the other side of the arch

This is and the previous picture is an arch in Calita Lupita on Isla San Marcos. We took the dinghies under the arch (very low) and wound up the other side (imagine that). Julie hiked up over the top and took this picture looking down through a hole in the rock.

Spelunking ... kind of

Julie and her squid buddy

This is one of the smaller squids we caught. Thad cleaned them all right on the cooler. Not much to it; cut off the head and tail, slice open the body and gut it and peal a layer of skin off. A squid is all muscle.

The Squidders

Rick, Jessica, Julie and me with the big one ...

Julie and Thad with the 50lb squid

This was back at the dock. Thad is holding up the squid by the tail with a gaff.

July 16 - 25, 2008 – Santa Rosalia and Isla San Marcos

Wednesday – Friday July 16 - 18, 2008
Santa Rosalia – lay days spent lounging around in the heat and sweltering humidity. Having the sun shade … any little bit of shade really helps cool things down. Julie sewed new covers for the cockpit cushions. We were going to leave two days ago but Julie got a migraine so we’ve just hung around the marina moving about slowly and quietly.

Saturday - July 19, 2008
1100 – Depart Santa Rosalia for Isla San Marcos and Sweet Pea Cove. Fuel up ($83) 31.25 gallons – engine hours 349, La Paz engine hours 272 (349-272) = 77 hours; 31.25 gallons / 77 hours gallons = .4 gals/hour … hooray, hooray, hooray!!! Thirty minutes outside the breakwater Julie’s migraine returns and so do we.

Sunday – July 20, 2008
Depart Santa Rosalia for Isla San Marcos 9.9 miles south. Julie much better now; she
decided to throw out her fishing line, didn’t even get the line unraveled and she had hooked a small to medium dorado (mahi-mahi). After we got her (Julie, not the fish) settled down, we brought the fish in, cleaned it, threw it in the freezer and we’ll have dorado tonight for dinner.
Anchor at Isla San Marcos, Calita Lupita. Water clear and cool. We we’re going to go snorkeling, but Sharon on JAKE got stung on the ear by a jelly-fish, so I cleaned the bottom of the boat instead. Julie stayed on the boat!

