Memories of Mexico

Oh the shame of it all! We have been home nearly a month, a month I tell you (!), and are finally now getting around to updating our final days in Mexico. We could do what some of our friends have done, i.e. hang out with others and then link to THEIR blog post and photos instead of doing one of our own. (Props to Tivoli for teaching us that nifty move.) Nah! That would be way too clever for the Cinnabarbarians. So, urged by some phone calls from worried friends (“Are you guys home? Are you OK? Why no updates?”) we are pulling ourselves away from all the busy-ness that has forced us to be delinquent and are forging ahead with some pictures and words of our Last Days In Mexico.

We spent our final days in Bahia Concepcion getting to know some of the locals who live in the area. They are VERY interesting as you might expect. 

Jerry used to play piano in honky tonk bars. Here he serenades local windsurfing legend Ramona.

It takes a certain kind of person to choose to live in the desert in a foreign country with no electricity or municipal plumbing. All power is via solar panels and generators and the water is delivered into a communal tank by truck. The water is non-potable so all purified drinking water must be purchased in the nearby town of Mulege.

Two nights before we left Concepcion we went over to Armando’s restaurant and bar on nearby Santispac beach for DJ night. 

I take a break from Rob's birthday to drink a Margarita for my friend Dina's birthday.

Nancy from sv Shindig got the place rocking and Tom and Nancy dazzled the crowd with their dance moves. 

Tom and Nancy rock the house.

Tom was very impressive when he started busting out his Michael Jackson moves. The locals now call him “Michael”.

We were going to have a beach cook-out for Rob’s actual, real birth day (If you recall we celebrated Shindig Rob’s birthday for several days!) , but we managed to convince neighbor Jerry to host us one final time. Rob and Nancy (sv Shindig) dove for clams that day and hauled the fixins for clam pasta up to Jerry’s house. Friends of theirs on the boat Lanikai sailed into Concepcion just in time for the party.

Very fresh clam pasta for Rob's actual birthday.

Host Jerry with Sylvia, Nancy and Leilani from sv Lanikai

May 18 -The next morning, as Cinnabar, Shindig and Lanikai left Bahia Concepcion, we got numerous radio calls from the neighbors with whom we had partied at Armando's, wishing us all a bon voyage and hoping to see us next year. Clearly Tom and Nancy had made an impression.

Shindig and Cinnabar buddy-boated south toward the beautiful bay of San Juanico, but we decided to anchor just north of there at La Ramada, an anchorage we had never been to before. It was HOT when we dropped the anchor and I immediately went in for a snorkel to cool off. Shortly after that, Rob and Nancy launched their dinghy and came over for an impromptu gathering of cold drinks and snacks. 

Trying to look cool, but feeling REALLY hot!

Rob and the "Tequila Lover's Guide" doing a better job of looking cool.

We heard on the radio that the cruisers in nearby San Juanico were going to gather on the beach for happy hour, BYOB, so we decided to dinghy over to our beach and hike over the hill to join them. Rob and Nancy met some of their old friends and Tom and I got to meet some cruisers we had only known by radio contact.

The proper collective noun...a Convocation of Cruisers?

The next day Tom and I left for our next leg of the journey, La Ramada to Bahia Candeleros. (The resort at Candeleros has good wifi access and I wanted to Skype into a Pacific Cup board meeting that night.)

After a pleasant night in Candeleros we left early the next morning with San Evaristo or Isla San Francisco being our destination. Speaking of San Francisco, as we left Candeleros a fog bank settled over us, making us feel like we were back in our own San Francisco!

San Francisco or Baja?

The fog wasn’t cold but it did cool things off and soaked the rigging causing big dirty, wet blobs to fall down on us and all over the deck, which made for a good excuse to give Cinnabar a wipe-down.

That day no matter where we went it seemed the wind was going in the wrong direction. It had been southerly on the nose all day but as we approached the north anchorage of Evaristo, the wind shifted and became a northerly, with wind and chop blowing into the anchorage. Not good! So we headed over to Isla San Francisco because an island SHOULD have a lee side, right? But no matter where we motored looking for a calm spot the wind seemed to blow us into the island. 

We decided to finally drop the hook in the NE anchorage which seemed pretty calm once we got inside, although we could see numerous boats in the more popular western anchorage. 

