"Just One More Day"...putting Cinnabar away for the summer.

It has been a busy 2.5 weeks since we rushed back into La Paz, cutting our trip to the islands (pictures here) short by one week, to prepare for hurricane Blanca. She was classified as a "dry" hurricane, i.e. no rain, i.e. lots of dirt! Our friends nicknamed her "Hurricane Dusty"...very appropriate.

So far it has been a mostly pleasant and sometimes sweaty end-of-spring; I seem to recall the past two years being a lot hotter about this time. It probably feels cooler because for the past couple of weeks we've had some good breeze (strong evening winds, unique to La Paz, called "coromuels"), during the evening and night, which helps to cool things off. But then again, the winds bring more of the dreaded dirt and dust. Pros and cons...

The marina is getting lonely as many people head north into the Sea of Cortez, over to the mainland, or home for the summer. Some intrepid souls are doing the "Baja Bash" (so called because boats are likely to find themselves "bashing" against northerly wind and swells) to get their boats back to the U.S. Others, like us, will fly or drive north, usually to the U.S or Canada.

Our neighbor "Timoneer" leaves to "bash" up to Ensenada. 

There are a lot of empty boats buttoned up for summer, sails off, hulls lined with fenders in preparation for hurricane winds, and boat covers secured tightly in place.

We've been busy preparing Cinnabar to be left alone until we return in the fall, going down our list of tasks that seems to take us at least two weeks no matter how much we swear we will "streamline" and do it faster this year. Why is it that "just a 5-minute job" takes half a day??

Tom goes aloft to inspect, repair, remove wind instruments, and install anti-bird spikes on the spreaders. It's a constant battle with the ospreys and frigate birds.

And no matter what day we plan to leave, or how well we try to prepare, we always seem to need "just one more day".

Even though it feels like there is more to do, our scheduled departure day has arrived, and we leave today for our drive back north, hopefully stopping in Ensenada, San Diego, and maybe one or two other places as we head back up to the SF Bay Area. Luckily we have a house-sitting gig for July, and we *have* to be back, otherwise who knows how long we would linger in La Paz? 

We have mixed feelings; it's hard to leave our home-away-from-home, but on the other hand...ROAD TRIP!!!!!

Day After Tropical Storm Blanca

Morning after Blanca at Marina Palmira

Just a quickie to let everyone know that all is well in La Paz. We expected to feel strong winds yesterday afternoon as Blanca passed west of us. But other than a short period when the winds were in the high 20's - low 30's, things seemed to calm down. Temporarily. After I went to bed the wind started raging and Tom had to get up and close the windows due to dust swirling through the cabin. This morning the wind was still howling, again in the high 20's - low 30's, and we expect it to continue until around 5:00 p.m. (Although I think it is starting to abate already.)

There is dust everywhere inside the boat, and if I hadn't put a napkin over my morning cup of tea I would have gotten a bit of grit in every sip. Outside, Cinnabar is covered in a not-so-fine layer of dust, with little drifts of dust banked up in various areas. 

The electricity and water have been out on our dock since early a.m., and we had to run our generator to top up the batteries.

This morning was a good time to tighten up our dock lines and a few rattling halyards. I noticed during my morning stroll that numerous other people were checking their boats, and boats of absent-owner friends, to make sure everything was looking secure and ship-shape.

In the anchorage near downtown, the boat that went aground (which I mentioned in the previous post) was pulled off the sand by other cruisers in their dinghies and safely delivered to a boatyard for repairs. One of the red channel markers broke loose and drifted through the anchorage without hitting any boats. Two unmanned sailboats broke free from their mooring/anchors and ended up on the beach. 

We just got a report that the high wind speed was 47.6 knots at 02:59, and the lowest barometric pressure reading was 1001.2 mb (millibars) at midnight. (Low barometric pressure is usually associated with bad weather. It was up to 1015 mb during our idyllic anchorage in the island.) 

And our electricity and water just came back on!!

Cinnabar needs a bath!! But not until the wind stops.

Oh, and Armando Martinez, he of the campaign sticker plastered on our Tundra...he was elected the new mayor of La Paz! 


UPDATE NOTE: Amanda's comment prompts me to mention that our friends, the Teomans' (featured in last year's Bahia Concepcion pictures) oldest daughter Caitlin was in Cabo during Blanca. Yes, with her girlfriends enjoying their first hurricane! What a conclusion to their Cabo trip. I was emailing updates to mom Lissa about the storm and what the girls could expect. Lissa wisely rescheduled their return flights from yesterday to today (6/9/15), giving the storm ample time to leave the area. Lissa said the girls provisioned at Walmart and hunkered down in their hotel room with plenty of snacks and drinks. Smart girls!!

Hurricanes and Elections

It's a very busy Sunday for Baja California Sur...Hurricane Blanca approaches and the voting booths opened at 08:00. 

Today's Google doodle in Mexico - "vote here"

Las Elecciones: All of Mexico has been gearing up for today's midterm election which will choose all 500 seats in Mexico's lower house of congress, plus nine governorships (including Baja California Sur's) and hundreds of mayorships and local posts (also including La Paz and BCS's). 