Monday – July 21, 2008
Up anchor and back to Santa Rosalia for final provisioning before heading north. To local resturant for a taco and torta lunch; napped in the afternoon and to Terco’s (the chicken place) for dinner.
2100 – Julie went to talk to some fisherman on the dock about her lures. It was a family of three (Rick the dad, and Thad and Jessica his son and daughter-in-law); they had been in the Baja for the past month and-a-half fishing on Thad’s power-cruiser (they had trailered down from California). They had a fairly successful trip and had caught all they wanted except they had not gone squidding. They gave Julie a huge piece of Dorado (they had caught) and asked her if she wanted to go squidding; the only problem was they couldn’t launch their boat (the ramp was blocked by some overturned panga’s … go figure). She said sure, and came running to ask me if I wanted to go - This is squid season. Santa Rosalia is the squid capital of the world and squid smell fishy, times ten! The pangas, hundreds of them, run out at dusk high, light and fast and return at varying hours in the early morning low, slow and heavy. Every evening from top to bottom, the eastern horizon twinkles with a long row of white lights that stretches for miles (pangas squidding). The harbor is small and shared by all; the two small marinas, the hundreds of panga’s and the squid processing area. The smell of squid is pungent and a tinge of squid odor is always present; were it not for the prevailing southerly’s it might truly be uncomfortable. Squid, in addition to being stinky, are foul, messy, carnivorous and cannibalistic creatures. In visualizing myself neck deep in beaks, tentacles, an odd assortment of squid bits and ink all while rolling on a swell, in a small boat, in muggy heat, in the dark - I said “no.” A bit later I thought to check on Julie and see if I had contact information of these strangers (whom I had yet to meet) and make sure things were on the up-and-up. Julie was on our boat milling about and didn’t seem in a big hurry to get going. I saw the two guys and the girl waiting with their poles and talking to a panga driver. Julie said she was all ready to go, it didn’t look like it to me but what do I know. As I left the boat and headed back up to the cooler (the only air conditioned room in the marina), Julie asked me if I could help her take down the sun-shade. I asked “why?” “Well, won’t it be in the way when we are squidding” she asked? I murmur to myself “how is the sun-shade going to be in the way while your squidding?” After several more meaningless and confused interchanges, it became clear to me that Julie was going to take ITCHEN out squidding! “BY YOURSELF” I exclaimed! “Yes” she said! “OVER MY DEAD BODY,” I pronounced! “Well, I thought that’s why you might want to come” she said knowingly. “Ya think” I retorted. By this time our three would be squidders were stealthily ambling up the dock, anxious to be absent for the family quarrel. I had now been pressed into service (whoa be the man that gets between Julie and her fishing) and I had to run along and catch our wanna-be squidders. We grabbed their gargantuan cooler, poles and back we came to the ITCHEN, took down the shade and cast off.
Julie had just bought a squid jig that afternoon and was now beside herself with the imminent, if unexpected, chance to try it out. A squid jig looks like a torture device from the Tower of London; it’s spherical with three sets of floating crowns fitting over a 12’ inch shaft. Each crown is luminescent and has 8-10 stainless steel, razor sharp one-inch long prongs that jut out at 60-degree angles. The jig lure is lowered into the water (squid live below the 1000 foot level during the day and then come to the surface or very near the surface to feed at night) and jigged, or bobbed to entice the squid to latch on. They wrap they’re tentacles and arms around the jig and are unable to free themselves. We had just watched an Internet video on them that afternoon and learned that squid have two tentacles and 8 arms. They snatch (two one-hundredths of a second) their prey with their two tentacles (which are longer than the arms) and then bring it into the eight arms and pull it into the beak; dinner at chez-squid. Squid live about two years and currently there is a huge influx of Jones squid ranging from Central America to Alaska where they are decimating the herring and sardine populations. The video showed hundreds of them swimming backwards and forwards with equal agility and attacking anything including each other. There was a crew from animal planet here filming the squid feeding frenzy that happens here, seasonally. The dive crew was wearing chain-mail armor over their wet suits. Upon return one of the divers, who had a great deal of experience in diving with all sorts of sea life said, “this was really scary.” Go to the Internet and look squid up, they’re really quite fascinating and watch for the squid feature on Animal Planet in a couple of months. Our squid were Humboldt Squid and draw top dollar for the edibility.
We took ITCHEN out 2.6 miles from the marina. The water was getting steadily deeper when a pattern of wildly fluctuating depths commenced. We were not as far out as the panga’s, but thought we’d try the squid lures here. Thad bent on a squid lure to his super-heavy-duty-deluxe-ocean-going-fishing-pole and it wasn’t ten seconds and he had a hit. He wrestled with the squid for about five minutes and brought up a small (for that evening) 24” squid; turning all sorts of different colors. The squid shot off a couple of geysers of water (their propulsion system) as Thad brought him next to the boat, Rick gaffed him and they flipped it into the cooler and slammed the lid. A minute later Thad opened the cooler, cut the tentacles away from his lure and we were back squidding again. This is how it went for the next 45 minutes. As soon as we dropped the jig in the squid would attack it and whoever had the pole would spend considerable time and effort to bring the squid in (usually with two or three of his buddies feeding on him). Squid are ferocious fighters and very strong. Rick brought in a 50 pound squid (the largest of the evening) with some doing, but we all caught at least one. We were making quite a fracas and several panga’s took notice of us. One panga came pretty close and it was really something to watch them work. The panga is a 20 to 25 foot, deep sided, open boat powered by a large (85-100 hp) outboard; manned by a crew of two (or more) dressed in bib waterproof coveralls. They have a bright light on the panga (which attracts the squid) and they had four lines going into the water, two on each side, 3/8 – ½ inch thick (nothing fancy). The crew alternated from one side of the boat to the other and as quick as they set the jig, a squid would hit. Hand over hand they hauled up the line (squid squirting water everywhere), flipped the squid in the boat, lopped off its head (including tentacles) and tail, threw the body in the bottom of the boat and the head and tail over the side along with a clean jig. With one step the fisherman turned to the other side of the boat to work that line and repeat the exact same procedure. They were like machines, opposing swings of the pendulum, back and forth the two-crew moved in perfect unison, always only one crew to a side, keeping the boat in balance; haul, cut, cut, toss, toss … toss, pivot). They had as many squid in four minutes as we had in 45 minutes. Our catch for the night totaled 150lbs and after gutting and filleting we probably had 60 lbs of meat. We did not keep the tentacles, which we should have as it was good meat. After doing some reading, I found that the only part of the squid that is not edible is the beak. We had enough squid for the entire dock and boats in the anchorage, as well.

Tuesday - July 22, 2008
Julie up early to hand out squid. Motored to Isla San Marcos and anchored in Calita Lupita. Stopped by BEYOND REASON and WINDWARD BOUND to hand off some squid. In addition gave squid to SUNBOW, JUNIATA, HIPNAUTICAL, JICARANDA, MY TYROLA and JAKE. Prepared for a predicted Chubasco (a strong wind from across the sea here in Mexico) secured everything, removed the sun-shade and set up anchor to release if needed. No Chubasco.

Wednesday - July 23, 2008
Moved around the corner to Sweet Pea Cove. Anchor finally set correctly. I had been having trouble setting it recently and I had lost some confidence in it. We backed down on it pretty aggressively and it caught right away and dug in. While snorkeling to check on it I noticed a huge manta ray about 20 feet to my left … what a rush!