Isla SF, NE anchorage, SW anchorage in the background.

Who was right? We were hoping that if the Coromuel winds piped up that night (strong SW or W winds - cooling to people on land, annoying and potentially dangerous to sailors) that we would be in the good spot. At any rate, the snorkeling turned out to be phenomenal, the anchor had a great set, and the anchorage was only slightly rolly that night.

The next day, May 21^st, we got an early start with a stupendous sunrise but no wind...

My watch says 6:57 a.m.

...and we motored all the way to La Paz. We got there so early that we motored into the city along the Malecon for a new perspective of the city.

Motoring in La Paz, the Malecon as seen from the water.

Once in La Paz we got busy starting to decommission the boat for her summer storage. I had a ticket to fly home in 9 days so time was of the essence! We had a long spreadsheet of all the things we needed to do to store the boat for the summer, including getting her “hurricane ready” by removing all the sails and canvas on deck so, in case of a big blow, they didn't fly off the boat taking bits of boat with them.

Dropping and folding our jib on deck.

Of course we also made some time to hang with friends!

We reconnected with Leif and Lisa from SV Finisterra, here at Harker Board

One day Tom even helped out with delivering a boat to a freighter anchored off La Paz. Tom and others prepared the boat for shipping... 

Hired divers preparing the lifting straps.

...before it was hoisted aboard the freighter which had been contracted to transport a boatload of sail and powerboats from La Paz up to British Columbia.

SV Indigo gets lifted onto the freighter which is already full of boats.

Our album of last days in Bahia Concepcion and La Paz is HERE. Tom’s version of Bailando con las Estrellas (Dancing with the Stars) is a must-see.

The weather in La Paz was becoming oppressively hot.  I left on May 30^th and Tom followed about a week later after tying up some loose ends in La Paz.

Since arriving home we have been LOVING the temperate climate of the SF Bay Area. We’ve been hanging out at my sister’s place and for one week we had a great house-sitting gig and all we had to do was feed the cute kitties and water the plants. (Thanks Deniz and Lissa!)

Tom has been busy and I have been fully occupied inspecting boats doing my part in helping to get the Pacific Cup fleet ready for the big race across the Pacific Ocean from SF to Oahu. 

Inspecting Scarlet Runner from Melbourne, Australia, just arrived by way of the Caribbean race circuit, Cape Town to Rio (de Janeiro) race and Sydney to Hobart race. Boat not shipped but sailed everywhere for deliveries!!

So I am still immersed in all things boat, just can’t get away from it! Boats are arriving from out of town from as far away as Australia, there is the big push to make sure all boats get inspected for safety gear, and the Pac Cup festivities start raging next week. We had an exciting and busy summer last year and it looks like this summer might be just as crazy.

Bahia Concepcion Update weeks #2 and #3 - Sister visit, Horses, Clams, Eclipse, Bonfires, and More!

Bahia Concepcion, BCS 4 May, 2014

Whew! It has been a crazy five weeks here in Bahia Concepcion.  Anchored under Casa de los Suenos we have enjoyed whale watching, whale sharks, surfin’ safaris, friends arriving then leaving, then more friends and family arriving, then meeting up with old cruising friends, all while being hosted and entertained by the McGuires at a breakneck speed.

Today, however, Cinnabar sits alone in the bay... 

Cinnabar at anchor in front of Casa de los Suenos

...all the boats having left the anchorage to head to their next destinations after being holed up here by heavy winds for the past few days. Early this morning the McGuires also left for their long drive back to the states. Tom is reading and relaxing, and I am going through my photos of all the activities we have enjoyed here during the past few weeks.

In our last update Tom talked about the terrific surfing trip some of them took to Scorpion Bay on the Baja’s Pacific side. On their way home the surfers picked up our friend Mati at the airport, and the next day my sister and Erik joined the group so Casa de los Suenos felt like a full house once again.

Our host Mike, ever on the lookout for new activities, arranged for a local caballero to stop by to see if we might be interested in a horseback ride. Sure…why not? We even convinced Erik to go, perhaps against his better judgement. 

Caballero Marcelo (left) and his assistants (far right) lead the group on a ride.

