Sunday, November 8, 2009
Russ and Clark were up early and continuing to try and track down the reason for an energy leak. Russ had been puzzling over it for a couple of days. We were losing 6 amps an hour to something and it wasn’t our refrigerators or freezer causing the draw. They finally discovered that the generator was the culprit, and came up with a solution to fix the problem.
We fueled up taking in 131 gallons of diesel, said our goodbyes on the radio to the Baja Ha Ha fleet, and headed north about 10:00 a.m. Clark threw in a hand line with our pink lure no success. After a couple of hours, he changed it to a green and yellow lure and within a few minutes, a fish hit the line. I hauled it in easily so we knew it wouldn’t be big. It was a beautiful yellow green fish with blue dots. We really need a fish identifier and are guessing that it was a small Dorado. The fish weighed in at 7 lbs and after filleting, we got enough meat for dinner. Russ and I cleaned and filleted the fish ourselves with Clark’s verbal instructions. We had watched him do it twice and explain it. I think we did a pretty good job. Russ took care of the gutting and gross filleting. I took it into the galley for the final de-boning and finish work. I don’t like the fish eyes staring at me!
After provisioning, the frig and freezer are pretty full so we will need to hold off for a bit before doing more fishing. We arrived at Frailles (The Friars) bay around 5:00 p.m., anchored, had cocktails, and ate dinner. There were probably 15 or more Baja Ha Ha cruisers in the Bay with us. By 6:30 p.m. it was pitch dark. Our anchor light didn’t want to go on….another puzzle to work on. We hung a hand-crank lantern off our boom. We were all yawning and ready for bed, but it was only 6:45. We drug out the dominoes and played three rounds of Mexican train before finally calling it a night and dragging ourselves to bed a 9:00 p.m. It’s a hard life!
Monday, November 9, 2009
We left Frailles about 8:15 in the morning and motored into a northerly headwind . I forgot to turn on our Spot tracker for several miles, but finally remembered. Our track will have a pretty big gap in it, but we are on the move again today to Ensenada de Los Muertos (Cove of the Dead). Now that’s a happy name! Muertos is reportedly smaller than the bay we were in last night. We hope we left early enough to get there while there is still some space.
I was at the helm about 10:00 a.m. when I saw a huge “fish” swim under the boat, maybe 10 feet long. Turned out not to be a fish but a bottle nose dolphin. Within in minutes we were pushing several of these huge dolphins through the water on our bow wake. What a thrill.
By 3:30 in the afternoon we reached Muertos. The bay was larger than we anticipated and there was plenty of room to drop the hook, Several other Ha Ha boats were in the bay with us heading up to LaPaz. Russ and I went ashore in the dinghy and took a look around while Clark and Nina siested on the boat. As we had approached the bay we could see a planned community development on the eastern shore and a golf course that had been built in a valley. There was a lovely restaurant, bar and sales office for The Bay of Dreams. Guess Bay of Dreams has more appeal than Bay of the Dead.
We took some pictures and had an ice cold beer in the open air restaurant before going back out to the boat. After the sun went down we could hear fishing jumping and slapping against the water. We brought out a large flash light and shone it in the water hoping to attract the fish to the light. Soon krill and little shrimp were circling in the light, followed by fry (small silver fish). Just beyond the light we could see larger fish about 12-18 inches circling, but staying out of the light. We didn’t want to move the light we had to a different location because we now had quite an illuminated gathering of small fish.
Russ pulled out this incredibly strong spotlight that we plugged into the battery and cast its light on the perimeter waters of the boat. The beam from this light reflected off the larger fishes retinas. While we still couldn’t see the fish, the water all around the boat was filled with hundreds of red eyes. The water was teaming with fish that now looked like scarlet fireflies flitting through the black sea. It was spectacular and gave a new meaning to the red eye special.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
We weighed anchor at 8:30 Tuesday morning and continued our trip northward towards La Paz. La Paz is situated in a bay that has a long north south peninsula, requiring cruisers to change their course nearly 180degrees on approach. Before the course change however, we had to head directly into the wind and current through the straight between Baja and the Isla Cerralvo, with a small to moderate north sea swell, unfortunately just enough to make it uncomfortable for Nina who is prone to seasickness. Our plan was to head around the corner of Punta Coyote in the Canal de San Lorenzo going to LaPaz and tuck in for the night in a place called Peurto Ballandra in Bahia de La Paz, jumping off the following morning for the islands north east of La Paz, Isla Espiritu Santo and IslaPartida.
