instead, we walked across the foot bridge to the other side of the highway and ordered an Uber. Ten minutes later we were back on our way to La Cruz for about 40% of the cost that they wanted at the airport – just a little travel tip there – unless you are completely bogged down with baggage and cannot make it up and over the foot bridge (ramps, not stairs), do not pay the exorbitant fees at the airport. The taxis are half the price across the street and a ride-share is probably less!
It was evening when we made it back to La Cruz and we were so glad to find the boat as we had left her (though a little hot!). We made the executive decision to open up the hatches and head to Blanca Ballena for a good burger!
Harvey and Linda were to arrive in just a few days so we had a lot of work ahead of us!!!
Our original plan when we were getting ready to jump over to the mainland was to cross to Isla Maria Isabella (where I have been assured I would see Blue Footed Boobies!) and then to hop down the coast to finally arrive in Banderas Bay.
Unfortunately, while we were waiting to be able to leave Bahia Falsa, we received word from home that my Mom’s cancer was progressing and that her prognosis had been downgraded. Our focus now was to get the boat across the sea and to get me somewhere that I could fly home from. Originally, we had contemplated heading straight to Barra de Navidad – Owen’s Mom was going to be in Melaque with one of his brother’s and his wife for the month of February, and his other brother and girlfriend were scheduled to join us for part of our trip, beginning mid-February. We had therefore considered leaving Owen and the boat safely in the lagoon, with me flying out from Manzanillo. Owen instead decided that he really also wanted to go home to see my Mom, and we therefore decided that we had a better chance of getting a slip in Banderas Bay so that we could both go.
The progress was excruciatingly slow – there was next to no wind for much of the trip but we don’t carry enough fuel to allow us to motor the entire way across so we had to settle for some very light-wind progress. Our first day out we had no wind at all until we were at the bottom end of Jacques Cousteau Island, at which point we were on our ear for about 2 hours, only to have the wind die again until mid-day the next day. We did have beautiful, champagne sailing day 2, but unfortunately not particularly fast sailing. We actually launched our spinnaker and managed to fly it for a couple of hours, until the wind moved too far forward. Of course, shortly after moving forward, the wind stopped completely and we spent the next six hours listening to the motor! Day 3 again saw a mix of slow sailing, drifting and motoring. The seas were starting to build a bit, making it a bit less comfortable. We did have a whale come right up to the boat, which was pretty exciting! Once the wind finally filled on Day 4 it made for some fantastic sailing all afternoon – downwind in 10-15 knots of wind. We paid for the wonderful day of sailing however when, at about 6pm, the wind increased to 20, gusting 25 knots, with huge, lumpy seas. For 2 ½ hours, we just held on, being spanked by the big seas, and sliding down them in a most ungainly fashion. I did see 8.6 knots speed on one of those surfs though. Just as quickly as the wind had built, it died out and finally, there was no wind and confused seas, so we fired up the engine about 2am. Day 5 was yet another mix of conditions – the wind filled in the afternoon before dying out again as dark fell, leaving big lumpy seas in its wake. We did see turtles swimming past the boat and wondered what they were doing out there, quite a way offshore! The wind finally began to fill again very early the next day and finally, after 5 ½ days, we sailed into Banderas Bay. We headed into La Cruz and anchored with about 40 other boats, just outside of the marina.
I was quite disappointed to see a ton of garbage in the water as we came into Banderas Bay – we were motoring along, after having doused the sails, and there was literally a stream of garbage going by. The water is also really murky – I was expecting pristine, clear water! There are a lot of fish though, like a lot, a lot!!! I was sitting in the cockpit when I heard a bubbling noise from the side of the boat. I was genuinely concerned that we might be sinking when I looked over the boat to see dozens of fish just milling around our hull – we would later see tons of them in the marina as well – no idea what they were but they were plentifull!
We had hoped the entire way across that we might wander into some internet somewhere along the way so that we could start to make arrangements to go home, but had been completely out of touch (other than our Zoleo) for the entire 5 ½ days. Therefore, we were quick to begin reaching out to marinas to see if we could tuck Solstice Tide away for a couple of weeks. Our first calls were not productive – one immediate no, one “we will need to get back to you” and one no response. Owen followed up with both Marina La Cruz and the Paradise Village Marina by email to reiterate what we were looking for and asked them to let us know if there was any chance they could get us in. Thankfully, we had an email back from Marina La Cruz a few hours later to confirm that they could in fact accommodate us! We had arrived in La Cruz on a Thursday and were going to be able to go into the marina on Saturday. Now we had to look at flights – luckily we were able to book a flight direct from Puerto Vallarta to Vancouver for the following Monday. Having made those arrangements, I was able to call my Mom to let her know we were going to be on our way to see her. She was very happy to hear the news.
The stress of not knowing if we could go home being gone, we decided to go in and grab dinner in La Cruz. Marina La Cruz offers a dinghy dock (usually 100 pesos for the day but the staff were gone for the night so our first night was a freeby). We tied up there and walked into town – and what a town it is – when you approach from the water you see big towers along the beach and the marina – when you wander out of the marina you find a quaint village with cobblestone streets, small restaurants, tiendas and a town square. From inside of the village, it is easy to forget that the development on the adjoining beach is even there! We absolutely loved La Cruz!
We had done some google mapping and found a cute little taco place to try – Fonda Coqui. We were sadly the only people eating there – hard to believe as the food and drinks were fantastic!!!
Friday saw us taking our laundry in to be done (we had been at Falsa for nearly a week, followed by 5 ½ days to cross so the laundry bag was definitely full!) We stopped in at a restaurant right at the entrance of the marina (Blanca Baleena) – we had originally dismissed it as a “gringo” restaurant, and it was. It did however have amazing pina coladas and absolute fantastic burgers (and fries that had been limed and salted – heaven!)! We spent the afternoon trying to figure out what we needed to sort out before we could leave the boat, and also trying to figure out where we were going to put our guests when they arrived!!! Our v-berth is definitely somewhat of a garage, storing our gear bags, warm clothing, our wind-steering vane, a couple of crates of food that don’t otherwise have a home, and various other odds and sods so this was going to be a challenge!
We moved the boat into the marina on Saturday – it had been nearly 3 months since we had been on a dock and it showed!!! Getting Solstice into the slip did not go very well – I gave up on the first attempt, ended up turning around in a very, very narrow fairway and made an attempt from the other direction – they did finally manage to get us caught and turned into the slip but not without a scrape on the already crappy paint job!!! It had been fairly rolly in the anchorage so being at a slip was a bit unnerving – other than a gradual back and forth movement with the surge, it was so still!!! We went into town and grabbed our laundry – it is quite a trek around the marina so we were pretty overheated by the time we got back. We went back into town that night to attend a charity dinner for a local family – they had prepared various dishes and bought some premade desserts and the money raised was going to help with medical costs for a family member who had been in a motorbike accident. We had hoped it would be a bit more of a community event but was really just a food-stall. We were still happy to be able to contribute to the community in even a small way. We of course took advantage of being in the marina that night and had showers up at the clubhouse – I am sure Owen enjoyed not having me outside the door reminding him to turn off the water when not needed!!!
I woke up on Sunday with a running list of all of the things that we needed to get done that day – I popped up in the cockpit and was super excited to see that it was Market Day – there was a market setting up along the entire length of the Melacon that runs around the marina and, as it turns out, the market also extended into the town square. All items on my to-do list were put on hold until we were able to explore the market. It nearly killed me that I couldn’t grab any of the yummy looking fruits and veggies as we needed to empty the food out of the boat, not add to it!!! We did grab a loaf of bread (we could eat that in one day – no problem!) and a Nanaimo Bar (so good). We also went to the “food court” for lunch – there were various food stalls set up but we were drawn to a stall manned by Abuela, Abuelo and the grandson (or so we imagined) – the tortillas were being made fresh and everything else looked so amazing – the tacos were huge and amazing!!! We did finally make it back to the boat to get our stuff packed and to give the boat a much needed bath (3 months of salt build up takes a bit to get off!).
On Monday morning we emptied the last bit of food out of the fridge and garbage out of the boat, grabbed showers and locked the boat up – it was so strange to walk off down the dock knowing we would be gone for a week – she has been our only home for months!!! Our flight was at 4pm so we grabbed a cab to the airport just after lunch. Next stop – Canada!!!
We left Cabo San Lucas hoping for light northerlies to allow us to move up the coast to La Paz – the forecast was for 5-7 knots from the north, entirely comfortable. The northerlies had been fairly relentless this year and we were hoping to grab this little window for an easy trip. The reality was that by the time we reached the East Cape we were seeing 15-20 knots from the North and the sea state was terrible. Our boat was being tossed around and I admit to a bit of a melt-down somewhere before we turned the corner north. I had actually not been feeling well all day, and the horrible sea state was not making me feel better. I didn’t want to turn around but I also didn’t want to go forward – the idea of facing the seas head on in the middle of the night seemed terrifying in that moment. Owen managed to get me slightly calmer, we drove the boat down for a few minutes so I could at least use the head and cobble together a snack for us (big buns slathered in butter and sandwich cookies – yup – eating in high style!).
