4/26/2011 - Still at Ensenada Grande

(note: this is being written on Wednesday morning but it's mostly about yesterday)

The coromuel winds that we usually start to get about 10:00 PM or so were nowhere to be seen by the time we went to bed. We were wondering if, maybe, they weren't going to hit for some reason. My understanding of how they work is that the heavy cooler air from the Pacific is drawn across a low spot on the Baja peninsula near La Paz by the space left as the warm air in the Sea rises. The effects are supposed to diminish the further from La Paz one gets but they're known to blow as far north as San Evaristo at the northern end of Bahia de La Paz. All this to say, "I wonder where the coromuels are?"

Guess what? About 0200 they finally kicked in. They blew pretty hard through the wee hours of the morning. But then, instead of laying down about 8 or 9 o'clock, they continued to blow. I had great intentions to install the new filter module on our fresh water supply but this wind was definitely going to postpone that. The project requires me to empty both cupboards under the sink and have at least one of the floorboards open. That means that Lulu is pretty much banished from the cabin for what could be most of the day. Not only did I not want to be doing plumbing with my head stuck in a cupboard when the boat was tossing around, but I also couldn't put Lulu outside in the cool wind all day. She volunteered to spend the day in the V-berth but I know that would get old quickly. So, instead, we decided to just kick back. We needed to run the watermaker so we at least did that, but mostly we sat and read all morning.This was the first time I'd run the watermaker without either being connected to shore power or having the Honda generator running. But, one of the reasons we paid the big bucks for a Spectra watermaker is because of its energy-efficiency. As far as I know, it's the only one that can make 1 gallon of finish water using only 1 amp of power. So, since it's a 6 gph unit, we should be able to make 6 gallons per hour on only 6 amps. I planned to run it for 3 hours for a total usage of 18 amps. That seemed well within our battery bank's capabilities so it was time to give it a try. We actually had to run it about 3/4 of an hour longer because we had to flush the pickling agent out before we started making water and had to make an extra 3 gallons to flush it with afterwards. I'm happy to say that, while the unit was running, we were still gaining on the batteries via the solar cells. That is, we were making more juice than we were using. YES! The only time we went negative for a few minutes was whenever the fridge kicked on.

While I was making water, I noticed one of the huge heads of cabbage that we'd bought and suggested to Lulu that we should make some of it into cole slaw. And not just any cole slaw, Corky's Cole Slaw (google it). She decided to jump up and start right then and, as long as she was up, might as well make a loaf of bread, too. Yeah, man, that's my wife.

By the time we were both done with our projects, the wind had finally laid down and it was starting to get hot. Lulu decided she needed a swim and I needed to row the dinghy around a bit. I stopped by s/v Dream Catcher (Berkeley, CA) and talked with Jeffery awhile. He pointed out that he'd seen a bunch of turtles swimming around and was surprised that we hadn't seen any yet. Of course, as soon as he pointed them out I started to see them but they were never close enough to get a really good look at.

After our excursions, we were hanging around the cockpit when Candy from m/v Katie B (Huntington Beach, CA) kayaked over and chatted a bit. Then she invited us over for sundowners. We gladly accepted. After the Katie B crew had a chance to get cleaned up from their afternoon swims and kayaking, we rowed the short distance over. They insisted that we not bring any beer or anything to drink as they were headed back to La Paz and had tons of stuff left from their trip. The one thing they didn't have were totopos (tortilla chips) which we were able to supply to go with the tuna ceviche they made from the fish they'd caught that morning.We had a great time visiting and ultimately were invited for dinner. Same deal: they had all this tuna that, if it didn't get eaten was going to go to waste. We couldn't have that! So we rowed back over to our boat to grab the cole slaw as our contribution. Excellent eats: mesquite-grilled tuna, beans and rice, cole slaw, tortillas, etc. Eventually the wind started to pipe up and it seemed like a good time to go home. We had a great time shooting the breeze with our neighbors. Oh, and a bonus: while we were chatting, we were discussing the pros and cons of life on a small boat. I mentioned that one of the downsides of having such a small boat was packing our garbage. We had a bag of garbage that had to live in our cockpit until we got somewhere with a dumpster. Well, they said, "Bring it over, we're headed back to La Paz and have plenty of room." How cool is that?

