We had to wait for the “Northers” to back off – that was the reason for the 2-day delay. And the 2½ hr delay was putting the car and RV to rest for the next 6 months. Catharine also had to go back to the Police Station at 9 am to get a copy of the report of the theft from our car.  When she got there they said it wouldn’t be ready ‘till 3 or 4 pm.  Welcome to Mexico time.  We’ll get the report in March.

We motored for the first 2 hrs out of the marina, after 3 days of 25n+ “Northers” it was a fairly confused sea with no wind. About 2 pm the wind started to fill and we made sail. By 8:30 we where down to 2 reefs in the main and still doing 6-8kn on a broad reach across the Sea of Cortez to San Juanico. Catharine took the first watch from 8 pm to midnight. By change of watch, Cath had furled in the entire jib and it was main only. We were still going too fast and would arrive at about 4:00 am according to the GPS. The Baja coast is not a place to make landfall at night. As mentioned before, the charts are all about 0.5 to 1.5 miles off. (What can you expect, since the survey was done in 1881?)

We did get to the entrance to San Juanico at 4:30 am and “hove to” (a way of making the boat stop in the water and just sit there and bob!) for 2 hrs. As the sun started to brighten the eastern sky we turned back and an hour later we anchored with 3 other yachts in what is described by many as their favorite anchorage in the Baja.  We stayed here for 2 nights sitting in 20-25 kns winds as another “norther” blew through. The wind was perfect for our wind generator, unfortunately one minute it was putting out 5 amps, the next it was roaring at us. From the noise, Mike knew the power being generated was not going anywhere. A check on the Link 10 (a meter/computer that keeps track of all our power use and replacement) showed we were only getting 3 amps per hour from the solar panel and nothing from the wind generator.  Sounds a bit complicated, however, we like ice in our Gin and Tonics so a freezer is a necessity as we are usually too far from port to be able to buy ice. Our freezer consumes about 70 amps a day. Add to that light, radio use, etc. and we typically need to replace about 80-100 amps each day. Running a diesel engine to top up batteries is very inefficient, even with an oversized alternator, so we use solar panels and wind generation to replace that power. 

Day one in San Juanico was spent catching up on lost sleep from the overnight passage; day two was spent repairing a melted fuse holder half way up the wind generator support and finally entertaining Bill and Dianne of True Love (a beautiful steel 53 foot cutter built in Sydney BC, by Windline Yachts.) We’re still drooling from our visit to their boat back in San Carlos. We also took time to put a kayak in the water and get Rosie ashore for a stick throw and swim.

The HF radio is our source for weather info down in Mexico; there are a bunch of dedicated land-based Hams who provide a great service to all boaters down here. Similar weather is given on the VHF by the Mexican Port Captains (no Coast Guard) but it is in Spanish so fast we cannot understand. The forecast from our weather gurus was for the Northers to abate the next day, and they did. Unfortunately it takes about 10-12 hrs for the sea state to subside so we sailed slowly in light winds with big ugly waves from our stern. Half way through the day the swell dropped, the wind got a bit stronger and we managed to fly our gorgeous new Gennaker. It did exactly what we wanted it to do - drove us along when all other sails would just be hanging or slating back and forth in the swells. As one of our goals was to motor less this year (fuel’s expensive and the engine is hot and noisy), the Gennaker was part of the plan. With only two people aboard, it’s easier to fly than a spinnaker, and because of this we will be tempted to use it more often. So far we have flown it twice in conditions that would have had us motoring for 8-10hrs a day.  Plus it looks great with our dragon logo stitched on.

We spent a night in Honeymoon Cove on Isla Danzante – great name, means Dancer Island – about 10 miles south of Loreto.  Then we sailed the 20 miles to Agua Verde – the water really is green here! – where we spent two nights with 3 other boats.  Again we were all waiting for another “Norther” to blow itself out. (If it sounds like these “Northers” are a pain in the derrière, they are. But they are an early winter occurrence that diminishes the further south you get. Once past Puerto Vallarta they don’t affect you much.)

We got thinking about what people might like to hear about in this website. Our travels are pretty exciting to us, but then we are here experiencing them. One frequently asked question is what do we do all day. We are actually busy from morning ‘till night.  One reason is that everything takes much longer to do on a cruising boat.  Another is that if you don’t fix or maintain at least 3 things daily, you are falling behind. Today was a perfect example of a fairly normal day at the office for us. Hope it doesn’t bore you - it wore us out!!!!