Once we rounded the corner to head north the winds actually started to abate a bit and by dark we were motoring in nearly no wind. Not ideal but better than what we had been seeing!!! Sometime on one of Owen’s nights shifts, somewhere off of Los Frailes I was awoken by the sound of the engine nearly stalling. We had clearly picked up something with our prop – Owen threw it into reverse, nearly stalling the engine again, but then it was running fairly smooth and we were able to continue on.
We made it to Bahia Los Muertos mid-day the next day – by that time the Northerlies were again building and we were glad for a spot with little wave action – the wind was still howling through but we were comfortable. We were not comfortable enough to launch the dinghy however and were sad to not make it into what looked like a beautiful beach. As the sun set that evening, rays were jumping all over the bay – so cool! The next day, we entertained ourselves watching kite surfers on shore and checking and double checking the weather. It appeared that the winds were to ease overnight and so we made the decision that as soon as they went below 20 knots, we would head out.
At about 8pm, we finally left the anchorage and headed around the corner. We had to cut through a pass between the coast and Isla Jacques Cousteau and found the wind and current funneling through this gap – it was not fast going!!!!
We finally entered La Paz Harbour, travelling down the long narrow channel to the anchorage, around 4pm the next day – a much longer trip than anticipated!!! We got set in the harbour and checked in with the Port Captain by VHF – Owen was pretty pleased with himself as he managed to do much of it Spanish!!!!
At some point that day we had noticed that the sump pump in our shower sump was not working and, not wanting to get stuck over Christmas with no way to pump out the shower and sink water (other than having it pour into our bilge – yuck!), we quickly jumped in the dinghy and headed into Marina La Paz to get a dinghy dock pass and to hit a boat store.
Luckily, we made it in time to grab a pump before the store closed and were able to get it installed easily that evening. We had taken the time to do a quick walk on the Malecon and were so excited to explore the town! We had made it to La Paz just in time for Christmas (having arrived on the 21st of December) and the Malecon was decorated, with one entire section clearly set up for picture taking opportunities!
La Paz is home to Club Cruceros, a community of cruisers and expats with a club house at Marina de La Paz. They do pot luck meals occasionally and hold events with the aim of raising money for charity initiatives in town. There was a small contingent that we called the “homeowners association” – people too intent on meddling in everyone else’s business – but otherwise a fantastic group of people with good intentions. The clubhouse has a huge leave a book, take a book library as well as a library of dvd’s available to be borrowed. Thankfully, those dvd’s included “It’s a Wonderful Life”, allowing me to indulge in that Christmas Eve tradition! Club Cruceros also has a daily radio net to keep everyone abreast of their activities and to allow people to seek local assistance in finding products or services. It is truly a boon to the cruising community!
Club Cruceros was hosting a Christmas Even Potluck so our first task on our second day there was to get out and get some groceries so that we could contribute to the pot luck. The large grocery stores are about a kilometer away (seems like nothing when walking there – not so much when you have over-shopped and are dragging the bags home!!!).
The next day we met up with Laurie and Mike (of Lunar Bird) to do breakfast at a great local coffee shop and then went with them to explore Mercado Bravo – a local community market that includes small restaurant stalls, fruit markets and fish, seafood and meat markets. Readers from BC will recognize the similarities to a Vancouver favorite, Granville Market. We grabbed some gorgeous produce and had a smoothie and then continued exploring.
Christmas was a bit of a different event this year – we missed the people at home so much – though certainly not the weather as it snowed relentlessly for days leading up to Christmas on Vancouver Island! – it didn’t truly feel like Christmas. We only finally dragged our itty bitty tree out of storage on the 23rd and even that didn’t really make things feel very festive (truly just more messy!! Lol). The Christmas Eve potluck was a well-attended event though, given that nearly every salad and dish contributed seemed to have beans in it, Owen was looking for something a bit extra once it was over! We decided to go wander the Malecon again – as Mexican families largely celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, it was pretty quiet but we were able to check out one of the many ice cream shops and just stretch our legs. We headed back to the boat to watch my movie and to call it a night.
Christmas Day passed quietly with calls home, a small roast chicken for dinner, and a screening of Die Hard!!!!
For years we have heard that people will swallow their anchors in La Paz and we could certainly understand why – it is a fairly large town, is the capital city for the region and has several universities. It still feels like a Mexican, rather than American, city (I am looking at you Cabo!). There are so many great restaurants and shops you can wander endlessly. There is of course a new development with a Walmart, Sam’s Club, Home Depot, etc. but that is an Uber away and for us staying in the Centro area, the effect of that Americanization is not felt as much.
We were leaving the boat one day when I noticed something on the rudder – we go the boat hook on it and discovered a whole length of poly wrapped around the rudder – that might have explained the stiff steering while coming around to La Paz – remember that incident outside of Los Frailes – well, apparently, we didn’t get away from that unscathed.
Once again, Club Cruceros stepped in with an activity to get us off the boat and involved for New Years, with a Zulu midnight toast being planned. Rob, from Lilypad had arrived the day before and so we all headed in to join the festivities. We first tried to take Rob to the Mercado Bravo only to find it closing when we got there – instead we stopped at the Oxxo for chips and drinks and made our way there – on the way, Owen thought it a good idea to faceplant into the sidewalk. While he was looking up at a low hanging awning, he missed a 4” drop in the sidewalk and pitched forward – it took a comically long time (in reliving it later anyway) before he finally landed, quite literally face first on the sidewalk – somehow he didn’t break any teeth and only ended up with very minor scrapes. I had some wet-wipes in my purse so we were even able to clean him up before we got the gathering.
Rob had left Cabo behind us and had gotten held up in Los Frailes for several days waiting for the chance to jump to La Paz – while there he had met up with the crews of several boats and introduced us to them. It was decided after the toast that we should head out for dinner – of course being New Year’s Eve, most restaurants were fully reserved and those that weren’t fully booked had very expensive set menus for the evening – not what we were looking for. The nine of us continued traipsing around until we finally ended up at a restaurant just up the road from the marina. Owen and I had walked by it several times and the smells from the grill were always mouthwatering. After a bit of a wait, we finally snagged a table big enough for our group and ordered tacos and margaritas all around – they were fantastic!!!!! One of our favorite things about the restaurant was that our table and one other table in there appeared to be the only “gringos” there, the rest of the diners appeared to be locals – in our book that is always the sign of a good restaurant!!!! We finally headed back to the boat, and were actually on the boat by 11pm, trying desperately to stay up until midnight!!! I am sure glad we did because the cacophony at midnight would have given me a fright if we were sleeping – they don’t do one fireworks display here, everyone does a fireworks display!!! Added to that was the Navy honking their horns, joined by tankers outside of the harbour and of course many of the other boats got in on the action sounding their horns!!!
We were settling into La Paz a little too well so we decided a few days into the New Year that we should get out to do a bit of cruising. The Islands of Espiritu Santos and Partida are within Bahia La Paz and we headed out intending to be gone for a couple of days.
We started out at Bahia Falsa – an anchorage just outside of La Paz. The wind and water were calm and we were able to get my stand-up paddle board inflated and took it, and Owen’s kayak, in to the beach to enjoy tacos and pina coladas at the beach bar, with our toes tucked into the sand. Mike and Laurie, of Lunar Bird, we also in the anchorage and invited us for drinks that evening. We had a great visit on Lunar Bird, enjoying Laurie’s fresh baked cookies and my latest attempt at salsa (and chips), along with a batch of margaritas. We had been very slow in travelling from La Paz to Falsa and, keeping in mind the stalling outside of Los Frailes and the poly found on our rudder, we took advantage of being in clean water with little current to put the camera down – our worst fears were realized when we found a huge pile of poly wrapped on our prop. Owen had started to dive it on our first day there, removing the large chunk of it, and making a very little more progress on the 2nd day but realized pretty quickly that he was not going to be able to get it cleared just snorkeling. Luckily the girls on Ka’sala had arrived the day prior and they are divers. Owen went over and chatted with them and they agreed to come over the next day as they had already planned to dive and clean their boat. It took Wren about 15 minutes and a hack saw to get the melted plastic, along with a small chunk of the bearing off – Owen would never have managed that without assistance!!! Chelsea was nice enough to clear the mussel farm off of our keel and to clear the muck off our speed sensor while Wren was busy sawing so we were feeling pretty quick and spiffy!!!