We mostly had a fun afternoon, but as luck would have it Erik got thrown, his fall broken by a, you guessed it, CACTUS. Thank goodness he wasn't seriously hurt, and kudos to Erik for his great attitude and for never once complaining. He claims the healing waters of the hot springs on the beach helped soothe and heal his scratches and bruises.

One day mike arranged for Juan Carlos, a local restaurant owner, to take us out on his pontoon boat for a day of snorkeling, clamming and spearfishing. Juan Carlos's restaurant is just across the highway from El Burro Cove.

We leave Playa el Burro for a day on the water.

JC was an impressive clammer, diving down, spotting the tell-tale clam siphon holes, then digging like a mad man to uncover the prized Arenas clams. They are like the famous Chocolate Clams but bigger. After diving we headed over to a pleasant island beach where we ate Arenas Clams on the half shell...

Erik claimed he "didn't like" raw clams. Hmmm...

Mati prepares his clams with lime and hot sauce.

...while Juan Carlos cooked up a big pan of Trigger Fish Rancheros over an open fire which we scooped up using the clam shells as bowls.

Savanah watches JC cook over an open fire.

Sonja enjoys her shell full of Pescado Rancheros

In addition to all these outdoor activities we have also enjoyed bonfires... 

Savanah and Kelston roast marshmallows on the beach

lunar eclipses...

I stayed up all night to watch this full moon get eclipsed.

...traveling musicians, more whale sharks and exploring the bay for the best snorkeling and fishing spots. 

Sylvia and Sonja search for Mulege's best Margaritas. These at El Equipage were pretty darn good!!

As for the spearfishing, well a picture speaks a thousand words...

14 yr old Kelston shoots an 80 lb Grouper! (outside the bay)

Tom shoots a 50+ lb Yellowtail (outside the bay)

Mati shows off the huge Yellow Jack that Mike shot inside Bahia Concepcion.

More pictures of weeks #2 and #3 can be found HERE.

Weeks #4 and #5 coming soon...

Our friends Kitty and Joe aboard sv Telitha make it to Bahia Concepcion!

People jump off big rocks!

Fish heads on the BBQ!

And more!!!

Gray Whales and Whale Sharks! - Bahia Concepcion Week #1

Sunday, 6 April 2014

We left La Paz on March 26, about 1.5 weeks ago, and arrived in Bahia Concepcion on March 29^th, dropping the anchor under Casa de los Suenos, at La Posada anchorage around the corner from Santispac, at around 7:15 p.m. in the last, dim light of day. 

Cinnabar motors into her anchorage just before it gets dark - photo L. Teoman

We learned our lesson last year, no more overnight pounding to weather (into the wind and waves)! This year we meandered north, stopping at a pleasant anchorage each night. Here was our itinerary:

Day #1: La Paz to Isla San Francisco = 44 nautical miles (nm), sailed about half the time. Dropped anchor next to a boat we knew from Alameda, sv Westerly.

Day #2: SF to Bahia Candeleros = 67nm motoring; shared the big bay with one other super yacht. The skipper said all the other cruisers left due to predicted northerlies coming into the bay, but the night was windless with the water like a millpond. A very relaxing night!

Day #3: Candeleros to San Juanico = 44nm motoring. This was a good, protected anchorage from the northerly winds and swell.

Day #4: San Juanico to Santispac = 55 nm, sailed 6 hours out of 10. After a couple of somewhat gnarly hours, boat heeled over and things flying about down below, the boat and conditions settled down and we had a glorious day of sailing in a stiff breeze with reefed mainsail and jib, more or less toward our destination. 

A great day of saling!

Since our goal was directly upwind we took a couple of long port tacks out to sea, then back, and had to turn on our motor as we neared Point Concepcion so that we would make the anchorage before dark.

Turns out our friends Deniz, Lissa and daughter Amanda, and Bobby and Denise, also arrived in Bahia Concepcion that day so it was a great gathering of friends. They kayaked out to bring us a tandem kayak so we could join them for a feast of freshly speared Yellowtail and Grouper. What a welcome!!

If you know our friend Mike McGuire, or remember the McGuire family from last year’s posts, you will know that Mike has activities planned to pack a 28 hour day. Since Mike and Stephanie had to spend the day in Loreto the day after our arrival, our first day in Concepcion was a “day of rest”, hanging out with our friends, kayaking, snorkeling, and getting some boat tasks done. 