7:30 am – breakfast (scrambled eggs, beans, tortillas, fresh papaya), dishes

8:30 – listen to ham nets for weather, news and whereabouts of cruiser friends.

9:00 – email (wonderful to be connected from the boat!)

9:15  - boat chores – M: remove and replace water maker filters, mix up a batch of

alkaline cleaner for membrane cleaning, run cleaner for 1.5hrs, flush system. Set

flopper stopper anti roll device, polish 4 winches; C: make sticky buns, hand

wash/rinse/hang one load of laundry (6 buckets of water), polish some stainless,

clean head. Run water maker.

2:30 pm – depart for shore with neighboring cruisers; walk around village, visit locals, check our livestock (pigs. Goats, horses, cows) in town, shop at local tienda and tortilleria.

4:30 pm – return to boat (just about dump dinghy getting through high surf)

5:00 pm – swim (water 80 F – lovely!)

5:30 pm – shower, remove laundry from lifelines

6:00 pm – sundowners, visit from another neighboring cruiser

6:30 pm – supper (carne asada, rice, tortillas, salsa)

7:00 pm – evening SSB net for weather, plus contact with cruiser friends

7:45 pm – dishes, update log book, write log for website

9:30 pm – read, ZZZZ

We departed Agua Verde for the trek to La Paz.  En route, we enjoyed one of our favorite anchorages, The Hook at Isla San Francisco.  Then we moved down to La Paz for a weekend of refueling and getting propane. We got there on Friday night. Saturday early Mike haggled with a cab and went out to the Caligas plant about 16km out of La Paz. The propane cost $5.30, the cab cost $20!!!  We went into town in the afternoon to a cruisers swap meet, and sold about $45 of stuff that was just taking up space. It’s a good job we did sell that stuff, as when we went to the bank to get some cash we discovered we were overdrawn!! Two deposits that should have gone in a month before didn’t!! Just one of the joys of cruising. It’s almost impossible to keep as good a track on your finances as you would like. In a comedy of errors, it took over two weeks to get it all sorted out, so we lived off our VISA for a while! Early Monday Catharine took a last quick trip to our favorite tortilleria, only to find that it had stopped operations.  Too bad, these were without a doubt the best we have tasted in all Mexico. So we had to make do with bread from the French Bakery – oh, well!

So, we did leave La Paz for Tenacatita en route to Zihuatanejo, it was without a doubt the worst weather/sailing we have had in the trip to date. First we had to get out of the Cerralvo Channel, notorious for strong winds and current. Of course we had them both against us and ended up anchoring for the night behind a small sand spit, a rough rolly night. The forecast for the next few days was for Northerly winds, perfect for the passage south. What the weather men did not see was a “pineapple express” sucked across from Hawaii, giving the whole southern Sea of Cortez southeast winds, exactly where we wanted to go. We battled them for 2 days and then got the Norther we were supposed to get -except it didn’t blow 10-15kns, it blew 25-30 for 1 ½ days and then 1 day of 35-45kts with gusts to 50!   We also had a night of electrical storms, and spent scary time watching bolts of lightening hit the water all around us.  By the time we got to Ipala about 330 from La Paz we were exhausted and just a little salty. But as usual, the next morning was perfect. We spent the day at anchor in Ipala, inflated the kayaks, took Rosie for a beach walk and swim and sat in a palapa, enjoying beer and oysters and looked at our boat rocking gently in the bay. All the bad stuff was just about forgotten. Two nights in Ipala fortified us, so we departed early and sailed south with a north wind, for about an hour!! Then a south wind came along, this grew through the day and ended up blowing from the SE -again exactly where we wanted to go. This time however, it was hot and humid; the humidity rose to 90 % and by the time we got to Chamela, everything including us was dripping wet. We anchored in the dark (by radar) behind some islands we had visited before hosed ourselves off and found that our Vee berth was actually still quite a bit cooler than the rest of the boat. After a reasonable night sleep we moved just 6 miles south to a tiny bay we had not visited before called Paraiso. What a paradise, after the desert landscape of the Sea of Cortez, this was positively tropical. Swaying palms, white sand beaches and thick tropical growth covering the hillside.