If you look at the Islands on a map you will see that they are indented with a whole series of coves and anchorages – you could easily spend weeks in the Islands and not get to all the possible spots. Once we dragged ourselves away from Bahia Falsa, we first headed, much quicker than we had been traveling, to an anchorage on Espiritu Santos, heading first to an anchorage that was to be very protected from any Northerlies that might kick up – we dropped our hook and were immediately beset by flies and bees – it took about 10 minutes for us to pick up the anchor and move back south one anchorage to Ensenada de Gallo. We were nicely protected and had a calm evening on the hook – the next day, we took the dinghy intending to head into the far beach – on our way in we noticed turtles swimming out towards us – we drifted around watching them swim past before getting going again. We realized it was going to be too shallow to get the dinghy into the farthest beach and detoured to one a bit closer so that us so that Owen could hug a cactus – seriously!!!
spot the turtleHe was really a bit of a prickly fellow!
We then left the lovely protected anchorage and were a bit shocked to be walloped by large waves and strong winds as soon as we were out of its lee. Luckily, we were only going a mile and a half or so north! We headed to Caleta El Candelero and got set in the North Bay. We had heard about this anchorage a few times and people would refer to the “rock” in the middle of it – the “rock” turned out to be an imposing island separating the North and South sections of this anchorage. We had arrived here in time for a birthday celebration for one of the cruisers we had hung out with on New Year’s Eve. Gentry and Tera on SV Freia had let us know that they both had birthdays in early January and would be celebrating them in the Islands. We joined them, along with cruisers from a couple of other boats, to celebrate Gentry’s birthday with drinks on Freia that evening.
The “rock” that everyone referenced – bit more imposing than that I think!
The next day we headed to the beach for a short, but stunning hike. The views back at the anchorage from the hike were what guidebook pictures are made of!
The next morning, we headed out to jump north to Partida, tucking ourselves into Ensenada El Cardonal. We enjoyed a peaceful afternoon there – unfortunately, at some point during the afternoon a power boat pulled into the anchorage (literally chasing out 3 of the 5 boats that had been in there with their music – we should have followed suit!). The boat blasted really, really bad music all evening, and ran their generator the entire time they were in. The entitlement displayed by these people with their fully crewed boat was a bit galling! We were just contemplating going into the beach to go for a short hike the next morning, when Tera and Gentry hailed us to let us know they were headed our way and wanted to do the hike. The four of us headed out on the very easy, fairly flat hike to the other side of the island.
We decided to all head to Ensenada Grande, with a stop-over in a small bay on the way for a lunch stop – with the hopes of spotting blue-footed boobies. Gentry treated us to soup and sandwich for lunch – sadly no boobies were spotted but we had a great visit before we all got moved around to Grande. That evening, we took our toys for a paddle, and were joined at the beach by Tera and Gentry – we were enjoying such a good visit we didn’t actually notice how dark it was getting – not entirely our smartest move to be paddling back with no lights!!!
There is a hike out of Grande and while it definitely looked like a harder hike than the one we had done at Cardonal, we had no idea how tough it would be. It was Tera’s birthday and she wanted to celebrate with a hike so we all headed out that next morning – it was tough!!! Like scrambling over boulders, stepping on loose stones, climbing a good change in altitude with little to no shade, tough!!!! By the time we finally made it back to the beach 3 and a half hours later we were exhausted and over-heated – so over-heated that I actually finally put on a suit and jumped in the water once we got back to the boat. That night, we were invited to Wild Blue for Tera’s birthday celebration. Craig and Carolyn served up amazing tacos and frosty blender drinks to 11 celebrants!!! Once again, a great night was had by all!!!!
We had intended to leave the next day but the giant standing waves immediately outside the anchorage and the high winds inside it convinced us to stay one more night. We tried to do another Blue Footed Booby recon but couldn’t find any. The winds were building and the sea-state in the anchorage was becoming untenable (not to mention a power boat had pulled into the anchorage and started with the obnoxious music – not the same boat as previously but certainly the same lack of respect for other boaters). Rob had moved Lilypad south to Cardonal and, after confirming with him that conditions were better there, we moved ourselves the mile back south – a fairly uncomfortable but thankfully very short trip. Rob joined us for dinner on board that night – another great visit!
We finally realized the next day that our garbage and laundry bags were over-filling and the food stores and water supplies were getting pretty depleted!!! We had left intending to be gone a few days and suddenly realized it had actually be 12 days!!! Even with all of that time, we had barely scratched the surface of all of the spots to check out!!! We were just thinking about getting ready to head out when we noticed a boat very close to us. We popped our heads up to discover friends from Nanaimo on board their friends’ boat!! Elaine and Nigel were down to sail with a couple they had befriended when that couple were stuck in Nanaimo during Covid. What a small world!!!
We arrived back in La Paz later in the day and checked back in with the Port Captain. Our next day was spent in delivering laundry to be done (you just have to love delivering your laundry one day and getting it back clean, fresh and folded the next day!), emptying all of the garbage out of the boat, and grabbing some groceries to tide us over until we could do a bigger shop. Rob and left us with glasses to be returned to Tera and we invited them over for a drink – they arrived at about sunset and didn’t head home until 3:00 in the morning – later than any of us had been up in ages!!! We have no idea how it got so late but we sure had fun!!!!
Unfortunately, we had to get up at 7:30 the next morning to go to a boat swap and shop – pretty sure we were still steeping in tequila but we were pretty proud of ourselves for making it out of the boat – Tera and Gentry also managed to make it in (high fives all around for that!) and once we had checked out the swap, we all headed for breakfast at the marina. The rest of the day was spent very productively (a nap and a movie!).
Owen finally decided to get the 6hp outboard that had been living first on the floor of our garage and, since we had left Canada, on our stern rail, serviced and ready to use. He was pretty excited to put the bigger engine on the dinghy, especially dealing with the wind and currents that we generally see in La Paz.
While we were loving our time in La Paz, it was starting to be time to start to look for a weather window to jump over to Puerto Vallarta. We did a big grocery shop and started to do twice daily runs to fill up the water tanks. We purchased diesel and gas and kept watching for that weather window. The port was closed and then open and then closed again. Once it finally reopened, we decided to take the day break in the Northerlies and head out to Bahia Falsa to wait for the next weather window. We didn’t want to run the risk that there would be enough of a break to get us moving south, but to have the port closed and not be able to take advantage of it!!!
Our great planning did not quite work out – we spent five days in Falsa waiting for a break in the wind. Finally, a day dawned where the winds were calm and we could get out of Falsa. The port was still closed, with an intended opening of 8pm that day but we were out of the Port so we could go – or so we thought. We were actually motoring out of the bay when another boat hailed the Port Capitan to let them know they were departing from Falsa – “No…” he said “el Puerto es Cerrado” – the other boater clarified a couple of times that Falsa was included in the port and so sadly, not wanting a huge fine for leaving before the port was open, we were stuck another day. Sadly, the winds were about perfect for a departure and we wasted an entire day of good sailing. When 8pm rolled around there was no wind and it was freezing cold so we decided to delay departure until the next morning.
Finally, at about 7am the next day we headed out for what would be a very long sail to the mainland.
When we arrived in Ensenada and began to plan the next leg of our trip to Cabo San Lucas, we were somewhat surprised to realize how long the Baja coast is (probably something one would have expected us to know already but honestly, to that point, we had been so focused on getting to Mexico, we hadn’t really considered what we would do when we got here!)!!! We began to look at the stops we wanted to make and had quite a list – sadly we didn’t manage to hit every one of them but the places we did stop did not disappoint!
We left Ensenada mid-day, planning an overnight stop at Todos Santos – we knew that there was some fish farming activity – what we did not realize was that every inch of the protected side of the island is now crowded with fish farms. Sadly, we had to give it a miss and headed out of the bay headed for San Quintin, about a 150 miles south.
We sailed out of the bay in very light wind and it did not really increase for the first day. We had some humpback whales arrive during our first day but I think that they thought we were going too slow and didn’t hang around! Sometime on day 2 we received a message on our zoleo from Dorothy to point out that we had made 36 miles in 26 hours – were we okay??? We knew we were going slow but that reminder was a bit of a gut-punch!!! We finally fired up the motor for a bit to both charge the batteries and to get us a little further along the coast. The wind did finally pick up a bit and then died again. Luckily, our friends on Lunar Bird had messaged to assure us that the entrance into San Quintin was wide open and, as they were leaving that day, they sent us the GPS coordinates for the spot they had been anchored so that we could proceed to that spot if we came in after dark. We finally made it to San Quintin about 11pm and very slowly motored into the bay, using the gps and radar and a spotlight to get us in and drop the hook in about 20 feet of water. There was one other boat in the bay but we knew we were at least a half mile from them so were able to enjoy a peaceful night at anchor!