We cast out our fishing line, but apparently weren’t attentive enough. Within the hour we checked and checked again, something had grabbed the hook and snapped the line. We lost our hooch, the teaser, and the clip that connects the leader to the teaser.. No fish tonight or until we get to La Paz where we can get some more fishing supplies. The islands we are going to are off limits to fishing anyway.
Ballandra Bay had some rocky reefs which were havens for fish, fishing birds, and snorkelers. We anchored about 2:30 p.m. Moondance, another Baja Ha Ha boat was also anchored in this bay. Russ and I took a little ride around the bay taking photos of Mushroom rock and some of the birds. It was an early night to bed.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Before weighing anchor on Wednesday morning. Russ and I got in the dinghy and motored over to a buoy marking the edge of the reef and tied up. We jumped over board with snorkel gear on and enjoyed 45 minutes of snorkeling. The water clarity wasn’t terrific because of the winds we had had the day before, but we saw at least a dozen different types of brightly color reef fish, only a few of which we could positively identify…parrots, tangs, shrimp, urchins. We’ll have to get a reef fish identifier as well.
We returned to Worrall Wind, took a fresh water shower, and pulled up the anchor about 10:00 a.m. We only had about 12 miles to get from Ballandra to the bay between Espiritu and Partida where we planned to anchor and spend several days relaxing. The bay is in an ancient sunken caldera. The cliffs of Espiritu are beautiful, etched by wind and water.
The sea was relatively flat and the winds calm so it made for an easy motor.
Worrall Wind joined two other sailboats anchored in Caleta Partida, the Julia Morgan being one of the Baja Ha Ha fleet. The cove is very well protected. The winds shift from the western entrance of the caleta (cove) to the eastern entrance to the caleta. Consequently the boat swings back and forth with the sun shining on different parts of the boat during the swing. We attached all of the sun screens to our bimini in the back. We are now calling this our lido deck or the veranda. The screens block enough of the sunlight from any direction and still allows a fresh breeze to blow through. It is my new office.
The western entrance of Caleta Partida is about ½ mile wide into the ancient caldera. On the eastern shore there is a white sandy beach that opens out to the Sea of Cortez and only a small water way that runs between the two islands of Espiritu and Partida. The waterway cannot be seen from a distance and is too shallow for anything other than a dinghy or a panga. The cove is home to many types of birds.
We discovered a reef off a point that we plan to explore with snorkels tomorrow. After lunch on the lido deck, we all took a swim. Our rubber ducky indicated that the water temperature around the boat was 85 degrees, not much different than the ambient air temperature.
After our swim, Russ and I took the dinghy out to explore once again. The water clarity degraded the closer we got to shore and what looked like light aqua water near the beach. There was so much fine sand silt in the water, that the aqua really looked more like the milky waters of glacier snowmelt. The incoming tide was bubbling up with each little wave that inched its way on shore. Little sand crabs scrabbled about and hid as we cam , leaving only their holes and little balls of sand.
We beached the dinghy and took a short little walk up a little canyon that had its own little micro-environment with a salt-flat delta and enough unseen water to spring forth wild flowers and lush vegetation. The shore line was filled with pelicans, herons, frigates, buzzards, and we heard and saw at least one osprey. Occasionally a seal head would pop out of the water, and the shore line was constantly being bombarded by the ungraceful cannon ball dives of the pelicans.
