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!!!

Adiós Puerto Escondido! Hola…¿Dónde?

For ten very fun years out of my life I worked for a sailmaking, sail repair and technical sewing company. It was a real honest-to-goodness sail loft in that we were located upstairs in a huge room with windows all around. It was a great work environment, amazing experience for me, open and sunny, a staff of fun, multicultural and extremely talented people, and lots of REALLY COOL equipment and machinery. Our sail customers were typically very interesting people and for most of my 10 years there I was one of the primary contacts for our sailing customers. I got to know some of them quite well. We were all sad when the business moved to another area, boo hoo! But imagine my surprise this week when I realized that Cinnabar was moored smack dab between two of the Spinnaker Shop’s old customers! On one side we had Shindig, owned by one of the first sail repair customers I met, and on the other side was AirOps, whose owner dinghied over and reminded me that he was one of our customers. What a coincidence!

We had a lovely happy hour aboard the beautiful AirOps and I actually recognized a piece of canvas that I had helped measure some years ago. We spent a fun evening with Merry, Dave and their two adorable miniature schnauzers Mocha and Kiki.

Syl, Merry, Dave and Mocha. Happy Hour courtesy of AirOps.

We were impressed to learn that Dave assembled his Glacier Bay Refrigeration system himself (72 sweat joints!) and that he built his own watermaker. What a guy!

Dave and his watermaker.

The next night we had Shindig over to Cinnabar for dinner. (We wanted AirOps to come, too, but they were entertaining others that night.) Nancy arrived looking like a million bucks. She and Rob came with garlic prawns to grill, a bottle of wine AND a fresh strawberry rhubarb pie from Ettie’s Pie Shop in Loreto. No wonder they get invited to so many parties!

Tom, Nancy and Rob mackin' on the pie.

The pie was amazing and the crust would have been approved by my sister who makes THE BEST pie crust in the world.

It turns out that Rob and Nancy are neighbors of our back home, but we had to come all the way to Mexico to find that out.

Shindig left Puerto Escondido the next day and they were barely out of the marina before they were on the radio planning another get-together with some friends in another anchorage. I think those party animals aboard Shindig chose the right name for their boat.

Tom and I (although it mostly looks like Tom, doesn't it?) have spent the past week doing various boat repairs...

Replacing the genset impeller.

Sniffing for a refrigerant leak.

Cleaning Cinnabar's bottom.

...cleaning, provisioning, making water, still coping with our troublesome refrigeration, and getting things in order for our next couple of weeks at various anchorages as we head toward La Paz, where Cinnabar will rest for the summer.

I doubt if we’ll have Wi-Fi after we leave Puerto Escondido but we’ll try to post an update or two via Single Side Band radio.

A final note, Merry from AirOps told us the dinghy chaps (pontoon covers) that they had made down here lasted about six months and then had to be restitched due to inferior thread. However, I noticed that the Spinnaker Shop covers they have (stitched with Goretex/Tenara) are still going strong. Go Spin Shop!!

So it's Goodbye Puerto Escondido! Last few pics are HERE.

Hello...Where to next?

Well, we're not exactly sure, so stay posted.

Dinghy Name Has Been Decided! And We Finally Leave Bahia Concepcion

First of all, a huge shout out to the McGuire Family and Casa de Los Suenos for letting us anchor out and use their facilities for an entire month. Wow! If it weren’t for Joe we would likely still be there, but read on for more about that.

Second shout out to our friends Joe and Lisa who not only came to visit us, but brought us some of our favorite supplies so we could restock our stores. Thanks to them Cinnabar is now brimming with my favorite, super strong TJ’s Irish Breakfast Tea, Tom’s favorite Peet’s Coffee, TJ’s granola bars and TJ’s chocolate covered almonds. Yum!! Lisa even brought me a bonus pack of assorted black and green teas. Love her.

We Leave Bahia Concepcion - Joe was quite keen to see more of the Sea of Cortez, so two days after our infamous “Best Day Ever” in Bahia Concepcion, we weighed anchor and motored out of our favorite anchorage bound for Puerto Escondido, just south of Loreto, as our ultimate destination. I wish I could say our departure was uneventful, but we motored over a shoal and Cinnabar stubbed her toe in the sand, so to speak. Joe, Lisa and I leaned WAYYYYYY over the side of the boat while Tom plowed us out.

