Warp Speed..June 28th

Oh my god! This is sailing!!! We have been sailing, motoring, drifting, or muddling for the last 7 months. Having traveled over 1400 miles or more from San Francisco to Puerto Vallarta and other places not so recognizable, we had been appalled by the lack of true sailing conditions were one could relax, cook, drink a soda or read a book without having to contend with increasing winds, lack of wind (motoring), lack of fuel and wind (drifting) or some combination of all three which kept you on edge as you changed sails, turned on the motor, turned off the motor, added more sail etc…Topolabompo (Mainland Mexico) to Aqua Verde (Baja California) Changed everything!!

We departed Topo about 6am last Friday. Typically sailors don’t depart on Friday for some superstitious reason, but then we are Cruisers not sailors, so depart we did. We motored out the 3 mile entrance to Topolobampo Bay into an increasing wind which for some reason or not was going in exactly the correct direction for our ultimate destination. As we cleared the sea buoy we increase our sail area by raising the main and mizzen sails to compliment our already unfurled jib. The boat began to leap forward and soon the diesel was shut down and we reached westward in 15 to 18 knots of wind. The motion was pleasant so we turned on the radio and began to listen to some soft tunes as the sun began to rise behind us.

It was not really surprising to us as the seas began to increase as the morning wore on. Typically over the last number of months there have been few days when the sailing was excellent, so even though the waves increased to 3 then 4 feet we just took is in stride and moseyed on. The boat heeled to the waves and wind but kept a steady 6 to 7 knots of forward speed, which suited us just fine. Working that into the 140 miles we had to cover we figured 20 to 24 hours of travel time bring us into Agua Verde about sun rise the following morning.

About an hour into the trip nature called and as with many things on the boat relief came with a surprise when the toilet failed to flush. Now typically we have had one mechanical issue on every overnight sail we have taken since Monterey California last September so I can’t say that I was overly upset, but it would be nice to have one perfect crossing someday.

If you talk to many people who own sailboats or powerboats large enough to have anything more gentile than a Port-a Potty, most will speak ill of their toilets. We have been fortunate enough to have never experienced an episode of the dreaded “head aches” so now I felt the pangs of despair as the brown water failed to drain, and we had another 24 hours of travel time to come up with a work-able solution to our biological needs.

I have mentioned previously that the best solution to trouble on board is to sit down and drink a beer before jumping to conclusions and irrational evasive methods of recovery, so taking my own advise I grabbed a second cup of coffee and enjoyed the fact that the boat was moving under sail at a stable and quite acceptable 7 knots of speed.

The problem with marine toilets is generally the accumulation of ureic salts and calcium deposits in the lines flowing from the toilet to either the holding tank or the ocean (based on being more than 3 miles from shore). The deposits can be compared to hardening of your arteries where cholesterol builds up and restricts the blood flow. A typical marine toilet uses 1.5” hoses to flow the waste to the proper holding area. Upon removal of the first small section of our hose it was easy to discern that we had an issue. The typical 1.5” hose had been restricted to ½”, probably fine for some waste, but certainly not all.

Compounding the trouble our boat has system of waste lines that looks like it was designed on a Spyrograph so what could have been a simple system of just a few feet of tubing actual turned out to be a catacomb of 13’ feet of tubing with multiple valves, connections and pumps thrown in just to make things interesting.

Not to drag the story out, I will tell you that the process of clearing the lines involves removing a section of tubing at a time. Any remnants of waste that remain in that section of tubing are just there to add a slight diversion to the overall task as you try to keep the rest of the boat relatively clean. Anyway the section is removed, brought topside and vigorously beaten against the side of the boat or attacked with a screwdriver or other such item to remove the offending 1” of calcified coprolite from the tube. Once you have a clear tube, you reinstall the tube, try to flush and then repeat on the next section of tubing.

2 hours later declare victory and Lisa and I both celebrate as the water in the toilet runs clear and once again we feel good about eating solid food or so we thought. An hour later the toilet is clogged again and I realize that in my haste I have forgotten one 5” section of tubing. Of course when I attack this small section, the worst of spills occurs but at least we have found the true source of the problem.

The wind continues to build as we reach past San Ignacio Farralon. The rigging strains and cries out as the wind moves past 25 knots, but since we are moving on a broad reach I leave the sails as they are and confidently surmise that the boat is built to handle twice this wind with out even batting an eye. I am tired from the mornings work, so lay back on the leeward side and watch the water race by at nearly 8 knots, if I wasn’t tired it would be truly exhilarating: I am mesmerized.

By noon we have traveled nearly 40 miles and we entertain a crossing of 14 hours or less. The sails continue to pull, the boat surges forward as if hunting the Baja down for a kill, Lisa and I smile at each other knowing we are heading in the right direction.

By three in the afternoon the wind is down to 17 knots the boat continues to course along at over 7 knots, sailing is nearly flat, the only noise we hear besides the ocean passing underneath is the knot-log steadily clicking off mile after mile. We anticipate a wind decrease in the next couple of hours but it is never realized. As 10 pm shows its face we understand that we will be making a midnight approach to an unknown bay. Typically you would not enter an unknown port at night, but the approach an entry into Aqua Verde looked straight forward with no major hazards and plenty of water depth, we continued on course.

The moon rose just after 10 pm and by 11 pm we were entering the coastal Baja waters and were within 4 miles of our destination. Although our speed had decreased to 5 knots, the trail of phosphorescence we left in our trial looked every bit like the F-4 fighters that use to depart under full afterburner into the night skies above Germany from the Ramstien Airbase in the mid 1980’s.

We arrived just after midnight to pushing an electric blue wake from bow to stern. We dropped anchor a bit out of the normal anchoring area giving a bit a room to safety. As the anchor dropped it too seemed to be on fire as it excited the plankton in the water and shot off a stream of fiery phosphorescence on its way to bottom.

Happy as we were to shut down the systems for the night, we were already melancholy for the past sail and would have gladly extended the trip just to enjoy the pure magic of sailing…finally.

Sailing At Last...June 17th, 2008

We have finally departed Mazatlan. It is 6 pm in the evening, the sun is still shining, the wind is coming from the North East which is not really in our favor but at 14 knots we are happy to be raising sail and will decide on a destination just as soon as boredom hits us and we make a decision to look at the options. Life has been a bit down beat for the last month or so as we wait for surgery, visas, bottom work and finally upholstery to finish.

The cushions are still a work in progress as the shop was not able to complete a finished project in the time we generously allotted. Actually the cushions were completed but the flaws we found did not meet our approval so the owner of the shop generously offered to remake any cushions we were not happy with. This would have been a quick job had there been enough leather left over, but because green cows do not grow on trees the job needs to start from the beginning again and that was nearly 2 month ago. With a little negotiation we had the upholsterers come back to the boat, re-cut cushions and hold them at the shop while the new leather is re-ordered. Once the cows come home for a second time the upholstery will be applied to the cushions and the finished product shipped to San Carlos, Mexico for us to pick up. This is not ideal but acceptable, so we are on our way.

As we pull even with El Faro de Cerro (light house of the hill) we loosen the jib and begin to put a little power and drive into Beyond Reasons hull. It feels good to get the boat moving under sail; or at least until the first of Dante’s trails appear.

While we were in the boatyard a couple of weeks back it seemed a good idea to rebuild or re-work the primary winches aboard the boat. Everything appeared to go according to plan and no springs or small screws were lost in the process. At the end of the re-build there we not left over parts and the winches turned freely just like the manufacturer expected. Unfortunately there was a small flaw that didn’t manifest itself until the winches were subjected to a couple of hundred pounds of pressure from the resulting 14 knot winds. When this happened we found the port winch would turn both clockwise and counterclockwise which is more the design of a wheel hub, not a winch whose primary purpose if to “winch” line in!

We quickly remedied the problem by cinching the line to a handy cleat, but after a couple of minutes realized we could not travel 240 miles with a faulty winch while a perfectly good port lay just behind us: we returned to port.

Re-anchoring in the old harbor of Mazatlan was more psychological disappointment than anything else, and with Lisa doubting we would recover within the next 48 hours or more, we made dinner and prepared ourselves for yet another night in Mazatlan.

When we completed our meal of seared Tuna and almond rice (yes we eat like this), I began the disassembly process on the port winch. Surprisingly the starboard winch did not have the same issue, so we figured it had to be some fault of the assembly crew. About an hour later and after several threats of re-filing the cogs on the inside of the winch and possible removal of the hacksaw from it's safety cage, we discovered that one of the gears had been put in upside down and reversing the gear made the difference between working and not functioning. All hail Lisa for using her best Caesar Milano (The Dog Whisperer) stance to keep me from the files and hacksaws!

Our 6 pm departure has now turned into an 11pm departure, but just the same we raised anchor and move out of the estuary under power. Within a few minutes we had raised all sail, stopped the engine and began sailing for the first time in what feels like 6 months. The best part of sailing this time was that we are moving at nearly 6 knots and making a pretty nice angle on our desire target. I expected this to only last till midnight, but we continued for the better part of the night and only after 6 am did we turn on the engine in the dying wind.

Approximately 11 am that morning (18th of June), the wind picked up again out of the Southwest and we sailed nearly 24 hours with an average of 7.5 knots into Topolobampo. Without exception this was one of the greatest sails Lisa and I have ever had. The boat was incredibly comfortable, the weather was warm throughout the nights and each of us arrived rested as we entered Topolobampo harbor.