On waking up the next morning, we were able to see that we had little to worry about with this bay – it is HUGE!!! We received an email on our blog from SV Trouble to let us know that they were the other boat anchored in the bay and to welcome us to the bay! They also let us know that there was a restaurant at the hotel on the beach that served great tacos and deadly margaritas. They sadly left later that afternoon before we had a chance to meet them, but another couple of boats came in during the day. The waves break pretty hard on the beach in San Quintin and we were strongly debating whether great margaritas were worth the probable soaking. There is a more protected inner estuary, but the entrance to it proved to also have breaking waves over it. Abandoning a trip to the restaurant, we tried for a short beach visit in the dinghy but by the time we abandoned an attempt to get into the estuary, the waves were breaking hard on the beach that had earlier seemed to be calmer – should have gone at a higher tide I guess!!!
We spent the next day trying to get some rust spots on our hull touched up and primed but the sea state was pretty high and we were only able to hit those spots that were further out of the water (and I am pretty sure that even a couple of those got a bit of a dousing!!!) It is a bit disheartening to see so much rust on the hull that was so nicely freshly painted this summer (that haul out story is a blog post I still plan to do – just haven’t quite recovered from the trauma!).
After a couple of peaceful days in San Quintin, we left to head to Bahia Tortugas (Turtle Bay), about 300 miles further south. Tortugas is considered to be one of the only truly protected harbours on the Baja Coast and we were looking forward to exploring the town. We motored out of San Quintin, putting the sails up immediately but ran the engine a bit to charge batteries. We had great wind and sailed at an average of 4-5 knots – except for a torturous 3 hour shift for Owen, where he made only 3 knots to the good in the middle of the night! We did over 100 knots in the first 24 hours which was a bit of a record for us!!! Wind continued all through the second day – the sea state was a bit rolly and it was hard to move around below deck, but it was beautiful sailing and we were gratefully enjoying it!! We woke up the second morning to a message from Lunar Bird that they had found a bunch of dead squid on their deck and sure enough, we discovered 5 or 6 on our deck as well. We would later hear that nearly everyone passing near Cedros Island had squid on deck – we would be really curious to discover why!!!
We sailed into Turtle Bay around 3:30 pm (actually 4:30 as we were now in a new time zone!), setting the hook in about 30 feet of water and enjoyed a relaxing, still, evening on the boat!
The next morning, we headed into shore to explore – we beached the dinghy and wandered around (after being assured by the local who was working just above the beach where we had landed that the dinghy would be safe). We had tacos at one of the local restaurants where we visited with the owner (both of us using translation apps on our phone to make it easier!) and Owen was befriended by her little chihuahua Bridgit – who would smile/growl at her mamma when it was suggested that Owen might not actually want her in his lap!!! It was hilarious.
We managed to grab a few groceries and then headed back to the dinghy to go back to the boat – let’s say the dinghy launch did not go smoothly!!! We loaded everything into the dinghy and pushed it out a bit, and jumped in – before Owen had a chance to drop the motor, a wave came pushing us back to the beach, followed quickly by a wave that, on hitting our now stationary dinghy crashed over the back drenching us, the groceries and my purse!!! I jumped out for a second try – I had hoped that by pushing the boat out a bit further, we might have better luck – Owen ended up in a bit of a trough putting the water to mid-thigh and when he jumped back, another wave came in, pushing the dinghy over me – I ended up on my butt with the dinghy on top of me – thoroughly soaked to mid chest and covered in sand!!! We finally managed to get ourselves in the dinghy and the dinghy off the beach and made it back to the boat – where I very elegantly hung from the ladder trying to get at least some of the sand from my clothes!!!
We decided that putting the dinghy wheels on the transom would be a good priority the next morning and finally had that long-delayed job completed. We once again headed into shore, this time landing at a different beach where a local, Pedro, requested (demanded) money to watch our dinghy. We couldn’t quite figure out how much he was looking for and as he just kept saying more, more, more I got a bit frustrated and left Owen to deal with it. That finally being dealt with, we wandered around town a bit more – sadly we had managed to hit town at siesta time and most of what is actually there was closed! We had much more successful dinghy launch (those wheels are awesome!).
We had been told we should check out Rojalio’s little beach bar so the next day we again went into the same beach (and again dealt with Pedro). Rojalio and his family own several properties right at the beach and he has turned one of them into a little beach bar / cruiser’s gathering spot. One of the other boats was making good use of his kindness, having set up a table inside and storing her sewing machine at the bar so that she could work on a dinghy chap project without having to drag her machine in every day. We were able to visit with a few of the other cruisers and had a lovely conversation with Rojalio. He told us he had spent time in Mexico City but after Covid, he decided to move home – he loves to tell visitors about his town and is working to ensure the beaches and the town are kept clean – it was so nice to speak with someone so obviously proud of his home and to be the benefit of his hospitality.
We headed out the next day, after having installed a cleat for our furling line (always happy to have knocked one of the many items off the still very long to-do list!). We had a lovely overnight sail, downwind in about 15 knots. The winds were a bit fluky early in the morning but we made Bahia Asuncion by about 8:30 in the morning. We fired up the engine to enter the bay and set the anchor and again had “tiny bubbles” causing the motor to suddenly die just as we were heading in to anchor – I did another loop away from the anchored boats while Owen bled the air out of the system and then tried again – and again we were hit by tiny bubbles!!! The third time was lucky and we finally got set!
The water in Asuncion was crystal clear – we could see our anchor in 30 feet of water!!! After nice hot showers, we launched the dinghy and headed into town. Town was pretty quiet but Sunset Mary’s was open and we headed up there for delicious hand-pressed burgers. We had been invited to Trouble for a visit – having finally ended up in the same bay for a bit, and enjoyed a nice visit in their cockpit. Rebekah and Madison had told us about the playful junior sea-lions and we got a first hand experience of just how playful they were as they chased us back to our boat, coming up the side of the dinghy, jumping along-side – we were alternately terrified they were going to jump right in to the dinghy and laughing our asses off at their antics!! Owen was even awoken by tapping on the hull in the middle of the night – apparently, they figured it was time to play!
The next morning, we walked out to the Bufadora Hotel, a lovely little spot owned by an ex-pat Canadian. We had been told that Sherri was the person to talk to to find out about the town – I asked about where we could do laundry and she invited us to come to do laundry at the hotel!!! After gratefully arranging to do so the next morning, we headed off through a bit more residential area to get back to town – we ran into a bunch of dogs, all of whom seemed friendly enough so we just calmly moved through them and continued on – suddenly we realized that we had actually picked up a 3 dog entourage – we tried to largely ignore them and figured they would get bored and head back “home” – instead, they followed us all through town – waiting while we went into stores, taking off for a little run down the beach but catching up with us again shortly thereafter – they literally followed us from one end of town to the other – I am sure we were a bit of a sight – the 2 pasty gringos with their little trail of dogs!!! We finally went to launch off the beach and one of them actually swam out after us – it was heartbreaking – especially as she was clearly not a stray dog (we later heard that locals figure she may have been left behind by a camper or a cruiser) and I would have happily taken her home if we actually had room for a pup on board!!!
We took advantage of Sherri’s kindness and spent the next morning doing laundry at the hotel, hanging it to dry on her lines. We were also able to log into her wi-fi and enjoyed visits with some of the hotel guests. After dropping the laundry at the boat, we went back to shore intending to go to a palapa restaurant that a couple of the boaters had told us about but found the restaurant closed – we wandered around and found what appeared to be a little sit-down restaurant – only to discover that we were actually having dinner at a hot dog stand – pretty gourmet by our standards, but a hot dog stand all the same!!! I had a chilihate – I thought it was a chili stuffed with cheese and found it a bit strange when she put it on a hot dog bun, but understood pretty quickly when I bit into it – it was stuffed with a hot-dog!!! Owen just had a couple of hot dogs – but those were wrapped in bacon so pretty good!!!
The next day one of the other boaters called to suggest going back to Sunset Mary’s for lunch – by the time we hit the beach, nearly every boat in the anchorage joined us!!! We had a fantastic lunch and an even better visit with the other boaters!
