It feels like we have been in La Cruz forever!!! Once we crossed over to La Cruz in February, we had a couple of weeks to get ourselves and the boat sorted. We did a big grocery shop – it had been quite a bit since we had been in a place that had really good grocery stores and we took advantage. We had just finished stowing all that away when one of our fellow boat friends suggested a trip to Costco – though it was early to be getting our full provisioning started, it seemed like a good opportunity to just do a run around the store to start to finalize my provisioning list – five hundred dollars later, we left the store with just the start of the list done – non-perishable items like vacuum sealer bags, garbage bags, paper towel, cheese, bacon, etc – not exactly just a look around shop but it did get some of the big items out of the way!
The first round of provisioning begins
Once we had that done, we headed down to Barra for a quick visit with Owen’s Mom, Brother and Sister-in-Law, all of whom had been enjoying themselves in Melaque for the month of February. We had an exciting trip down – the winds just south of Cabo Corrientes built to about 25 knots, gusting higher and we were clearly in some pretty good positive current – that has to be the only explanation for the boat hitting 10.2 knots – she just isn’t capable of going that fast!!!! It was a pretty wild few hours as we helped the Hydrovane to stay on course and marveled at the continuous 8+ speeds!!!
So fast!!! lol
We realized that we were going to arrive at Barra in the very early hours of the morning and decided instead to head into Tenacatita to drop the hook for the night – it was quite dark when we arrived but with the assistance of radar and AIS we were able to approach the anchored fleet and land ourselves just on the outer edge. We were not there to stay however and had the hook up early the next morning for the short trip around the corner and into the Barra lagoon. After a few attempts to find a spot that felt deep enough (I swear the lagoon is shallower this year!!) we were able to get the hook set and finally catch our breath. We ended up holding off on going into Melaque until the next day and instead had a quiet afternoon on the boat. The next day started with the delightful arrival of the French Baker boat. Once we had devoured our treats, we, along with our friend Rob, headed into Melaque. We arrived just in time for the local market and as it happened, we needed to travel right through it to get to the condo that Owen’s family was staying at. After grabbing some lovely fresh fruit and eggs, we all had a nice visit at the condo before the three of us, along with Owen’s brother and SIL, wandered into the town for lunch.
The next few days followed a similar pattern with family visits, some dinners out and lots of time sitting in the shade of the almond trees at the condo. Unfortunately, we had to make the decision to head north earlier than we had perhaps intended – meaning we had to cut our family visit short and miss out on an actual visit to Tenacatita. There was a weather window that would allow us to get back up around Cabo Corrientes (motoring for 27 hours unfortunately – but not taking 30 knots on the nose!) and we didn’t want to miss it.
Once we were back in La Cruz, we jumped into attending all of the seminars and meetings geared to people heading across the South Pacific. A doctor attended to give us an idea of what should be in our medical kit, and again later to do a short CPR seminar. Fellow cruisers on Totem joined with Mike at PV Sails to put on Safety at Sea seminars, even inflating an old life raft (which proved to be infested with ants!!). Totem hosted a seminar on what to expect once we get to the South Pacific, discussing possible routes once we have finally made that first big jump. The Vallarta Yacht Club hosted a Pacific Puddle Jump seminar with info on Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand. Mike at PV Sails had people zoom in from those locations as well, at our Friday meetings, giving everyone the ability to ask questions of the reps. There have been weather seminars and provisioning seminars (which I unfortunately missed but got good notes from a friend!) We have also been knocking jobs off our list – probably more slowly that we would like but every job done is satisfying!
The pizza dough got a little away from me!Where mattresses and furniture are sold out of the back of a truck!
We did need to take a day out of working to head to the airport – we had ordered items to be delivered to the condo and of course they arrived after we had been there so we made the trip to the airport where we were able to receive our packages from Owen’s family before they headed back to Canada. It was good to get in one more visit and get good last hugs before we head out on the next leg of our adventure.
We have had a few nights off – a night out with about 17 other cruisers for ribs, a couple of dinners out after the Friday meetings and dinner on a friend’s boat. We ended up doing a short sight-seeing trip to Bucerias when a trip to pick up a package at the DHL outlet ended with the location closed for Semana Santa – figured as we were there we might as well do a little look around! Owen snuck in a few days of racing – unfortunately the boat he was on was damaged and they had to cut their regatta short!
Some of the Rib Night Entertainment!
Last night was the “Last Chance to Dance” party – an event put on by PV Sails and Mexico Marine as a send off to everyone heading out – whether across to French Polynesia, north to Hawaii and/or back to Canada or west coast of the US. It was a fantastic night of good tacos, great music, a big bonfire and wonderful visits with other cruisers.
Kid Boat Ingenuity – a metal rake used to roast marshmallows!
And so here we are, still in La Cruz! We still have a few jobs to do on the boat and do need to get our big provisioning done but we are eyeing early next week to begin the check out process and keeping an eye out for that next weather window – it appears it will likely be mid-month and at that time we will make the jump to French Polynesia!
At about 4pm, we decided that it was time to depart Los Muertos. The winds had settled down to the mid-teens and though we knew the sea state was going to be rough, we also knew this was our window. We got everything tucked away and went to fire up the engine – nothing! Tried again – nothing. Ummmm…. Owen had a think for a moment and then went back to check the glow plug resister – and found it pretty much melted!!! Apparently, at some point, we had over glow-plugged!!! He was able to quickly by-pass the resister and we were underway. Just another job to add to the list!!! Things were very, very rolly as we got underway!!! The waves were hitting the boat from every direction and, at one point, I took a series of waves right in the face!!!! Thankfully, though it was still windy, the wind was pretty warm – it would have been a pretty miserable wet night otherwise!!!!
Owen was just getting settled in for his off-watch while I was tucked in in the cockpit with blankies and my podcasts – I felt around on the bench beside me to find my phone, to confirm that our heading was good – I grabbed what I thought was the end of the traveler line – it was pretty wet and soggy and I kind of rolled it through my fingers thinking “wow – did we ever get doused earlier!” – suddenly, it occurred to me that what was in my hand did not feel like rope – in fact it felt pretty slimy – ummmm – I put my hand up into the light of the chart plotter and realized I had some sort of sea creature in my hand! Screaming ensued – I rushed down the ladder and into the head, yelling “flying fish on my hand, flying fish on my hand!!” Owen, who was just trying to get himself wedged onto the settee grabbed a flashlight and shone it up in the cockpit – of course laughing at me while I scrubbed the skin off my hands – there was actually a squid still sitting where I had dropped it beside my seat, and another on the floor. He dispatched those two into the sea – the next morning we found another one on the deck and the day after that found one we had missed – it had been a bit wedged under the pole – it did not smell good when Owen scraped it off the deck!!! I can’t help but shudder to think that I could very well have taken one of those in the face during that big wave!!! Ewwwww
This is the one I manhandled – bleck!
The rest of the night went along with much less drama – by my second off watch, the sea state had leveled out so much that I went to sleep in the bed (quite uncomfortable in any kind of spicy conditions) and had a great sleep!!! The winds were pretty light all through the next day though we did manage to keep moving at around 3 knots. By the time we were heading into the night, the winds were very light and the seas nearly flat – we both slept all shifts in bed that night. Unfortunately, we were going very slow – Owen had a 3 miles in 3 hours shift!! I have to admit that I am becoming concerned about crossing the Ocean when it seems to take us five days just to cross the Sea of Cortez every time!!!