Thursday – July 24, 2008
Sweet Pea cove – lay day. Overcast with some blustery wind, no rain, no fetch, but it kept things cool. Over to BEYOND REASON for cocktails in early evening – back to ITCHEN just before the new day with way too much tequila and rum on board. Julie fell in the water trying to get on the boat and we both fell into bed with our heads and stomachs swirling. I’ve been that drunk before, but I was really young and really stupid!

Friday – July 25, 2008
Up anchor for Santa Rosalia. Motored over to JACARANDA (39’ Allied Seabreeze) for a fishing guidebook. Washed down the boat; hauled the dinghy, cleaned the bottom and put it up on deck for the trip north. Topped off with fuel and water and had dinner of pizza and ice cream with JAKE and SUNBOW (50’ Chris Wright Catamaran). We’ve been at sea, or living on a boat, for one year, today. We’ve made five trips back to the States; bought and sold another car; gone through two sets of bicycles; and replaced nearly everything on the boat. If we had followed our original plan and nothing had gone wrong, we would probably be in America Samoa or there abouts and much better off financially. But this is OK; we’re doing the Sea of Cortez and changed our thinking from going west, to going east. Those that we’ve talked with who have made the puddle jump (crossing the pacific) sailed for 30 days only to find extraordinarily limited and expensive provisioning. One family spent $100 for a pizza and four cokes. Another spent as much for several pieces of fruit. I would like to sail to New Zealand, but for now we plan to linger in Central and South America this season, maybe visiting the Galapagos Islands; transit the Panama Canal next season; sail the Caribbean and the East Coast; eventually crossing the Atlantic to see Brigid in England.

Julie's Dorado

This is the male (left) and female dorado fish Julie caught. The colors are just spectaclular, flourscent green and blue; the pictures don't do the colors justice. In the blog I said the female (right) looked more like a proper fish (more of a sloped head), but I see the picture doesn't show that very well ... anyway they were good eaten'.

Big Petroglyphs

These images are on a hill overlooking the resturant where we got the crummy hamburger by Isla Requeson (there were many other images on the surrounding hills, as well). All the images look natural enough, but what is unique about this one is the white outlining (actually desert sage) and the image on the left appears to be a whale (... you've just entered the twilight zone).

Itchen Log July 6-15, 2008, El Burro - Santa Rosalia

Sunday – July 6, 2008
El Burro – Dinghy out to the reef for snorkeling with BEYOND REASON; saw clams and big angelfish. The angelfish were curious and we could almost get one with a blue mesh bag we were swimming with. Dinner on BEYOND REASON. I slept in the cockpit and Julie in the v-berth … it was cooler for both of us.

Monday – July 7, 2008
El Burro – Overcast morning, which kept things cool for a bit. Switched anchorages to Posada Conception (next anchorage north) for the night. 20 knots of wind at 2am; got up and checked the anchor (even though we have an anchor alarm). Clear night with lots of stars; the wind died as quickly as it had risen.

Tuesday – July 8, 2008
El Burro – Anchored back in El Burro in the am; afternoon cocktails with the remaining cruisers then dinner on JAZZ with JAKE (champagne, wine, caviar, two kinds of curry and lemon meringue pie). During the dinner conversation we reflected on cruising. One of the questions JAZZ always receives is “what do you do with your day?” On a boat one can’t tackle a single problem … it’s sort of like the “begets.” In order to attack a problem, a variety of things need to be moved (or repaired), which usually leads to another discovery (minimally a distraction) of something else that needs repair … there is always something on a boat that needs repair. It took a while for us to understand this, but we’re beginning to accept it now (this as opposed to fixing/installing something once and being done with it forever). The projects can be overwhelming at times because of the number in addition to the “begetting” problem. There is a steady pressure to keep on top of things lest they get out hand. Cruising, for us, has not been the picture of blue skies, azure seas, fair winds and white beaches with scantily clad … persons … lounging about one sees on the cover of sailing magazines. It has been an adventure, to be sure, just not what we expected. There is a good deal of work and inconvenience involved in the day-to-day cruising life, but upon reflection we’d rather be doing this than living on land (with all it’s conveniences).
For example, power consumption (a land convenience) is closely watched by all cruisers. Usage is measured in amp/hours and fuel; all cruisers know just what it takes to keep their batteries charged, which of their electronics is the piggy (most will say it’s the refrigerator and water maker) and how much fuel they need to keep the batteries charged up. We’re running the engine one or two hours a day to keep up with our power consumption especially when we use the computer (that’s using only one of the two banks of batteries). Our power consumption is nothing compared to almost every other cruiser we’ve met. Most have multiple solar panels, a wind generator, a fuel generator and the engine; and they use them all. We have only the engine and a 600 amp portable power pack (we sold the generator). We don’t want, nor do we think we need the hassle, expense or complication of the alternate power sources. At anchor, we run one or two interior lights (maybe a couple amps in 24 hours), a refrigerator rated at 1.5 amps/hour (which cycles on every 10 minutes for 45 seconds) anything else uses micro amps. We can easily go for several days (at anchor) without turning on the engine, if we’re not using the computer (4-5 amps – wi-fi is usually not available in anchorages). We figure we can run the engine for two hours a day for 88 days (minimally) without running out of fuel.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008
El Burro – JAKE headed north to Santa Rosalia this morning. We headed south, deeper into Conception Bay, to Isla Requeson. Cruisers had mentioned a good hamburger joint on the beach along with a pretty well stocked mini-mercado; the anchorage was windy; the hamburger was marginal (we ordered a mushroom bacon-swiss burger, but they didn’t have any mushrooms or bacon ) and the grand total (along with a beer and two soda’s) was $16; the mini-mercado was vacated, but … “the memory is priceless.”
Julie programmed the MMSI function on the VHF;(TJ was unable to read the instructions and program it himself!) a feature that allows one vessel to call another without openly hailing on a frequency. We switched water tanks, 44 gallons has lasted us since June 28 (12 days) - we can do better. Still on first propane tank (those usually last about a month); Fuel ½ tank - we’ve run the engine 65 hours on half tank a diesel (that is just outstanding!). Spoke with Tim via satellite phone, he ships out for Okinawa on Friday.