As much as we were enjoying Asuncion, it finally felt like it was probably time to move along. The next morning, we made quick trips around to tour Cosmic Debris and Tardis, and then headed to town to pick up the eggs that we had not been able to grab the day before because we had forgotten our egg crates (eggs are never refrigerated here and are often just set out in 36 egg crates flats – you need to bring your own crate if you want less than 3 dozen eggs! Luckily we have a couple of the camping types and try to remember to bring them when shopping at smaller stores.) We were ready to head out by early afternoon but when Owen went to raise the anchor, the fob would not work – we changed the battery and again couldn’t raise the anchor. When the anchor windlass was installed, we had not put the foot switches in on the deck because we didn’t want more holes in the deck – we had instead installed a remote system and use a fob to raise the anchor. After Owen pulled apart the main part of the unit, finding no issues with the system but still not able to raise the anchor, we decided it was finally time to install the back up switch for the windlass (we intend to put it on the binnacle if that project ever happens but put it in a temporary spot inside for now). By the time that was done it was already 3:30 so we decided to hold off on leaving for one more night. The crew of Cosmic Debris ended up coming by for a reciprocal boat tour at about 5:30 and before we knew it, it was 10:30 at night – what a great visit!!! The next morning, Owen realized that the red light was not coming on on the windlass fob – he changed the batteries again and suddenly the fob worked – it would seem the “new” battery that we put in the day before was not actually new!!!
We were finally able to get away about 10:30 am – we motor-sailed for a couple of hours until the wind filled in and then had a great sail throughout the afternoon and into the evening. The wind did lighten a few times through the night but we kept moving along, slower than we liked a few times – but moving. We finally came into Bahia Santa Maria on a screaming reach late morning. The wind was howling through the anchorage so we delayed putting the dinghy in the water. Santa Maria is truly just a small fishing village with a few shacks on the shore but we were eager to get ashore to explore! Unfortunately, the wind kept up all through the next day – even the fishermen had anchored in the bay (and their chatter on the radio was pretty entertaining!). I managed to get my first load of “bucket” laundry done, doing a few towels that I had not done at Sherri’s, and then spent the afternoon resecuring clothespins to ensure they stayed on the lifelines in the 20 knots of wind blowing through the anchorage!!!
We had really hoped to pop into Magdalena Bay as we had heard that the humpback whales had already arrived, but there was a favorable forecast for the push to Cabo, with a really light forecast following immediately thereafter. Not wanting to motor all the way to Cabo, we decided head out – along with Turtle and Lillypad. We motored for the first couple of hours to recharge and then sailed wing on wing for a bit – Owen set up the pole and put a preventer on the main (none of which were accessible from the cockpit) and then headed off to sleep – unfortunately the wind chose that time to completely change direction and we spent the next 3 hours driving out to sea!!!! When Owen finally came on deck we got the sail reset and headed back on track. I woke up the next morning to find us hard on the wind, and we stayed that way for about 40 miles!!!! This was not the wind direction advertised in the brochure!!! The wind finally started to back late afternoon, getting very light in the process. Just as the sun was going down, a family of brown footed boobies came to visit, 6 of them setting themselves on our pulpit and not at all interested in my suggestions that they should move along!!! They stayed there all night, tucking their beaks under their wing and holding on – didn’t move when we furled or tacked. We finally approached Cabo san Lucas as the sun was rising, dodging the outgoing fishing fleet and an incoming cruise ship and dropped anchor in front of the Riu Santa Fe. Owen needed to dislodge the boobies from the pulpit and they were none too impressed to be awakened so early!!!
After a couple of hours sleep and quick showers, the crew of Trouble contacted us to ask if we wanted to go to town to do some exploring – we had planned a day of errands but of course that sounded more fun!!! After a heart stopping trip through the anchorage with pangas and jet skis flying by, we managed to make our way into the dinghy dock without getting run down. We found a great little restaurant a few blocks away from the very commercial marina area and had a wonderful lunch. The four of us then wandered off to the Port Captain office to check in – being about 3:30 on a Friday, the process was quick and painless (pretty sure he locked the door behind us!). We set out in different directions at that point and Owen and I made what I consider to be an obligatory visit to the Cabo Wabo Cantina for waboritas.
We were lucky enough to connect with Gary and Nicki, C dock neighbors who live in Cabo half of the year, the next day and met up with them, as well as Warren and Nancy (other C dockers), back at the marina area. We had a great lunch and an even better visit!!! After a bit more of a wander around Cabo and quick stop for groceries, we headed back to the boat, intending to head out for La Paz the next morning to hopefully beat the next set of northers. We were treated to the Christmas boat parade – though there was some decidedly un-Christmas like music coming from some of the party boats!!
I have to say, I love Cabo as a place to hang out at an all-inclusive, go to town to hit some clubs and get away from winter weather, but after a couple of weeks of sleepy fishing villages, it was a bit much!!!
Time to head a bit further up the inside of the Baja coast (going North again?!) – next stop La Paz!
We left San Diego and motored out to head south to Mexico – hoping to be able to sail the entire way. Instead, we motored, and motored – for the first 6 hours, there was not even enough wind to put out the headsail. Finally, at about 10pm we were able to put out the headsail to give us a little assist, motor sailing through the night. At about 4am the wind started to build – and build!!! Suddenly I was completely overpowered – I couldn’t release the main sheet and had to call Owen up on deck to help out. Once we had the mainsail eased and the headsail furled in a bit, he tried to head down again to sleep for another hour – it was not too be – almost immediately I was again fighting the boat rounding up – the wind was building and the sea state was even worse!!! We had to tack to head towards Ensenada and that put us dead into the waves – waves were crashing over the deck, drenching us and everything else!!! We finally fired up the engine again to motor sail at a better angle. The wind finally settled just as we were approaching the harbour and we were able to motor in and get the main down in the relative calm.
We radioed the Cruiseport Marina to confirm our arrival and had a tense few moments while we waited for them to confirm our slip assignment – we had had a bit of difficulty reaching them to book a slip and had to delay our reservations because of the delayed part in San Diego so we were a tad apprehensive that we were going to be told we didn’t have a slip!! Luckily, the worrying was for nothing and they came back to confirm our slip and to let us know they were waiting for us. We got tied up and were told to come on up to the office whenever we were ready and they would assist with everything else.
The marina staff truly could not have been better – Octavio got us checked into the marina and then finalized our check in paper work. He then had another staff member, Oswald, drive us to the Port Captain’s office, where he walked us around to the various departments, filling in the paperwork for us, telling us to read this, sign here, pay her… After about an hour, we were all checked into Mexico with 180 day visas, the boat was issued a 10 year TIP and we were ready to explore!!!
We went for a short walk around the marina area that afternoon, stopped at an Italian restaurant for dinner (I know, I know – but I was dead on my feet and wanted my first Mexican taco of this trip to be one I would actually remember eating!!) We did manage to find a Churro cart on the way home and even though we were stuffed from dinner, couldn’t resist the temptation! We were back on the boat fairly early and both asleep by 8pm!
We spent our first morning in Mexico hosing down the boat – it was covered in a thick crust of salt thanks to the early morning surprise we had while coming into Ensenada!! After that we had to head out to get phones set up – I had bought a phone in the US and set up a (thankfully) pay as you go phone plan that guaranteed unlimited calling, text and data in the US, Mexico and Canada. Once we arrived in Mexico, I discovered that my phone would not connect to the local network. I had to on-line chat with US Cellular using the marina wi-fi to try to figure it out (because of course I couldn’t call or use data!) and was informed that while my plan was good in Mexico, the phone they sold me, knowing I was headed to Mexico, was not considered a “global phone” by them and would therefore not work. I asked if I could put the SIM card in my old Samsung (that she had already confirmed was a “global phone”) and have them activate that and was told that they would not activate a phone that they had not sold me – awesome – so I had a phone, but no way to use it. We headed to a Telcel location where we were lucky enough to find someone to assist us in English. She was able to confirm that my phone would work just fine with their sim card (as would Owens) and after a short while we both had Mexican phone numbers and what we hoped would be enough data (maybe not?) – all for less that the cost of the one phone number in the US!
We then wandered around a bit more, found a boat store and Walmart. We started to get stocked up on groceries, having let the boat go nearly empty in anticipation of an inspection when we came in to Mexico (they never came near the boat!), and headed back to the boat for another early night!
In our wandering, we were able to get a grasp of the size of the city – while not huge, it is a bustling city – with almost no crossing lights!!! With the exception of a few major intersections, there are a bunch of stop signs – if we were lucky, they were 4 way, giving us a chance to dash across the street at the same time as a car going that way – most of the time they were only 2 way and we just had to wait for a break in traffic and make a run for it!!! The city appears to spread out quite a way and as we would see later in the week, a new area has built up that could be in any Canadian or American City – a complex with a movie theatre, Home Depot, Walmart, McDonalds, Dairy Queen, Costco… definitely not the sleepy Mexican village we are looking for – but a great stop to be able to restock the boat and get ready for the far more desolate Baja coast.