Our friends kayak over for coffee - photo D. Teoman

Good thing because the next day was a full one, driving to Laguna San Ignacio on the other side of the Baja peninsula for some up close and personal gray whale watching. 

Every year gray whales travel from Alaska to San Ignacio to give birth, and when the calves are old enough the mother and calves come right up to pangas to get scratched and and rubbed, which they seem to love. 

Whale calf gives us the eye.

Leave it to Mike to challenge everyone to KISS a whale! 

Amanda kisses the calf. - photo D. Teoman

I don’t know of anywhere else in the world where the whales like to come right up to the boats, rub under them and push them in circles. It’s quite an amazing experience!

The whales love the contact.

The next day the guys left early for a day of spearfishing. They came home with some yellowtail, grouper, and other reef fish. Delicious for that night’s feast of sashimi, ceviche and grilling!

Great job on the day's catch!

While the guys were gone the ladies enjoyed a day of provisioning in Mulege and stopping for shrimp cocktails and lemonade on the beach.

We enjoy the fresh limonada at Arturuo's.

Some of our friends had never seen a whale shark, and we heard there had been a sighting in Bahia Coyote, a few coves down from us. Mike was determined that they would have a whale shark experience. So the next morning most of the group jumped into kayaks and started paddling toward Coyote.  Tom, Lissa and I motored over in the dinghy and we all converged in Coyote, on the lookout for the telltale double fins of the whale shark. It was windy and choppy that day, so no fins, but eventually we could make out some large dark shapes moving through the water and sure enough, some whale sharks had come into the cove!     

Amazing shot of whale shark face - photo D. Teoman

We spent the morning looking for and snorkeling with these gentle giants. Deniz and his daughter Amanda couldn’t get enough, and since they were leaving the next day Tom took them out one more time for a snorkel with these fascinating beasts.

Amanda is tiny next to this giant! - photo D. Teoman

The next day, April 4, everybody packed up the truck and van to drop the Teomans off at the Loreto airport, while the rest of the group (except Stephanie and I) drove over to Scorpion Bay on the west coast of baja for a surfing trip. 

Kelston and Tom pack up the truck.

Stephanie and I stayed behind so we could catch up on some work and reading, and so I could keep an eye on Cinnabar for some high winds that are supposed to blow through today and tomorrow.

Last night Stephanie and I stood on the porch of her villa, and exactly at 7:10 pm the space station appeared as a bright, fast-moving orb out of the SW. It traveled straight over head and disappeared into the NE six minutes later. It was truly a serene and magical moment. (I’m glad we enjoyed it, because we were both extremely sick last night, we think from some local cheese we had for dinner. Oh well, that sort of thing is to be expected when one travels. I’m sure a day of rest will set us to rights, and that’s all I’m going to say about the matter. Ugh)

On Tuesday the Scorpion Surfing Safari group will drive back to Loreto, picking up our friend Mati at the airport on the way in. Then my sister and Erik arrive the next day so it will be back to activities at a breakneck speed for another couple of weeks. 

More pics of our first week in Bahia Concepcion are HERE.

Cinnabar "on the hook". - photo L. Teoman

La Paz, aka La Pause and Velcro Bay

Tom and I have heard the jokes about cruisers referring to La Paz (The Peace) as a place that is difficult from which to leave, calling it Velcro Bay and Bungee Bay, hard to get unstuck and always getting pulled back. 

Tom, Gene (La Brisa), bartender Conchita, and Nick (Iolanthe), hangin' loose in La Paz

In addition to La Paz being a wonderful city where there is always something going on, turns out it's a great place to just hang out, fix things and do numerous boat repairs. There seems to be a plethora of repair shops and resources, not to mention numerous cruisers and ex-pats who know where and how to get stuff done. Here in Marina Palmira we have our boat managers Ross Marine Services, plus the fairly new La Paz Cruiser's Supply, Techs Mex, and finally Cross Marine Works, whose expertise has been invaluable to us. In La Paz a simple task like shopping or purchasing a part usually only takes 1/2 to 3/4 of a day, not the entire day as it does elsewhere. Heck, the other day I did a morning run to the pharmacy, left via shuttle at 9:00 and walked back to the boat by 11:00 a.m., a record! 