Thursday – July 10, 2008
El Burro – Dinghy to Bertha’s and swam. El Burro has a southerly breeze most afternoons, which help keep’s things cool. The heat in the sea is not as bad as we were led to believe, but the humidity is wicked at 70% and will continue to rise. We do anything we can to keep cool (shade, minimal clothing and ice cold drinks).

Friday – July 11, 2008
0715 – Weigh anchor for Santa Rosalia. Winds from the SW, moderate southerly swells and cloudy. Able to let out the jib and get a little boost (average speed 4.5 knots).
1400 – Julie caught two Dorado’s (dolphin, mahi-mahi) off Isla San Marcos (a male and female). Julie had been trolling off the back of the boat since La Paz and was disconsolate over not having caught anything. The fish were about 24-30” long and maybe 10-12 pounds. They’re a beautiful fluorescent green and blue with the male having a much more pronounced forehead and the female looking like a proper fish. We cleaned them underway over-the-side (messy and awkward), filleted ‘em and tossed ‘em in the refer.
1740 – Arrive Singlar Marina Santa Rosalia; engine hours 349.5; fuel just over ¼ tank remaining. Out to dinner with JAKE at Tercos Pollo Grande. Julie had a two-piece and I had a four-piece BBQ chicken dinner along with beers and soda for $20. I say this only so you can compare that with the single hamburger we had two nights ago and spent $16.

Saturday – July 12, 2008
Santa Rosalia – Washed and waxed boat … all cracks, corners and crevices; full day job. Julie made the Dorado for dinner with JAKE; West Wing after.

Sunday – July 13, 2008
Santa Rosalia – Awoke to church bells. Santa Rosalia is an old copper mining town that has similarities in layout and building structure to a company (mining) town in West Virginia. The church is famous in that it was built by Gustave Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower fame) in France, deconstructed and then reconstructed in Santa Rosalia in 1845. Santa Rosalia is enjoying some reinvigoration with the current high price of copper; apparently a Canadian firm has bought out the old mine and is leeching the copper from the tailings using arsenic. Walked around town and did some minor provisioning. I changed the transmission fluid (all 120cc) but what a pain in the neck to get to; I used a 100cc glass syringe and a foley catheter to aspirate the transmission fluid. Julie sewed some t-shirts for me and a dress and blouse for herself.

Monday – July 14, 2008
Santa Rosalia – Resealed the port aft chain plate; filled the water tanks; cleaned and UV coated the dinghy and filled it with gas. Toyed with the ideas of putting on dinghy wheels, but it was too humid and we’ve never liked the ideas of putting holes in a boat. We’ll hold off on the wheels for now. Temperature is in the high nineties with 70-80% humidity; the height of the day is next to impossible to work as one just drips with sweat. We’ve installed fans throughout the boat (two in the v-berth and one in the main salon) and they run constantly. Naked, or as few cloths as is decent, is the uniform of the day and actually last night we got a little cool and used a blanket; it’s the first time feeling cool or using a blanket since La Paz.
The Santa Rosalia Singlar Marina is the most complete Singlar Marina we’ve been to yet. It has a working bar with disco outside and a single performer inside; air conditioned cruisers lounge complete with magazines, books, wi-fi, big screen TV and DVD/VHS player. The pool and hot tub work and bathrooms are immaculate; 24 hours security and the marina is located near the center of town (certainly easy walking distance to anywhere).