4/23/2011 - Still Anchored Bahia San Gabriel

Sure enough, we had a very rockin' and rollin' night. Well, just rockin' actually as the wind kept us perfectly perpendicular to the waves so there was no rollin' involved. Lulu says that the first night at Bahia Falsa was worse but I think we're just getting our sea legs back and getting used to it. I'm looking forward to anchoring where we just sit still all night, though. The anchor held us in place like were welded to the bottom but there were still things that kept getting me up during the night. We've got the dinghy raised and hanging alongside on the jib halyard. Then it's tied for and aft with the painter and a stern line. For some reason, the stern line kept loosening up and I had to invent newer and more interesting knots to tie it down with. Ultimately I hit on something that seemed to work. Hopefully it'll pay off tonight.

Last night, while we watched an episode of Heroes and an episode of Glee and then sleeping, we were doing the laundry. That's right, we were multi-tasking. Before sitting down for our evening's entertainment, Lulu put our dirty clothes in a 5-gallon bucket along with 3 gallons of fresh water and a half a cup of ammonia. This is a formula that cruisers Greg & Jill Delesynski swear by. They say that you don't even need to rinse the clothes. We'll see. Anyway, we put the lid on the bucket and set it on the aft deck and then let the coromuel-inspired wave action act as our agitator. This morning, we pulled the clothes out of the dirty water and ran them through the wringer that the staff at Silver Crest School got Lulu as a going away present. Then they got hung up on the lifelines to dry in the Mexican sun. Well, they all came out clean and fresh-smelling. Who knew? Thanks, Greg & Jill.

After laundry, we launched the dinghy and went ashore for a little hike. As close as we thought we were to the beach, we are a LONG way out. Further than I want to row, at least until my blisters heal. By the time we were still 100 yards or so from the beach, it was already too shallow for the outboard. So, we got out and pulled the dinghy in while we walked alongside. This would be no problem whatsoever except for one little thing. My outboard, although it runs like a fine watch, leaks gas whenever it's tipped from the perfectly vertical position. Unless I wanted to drag the prop through the sandy bottom, I HAD to tip it a little. I finally settled on tipping it as little as possible and then holding a rag to catch any leakage. Once ashore I needed a different plan. Ultimately we ended up standing the motor on end on its skeg and then using various pieces of line to hold it upright in that position. Amazingly, it worked but this is an issue which has suddenly moved to the top of the to-do list.

There is supposed to be a trail that goes from the beach at Bahia San Gabriel, across the island to Playa Bonanza on the other side. Hiking this trail was our mission. Once we got ashore and learned to watch where we step lest we get stuck with another puffer fish spine (no longer venemous, thankfully), we put on shoes and socks for the first time in months. The sandy, scrubby trail was just no place for sandals.

The sign at the head of the trail said that it was 5.3 miles long and took about 4 hours. We had no intention of being gone 8 hours but figured we could do better than 5.3 miles in 4 hours anyway, so off we went. Well, the "trail" petered out pretty quickly but it wasn't too hard to figure out where to go: just stay between the hills and head towards the dip.

The area we were walking on was obviously underwater some time in the past. The ground was littered with old seashells and pieces of coral. LOTS of seashells and pieces of coral. In one place, the ground was completely covered with old clam shells. Must have been millions of them at least.

Later, the predominantly clam shells became predominantly oyster shells. Clearly, this bay extended a lot further inland than it does now. Other than the shells, there were a lot of scrubby-looking plants and a few cactuses. Some of the cacti were even sporting blooms.

After about 45 minutes of walking, we both started to get worried about the dinghy. It was just sitting there on the beach with the outboard tied upright inside it. There weren't too many people around to bother it but, if we lost it, it would be a very long swim, especially for me, back to the boat. We decided to head back without seeing Playa Bonanza.

The colors as we approached the beach were spectacular. We're not sure if we'll ever get used to the beautiful white-turquoise-aqua-blue color transition that happens between the sandy beach and the deep water. It is so pretty. I always figured that there were various filters photographers used to get the effect, but it's real.

Lulu, nut-case that she is, decided to swim all then way back to the boat. Made me nervous as hell and I hung around in the dinghy until she was safely aboard, but she made it all the way. What a gal!