Neither of us had any idea what a busy cruise port Ensenda is (I guess the name of our marina should have tipped us off). On all but one of the days that we were there, there was at least one, and usually 2 cruise ships in. As a result, there were always booths set up on the Melacon selling all manner of touristy trinkets and always someone calling to you to come and buy here, check out my store, see what we are selling. You had to just push through, politely saying no, gracias, and move along…
When we were going to the Port Captains office on the first day, Owen was excited to see signs announcing the start of the Baja 1000 – and lucky me, the start was on Friday. I will let you google what the Baja 1000 is – but suffice it to say that it is a long, mostly off-road race that includes all manner of vehicles from modified motorbikes, atvs and dune-buggies to souped up vw bugs, trucks and suv’s. Friday morning, we headed over to join the crowds lined up to watch the start, and were lucky enough to see vehicles start from several of the classes – they are LOUD! Owen was thrilled and I have to admit to being pretty entertained!
When we initially checked in to the country, we had been unable to complete the final step with the Port Captain as his system was down. As we were now intending to check out on Sunday, we took advantage of being able to check in and out at the same time. Again, the marina prepared the paper work and drove us over. An hour later the process was again complete – we had another 48 hours and then needed to check out of the Ensenada port.
We then had some more shopping to do – lucky us. We had a cab called to take us to Home Depot and then walked over to the Costco. After completing our restock of the boat, we asked them to call a cab to take us back to the marina. We waited outside for quite some time when, finally, someone came out of the store to tell us that there was not a cab available. Umm – problem – we were 5km from the marina and had a cart load of groceries and it was now dark!!! We were quite panicked!! I called the marina and explained our dilemma and they shortly had a cab on their way to us (did I mention that they were amazing there!?)
The next morning, I pulled Owen up the mast so that he could install the new windvane, and while he was up there, he resecured the spreader boots and installed new Dyneema running backstays. We ran around to find the final fruits and veggies that would get us through our next passage and went back to the marina to do laundry.
Sunday morning was our last day – we went on a mission to find my lime Fritos (need to get stocked up on those!), ended up wandering all over Ensenada again, found ourselves at a Revolution Day Parade and finally made it back to the boat with sore feet! We filled up the water in the boat, grabbed last showers and headed out to start to explore Mexico!
And what a port it was!!! We thoroughly enjoyed our time in San Diego – even though it was a bit longer than anticipated.
Having left Avalon mid-day, we sailed through the night in very light winds – every once in a while we would get a teaser of a wind increase, the boat would take off and almost immediately we would sail out of the wind! We were finally approaching San Diego early morning and mistakenly came in fairly close to shore – in the midst of the thickest seaweed we had ever seen (the nice stringy stuff that might as well be ropes!) and a field of crab traps. Navigating through the traps literally required me calling instructions for Owen to go left and right at very quick intervals. Once we made it through that, we made our way to the Harbour Police Dock where were required to have our boat inspected prior to being permitted to anchor in the A9 anchorage.
This is the odd thing about San Diego – there are very few anchorages and the ones that are there are very regulated – some can only be occupied on weekends, most are for only 3 nights. The A9 anchorage is restricted to boats that are from out of town and prior to being granted a permit, you must have the boat inspected, which included verifying that we had life jackets, adequate ground tackle and our bilge was clean. Once the very nice (and oh so young) officers finished their inspection, they granted us a permit good for 30 days (that could have been extended a further 60 days!) and we were off to the anchorage.
The A9 anchorage is located immediately in front of the runway for the international airport and close to downtown. We were a bit worried that the constant noise from planes was going to be an issue but we really did not find it was so – after the first evening, we hardly noticed them.
Our second day in San Diego saw the weather that we had been running from fully materialize – it was windy and grey and a little rainy (not our idea of perfect So Cal weather!). We hunkered down on the boat, got a few projects done and caught up on sleep. We were entertained with a fireworks show later that evening – it appeared to have been put on for a cruise ship leaving port, but we like to think it was a welcome to San Diego gift to us!!
Our second day we dinghied over to Shelter Island where there are a multitude of boat yards, marinas, marine supply stores, etc. We managed to find an amazing hole-in-the-wall Mexican spot for lunch and great maritime book store. Of course, with the days being shorter, we ended up dinghying back at sunset – and what a sunset it was!!!
Our next day saw us begin our tourism spree!!! Our first stop in San Diego was the USS Midway Museum – a decommissioned aircraft carrier and pretty much the coolest way to spend a day. We headed over around noon thinking that if we didn’t stay there too long, we might also check out the Maritime Museum – yeah – no – we were pretty much chased off the ship when they closed at 5 – having still not seen several of the display areas and probably 2/3 of the planes on the deck!!! The ship is literally a small, floating city that would have housed about 4000 people. We wandered into the sleeping quarters, the mess area (where they may also have assembled a bomb if space was needed), the galleys, the hospital, dentist, brig, post office, bank, NCIS office, officers quarters, captain quarters, the engine room – it went on and on!!! We finished up our tour with a trip to the bridge – truly its own aircraft tower! We could have easily spent another hour or two there and it is something that we would (and did) recommend to everyone! We finished the day up with a stop for tacos (and craft beer) and a wander through the Seaport Village – a collection of stores, restaurants and an old carousel near the waterfront.
USS Midwaybig ass windlass!ready roomfound the welding shopI didn’t do it!
After such a busy day of being tourists, we followed up the next day with – being tourists! This time we checked out the Maritime Museum – a collection of several ships, including an old steam ferry, a submarine, a gentleman’s steam powered fishing yacht (which was incidentally restored in BC), a tall ship, a spanish galleon and the oldest iron hulled sailing ship still in operation (the Star of India), along with a number of displays. We were lucky enough to attract the attention of one of the docents – an elderly veteran of the Second World War and Korea. He took us all through the engine room of the Steam Ferry – firing this and that up (I truly had no idea what I was seeing but it was cool!) and talking our ear off about a bit of everything for an hour or so!!
submarine panelSpanish GalleonThe BerkeleyStar of India
The next day, not to be outdone by our two previous days of being tourists, we again put our feet to the streets and headed to Old Town – a collection of buildings remaining from the early 1900’s which have now been turned into stores, restaurants, etc. We did of course manage to hunt down a fantastic Mexican restaurant before beginning our exploration. Once we finished there we took ourselves further afield, stopping in at a few bigger stores (Joann’s fabric, Home Depot, Dicks and Target) before finally calling for a Lyft to get home – it was only as the driver was heading onto the freeway that we realized how far we had gone – turned out we had put about 6 miles on our tired tootsies!!!
Perhaps it was a good thing after three days of non-stop walking and exploring, but the next day unfortunately had a bad weather surprise for us – blowing 18, full on waves in the anchorage and raining. We again had a “stay on the boat” day – accomplishing a whole lot of nothing (which was actually quite needed!) The next day was still a bit rough and we again spent much of the day on board before heading in about 4pm to get our Covid boosters (can’t be too safe) and taking a short stroll through Little Italy – good thing we already had dinner pulled out because there were so many good restaurants there I could never have chosen!!!
One of the reasons that we had stuck around San Diego so long (other than that we were loving it) was that we were waiting for the replacement for our windvane. As the replacement vane was to be delivered to a shop on Shelter Island on Thursday, we dinghied over in the morning to get a few more errands done and to wait to pick up the part. We took a Lyft back up to Target to pick up a printer that I had ordered (and had lunch at a fantastic old style diner) and then took a Lyft back to be back in time to pick up the parcel. Unfortunately, when we got it back to the boat we realized that they had sent the vane back, but had not returned the control cable, rendering the item unusable. Friday morning Owen was back on the phone with B&G and thankfully they agreed to ship the new cable overnight (after first hinting that it could be another 7 to 10 days to get it!).
Because we had not been to a dock since Santa Barbara and had not been plugged in since Alameda (and our water and power situation were becoming a bit dicey), we had decided to take a slip at the Harbour Police guest dock on Shelter Island for a night. We moved the boat over mid-day and after a bit of futzing and visiting with other dock-mates, we headed out to do laundry (a 1.5 mile trip with our little buggy full of laundry bags – I felt like a homeless person!!!). It was (of course!) dark by the time we got back to the boat but I reveled in turning on the heat (because I didn’t need to worry about conserving power!) and curled up to enjoy a quiet night on the boat.
Saturday morning we filled the boat with water and were off the dock shortly after 11. We needed to move back to A9 anchorage and then dinghy back to Shelter Island to pick up our cable that was to be delivered by noon. Originally, the tracking indicated it was on the truck for noon delivery – and then it was updated to “end of day” – uh oh!! We held off as long as we could and then wandered over the mailbox place in hopes we would get there the same time as the part – no such luck. As chance would have it, the mailbox place is directly next door to the first fantastic Mexican spot that we had found, so we stopped in for a taco and were excited to see the Fed Ex truck arrive while we were eating – less excited when told nothing had been dropped off. Finally, after a trip to West Marine and a final hopeful check at store, we headed back to the boat fairly frustrated by the lack of success. We had actually hoped to check out of the country on Sunday and head out for Ensenada Sunday afternoon but we were now stuck waiting – again!!!!