Tuesday – July 15, 2008
Santa Rosalia – Rode bikes around town and topped off the batteries with water. Pot Luck in the cruisers lounge and West Wing with the whole group of Cruisers. Ice Cream afterwards.

petroglyphs

this one says "fishing was good"

overlooking Playa El Burro

this picture is from a top the hill we climbed behind the cove at playa el burro where we spent July 4th. ITCHEN is tucked in just behind the lee of the rock (at the top of the cove)

dolphins

Dolphins come out to greet us whenever we're in the neighborhood. Look closely and you can see a couple turned on their sides to eyeball us ...

Bahia San Francisco

ovelooking Bahia San Francisco; we are the third boat in from the far shore

Seal Rock Isla Partida

this is where you can swim with the seals. Lots of seals around, barking, swimming out to boat, beckoning you to come play ...

Isla Partida

... this is what the entire island looked like honeycombed rock alow and aloft. The island ... the area are volcanic remants. The iron content is so high the ground on which we walked "rings" when tapped. It is also quite hollow ... somewhat disconcerting while walking a top.

overlooking the Bahia Caleta Partida; we are not the big boat ... we are the small boat front - left

Julie under a volcanic rock on Isla Partida

Puerto Escondido

Itchen Log, June 5 - July 5 , 2008 - La Paz to Playa El Burro

Thursday - Friday, June 5-6, 2008
Baja Peninsula - Drive to San Diego along the Baja Peninsula; terrain is very arid and the road is long, narrow, sometimes twisty as a spirochete, sometimes straight as a rail that extends into nowhere. Unlike the mainland side (of Mexico), the towns are cleaner; services are farther apart though. The highway from La Paz crosses the peninsula (from east to west) five times (wanna make sure you don’t miss anything). We overnighted in Guerrero Negro (Black Warrior) a sizeable town named after a fishing boat that went aground; were stopped at multiple army checkpoints (which were very serious and inspected the car), discovered tourist resorts (literal oasis’s in the dessert) and got lost in Tijuana for about an hour (a town by the way that we think is the cleanest we’ve seen so far in Mexico). Arrive Brigids at 22:45.

Saturday – Wednesday, June 7- 11, 2008
Seattle - Catch a flight to Seattle to see Chuck/Shirley (VALA); stay with them on Saturday night and drive to Oregon on Sunday. Stay on the Oregon Coast (near Banden) with Gary (COK CABUK) Sunday night and then drive back to Seattle stopping to see Ted/Cindy (HARRIER) on the way back. We had a wonderful time and serendipitously hooked up with Molly, Bodhi and Keelyn at Chuck and Shirley’s (Molly’s family was in Washington for a wedding). Poor Chuck and Shirley, we all descended on them Monday evening after Julie and I had missed a lamb dinner Chuck and Shirley had specially prepared for us. They were most gracious though. Did a little boat shopping; fed up with Dunato’s (a used boat chandlery) that generally overcharges. I was looking for winchers (a rubber ring that fits over the winch and gives it some self-tailing ability); new at West Marine they’re $40 for a pair; Dunato’s wanted $34 for one. When I pointed out the discrepancy to the clerk, he refused to change the price. I’ve seen Dunato’s do this before with a cruising book; the original price sticker was still on the book, but their price was more than the original sticker price! What’s so galling is their unwillingness to explain themselves. I also talked with Chuck about the MER deal (transmission rebuilders that are denying any accountability for the transmission failure). As much as I’d liked to stick it to MER and businesses like Dunato’s (that are a blight on the marine industry), the best course (though harder) probably, is satisfaction in knowing that what goes around comes around. They’ll get their come-uppance.

Thursday – Tuesday, June 12 – 17, 2008
San Diego – visit with Tim and Brigid, went to a couple of movies and did a little boat provisioning (stuff we’re unable to get in Mexico (sun dried tomato’s, nutmeg, diet tonic water, rutabaga, spaghetti squash, etc). Picked up JAKE’s mail and some provisions they needed. Drove back down the Baja with an overnight at Santa Rosalia and a stop at Puerto Escondido for breakfast with JAKE; a total of a 21 hour drive with two very long stretches where no services were available. We very nearly ran out of gas-twice.

Wednesday – Saturday, June 18 –21, 2008
La Paz, Mexico – Hosed two weeks of layered, desert sand off the boat. Had the dinghy repairs finished, installed winchers (they work great) and ground the anchor shank down on the plow anchor to refit it with a non-swivel shackle (thinking that was why the anchor wasn’t setting); bought a couple of used Dahon folding bikes; an Hawaiian sling (spear with a wrist bungee for snorkel fishing) and some fishing lures. Settled with Marina La Paz ($450 for three weeks) and replaced generator with a portable power pack; sent Bob the car title and filled with water and fuel ($54) 77.53 liters/4 = 19.38 gallons/ 40 hours = .48 gal/hour (yeah!!!)