In the past few weeks we have entertained ourselves with a couple of days and nights of Carnaval...

La Paz Police Force gets ready to keep "la paz" at Carnaval

Juguete, Swan, Cinnabar and Victory enjoy the parade from Tailhunter's third floor patio.

...including nightly fireworks, parades, and persistently loud tuba music until 02:00 a.m. At about 02:05 the music would be drowned out by a cacophony of sirens which must have been the La Paz Police Force's way of saying "SHUT UP!!" The sirens continued until about 02:30. After a couple of nights of this we escaped to La Ventana for the remainder of Carnaval. 

The marina has a shuttle that will drop us off in town and I have been enjoying exploring the downtown with its little shops, markets and coffee houses, and then the walk back through the neighborhoods or along the Malecon.

Planter of recycled materials at DoceCuarenta, my favorite espresso bar.

La Paz is the capital of the state of Baja California Sur, and it feels like a capital compared to other places we have been in Baja. There are numerous resources, very few unhealthy stray animals, and even the sidewalks seem to be much better than other places we have been in Mexico. Even so, they are not perfect and we see a lot of this...

One of the nicer sidewalks (but unmarked, 3-level change!)

...and scratch our heads at this:

It was funny watching her trying to walk down that sidewalk.

We have enjoyed hanging out at Marina Palmira and meeting other cruisers who have chosen a liveaboard lifestyle. 

Sylvia, crew of Pac Cup's first all female doublehanded boat (2004), with Jeanne (sv Eagle), crew of Pac Cup's first all female fully-crewed boat (1994). 

I'm amazed at the number of cruisers who have pets on board. Most are small as you might imagine...

Gene and Ace from La Brisa

...but check out this pet owned by our dock neighbors aboard Victory!

Dawn and Odin the Great Dane

Last week a "Classic Northerly" blew threw and caused quite a bit of excitement in town. We had plenty of warning so that morning we re-secured the boat, pulled down the canvas, and battened down the hatches before heading down to Marina La Paz for the monthly swap meet. Waves were splashing over the Malecon, high winds carried sand and earth throughout the city, and several boats dragged anchors and drifted to shore. Down at Marina La Paz the patrons of the swap meet were entertained by one boat that came in, tried to dock, and was promptly blown into some other boats. 

Tom and others fend off with boat hooks, while others try to pull the boat to their dock.

Everybody jumped to help and eventually the boat was secured safely to its dock with little or no damage to it or other boats.

Over the past couple of weeks we have worked hard to get Cinnabar ready to cast off her lines in La Paz and head north. The Ross's helped us get some engine and genset parts down here via personal courier (other cruisers flying back from the U.S.) and Rob from Cross Marine Works helped us replace our engine injectors. 

Tom worked a couple of days replacing a failing part (exhaust elbow) on our diesel genset but was frustrated and baffled when he couldn't get it to fire up. Good fuel, clean air, strong starter, electrical engine cutoffs operational - yet the motor just would not start. Finally, he suspected some dust/crud had fallen down into the exhaust port around a valve seal, not allowing the exhaust valve to close, and thus causing insufficient compression; but he couldn't figure out how to easily fix it. Rob Cross, mechanic extraordinaire, arrived this morning with some magic "Engine Cleaner" spray. Tom's thinking "yeah, right - these miracle elixirs never work". After one spray into the intake manifold and a 5 minute wait, the motor jumped to life. "No Way!". The cleaner cleared the crud. Bravo!

Miracle worker Rob, tools of the trade, and his happy customer.

Our sails are on, dodger/bimini/solar panels installed, our neighbors on A-Train drove us to Chedraui Supermercado yesterday for a big provisioning run...

Who says you can't find what you need in Mexico?

...I've downloaded books from the e-library, and we hope to cast off Wednesday morning. It will be sad to bid adieu to some people whom we are just getting to know, but we look forward to getting to know some more folks better when we return to La Paz in May. Anyway, since our homes are boats who knows where we might run across these crazy cruisers again? 

"I thought it was an adventure, and in reality it was life."

Life is an adventure. 

More pictures from the past few weeks are HERE.