The chart said we could go there! But the sand said "NO".

The rest of the day was absolutely beautiful with no more mishaps. As we passed Isla San Idelfonso, where Tom and the others had caught all those yellowtail, we saw hundreds of pelicans soaring over and diving into the water. Birds in a feeding frenzy? That’s always a good sign for fish. Naturally Joe and Tom had the hand lines out, and a short time later we hooked a small yellowtail. While the guys discussed whether or not it was too small to keep, I grabbed the bottle of tequila and made a beeline for the fish. A few sprinkles into the gills and our beautiful catch went calmly to sleep forever.

Small but delicious.

Caleta San Juanico , Snorkeling and Fine Dining - By late afternoon we made it into the beautiful San Juanico anchorage. We decided we had just enough time for an afternoon snorkel before our happy hour, so we grabbed our gear, slipped into the water and kicked over to the nearest pinnacle. Yowza! We were amazed at all the sea life! There were schools of all sorts of reef fish swimming around the rocks, a turtle, schooling puffer fish, angel fish, schooling brown chromis, mullets and many, many more. To top it off, high atop the tallest pinnacle was an osprey nest with the two osprey gazing down at us with jaundiced eyes the whole time.

Dinner that night would be my favorite, our beautiful just-caught Hamachi thinly sliced sashimi style, and served as a tiradito a la Muelle Tres, my favorite restaurant in Ensenada. This had our Bahia Concepcion twist of serving it hand roll style, with fresh avocado, sushi rice, and nori.

Tom, Joe and Lisa enjoy a perfectly delicious dinner.

Add some cold beer and chilled white wine and it was pretty much a perfect meal, sigh. (Recipe at end of post.)

Heading to Puerto Escondido - The next morning we completed our trip down to Puerto Escondido. The sea was absolutely alive with all sorts of life, in the air and in the water. It seemed that every few minutes there was something new to see, whether they were hundreds of sea birds, sea lions basking in the water with fins up, or leaping mobula rays. One of the most exciting events was when I saw a weird standing wave off in the distance. What in the heck was that thing? Turns out it was hundreds of Pacific White-Sided dolphins in what looked like an absolute feeding frenzy. We headed their direction and tried to stay out of their way as they leaped in the air and dove toward their prey beneath them. We saw one or two more of these large dolphin boils and they were so close I even managed to get some shots with my little camera.

We sailed alongside Isla Carmen toward Puerto Escondido, enjoying the jaw-dropping view and lunching on freshly made fish tostadas. Thanks to Joe and Tom we got two great meals from our little yellowtail.

Our final excitement before pulling into Puerto Escondido was a couple of whale sightings. What a trip! We motored into the bay, carefully watching the depth of this notoriously shallow entrance, but managed to make it (barely) without stubbing our toe again. We found a mooring, and thanks to Joe and Lisa’s experience from their bare-boat charters we easily grabbed a mooring and secured Cinnabar.

We figured our friend Nick from Iolanthe was still in the area since last we heard he’d gone on the hard to wait for parts to repair his boat. We wondered if Telitha was still around, and as I stood on deck with binoculars, searching the anchorage for our friends, who should come gliding into the bay being towed by another boat, but Telitha!! Holy cow, what happened?? Turns out they’d had transmission problems and ended up being towed practically all the way from Agua Verde (about 22 nm) by the good Samaritans aboard Huck Finn. So, due to bad luck for everyone but us, the unlikely group of Cinnabar, Iolanthe and Telitha would be together once again.

That evening the Cinnabar crew spiffed up and took a taxi (driven by taxista Nestor) into Loreto for a last bit of shopping for Lisa and Joe, and our final dinner together. Loreto was practically deserted, with the only excitement being a claxon of mission bells followed by a parade of people entering the mission for 5:00 mass. We were in Loreto to enjoy the beautifully temperate and perfect evening, and after a starter of Margaritas...

 

...we managed to find a restaurant that served Tom’s favorite Baja Brewing Company microbrew! That, paired with a yummy Chile Relleno and Chocolate Clams Gratinee made for a delightful last dinner.

Almejas Chocolates Gratinee

Adios Lisa and Joe - The next morning, after helping us clean Cinnabar’s deck (Lisa and Joe sure know how to get invited back) our guests packed their bags, we stuffed a cooler full of frozen fish for them to transport home, and we loaded them into Nestor’s taxi, bound for Loreto airport.