Typically we arrive around 5pm, but this trip we came in before noon and after a quick explore around the harbor we pulled into the fuel dock to top off our tanks. Topolobampo is a commercial port and there is not much "recreational" boating or tourism so the dock was a bit of surprise to us. The crew that operated the fuel dock was efficient and happy to take care of our out 30 gallon request. Although the dock was intimidating we left without a scratch or any marring to the varnish then we dropped anchor off the Marina Club and dinghied over to shore to have a look around.

The heat in this part of Mexico is stifling. With or without humidity the temperature in town was enough to send us to the first “deposito” we could find. For those in Winters a Deposito is a Mexican beer store. You can buy anything you like in the store as long as it is beer (i.e., light beer, regular beer, tall beers and small beers). There is no liquor, candy or soda at a deposito, just beer, we bought 2 ice cold beers and then sat on the corner doing our best impression of homeless people but enjoying a couple of well earned chilled drinks that never tasted so good.

Once we checked the beer off our list of things to do we did a bit of roaming around town. The town itself is very modest in size which was a bit of a surprise as there is major shipping traffic that passes between here and other ports in Mexico. If you are not ready for the graffiti you could easily be thrown off by it's presence and become quite guarded in your behavior, but Lisa and I had heard that they have a bit of a spray paint problem in the town so just took it in stride and relaxed as we walked through the streets saying hi to all the locals and enjoying the children’s expressions when they met Sparky and noticed that we were Americans which apparently is something they don't see much of.

We were excited to see a side of Mexico that was not set up for tourists and while walking around actually got a good feel for how people could actually live in this country on what is said to be an income of around $300 per month.

Exhausted after a couple of hours of walking we dinked back to the boat and spent a comfortable night dreaming of the nice beach we would visit in the morning.

ore after he himself took the engine out of commission following a navigational error were he hit a rock….hmm.

In the aftermath we did do as Nacho had suggested. We saved several miles, never saw less than 80 feet of water and were able to bank just a bit more karma which we were running low on.

We spent the night in Candelaros cove but moved the next day after spending a night in 37 mph winds. Fun times.

March 31, 2008...It ain't easy all the time.

“When I say Marco, you say Polo”, that’s the way the day started for us as we rolled into the town of Los Veranos. Our guide had surprisingly been named “Marco Polo” at birth which seemed strange since we were still in the primarily catholic country of Mexico. It didn’t really matter and neither Lisa nor I suggested that he either made up the name or someone had played a trick on him at birth, we were about to experience “Canopy” and we had gotten the tickets and 2 bottles of prime tequila all for the cost of a 90 minute tour of one of the many time-share hotels in Puerto Vallarta.

Prior to meeting our new friend Rodrigo at the Tequila Company, we had heard of several sailing couples that where approached by contractors of some of the major resorts in town and offered “cash or prizes” if the couples would be willing to attend a 90 minute sales presentation. Some of the couples have made as much as $1400.00 cash in just a week or so. Anyway, we met Rodrigo while testing tequila, go figure.

After a number of samples and a conversation about what we had planned to do in PV, Rodrigo asked if we would be interested in 2 bottles of tequila and 4 tickets to Los Veranos Canopy tours. Playing the ever vigilant tourists that we are, we jumped at the chance. Rod explained that he would pick us up in the morning near the marina and after the tour we would get our prizes.

The next morning we met Rod just as scheduled only there was a slight deviation to the plan. It seems Rod was not really suppose to give us the tickets and we needed to be staying in a hotel or we could not qualify (Call this flag 1). “Not to worry” says Rod, “I bribed a hotel owner and you are now staying in the Oasis Hotel, room 4”. He went on to say, “You got here on Tuesday and are leaving tomorrow”. Being smart cookies, Lisa and I told him “no problemo”. To counter the issue with the tickets, Rod said he would give those to us now if we promised to not let the time-share folks know (Call this flag 2). We told Rod we could keep a secret and pocketed a “voucher” for 4 people at Los Veranos on the appointed day and time we asked for, perfect.

Lisa and I did the tour and as planned failed to buy even 1 week of time-share. The tequila bottles were given to us and viola we were on our way back to the boat. Happy as clams we wrote to our friends that were coming down to PV that we had the tickets and they should prepare for an exciting time.

“Polo” we all chanted as Marco called out his name then proceeded to lead us up the hill to gear up. At the top of the hill with many of the participates already breathing heavy, Marco check everyone’s ticket. Of course our name didn’t appear on the list, but we stood by silently as Marco and his manager discussed the voucher he had in his hand and eventually let us in. We never thought there would be a problem, right.

Everyone geared up and then attended the safety presentation. When it was complete we were to follow the next guide up another steep hill for our first experience. Just as we got up we saw Marco again, and a sneaking suspicion crept into my mind. It only took a minute for the suspicion to turn into reality and 4 surprised gringos were pulled from the herd and off we tromped to see the manager.

Several minutes later we were advised that the tickets we fake and that Los Veranos did not do business with the Tequila Company…darn.

We pleaded with the manager about our ignorance in understanding how Mexico does business and eventually only had to pay for three of us instead of four, so chalk up a $75 dollar savings for the gringos and off we tromped to meet the rest of the group.

There are at least two of us who could probably use a bit more exercise, and by the time we reached the top of the hill we were exhausted, although we had no idea that there were still 5 flights of stairs that wound around the trunk of tree which still needed to be tackled. Exhaustion aside, Lisa had a hard time going up the stairs. This was a major fear of hers and I don’t believe she was quite ready to tackle it this soon, up we went.

Standing on the 3 foot platform, Lisa barely had time to take a deep breath before Pablo told her to strike the “Captain Morgan” pose and proceeded to hook her harness up to the zip line and send her down to the other side. With a whimper and scream Lisa took off like bullet and 15 seconds later was caught on the other side were she quickly turned and gave us all a “look at me” smile. We were off.

The proceeding 16 zip lines varied in height (too about 300’ off the canopy floor) and length (up to 900’) and took us over trees, through forests and above the river gorge that runs through the valley. Before we finished everyone was comfortable with the rides and Lisa had taken two trips in tandem with guides while flying hands free and backwards above the forest. We have it all on video tape!

With the tour over we relaxed on the grounds of the tour hosts drinking some well earned cocktails and munching on chips and salsa while discussing Rodrigo and his “deal”. Our friend Dino is from the New York/Jersey area so I knew when I suggested we visit Rodrigo later in the day, he replied with “yeah, will give ol’ Rod a visit”, so we did.

I’m an not sure which was more fun, to show up at a shop keepers address dress in wise guy sunglasses, an attitude that said “I ain’t leaving till I get my money” and glaring at any customers that might just want to come in and buy tequila, or getting my money back. I am quite sure having a friend that stands 6’4” and weight in at 250 lbs (wink, wink), helped my cause, but I like to think it was my cool style of talk that won the day anyway.

Dino and I marched into town later that night to find the girls and after seeing the shock on their faces that read: we can’t believe you two knuckle heads are not in jail, we settled down for a couple of Indio beers and a taco.

March 11, 2008...Cleaning our bottom!

Lisa had wanted me to right a story about Bottom Maintenance today. We have been working on the bottom and or the waterline since we left Alameda. Prior to leaving we made the mistake of being in a hurry to get out of the boat yard so we could enjoy sometime in the delta. Instead of raising the waterline of the boat which at the time was within ½ inch of the actual water, we figured that Beyond Reason had enough residual buoyancy to take on any load we could possibly imagine. Maybe we were a little to optimistic in the capabilities of a Hans Christian Yacht

For those that are not sure of what a waterline is or what exactly we take as the definition of a waterline I will explain. On almost all waterborne vessels the underside of the hull is painted with a compound of toxins that in the proper doses are lethal to all invertebrates. The common poison is copper, but zinc and other heavy metals find their way into bottom paints as well. It is typical to have to repaint the bottom of the boat every year or so to keep the toxin level high enough to resist barnacles, grass, sponges, crab infestation and corals from adhering to the bottom of the boat and in doing so slow the boat down. Unfortunately most paint manufacturers are shackled by environmental laws from adding a quantity of toxin to the paint that will actually live up to the claims on the label (Prevents Marine growth for 4 seasons, Work well in heavy growth areas like marinas and tropical environments etc). I don’t really know which season they are talking about or which Tropical environment I am suppose to leave my boat in, but my guess is they expect 4 seasons in Maine which I understand goes from July 1st to July 31st, so the paint would be good for about 4 months which might actually explain our results.

Anyway we were discussing the waterline. This is the area of the boat that most commonly stays wet while the boat is upright. If we sail in bays and rivers and then place the boat in a nice marina, the boat looks good to have bottom paint up to about 1” above the normal wetted surface. This will generally prevent any moss, barnacles or shell life from appearing near the surface where passersby could point to the living reef that many boats have somewhere below the turn of the bilge, or at least it would for “4 seasons”. We failed to incorporate the fact that we would not be staying in marinas, sailing bays and rivers or quite honestly be anchoring in many quiet flat anchorages. As it is, our boat is typically wet or moist about 6” above what would be considered the normal water line.

Because of our failure to apply more bottom paint to the side of the boat wishing instead to keep the classic lines in place we are constantly scraping, bushing, wiping and chiseling at marine growth above and below the waterline. Most of the hard growth (mussels, oysters and barnacles are just above the actual bottom paint, but below the waterline lives a beautiful green garden of wondrous sea plants and invertebrates. When you fist dive on the boat you would swear we made the sides of the boat out of my moms 1970s short shag green carpet. To run your hands over the bottom is like petting a nice Persian cat, albeit when you dislodge the shrimp from their habitat you wished the cat didn’t have so many fleas!

