Salt Recovery Ponds
1 March - 12 May 2010 Mazatlan and Points North
March - Departed Mazatlan for another shakedown and to do an overnight off Stone Island. Stone Island is really a peninsula south of Mazatlan’s old harbor entrance; a two- hour trip from the marina. While anchored there we met up with BRENDON and PACIFIC JADE for drinks on the beach. BRENDON tried to talk us into going north and accompanying them into the Sea of Cortez for the summer. We were adamant about not going as we had already spent a summer in the sea and generally, just too much time in Mexico. We were all prepared to head south.
On the way to the south harbor I noticed some squealing noise in the engine and we were taking an excessive amount of water into the engine bilge. We decided to head back to the yard for repairs. In the meantime BRENDON was successful in their persuasion for us to go north, into the sea with them. Argh!!! This is cruising and all plans are made in jello. We have other things we want to do and a couple of events happening back home, so it’s just a matter of reprioritizing the bucket list … again.
Turns out the leak was coming from the fairings that Hunter had put between the hull and rudder. The screws holding the fairings in place were drilled all way through the hull (with a couple of extra holes just for good measure). We had the boat hauled, screws removed, cleaned out the holes, let them dry and filled them with fiberglass and covered with epoxy. The boat spent the night in the sling and we went out to dinner with SAUCY LADY and SULA.
The next morning we splashed at 0830 and went back to our old slip to await any further problems. We topped off with fuel and water, cleaned the boat and planned to meet BRENDON at the harbor entrance at 0500.
Thursday, 4 March 2010
0445 - Cast off to meet BRENDON and head across the sea to La Paz; weather calm, flat seas. Proceeded north for about 30 miles and turned west for La Paz. Raw water pump is leaking rusty water (about a pint every three hours) and I think the packing gland might be leaking … I don’t know but the leaks are getting tiresome.
Friday, 5 March 2010
1245 – Arrive Los Muertos, despite its name it’s a charming anchorage protected from the north. We dinghied into the swank little beach palapa for a sandwich and beer. The harbor used to be a gold mining site so we toured what few ruins were left, made note of a couple of RV’s that were down early in the season, chatted with fisherman that had caught a 30 pound tuna and made our way back to the boats for an early evening.
Saturday, 6 March 2010
0600 – Depart Muertos at dawn for a run up Cerralvos Channel to La Paz; wind rising from the west. BRENDON is running a reefed main and I’m running with just my headsail. We round Punta Arenas and the wind and seas start to rise; estimated wind was 20 knots and seas two to three feet. We were on a beam reach doing 8.5 knots under a reefed headsail alone. Arrive marina Palmira, La Paz at 1530.
We planned to stay in La Paz for a week prior to heading into the sea. I went to replace the leaking raw water pump and discovered I didn’t have the spare. I remembered talking with Rafa about it in Mazaltan and Bob had even asked me if I had the spare water pump (they had rebuilt it) and I assured him I did. I contacted TYW and they expedited the water pump to me. I changed out the water pump and alternator belt (as it couldn’t be tightened enough) and still I had some errant squeals, but the leaks were gone. BRENDON discovered the squeals were in the belts. We retightened them and all seems in good order. I took the other pump in to be rebuilt.
We rented a car and drove down to the Costco in Cabo to provision for the sea. It was a little dicey getting everything for two boats into the little sub-compact automobile. During our time in La Paz, we walked, went out for dinner, attended dock parties, refueled, topped off with water and headed into the sea a week and a day after we arrived.
March in the Sea – It’s remarkably cold in the sea this time of year. Not so cold that we’re in long pants, but occasionally we put on a jacket and definitely blankets at night. Since January, I have seen more rain and wind in Mexico than I’ve seen in the previous two years. The wind is quite plentiful, not just breezy, but at, or just below, gale force. We’re hopping from harbor to harbor in the calms and then batten down for a couple of days while the “Northerners” blow over. Our anchorages protect us from the fetch (building waves) but there is little we can do to keep the wind from growling through the spreaders.
At our anchorage in Calita Partida we got to messing around with the outboard engines and dinghies. Both of us have RIB’s. BRENDON has an aluminum hull and an eight horsepower engine, versus my fiberglass hull and 9.9 horsepower engine, and both dinghies are about 10.5 feet long. BRENDON’s dinghy and engine weigh 30lbs less than mine. After multiple days of in-water testing, objective evaluation of the collected data, a complete review of the statistical analysis (and a good deal of fun) we’ve decided (or at least I have) the following;
DINGHY -
- PRO’s - the fiberglass dinghy is sturdier than the aluminum dinghy;
- the fiberglass dinghy is easier to repair than the aluminum dinghy;
- and, the fiberglass dinghy tows much easier than the aluminum dinghy.