We sailed along with the wind picking up every afternoon and dying again in the early morning. We were finally in the final approach to Isla Isabella – conditions had been quite crazy the night before with big waves hitting us broadside – I actually slept in the cockpit at one point – just couldn’t bring myself to go below and get tossed out of the settee!!! Sure enough, just as the sun was starting to set on our 4th night at sea, the wind and waves started to build. By 11pm we were flying along with no main up and just a sliver of headsail, and making over six knots. At this rate we were going to miss Isla Isabella entirely – we anticipated flying right by it at 2am!!!! As it was the wind did slowly start to die – at first it looked like we might make it to Isabella just around sunrise and then, as the wind started to die even further, we were realizing we might not make until mid-day!!! What a difference a few knots makes!!! We finally fired up the engine when we were about 8 miles from Isabella and landed in the anchorage about 10am. We had had friends tell us they had to sail on by because the anchorage was full so we were so happy to see only one other boat in the anchorage. We edged our way into the anchorage, avoiding the waves crashing onto rock formations on the one side, and the reef and rocks on the other – it sure didn’t feel like a safe place to be!!! We attached a trip line and float to our anchor as we had heard that the bottom was quite rocky and we didn’t want to lose our anchor!!! Once we were fully set we took an hour or so to get ourselves recovered and to be sure we were not going to go anywhere and then we got the dinghy in the water and went ashore. We were a little uneasy about this as well – there had been reports from people that had arrived by dinghy only to be told they were only permitted to explore the Island with a guide. When we approached the shore there were a few people unloading pangas that had just arrived with tour groups – we asked them if it was okay to walk around and they assured us it was, warmly welcoming us. What a relief! With that sorted, we headed out in search of the holy grail of birds – the blue footed boobies!!!! We have been trying to catch a glimpse of these guys our entire time in Mexico. We have heard of sightings of them in places we have been but had not yet caught a glimpse of them – we knew that our chances here were almost guaranteed and we were not disappointed!!
There are birds everywhere as you approach the Island!!!
Once we managed to find our way over to the East Beach we discovered the little characters. They appear to nest on the ground – we had to walk around one mamma who fluffed herself out and gave us a bit of a talking to. We found little groups of them just wandering around with their gorgeous blue feet – there is something so cute and communal about them. I joked that the group of four of them that were tucked in under a tree were probably the dads, taking a break from getting squawked at by the mammas – they literally looked like a group of guys at the pub!!! We just crouched down and watched them for a half hour or so and then decided we had interrupted their day enough. After some celebratory high fives and a happy dance by me, we made our way back to the south end, and our awaiting dinghy. We headed back out to the boat, got the dinghy up and were back underway by early evening.
It was another lumpy night – I slept one of my off-watch shifts on deck as it is just too uncomfortable to be below. We finally began our approach into Bay of Banderas just as the sun was coming up – we had a beautiful sail in, finally firing up the motor when we were about 2 miles out of the anchorage. We were welcomed to the bay by dolphins and whales and beautiful warm sunshine!!! We got the anchor down amongst 40 or 50 other boats and breathed a sigh of relief. After 4 days and 22 hours but we were back on the mainland.
After a bit of a clean up and a rest, we took ourselves into town and enjoyed dinner out. Our initial plan was to do a quick turn and burn here and to get down to Barra but it is looking like we might be here a couple of weeks before the weather lets us get away – we have a lot to do in any case!!!
We started with one blissfully calm day in Refugio, where we managed to get the tape off the windows and go to a neighboring boat for drinks. That was followed by a day where the boat rolled endlessly from side to side in big rollers. My coffee even ended up flying right off the shelf at the back of the settee and landing square on my laptop! Thankfully we got that cleaned up quickly and no harm was done. The rolly conditions continued into the night but were joined by torrential rain, booming thunder and lightning that seemed too close for comfort!! Understandably, with the boat still rolling the next morning and a northerly on its way, we decided to depart from Refugio and head to the hurricane hole known as Don Juan.
Don Juan is a good-sized cove in Bahia de Los Angeles and is protected from nearly all directions. We set the hook later afternoon, with 3 other boats in the cove and decided we were there to stay through Christmas. That being decided, I restrung the Christmas lights around the lifelines and pulled out our little tree. We enjoyed three peaceful days, watching movies, calling family and friends for Christmas and generally NOT doing anything boat chore related. We watched It’s a Wonderful Life, had blueberry muffins for breakfast and sipped Ronpope (the liqueur version of eggnog). We were blissfully lazy – that is until the head would not flush – ugggh. A blockage in the hose from the pump to the tank meant for a disgusting and stinky job – the hose had to be pulled, cleared and rinsed out and then reinstalled. Bleck!!! The joys of boat ownership I guess.
So Peaceful at Don Juan!
After three days there, and realizing that it had been nearly 10 days since I had done a reasonable grocery shop, we decided to head around to the village for the day in hopes of stocking up on veggies and perhaps some chicken. We loaded up all of the garbage into the dinghy, along with our trusty cart and motored around to set the anchor in front of the village. Thankfully they have a very protected dingy landing spot so we were able to land without drama and loaded all our various bags of garbage into the cart and headed off to town. We sprinkled our garbage bags in the bins that line the main street and finally, with our cart empty, we arrived at the grocery store. Sadly, the vegetables were all in horrid condition and there was not much to be found in the way of meat (previously frozen but now thawing meat always makes me nervous!) or cheese. We finally stocked up on pop, chips and cookies and hoped we wouldn’t starve before we made it back to civilization! Owen decided we should treat ourselves to lunch and we had the longest wait in history for okay burgers, all the while the wind was building in the bay. After finally scarfing down our burgers (which arrived nearly an hour and a half after they were ordered!), we had a very wet dinghy ride back against the wind and waves to the boat. The anchor was up quickly and we beat into ever increasingly bad conditions, wind and seas both building right on our nose, making the six mile run back to Don Juan feel like forever. We finally made it back to the peace of Don Juan and gratefully got the anchor down again.
The next morning we decided that we had better get moving along, before our boat attached itself to the bottom at Don Juan!!! We were up early and had the anchor up before sunrise. We motored out of the bay and around the corner before putting out the headsail only. We sailed all day, averaging 5-6 knots on headsail alone – it was a glorious day and Solstice Tide was so enjoying spreading her wings and not running her motor!! About 4 miles from San Fransiquito, the wind started to die as did our speed. Realizing we needed to charge the batteries anyway, we fired up the engine and motored the last hour into the bay. We had the anchor down about 5pm, after a long glorious day of sailing. It was a bit of a rolly night but nothing like Refugio!!!
We decided that this was as good a spot as any to spend New Years and so, with not another boat in sight, we again settled ourselves in. We had a few blissfully quiet days at San Francisquito – not another boat came in to share the anchorage with us. We finally put the dinghy in the water and motored over to the small Caletta just off the bay where we found that indeed another boat had been there all along (we thought we had spotted one on our way in). The Caletta is the site of an eco-camping set up that was built decades ago and appears to have fallen largely into disrepair. There were a few buildings left, and it did appear that perhaps a caretaker still lives there, but it does not appear to be a thriving enterprise any longer. It is somewhat sad as the beautiful white beach and protected waters would make for amazing kayaking, snorkelling, swimming, etc (in warmer weather!). We hiked around the property and then headed back to our boat.
