December 22nd to January 3rd, Marina Palmira

Our time in La Paz is spent, working on the boat, reuniting with other sailing friends we haven’t seen in some time and enjoying the holidays.  We attended a great Christmas party at Steve and Anna’s and met up with some great friends and met new ones.  Thanks Steve and Anna for such a great time and Doug and Carla on S/V MoonDance it was so nice to see you and we will see you in Mazatlan!!   S/V SeaHorse with Cam and Janie had to leave the day after Christmas, we will sail with them again next fall, we will miss them!  Here are some photos of our stay in La Paz.  Once we leave here we will head across the Sea of Cortez for Mazatlan, this will be a overnight trip. 

 


Christmas Party

  

Our Tree

  

Christmas Eve

Casa Anna







December 22nd, to Ensenada Grande, Isla Espiritu Santo to La Paz, 27nm

Big waves, not much wind ended up being calmer as we got close to La Paz

The ride was not fun,  it was blowing pretty good and the waves were big right on the beam.  We had the jib up and were healed over pretty good, I hope I get use to the healing like this and learn to trust Rainshadow and knowing she is not going to tip and  If she did we would be pulled right back up because she has a nice heavy keal.  The waves calmed down the closer we got to La Paz, it got hotter outside and the wind also calmed down.  On our way in up the channel several dolphins were playing off our bow, I love to watch them.  We arrived at Marina Palmera behind the SeaHorse and each of us got a slip in nice calm waters.  Its nice to be back here, but hopefully not to long.

December 21st Isla San Francisco to Ensenada Grande, Isla Espiritu Santo,19 nm

Big waves right on the nose, wind 7-12knots, motored with the jib up.

Departed Isla San Fransico around 10am, the waves are still pretty big and bouncy here, we were hoping things would calm down, but really didn’t until we arrived.   Ensenada Grande.  We worked around the boat and enjoyed the suddenly beautiful calm tourqoise waters on this amazing sunny hot day.  Once SeaHorse arrived we all took our dink for a cocktail ride.  S/V Meridian arrived and anchored, we haven’t seen them since Algadones, Marina Real.  We talked to them for a bit then headed to the beautiful rock cliffs that look as though they have been melted on the tops and hollowed out holes everywhere.  The holes were cave like with the tops melting over them.  They are amazing to see,  it makes you wonder what happened here, maybe millions of years ago.  The scenery here is amazingly beautiful, cliffs with green catus and other tropical plants growing out of the cliffy sides, small white sand beaches lie between some of these cliffs.  The water is so pretty and you can see to the bottom as if looking through glass.  On our ride we saw fish and a baby stingray swimming right below us.  We decided to collect wood and have a campfire on the beach this night, but as Cam and Janie were collecting the wood, Brian and I held the dink in place, the waves were trying to push us up against rocks.  Once they got in and we brought the wood to the beach and unloaded it we relized it would not be safe to go back later for the fire.  The waves were large and there would be a good chance we could overturn the dink if its dark and we cant see the waves  to keep the nose of the dink into them.  The winds really picked up and again it was a sleepless night with Cormels. 

December 20th, Isla San Francisco

Another Cormel (night wind from the south)

 

We moved last night from the North side of the bay to the south side. S/V Southern Cross also moved to the otherside of the bay last night, S/V Aka and another boat were already over on the south side.  Seahorse stuck it out and didn’t move over here until later in the afternoon.  They took Southern Crosses spot as they headed to La Paz, then S/V Whirlwind came in and a boat from Moorings a rental company from La Paz.  This guy dropped his anchor right over ours, he was just yards from us.  Brian told him about the Cormels and another one was expected, he was right inline with us and if he drags he will hit us.  He pretty much ignored Brain and stayed there, didn’t even pull back on his anchor when he dropped it.  We were not to happy, we took the dink (our dinghy) to seahorse and had a few drinks, aka came over and gave all of us fresh fish they had caught that day.  The moon was amazing!!  Suppose to be a eqlipse tonight, the moon is huge you can see it as if you are looking in a telescope…beautiful.  The moorings boat moved not to much further away, but a little better, we didn’t sleep real well, the cormel wasn’t as bad as the night before but it still blew pretty good.  Earlier in the day four of our boats were all pointed with our bows in, see the picture, this is very strange as usually we are all swinging the same direction. 

December 19th, Isla San Francisco

Cormel (night wind from the south) 20+-knots of wind all night.Moved Rainshadow at 130am

Today was low key, Janie and I walked the beach and that night we all went to S/V Southern Cross for drinks and snacks.  S/V Aka arrived today and they also came over.  Nice night but wind started to pick up and it howled all night, we thought we were out to sea because we were rockin and rollin and we were anchored.  Not a lot of sleep as we kept looking outside to make sure our anchor wasn’t dragging us into the beach or rocks.  It blew so hard we finally moved RainShadow to the other side of the bay at around 130am so we could get some sleep.

