The Captain's Log of our Journey, Interpreted by "The First Mate"
Tuesday, November 11, 2008: Finally leaving Cabo! We couldn't wait to get out of here, so you can guess it wasn't our favorite place to be. We weighed anchor at 5:10 a.m. with San Jose Los Cabos as our destination. It took only about five hours to get here and since it was only 10 a.m. we decided to just fuel up at the marina and continue on. We should have stayed here as later we found out that it was a beautiful QUIET and QUAINT little town, and not only that, the northerly winds came up and so did the sea after we left. We bucked high winds and 5'+ seas the entire day and headway was slow, sometimes making only 1.5 kts per hour. We finally reached our next anchorage at Los Frailes. We had been getting reports from other Ha-Ha cruisers that it was beautiful and smooth inside the anchorage that day, but by the time we got there the water was a little choppy but we were so happy to get out of the "big stuff" that we'd had all day. We arrived after 9 p.m. and found a spot amongst all the other Ha-Ha boats that were going our direction. There must have been 20 of us and the next day we all got together on the beach and had fish tacos. A couple had driven their camper down from the States, caught a big rooster fish that day, and decided to share it amongst the visitors in the anchorage so they got on the VHF radio and asked everyone to join them for tacos at just $2 each. They were also serving margaritas for $2.
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Sunrise as we left Cabo San Lucas. As you can see, the Sea was calm. Well, for the time being! As I mentioned above, it didn't stay this way. |
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| There is no town at Los Frailes. Just a beautiful serene anchorage and a pristine beach. | A palapa on the beach at Los Frailes. These palapas provided the only shade. |
Thursday, November 13: We weighed anchor at 6:15 a.m. with the next stop to be Los Muertos. By 2:45 p.m. we got there, spent one hour setting the anchor and getting settled in, and didn't even go to shore. It appeared to be a growing development, being not too far from LaPaz, and there was a nice restaurant within walking distance from shore and what appeared to be a golf course. Other cruisers we spoke to later said they ate at the restaurant and it was superb. We had dinner on the boat and went to bed. But not before snapping some pictures of the beautiful ever-changing orange moon on the horizon.
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Friday, November 14: At 4:55 a.m. we got the anchor up and was off to LaPaz. We had a light breeze and by noon the sea was glassy. Pictured below is a pod of dolphins that stretched at least 100 yards. Other than sea birds, this was the only animal life we saw on the way to LaPaz. The mountains were rugged and beautiful.
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| Pod of dolphins. In the center appears to be a mother and baby. | One of many fishing villages on the way to LaPaz |
It took us all day to get to LaPaz........The Captain forgot to enter the time we arrived, but as I recall it was nearing 5 p.m. when we checked into Marina Palmira. No anchorage this time. We looked like a salt factory with salt crystals covering every inch of the boat. We needed fresh water and lots of it, not only to clean the boat but our bodies as well. We couldn't wait to get a hot shower. Wouldn't you know it, the shower stall I (Sharon) chose didn't have hot water but it didn't matter, it was glorious.
Tuesday, November 18: The local cruiser's net announced that the Space Station would be passing over at 6:23 p.m. Sure enough, it was bright as ever and a pleasure to see. We saw it pass over again on the 20th at 10 p.m.
We spent two weeks in LaPaz cleaning, repairing, resting and provisioning and, of course, Thanksgiving dinner with friends from home. Pictured below from left is Sheri and Rick Eichmann, Richard and Rebecca Sandell, The couple who wrote the book "Sea of Cortez", Shawn Breeding and Heather Bansmer, Karen and Ron Pullen, and Charlie. The potluck dinner with 250 cruisers was a treat with so many different dishes to choose from, not to mention the 15 turkeys that had been prepared by Club Cruceros. We ate our fill and then some, topping it all off with some great homemade deserts. Rick and Sheri on S.V. Tigger left Charleston Harbor in August 2007 and have been cruising Mexico for a year. Ron and Karen left Charleston in 1999 and have been cruising Mexico ever since. Richard and Rebecca still keep their Tayana 37 in Charleston but reside in Salem.