Back at the boat, we decided we both needed showers really badly. We screened off the cockpit, hoisted the solar shower, stripped down and got clean. The water in the solar shower was almost too hot. Any warmer would have been uncomfortable. The shower felt so good and it really feels good to be clean again. And wearing clean clothes, no less.

Planning on another wild and wooly night tonight and then tomorrow, we'll head a little further north. Maybe Caleta Partida, a "bay" that separates Isla Espirtu Santo from Isla Partida or, if it looks crowded, we might go up a couple more miles to Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida. BTW, "caleta" and "ensenada" both mean "cove or inlet" while "bahia" obviously means "bay".

5/16/2011 - Just a quick note

We are finally back in internet land. Now we have to plow through a
couple hundred e-mails. If you've sent us something and we haven't
gotten back to you yet, that's why. We'll get to you and will also
update the blog with some photos soon.

In the meantime, I ordered the mixing elbow for the engine which cost
about half of what I was afraid it would cost. Also ordered a nw
autopilot whic cost about what I expected but we're getting a more
robust unit than our old one. The best news is that our friends Dave
and Marj are going back to the States tomorrow to visit their daughter
until the end of the month. The told us to have the stuff shipped to
her and they'd bring it back down in their luggage. Thus saves us a
ton of money and untold hassle. Hats off to them! So, we'll be in La
Paz until the end of the month and then, hopefully, be back on our way
up the Sea.

5/14/2011 - Learning all the time

Every day is a new learning experience when you're doing something as foreign to your former life as cruising the Sea of Cortez in a sailboat is to our former lives. Like today for instance. Who knew that RF (radio frequency) energy emanating from our HF radio antenna (a simple piece of wire) could not only interfere with the function of the autopilot but could actually fry components inside?

We left our anchorage at Ensenada Grande bright and early, about 7:30. Got out into the open water and started motoring (did I mention the minimal wind we had was from the south?) to La Paz. After an hour or so I asked Lulu to come up topside and stand watch while I went below to take care of sending and receiving e-mail via the SSB radio. Now I already knew that the radio would do things like make the bilge pump light come on when transmitting. It also will turn the GPS on. Through trial and error I found out that this happens primarily (if not exclusively) when I'm transmitting in the 10 MHz band and usually only if I transmit at full power. Consequently, unless I'm trying to transmit a voice message, I keep the power setting in the middle. The only band I could get decent propagation on today was the 10 MHz band, but the power was not on High so I figured everything was jake. Just as I started to send my e-mails out, I thought, "Hmmm... wonder if this will effect the autopilot?" A few seconds later, I sensed the sun shifting positions. I went topsides and Lulu had disengaged the autopilot and was hand-steering to get us back on course (so we wouldn't run into Isla Ballena). Got things set, put the autopilot back in control and it did it again. Disengaged the AP and Lulu hand steered until I finished my radio stuff and could suss things out. Well, the upshot is that the AP doesn't work anymore. And, you can smell burnt electrical stuff inside it. Who knew? Tomorrow I'm going to take it apart, see if I can identify the fried component, exchange it with the same component from our parts unit and hope we get a working AP out of the deal. Either way, we'll probably be buying a new autopilot. They're just too important to not have (at least) one.

So, other than having to hand-steer and motor the whole way, it was a pleasant trip. Very hot. We arrived in La Paz and were anchored by 2:30 PM. It's sort of surreal being back here as we got accustomed to the "smaller" island life very quickly. We already miss it and won't be here any longer than necessary. But, that being said, we do have a list of things to do while we're here. And it'll take a little while to get the engine parts anyway. Hopefully there's an autopilot in stock here somewhere as special orders seem to take about 3 weeks.

Tomorrow, being Sunday, we won't be able to get much done. So we'll dinghy in to Marina de La Paz to take real showers, dump our garbage, and fill the water jugs. Other than that, we'll probably loaf after our grueling trip. Yeah, I know, your heart bleeds.

BTW, my banda ancha card ran out so we won't have real internet until Monday.

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5/13/2011 - If I knew then what I know now...

Hindsight is great, isn't it? You just can't let it get you down. For instance, If I knew that all the weather predictions of N and NW winds of 10-15 knots were going to be flat wrong, AND if I knew that the makeshift repair to the exhaust system was going to work so well, we probably would not have chosen to backtrack 78 miles to La Paz. Nope. If I'd known I could run the engine all day and the repair would show not one sign of leakage and I knew that what little wind we would have today would end up coming from the south, we probably would have returned to Timbabiche day before yesterday, made the repair, and then as soon as the north winds dropped (today) would have motored or sailed to Agua Verde and then on to Puerto Escondido, a mere 38 miles from where we decided to turn back.