Joe, Lisa, Tom and taxista Nestor

Pictures of Weeks #3 and #4 in Bahia Concepcion, and our trip down to Puerto Escondido, can be found HERE.

Since Lisa and Joe departed, we have spent time cleaning the boat, enjoying the beautiful Puerto Escondido anchorage, and trying to entice our cruising pals away from spending all their time doing boat repairs. Actually, that’s not too difficult, but more about that in another post…

Dinghy Name Update – Believe it or not we finally decided on a dinghy name. Yes! After all this time! Thank you again to everyone who submitted all the absolutely brilliant names. Here they are and I hope I remembered every one:
Cinnabarbary Coaster
Cinnabun
Dinghy Dong
Galena Ballena
Minibar
Mini-Cinni
Minipad
Quicksilver
To-the-bar
Vermilion
 
We might not have picked your favorite, but we went with the one that “felt right” to us.  A couple of weeks before they decided to come out, Joe submitted Quicksilver as his entry. Miraculously, we both liked Quicksilver, also mercury, associated with Cinnabar, also a common name in the Santa Clara Valley, and with the likely nickname of “Quickie”. So Quicksilver, aka “Quickie” it is.

Joe and Quicksilver, aka "Quickie"

And the grand prize was…winner got to visit us on Cinnabar! OK, in the interest of full disclosure, let’s just say that anyone who submitted an entry was eligible to visit, as well as anyone who thought about submitting an entry, as well as anyone who thought we were bonkers for even thinking we should name our dinghy. In other words, EVERYONE is invited to visit us! Come on guys, last chance is NOW because in a few weeks we will be in La Paz putting Cinnabar away for the summer.

But if you can’t visit us this time around, you should at least try making our favorite yellowtail dish. Here is our recipe. If you don't have yellowtail you can use any type of sushi grade fish...

RECIPE - YELLOWTAIL/HAMACHI TIRADITO

Ingredients:

• Very fresh yellowtail, thinly sliced into bite-size pieces, chill on platter; (or use any kind of sushi-grade fish if yellowtail is not available
• Soy sauce or Tamari
• Toasted sesame oil
• Toasted sesame seeds
• Minced fresh ginger
• Juice from 1-2 small limes
• Chopped fresh cilantro or basil
• Avocado, 1-2 sliced
• Freshly ground pepper
• Optional: diced jalapeno/Serrano peppers or dribbles of Salsa Martajada

Method:

Spread fish slices out onto large plate overlapped or in a single layer. (I like to chill for 30 minutes if not already refrigerated.) Dribble lightly with soy sauce and sesame oil. Sprinkle with minced fresh ginger and sesame seeds. Add fresh, diced peppers or Salsa Martajada, or serve on the side. Just before serving squeeze some fresh lime over the top and sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and fresh cilantro or basil. Arrange avocado slices on top of or around yellowtail, or serve alongside if making hand rolls.

Serve with chips or tostadas, or use for sushi or hand rolls by serving with white or sushi rice, nori and a ponzu sauce made of soy, lime juice and wasabi.

 

Banderas Bay - Two Years Later

Exactly two years ago Tom and I flew to Puerto Vallarta to join our friends Torben and Judy aboard their beautiful boat Tivoli to participate in the Banderas Bay Regatta. We had the best time ever and joked that someday we would sail our own boat down to Banderas Bay. In fact I am enjoying my morning cup of Trader Joe's Irish Breakfast Tea reading Tivoli's old blog posts from the Banderas Bay Regatta HERE. 

We are finally here!! We are anchored in the peaceful bay of La Cruz just north of Puerto Vallarta.

We spent the last couple of days in Cabo trying to drink the town dry of their most excellent margaritas and microbrews...

The Margaritas are huge!

...doing last-minute boat chores such as splicing 150' of anchor chain onto the 3-strand nylon rode (thanks Spinnaker Shop for teaching me some useful boat skills!) and saying goodbye to our Cabo friends. It was especially sad to say adios to our neighbor Stoli (Miniature Schnauzer), whom we had adopted as our ersatz "Walter", our French Bulldog buddy who owns our friends Dina and Dom back in Alameda. Adios Stoli, terror of G-Dock!!

Stoli glares at a bird on the dock.