After yesterdays sail we concluded that we had one of several issues. We were either way to heavy or the bottom was very busy with sea life. Additionally we felt a bit of vibration when under power which meant we either had a misaligned engine or that encrustation had re-appeared on the prop within 2 weeks of the last cleaning. On inspection today we found that pictures of the submerged Titanic in all its overgrown undersea splendor don’t vary much from the bottom of the sailing boat Beyond Reason, it was time for a cleaning.

Our friends from Jake had just sent us a letter discussing their afternoon scrubbing the bottom of their boat and the “disinfection” process that ensued afterward. It is always funny to hear of others trials, but I am not sure that Jake had the assortment of reef life under his boat that we did.

To battle the world of Jacques Cousteau, I grabbed a stiff brush, a plastic scrapper, chisel, dive hose and regulator along with mask fins and snorkel and jumped over the side. Our paint retains at least a bit of it’s original poison as sweeping the bottom with the brush does leave behind a 12” swath of clean red paint along with a billowing cloud of plant life, miniature crabs, thousands of tiny shrimp and other crawling and snaking animals that as numerous as Blow flies on a 10 day old animal carcass. I know Lisa is proud of the fact that I dive and clean our own bottom but she is grossed out when I surface in a sea of blood red paint with hundreds of shrimp like animals squirming around in my hair, lounging on my back and arms and hibernating in other areas that can only be discovered when we turn on the wash down pump for my initial rinse cycle.

Once I finished with the sweeping, the real work begins. Most propellers are not covered in bottom paint and we follow this typical scheme. As a result I suspect we get more that our share of barnacles growing on the prop. Today, though only a couple of weeks old, we had barnacle growth again. If you can imagine the propeller of an aircraft and how smooth the surface is to direct airflow efficiently enough to pull you through the air, you can imagine how you would feel it your plane just had a large piece of rough sawn would on the front, this is similar to what I saw below. With the amount of growth on the prop it was a miracle that we could make any forward motion at all. The prop had been cleaned just 2 weeks earlier so we will have to up our maintenance schedule again. It is hard to imagine just lying around the boat sipping cocktails, though I still hear people are able to do that, perhaps in Maine on August 1st.

So I worked the propeller and then moved onto the real fright which was the underwater bronze fittings that hold the rudder in place. The gudgeons as they are called probably get the least attention of all the parts on the boat. This was completely evident by the lunch box sized clusters of barnacles and mussels I found on either side. 10 minutes with the chisel (wish I had brought a hammer as well) and the area was cleaned up.

In all it took a good hour and a half to finish the cleaning the bottom. This is not bad until you figure I will have to go at it again in two weeks. There is certainly more than one price to cruise!

When I finished Lisa got the hose out so I could wash off all the tiny shrimp. To say I had literally thousands of shrimp adhering to my body would be an understatement. When I was done Lisa came out to rinse a thousand more off my back and then did the prison “de-lousing” wash down procedure that we all see in the movies to get most of the remaining animals back to their original environment. The side of the boat now looks like the dried food section of an oriental grocery store, but I feel clean, except for perhaps that one shrimp that is stuck on my ear….oh and the one clinging to my leg hairs over here…

March 03, 2008,

Puerto Vallarta, Nayarite, MX

Several weeks ago we left Mazatlan following the events at Carnival. As Lisa reported earlier the fireworks were a true spectacle, not necessarily spectacular, but being so close to the action certainly added a thrill to the event that we hadn’t experienced since we were perhaps nine or ten years old.

Spending 10 days at Isla Mazatlan had the boat looking good again and the topside varnish should be ready for another year of exposure. Of course spending time in a foreign marina filled with Ex-patriots comes with the downfall of having to hear all their counter advice of those who believe they no better than the new guys who just arrived. There is also the constant threat of getting involved in conversation with the lonely cruiser guy or gal who just doesn’t understand that you have more important things to do than to spend 45 minutes listening to their diatribe on the proper orientation of Phifertex fabric or how much easier it would be to work on your boat if you only built a workbench in your cockpit. God help me not to get old and lonely!

So we left Mazatlan and headed down the coast to Isla Isabella. This is a beautiful little island, but unfortunately we arrived about 1 day early so the anchorage was a bit rough and unsettling, we moved on the next morning.

We carry some pretty big tackle about the boat for fishing the waters off the Mexican coast. We don’t always fish, but when the sailing is light or we are motoring we try to drag a line to see what can be picked up. On the morning that we left Isla Isabella I dropped our rig into the water and immediately hooked a small Bonita. Bonita are not our favorite so we dropped it back in the water and began trolling again…5 minutes later we were hooked up again with another Bonita. As I said we don’t really care for Bonita but if given the chance to catch Bonita or nothing I will always take the Bonita as they do give a reasonable fight and at about 5 lbs each they could sustain use if we really needed to eat, anyway today was catch and release time, so out the fish went. On my third drop, I picked up a fish that stripped line from the reel at an alarming rate. The more we tightened the drag on the line the more the fish seemed to take. Eventually I had the line (60 lbs test) drag set as tight as it could possible go and the fish continued to tear away at the reel.

You will notice that I have not named the fish so consummately you will understand that at some time the fish broke loose and we never had another bite all day, such is fishing.

Our destination was Matanchen Bay, just outside San Blas Mexico. The bay is gorgeous but I don’t know if we will ever return due to the number of bug bites that I sustained in the first 24 hours..I literally thought I would explode from all the bite swellings on my legs.

We stayed in Matanchen for 4 days before departing as there was some exploring that needed to be accomplished prior to leaving; the jungle trip, San Blas, 7 miles of beach and finally trying to understand why they only serve 8 oz beers.

With our next destination being Chacala, some 20 to 30 miles away, we departed Matanchen at a reasonable 9 am or so and sailed the first couple of miles. It became apparent some were along the way that we would need to engine to complete the trip before dark so our peaceful trip was interrupted by the “diesel sails” for a number of hours until the fan belt gave way again just 10 miles from our destination. It’s moments like these that I am always thankful that we travel several miles off shore. It is also a time like this that I feel cruising is a constant test of your nerves and ability to overcome adversity at the most inopportune times. So it was that we had about 3 – 4 knots of wind (not much), 10 miles to go and a broken engine, our test…sail a 50,000 lbs boat in minimal wind to a strange port without having the tide pull you on to the rocks, no problemo.

If we have anything on board this boat it is a good sail inventory. Most of the sails we rarely use out of laziness. Our Mizzen spinnaker is just one of those sails but once it is set we do move along in just a whisper of air, so we set it and continued on the way at about 2 knots (just a bit above normal walking speed).

Lisa, to her credit is quite capable of handling the boat by herself when left alone so I left her to the sail while I attended yet another festive time with the fan belts, 20 minutes later we were ready to start the diesel again, but let it be while we sailed onto our destination.

By far one of our favorite populated destinations has been Chacala. The town is small, if a bit touristy, but clean in all respects with small cobble stone streets, polite and helpful people, moderate prices and plenty of activities to keep you busy for days.

We spent 8 days in Chacala. During this time we explored the extinct volcano at the top of the Southern hills, visited a resort hotel designed to keep your chi aligned, snorkeled the reefs to the north and south of the anchorage, kayaked the bay, took a taxi into the big (5,000 pop) city (Las Varagas) a couple of times, and even sat around the boat enjoying life. Without a schedule it was tough to leave this little paradise.

Our departure from Chacala was unique in that we departed under spinnaker. There was just a light breeze running, but we had all day to make either a 10 mile trip to Jaltemba or a 20 mile trip to Punta Mita depending on the sea state of the anchorage. We arrived in Jaltemba 3 hours later and found questionable anchoring seas, meaning it was a bit rolly but we were ready to stop anyway. The spinnaker had presented a bit of a problem on take down as the sock that normally snuffs the sail would not come down. When we finally inspected it we discovered there were no swivels used on the head of the sail so each time you tacked you just put another twist in the top of the sail that eventually blocked the sock from coming down. There have been several things along this trip that just make you wonder what someone was thinking when they added the equipment. Anyway the swivels are now on our purchase list.

Our anchor did not hold on the first drop so we repositioned and tried to drop it a second time…nada. Lisa called out to me that the anchor would not going down so without consultation I immediately went into the cabin and up to the front of the boat to manipulate the chain from below. Satisfied I came up and told her to drop the chain before we moved too far away. Lisa quickly snipped back at me that the chain wouldn’t drop just like she told me before. Huh, I went forward and told her I had cleared the chain below. “It won’t drop Bill!” she says and then she mentioned that the windlass had stopped operating. Had I paid attention before I would have understood her, but being the all knowing person I am, I just merrily went on my way to fix something else that wasn’t broke..hmm.

The windlass was able to recover the chain that had dropped so we took it as a sign to leave and diverted course for Puerto Vallarta/Punta Mita. 10 minutes later I had the wire repaired on the windlass and we were back in business.

As we were sailing around Punta Mita we achieved another miles stone for us by seeing our first big Manta Ray. When I say big I mean close to 14 feet from wingtip to wingtip. The Manta was so large that it took us a minute or two to understand just what we were passing. I thought it might have been one of those small submarines used for research at first but once we saw the wingtips clear the surface we understood that we were looking at one of the giant Manta Rays that frequent this area. Totally awesome.