On Monday we were again waiting for our part – the tracking kept indicating that no delivery date was available and Fedex had not gotten back to us in response to our request for a trace. We were again stuck on the boat, waiting… and I was none to happy about it!!! Sometime in the mid-afternoon Owen sent a text to the person who had let us use their mailbox to let him know about the lost part and to ask him to please leave it at the mailbox store if it ever appeared. He shortly thereafter texted back to say that he had it – he had just picked it up and hadn’t realized that it was Owen’s until he opened it – and still the tracking said it was lost!!! I have a sneaking suspicion that the part was actually there on Saturday but had sadly not been scanned when it was delivered. Unfortunately, the part was not now at Shelter Island but was instead at Dana Landing on Mission Beach – we decided that, rather than waiting for him to take it to Shelter Island in the morning, we would head over to Dana Landing and again called a Lyft (thank heavens for that service!). We managed to connect to pick up the part and then decided that, as we were so close, we should go and check out Mission Beach. I had somehow not realized that Belmont Park was at Mission Beach – along with the wooden roller coaster that my sister had insisted I had to ride. I had previously demurred because we had already decided that we had touristed ourselves out and we weren’t going to head to anymore spots in San Diego. But here we were – and the roller coaster really didn’t look too bad when watching it from the front, in the semi-dark… so we decided to go for it. Oy vey!!! Turns out we are way to OLD for roller coasters – I alternately screamed and swore for nearly 2 minutes, getting whiplash at every corner!!! It was fun and terrifying and I will NEVER do it again!!! lol We finally made it back to the boat quite late (thanks again Lyft). It was finally time to get the boat buttoned up – tomorrow we would be leaving.
Mission Beach Sunset
Tuesday morning we were up and headed for the airport to check out by mid-morning. Thankfully that process was quick and painless and an hour later we were back at the boat to finish up the last minute to-do’s. The jacklines were put back on, the outboard and dinghy brought back up and everything that might fly around the cabin tucked away (we thought!). We made a last stop for water and fuel and at about 4pm, as dark fell (ugh – why is it so dark so early!) we headed back out San Diego Harbour – next stop Mexico!!!!!
Sunset on transit from San Francisco to Santa Cruz
That is a lot of Santas! We continued our exploration of the California Coast, stopping first at Santa Cruz. We had intended a short stop over at Half Moon Bay after leaving San Francisco, but the sailing was great and we decided to push onto Santa Cruz instead. We arrived mid-day on October 18 and anchored in front of the amusement park and just off of the pier. Rolling a bit in the constant pounding surf, we were constantly serenaded by the hundreds of Sea Lions that live under the wharf – they are a raucous bunch!! We dinghied over to the landing at the pier (a beach landing is not even a possibility in that surf!), and wandered around – this is definitely a beach town and other than the pier and amusement park (which was closed), didn’t seem to have a lot of activity. We could see how spending a few days here in the summer, hanging out at the beach and trying out the multitude of restaurants could be appealing. If you are a surfer, it is likely a great destination – those waves which are so intimidating for us with our dinghy are likely great fun on a surf board!
Santa Cruz shorelinesun setting on Santa Cruz
October 19 we were under way again – after a very long wait for fuel (the power boat putting 400 gallons of fuel in ahead of us took a while – sure glad we weren’t paying his bill!) we headed out across Monterey Bay and had a beautiful slow sail all afternoon. We moved very slowly all through that night and the next day (having flashbacks to our departure from Eureka!) We knew that we had weather marching down on us but it sure wasn’t reaching us!! Our original plan on leaving Santa Cruz was to go directly to Catalina Island. However, after so many days of slow sailing, we were quickly realizing that we were not going to make it ahead of the weather – instead, we determined to head to Santa Barbara. I don’t know why, but I had not wanted to go to Santa Barbara at all – some review I had read had put me off and I was quite upset that we were going to have to detour there. The wind filled and died all through the night on the 21st – this was our first experience with offshore oil platforms and trying to maintain a course clear of them and the traffic lane, while trying to make sense of the crazy lights on shore (it was a highway – the crazy lights were vehicles – took waaay too long to get that straight!) made for a long night. The next morning, as we ghosted along to Santa Barbara, both of us exhausted from too little sleep, Owen glanced around and was horrified to realize that the water was full of oil – we were about to call in and report a spill when Owen did a bit of googling and discovered that Santa Barbara has always had an issue with oil bubbling up from underground reservoirs – a problem that seems worse now as decommissioned offshore sites were not capped properly and the natural fissures are leaking more oil because there are fewer rigs drawing it up. Whatever the reasoning it was sad to see (and smell) and certainly did not make us want to go swimming!
Sunset en route to Santa Barbara
As it turned out, we LOVED Santa Barbara – it is a pretty, warm city with palm trees and Spanish style architecture. We found the BEST mercado where I was actually able to buy my lime fritos (I have been anxiously awaiting our arrival in Mexico so that I could get my hands on them!). We spent our first night there wandering on Stearn’s Wharf and then off to a great local restaurant for dinner. We weren’t entirely clear on the why, but there was a group of people dressed up as zombies performing the Thriller dance all over town – we had caught the show on the pier and then had the fun of them dancing all around us in the restaurant!! Day 2 saw us again putting the miles on our feet as we sought out the Precidio – a Spanish Military base built in the 1700’s as well as enjoying State Street – which is shut off to traffic and packed with restaurants, shops and bars. We were sad to leave Santa Barbara but excited to head out for Catalina Island finally!
Santa Barbara – so many palm trees!Sunset with the Santa Barbara Yacht Club in the backgroundOwen was coveting this little boat! A business idea for when we get home??!!A very small portion of the insanely large marina!Santa Barbara PrecidioPrecidio Chapel
We timed our departure from Santa Barbara mid-afternoon so that we would arrive at Catalina Island in daylight – we opted to head first to Catalina Harbour as we were confident we could anchor there. It is so sparse – like the surface of the moon. We walked over the isthmus to check out Two Harbours and can’t claim to be at all impressed. It is small “village” that seems to have been built in the 70’s or so and not maintained since then. Apparently this end of the Island is more geared to camping, hiking and water sports so other than a restaurant/ bar, small store and shower/laundry, there is not much here. If you are so inclined you can spend $175 to have a palapa or $25 for a chair on the sandy beach – otherwise there is a small strip of rocky beach to access. The store is insanely overpriced and the washrooms are dated. We hung out at Cat Harbour for a couple more days, getting some boat projects done and generally just enjoying some down time.
The barren coast of Santa Catalina IslandCatalina “Cat” HarbourThe isthmus between Cat Harbour and Isthmus HarbourTwo Harbours
We finally headed off to Avalon with mixed emotions – we had heard so many good things about it but I was worried it was just a money-grab – nearly every inch of every harbour in the vicinity of Avalon is choked with mooring balls (at $50 a night) – the only anchorage area is very exposed and apparently in 150 feet of water!!! Additionally, the mooring balls are packed in super close and are a bow/stern set up – something we have never seen before. Owen made sure to watch the “how to” video and we headed in. Our first pleasant surprise came when they let us know that their “winter rates” were in effect and once we paid for the mandatory 2 nights on the mooring ball, we were entitled to stay an additional 5 nights free. The harbour patrol boat gave us our mooring assignment and sent us on our way into the packed harbour. Thankfully, he must have sensed we really had no idea what we were doing and followed us in – the current of course managed to take our stern around while Owen was trying to wrestle up the bow line and get the “sand line” in hand – the harbour boat was there to give us a little nudge and get us back inline with the stern line – finally, with a lot of sand and muck on the boat, and Owen, we were able to get ourselves secured fore and aft and take a look around. It would seem that Avalon is where all the water on the island is funneled – there were lush plants and palm trees climbing up the hill. The actual town is just one square mile with some houses built up the hills surrounding the town. It was pretty and warm and just about the picture perfect town we had envisioned! I was sitting in the cockpit just enjoying the show of boats coming and going when the chimes rung to signify 5pm – followed by nearly every other vessel in the harbour blowing their horns – apparently this is to signify the 5pm happy hour and who am I to disregard such an edict?!
Avalon, Santa Catalina IslandAvalon Harbour
After a couple of hours of entertaining ourselves with the harbour comings and goings, we headed into the pier – the boardwalk was crawling with people – I had expected it might be a bit more quiet so late in October but obviously the weekend traffic is still high as is the energy! We had dinner at Luau Larry’s – complete with tiki hut tables – in a front row booth giving us a perfect spot to people watch and boat watch.
