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.