It was here we met another interesting couple on a sailboat called Alaskason. It is a 38’ boat that Christopher and Dawn have owned for 20 years. What a life the boat has had. Chris used it to commercially fish for halibut in Alaska. What is now their main cabin was the fish hold. He has fished as far away as Russia in the boat in all kinds of winter weather. He’s re-rigged and moved the mast 3 times to get it to sail the way he likes. Now it’s a gentler life, after leaving Alaska 3 years ago they have just made it to Mexico. We stayed in Paraiso for a couple of nights before moving down about 25 mls to one of last year’s favorite places, Tenacatita. Last year there were as many as 70 boats in the bay, and while it’s early yet, there were still about 15-20 boats.  We had the opportunity to show off the bay’s attractions to several newcomers.  We did the “Jungle Tour” actually its about a 3 ½ mile dinghy trip thru the mangroves to the next bay for palapa lunch and great snorkeling at “The Aquarium”. We also journeyed over to La Manzanilla (4 miles across the bay) for shopping and a trip by bus to Melaque for 5 bags of the worlds best “totopas” (tortilla chips) made from corn but cooked in chili oil. Muy bueno!!

We had our biggest adventure of the year in Tenacatita.  One day Mike went to the back of the cockpit to use the outboard engine hoist and got a big surprise.  Lying right at the backstay curled up like a big “cow patty” was something big and brown. Closer inspection revealed a big snake!! It was quite a shock, and our reaction was to try and get it off the boat. We tried to see where its head was but it was buried in the coils of snake. Cath grabbed the boat hook and Mike tried to pry it loose from the backstay. It wasn’t an easy task, as the snake was about 2-1/2” to 3” in diameter and about 4-1/2’ long. As soon as Mike hooked the boat hook around the fattest part of the snake, the head appeared and proceeded to try and get to our end of the boat hook. He had to put it back down again to get a better purchase, and the snake coiled up again.  The second attempt at separating the snake from the boat was more successful. Mike managed to lift it clear of everything (while Cath tried to get a good photo) and launch it into the sea.  At first it just sort of sank in the crystal clear water. It went down about 3’ and then started to swim to the surface. As soon as it got its head out of the water it made a b-line for the dinghy and started to climb into it. Mike jumped down into the dinghy and tried to keep it out, but it managed to get into the dinghy, so Mike wasn’t sure if he should just get back on Breila.  Finally he managed to lift the snake clear of the dinghy and popped it back in the water. This time he came straight back to the surface and tried to climb the dinghy again and then the boarding ladder. We kept trying to sweep it away with the boat hook and finally it made its way forward to the anchor chain. Mike was just about to rush back on deck to start fighting it off the bow, when the snake made 2 or 3 attempts at climbing the hull before giving up and heading to the shore about 300 yds away.

Gene, the skipper of the boat next to us, was in his dinghy.  We called across to him and he saw the snake heading his way. We jumped in our dinghy and went over for another look. The snake finally made it to shore after several rest stops when it coiled up and just lay in the water. We all wanted to ensure that the snake had made it to shore, and wouldn’t come back on any of the boats in the bay! A quick look at our book of marine life told us it wasn’t a sea snake. To us it had the shape and look of a constrictor, but we still don’t know what it was or how it got on the boat. It wasn’t there the night before. Our only thought is that it got into our dinghy when we pulled it ashore at the end of the “jungle tour” and either got under the dinghy floor or behind the bow bag. It probably got tired of being beaten to death under the floor or up forward as we crossed the surf each day and came up the dinghy painter during the night. It’s a good thing Rosie sleeps down below. She may have been a bit big for that particular snake, but the snake wouldn’t have known that until Rosie was well and truly squeezed. In hindsight we are lucky that the snake didn’t make it any deeper into the boat – it stayed outside – as we would never have found it until too late had it hidden below!! If anyone recognizes the curly critter, please drop us an email.

We stayed a week in Tenacatita and moved on to Manzanillo for about 4 days, fuelling up with the cheapest diesel we have found so far (48.6 cents per liter). Then we headed southeast for the last part of the trip to Z/town.

And so here we are finally in Zihuatanejo, after 2 days and nights of very light air sailing and motoring we came into the bay and anchored just as a huge cruise ship arrived and disgorged its passengers onshore. We waited for the next day to do our check-in procedure (Another goal this year was to try and cut down on the time and money-sucking check-ins).  We had heard fabulous things about Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa from friends and other cruisers, and so far it is everything promised and more.  We plan to stay here for about two months, so our next log will cover all the sites and adventures of the area!

Back to you all soon!!  

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