By night fall, two other boats had joined us in the anchorage, a large private fishing rig and a trimaran also on the Baja Ha Ha had anchored. On the lido deck, we finished up our dominoes game, Clark winning by a landslide and played Boggle for a while The night sky was spectacular, filled with stars and a very visible milky way. The wind was negligible. Russ had installed a fan in our stateroom during the afternoon, so we could at least have some air movement during the night. It worked well and we slept great.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Clark and Nina, who are usually the beneficiaries of the forward hatch wind scoop, didn’t experience much air movement and were not as comfortable as usual. That will be Russ’s project for today, is installing some lower saloon fans.
As Clark was preparing salmon and spinach omelets for breakfast, a Mexican fisherman in a panga came alongside our boat. We thought he wanted to sell us some fish. It turned out the rudder handle to his big outboard had snapped off and he couldn’t maneuver his panga. He was from LaPaz about 20 miles away. Russ made a ski patrol type of a splint out of some wood stripping we had on board. By placing the wide wood strips on either side of the broken rudder arm, and fastening with some industrial tape wrapped around it like a gauze bandage, the fisherman had at least an operable boat. He thanked us and was on his way.
When the morning winds subsided and the sea was flattening, Clark and Nina took the dinghy for a ride and to investigate some of the places we had told them about from our little expedition the day before. Around noon, the caleta was like a flat pond. Russ and I took the dinghy out of the caleta toward a reef on the northwest corner of the cove’s opening. Russ tied the dinghy to his dive belt so that we could snorkel around the reef and have the inflatable close at hand. We put up the dive flag and jumped in with our snorkel gear. He water clarity was far better out at the reef than in the caleta. We saw thousands of sargeant-majors, grey fish with a yellow topsides and grey black horizonatl stripes running down their sides from the spine to its belly, blue tang, puffer fish, some large clam shells and a few coral heads. We spent nearly two hours exploring.
By the time we returned to the boat it was 3:00 p.m. and a slight southwesterly wind was starting to blow, rippling the water ever so slightly. Our cove was beginning to fill with sailboats. This anchorage is supposed to be the most protected and there was a report this morning that the winds were going to build through the night. Indeed, they did. When we retired for the night, the winds were blowing about 15 knots and the boat was directly into the wind, bucking up and down on the anchor chain. We had our bow poked out a little too far, but our anchor was dug in, so we stayed put. It was a fairly rocking horse night. With the wind waves directly on our bow, the flopper stopper, which is intended for swells on the beam would have been useless. The good new was our wind generator was happily spinning producing amps.
Friday, November 13, 2009
The anchor alarm didn’t go off at all during the night. We held fast, but it was a restless night for everyone. A power boat had pulled in late and anchored right in front of us. We were pretty confident about our anchor, but could only hope that the big power boat was well anchored as well and would not drag back and hit us. As it turned out, all went well, but in the dark of a windy night, you just never know.
By the time we awoke, the wind was still blowing about 14 knots and there were white caps. It would be a good day to do some laundry and hang it out to dry. Fortunately, we are in our bathing suits most of the time, so the clothes I had to wash were few. Nevertheless, I pulled out the buckets and strung clothes line this way and that across the lido deck. The fresh smell of drying laundry is wafting in the wind as I catchup on this log. It is now about 10:00 a,m. in the morning and the wind is starting to subside a little,
Russ and Clark just assembled the porta bote, made a sling, and dropped it into the water. Both dinghies are floating behind Worrall Wind. We look like a two “car” family. Russ is looking forward to rowing the porta bote and getting some exercise. The inflatable is not a good rowing boat. Clark and Nina went out to the reef in the early afternoon to do some snorkeling.
Both Russ and Clark took the porte bote out for a row. Later Russ and I took the porte bote down the east coast of Partida about 2 miles to the caves. We were able to get the bote to plane and skim along really well. The water was really dark and a little choppy so we couldn’t read the bottom well enough to venture too close to the caves. It was a nice ride and the scenery on the east side is quite different as it is the the volcanic side that has lifted and created some dramatic cliffs. We are really enjoying the geology of the area.