January 2 found us finally leaving San Francisquito for an overnight sail to Santa Rosalia. We sailed throughout the night, with winds gusting into the 20’s. We were becoming concerned that we were going to arrive before daylight. The wind finally started to lighten in the morning and we fired up the engine about an hour out of Santa Rosalia – only to have it die after a few minutes – the tiny bubbles were back!!! We fired it up again and again and generally only managed about 15 minutes of run time before the engine would die again. The sea conditions were getting very rolly and the wind was dying completely – this was not good!!! Owen again bled the injectors as I continued our approach to Santa Rosalia. Our plan was to take a spot at the dock for a couple of nights but with the engine issues, we decided to get ourselves into the protected harbour, get the hook down and then figure out where the air was coming in. With the sail still up, and the anchor ready to be deployed immediately, we lined ourselves up on the entrance and, where I would normally go quite slowly through a narrow entrance with rocks on both sides, I didn’t back the throttle down a bit – we shot through and into the anchorage and got the anchor down – and of course the engine continued to happily hum away!! We finally decided that we were going to brave taking her to the dock (anchor still ready to deploy) and managed to get her safely on the dock by about 10am. Once we were checked in and had had a few minutes to recover, we went for a short walk around town so that Owen could procure the parts necessary to build a test pump to figure out where the air was getting into the system. We got back to the boat and he hooked up his test system, clamped off the lines and put soapy water on all the lines and filters and pumped air into the system – and immediately a giant bubble appeared on the primer pump for one of the fuel filters!! The culprit had been found. We have isolated that pump out of the system and, knock on wood, have not had further issues.
sneaky air leak!The old jail – right on the waterfront – those bars are the walls of cells and they would have been staring at the port!
We were intending to spend 2 nights on the dock – beside figuring out the air leak, we were having issues with our main bilge pump and the water pump was leaking. After the second day of work, we realized we really needed another day and booked in for one more day at the dock. Owen managed to knock off the items on the list, but we still needed to get water and fuel so we were going to be in for a busy morning the next day. Unfortunately, the next day, we found a red flag flying over the harbour meaning the port was closed – and that remained for 3 more days. We did take advantage of visiting one of our favorite cities – going for dinner with dock neighbors and wandering up and down the streets. We got groceries, hit nearly every ferrateria (hardware store) in town and of course made it the bakery. We indulged in ice cream and pina coladas and still managed to get a few jobs knocked off our list. We made countless trips across the street to get water and fuel and finally, a week after arriving, we again headed out, making our way further south.
Unfortunatley there was nearly no wind so we motored, with the occasional headsail assist, to Punto Chivato, right at the north end of Bahia Conception. We arrived just as the sun was setting, got the anchor down and retired below after a very long day!
The next morning, we had the anchor up about 10am, hoping for some wind to push us down Bahia Conception to Playa Santispac. Just as we were getting ready to lift our anchor, a panga came in right behind us and we watched as they laid a net out from directly behind us to a mile out of the bay. I was sure glad we were already on our way out as, when the wind shifted around and we pulled back on our anchor, we would have landed right on top of that net!!! We were largely denied the wind, only finally able to sail the last couple of miles into the anchorage. We had come into this anchorage on our way up the sea and found quite a few boats, but almost no campers on the beach. This time there was probably twice the number of boats, and the campers were cheek to jowl on the beach – it is a beautiful spot but the close quarters seem to belie the reason for going camping on the Baja!! This was our first time being amongst more than a few boats and it was so strange!!! We just hung out on the boat the next day – occasionally considering putting the dinghy in the water but, as it was pretty blustery, deciding that we would pass.
We were up before the sun on January 13 – motoring out of the anchorage in the dark of night. We motored up Bahia Conception and finally managed to sneak the sail out around the corner. We had a great day of sailing with some fairly gusty conditions. The seas were pretty big, occasionally causing us to roll quite abruptly from side to side but it was not anything we or the boat couldn’t handle. We finally stormed into San Juanico just as the sun was setting and set the anchor behind several other boats.
As much as we would have loved to have stayed at San Juanico for a couple of days, the weather forecast said we had better move on so, the next day, we lifted the anchor around 9:30 and with the headsail only out, we motored and motor sailed in very light conditions. We finally started to see more sealife on this trip – to now we had seen only a few dolphins – this trip we saw whales in the distance, dolphins and rays!!! We arrived at Isla Coronado mid-afternoon. Of course, the winds arrived just as we did, leaving the anchorage a bit windy for the first couple of hours that we were in. The next morning, I awoke to realize that all but one of the 5 or 6 boats that had been in the anchorage the night previous were gone – did they know something we didn’t? We opted to move the boat in closer to shore to get more into the lee of the island and put the dinghy in the water. We took the dinghy for a motor around towards the north end of the Island, hoping to perhaps see the Blue Footed Boobies that we knew nested there. On our first trip to Loreto, so many years prior, we had taken a snorkel trip over to Isla Coronado. The trip included heading around to the north end of the island – we were told to see Sea Lions – unfortunately the conditions were a bit spicy and some of our fellow passengers were not entirely comfortable (actually entirely terrified) – as we had of course seen plenty of sea lions, we advised the guide that if the rest of the group were not comfortable going around the island, we were okay to go back and start snorkeling. It was only after we got back and talked to the people on the other boat in our group that we learned there were blue footed boobies and they had in fact been spotted. Keeping this in mind, we really wanted to head around to the north end – unfortunately, the increasing north winds stopped us shy of our goal – we made it roughly to the top corner and then decided it would be safer to turn around and head into the beach. We went for a short walk in lovely white sand and then headed back to the boat. By the time we returned to the boat, we were the only boat left in the anchorage and so enjoyed a peaceful night at anchor.
It was time to get moving along again and so we had the anchor up by 8am the next morning and motored – motor sailed around to Island Carmen, located directly across from Loreto. We headed to Punta Balandra, joining several other boats in the serene anchorage. The rollers had gotten pretty intense about 2/3 of the way over so I was glad to have our anchor down and to relax for the afternoon. We left the next morning, attempting to head over to Loreto for the day. Instead, we were only about a mile and a half out of the anchorage before we were again hit broad-side by huge rollers. The wind was also stronger than hoped for so we turned around and headed back to Balandra. We wanted to be able to enjoy a day at Loreto without worrying about the boat, and this was not the day!! We put the dinghy in the water and headed into the beach for a walk and a chat with fellow cruisers.
The next day we tried again and this time were rewarded with flat calm conditions. We set the anchor to the north of the panga marina at Loreto and headed in to explore one of our favorite Pueblo Magicos. We of course began with pina coladas in the square and then headed out. We needed to get groceries and were hoping to find a new bilge pump to replace our not-entirely functional one. Owen also wanted a haircut. We found some of the parts Owen required at a ferrateria and found a ridiculously over-priced bilge pump (nearly $300!!! We passed!). Owen managed to get a quick haircut and then we headed over to get groceries. With the cart full we called for a cab to take us back. The conditions were a bit blusterier than when we left the boat and we got a bit wet going against the wind back out to the boat but it was not enough to keep us there for long. We unloaded what had to go into the fridge and freezer and then headed back in where we had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants and then wandered around town enjoying the quiet atmosphere! We finally headed back to the boat after dark, thankfully in flat calm conditions. We would have loved to have stayed here for days, but the reality is that it is an easy city to visit by air and not such an ideal spot to leave the boat so we knew we had to move along the next day.
See you soon Loreto!