January 12th, 2008

Altata, Sinaloa, MX

Well we finally got frustrated enough with living in the big city and decided to get out of town. As usual we were still waiting on packages so we figured we may as well go north while the weather was working with us instead of going south and then having to fight north again when the packages arrived, this is how we found ourselves sailing 140 miles to the small village of Altata.

 

Having 20 hours to make the slack tide put us in a bit of a bind as typically we travel at 5 knots over the ground. Assuming we could catch a breeze in the morning and afternoon we felt good about the trip but come morning we found we were still 20 miles short of our destination and running up against an ebb tide.

 

According to the books, the ebb tide was the worst possible time to make the crossing; we carried on just the same, and although only making headway of 1 -2 knots per hour, found the crossing relatively benign, although time consuming. Once inside the bay, the sun shown and the water was flat calm and bright, we had entered into another world that we hadn’t seen before.

 

The surrounding land was mostly flat scrub or sand dunes, but the water looked very rich in plankton and minute sea life. The richness was accented by about 20 small fishing boats that were holding nets against the out going current. Surprisingly each of the boats (pangas) had a 20 foot pole jutting from both the bow and stern which appeared to hold their nets open. The poles made it possible for their 25 foot pangas to stretch 60 foot of net across the water. As we passed each panga the pangararo’s would wave or shout out a Buenos Tardes and we would reciprocate while keeping a firm eye on the depth of the channel.

 

We had about 8 miles of channel or estuary to traverse before reaching the actual town of Altata so we checked the temperature of the beer in the refrigerator several times and settled into the trip. As we closed on the town we could see what appeared to be a sailboat regatta on the water. The odd bit about the regatta was that each boat was sailing sideways.

 

After we got closer we realized that there was no race going on at all, but we were seeing typical Mexican pangas (with the addition of the poles mentioned above) sailing sideways with spinnakers pulling them downwind while dragging shrimp nets behind. The method was rather ingenious as the masts were only bamboo poles. Over the last week we have experienced winds of up to 20 knots while anchored in the bay, so with a spinnaker of nearly 200 square feet they had to come up with a way to stay the masts without interfering with the fishing. The solution is to stay the mast from the windward side using the shrimp net to provide the countering force to the sail. In other words the spinnaker pulls one way on the top of the mast and the shrimp net also has a rope that is connected to the top of the mast that provides a counter balance as it is pulled through the water. The more wind that fills the sail the faster the net is dragged through the water and the more resistance it provides. Anyway enough technical talk, the sails on the water (upwards of 40 at any one time during the day) were striking.

 

We anchored just in front of the town and once we had put everything back in order, we made the short 2 minute ride in the dinghy to the town beach. Altata has no paved roads and the beach front restaurants are just that, beachfront. At times you could say that the palapas in town are actually sea bound as when the tide comes up many of the tables and chairs are situated in about 1 – 2 feet of water, it don’t get much closer that that.

 

In a week we still have not found a place to buy beef or pork, but seafood is abundant and if you are not eating it you are stepping on it, looking at it or hearing someone crack it, oysters, small and large clams, shrimp, octopus, marlin, dorado, small fish we can not even name, and crabs are all part of the menus here. Pricing is fine, though not as cheap as we would have liked, but this is a sort of rich person hangout we are told. To equate it to something closer to home you would have to think of Tomales bay, CA without the hotels, motels or camping areas, there are none here.

 

We were met on the beach by one of the town elders and owner of the La Perla restaurant. Gustavo was friendly in a non-overbearing way. With limited English and Spanish we introduced ourselves and he offered his services and those of his sons to provide fuel, mechanical work, shuttle service or anything we needed to enjoy our stay. With the boat running well we were fine and said so, so he wished us a good day and carried on about his business.

In the last couple of days we had had a chance to explore the bay quite a bit. There is so much hear to explore I am not sure we could see it all in two weeks, but we are trying. The beaches to the west are beautiful sand and hard packed flats littered with shells and clams if you are willing to just dip you hands in the water. Lisa and I collected approx 50 clams similar to Little Necks in less than an hour. The mangroves have oysters attached to them, though so far we have not found any that are sizeable to eat.

The eastern side of the bay is mostly weekend homes of varied sizes and elaboration, all are nicely done and fit well into the landscape. The town itself is Mexico, or what we were thinking a small town in Mexico should be. There are dogs running around the streets which although curious will instantly disappear if you look them directly in the eyes and tell them to scat.

 

Several small grocery stores dot the village along with several home bread making establishments. We buy our vegetables from the veggie truck that comes by daily, but staples like rice, cola, packaged bread and canned foods are available in the stores.

 

The town is ultimately a fishing village and there are nearly as many boats on trailers in the street as there are cars. We have counted 3 pescadorias (fish CO-OP’s) around town plus a large processing plant (no smell). Nets are more abundant in yards than is landscaping and the fashionable dress around town is blue jeans, a hoody pull over and large white fishing boots, very nice.

 

The shrimp that are caught in the bay are huge. By the standards set in Mazatlan the shrimp are every bit as large as Mexican lobsters, we count 20 to a kilo (2.2 pounds). We found it cheaper to buy directly from the shrimpers but at $2.75 per pound we are not complaining and the shrimp does not get any fresher, we place an order in the early afternoon with any one of the fisherman and by 4pm the shrimp is delivered.

 

There is an hourly bus here that goes to the larger towns of Novaloto and Culiacan (state capitol). For about $3 you get a ride in a sometimes air conditioned bus to the towns respectively 30 and 60 minutes away.

 

Culiacan is a metro center with a couple of nice museums that we did not attend. The churches there are pretty amazing though I imagine the opulence is not out of the ordinary for Mexico.

Novalato has yet to be explored but as we drove through on our way to Culiacan we felt certain we would have a good time in this moderate sized town due to the compactness of the town square, shopping area and restaurant district. We plan on going this Monday.

 

This should bring us up to date. Tentatively we will be hear another week unless weather or something else slows us down. Carnival in Mazatlan should bring us to that city no later than the end of January, but plans are always subject to change.
It is always a thrill to look at the phosphorescence as you see everything that is going on below the surface of the water. As we speak I can see several predatory fish moving swiftly and disturbing the plankton that makes up the phosphorescence in the water. Essentially you see stars in the water followed by sudden bursts of fallen stars as the predatory animals try to catch their prey.. Only pictures would show what is really happening, but from my point of view this is exactly what we came to see, and exactly what we have invested so much time and money into to experience..Wow.

December 20th, 2007

Well it appears that last time I updated we were around Ispiritu Santo Island. We did have a good time on and around this set of islands. Once we departed Caleta el Candelario and its wild rock formations we traveled the incredible distance of 1 mile to the cove of El Cardonal.

We had heard the night before that we could be in for some rolly weather and indeed we did get it later in the evening, but we arrived around 2pm and had plenty of time to walk among the mangroves while the tide was low. At first we were concerned by the large mud flats and potential for stingrays in the shallows but these thoughts quickly disappeared as we ventured on to the beach.

In front of us was what looked like thousands of cockroaches scurrying across the beach just fifty feet in front of us. Surprisingly when we stopped the “cockroaches” stopped as well. When we moved forward the roaches move away at the same pace. Primal instinct soon set in with Lisa and I, primed of course with plenty of “boat drink” and we decided we needed to flank the roaches to find out exactly what they were.

As we moved to our stations and slowly crept in on their positions the identity of these “things” was soon revealed, Fiddler Crabs! Thousands and Thousands of Fiddler Crabs! For those in Winters and probably elsewhere as well, Fiddler Crabs are only about and inch or two long and have one enormous pincher and another that is nearly ridiculously small. If given the opportunity they will scurry away and try to find one of the many shallow holes in the beach in which to hide. I don’t know if they actually dig the holes themselves or just “borrow” the holes for other animals, for sure if they dig the holes they are quite lazy as the holes don’t seem to fit the entire crab and it is an easy task to just reach in and pull the crab out.

We fiddled with crabs for bit and then made our way to the second beach on the cove which was much more conducive to sun bathing than to exploring for animals, so we pulled up some sand and relaxed for about a ½ hour before heading back to the boat.

The evening brought the foretold winds and waves and in the morning we gave some thought to leaving and either heading back to Candelario, La Paz or even heading north to the more secure anchorage of San Everisto. It was a visit by our friends on Triple Stars that ultimately sealed the deal to move on to Everisto.

We departed around noon for the 25 mile passage north to San Everisto. The weather looked good until around 3 pm when a nearly blinding rain storm cancelled any view we may have had of the coastline, islands or even the immediate sea around us. The rain lasted till just short of sunset which was just enough allow us to see the entrance into Everisto and allow us to anchor amongst the other 5 boats in the small anchorage.

We new most of the people on the boats anchored so we slowly motored past Hiatus, Jammin, Triple Stars and Whirlwind to say hi before dropping the hook. Once anchoring was completed we rowed the dinghy over to Hiatus for a little after passage drink and re-acquaintance since we hadn’t seen them since Cabo San Lucas.

The following morning we got a chance to explore a bit around the small supposed “goat herding” town. We didn’t find any goats but a couple of dogs greeted us. We couldn’t find any goat herders either, but did find a fishing camp with no fish. In good American fashion we did try to buy lobsters (the weather was too cold), we tried to buy shrimp (the trawlers not in) and we tried to even buy fish (the fish monger had been to the beach and left already) so eventually we negotiated with the old gentleman who was sipping tequila from a bottle cap at the palapa on the beach for a dozen tortillas. These were not just any tortillas as he had explained that his wife would cook them up pronto and have them to us in a couple of minutes. We were game so we ordered them up and when off to explore the small town.