Sunday – June 22, 2008
1140 – Depart La Paz, clear, cloudless day; breeze and current from the east. Checked out with port captain via marina.
1940 – Anchor Bahia San Francisco; engine hours 280.6. Gave a half-hearted attempt at the plow and quickly changed it out for the new fortress anchor (high strength, light weight danforth anchor) I had bought in San Diego. One of the anchors advantages is its weight, which is also a disadvantage, as the anchor tends to skip across the bottom; it set on the first try though. Discovered about 30 cc of oil in the bilge … maybe a bolt is loose.

Monday – June 23, 2008
1020 – Depart Bahia San Francisco; clear skies, no wind; one-foot swells from the south.
1650 - Anchor Los Gatos; first on the village (several fishing huts) side and then move to the more popular anchorage (on the front side of a spit) after several panga’s buzz us on the way back from a days fishing. Rolly, rolly anchorage (probably the worst anchorage we’ve been in) … the boat rolled wildly all night! Engine oil leaks dramatically worse; looks to be main bearing (can’t find any oil from any other place on the engine). I am pissed and pissed and pissed!!! Boat work … or failures, are beginning to drag us down.

Tuesday – June 24, 2008
0850 – Weigh anchor Bahia Los Gatos; clear skies, no wind; small south swells. Spoke with Bob about the oil leak and he thinks it might be the main bearing based on my description; although the engine is brand new, he’s never seen one go out before on a new engine and the boat is not vibrating (shaft misalignment which would be the cause of the main bearing to go out). There is only one Yanmar dealer on this side and it’s the same guy that we first went to in Cabo San Lucas (not going back there). The choice is to continue on, refilling with oil until we return to Mazatlan in the fall, or go back to Mazatlan (250 miles SW across the Sea of Cortez), now. We decide to press north.
1300 – Drop anchor Bahia Aqua Verde; engine hours 292.3; used 1.5 quarts of oil in 4 hours; fortress anchor is difficult to set.
1800 – Spoke with JAKE via the SSB; they will come down to Aqua Verde (they are in Puerto Escondido) tomorrow to pick up their supplies and lend moral support; we plan to head back to Mazatlan. We are sick, heartbroken and terribly discouraged.

Wednesday – June 25, 2008
Aqua Verde – clear day calm seas; cleaned bottom until Jake arrives. They come over for lunch and we lament, communally over beer and an extra large platter of Julie’s delicious meaty nachos, discussing reasons, options and solutions for our troubles. I open the engine and invite Jake to take a look. He crawls around, positions and repositions the mirror, runs his hands all over the engine and starts to focus on the starboard side of the engine. I dismantle the drawers and remove the starboard side fire-wall and there is a tiny black trail of oil, just barely visible. Jake had found the source of the leak. It is a brass fitting to which the electronic and pressure oil gauges are mounted. We try to tighten it, very gently, but it spins off; the leak has come from a tear in the brass fittings threads and tightening it just spins the fitting off the distal threads. In short order though we were able to remove the remaining brass threads from the block and attach just the electronic gauge to the engine. Oil leak gone (changed the oil while I was in there). I’m not sure if the fitting was defective or the weight of the two gauges extending out in combination with the engine vibration caused the fitting to break … whatever, the engine is only getting one fitting for now. Jake saved the day, a trip to Mazatlan and a good portion of our cruising summer in the Sea of Cortez. Yeah for Jake!!

Thursday – June 26, 2008
0940 – Weigh anchor; clear day, no wind, calm sea. Swan prior to departure … right over the top of 18-inch stingray; he was just cruising along.
1445 – Arrive Puerto Escondido; engine hours 299. Enter the “ellipse” (a small secure anchorage in the harbor) and unable to get the anchor to set after seven tries with either the danforth or the fortress. Julie very discouraged and has a melt down. Even though we avoided major disaster with the engine yesterday, things with the boat have been building and this was the straw that broke the camels back. We went out to the “waiting room” a larger, deeper anchorage named as it’s location is where vessels, who are waiting to get into either the ellipse or the larger more protected port anchorage, wait for an opening; anchor in 54 feet of water. Launched the dinghy and visit with BEYOND REASON and JAZZ (48’ CHB Trawler) on our way into the Singlar harbor office. Julie better and gets on the Internet while I walk half-mile to the tienda, for ice and beer. Tienda is closed … naturally. Dinner aboard JAKE with BEYOND REASON.