Isla Carmen offers a multitude of wonderful anchorages – we actually had not realized how many – and so, we next headed around the north end of Carmen, and down to Bahia Salinas. Salinas is a huge bay, and the site of a former salt mine. The salt ponds are all still there – though they seemed to perhaps be flooded out during the winter storms – we had seen pictures of pink water at the ponds but sadly did not see that ourselves. We did explore some of the old buildings and equipment and the immaculately maintained church. A couple of the buildings have been restored and there is now a high-end hunting lodge on the site. There has been a program to reintroduce big horn sheep to the island and, though I can’t entirely understand how a preservation project leads to a hunting lodge, that seems to have been the genesis of the lodge!! On the dinghy trip back to the boat, we tried to find the shipwreck in the middle of the bay – we were motoring around in circles when we suddenly realized that it was right under us!!!! It is a fairly large ship and apparently makes a great dive and snorkel site. We did see lots of fish there – were the water much warmer, and time more on our side, we may have stayed another day to be able to snorkel there.
We next made our way further down Carmen, anchoring near the southern tip for the night. This left us ideally situated to make a short run to Puerto Escondido. The laundry was piling up and we were getting short of water and fuel so we went into Escondido to take a mooring ball for one night. We got the laundry done after a bit of a wait (even when they are over-priced, if there are only 3 machines, there is likely to be a wait!). Though we were determined to avoid it, the lure of the restaurant proved too hard to resist so we headed back in for supper.
The next morning, we were at the fuel dock before they opened and had the boat filled with diesel and water by 9:30. We had a fairly long run to do so wanted to get underway early! We sadly ended up motoring most of the way to Agua Verde under grey, somewhat threatening skies and nearly no wind. We arrived at Agua Verde mid-afternoon and anchored in Pyramid Bight with several other boats. Though we loved Agua Verde on our first trip, the dark skies meant we didn’t get to enjoy that green water. We did have the most breathtaking sunset there – I had poked my head up just to take a look-around and literally said wow! at the amazing red sky. We would have loved to have stayed here longer but it was starting to feel like more than time to get across to the mainland and we still have a long way to go!
This sunset literally made me say wow!!!
Keeping that in mind, we headed out the next day for a run down to Los Gatos – it is only when the wind is a bit stronger and the conditions fairly rolly, that you really notice how unprotected Los Gatos is!! We would have loved to have gone on a hike here – the red rocks are so cool – but the wind started howling right off the beach nearly the minute we set our anchor and getting the dinghy down didn’t seem like a good idea. Thankfully the wind that afternoon and evening was primarily from the west, meaning that, though we did get some wrap around swell, the conditions were not too awful. It was a bit rolly in the evening and I was not unhappy about setting out early the next day.
Sorry to not get to explore the red rocks of Los GatosThe sunset was worth it though!
And it was early – like up at 6am, anchor up at 6:30. We had a 40 mile run to do to get to Isla San Francisco. There were some really strong northerlies heading our way, and Isla San Francisco felt like the best place to wait that out. We were barely out of the anchorage when we realized that two of the other boats that had been anchored with us had also set out – it was not a race by any means as SJ quickly motored past us, but it is always fun to be in the company of other boats. We actually saw more activity on the AIS then we had seen the entire way down the sea. The forecast had called for 10-12 knots from the north or north west all day so we had high hopes for sailing. The reality was that we had little to no wind for the first 26 miles and what we did have was right on our nose. The seas were very lumpy from the winds that had blown the previous evening so it was a fairly uncomfortable start!!! We were finally able to sail for about the last 14 miles, once the wind had backed and filled in with a vengeance!! It was sometimes some spicy sailing, taking pretty big waves on our quarter. We arrived at the anchorage at about 3pm, with our main still up and coming in hot to anchor!! The winds had definitely started to pick up!
It was fairly rolly when we woke up the next morning – the wind was more north-west than north so we were getting a bit of wrap around swell (the anchorage is very open to the west). Once a few boats had headed out, we took advantage and moved in closer to the beach, getting us out of the worst of the swell. We weren’t sure if we wanted to launch the dinghy in the crazy gusty conditions (nothing like have the wind grab it while it is suspended in mid-air on a halyard to be lifted over the rail!). However, as I was working on cleaning some of the stainless stanchions, I dropped a plastic scrubby into the water and couldn’t leave it there!!! We quickly got the dinghy in the water (yes a gust came just in time to whip it out of Owen’s hands!) and retrieved the scrubby. As we had the dinghy in the water anyway, we headed to the beach later that afternoon where we met cruisers on another boat that had come down around the same time as us. We joined them in a beach walk, exchanging war stories from our first year in Mexico! We spent the next day on board, with strong gusty winds blowing all day – thankfully the conditions in the bay remained relatively calm – just a very slight bit of hobby horsing occasionally. By day 3 we were again itching to get to shore and, realizing that we would soon have a long stretch of not being able to stretch our legs, we decided to do the ridge hike. The climb up to the hike looked steeper than it was and we managed to scramble our way up fairly easily – the tough part came when we went to head south along the ridge – it is a long drop down on the east side and the path was getting fairly narrow – add to that my insane fear of heights and winds gusting high enough it felt like we could get blown off, and we ended up opting to head back around more to the north and then down through the salt flats. The ridge is an ideal place to get a glimpse of the horseshoe shaped bay with its gorgeous green water.
A very rare selfie!
While checking in on emails and social media, I was surprised to realize that we were approaching the one year anniversary of our heading across to the mainland – it seemed that we might make that jump on the same date. The weather gods, however, had other ideas. The forecast was calling for a strong blow to occur, probably some time in the middle of our 2nd night at sea. We would be facing 30+ knots of wind – keeping in mind that the winds have been blowing for nearly a week and the sea state is a bit untenable already, we decided to take a more cautious path. We pulled the anchor about 10am on day 4, headed south to Isla Partida. We motor sailed for the first hour in order to charge batteries and then, with just the headsail out, we sailed through big, lumpy seas – often sliding down the side of a wave sideways – averaging 4.5 – 5 knots. We sailed almost right into Ensenada de Cordenal. We had been in this bay a couple of times last year – actually making a quick run down here when the conditions in Grande became too wild – so we knew that we would be comfortable here – even as the winds continued to blow.
We were up before the sun the next morning, pulling anchor by 5:50 am and motoring out of Cordenal. We had high hopes for being able to sail the entire 52 miles to Los Muertos based on the forecast. Surprise, surprise, the forecast was again wrong. Instead of a steady 10 -12 from the NE, we motored into light wind from the South East!! We were nearing the bottom end of Jacques Cousteau Island, and the mid-point of our mileage before the wind began to fill – and fill, and fill!!! We were finally seeing 18 gusting to about 25, with the seas building to about 6 – 8 feet in close repetition. We wind was of course now coming from dead behind our course, meaning we were gybing across the waves – never my favorite thing!!! We finally shot into Muertos, taking huge waves over the side (and right into my face more than a couple of times), dropping the anchor in pretty steady 20 – 24 knot winds. We managed to get the mainsail put away and the cover on and had just dragged ourselves below when the rain started!!! It was a howling, rolling night – I was woken 3 different times by rain coming in on my face (every time the rain stopped I decided it was too stuffy to have the hatch closed and surely, it had rained itself out – not so much)!!!
And now here we sit – wind is blowing 18-22 and the sea state in the anchorage is miserable – I am guessing it is more so outside!!! We are trying to decide whether to pull the trigger and head out for the mainland now, or wait until things abate a bit – knowing that if we wait we could see no wind for the crossing. It is a tough call – it will be a “spirited” sail if we go now… but if we don’t and we have little to know wind it will be long and frustrating!!!