We noticed that one of the sailboats in Caleta Partida had a Seven Seas Sailing Association Commodore flag flying. Russ and I went over to introduce ourselves. We belong to Seven Seas as associate members. Someday we hope to apply for commodore status which has a requirement of 1 year live aboard and 1000 miles of cruising. The boat was Jacaranda with Chuck and Linda. They are well acquainted with Dave and Marcia on Juniata and claim that Dave gives the best haircuts in the Sea of Cortez. Both were very helpful in sharing local knowledge, helping us identify fish, providing us with single side band and HAM nets and weather forecast information, and recounting what they observed regarding pelican behavior. Ever since we snagged a pelican in our rigging on our first trip up the coast of California in Worrall Wind, I’ve been very interested in these birds and am always delighted to hear about them from people who have observed their behaviors.
What’s a net?
A controlled net is a schedule time on a specific frequency on the radio, where a volunteer net controller (moderator) opens the frequency for boats to check in, give their locations, provide local weather, report medical and other emergencies, listen to the weather forecast so cruisers can plan their routes, share incidents and stories, hail other boats, etc. It usually lasts about ½ hour or more depending on questions and the number of boats checking in. Marcia on Juniata is one of the controllers for the Sonrisa Net. Since Marcia is back in the states, we have not heard her yet. It’s been educational listening to the net and we look forward to it each morning. We understand from today’s weather forecast that there are going to be some strong northerly winds beginning to blow on Saturday afternoon and continuing through Monday night.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
On the net this morning, cruisers have been advised to get where they want to go or hunker down for a couple of days of strong north winds. Caleta Partida’s northern rim is a tall mountain. We think we will be protected well enough from the northerlies where we are. Our anchor has been holding well and we are all looking forward to staying put for a few days. Other boats in the anchorage, particularly those with children, are packing up and heading out, probably back to La Paz to a marina where the kids can get off the boat a bit more. By noon, there are only a few other boats in the anchorage and the wind shifts from the west and southwest to the north. It’s still pretty mild.
We are little anxious not knowing what to expect. We take down the forward and aft sun screens so that when the boat is into the wind it can blow right over the top of the boat and through the back deck. Russ takes advantage of the mild winds to climb the mast and pull down the problematic anchor light to see if he can fix it. I spend the time doing some bird watching. The pelicans, frigate birds, and seagulls make for amusing entertainment. We have also seen in this cove a sea turtle (Nina) and a baby seal.
Russ and Clark play with the anchor light quite awhile. It is a multi function light with starboard and port running lights as well as a strobe. Parts of it seem to work and other parts don’t. Long story short, we probably will need to buy another unit. We just had this one installed in August when we had the running rigging replaced. Aggravating.
Russ plans to get in the water before it gets too choppy and try out the hooka (no, not the one with the long pipe!), but it is an assisted snorkel unit that generates compressed air. With this unit, we can dive under the boat and clean the bottom without having to surface for air every minute. Russ opens the hooka bag and discovers that while the unit looked fine from the top down, one of the casted feet had broken off on the underside. We don’t know whether it was like this when we bought it or whether it bumped on something during the rough passage down the coast. It’s the first time we had taken it completely out of the bag. Anyway, Russ thinks he can mend it with some liquid weld material, but it will take time to dry, so that eliminates using the hooka today or for the next couple of days.
Clark pulled out the Yamaha keyboard that I have had stored in the V-berth and is going to show me how to hook it up to the Mac so that we can compose music and record tracks on the Mac’s Garage Band Application. We are having a lot of fun playing with all the toys while we are at anchor. By the time the sun goes down, the wind is consistently blowing from the north 14-16 knots with gusts ups to 22 or 23. Fortunately the mountain is slowing some of the wind down and we are close enough in that not too much fetch (wind swell) is building. Several boats have come into the cove to anchor. One of them is AllyMar, another Baja Ha Ha boat. Ken is from the Pacific Northwest and is friends with Clark and Nina. Clark and Nina buzz over to visit, but Ken is not feeling well and in his bunk. He thinks he got some bad food in La Paz.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
The wind gusted hard last night in between relatively quieter times. We could hear the chain pulling, but the anchor alarm remained quiet, and we stayed tethered at the end of the chain. When we would reach the end of the chain, the wind would catch our high freeboard and swing us broadside. Then when the wind back down and the chain slackened we would swing back to facing the wind. It is a bit dizzying to look out the windows or up at the stars when the boat is swinging back and forth.