Friday – June 27, 2008
Puerto Escondido – lay day. To tienda for beer and ice and RV campground/hotel for wi-fi. Walk the half-mile back to the dock (through road construction), transport ice and beer back to boat (via dingy, which by the way still has a leak), return to marina via JAKE (to give Sharon an IM injection for a nasty necrotizing skin infection she’s picked up) and up to the Singlar pool for a long, cool swim.
The sun in ubiquitous. One looks for shade and any other sort of cooling relief. Light is associated with heat and both are to be avoided; the cruisers look like insects beneath a rock and when lifted we all scatter for the closest shade. After an afternoon in the pool, we take a little dinghy tour of the inner harbor. Puerto Escondido is the best-protected harbor we’ve ever been in. It is surrounded on all sides by land, save the narrow entrance. As one come between the hill that forms the south end of the harbor and the mainland, the waiting room (a combination of anchorage and permanent moorings) is to the starboard. Traverse through the harbor entrance (about 50 feet wide and maximum of ten feet deep) into the ellipse on the port side, an anchorage that is about 20-50 feet deep but can only hold about 10 boats, and those are on a 3:1 scope. Continuing past the ellipse one enters the main bay; a huge protected area that again has permanent buoys and an anchorage. The waiting room is free, the ellipse is $6/night and the main bay is $20/night. Puerto Escondido, like so many Mexican projects is unfinished/abandoned. Singlar has several very nice, multi-storied buildings that are honeycombed with empty retail space, yet the tienda is half-mile up the road … go figure. The marina provides few services. The diesel pump tank sits empty because Pemex, the government owned oil company, is unsure who will pay them (bear in mind Singlar is a government agency as well). The”T” shaped dock is fairly small with room for about seven or eight boats and only one water line works. The water line is an old garden hose with about 8 leaks. Of course the hose is only long enough to reach the nearest edge of the dock. The marina charges $1.10 to use the head while the pool is free; they charge $2.75/day for wi-fi and $3.00 for the coin-operated washing machines. The dryer is another $3.00. They have haul-out facilities with a travel-lift and stands enough for a hundred boats that all go unused, because of lack of personal to operate them.
Away from the marina (to the north and somewhat behind it) are the remains of a failed development. Shells of concrete condominiums stand bare next to dredged canals with concrete peers; bridges that go over dirt to nowhere; concrete sidewalks flanking dirt avenues … all totally and completely unused. This is a beautifully protected marina, within the folds of the desert landscape, which at sunset gives a palate of shades from a deep violet across the color wheel to a burned orange; set against a jumble of abandoned construction projects, equipment that is rusting away for want of use and a spirit that seems paralyzed by indecision. Apparently, it’s been like this for 20 years. The uninformed that might stumble on these modern ruins would think at one time this was a thriving community that was suddenly and mysteriously abandoned. Right here is evidence as to why Mexico will never excel.

Saturday - June 28, 2008
0830 – Weigh anchor; clear skies and 4 knot breeze from the SW; one foot south swells. Into marina pier for water and a dip in the pool.
1105 – Depart Puerto Escondido for Honeymoon Cove.
1205 – Anchor in the middle lobe of Honeymoon Cove in 25 feet of water; a 60-foot catamaran is in the southern cove and a home built Piver trimaran is in the northern cove. Dinghy to shore and take a hike on the well-marked, stone lined trails; grand vista’s in any direction once atop the island; read, swim and nap all afternoon.
1545 – Weigh Anchor for Loreto.
1845 – Anchor off Loreto breakwater. Engine hours 303.9. Into town for dinner with JAKE. Ate at a small restaurant called 1679; significant because that is when Loreto was founded by a group of Italian and Spanish immigrants. The restaurant had air conditioning. Wandered through the town plaza, visited the cathedral built in 1740 and stopped by an ice cream shop. Again, Loreto is relatively clean and organized compared to the cities on the mainland side.

Sunday – June 29, 2008
0730 – Into Loreto farmers market; purchased apples, limes, mangos, peaches, pears, tomato’s, celery, lettuce, steak and fish.
0930 – Weigh anchor for Balandra Bay, due east of Loreto; clear skies and calm seas.
1230 – Anchor Balandra Bay with JAKE, BEYOND REASON, JAZZZ and a catamaran; engine hours 304. Cocktails aboard JAZZZ and snorkeling with JAKE and BEYOND REASON. The fish are not at all shy, really and the colors are dazzling whether they are a single color or multi-colored. We could kind of identify the sergeant fish – perch looking things with bright yellow and black strips; an angle fish (deep blue in color and about the size of your hand) and then a smaller blue fish with a blunt head. We saw other fish of course and scallops, but the above three made up 90 percent of what we saw. The fish were friendly enough and fairly inquisitive, not intimidated by us at all. Snorkeling among the reefs was like swimming in my Dad’s aquarium. Big winds in the night