Not more than 30 minutes later we heard the old gentlemen’s truck roar down the hillside and ramble up to us on the beach, tortillas in hand. We were very happy to find that the tortillas were warm, soft and scrumptious.

In the evening we joined the crews of Jammin, Hiatus and Triple Stars for some homemade wine aboard Jammin…too much fun to even write about.

So now we are back in La Paz working on boat projects. This afternoon we finished our dinghy chaps which are covers for the tubes on the dinghy to protect it from the sun. Our pals in Alameda will be happy to hear that they are “Ass-less” chaps, but really I have never heard of any chaps that were not “without tushies” unless you wanted to call them cowboy pants! We also installed a safety bar in the kitchen to prevent us from falling on the stove during rough weather (if we ever leave La Paz).

Things are going well and we are enjoying the stay here at marina La Paz.

December 6th, 2007.. Colleta el Candelario

Lisa and I have just finished dinner in one of the best coves we have visited thus far. Dinner was just a simple chicken (yes the whole thing) and some pasta with pesto made fresh from the herbs that Lisa has been tending since San Francisco.

 

This cove has unbelievable geography. We went ashore today to explore and found a vernal pond which was dry and behind it hills that soared over 500 feet on one side and more than a thousand on the other. The topography was a base of sandstone with volcanic rock on the top. There was an abundance of cactus that grew through the volcanic rock and most of the hillsides were covered in caves or side cut into geometric forms that you swear were people looking down on you.

 

So after dinner (and a few drinks), I am sitting outside the cockpit looking at the stars. Lisa claimed there were so many stars that you could not even identify the constellations so I had to come see for myself, it is true…too many stars. The moon is new so essentially there is nothing to compete with in the sky, the stars are thick. As if in competition with the stars, the phosphorescence in the water is twinkling in every direction.

 

Originally we had thought to make this trip from La Paz, but during Christmas we hadn’t seen a weather window that looked promising enough to allow entrance into the rumored difficult bar crossing of Bahia Altata, instead we took the more passive route to Mazatlan. Having told so many people about what we had read of Altata it was no surprise to have one of our friends (Triple Stars) suggest we go north for a week a so and explore the town. With the weather looking good we left Mazatlan on January 4th for the overnight trip.

 

Tomorrow I am hoping we can walk some of the trails that lead out of the cove up to the top of the peaks. Lisa identified a rainbow Bridge” this afternoon that just begs to be explored. This is fantastic country and I can’t wait to explore it.

 

November 30, 2007

Today really is November 30th. It is hard to believe that we have fallen this far behind but the business of cruising is fraught with dangers of laziness and over activity. Since Cabo San Lucas we have visited Frailes cove and the adjacent reef of Pulmo. We went a little over budget at Frailes as we wanted to visit the coral reef there and the weather wasn’t cooperating with our needs for smooth water over a long enough period of time to transport by dinghy. As a result I found myself on a 4 – 5 mile hike over to the town of Pulmo to try and arrange a ride the next day from Frailes to Pulmo and a guided tour of the reef.

It took a little doing but eventually after waiting patiently for the dive company to deal with a sick diver and the attendant ambulance I was able to convince one of the managers to pick us up at the boat and lead us on the tour. In celebration I bought a cerveza to wash down the dust from the previous hike, and then proceeded to replace the dust with the return trip back down the same dusty road.

Lisa has written pretty extensively about the Pulmo dive so I will let it stand that the trip was well worth the praise that it has recieved from Skin Diver Magazine and PADI as one of the top 50 dives spots in the world, and we all had a terrific experience.

The following day we moved another 45 miles north to Muertos Cove. In Spanish muertos refers to “dead men” or anchors that were here for the barges that use to transport ore from the surrounding mountains of the area. Today there is little evidence of mining, with the exception of mining for the American dollar. There is a very large development going up on the surrounding hills of Muertos which easily exceed 100 plus acres. Of course there is nothing significant to show for the development just now but they are certainly moving ahead with miles of dirt roads scarring the countryside.

Although there is little in the way of infrastructure we found that spending four or five days in this anchorage was easy as the water was clear and warm, the newly scratched roads are easy to walk, the weather was comfortable and with so many cruisers at the anchorage and the Thanksgiving Holiday at hand, there was just too much fun to be had.

For Thanksgiving we invited three couples over for dinner. Most of us were just a little short on ingredients so it was nice to have everyone pitch in with whatever they could to help make the holiday festive. In attendance where Chuck and Elaine from Boomerang, Dave and Kim from Andante, Ray and Diane from Emerald Star plus Lisa, Sparky and I.

We tried to find a turkey but the best we could come up with was a turkey/ham loaf. Between the ingredients from the other boats we were able to make up dressing, mashed potatoes, pasta salad, three bean salad and even a pumpkin cake; not bad for folks that hadn’t expected to be in the middle of nowhere for Thanksgiving.

The day after Thanksgiving we rested but the weather was turning on us so we made plans to leave on Saturday. By Friday evening plans had changed once again due to the forecast so we pushed our departure back another day and left very early Sunday morning for Balandra Cove, home of the mushroom rock!

Several fish were caught along the way to Balandra but nothing that was worth keeping if you don’t count Lisa's Dorado that was lost at the rail.

Balandra is fascinating and the first cove that we have come to that has a large tidal range which virtually dries out the cove each day. We were surprised to find that we could anchor almost next to the mushroom rock. I don’t know why it surprises me as many of the “national wonders” we have seen in our lifetime are always just a few steps behind the parking lot. I guess I would just feel better if you had to hike or work a little bit before you actually got to see what you came for.

Anyway, the rock was right there for us to see. It has quite a history of being knocked down and cemented back in place every couple of years and when you get next to it the evidence is not hard to see. The current method of support has been done by brick layers who have not even tried to hide their masonry work. It's Baja so in a strange way it fits in just fine.

In our excitement to see the mushroom rock up close and personal we failed to make drinks for the trip ashore so we returned to the boat to see what we could find. Lisa was able to put together a nice adult “smoothie” made with Crystal Light Raspberry, Coconut, pineapple juice, and a good helping of rum that we transported back to the beach to share with friends. While at the beach we met with the crew from Vava which is owned by Ernesto Bertarelli the backer of the America’s Cup boat Alingi. We were perplexed at the size of Vava which might be a smidge over 100’ but owned by one of the richest men in Switzerland. I just had to ask if this boat was one of many owned by the Swiss tycoon as we have seen so many other boats that would dwarf this one and it just seemed to us that all tycoons flaunt their wealth when they can. The simple answer was “no”, this was Berterelli’s only “mega” yacht and frankly he didn’t need a fleet of overpriced boats since he could fly anywhere he wanted anyway. I’m not sure why but I have a lot more respect for this guy than those folks that just can’t seem to resist buying the biggest boat possible.

Because Balandra was so nice we stayed the night and most of Monday to just sit on the beach and read but eventually the wind picked up and we decided to move into La Paz to refill on supplies, repair equipment and touch base with society again.

At present the weather is raining and projected to get fairly windy of the next couple of days. Sparky appears happy to be stationary for a while and Lisa and I are just getting to know the town. With any luck we will have a chance to visit the Anthropology Museum in town as well as the Cathedral in the main square.

November 17, 2007

I have opted to leave out the events of leg 3 of the Baja Ha Ha. For the most part we sailed a bit, motored a lot due to lack of wind and discovered that the fix on the alternator only lasted about 2 hours before the alternator quite working. If the alternator had been an employee it would have been fired a long time ago, but alas it is more like a spoiled child that just will not cooperate with the rest of the family.

 

We entered the port of Cabo San Lucas around 2 pm on Thursday the 8th of November. This was a free day for the Ha Ha folks and at the time we arrived it was just a bit late to do anything about checking in so we just relaxed on the boat after finding a place to anchor. To our surprise the spot we chose to anchor just happened to be where Hollywood had planned to shoot a new Adam Sandler movie the next day. With a little reluctance we prepared ourselves mentally to move on Friday before 10 am, check in to the port and immigration and pay fees at the bank.  Additionally we then had to find time to attend the welcome party on the beach at a place called Mango’s.

 

We arose early on Friday to get a jump on the customs procedures and also because it was difficult to sleep with all the sport fishing boats heading out to sea as part of one of the many fishing tournaments Cabo San Lucas has yearly. As we were eating breakfast we heard a call put out by 3 different Ha Ha boats that had just rounded the point at Cabo and due to engine trouble wanted help with anchoring. Translated this means they would like someone or many ones to come out in dinghies to pull them in. We acknowledged that we could help, having just set up the dinghy, and immediately loaded up and headed to sea.

 

Being one of the smallest and most underpowered dinghies, we of course where allowed to bring in the most distant and one of the largest yachts that had trouble. My guess is we traveled about 1 mile out to get Delight, a 40 foot yacht with a burnt starter motor. After several attempt we finally got the boat under tow and were making a good ½ knot of speed towards Cabo. It was evident that we were underpowered and so we called into the fleet for a little help. No doubt to the fleet, Lisa’s calls probably sounded a bit terse, but really there was no panic, just slow going.