We spent the day napping, reading, listening to the Ipod, playing with Garage Band, practicing the keyboard, and playing dominoes.
Early afternoon, Russ got restless and wanted to go hiking up the little canyon where we had seen all of the vegetation, but no real trail. I took a look out the port at the white caps and declined a ride to shore. Even in calmer seas, the passenger seat can be a wet one. We attached “Little John” our small Johnson outboard to the inflatable. With our handheld radio unit, camera, and hiking shoes in hand, Russ set out for a hike. I followed his progress as he got close to shore and noticed that he was getting out of the boat in the shallowing area and walking it into shore from quite a distance out. It wasn’t long before he got on the radio and\told us that Little John’s propeller hit a rock and sheered off. He was going to go for his hike, but he might need some assistance returning to the boat.
Fortunately, a couple of the Baja Ha Ha boats heard the radio transmission and offered to give him a tow back once he was in deep enough water. I was glad not to have to go after him the porta boat. Ken from AllyMar, went to his rescue later in the afternoon and towed Russ back,just about tea time. We had peppermint tea and gingersnaps, good for any and all stomach ailments.
We spent the evening playing dominoes. The table had turned, and I was the lucky player.
Monday, November 16, 2009
The wind howled again off and on all night long. When we awoke on Monday, the temperature was about 75 degrees and there were dark clouds in the sky which the sun played peek-a-boo with. It was instructive to see how our solar panels reacted to clouds. While they still produced some amps, their productivity dropped from about 14 amps per hour to 4 amps when the clouds passed in front of the sun. Our wind generator on the other hand has really be closing the energy gap, particularly at night. With all of our energy generators, we have been able to make water, keep two refrigerators and freezer operable, computers, keyboards, stereo, gps, use the fans and whatever else we have needed. We have only had to turn on the motor and generator a few times when we have wanted to make a lot of water. One of the side benefits to turning on the motor, is hot water for showers.
Today will probably be a lot like yesterday. By tomorrow afternoon, according to the weather forcast on the net, the wind will die down. We are thinking we will leave Caleta Partida late Tuesday morning and take advantage of some moderate wind going to La Paz. Should be a good beam reach. It’s time for Clark and Nina to start making transportation arrangements back to the states and for us to do some grocery shopping, garbage dumping, and laundry..
Ken, Dean (Ken’s friend), and Russ are going ashore in Ken’s dinghy this time. Hopefully, nothing will happen to Ken’s engine. The other Baja Ha Ha boats have left, so we will be the rescue crew this time around……The guys returned safe and sound after spending the afternoon boulder hopping. They got some good photos from the ridge. Ken and Dean joined us later in the afternoon for cocktails and very hearty hors d’ouerves which served as dinner too. After another game of dominoes, we all turned in and had a fairly peaceful night as the wind died down.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
We awoke to clear sky, and a calm water. After breakfast, we weighed anchor and left Caleta Partida at 9:15, arriving in La Paz about 1:00 p.m. where we checked into the Costa Baja Marina Resort. It’s a lovely facility that has just being built and is still under construction. We will be staying here for a week or more. Looks like this might be where we celebrate Thanksgiving. We have access to a beautiful beach, swimming pool, tennis courts, exercise room, and sauna. The temperature is about 78 degrees. It is very pleasant.. Clark and Nina made arrangements to fly home on Saturday. Tomorrow the four of us will go into town and do some exploration. I am posting these blogs without photos and hope to add some color to them now that we have access to a fast Internet. We'll be checking our email accounts, so we would love to hear from you. Let us know what's been going on.
Galetea pulling in next to Juniata.
Good time, Good food, Good friends. Too bad the local team lost!
We watched the staff decorate for Christmas with fascination as they teetered on wobbly tables, definitely not OSHA approved. 