December 18th, Los Gatos to Isla San Francisco, 38nm

Flat seas, not much wind, beautiful day

Nice day, flat seas, not much wind, we motored and worked around the boat as Rainshadow guided us with her autopilot. Dink ride around the northern part of the island, walked the beaches, snorkeled from the Dinghy and saw many many awesome fish. Then Sea Horse came over and we played cards and had a great night.  S/V Southern Cross arrived as did , S/V AKA

December 17h, Los Gatos

We all decided to stay another night, today Brian worked on the boat, I worked on my white elephant gift for a party we will go to in La Paz , Cam and Janie fished then the 3 of us went to the beach to explore.  The beach here is amazing lots of awesome exploring, one part of the point we found crystals stuck in the rocks, they are hugh.  All the rocks on that side look like you could just pick them up, but when you try to they are stuck, very strange. 

 Afer exploring and trying to break loose some crystals,we went back to the boat and had a early night.

December 16th, Agua Verde to Puerto Los Gatos, 18 nm, 3hrs

No wind, flat seas

Beautiful day, nice and hot and sunny, we caught our first dorado!!  And I made  bread on the way!!   S/V Southern Cross called on on the radio as they were arriving Agua Verde and we were leaving.  We met them earlier in San Juanico.  When we arrived Los Gatos no one was there, first time we came to a anchorage with no one.  We saw hundreds of pelicans fishing (diving) along the shore so we decided we should go fish too.  After a couple of runs along the beach we had several bites and caught a rooster fish, they are beautiful, with a fan/peacock fin on top.  We then went to the beach to see if we could find any lobster in the tide pools. Last time we were here we saw two that we could of grabbed, but didn’t dare do it.  Its illegal to get any type of shell fish unless you buy it and the last time a jerk sailor was here so we left the lobsters  where they were.  After exploring the beach we didn’t see any lobster this time, we continued to explore the beach then headed back to the  boat.  Seahorse arrived and Cam was fishing, then a panga guy came up, the same one that we saw here 1.5years ago.  He had lobsters, fish and placemats for sale, we bought 10 lobsters for 300 pesos (about 25 bucks).  We had lobster and fish for dinner, awesome!  

Demcember 15th, Puerto Escondido to Agua Verde, 23nm, 3hours

Winds 6-20knots coming from the South, not much sea hight, warm and sunny

 Before leaving for Agua Verde we hiked the canyon behind Puerto Escondido, it was beautiful.  Hugh bolders and steep mountain walls on both sides of us, very tropical and magical place. 

We had a nice sail to Agua Verde as we arrived and were anchoring we backed right over our handline (thats our fishing line tied to the stern of the boat)!  Brian had to get in the beautiful clear water and cut it free from our prop, took about a hour.  As he was doing this he cut his thumb very deep, thank goodness it wa

sn’t in the fold.  Some folks in another sailboat anchored on one side of us and Cam and Janie came in and anchored on the otherside.  Both boats came over for drinks (ice tea for me : ) and the people that anchored next to us) and then Cam and Janie stayed for dinner.  Early night. 

December 14th, Puerto Escondido

 

 

Woke up and felt pretty good this morning, otherthan I was sick about leaving losing my purse.  We decided to rent a car and see if we could find my purse.  We went to Augies and they said they saw me leave with it and to check the cab we took, Danny cab #20 blue and white.  They did have Brians hat and glasses that we left.  We were driving through town and spotted the cab, we pulled over and Brian went to talk to the Federali (police officer) and cab drivers standing there,  5 minutes later Danny pulled up and had my purse!! I couldn’t believe it, he said he drove to the Marina and looked for us, he was going to take us to a trailhead because we said we wanted to hike and he would return my purse.  Brian and I did see him, before we rented the car but didn’t know it was him.  We gave Danny a $55.00usd tip and thanked him, I still cant believe everything was in and that I even got it back at all!!  We used the car to get provision and went for a drive through the mountains.  We will hike tomorrow.