 

Eventually we got another 2 dinghies coupled up to Delight and soon we were moving at a good 5 knots to the anchorage. After we got the anchor down on Delight, Lisa and I went back to the boat to collect our check-in papers and headed for town to “Check In”.

 

I have read a lot about the check in procedures in Mexico and even took some of the advise from the Marine experts at West Marine and Downwind Marine in Mexico. If I were to do it again I would ignore everything I ever heard and just drive my boat down to Mexico without a care, there is no reason to do anything regarding crossing the border in the US, NOTHING. Applying for a visa in the US only delays things in Mexico and wastes your time in San Diego.

 

We spent a good hour getting our visa in San Diego and because of this I thought I could skip immigration, pay for my visa at the bank and finish my check in at the port office, that was only partially true. What snagged me up was that the official crew list for the boat needed to be stamped by immigration before presenting to the Port Capitan. By the time I had gotten to the Port Capitans office, immigration was closed for normal business (nobody told me this out right), but still open to stamp paperwork (for a small additional fee). Normal cost of checking in to Mexico including Visas and Port Captians fees, $76. Charges for the Novak’s because they tried to do a little preclearance as advised by West Marine/Downwind Marine, $116 ($20 each person for overtime at immigration).

 

So checked in we preceeded to the welcome party around 4:30 pm. Most of the fun events had been completed by this time so we sat and had a couple of drinks with friends, boarded the dinghy and went home for dinner.

 

Saturday was the final award ceremony with free beer and prizes for everyone. By 8pm Saturday the Ha Ha event was over and we were on our own in Mexico…

 

Monday, November 12th we set out with our alternator to get it fixed at a local Auto Electric place. It surprised me that so many of the cruises we came down with were completely without resource when it came to finding repair facilities. I don’t know if they are just so used to dropping in at the local marine chandlery or harbor office or that they just believe there is no one qualified to work on boats in Mexico. Lisa and I found a shop (more a garage - come backyard of a local house) within about 30 minutes of trying. The fellow said to bring the alternator in at 8:30 AM Tuesday and he would have it repaired by 4pm, we did and he did. We walked out with a bill for $65.

 

On the way back we ran into 2 cruisers with issues, 1 with a starter problem and another with an outboard issue. Both of these folks thought they would have to go to La Paz to have the work done because the local boat yard would not do the work. We gave them some simple directions in town on where they might get a fix and they were awestruck that it could even be done..go figure.

 

We delayed leaving Cabo San Lucas on Wednesday because we still had laundry to do and the website hadn’t been updated in weeks. It turned out well that we did delay because the Sunset on Wednesday was just so awesome. The last time I did this trip we had evening after evening of spectacular sun sets, but not this trip so Wednesday night was special.

On Thursday Morning we took off for a small cove named Los Frailes (the Friars). We departed at about 4 AM and watched a follow on sun rise to the sunset we had seen the night before.

 

Typically the weather is a bit cold for us at 4 am, but dressed in shorts and shirt sleeves both Lisa and I were comfortably and watch the sun rise a little after 6am. We are now anchored in Los Frailes. The spot is just a little bit of paradise, although only 40 miles from Cabo San Lucas. It has the reputation of being the last remaining hard coral area in the Eastern Pacific, so we had to stop and plan to explore it before leaving.

November 16, 2007

The days here are a little confused as we have not been very good at keeping track of them. I believe it was the 3rd of November that we departed Turtle Bay for Bahia Santa Maria. This leg is generally known for its fishing and we were not disappointed in that department. 

 

The morning was a little cool; the breeze was fine for sailing but not in the right direction or speed for flying the spinnaker. I believe there were many people that decided to slow down their boats on this leg due to the amount of equipment breakage that was reported over the last couple of days.

Within about 15 or 20 minutes we had our first Dorado. I should say that Lisa caught her first Dorado; I still had not caught one. You will see by the photo how sleek and bright these fish are, but I am sure the photo will not do justice to being there in person. Lisa is not much for fishing and probably has only caught a handful of small fish in her life. To see her catch a fish in the open ocean was so much fun (See her update for the picture of her first fish). When the fish came in Lisa almost fell overboard with excitement while trying to hold the fish and pose for a picture. Needless to say the fish did not last long and was quickly cut into fillets and chunks for our fish tacos.

 

This leg is only two overnights and the sometime during the second night the wind cut out and we ended up motoring for about 12 hours. We figured that this would not be too bad as the batteries could use a good charge and we wanted to heat up the water for showers when we got to the anchorage. After about 5 hours things looked good in the power department and we were making way at close to 8 knots under some sail and the motor, but as with most goods things there was a problem, the alternator had quite working again.

 

We are getting much better at accepting these little inconveniences and so we checked to be sure the alternator was still spinning and the connecting water pump working and continued on our way. I didn’t do any diagnostics as I just wasn’t interested in the work and we have plenty of power backups. As Scarlet O’Hara would say, “I’ll think about that tomorrow”. Of course putting things off always leads to some sort of issue when it is time to pay, and there were no exceptions in our case.

 

It turns out that the bracket that holds the alternator had again broken but with spares on hand we set about making the repairs. While in Moro Bay I had ordered a couple of spare brackets that were suppose to be “original”, but when I fitted the new brackets the “original” brackets did not come close to fitting, so out came the hacksaw, the Dremel tool, the file and finally the belt sander to modify the shape of the bracket so we could continue on our way. It took nearly 2 hours to make a bracket that would work with our configuration and fan belt selection but eventually it was completed, installed and tested for operation, no really I tested it!.

 

During this time I had sent Lisa and Sparky out to explore the shores of Bahia Santa Maria and they came back with stories of surf that looked like the waves on Hawaii 5-0! This seemed a little extreme but they had taken a Panga (water taxi) in and were safe and sound just as well. With everyone on board we had just enough time for dinner before going over to our friends for a cocktail or two.

 

During the night a pretty big swell came up and over the morning radio net many boaters were concerned about being washed up on shore. The crew of Beyond Reason was not one of these as we have learned our anchoring lessons well and where nearly ½ mile from shore and in plenty deep water with tons of scope out, it was nice to be able to ignore the swell.

 

This afternoon there was to be a beach party and as 12 o’clock rolled around it was clear that not many people were going to brave the surf in their own dinghies. When the organizers were asked about water taxi service we found that even the fishermen that operate the Pangas did not want to cross the surf until it had calmed down a bit.

 

If you are not aware a Panga is a typical Mexican fishing boat similar to those aluminum fishing boats that your grandpa use to put in the back of his pickup. The difference is a Panga is roughly 20- 25 feet long and is powered by a 100 horse Yamaha outboard and also has very high sides for dealing with the ocean waves that are often encountered. The drivers of these boats are really experts at handling surf and heavy waves, so when they say it is rough, believe it.

 

It wasn’t until 2 o’clock that Panga drivers began to show up and since we were so far out in the bay we didn’t arrive at the party till after 4pm. By this time most of the food was gone, but the beer was chilling and the band was heating up so we enjoyed a good bit of the atmosphere for a couple of hours.

 

There was one scary moment when one of the cruisers decided to take his dinghy through the surf and got tossed out of the boat while the boat continued to motor happily along. As the boat was hit by another wave it started to make a line for the hapless seaman that was just tossed and nearly ran him over in the process. We watched for perhaps 5 minutes as this dinghy continued to motor along and periodically changed course for no reason and headed back to its owner full speed, pretty scary stuff when you are away from medical help by some 200 miles!

 

In the end a couple of other boaters did a bit of dinghy wrangling and got the wayward machine shutdown and to shore safely with its previous rider.

 

With the excitement settled down we figured it was time to go home so we grabbed the dog and headed for the Panga Stop. There were perhaps 25 people in front of us looking to go back to their boats so we had a bit of a wait. After perhaps 30 minutes we could see we would be in the next Panga or perhaps the one just after that, but things were about to change. It was already dark by this time and the waves had continued to grow so the drivers were having a tough time seeing the sets. Just as we would have entered the next Panga, the drivers all went home, we were stranded! Stranded may be a little too big of word, as there were about 70 people on the island still partying, but as word spread the mood became more and more solemn, everyone was stuck on a beach that was getting colder by the minute with very limited shelter.

 

Many of us had showed up in t-shirts and shorts and some with as little as bathing suites, jackets for most were out of the questions. The Panga drivers promised to come back the next morning so everyone kind of made due with what they could find. Lisa, Sparky and I took shelter in a small cook shack with another 15 people, but the bare floor and hard backed chairs would be our beds for the night. Too say it was crowded in that shack would be an understatement, if you only had 1 persons feet in your face you were lucky, and after a night of drinking there was a lot of traffic to contend with if you were laying on the dark floor as people made there way outside to relieve themselves then tried to find there way back to their spot on the floor.

 

By morning we had survived and the Pangas did start running again. When we got back to the boat we quickly made breakfast, cleaned up and made the starting line for leg three just 30 minutes late.

November 11th, 2007

Finally an update. This has been a long couple of weeks. Lot’s of sailing, not much sleep, some very interesting landscape and people as well as a number of good and bad times.

 

When we departed San Diego we were sure that the trip would be fun and filled with plenty of sunshine and smooth seas. In the end I think what we got was a lot less than our expectations and lot more questions about cruising than answers.

 

When we departed San Francisco about 3 months ago we had a firmly set plan of not sailing in any type of heavy weather unless absolutely necessary and to never push ourselves. On the 28th of October that plan went out the window from soup to nuts. The weather forecast called for 15 knots of wind over the entire 3 day course (360 miles) which would have suited us just fine had it held true, but things change I guess and the weather forecasts are just that, forecasts.