We really enjoyed being with friends from home during Thanksgiving.
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| Thanksgiving Dinner with cruising friends | Charlie, Sharon, Sheri, Rick,
Karen, Ron, Richard, Rebecca and Rebecca's daughter Lisa. |
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is "Lucy Goosey".......She greeted us immediately after we docked at
Marina Palmira in La Paz and returned many times during our stay,
sometimes at 5 a.m. honking for us to throw her some tidbits. Her
favorite was lettuce, she sometimes ate bread, but not always. She
didn't like papaya peels, but liked cabbage. The following is
taken from the book "The Sea of Cortez, A Cruiser's
Guidebook" written by Shawn Breeding and Heather Bansmer,
entitled "Lucy the Goose". "Patrolling the docks and waterways of Marina Palmira is Lucy the Goose. Lucy is a survivor of Hurricane Marty, the storm that devastated La Paz in September 2003. After the storm, Lucy became a resident of the marina and has stayed ever since. She happily swims past boats, always eager for a bite of bread, or waddles her way down to the fountain where her bucket of veggie and fruit scraps await her. It goes on to say that "Occasionally she might disappear, but don't fear, she's probably out laying eggs in private". "The Sea of Cortez" is a must read for cruisers who plan to visit the Sea of Cortez, and we enjoyed meeting Heather and Shawn at one of their presentations in San Diego and again at Thanksgiving dinner in La Paz. |
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Saturday, November 29: After spending two weeks in LaPaz it was time to leave. We were underway at 9:18 a.m. with Tigger leading the way out of the harbor. Just a short three hour hop to anchor at Balandra Bay, but the wind was blowing and the anchorage was rough so after taking pictures of the famous mushroom rock, and watching Tigger get out of going aground, we went back a mile or so to anchor at Roco Lobo.
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| Mushroom rock at Balandra Bay | Tigger aground.....Rick's standing waist deep in the water, Charlie offered help. |
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| Roco Lobo: We anchored in the quieter water on the other side of this rock. From a distance this white capped rock looks like it's covered with snow but, of course, it's actually bird droppings, lots of it. | Sharon fishing from the boat catching sand bass at the anchorage at Roco Lobo. |
Charlie caught a little sword fish. Actually, it
leaped out of the water and onto our boat. The water was clear and we
could see hundreds of these little swordfish swimming around the boat.
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Monday, December 1: With Mazatlan to be our next stop and about 1-1/2 days away, we pulled up the anchor at Roco Lobo at 11:30 a.m. and took off following "Tigger". It was not an uneventful trip because we had to stop the engine four times to replace the fuel filter. It was a good thing the Sea was calm, because each time the filter clogged, Charlie had to climb down into the small space of the engine room and change it out. Something was causing the filter to clog so quickly and Charlie remembered the last owner telling him about an old filter that was no longer being used near the fuel tank. But in order to take apart this old filter, first we had shut off the fuel. The fuel tank valve is under our mattress so we had to tear the entire bed apart to get to the valve. Charlie disassembled the old filter and it was clogged and appeared to never have been changed. It was still a part of the fuel system and was the cause of the new filter clogging. Once a new filter was installed in this "old" filter, everything worked fine and the mystery of the rapidly clogging fuel filter was finally solved.
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We found ourselves in the middle of another big pod of dolphins. These were smaller and brown in color and like all the other dolphins we encountered, these too liked to play and chase the boat and put on a show. |
 Wednesday,
December 3: Around 7 a.m. we began our approach to
the Mazatlan old harbor where the cruise ships dock nearby. They
normally arrived very early in the morning so we timed our arrival to
enter the harbor after them. We got there a little early and
waited for three of the big ships to enter before us. |
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The next leg of our journey will be entitled "Mazatlan, A Photo Album". We plan on staying in Mazatlan until after Christmas before heading south. We will return to the Sea of Cortez in the springtime when the water warms up and the whales are abundant. |
