Overpopulation Hits Bahia Concepcion - Week #3

Friday 3 May 2013:

It’s been pretty calm and relatively low-key since Los McGuire had to leave Bahia Concepcion and Casa de Los Suenos. The day that they departed we had a new arrival in our little bay; she was a well-outfitted Fraser 36 with the lovely name of Telitha. The next morning we heard a cheerful voice at the back of our boat calling “Cinnabar! Cinnabar! Anyone home?” We popped our heads out and had the pleasure of meeting Kitty from Telitha, anchored next to us. Kitty had kayaked over to chat us up and to see about using our internet connection. Unfortunately, we had pretty much used up our month’s allotment of wi-fi, but I guess she liked us anyway  because the next morning she and her husband Joe stopped by to give us a beautiful drawing she had made of Cinnabar in front of Casa de los Suenos!

Kitty's beautiful drawing of Cinnabar

 

We discovered something that was a huge coincidence. Remember I posted about visiting an abandoned hotel in Mulege, the Aero Club/Loma Linda/Vista Hermosa? Turns out Kitty was the matron of honor in a wedding at that very hotel in the 1980s!!! 

 

Joe, Kitty and Nick (from Iolanthe) on top of the water tower of Vista Hermos where Kitty was Matron of Honor in the mid 1980s.

We invited them over for dinner that night (grilled wahoo!) and they reciprocated by having us over at Telitha the next night for a potluck.  Kitty and Joe are very interesting people from Taos who, for the past 13 years, have cruised the Sea of Cortez for a month out of each year aboard Telitha. 

The day before, their friends aboard Iolanthe  sailed into our bay and dropped anchor. We had the pleasure of meeting the owner Nick, and his father Arthur at the Telitha pot luck. Arthur was one of the first African American heart surgeons and an avid east coast sailor. He had some great stories to tell about the good old days of sailing. Nick lives on Catalina Island and is in the diving and filmmaking business. Needless to say, between the fascinating Arthur and Nick, and high-energy Kitty and Joe, we had a very lively evening.

 

We invited the group to drive into Mulege with us the next do to visit the old Hotel Vista Hermosa ruins, do laundry, shopping, and get some fuel. We all dinghied into the beach, climbed the endless steps up to the top, loaded up the back of the truck with dirty laundry and jerry jugs, and discovered that the handyman had put a locking bar on the steering wheel!! (Once again proving that it takes more than one attempt to get anything done in Mexico.)

The laundromat had a patio with fresh flowers! Cleanest laundromat in all of Mexico.

Kitty and I actually borrowed the next-door-neighbors little jeep so that Tom and Joe could drive over to the neighboring bays to look for Manuel the handyman.  Tom and Joe found someone who knew where Manuel’s wife Carmen was working one bay down, and Carmen led them to Manuel two bays down, and the guys eventually returned with the key to unlock the truck wheel. So we actually made it into Mulege after all and got all our errands done. Before sunset. Barely.

OK, so it wasn't all work. We were starving by the time we made it into town.

 Sadly, Telitha and Iolanthe left the next morning and we had the bay to ourselves once again. For about five hours. 

After a morning of snorkeling and Stealth Reef Management, we headed up to the villa so Tom could do a little touch-up painting in the kitchen and I could bake my first loaf of sourdough bread. (Results: painting = success, bread = er, room for improvement.)  There had been a weather warning about some strong northerlies coming our way and early that afternoon the commuter hour started and boats began streaming into our bay. Every time a new boat motored into the anchorage I would announce it to Tom so that he could check them out with the binoculars (from the Villa balcony), snarl if they got too close to Cinnabar, and comment on their anchoring technique.

 

Here we are at nine; two more boats arrived after I took this picture.

The bay reached capacity at ELEVEN boats! The boats that arrived late had to head to other anchorages nearby to wait out the northerlies.

We have been on Cinnabar for the second windy day now as the wind howls around us. We heard that a sailboat in the next cove, Burro Bay, broke from its anchor and drifted onto the beach. A big motor catamaran managed to pull it off. Luckily all the boats in our bay, North Posada, seem to be secure and nobody is moving. So far anyway.

Saturday 4 May 2013: Woke up this morning and our anchorage is empty again. Looks like everyone else is heading north to take advantage of the predicted southerlies. Today we’re off to Loreto to pick up our friends Joe and Lisa who will be visiting us on Cinnabar for a week. We’re in a flurry of tidying up the boat, making water, and making lots of ice in anticipation of the visit.

Joe and Lisa are bringing me a supply of Trader Joe’s Irish Breakfast Tea and Tom a pound of Peet’s coffee. This morning I used my last bag of the strong TJ’s tea and Tom used the last of his “emergency” Starbucks instant coffee. How’s that for planning? 

They made it! Drinking cervezas frias and waiting for lunch real-time.