 

By the time we made it to the starting line we were not sure if we would even see 15 knots of wind and cautiously calculated our fuel supplies in case we had to do some motoring. By the start time of 1100 though the winds filled in so much that we contemplated not starting the line with our spinnaker and potentially with much shorten sails. After a bit of pondering we chose the spinnaker in good faith and added the mizzen sail just for good practice. After a bit of a false start (twisted spinnaker) we were off at about 7 – 7.5 knots with the USS Ronald Reagon escorting us to Mexico. For Beyond Reason 7 knots is a fairly rapid pace, but it felt good and we were able to hold the speed until just after we crossed the US-Mexican border.

An hour or two after the start we found the isles Coronado’s were blocking a lot of the wind and so we slowed down to about 2 knots for 3 or so hours. Later as we passed them by the winds picked up again and so we continued on our course at respectable speeds.

 

We had plotted 2 courses for leg 1 of the Ha Ha, the first would take us close to shore (4 miles) and the second was to be used if we thought there was any chance we might run into weather or we got cold feet. Generally I will shy to the ocean side of any course for safety and so as night came in I decided to use course #2 and then moved ocean side of the course by a couple of miles.

 

Sometime in the dead of night I started plotting our course on the map and realized that I may have made a navigation error. Instead of entering course 2 I had instead entered course number 1. This did not pose an immediate problem as I have stated I usually run a mile off course for error anyway, but it did add about 40 miles to the overall distance of leg 1 as I wanted to get back to course #2. By morning we were on course and the winds had filled in to between 18 and 22 knots so we were making good progress.

 

The weather forecast at 0700 was for winds between 15 and 20 so the report seemed accurate if the weather did not change…it did. By afternoon we were fully reefed with the boat moving at 6 knots and careening down steep waves up to 10’ from the North West and the south. With the wave situation it lead to some pretty heavy steering as we tried to avoid the worst waves which were working to roll us from side to side. Throughout the rest of the afternoon and night we ran in steady winds of 25 – 30 knots, by morning we were exhausted and Sparky had had about enough of the sailing adventure for 1 lifetime.

 

During the morning radio net it was mentioned that one of the boats had wrapped a spinnaker around its mast and took refuge at Punta Culnett to get things under control. Lisa and I discussed a possible option to get Sparks to shore and us some rest and eventually settled on the idea of pulling into the little bay behind Punta Culnet as well.  According to our chart book this little bay had protection from the Northwest winds we were experiencing, so we diverted course again and jogged the 20 miles back to shore to find a little rest.

 

The hills around Punta Culnett are impressive, 400’ high and towering straight up from the sea it looked like a perfect little hideaway…LOOKED LIKE A PERFECT LITTLE HIDEAWAY!

 

As we entered the bay the winds went from a steady 25 knots to 30, 35 and 40 knots of wind. With just the smallest portion of jib rolled out we were moving at 7 knots and hoping the hills would soon block the wind so we could find a spot and drop the anchor. When we had traveled nearly 1 mile into the bay the winds still had not dropped so we struggled to get the jib in and eventually made a mess of the furler in the process. Our chart book again told us this was a good anchorage and even offered a GPS point for dropping the hook, but from our vantage point, the anchorage had 4 foot swells and the wind was so powerful it was blowing spume off the top of the waves, saddened we choose to leave.

 

Punta Culet is surrounded by shoal water on the south and south west sides. Since we came from the North it was little problem to enter but a real bear now to depart without having the large seas board the boat. From about 4 pm till nearly 9 pm we reached across waves that would roll the boat and its rails under water every 5 to 10 minutes. It’s funny now to look back and see how easily the boat handled the rolling, but how on edge Lisa and I were as bottles tried to break there way through cabinet doors and books continuously worked there way out of cubbies along with other things that hadn’t moved in years that now found a new resting place, the boat just rolled along mile after mile.  Eventually Lisa and I just settled in to endure the ride.

At this point Lisa and I we really dejected and had to gather ourselves to understand exactly what we had gotten into.    I can't say we were ever scared, but certainly as Lisa would say, "this was not the vacation we had signed up for". 

The final day into Turtle Bay was relatively easy and it was the first time we had a chance to drop a line over the side. It didn’t take long to land the first tuna (bonita), fillet it and get it ready for dinner, but by then it was time to enter TurtleBay.

We dropped the anchor a little after 2 pm on the 31st (I think) sailing approx 300 of the 360 mile course.. The day after we arrived at Turtle Bay there was a large (600 people) beach party arranged. Beer and soda were plentiful and food was supplied by all of us “cruisers” so consider it a very large pot luck dinner.

We all had a blast including Sparky since we just let him run free; he was tired for days afterward. Somewhere along the line we heard about Lucha Liebre Professional coming to town. Keep in mind that Turtle Bay only has about 500 townspeople and a big event like Lucha Liebre creates quite a ruckus.

 

If you are not aware of Lucha Liebre this is Professional Wrestling at is entertainment best. The wrestlers are driven through town in open bed trucks with loudspeakers blaring and kids following everywhere they went, we couldn’t miss becoming a part of it.

Around 6pm we all headed to the big arena gobbling tacos and beers from the local vendors along the way just to put us in the right frame of mind. A couple of our friends got so involved that they bought masks and put on a little pre-match before the real professionals arrived. The night progressed as you might expect with the crowd cheering the local heroes and hissing at the villains in each match. Coupled with $1 beer you can imagine how rowdy we all got.

 

Before we knew it the matches were over and were on our way back to the boat to clean up and prepare for the start of leg two at 7 am the next morning

October 25th, 2007

 

There are days when I just know that Lisa would like to throw me off the boat. Although I am quite sure that almost everyone knows me as a sensitive, loving, cool headed and mild mannered guy, mornings like today would suggest to you otherwise.

I had plans today to just do a quick oil change and then cut the new crop of grass that has been growing above our now rarely seen waterline. This snapped into Lisa’s plans of running to Costco to get many of the needed supplies we have been waiting to purchase due to this weeks power generation issues. We woke relatively early for us (0700) and got Sparky to the beach for his walk and then got the coffee fired up. About the same time we started the generator and just listen quietly while it purred along like the endless sound of rivet hammers in a shipyard. With the batteries nearly top up we figured running the refrigerator for a bit to “pre-cool” the icebox down was a good idea in preparation for the great quantity of meat products that Lisa would surely bring home from the Costco hunting grounds.

Lisa, prior to departure wanted to clean up a bit so she hit the showers and eventually fired up the hair dryer to blow dry her now sun-lighted hair. Prior to doing this I turned off a couple of high amp items around the boat as the hair dryer draws quite a bit and I didn’t want to tax our genset or the batteries too much. When she finished I started the refrigerator up again and during the first 5 minutes noticed the generator changing sounds. Now there are a lot of sounds that come from our generator, there are the normal rapping sounds as the piston spins around at 3500 rpms, there is the sound of the system loading up when we turn on high power equipment, and then there is the sound of those same items turning off and the generator giving a sound of relief that it no longer has to power much of anything. This is the sound that I heard, that of something with high amps (refrigerator) turning off. If the main engine had been on I would have ignored the issue. With the generator on it was a problem, another problem. This is where my mood starts to change quickly and the only option for Lisa is to leave, sit quietly while I throw a tantrum or kill me, she left for Costco! Good choice for both of us.

The ensuing tirade of having to pull nearly every cushion out of it’s resting place, empty the book shelf of every book even mentioning “refrigeration” and pleading for justice in the world of karma and boating gods was certainly on the high scale for a man of my sorts. When I settled down and got to diagnosis I quickly realized that my capacitor was shot, I had an oil leak in the compressor, the refrigerant was low and why the heck didn’t I just get an icebox and put an end to the madness of trying to keep up with systems…drink a beer please.

So, after my beer, I decided better of myself and moved on to the original oil change. Simple most would think, but even though the design of the engine should allow was a “mess-less” change, it simply can not be done. Oh I thought this time I have it figured out. I put oil pads under the filter, taped the ends so that even if a lot of oil dripped it would stay in place, I took my time removing the canister and only gradually let the remaining oil leak onto the pads, but in the end the tape let loose, the pad fell and I had about half a quart of oil in the bilge. OK, so that is about what I expected, so cleaning up with 2 rolls of Brawny fixed it all back up and soon the engine was happily twirling it’s four cylinders in a slurry of clean oil, next.

Again relying on my beer theory, I had another and decided that since the refrigerator was still beyond my grasp I would tackle what I knew I could do in hopes that my preventative maintenance would prevent us from stopping dead in the water on the way to Mexico. With good intentions I worked on both fuel filters and to my surprise I didn’t have any problems, imagine, two beers, no issues.

The neighbors came by to tell me that Lisa had arrived and I needed to take the dinghy to get her, I needed rest anyway. When we returned with her spoils I went to work on the refrigerator. I have told you previously about my skills as a mechanic, as a refrigerator repairman I have zero skill. I do have a number of books on refrigeration and it appears that most still want to keep this technology a secret to the masses.

I spent over an hour reading the same two or three paragraphs just trying to determine the difference or similarities in suction lines, discharge lines, low sides, high pressure sides, blue lines and red lines. For those who don’t know, when you are recharging refrigeration, suction, low pressure and blue lines are all the same, why can’t they just say so to make it easier for the rest of us.