We arrived in Puerto Penasco on a Sunday afternoon, just in the nick of time for our haul out the following day. After a brief exploration of town (documented in my last post), we managed to get the head sail down that first night. There was still so much to do before we were to be hauled out of the water so we were up bright and early the next day.
The first order of business was to get the mainsail down and folded away, before the wind picked up for the day. Luckily, this went without a hitch. We also started to remove loose items from our rail – the life ring, life sling and ladder for example. We needed to find 4 lines long enough to run from the boat up to the travel lift – luckily, we had a couple of long lengths of rope in storage and were able to use those, along with our jib sheets, to have sufficiently long lines.
We were originally supposed to be hauled out at about 2pm and were quite surprised when the yard phoned at about 9am to see if we were ready to come over. Owen explained that we were not quite there, but could be available for about 11 and so that was the time-frame we were now working under.
We continued to round up all of the fenders that had been languishing for months and were finally ready to go. We were just untying the boat to head over to the travel lift when we heard another boat call in to say that they were just heading into the harbour and would come over directly to be lifted out. We were expecting the boatyard to explain that there was a boat on the way over to be lifted but instead they told the other boat to come on over. Okay then – we retied the boat and called in to clarify how long we should now be waiting – they suggested that it would now be another hour so we sat down to wait for the call.
Finally, they were ready for us and we made our way across the harbour and over to the terrifying cement holding space for the lift. There was not a lot of leeway from side to side and I was so afraid of running us into one of the walls, or directly into the front!!! Luckily, I was able to land us fairly squarely in the middle and we got all four lines tossed up to the handlers. They pulled the front corner of the boat over to the wall to allow us to scramble up onto shore and got ready to get us lifted. All did not go as planned – they got the straps in place and two of the yard guys were on board ready for the lift. As they were lifting, we could see that the front was not coming up quite as quickly as the back and sure enough, just as the hull was about a foot out of the water, the back straps slipped and the boat plunged back down into the water – it was so sudden and scary!!!! It seems the combination of the slimy coating on the hull and the slightly mismatched lifting of the straps was enough to send everything off track. Luckily it was just a short drop and there was no damage. They decided to opt for the safety of tying the straps together and once everything was secured, they went for round two – we both held our breath while the boat was lifted and then moved forward but everything went much smoother on the second try. Just like that our boat (and home) was sitting on the hard in the middle of the boat yard. Being the last boat to be lifted that day, they set a couple of stands underneath us and left us suspended in the slings for the night!! It was a bit surreal to see the lift hovering over us when I peeked out the hatch over our bed!!
Our dirty boat hanging in the slings
The next day, the boat was power washed and moved to our new summer home, tucked away in the yard across the street. Now the real work could begin.
Putting the boat away for the summer is no joke – it is a lot of work. The boatyard provides us with a manual of suggested steps to take to ensure that the boat will be sound (and hopefully critter free) when we return and this was so helpful to us newbies. We had decided to stay on the boat – initially for the first few days before we headed home, and finally we ended up on the boat the entire time we were prepping to leave.
Living on the hard is a bit of a challenge – it is hot – there is nearly no breeze moving through the boat. There is a very tall set of steps to climb up to get to deck level and then you need to step over a gap (probably less than a foot but felt like 10 feet!) to step onto the boat – being terrified of heights, this was my least favorite part of yard life. We only wanted to have to have our holding tank emptied out once so if we needed to use the washroom it was a climb down the ladder, through our yard, across the street, stop to visit the puppies, and then either up to the cruiser’s lounge or into one of the washrooms in the main yard. At night, this was not even a possibility for me so I continued to use the head on the boat but of course had to use the shower to put water through as we could not pull water into the boat.
Did I mention the puppies? That was the best part of the yard – they had 2 puppies who were being trained to be the new yard dogs – Drake and Riley were the cutest things – attacking your ankles, giving licks and generally making the misery of the boat yard a little bit better. I was sure to stop in for snuggles anytime that I was near the main yard.
Drake Chilling in the BoatyardRiley taking a well-deserved break from puppying!
The next best thing about the yard is the staff – everyone who works at Cabrales boat yard is friendly and helpful. Most speak only Spanish but with google translate and our every improving charades, you could generally get your message across. The night guard in the main yard, Federico, took it upon himself to be sure that we were learning some new Spanish words and phrases every day (the puppies for examples are cabrones (or bastards!)). Most nights we found ourselves standing out in the street at 10pm, on the way to or from the washrooms, having a very long Spanglish conversation with him.
But back to the work involved in getting the boat cleaned out. Owen started with giving our poor rusty boat a bath – the salt was so thick on her – even after having had a quick rinse in Santa Rosalita. While he was doing that, I was taking everything out of the boat, starting at the bow, giving a good wash down and trying to get rid of items we don’t need before loading everything back in. The suggestion was to get rid of all food on board – we had hundreds of dollars of canned food and spices and I just couldn’t bear to give that all away – I am hoping I don’t regret it, but we bought a few big bins and loaded all the non-perishable food into them. Once we had made some progress with the cleaning process, it was time for the tinfoil. Pretty much everything on deck that could not be removed needed to be wrapped in tinfoil and tape – winches, hatches – anything that had any plastic component. All blocks were removed. We went on the hunt for good nylon line to use as messenger lines so that we could take our halyards down but found that was nearly impossible to find – lots of poly line available but we had little doubt that those would just disintegrate in the sun. In the end we managed to find 2 lengths of nylon that we hope will hold up, and two old halyards to swap out with the halyards presently in the mast. We still have a couple of our regular halyards exposed to the sun but did the best we could do – hopefully the messenger lines all hold up and we are able to swap everything back without drama! Owen even took the time to wrap our upper life lines in tinfoil as they were newly installed, very expensive, dyneema. Our sail sheets and lines were crusty with salt so one by one, I took them down and soaked them in a bucket to loosen up the salt and then rinsed them with a bit of fabric softener before hanging them to dry and coiling them up. This process took nearly the entire time we were in the yard – who knew we had so many lines!
Tarps and TinfoilShe is so rusty!
I took all of the clothing that we were not taking home, bedding, linens, etc. out of their cupboards and put them into bags for summer storage.
In between boat jobs, and usually for the purpose of a hardware store or grocery trip, we were able to get out and explore a tiny bit of Puerto Penasco. The area around the boat yard is a bit sketchy – the happy endings massage parlour and brothel being the 2 most notable neighbors. A short walk from there took us out to a main drag where we could find hardware stores and quick-marts but no real grocery store. We were of course trying to not bring more food onto the boat as we would be throwing out everything in our fridge and freezer so we were able to manage with just the items available at the quick-marts (milk, bread, tequila seltzers!) We did come across an adorable café where we were able to sit and enjoy fraps before heading back for more work. There were also some great roast chicken places in town – we tried one that was fantastic and were told we must check out one a bit further from the boatyard as it is even better! – we didn’t make it there this time but after hearing everyone rave about, it is on our list for when we return. By the last few days, we were running out of food and I needed to empty and defrost the fridge and freezer so we needed to head out for all meals. We were lucky to find a great breakfast place only a block away as well as a couple of American style restaurants where we could find decent pizza and good burgers for a reasonable price.
On our last day, we took everything we could off of the deck, tucking it all away below – when we left, we could hardly step away from the ladder and the salon was filled with sails, bins, my stand-up paddle board, deflated and in its bag, and of course, Owen’s kayak!! I had already filled the v-berth with lines, the life ring and sling, life jackets, and any other small items. It will be quite the task to get everything out of there when we come back (I am actually quite concerned about getting the kayak back out – it was a bit of a tight squeeze going in!