Oh well, no matter. The important thing is that the repair is holding up way better than anticipated. We motored all day today at 2200 RPMs and there were no signs of leaks or any other signs of failure. That Rescue tape is some amazing stuff.

Yesterday, while we were at San Evaristo, the north winds blew nicely all day long. We were looking forward to more of the same today. Maybe we should have left yesterday but we were busy all day getting the boat shipshape, getting a few things from the tienda and restocking the cerveza supply.

We went to bed early last night and got up today ready to go. Left the anchorage about 0900 after breakfast. As soon as we were clear of the bay we hoisted the sails. It looked like there might be a little bit of north wind but it ended up not being enough to even begin to fill the sails. And then it dropped to nothing. So, we motored on. By mid-afternoon we were obviously getting some wind. Unfortunately it was on the nose. I tried adjusting course to see if maybe we could beat into it but we ended up 90 degrees to the rhumb line so we bagged that idea. Continued motoring.

San Evaristo was packed with boats yesterday. There were 14 in all and half of those were in the little north anchorage that seems really about big enough for maybe, MAYBE 5 boats at the most. When we passed Isla San Francisco, I counted 10 boats anchored. So we didn't have much hope for Ensenada Grande. Imagine our surprise when we got here. There was one sailboat and one power boat in the north lobe, none in the middle, and only one, a Moorings charter power catamaran, in the south lobe where we were going. We could anchor pretty much anywhere we wanted. Shortly after we anchored the power cat left but another power charter boat came in, loaded with toys (jet-skis, etc.). And, of course, they parked right ahead of us. Oh well, good chance they're not planning to spend the night anyway. BTW, arrived Ensenada Grande at 1600.

The anchorage is starting to fill up. Another charter (sail) catamaran just came in and another power boat is anchoring behind us even as I type.

So, tomorrow we'll get to La Paz (27 nm, same as today's run) in the afternoon. The up-side of going all the way to La Paz is that we can get some stuff taken care of. Yes, we could probably have gotten it done in Puerto Escondido, too, but shut up. Anyway, look for some photos soon. I think I'm just going to edit the existing blogs by inserting the appropriate photos. I'll let you know when it's been done. Then just go back and re-download all the blogs since 4/20/2011. But not yet. I'll let you know.

The current thinking is to order a new mixing elbow (unless it's more than normally stupid-expensive) and not remove the old one until the new one is here. Right now, we can motor. Once the elbow is off, we're dead in the water. So we'll install the new one when we get it and then head back up north. We'll get the old one fixed, if possible, in Puerto Escondido or maybe Guaymas later in the summer or early in the fall. Of course, once we have a new elbow, we shouldn't ever need a spare, right?

So, Doug and Jody, Neil & Lisa, David & Carolyn, Jay and Judy: Need anything from La Paz while we're there? Let us know.

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too tired

I'm bushed. I'll blog all about today tomorrow. See you then.

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5/10/2011 - Yesterday

Okay, it's Tuesday morning and my first cuppa joe is almost ready. Time to fill you in on what we did yesterday since I was too tired to do it last night after we got back from visiting Lisa & Neil on s/v Gypsy.

It was fairly windy all day so we never really felt inspired to row ashore. Probably just as well as we had things on board that needed our attention. When I was checking something in the engine room the other day, I noticed the Racor filters were all covered with some kind of soot. Then I noticed that a whole bunch of stuff was covered with this same soot. At first it freaked me out a bit because it looked like the kind of smoky soot that is left after there's been a fire. Had we had a self-extinguishing fire in the engine room that I wasn't aware of? Scary thought. On further investigation I saw that what had actually caused the soot was an exhaust leak where the exhaust manifold meets the mixing elbow. There's a clamp there so I loosened the clamp to make sure nothing was broken (didn't appear to be) and then tightened it back up so that there was no wobble. Hopefully, that did it. Then I got started scrubbing off all the soot, or at least the easy-to-reach soot.