After enjoying our last couple of days in Cabo San Lucas, one extra day in fact since the Port Captain closed the port on our intended departure date due to high winds (yay!) and bad seas (boo!), we left Cabo on Sunday March 3, on calm seas and warm, light winds.

It was another pleasant passage, except this time nights were filled with much more ocean traffic; cruise ships (easy to see) and lots of fishing boats, some lit and some unlit, so we didn't get as much nighttime rest as when we sailed down the uncivilized Baja peninsula. It was an especially rough passage for Tom.

Tom taking one for the team

There seemed to be lots of sea life in the water, but unfortunately never on our fishing lines. Drat! Sunsets and sunrises generally brought pods of dolphins to play in our bow wake. In fact, at our last sunset we passed through a huge pod of spinner dolphins leaping out of the water, sometimes as high as 10 feet, in an amazing display of acrobatic prowess. Even the baby dolphins did their best to leap with the adults. How cool!

The warmer water brought more squid suicides on Cinnabar's deck. Final Tally: Cinnabar 5 - Squids 0.

Squids are oddly beautiful creatures

Our approach to Banderas Bay was a bit of a nail biter. The two navigational lights that showed the entrance to the bay, between the mainland and some islands about 5 miles offshore, were not functioning! So we slowed the boat down and waited until sunrise so we could identify our passage. Good thing as I had us headed between two towns on the mainland, which didn't quite line up with what our Raymarine was telling us. As all aviators say, you have to trust your instruments.

We dropped anchor off of La Cruz the morning of March 5, about 45 hours and 330 nm after leaving Cabo San Lucas (31% sailing, 69% motoring). There are about 50 other sailboats at the anchorage; seems to be popular place.

We are here.

And since the water is 74 degrees F., my official "acceptable" water temp, I went for a nice snorkel around the boat that first evening.

We spent the last couple of days putting Cinnabar into true cruising mode with sunshades, mosquito nets, etc. and doing some boat tasks such as trying to get the watermaker to function and assembling the dinghy for the first time (success!). Today we contend with the outboard and hopefully head over to the town of La Cruz to register with the port captain and see the Margaritas, er...town.

We have a few more pictures of our last couple of days in Cabo and our trip across to Banderas Bay HERE.

Sprit to Spit - We rent a car and drive around.

It's been a bit of a whirlwind this past week. The boat work is nearly done, the bowsprit got reattached, bottom got painted.

Now we just need to get Cinnabar's name applied and we should be ready to go back into the water. Thursday is our estimated splash date and then departure on Friday or Saturday.

We had a box of parts sent down to San Diego so we drove up there last week to retrieve it and to do some boat shopping stateside.

 

Art on the border fence at Tecate

 Our agent was Tom's friend's daughter Lisa who works in San Diego. I could kick myself for not getting a picture of her because she's absolutely adorable, not to mention the huge favor she did by receiving our box for us. So thank you Lisa! You rock!!

The biggest West Marine on the west coast is in San Diego. They even have shopping carts!

Tom was in heaven and it was all I could do to keep him to his list instead of stopping every two feet to ogle the wares. It was a constant battle to keep him from purchasing every "gimmicky" item he could get his hands on. (UPDATE: I made Tom put a boat squeegee back on the shelf. Imagine the look on his face today when the boatyard guys cleaned our boat and promptly whipped out a big squeegee just like the one he wanted to buy to clean the water off our hull! I really had to eat crow on that one.)

Of course we didn't get everything we needed so we ended up spending the night and continuing our shopping spree the next day. San Diego is amazingly geared toward the boating community and everything you could possibly need is at your fingertips. We ended our first day there by finding a restaurant with 100 beers on tap. Tom had his choice of good craft beers and I had a big glass of wine which I desperately needed. (I'm not the world's best shopper.)

Bartender Dave pours Tom's beer.

The next day was gloomy and rainy, we had a long wait at the border due to a manhunt, then the gray, wet drive home along the coast, and I was cranky because we were too late to go through the wine country. When we finally got back to Ensenada Tom suggested we go to Manzanilla for dinner and no way was I going to say "No" to that. It is one of Ensenada's most celebrated restaurants and the food was incredible. 

Seafood Risotto and seared Yellowtail

It's amazing how a great meal and a couple of glasses of good wine can fix a bad attitude almost immediately.