Chaos reigns down below!
We arranged to head to Phoenix by shuttle and what a trip that was. On the day we were leaving one of our wonderful boat-yard neighbors loaded us and all of our bags into their vehicle and drove us to the shuttle. There was a 10-person van waiting for us, and there were 13 passengers ready to go!!! They loaded our bags onto a rack at the back of the van and sardined us all into the van – one of the guys was sitting on a stool between the 2 front seats!!! It was a bit of an uncomfortable trip for the 40 minutes to the border, with both Owen and I perched on the edge of our seats with only one butt cheek actually on the seat – luckily, I had someone else’s bag wedged between the seat and the door so I had a bit more support. As we approached the border, we got the first glimpse of the “wall” – what a site – miles and miles of a tall, steel fence – sort of like vertical blinds – slashed through the desert. At the border we needed to get out of the van and carry all of our stuff (think a huge duffel bag, back pack and purse for me and a duffel bag, computer bag, breathing machine bag and back pack for Owen!) over the border. Thankfully the process of crossing was easy. Once we got through, we headed over to another van – this one was smaller than the last with the luggage rack on the roof and we had no idea how everyone was going to fit inside!!! Thankfully another, smaller passenger van also pulled up and Owen and I and 2 other people jumped into that van!! It was about a 3 hour drive up to Phoenix, passing through a beautiful national park full of rolling hills of cacti with a brief stopover at a truck stop for a quick break. Other than the packed start, it was a great (and reasonably priced) way to get up to Phoenix. We called an uber from the shuttle drop off location and we were at our hotel before dinner. Next stop, Canada!!!
We only very grudgingly got the anchor up and headed out of Agua Verde. We once again had a long day of motoring or motor sailing as we headed for Puerto Escondido. We did manage to sail for one short stretch, crossing our fingers that the wind would hold, but of course, as the day went on, the wind lightened and then died altogether. Puerto Escondido is an amazingly protected series of three bays, each more protected than the last, that has been almost entirely swallowed up by the marina – they have put mooring balls throughout the two inner-most bays and you are not permitted to anchor anywhere in those bays – the most outer of the bays does appear to allow anchoring, but if you want to use the dinghy dock at Puerto Escondido, they will charge you the same fee as if you are using a mooring ball so we grudgingly took a mooring ball – hoping that the tackle was sound!! We dinghied over to the marina to pay up and to get laundry done. The facilities at the marina are top notch, and very, very expensive. We had our most expensive pina coladas here, along with a very expensive dinner. Laundry was do-it-yourself, and the most expensive I had seen – 100 pesos per wash and 100 pesos per dry (keeping in mind that I was paying 70 pesos per load, washed, dried, folded and returned to me in La Paz!). There is a little store on site that is very well stocked, and very expensive (there is definitely at theme here!). We ended up staying two nights there, to allow sufficient time to get all of our laundry caught up – I had thought we might hang out by the pool on day 2 but by the time we got the laundry done and back to the boat, neither of us could be bothered to go back to shore!! We had considered taking a taxi from Puerto Escondido to Loreto to do a good grocery shop, knowing that the anchorage off Loreto is at best an open roadstead, but given that the taxi would be about a $70 usd round trip, we decided that we would chance stopping at Loreto and if the conditions were too bad, we had the option to run over to one of the Islands just off the town and anchor there.
After two nights at Puerto Escondido we were ready to head out, stopping first to fuel up at the fuel dock (again – so expensive!) and made the small hop up to Loreto where we anchored just off the breakwater. We dinghied into shore and visited the API to pay our anchoring and landing fees and then wandered off into one of our very favorite little cities. We have previously done two fly-in trips to Loreto and loved our time there – it was one of the places I was so excited to get to on this trip. We walked along the Malecon and then headed to the town square where we stopped for some very deserved Pina Coladas before heading to the grocery store to stock up. Our plan had been to get groceries, run them out to the boat and then come back in for dinner at one of our very favorite restaurants. Unfortunately, by the time we were heading back out to the boat, a wind had picked up, building a pretty good fetch between the breakwater and our boat – we were soaked by the time we reached the boat and not excited about going back to shore and then having to head back to the boat in those conditions, in the dark. We decided to forego dinner in Loreto, sadly, and got the dinghy up in its bridle. I was popping up and down from the cockpit, cleaning the veggies and fruit we had bought, and noticed a tandem kayak heading into the wind and waves, trying to get back to shore. I pointed them out to Owen and commented that they had some work to get back in. A few minutes later, he looked over and realized that they were no longer in the kayak!!! He quickly launched the dinghy and motored over to where he had spotted them. Luckily, another boat had also seen that they were in distress and he had motored over to them as well. Our fellow cruiser was in a rather tippy, small tender – he had managed to get one of them into his tender, but the other person was being dragged behind, holding onto the overturned kayak. Owen got there just as they finally made it back to the other cruiser’s boat and helped to get the kayak up and drained out and then offered to take one of them into shore, while the other cruiser took the other person and towed the kayak. The kayakers were very grateful to accept that offer, being a little shaken from their experience and not wanting to try to paddle into the sea state at that time! Luckily the sea state settled a bit overnight and we had a pleasant night at anchor.
Sadly, not really feeling like we had spent enough time in Loreto, the next morning it was again time to continue north. We mostly motored, with a few minutes of sailing mixed in, to San Juanico – by the time we arrived in the anchorage, the wind that we had waited all day for was finally beginning to build and the conditions in the anchorage were very rolly. We pulled the dinghy up right away and spent a fairly uncomfortable night at anchor. Perhaps we will have the chance to check this spot out on our way back down!
We were up at 5:30 the next day, with the anchor up by 6 am – we had a long way to go!!! The wind was very strong from the Northwest when we first left the anchorage so we sailed into lumpy seas for a while before the wind died completely again. We were motoring along when the wind suddenly built to over 20 knots on the beam – we were thankful to throw the sails out and enjoy some rollicking sailing before the wind again started to die. As we did have a lot of miles to cover on this day, sailing slowly was not an option and we once again had to fire up the engine. We had originally considered taking anchorage right at the mouth of Bahia Conception, in what was really just an open roadstead, but knew that the wind was scheduled to pick up overnight and we wanted a more protected anchorage. Keeping that in mind, we motor sailed the 7 miles down Bahia Conception to Playa Santispac – going through a swarm of no-see-ums just as we were coming into the anchorage – they were everywhere!!! We finally got the anchor set and disappeared below, closing all of the hatches behind us!!! We spent the next day dinghying around and exploring the various anchorages around Playa Santispac (being chased away from one of them by the no-see-ums again) and then beached the dinghy at Playa Coyote to enjoy a quick lunch at the beach bar. There are a couple of islands around the Santispac area that are covered in literal forests of saguaro cacti – it was so cool to see! This beach appears to be a good stop for campers as there were a number of motorhomes of all sizes parked along the beach – the driveway down from the highway must have been challenging for the bigger rigs though – it looked awfully steep and narrow! The anchorage got a bit lumpy in the evening but was not terribly uncomfortable.