In the end we added about a can of Freon. According to the books there is “no real way to tell when the refrigerator contains enough Freon, too much and you will ruin the unit via overcharging, and too little and it will not cool”, another fantastic man made invention. I think I have guessed correctly but when we most need the freezer to cool down I am sure I will refer back to this statement.

I still have no idea why the unit shut down earlier today, but everything appears to be running well. At this point I have determined that there is no oil leak, the capacitor is fine, and our Freon level is now just fine.

 

October 23rd, 2007, back to the fun stuff.

 

I’ve never claimed to be an excellent mechanic, heck I can hardly even pass for a decent sailor and those skills are far beyond anything mechanical. I can say that mechanical things don’t scare me and a long time ago I had an auto mechanic tell me to go ahead and fiddle with anything I wanted on the car and when I gummed it up so badly that I could not do anything more with it, bring it in and they would fix it. That pretty much sums up my philosophy on the boat. So far I have learn a lot, but the costs always add up to a bit more than if I had done it right the first time.

This last week has brought to light some of the “repairs” that have been done in the past. The water maker, as Lisa has noted was not one of these issues, and in the end I did everything I could to get it repaired in the timeline we are working on, but eventually it had to go to the experts for repair of the reverse osmosis membrane and the “spooling gismo” that the instructions specifically mention as “Factory Only Repair”. If the quoted costs are true, I will consider it a good choice to have sent it in. The only part of the water maker that seems out of control are the transportation costs, I believe we will see $200.00 in fees before we are done.

The generator repair appears to have been self inflicted. During a recent bought with the generator, I miss-diagnosed a failing $15 seal on the generator for a cracked exhaust manifold on the main engine. It could happen to anyone, really.

I had been trying to find out were a leak was occurring on the generator and had placed a green dye into the cooling system. After a couple of hours I was still unable to find the leak so called the experts the next day. The folks at Entec (generator manufacturer) said it was an internal seal, so I ordered the parts and a couple of days later installed the new seals in the water pump and put it back on the generator. In the effort to get things together I may have been a little rough on the impellor and pulley shaft, since I couldn’t quite get the pulley to seat on the shaft. After a bit of frustration I called over my friend who diagnosed the problem with the pulley (he is an expert) and quickly smoothed out a burr on the shaft. A couple of minutes later the problem was solved and the generator was fixed.

Several days later we decided to go for a sail and when we started the motor immediately saw green fluid coming from the exhaust water. I had forgotten about the dye that I had put into the generator and what I thought was anti-freeze, was actually residual water from the generator that had been pulled through the bad seal and was now being expelled through the exhaust.

Not knowing what I have just told you, we pulled the main engine exhaust manifold, virtually destroying the machined surface of the manifold in the process and spending several weeks rebuilding what was a perfectly good system to begin with.

Now back to our generator water pump today. The issue seams to have been a couple of bad bearings. These bearings are connected to the impellor and pulley shaft that I mentioned above…I wonder if my rough handling previously had anything to do with the problem we just had $$$.

So the days are going by slowly now. We have 6 days left and without a lot left on the lists we are pretty idle around the boat. The weather has been a bit of a factor in us not getting about to much, that is scheduled to change over the next couple of days. The Sunsets and Sunrises, thanks to the fires have been intense, but we both would have been happy if the fires hadn’t taken place in the first place.

Hope to have more good news in the next couple of days.

October 23rd, 2007....Caution, ranting ahead.

Well, here is a learning experience that I just have to share.   Doing the website is really a lot of fun for me and I know Lisa loves to share things whenever she can.    We work pretty hard to show the fun times and the frustration of being out of our own communities as best we can.

 

During a recent update, I had posted some pictures that while still "Ready for Prime time TV" may have been just a bit on the provacative side.   We were really surprized a couple of days later when we heard that someone we knew pulled the picture off the website, enlarged the picture which was fairly blotchy, and enhanced it to make it look far beyond "Prime time"!  

 

Both Lisa and I went into a panic as the original could hardly have made the cover of Cosmo, let alone anything close to a Victorias Secret catalog.   We deleted the photo, but the person that downloaded it thought it would be fun to email the enhanced photo around to other people we know...We were furious and question what kind of fun this could have been, it failed to see the humor.

 

Life continues to move on and I suspect there will be other accounts like this, I just hope they are limited as it is one of the few things that would keep us from updating the log with anything but the most benign photos and text.  Shame on them is all I can say.. :(

 

October 12th, 2007

It is Friday the 12th of October, seems like I haven’t written much in close to a month which is probably true. Lisa has been keeping up with the daily sights and sounds of the trip pretty well and my days on the internet usually involve putting in all the updates so there is little time to actually write. Wilma, our third crew member (our auto pilot) is driving us toward San Diego as I type this out. She is doing a fine job and the current speed is over 6 knots, so we are doing well.

 

In typical fashion we are flying just the jib (most forward sail) and the mizzen (most aft sail) since this allows for Lisa or I to sleep and whom ever is standing watch to either shorten or adjust sails without leaving the cockpit. True sailors would say that we are way to conservative in our sail plan, but if we make anything over 4 knots we are very happy and the boat moves along in pretty nice comfort.

 

Catalina was a blast as you will have read in Lisa’s updates. There were some anchoring issues and some challenges which will all help us to do better in the next situation. Since we left Capitola (anchor dragging incident) I have reverted back to a preferred 7 to 1 anchor scope with our minimum being 5 to 1. At Catalina Harbor last week we found ourselves in between 75’ and 80 feet of water, so minimum 350 to 400’ of chain needed to laid out. If one to look at a map of our anchorage you would see that there is barely 600’ to 700’ of distance between the two sides of the harbor. 

On the Friday before Buccaneer Day we had the winds coming from all angles and we were literally sweeping a path across the whole anchorage. This didn’t really bother me nearly as much as the rest of the folks that were in our way. Of Course we moved because most of the boats were there first. It was really nice being on a mooring but it wasn’t the way we wanted to spend the week. I gotta go for a second as the wind has once again changed direction and Wilma will need some direction from me.

OK, I am back. I should note that it is overcast today and we expected a little rain but that appears to be passing. We have put 25 miles under our keel since 5 am this morning and have another 30 to go before dropping anchor. Lisa has awaken from her beauty sleep so it must be about 10 am.

 

So we attended Buccaneer Days and it did not disappoint me. The crowd was rowdy but not so much that they got out of hand and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. As the day turned into night the drunks started to appear and it got more and more fun to watch the happenings than to really participate. Singing pirates who should not have been singing showed up, unsigned bands of guitarists that should remain so also began to come out of the woodwork along with a gaggle of others who entertained just by being themselves.

 

As for activities, the only ones we remember were the treasure hunt that we participated in (although not with the gusto of others as we did not want to spill our drinks) and the Wench and Pirate costume event which had it’s own special moments. Of all the things happening around the “camp” the most fun was watching the unofficial “dinghy boarding contest” around 11pm. If you can image and dock area approx 100’ long with more than 200 dinghies tied to it and then add 400 – 500 drunken pirates, wenches, and castaways, you have the making for a good time. When we added in the final pie`se de resistance, The Flashing

runner up to the “Best Wench Contest” it was a night to remember for a long time.

 

OK, so we got through the Pirate festival and then eventually moved on to Emerald Bay, noting that our guide book said to only use this anchorage in “settled weather”.

 

Emerald Bay is just North of Catalina Harbor but on the other side of the island. We had a nice sail to this cove and were both awed by the clarity of the water. In 40 feet of water we could see the anchor drop and bury itself without leaving the boat!

 

We were joined in the cove by Hiatus, with Kent and Heather aboard. Knowing we were in “Settled Weather” Lisa and I went to bed early to enjoy a perfect sleep. The next morning we met up with Kent and Heather and they jokingly asked how our sleep was, perfect we replied to their amazed faces. Hiatus is about the same size and weight as our boat and they said there sleep was fitful due to the motion and waves of the previous night... must be that our boat is much more stable.

 

Lisa spent part of that afternoon snorkeling around the cove. This is the first time in about 4 years; but she had a ball. Lots of smaller fish in Emerald Bay so I opted out. As the day wore on we prepared for the night ahead which looked like it might be a bit rougher than the previous night.

 

We looked hard at heading for San Diego to avoid the weather but ultimately stayed. Between 9 pm and 3 am the waves built and soon we were pounding into waves and crashing into troughs that we have not witnessed on this trip so far and we were at anchor. We couldn’t wait for sun up, but eventually the night passes and we were ready to pull anchor and leave.

 

It so happens that Kent was up early as well so I went over for short goodbye. I told Kent the last night must have been fun for them as well with all the waves and he looked at me with the same perplexed look as the day before. Turns out the motion of their boat was exactly the same for the last two nights, Lisa and I must have been really tired to have missed the action the previous night….

 

We had a near perfect sail from Catalina to Dana Point. We flew the spinnaker for a couple of hours (the spinnaker is the big colorful sail that you see during boat races), and then switched over to our working sails as the wind increased to 15 knots or so. The entrance into the harbor was easy and we did it under sail then switched on the engine for an easy anchor. We had discussed getting a berth but when we were told it would cost $65 for the night (7 pm to noon), we declined. The boat can wait till San Diego for a bath.

 

So that is it for now. We are getting closed to San Diego as I write and should arrive around 1 or 2 pm. We are looking forward to staying put for the next couple of weeks and finishing up the sewing and varnishing projects we started way back in Capitola.