Monday – June 30, 2008
0230 – Chubasco roaring through. Chubasco’s are micro-storm thunderstorms that brew on the mainland and then race across the sea. They are relatively small in size and can be seen on radar, but they are notorious for fierce winds, rain and lightening. Max wind speed on this one was about 33 knots. Danforth anchor held solid.
0815 – Weigh anchor for Loreto; blessedly, mildly overcast and cooler; picked up a little south wind and sailed for about 30 minutes; changed anchor to plow and plan to put fortress up front with plow and use the 22lb danforth for a stern anchor.
1015 – Anchor Loreto; bikes into the dinghy and into shore for medical treatment and fuel for JAKE. We make three trips to the Pemex and transport 30 gallons of diesel fuel on the back or our bikes. Jake got knocked off his bike by a guy in an F-150 who opened his door just as Jake rode by … no injuries though.
1400 – Weigh anchor for Isla Coronado (about six miles north of Loreto).
1715 – Drop Anchor in 17 feet of water right beneath the remains of a volcano; engine hours 309.5. JAZZZ and the cat came into the anchorage just after us, serendipitously. Everyone (including BEYOND REASON) came over to Loreto from Balandra and we all anchored outside Loreto within about an hour of each other. We’re all headed for Conception Bay and the Fourth of July doing’s up there.

Tuesday – July 1, 2008
1015 – Weigh anchor for La Ramada cove; another clear cloudless day; seas swells 5-7 feet from the ESE and wind six knots dead astern.
1400 – Anchor La Ramada Cove in nine feet of water; engine hours 317.5. Not much of an anchorage but large enough for the two of us and well protected from the south winds.

Wednesday – July 2, 2008
0700 – Weigh anchor for Bahia Santa Domingo (head of Conception Bay); overcast; calm with swells from the ESE @ 5-7 feet. Julie put out her fishing lines and we have something that looks like rusty squid biting but unable to snag the hook.
0900 – still overcast (blessedly); winds increased 15-20 knots, let out the jib, hoist the main, cut the engine and sail making about 7 knots. Later winds become variable and remain so throughout the day (motor sail) until just south of Pt Conception where the winds arise (15-20 knots) and we have a hot sail around the point and into our anchorage.
1540 – Anchor Bahia Santo Domingo in seven feet of water; engine hours 319.5. Quite a show off the mainland … the whole of the eastern horizon, 150- miles away on the mainland, arcs as with heat lightening; maybe some chubascos tonight.

Thursday – July 3, 2008
0800 – Weigh Anchor for Playa El Burro; skies clear, seas calm, no swell, 5-6 knot breeze from the SW; calm night. Bay is shallow with depths not exceeding 60 feet.
1100 – Anchor at the south end of Playa El Burro, in four-feet of water, beneath the lee of the rock; engine hours 322.5. Rig the canopies for cockpit shade; numerous boats - maybe twenty - here for the Fourth of July festivities, and more coming in. Too hot to hitchhike 17 miles into Mulege (the nearest towns of any size with any services); we wander back to Bertha’s (the single Palapa) in the area for a beer and some rest in the shade. Temperatures have been in the high nineties to low hundreds; if there is any kind of a breeze the heat is very tolerable. Stop by JAZZZ on the dinghy back and have more afternoon cocktails (painkillers).
1800 – Dinghy into Berthas for dinner with JAKE, JAZZZ and BEYOND REASON. The beach is littered with dinghies (like a field of automobiles at a farmers market) and the palapa is filled with cruisers, who all had the same idea.

Friday – July 4, 2008 (American Independence Day)
Playa El Burro – Lay Day – sunny and windy (10 knots SE, thankfully).
0700 - Hiked the mountain behind the cove with BEYOND REASON and JAZZ; saw some ancient petroglyphs.
1200 - Onto the beach at noon for the potluck. Gary, a gringo local that lives here on the beach year round, throws a fourth of July party for the cruisers; he provides hot dogs (Longmont, CO hot dogs) and the cruisers provide pot luck dishes; there was no lack of creativity in the pot luck dishes. The cove … beach … is crescent shaped with rock cliffs at either end that gives protection from the wind and waves. On the beach – waters edge at high tide – are 35 structures, ranging from two story houses to pole barns that run the entire stretch of the beach. What the structures all have in common are stout telephone pole size vertical beams buried in the sand and thatch roofs. Most are closed for the season, but there are a few vacationers here. Back to the boat for an afternoon nap and back to the beach for a small fireworks display. Ran the engine for an hour to charge batteries.

Saturday – July 5, 2008
Playa El Burro lay day – Hitchhiked into Mulege for a look-see and some minor provisioning. Check the Internet and back to the boat by 1300. Napped, swam and charged batteries for an hour.