- CON’s - the fiberglass dingy is heavier than the aluminum dinghy.
ENGINE -
- the eight horsepower engine will get both dinghies up on a plane;
- it is more fuel efficient;
- and, it is lighter for lifting and storage
- CON’s – the eight horsepower engine is far slower than the 9.9, but it should be noted that the increased speed of the 9.9 hp, because of comfort and safety, can only be used in optimum conditions.
We’ve sailed farther north and anchored in Isla San Francisco. We’re in for a blow over the next couple of days and tried to depart San Francisco for San Evaristo, nine nautical miles (nm) west northwest. Even though we could see white caps in the channel we thought we’d make a run for it. At the anchorage the wind was from the North, but in the sea the wind was coming from the west. We were taking it right in the nose doing only one-and-a-half knots. After 35 minutes of bashing we decided we weren’t that committed to getting to San Evaristo and turned tail from whence we came. Our speed went from 1.5 knots (bashing) to 7 knots as soon as our stern was to the wind. We rode out the wind in Isla San Francisco and parceled up our days with trips to shore, a couple of chilly swims and movies at night.
We did make it to San Evaristo (I’ve already described this port on our last trip into the Sea) and again anchored safely for a few days while another set of northerners blew over. While in Evaristo I fixed the propeller on the outboard. The rubber bearing on my propeller had worn out. Instead of shear pins the propellers have rubber poured and compressed into the space between the shaft tube and the actual propeller. If the prop hits bottom rather than bending the prop or breaking the shear pin, the prop spins around the shaft tube on its rubber bearing. After fifteen years and who knows how much grounding, the prop bearing had finally worn out leaving the propeller to slip in all but the lowest of speeds. BRENDON and I had attempted to fix the prop in Partida by digging out part of the old rubber bearing and pouring marine-tek into the gap. It worked just fine until the first time I revved up the outboard. Then we drilled three holes (one hole between each blade) through the prop, rubber bearing and shaft tube. We tapped the holes with threads and screwed into each hole a 1/8” steel bolt with a nut already on it. We filed the bolt smooth in the shaft tube, tightened the nut on the bolt (securing the prop to the shaft tube) and cut the bolt head off. That worked as well, right up until I grounded out going onto the beach. Finally, I repeated what we had done above (digging out, re-pouring, drilling, tapping and screwing) except this time I used ¼” bolts. It is holding fine, but the real fix is getting a new prop (I’ll use this one for a backup).
We departed San Evaristo and went across the channel to an island that used to be a salt recovery flat. The enterprise has been abandoned for many years, the buildings are falling down and the heavy equipment is quietly rusting away. The flats are about 5 square acres, adjacent to the sea with neat rows of rectangular depressions (like shallow graves dug prior to occupancy). The flats are surrounded with high burms to prevent the incursion of seawater. Somehow (and this is what I can’t figure out in exploring the flats) the seawater is let in, collects only in the depressions and evaporates leaving small ponds of salt (the big crystals you pay extra for at the store). On our visit there, some ponds were empty, others were filled with salt and still others had both salt and water in them. The ponds with just salt are a glimmering white; those ponds with salt and water were an ice blue and could easily be mistaken for glacial ice pack.
At the south end of the same island is a mangrove swamp (I spoke to this on our last visit here, as well). As an update the dead whale that was stuffed back into a cul-de-sac is gone. We buzzed though the swamp canals and this time, instead of going back, we exited at the east end of the swamp and went around the south tip of the island to return to the boats. ITCHEN is running beautifully. Everything is working well and the solar panels are keeping up with our power consumption nicely. There is still a small amount of water in the engine bilge. It’s intermittent and not really enough to worry about. I’ll get to it, but I think it’s the packing gland and may resolve itself.