Decmeber 13th, Puerto Escondido

 

Today we got up and with Cam and Janie hitch hiked to Loreto.  We were picked up pretty fast by a Itailian guy that lives in LaPaz and owns a tour company that does tours of the Baja.  We walked the little shops, had a cervas at the really cool hotel there, cant remember the name.  This hotel has a pool on the roof , the lobby is below and the pool can be viewed in the ceiling, very cool place.  Hugh doors like a story book, hotel room doors are carved and made of thick dark wood all rounded on the tops,  candles line the outdoor hallways and there are small rock lined sitting areas throughout with tropical plants.  Up on the roof is where the pool, bar and resturant lined with tropical potted plants are located, beautiful view!!  We then walked to a place called Augies and proceeded to drink tequila with some young austrailian guys we met.  I told everyone as they were buying me shots, "say good night to Dot, because I dont do shots and Captian you are in charge of your first mate tonight : )", so as you might imagine after several shots of tequila and lots of hootin and howlin I left my purse somewhere and it had my cell phone, camera, Tiffs present and 600 peso in it.  A cab gave us a ride back to our marina, 14 miles away, the cost 389 peso (about 12 usd to 1 peso).  We gave Cam and Janie aride in our dink back to their boat and I lost my balance reaching for their boat and I fell in the water!  Yep, but no worries the water was nice, and I had my Captian to pull me out :  )

Lessons learned don’t drink tequila!

December 12th, Mangles to Pueto Escondido, 32miles

Calm seas, not much wind, very warm outside, flying the jib only (some of our main slids broke)

Our trip to Puerto Escondido took about 4.5 hours, it was beautiful out!! We decided to pull out the jib to try and catch some wind. The wind was only about 4-8knots most of the way with a flat sea. Brain sanded and I work on crafts while underway. We arrived at Puerto Escondido and rented a mooring ball, cost about $22.00usd a day!! The port has a laundry, small tienda, a few boat supplies, a yacht club, restaurant, small pool, and internet café. They do have a haul out here costs about 480 amonth if we decided to dry store RainShadow. Today we went to shore and checked everything out, then once Sea Horse arrived we went to shore and had a burger, about 9usd and beer was around 3, very expensive for mexico. We then went back to the boat and had a early night.

December 11th San Juanico to Mangles, 8nm,

calm seas winds 8-12knots, anchored in N cove at 15 feet of water, rolly anchorage

 

 

 We fished this San Juanico morning before heading to Mangles and still caught nothing. We did have these small 12 -20inch fast sleek black fish striking and we could not catch them, but it was fun trying!! You could see them coming, they would dance across the water and strick but we couldn’t hook them,as if they were watching us as they were teasing us! We saw a sea turtle and lots of fish along the banks through the clear water, no need to snorkel it was like a clear window in areas, very cool fish, big dark blue angle type fish, small bright yellow and black striped fish, long light silver needle fish. Little marble like bright blue fish and lots of other small fish. We left San Juanico about 12noon and headed the 8nm miles to Mangles, we pull our jib out no main, we need to repair it at La Paz. We were the only boat until Seahorse arrived. It was now blowing about 15-20+knots. We are anchored in about 15 feet of water, its a rolling anchorage here not a lot of protection really. We went to shore and explored the ruins of a resort, someone started to build and never finished, its crumbling away. This is the beach we found crystal type rocks on when we were here in 2009. The rocks are amazing on this beach, agates everywhere. We went to our boat and Brian made a awesome Chicken Divan Dinner!!!  Cam and Janie came for dinner and Cam loaded a pile of great music on my computer. Sleepless night for me the boat rocked back and forth and the dink (that is hanging) outside our bedroom windows is rubbing and bumping against Rainshadow as Brian is snoring and the boat is rocking.  Yawn.........

December 10th San Juanico

Calm morning windy afternoon and calm warm beautiful evening...

Today we went fishing, didn’t catch anything, S/V Aka with Fran and Ed on it said they caught a yellow tail and showed us what they used and how they caught it. We tried no luck. We invited everyone anchored out over for drinks later, everyone came, it was a nice evening. S/V Whirlwind, Ron and Maryann, S/V Seahorse Cam and Janie, S/V Southern Cross, Jon and Vicky, S/V Aka Ed and Fran and S/V Barnicle with Bill and his uncle.  Great fun, great friends.........

December 9th, Pulpito to Caleta San Juanico, 8nm, wind 5-10knot calm seas

 

 TOP:  Punta Pulpito -------------

                                                             Caleta San Juanico

Went exploring this morning, first stop was the obsidian vain, see the black line up the hillside.  That was so cool, black glass everywhere, its beautiful.  The vain is amazing, boulder size pieces lay on the beach and various other sizes all over, the sand is magical, siver glitter type fine dust.  After collecting what we wanted we took the dink fishing had no luck, then explored a beach and found some cool shells.  We departed pulpit around noon for San Juanico.  We wouldn’t pull up our main, we noticed we had broken some of the plastic pieces that hold the main to the mast.  We arrived San Juanico and there were about 3 boats, one was S/V Baracle, with Bill aboard, the boat that was next to us on the hard and behind us on our way out of Bahia Concepcion.  We tried hailing him to let him know of the nets that were in front of us but he did not acccknowledge.  Anyway later S/V Whirlwind, with Ron and Maryann came in.  We did not visist anyone today we stayed on the boat and cleaned up and listened to our book on tape