We were up early the next day and motoring back out Bahia Conception – almost immediately the wind was building, causing a terrible sea state – by 1pm the wind was at 15 knots on our nose and the waves were huge – we were hardly making any headway and still had another 7 miles or so before we would be able to turn off the wind a bit (which would have put us broadside to the big waves anyway!). We finally opted to bail out to the last anchorage at the northern mouth of Bahia Conception, Punta Chivalo. The anchorage was beautifully protected with flat calm seas and I was so happy to get the hook down in the crystal-clear water. There were a number of very nice private homes on the beach, along with an abandoned hotel and the map showed that there was an airstrip just off the beach. The area felt almost entirely deserted however – likely snowbird homes – perhaps people had already headed home for the season. We hung out there and watched a movie – I had pretty well decided that we were there for the night but as the wind started to die down late afternoon, Owen figured we should make the final jump to Isla San Marcos so that our day would be shorter the next day. We quickly realized once we were out of our protected anchorage that although the wind had died down, unfortunately, the seas had not settled yet so we had a rolly, slow motor the final 10 miles or so – finally putting the hook down in the south end of Isla San Marcos, in a desolate bay, at about 7pm. Isla San Marcos has a large gypsum mine, and the area surrounding the bay looked like the surface of the moon, but it was perfectly protected from any north wind. For no apparent reason, we both found the area a bit creepy and I was on high alert, not even sure what I was worried about – there were no houses around – though we had been spotted as we anchored – there were a few people out on a lookout around the corner when we were coming in and I did notice them notice us. We actually locked the boat right down that night but had a peaceful sleep. We would later discuss how weird the bay had felt with another couple and it turns out they had been in there the night previous to us and had felt the same way!!
It was time to move along further north – next stop the mining town of Santa Rosalia.
If you follow the news you may know that Mazatlan had a bit of unrest earlier this year – the arrest of El Chapo’s son led to a day of firefights and stand-offs with tourists locked inside their hotel while their bus burned outside and the airport taking fire. It lasted all of one day (though they played it up on the news as if it was and ongoing and continuous situation). We had been a bit concerned that it could flare up again and do have to acknowledge that Mazatlan is in Sinaloa and that state ha Considering those things, has seen an increase of crime in recent years. We had decided to perhaps take a pass. However, after speaking to several people who had gone, including a couple who had spent nearly two months there, we knew it was a city we could not miss.
We departed from La Cruz in the mid-afternoon, headed for an overnight trip to Matanchen. Unfortunately, the wind was not in our favour (or was non-existent) and we had to motor much of the trip. We approached Matanchen at sunrise and were thankful for our radar which brought attention to the dozens of fishing boats anchored or trolling just out of the anchorage (most with no lights!). We wove our way in and set the anchor a fair distance off the beach. Unfortunately, Matanchen has developed a bit of a reputation for being a spot that dinghies have been stolen lately – there was even a situation earlier this year where 3 men boarded a boat in order to cut the dinghy (along with the 15hp Yamaha outboard – which is what they really want) from the dinghy davits. The boatowner confronted them and was injured in the process. In that situation the dinghy was actually recovered eventually and I believe charges were even laid but the frequency with which it happens (even knowing that they really have no interest in our little dinghy or 2.5 hp Suzuki!) meant that we were not excited about launching the dinghy. There is not a lot to see on shore – just a couple of restaurants – and the bugs are apparently terrible – so we opted for staying on board instead. In addition, while we were in La Cruz I had been cleaning the stainless steel stancions on the boat and had somehow completely wrenched my back (I knew cleaning was hazardous to my health!). If I sat for even a few minutes, my back would lock up and getting out of whatever position I was in would be agony – the only way I was comfortable was lying on my side. And so that is what I did – for 3 days – curled up on the settee watching movies. We had not intended to stay there so long but the weather was not great and I had been in so much pain on the first night passage that I just needed a couple of days to get things loosened up.
Beach off Matanchen
Finally, we were able to get moving again, headed to Mazatlan, and we headed out in the mid-afternoon again, knowing that we were in for a couple of nights’ passage this time. We had some nice sailing in the afternoons and then the wind would die out overnight leaving us motoring. During the day we had seen signs of long line fishing – with the set ups marked only by a couple of clear pop bottles tied to a string – not exactly easy to spot in the day and impossible at night!! We were pretty sure that we had dragged something for a bit as we were motoring incredibly slow, but there was no sign of anything on our prop when we arrived (thankfully!). We finally motored into Mazatlan at about 8am and anchored at Stone Island. The Stone Island anchorage fronts one of Mazatlan’s beaches and the anchorage was choked with pangas towing banana boats or taking people out for boat tours, along with the dreaded jet-skis. It was not a quiet afternoon!!!
Stone Island Sunset
The next morning, we decided to move into the old city harbour – the weather had kicked up pretty badly and the short transit around the corner was a hard beat into big waves – we quite happy to clear the breakwater and get our anchor set near the old Club Nautico. Club Nautico has been closed for some time but there is a dinghy dock of sorts (a panga has been anchored and stern tied with boards laid over the top and a terrifyingly rickety ramp to land!!). There is always a guard on site and the gate is locked at all hours so your dinghy is secure here (even if you are not necessarily when getting on and off the dinghy dock! Lol). There were a few other cruisers anchored in the harbour and several boats on moorings. The tour boats, fishing boats and booze cruises all go out from this anchorage so it is a bit active but not too bad.
We headed into shore to go check in at the Port Captain and start exploring. The Club is out on a causeway built up to join the City to an Island just off its shore and all of the ferry boats to the beach we were anchored off the day previously, along with the aforementioned tour boats, etc. all have their departure points along the causeway – there are people everywhere selling tours, getting ready to head out (loaded down with huge coolers of beer!) – it was quite a scene!!! After checking in with the Port Captain we headed to Centro (thinking it was more of a historical area) only to find it was just a very busy downtown area with lots of shopping and people. We instead headed to Centro Historico (yup – where I really wanted to go in the first place) – there we find georgous old buildings, narrow, winding streets, murals, etc. We had dinner at an Italian café with tables set up on a square that had all manner of restaurant options surrounding it. After dinner we walked out to the Malecon and walked it back around to the causeway, making it back to our boat just at dark.
CausewayHistorico BuildingsSunset from the Malecon
That first night, we were trying to get our dinghy raised up in its hip-tie bridle and it was super hard to grind up for some reason. We figured out why the next morning when we went to lower the dinghy – the halyard was completely jammed into the block at the top of the mast. We put another halyard on the bridle and got the dinghy off the jammed halyard and lowered. I found a boat store on google and we decided to head out to buy a new block. We dropped our laundry off on our way out and were thrilled when she said she would run it back to the Club once it was complete (she left it with the security guard, saving us from dragging it back later in the day!). We knew it was going to be an hour or so walk to the boat store but saw it as an opportunity to explore. We wandered out past the main port area, checking out murals that were just being painted along the wall surrounding the port. Unfortunately, at some point I was walking along when suddenly I was on the ground, with a cracked phone to boot!!! I had crossed over a driveway that had a strip of super slippery tile going up the center of it and before I knew what was happening, my feet went out from under me sideways and I landed hard on my wrist and hip (causing the aforementioned cracking to the bottom corner of the phone I had been carrying). Luckily nothing was broken (though I did have a doozy of a bruise on my hip for weeks!). We finally made it through a very commercial area, over the train tracks (with a full-on slum built up on other side), through an industrial park and finally to the boat store – the closed boat store!!!!! It was Semana de Santos that week (the week leading up to Easter Sunday) and even though it was Thursday, they were closed – nothing on their website to indicate it but closed all the same!!! We opted to call an Uber at that point and had them drop us off back in the Centro Historico. We wandered around there a bit more and then headed back out to the Malecon where we headed out the opposite direction to the Club and explored a bit more. We ended up having dinner at a lovely lobby bar restaurant in a hotel on the Malecon (great burgers!) and then grabbed a Pulmonia back to the boat. Pulmonias are really cool, open air taxis – many are made from the frame of a bug. When they were first introduced in Mazatlan in the 1960’s, the taxi drivers tried to fight back against this new form of transport by telling people they were going to get Pneumonia from riding in the cars – the drivers decided if you can’t beat em, join em – and named the cars Pulmonias (Spanish for Pneumonia!).