We worked our way south and back to La Paz stopping again Isla San Francisco and then Playa Bonanza (on the back side of Partida). The weather reports indicted high winds (40 Knots) and Bonanza looked like the best anchorage to dodge the wind. On our way to Bonanza, the winds piped up early, off our sterns. We had a sleigh ride into the anchorage and at one point hit 10.5 knots. We tucked into the anchorage early afternoon and the wind just kept building. It was routinely 30-35 knots with gusts of 40. We were close enough to shore that we didn’t get a lot of fetch, but still the wind had us rocking and rolling. There were five boats, roughly the same tonnage and length, in the anchorage. Two of them dragged and at least two of them put out second anchors. I wanted to see just how well my new Rocna anchor would do and did not put out a second anchor on purpose. BRENDON and I went out and did an anchor check and could see his Danforth buried, but the Bruce was still visible. We couldn’t see any of my anchor and a good length of chain leading up to it. My little 22-pound Rocna anchor held like we were tied to the earth itself. For two days and nights we bobbed around in the high winds. On the third day the winds abated somewhat and we were able to launch the dinghy and go ashore and get together with BRENDON for a domino game called Mexican Train.
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
0700 - Depart Bonanza for La Paz, clear skies and calm seas. Arrive Marina Palmira 1010; out for 16 days; 84.6 engine hours; used ¼ tank of fuel, and 75 gallons of water.
31 March, 12 April 2010
Marina Palmira, La Paz – Rebuilt salon table (it’s now a double wide) with help from BRENDON; cleaned the water tanks; changed the fresh water pump and took the old one to be rebuilt; installed a water filtration system and a new fluorescent light in the salon. Put the third reef in the main, straightened out the stack pack, installed new sheets on the headsail and a new furling line. Got a new prop for the outboard and an extension handle for the throttle. Discovered my VHF signal was deteriorating and after several trips up the mast with the help of BRENDON and TRAVELER it may be fixed. Julie made new pillows for the salon and a bed sham for the V-berth. We had some rousing nights of Mexican Train, dinner in, dinner out, guests over for dinner and went to other boats for dinner as guests. We even took one more trip to Cabo and Costco. It remains cool and the wind blows constantly.
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
0830 – Filled with diesel, gasoline, propane, water, food and beer. We’ll head north into the sea … maybe as far as Santa Rosalia and plan on working our way back south to La Paz stopping at Loretta fest in Puerto Escondido and all the tiny anchorages in between.
1000 – Cleared the channel and closed reached under main alone. Winds build to 20 knots and seas 4-6 feet. Once or twice took green water over the deck. Boat well balanced and autopilot handling helm with little effort. Radio has limited range and needs more repair.
14 - 20 April 2010
Working our way up the Baja to Santa Rosalia. Winds out of the south - southeast … good sailing runs doing 6.5 - 7 knots under headsail or main alone … easy runs and splendid days sailing. HALE MOANA joined us from San Francisco to Escondido. Overnighted in San Evaristo, Aqua Verde, Escondido, San Juanico and Bahia Conception (Playa Burro). Leak appears to be coming from PSS bellows at shaft tube. Will tighten hose clamp on bellows and repair radio in Santa Rosalia. Arrive Santa Rosalia 1500; engine hours 132.6; estimate fuel usage at 31 gallons, burning 0.65 gallons/hour at 2800 rpm.
21 - 23 April 2010
Stay in Santa Rosalia was uneventful, unless you count pelicans and boobies using the boat for target practice. I would clean the boat off during the day and by night the birds would practice strafing runs on all the canvas and deck. It’s amazing they hold so much shit!! I did go up the mast a couple more times attempting to improve our antenna, hence radio reception.
24 April – 4 May, 2010
Departed Santa Rosalia for Escondido to take part in Loretta fest. Arrived at Punta Chivato only because the beaches are supposed to loaded with shells … they were. Chivato is an isolated beach community 12 very treacherous miles off the beaten path. It has a dozen or so houses, a landing strip (of sorts) and swanky hotel/resort. While walking on the beach we met with a couple that owned one of the houses. Earlier in the month they had noticed a fishing panga periodically coming ashore late in the evening. They watched and decided it was fisherman camping out for the night (which is a common sight). One morning they awoke to discover their little Cessna was gone. They think it was druggies in the panga that stole their plane … bummer dude.
We arrived in Escondido after the usual stops at Playa Burro (Bahia Conception) and San Juanico (where we left our boat name at the cruisers memorial). At Escondido we joined over 100 other boats and met up with lots of cruising friends we’d lost contact with over the past couple of seasons. Puerto Escondido hosts Loretta fest, which is three-day picnic with beer, hot dogs and games. They also conduct classes on fishing, bread making, first aide, etc. and hold a silent auction. Any money generated from the activities goes to the local schools for texts and uniforms. While there we took a long hike up one the mountain ravines. We followed the dry riverbed up and climbed over huge boulders and stumbled onto quiet pools of water nestled into the base of rocks that had been smoothed out by torrents of water. The power of water and flash flooding that occurred in this canyon was truly impressive. I don’t know how it happened though in this very dry desert that only gets 5.6 inches of rain annually.