While I was cleaning off the Racor filter holders it dawned on me that I couldn't remember changing filter elements since I'd installed the new system 400+ engine hours ago. So, first I turned the valves so the spare filter was put into service (that's part of the upgrade I did on the system: switchable primary filters in parallel). Then I pulled the old filter out of what was now the standby filter and replaced it. Piece of cake.

Also housed in the engine compartment is the big bag that Lulu made so I could stow water filters, spare line, etc. I had to remove the bag to be able to do my fuel filter work so, before I put it back in, I kind of straightened it up. Then it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to take one of the 5 micron water filters out of the bag and change the filter on the watermaker. This filter is for straining sea water before it reaches the Clark pump and, since we had made water in some pretty krill-rich waters lately, it was likely funky. That and it had never been changed before.

This is a pretty easy procedure. The filter housing is under the galley sink and very accessible. I unscrewed the housing and managed to get the unit up into the sink without spilling much. WOW! What a stench! That filter was nasty. All those little krill creatures must have died on it because it flat STUNK! Sealed the old filter in a plastic bag before putting it in the trash so it wouldn't stink up the boat. Also cleaned the sea water strainer (wire mesh screen) that's upstream of the whole unit. It stunk too and was all black but it cleaned up nice. Guess I should pay a little closer attention to these things.

Before all of these adventures, Manuel came up in his panga. Since we still had fish to eat we didn't really want anything today. He hung around and we chatted a little. He wondered if we could spare any cerveza, tequila, rum, anything since there was nowhere to buy any in Timbabiche. I explained that we had a ways to go before we could buy any more so we kind of wanted to hang on to what we had. He understood. He asked us for our garbage so he could dispose of it for us. We didn't have but half a bag since we'd just dumped in San Evaristo but we were glad to get rid of the half bag. I asked if he wanted aluminum cans and he said "yes, for his daughters". He has 6 daughters, all school age and apparently they collect cans for recycling. He didn't have any fish but he had 2 lobsters, one was pretty big and the other was much smaller. I asked Lulu if we wanted more lobster and she said "sure". So I relayed the message to Manuel. He asked me for a bucket, filled it partway with seawater, added the lobsters and handed it back saying it was a gift for my wife. I told him that was very nice and had Lulu fix him up with a 6-pack of beer. He then asked if I could spare another 100 pesos for gas and such which I was glad to do. He left happy as far as I could tell. These guys have a tough life.

This time, I decided to split the whole lobster lengthwise instead of just harvesting the tail. One of our books shows that as a way to go so I figured I ought to try it out. What the book didn't tell me was whether or not I was supposed to carry out this procedure on the lobster while it was still alive and, if not, how I was supposed to kill it. Since it wasn't addressed, I figured that the splitting and killing both happened with the same knife stroke. Seemed sort of cruel but I guess no worse than chopping the head off a chicken. I started with the smaller guy. I laid it on it's back on a cutting board in the cockpit and then laid our big French knife along his length and then leaned over and put my weight behind it. Its shell was hard but the knife went through just fine. Cleaned the guts out, pulled the legs and antennae off and proceeded to the big guy.

This was a little bit tougher. I got partway through and couldn't go any further. Lulu fetched me the rubber mallet and I pounded the knife the rest of the way through. Lulu refrigerated everything and I cooked it up later on the BBQ. She pulled the cooked meat out and refrigerated it for use in a salad or something later. There wasn't really that much extra meat in the body so next time I think I'll just harvest the tails again.

We spent the afternoon loafing. About mid-afternoon we saw a boat that looked like it might be coming in here. The other two boats that were sharing the anchorage with us had left in the morning so we were all the only boat here most of the day. After awhile it was obvious that this new boat was definitely coming into Timbabiche. As it got closer I was able to identify it as s/v Gypsy with our friends Lisa and Neil who we hadn't seen since January. Once they got settled, they invited us over for dinner.

We had a great time catching up with our friends. When it was time to row back to Siempre Sabado, the wind had come up (and not in our favor of course) and there were some waves. Remember, we rowed over which meant we had to row back. Siempre Sabado looked like it was about 50 miles away. But rowing wasn't too bad and we made it but it wasn't all that much fun. Anyhoo, that's why I was too tired to write last night.

We're planning on leaving for Ensenada Las Ballenas later today but right now it's blowing too hard, or at least it's blowing harder than we care to deal with, so we'll just have to wait and see.

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