We've seen lots of posters and campaign events taking place in the streets of La Paz. Even our Tundra inadvertently got in on the action.

The Tundra got tagged, or should I say "pasted" by some overzealous campaigners. I wonder if Armando Martinez will win the mayorship?

Mexican elections have a history of violence before, during, and after elections. Most of the problems occur in the southern states of mainland Mexico, not so much Baja. Baja still has to abide by the "no liquor sales" law, however. I went to the store yesterday for supplies and was amused by the huge amounts of booze people were buying before the Saturday 10:00 p.m. cut-off time. Nothing like a little prohibition to increase liquor sales and consumption! 

Notice on our marina store. Absolutely no liquor sales (stores and restaurants) allowed from Saturday 10:00 p.m. to Monday morning. 

Huracán Blanca:  Since we arrived last Thursday at the safe harbor of La Paz, Blanca has steadily raged toward Baja, increasing to a Category 4 hurricane, then dropping back down to Category 1 during last night. Luckily she has veered toward the northwest and hopefully the Baja peninsula will feel only Tropical Storm and Tropical Depression winds and rains. 

This is what Blanca looked like at 06:45 a.m.

For the past few days all the cruisers have been stripping sails, canvas and other miscellaneous items off our decks. A few days ago the port captain closed the Port of La Paz...

The port closure flag was hanging limp since Friday, today it finally started to wave in the breeze.

...and all the big motor charter vessels have been unable to take their clients out to the islands. The clients have either flown home early or gotten hotel rooms. Our Marina Palmira is now full to capacity with these huge motor vessels.

After the debacle of Odile in Sept 2014, Baja has tried to be more prepared for a hurricane. A couple of days ago we were surprised to see a fleet of electrical utility trucks rolling down the highway. Apparently they were ferried over from the mainland in anticipation of the bad weather. 

Most of the electrical utility trucks went to Cabo, but about 25 of them stayed in La Paz, parked at the nearby hotel.

Yesterday morning truckloads of additional military from the mainland unloaded from the ferry with more than 24 tons of hurricane relief supplies.


Last night, after working hard all day, we had a "Hurricane Party" with our friends Leif and Lisa, who are also stuck here. They are waiting for the bad weather to pass so they can begin their trip around the cape and up the western coast of Baja to the U.S. We were treated with some delicious, fresh wahoo that Leif grilled up for us, and dark chocolate brownies baked by Lisa. Even though we partied, we still take the hurricane very seriously.

Sylvia and Tom with Leif aboard the air conditioned Finisterra. Picture taken by Lisa Burford

This morning was still oddly calm, and while both restaurants were, surprisingly, hosting Sunday brunch, we cruisers were doing last minute checks to docklines, etc. The few working marina staff walked the docks to do their final checks and to tie the electronic gates open in case of loss of electricity.

So here we sit, as prepared as we can be. It's early afternoon and the wind is just now starting to pick up into the mid 20 knot range. Cinnabar can make her own electricity so there is no danger of our popsicles melting. Even though our water tanks are fairly full we can also make our own water, so we're looking good there too. 

She's ready! Sails and canvas removed. Surfboard and kayak tied down tightly.

The wind is now creeping into the mid 30 knots and Cinnabar is heeling over in her slip. I think maybe our "wind event" has begun.

Oh, and I just heard on the radio that a sailboat has run aground out in the channel and several people are going to launch their dinghies and try to pull them off!! Sounds like the Mexican Navy might get involved in the rescue as well. Not a great time to run aground. Never a dull moment around here.

We and Cinnabar are well-prepared and feeling safe. More later...

It's Not All Margaritas and Carnitas Here in Paradise

There we were, minding our own business, planning a languid and leisurely sail home from the Islands of Loreto, when what should start brewing in the Pacific? Tropical Storm Blanca! She was upgraded to a hurricane (Category 4) this morning and forecasted to head straight for Cabo and La Paz. Our choices were to go to nearby Puerto Escondido, or beat feet back to La Paz in time to get sails, canvas, and everything else off the boat before the maelstrom hits, if indeed Blanca maintains hurricane status and reaches La Paz.

We decided to head back to La Paz, where Cinnabar has successfully ridden out a previous hurricane (Odile, Cat 5, Sep 2014). Today we had a long sail (75 nm, a 9 hr motor in no wind, actually) from Bahia Candeleros all the way to Isla San Francisco. Tomorrow we'll leave Isla SF early and motor 44 nm to reach La Paz sometime in the afternoon and hopefully in time to carry out hurricane preparations. It's eerie how sunny, calm, and beautiful it is out here - it is easy to see how people are lulled into complacency and do not heed the possible hurricane threats until it is too late.

Fingers crossed that Hurricane Blanca will be downgraded and won't pummel La Paz, but we'll do our best to get Cinnabar ready just in case. Meanwhile we'll keep checking the weather reports to see what Blanca has up her sleeve. Stay tuned!
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