5 – 6 May 2010
We departed Escondido for La Paz and ultimately Mazatlan. On the way to La Paz, I discovered our VHF was only transmitting about one-and-half miles. The only thing left to do was to change out the antenna. Julie fished on the way down but she got skunked. BRENDON, whom we were traveling with, was fishing as well and he was skunked too. We arrived at La Paz early enough in the afternoon that I was able to run up to the chandlery and pick up the fresh-water pump I had left for repair and a new antenna. BRENDON helped me back up the mast and I had the antenna replaced in five minutes. We can now comfortably talk with Japanese fishing boats off the coast of Korea, as well as hearing all the bleed over from other channels, every Mexican that owns a VHF radio and some intergalactic chatter. I bought the antenna from hell, who knew? The lesson I learned from this is sometimes it’s better to do the easiest, not the cheapest, thing first (and one can’t be too specific in what one wishes for).
7 – 12 May 2010
We departed La Paz bright and early this morning and went around the corner (nine hours in sailboat time) to Bahia de Los Muertos. The next night was spent in Frailles before needing to duck into San Jose del Cabo for fuel. San Jose del Cabo is a brand new marina half way between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz. The marina is rather spendy and when we mentioned what we thought was an inflated price we paid for the slip (without power), the harbor mistress quite proudly proclaimed that only Cabo San Lucas (at $137.00/night with a discount) was more expensive … humph!!!
At the marina entrance to del Cabo I was overtaken by a huge power cruiser who cared little about his speed or wake. I tried to block him, as he was the burdened vessel, but he went around me and we took his wake on our beam from less than a boat length away and commenced 60-degree port and starboard rolls. The crew was fairly mouthy when we passed them pulling up to the fuel dock. That evening we went out to dinner and guess who was at the table next to us? We (BRENDON and I) took turns tag teaming our power cruiser friend (and his mouthy little wife) about his dangerous seamanship and his responsibility regarding his wake. In fairly short order he apologized and promised to be more aware of his wake, other vessels and approaches. He seemed contrite and I think this may work out for everyone.
We departed del Cabo for the thirty-hour crossing to Mazatlan. The boat ran marvelously and we talked with people (on the VHF) in both Mazatlan and La Paz during the entire passage. We arrived at Marina El Cid (an all-inclusive resort) on Tuesday afternoon. For $333.00/month we have American TV (dockside), two pools with multiple happy hours and outdoor movies on Tuesday and Thursday nights. We bought a window air conditioner for the boat and plan to stay here all summer.
A final note - I don’t think I’ll be writing much for the next couple of months, as our cruising adventures will be limited between the pool and the bar. We’ve also decided to sell ITCHEN. We originally purchased and outfitted the boat for world cruising; starting with crossing the pacific. If you followed this blog you’re aware of the events that initially impeded us making the jump. What we have discovered in the ensuing period is that we enjoy coastal cruising much more than long passages. We’re not one bit sorry we purchased this boat, nor made the improvements on it. It’s an absolutely stunning vessel with lots of water yet to run under her keel, but frankly we’ve motored 95% of the time. The trawler I had prior to ITCHEN was three feet shorter (with same beam), had a lot more living space and did not have nearly the maintenance. We plan to continue cruising into the foreseeable future and we will ultimately go to a trawler (there’s a growth and development saying in the cruising community … one goes from a sailboat, to a motorboat, to a motor home and finally a nursing home). Since we motor most of the time, we both like a trawler, and ITCHEN, on which everything except, the hull, mast and boom, is new. She is currently worth the most she ever will be, thus our decision to make the transition now. If she doesn’t sell, we’re perfectly happy and will continue our cruising south, through the canal, do the Caribbean and then the ICW. If she does sell then we’ll try to purchase a boat on the west coast; if purchased in Seattle we’ll do the Inside Passage and then go south and pick up where we left off. If purchased further south in California we’ll start from there and head south for the canal, etc and then do the great circle, stopping in Missouri and having the boat trucked from St. Louis to Seattle, and then do the Inside Passage. If you follow this blog we’ll continue it with the new boat. Either way new adventures await us. So long for now.