Sunday we went back in and walked pretty much every inch of the town – from the Ferry Pier right around to the Casino. The Casino – ahhh – that had been one of my sticking points about going to Avalon – I didn’t want to go somewhere that was geared to rich guys bringing their big boats over to gamble for the weekend. Turns out casino means “meeting place” in Italian and it is not in fact a “casino” but instead a building with an old Art Deco theatre on the main floor and a circular ballroom on the third. Sadly it was not open for us to take a look around in but just a peek of the murals outside and the crazy beautiful box-office was a good glimpse.
Murals at the Casino theatre entranceThe Box Office!
Monday we got a mandatory laundry day in, shipped our non-functioning wind sensor back to B & G, and then spent most of the day at the boat. We were planning to spend another few days here – with Dias de Las Muertes events occurring on Tuesday (including a free tequila tasting!) we had wanted to stick around. Our original plan had been to leave sometime on Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately, we were chatting with some other boats and they mentioned a fairly big change in the weather was incoming – with winds expected to start to build on Wednesday night and those winds to be hitting the 30’s on Thursday morning, we realized that we either needed to get out of there on Tuesday, or we would be stuck until at least Friday – while we thoroughly enjoyed Avalon, we didn’t think there was enough to hold our interest for another week (especially as we noted it was much, much quieter during the week). All things considered, we made the decision to leave late morning on Tuesday and head to San Diego — this will be our last stop in the States and then it is onto Mexico!!!
We left Eureka, California at about 4pm on September 30 – bad timing on our part as it meant that we passed over the Humbold Bay Bar on an ebb tide – making for huge standing waves against us as we passed out – it was a bit scary and more that a couple of times I suggested that perhaps we should turn around and try again the next day, but after 5 days in Eureka, we were more than ready to get on our way. We held on for dear life, with the boat completely battened down and finally made it over the bar and out into a messy sea state. The holding on for dear life was just starting! Sitting up in the cockpit required holding onto a winch to be sure you weren’t flung onto the floor every time the boat pitched and rolled. There was virtually no wind to help us make our way through the waves and everything was very, very uncomfortable – not a promising start to this next leg of our trip!
October 1 continued with light wind, overcast skies and cold temperatures requiring us to do just 2 hour shifts. I was down making dinner and warming up when Owen shouted for me to come up on deck – 3 grey whales were headed right for our bow – we were finally sailing at this point, but still slowly – Owen was concerned that if he tried to turn away from them, they would run right into the side of our hull so he held course and hoped they would move away – just at the last second, two of then dove right in front of the boat and the third continued along the side of us, his tail was meters from the boat when he finally dove!!! (of course neither of us thought to grab a camera in that moment!)
October 2 continued the light wind theme, requiring us to motor for a few hours, both to charge the batteries that were fast being depleted as we had not seen the sun in days, and also to get us moving – we had thought we would make the run from Eureka to San Francisco in a couple of days and here we were bobbing along making almost no progress!!!
The wind finally began to build on the evening of October 3 and by 2 am we were running ahead of 20 knots of wind in very sloppy seas. It was a wild, cold night but we made amazing progress!!! We had thought we might duck in behind Point Reyes to regroup before continuing onto San Francisco but come morning, as we were rounding the point, we realized that continuing on would put us at the bridge at nearly the perfect time to cross the bar so we continued on – slowly as of course the wind had died as fast as it built the night before!!
Finally, at about 4pm on October 4, 2022 we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge – what a feeling! For years, this was the “moment” that I had dreamed about and in my mind it marked the end of the delivery and the beginning of the adventuring! We made our way through crazy afternoon water traffic – boats, ferries, wind surfers, kite surfers – everywhere you looked someone was enjoying some part of the bay!!!
Under the Bridge!!Tired and relieved to be in San Francisco!
We anchored in Aquatic Park – an amazing little protected anchorage that does not allow power boats!!! The Park is used by open water swimmers as a training ground and as such, you are allowed only to motor to set your anchor and dinghies are not permitted to use anything bigger than a 5hp outboard – we loved it!!!! Coming into the anchorage I commented to Owen that we needed to keep a sharp eye out for swimmers – his response was that there was no way anyone was swimming – after all, he was wearing 2 toques! As it turned out, there were 50 or more swimmers in the water that evening – none of them wearing wetsuits!!! The Park is in an ideal location – out the entrance we were staring at Alcatraz and on shore, Ghirardelli Square.
View of Ghirardelli Square at nightSolstice Tide anchored in Aquatic Park with Alcatraz in the background
For the next couple of days, we rowed into shore, stashing our dinghy up on the beach (no dinghy dock here!) and explored the City. We checked out Ghirardelli Square (mmmm – hot fudge sundaes!), Fisherman’s Wharf, and Pier 39. While the Wharf and Pier are really just a collection of restaurants and shopping, it was a fun energy and as a bonus, the Blue Angels were in town for an Airshow that weekend and were practicing overheard all day.
Yum!Fisherman’s WharfPier 39
We took Friday to visit Alcatraz – what a place!!! It is eerie and disturbing – knowing that not only the convicts – who in most cases earned their way there with their behavior in other prisons – lived there but also the guards and their families was hard to believe. The island has a sinister feeling to it – the jail is cold and foreboding and at the same time, the prisoners would have been able to see and hear San Francisco so close. I had not realized the Island was originally a military prison and only learned of the Indian Occupation that occurred in the 70’s while touring the Island. To top off our visit, the first of the weekend’s airshows started as we were exploring the Island and continued while we took the ferry back to San Francisco.
Dark and dankThe remains of the warden’s houseA typical cell – so small!The airshow is starting!
Saturday we had planned to do some more exploring until we realized how crazy the anchorage was going to get!! By about 11am boats were descending on the anchorage in order to watch that day’s airshow – in an anchorage designed for 14 boats, we were suddenly seeing three times that number of boats and it was very clear that many of those boaters didn’t usually leave the docks – finally with 2 boats anchored within meters of our bow (and surely over our anchor) and another just off our stern, we decided the wiser course of action would be to hang out and watch the airshow so that we were there to take action if our anchor was taken up when the boats tried to leave. As it turned out the bigger show was in watching these inexperience sailors coming in and out of the anchorage all day, as well as watching the harbor patrol chasing out any power boat that tried to come in – the actual airshow was sadly lost in the day’s low lying cloud cover. We spoke to a local a few days later who confirmed that for many Bay Area boaters, there are only 3 days of the year that they might anchor – the opening of the season, July 4 and the annual Fleet Week Airshow.
As we were only permitted to be in the Park for 5 days, we decided to head over the Alameda on the Sunday – we spent 2 nights at a marina and another 3 in an old fish packer’s basin, waiting for some mail to arrive at the UPS store and getting a few jobs done. One of the items we were waiting on, and one of the jobs to be done, was parts for our diesel heater – unfortunately we had not remembered to plug the exhaust when we left and somewhere in the crazy weather we experience before Eureka we had drowned the blower motor for the heater. Owen had tried to fix it but everything was so corroded we had no choice but to order a new blower motor – luckily Planar had them in stock and were able to immediately ship one to us. Lesson learned!!!
We spent a day wandering all over Alameda – while there are not many attractions in Alameda, they do have a beautiful waterfront walkway, meandering between marinas and housing complexes. One of the marinas had a really cool houseboat village. They also have possibly the largest chandlery we have ever seen – Svendson’s had at least one of everything you could ever require for your boat!! It also appeared that they stocked the entire Harken catalogue! We finished up our day of exploring with a turkey dinner on the boat to mark Canadian Thanksgiving.
Houseboat village in AlamedaHappy Thanksgiving!
Once all our mail had arrived we contacted the Aquatic Park Harbour Master to request permission to go back to the Park, even though we had not yet passed our required 7 days out of the Park – he consented and we immediately headed over to San Francisco again.
One of the gripes we had had in San Francisco was the weather – it had been fairly consistently cool, overcast and very windy and cold in the afternoons. The weather at home meanwhile was georgous – high twenties and all sunshine!!! During our stint in Alameda we had experienced some much nicer weather so, as we headed back across the bay and the clouds descended, the wind built and the temperature dropped we did wonder why we were moving!!!
Back in San Francisco we were able to get another day of exploring in, finally getting in a Cable Car ride, a visit to a fantastic local bookstore (Russian Hill Bookstore – so awesome!), a very uphill wander to to the top of Lombard Street (the steepest street in San Francisco) and another steep walk to Coit Tower (where the elevator was out of order, requiring us to climb 13 flights of stairs!!). We were definitely walked out by the end of that day!
Lombard Street – the steepest street in San FranciscoAquatic Park from Coit Tower – Solstice Tide is anchored at the right of the pictureOne of the very cool murals in Coit TowerAlcatraz from Coit TowerResting up before heading back to the boat!
Our final day in San Francisco saw us doing those mundane errands that sadly don’t go away just because we are adventuring! – laundry and groceries and getting everything battened down for our next leg.
tjsailing 