Photo credit to Travel Off Path blogLobby Bar
While walking back on the first day we had spotted the Observatorio 1873 and decided it was a tourist attraction worth checking out so we headed there the next day. The Observatorio was the site of a Fort meant to protect the city and the site has been turned into a museum/ animal rescue. There is a funicular on site and we were excited to go for a ride in it – only to find out it was out of service when we got there!! Instead, we had a long climb up a staircase that meandered through terraced gardens (they did have the option to been driven to the top but the gardens were so beautiful it was worth the trek). We first visited the Iguana refuge where we saw green Iguanas as well as Tortoises and various birds in a large cage (Parrots, Toucans, etc.). The next area we explored was the El Nido bird sanctuary, a netted enclosed space that allowed the rescue birds kept there to fly more freely (and to eat out of my hand!!!) There was a tour describing the process of making tequila but we just walked through that section without a guide and then went to explore the museum set up on the old fort building. It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon and we were so happy that we had gone!!! They even had a little stand selling AMAZING ice cream! We walked along the Malecon again – now completely packed, as it was Good Friday and many locals travel for Easter week and weekend. We enjoyed the spectacle down there and then called an Uber to take us to the grocery stores on the other end of town – after a terrifying ride there (the driver was not paying attention, driving like a maniac, and only avoided rear-ending a car by swerving in between it and a parked car!) we got our shopping done and had a, thankfully, more tame driver to take us back.
The next day we decided to tackle El Faro – the lighthouse on the Island at the end of the causeway – we headed there at about 9:30 thinking we could get it done before it got too hot – we did not count on the huge line-up to get in (an hour wait while the day just got hotter and hotter!). We did finally manage to tackle the climb (750 metres of steady incline, followed by 334 steps). Owen went out on the skybridge – a glass floored platform out over the water (I was too terrified) and then we trekked back down.
As our intention was to leave the next day to head over to La Paz and the fuel docks are at the Marina District, about 8 miles north of the old harbour, we decided to move the boat up to the Islands near the Marina entrance. We arrived there mid-afternoon and anchored amongst all of the party boats. Owen scraped tons of barnacles off of the hydro-vane rudder and gave the water line a quick scrub – all the while being tossed around in the dinghy in the wake of all the danged jet skis flying around. Luckily, as the sun was setting, all of the party boats hauled up anchor and headed out and, in the end, we were the only boat left. The view of the City skyline was beautiful from the now peaceful anchorage.
The next morning, we motored over to the Marina district, following the very narrow dredged channel in, headed for the fuel docks. I was just approaching the dock, intending to loop around to it to dock port to, when a catamaran backed out right in front of me – I now had no space in the very narrow channel to make my turn, and no choice but to continue on past the first fuel dock. We decided instead to head to the dock that we knew was further in the marina district, only to find that they were having computer issues and couldn’t dispense any fuel!! We headed back to the first fuel dock and found the boat that had backed out in front of me was now parked on the fuel dock waiting to pick up his passengers. After a half our wait to get onto the dock, and then having the fuel attendant fill a boat that came in after us first, we were finally fueled up and headed out (oddly the attendant did not get a tip!!).
We made our way back out the channel and pointed the boat in the direction of La Paz, some 250 miles away.
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!!!
There has been much to write about this summer and no time to do so – and those posts will wait for another day. Right now, as we sit at anchor in Esquimalt Harbour, readying ourselves to head offshore, it seems more timely to jump ahead to now, the last few days, the next couple of weeks.
The last couple of weeks the question of our departure date hung heavy over us – whenever we were asked when we were going our only reply was a hopeful soon – and as people stood there looking at the deck strewn with tools, boat parts, hardware, paint and the dreaded sicaflex, they would just raise an eyebrow and remind us we were beginning to get late in the season to leave.
We knew, we know – our big plans to get all of our projects done in the first 6 weeks after leaving our jobs and then head out around the island seemed comical at that point. Our initial planned departure date of around August 15?! Ha! As August came to an end and September marched along, the pressure to get things done and get off the dock became almost too much to bear up under. We sold my car (but what if we don’t actually make it off the dock?!), the tenants were scheduled to move in September 15 (so now we really are homeless!) and the jobs on the boat and the house continued.
Our amazing C Dock neighbors gave us a gift to remember during an impromptu pizza party (well now we really have to make it off the dock!) and reminded us yet again what a wonderful environment we were leaving (why do we want to do this again – I am so tired!). We have been lucky to have such wonderful neighbors in our little corner of the marina and boy are we going to miss everyone!
water jugs that will always remind us of our wonderful neighbors!
We finally mopped our way out of the house on about the 11th of September – with outside jobs still to be done and finally felt like maybe we could move along to the boat!!!
In a matter of days, the toerails were finally installed (goodbye to the old worn out rails that threatened to give out at the slightest pressure), the solar arch was finished up, polished and, under cover of darkness and with the help of some of those amazing neighbors put on the boat (not actually installed mind you!). The big dodger project shrunk from a fully fiberglassed and painted finish to “put it together and slap some primer on it – the fiberglassing will get done somewhere” – and so it too was put on the boat (again not so much installed).
Is today the day we asked ourselves for several days in a row and quickly the answer was nope – let’s try for tomorrow. And then, finally, it was time – the jobs weren’t done, we weren’t necessarily ready, but we were going. I sent out a message to a few people, Owen started sending texts and just like that, we were leaving. We got the solar arch installed – all of the other jobs that were “must do’s” before we left would have to wait! At about 4pm on the 14th, we threw the remainder of the stuff that had been accumulating on the dock onto the boat and moved her over to the visitor’s dock. Owen gathered up as much as he could find and fired it down below. As friends and family started to arrive, Owen, with the help of yet another amazing dock neighbor, got the name on the boat finally (Solstice Tide had looked so naked since her name was removed for painting in May), I filled water jugs and water tanks and tried to clean up the deck as much as possible.
Putting the name back on.
At 6:30, having given hugs to friends, family and our favorite puppies, we tossed off the dock lines and headed out of the marina, sent off to a cacophony of horns – even a conch horn – grinning from ear to ear (and maybe crying a little as well).
Leaving the Dock!
We went as far as Preedy Harbour on Thetis Island, dropping the hook just as the sun went down and nearly collapsed. It was really happening – there was so much still to do but we have finally taken that big step. We were off our dock.
The next couple of days found us doing a few jobs in the morning and then moving along in the afternoon – first to Musgrave Landing and then to the Royal Victoria Yacht Club (what a mecca of sailing!) and now, tonight, Esquimalt Harbour.
On the dock at Musgrave Landing – a little progress everyday!
Tomorrow we will head out the Juan de Fuca and if everything goes well, we will enter open ocean and make the big left turn tomorrow. It looks like we will have good winds on our stern for at least the first few days, perhaps a couple of light days in there – we don’t know when we will make it to San Francisco but our best guess is between 6 and 10 days.
At anchor in Esquimalt – almost ready!
For now we will try to put away the last of the chaos below deck, try to get a good sleep and look forward to this next adventure.
Us looking more relaxed than we felt a couple of weeks ago!
tjsailing 