Happy again with a local white

I was not to be denied. The next day we were going to visit the wine country or else!! The Valle de Guadalupe is not at all like any of the wine regions back in California. There are a few well-established and fairly commercial wineries, but most of them are very quirky, definitely off the beaten path and they seem to require long drives along rutted, dirt (or in our case "mud") roads. Claire, whom we had met at La Taberna sportsbar, runs the garden at one of the wineries and told us about a few that are her favorites.

The first stop was at Tres Mujeres winery, run by, you guessed it, Three Women. It was very odd to drive up into a small farm with nobody around and just a sweet doggie and a sign that says "Ring the bell". Uh, OK.



Ring the bell

Maria poured our wine

A few moments later a warm and friendly woman named Maria appeared and coaxed us into the cellar. She told us all about the winery, that everything was done by hand, the grapes never touch metal, the wines are aged in barrels and everything is organic. Maria didn't speak English and my telenovela Spanish came in very handy.

Tres Mujeres

Tom even sweet-talked Maria out of some of her homemade oatmeal raisin cookies.

The next winery was just up the road. El Mogor has been growing wine grapes since the 1940s but have only been making their own wine since the 1990s. It's great that the wineries decided to start making their own wines instead of just selling grapes because some terrific wine is coming out of this region. Upon arriving at El Mogor we went to their farmer's market where they sell produce from their organic garden, plus preserves, olives, salsas and sauces all made on site by the family. We purchased some fresh cheese and olive bread for later.

Tom makes some friends

After Tom communed with the fauna we headed back up to the wine cellars where we would enjoy a new varietal I had never heard of. They are the only ones in the valley who grow the Swiss Chasselas grape (the owners are Swiss and French) which makes a light and dry but fragrant white wine, absolutely perfect with the local oysters and ceviche.

There was a group of four young people with us during the wine tasting who were having a great time. Since I am a shameless eavesdropper I overheard one of the guys asking about making a future reservation for a large group under "Life & Food". That really perked my ears up because ever since we got to Ensenada Tom wanted to know how I knew about all about the best places to eat. Well theirs is one of the blogs I had been reading! So I sidled up to the guy Antonio and sure enough he and his wife Kristin are the blog authors. They couldn't have been nicer and I was able to thank them for all their helpful articles and blog posts.

Our wine hostess herded us down into the cava to taste their most famous red, an excellent Bordeaux-style blend.

My sister would love this!

No, we didn't spit the good stuff!

We had only visited two wineries and it was already mid-afternoon! We really wanted to see Claire's farm and the stunning La Villa del Valle B&B and its famous restaurant Corazon de Tierra. We were warned it was several miles along a dirt/mud road but we got into our tiny rental car anyway and headed into the hills. There were twists and turns and side-roads and we would surely have gotten lost if they didn't have a sign at every opportunity pointing us in the right direction. We finally arrived at La Villa de Valle, surrounded by the lavender bushes for which they are famous.

B&B and Lavender

Corazon de Tierra restaurant sits on the other side of the garden from the B&B and is constructed completely of recycled materials such as old railroad bridges, quail coveys, random containers, etc.



View of the restaurant across the garden

The winery is also constructed of recycled materials including upside-down sardine boats. It is all very funky but it works.

Recycled boats, bottles and wood.

We ended our day with yet another LOOOOOONG drive along a dirt and mud road, this time to the alleged best pizza in Ensenada at Ochento's Pizzarustica in the small town of San Antonio de las Minas.



Signs everywhere or we would still be out there looking for it

Once again all I can say is thank goodness for all those handmade road signs or we never would have found the place at the end of the road and perched high upon a hillside overlooking the Valle. Even though Ochento's seemed far off the beaten path to us, it was bustling and packed with large, noisy parties celebrating birthdays and other occasions. The pizza was as delicious as promised and so tasty that Tom didn't even complain (too loudly) when they told us they don't serve beer.

We had purchased a bottle of Bon Voyage wine for our friends on Windjammer but they had left before we were able to give it to them. As bad luck would have it, they had to return to Ensenada to fix an engine problem, so they would be stuck in Ensenada for another day and night while they sorted things out. At least we were able to show up with our wine and beer for an impromptu happy hour.

These guys really know how to roll with the punches

 

More pictures of the past week plus some random favorite restaurant shots can be found HERE.  

 

We managed to barely survive Carnaval and I'll post some pictures about that later. The next few days will be full of final boat projects as we prepare to splash Cinnabar and head south for warmer weather. Can't wait!