Jacaranda Passage Note #42 (12-2010)
We Survived Summer #3 in the Sea of Cortez
La Paz, Baja Sur
It is winter here in the Sea of Cortez, bringing cooling temperatures to the Sea and friends returning to their sailboats that had been put on the hard for the summer months - and we can now say we survived another summer in the Sea - our third!!!
The excruciating heat experienced by those on the East Coast this summer - their deadly heat wave - was what was a normal part of our lifestyle here during the summer - hot Hot and HOTTER temperatures!! Plus just a few hundred miles to the north of us in San Diego they were having the coldest summer for many years. Go figure! Our strategy to try to stay cool was being in the warm waters (mostly 86 degrees) for a good part of the day - swimming or snorkeling - and showering on deck to then sit below in the cabin under an army of 12 volt fans that ran day and night. And a fresh cold limonada never tasted so good!! Our tiny 12V water-cooled fridge ran more than 14 hours a day just trying to keep up. The warmest water temp we saw this summer was 91 degrees! We always looked for anchorages that had a small piece of land as protection from the sea so as the wind blew across it, the temperature would not rise to a blow dryer inferno.
But the Sea of Cortez is the place to be if you want to stay on your boat in Mexico outside of a marina during the summer hurricane season which runs from June 1 to Nov. 1. Thats why we do it - along with 47 other boats this year - a record number!!! Last year we only had about 27 boats.
Once you learn to deal with the heat, the joys of being in the Sea of Cortez for the summer are many - camaraderie of a small group of fellow cruisers, spectacular sunsets, strikingly beautiful desert scenery along the coasts and the numerous islands, the ability to have an anchorage all to yourself if you want, beach walks, hiking and shelling, fantastic fishing with fresh fish for dinner every night (not to mention other edible delicacies from the sea), and close personal experiences with marine wildlife - dolphins, seals, and whales.
This summer was one of the mildest hurricane seasons on record - a mere seven named storms compared to an average of 17. These storms brew in the Tropical Kitchen in southern Mexico and then move north and - if we are lucky - then west. This year we were very lucky as the 7 named storms never became a threat to us by moving up into the Sea. Good thing too - the best hurricane hole to be in, affording the best protection - Puerto Don Juan near Bahia de los Angeles (BLA) - would not have been able to hold the cadre of boats up here this year....maybe 35 at the most. We never even once went into Puerto Don Juan (affectionately know as Puerto Pollo or Port Chicken) this summer. Although it is a nice enough anchorage, it has an unfortunate association with weather threats, and we were glad to have the choice to avoid it this time. There are no warnings California to Panama, Don Anderson, our weather guru forecasting from Oxnard, CA. would say on the radio, and it was music to our ears.
Some of the most memorable events this summer were social ones. We reunited with long time friends Jack and Hermy (Lindas comadre) aboard IWA who returned to Mexico after being in Ecuador for a few years. Darrel and Rita on OVERHEATED, who were preoccupied with their new condo in Mazatlan for the last couple of years, headed for the Sea once again after a hiatus. Darrel and Rita were the first cruisers we met in the Sea when we visited IWA for a week in 2000 at a time when we were only dreaming of being there ourselves on JACARANDA. It was a great threesome reunion and we spent some fun time together, especially when both boats accompanied us up to Gonzaga Bay on our way to San Felipe in late August.
And it wouldnt be the Summer in the Sea without our good buddies Sandy and John on MASQUERADE - with them, for the third year, the Sea felt like home. Linda started beading sea shells she collected with Sandy and now Sandy is doing a whole collection as Christmas ornaments for her family. Gourmet meals are the hallmark of our get togethers - boy, do we eat well!! Sandy is the sushi queen rivaling any Japanese restaurant. So heres one of our unforgettable dinners we made after a delivery from an expert free-diving friend - fresh sea scallops with vodka and creme fraiche over Jasmine rice, zucchini casserole, and Sandys homemade blueberry turnovers (which rival her cinnamon buns).
With these folks and lots of additional friends, new and old, our days were filled with fishing, beachwalking, shelling (just how many pustulatas do you need? I asked when Linda found a bonanza of these hard-to-find cowries), snorkeling, beading, and sharing stories over good food. Every evening when the sunset lit up the sky with streaks of color, Linda would blow the conch shell in salute to another beautiful day in the Sea.
The Full Moon Party held near Bahia de Los Angeles every year is the opportunity for the cruisers to gather and have yet another reason to celebrate together. Mentioned everyday on the radio net by social director Jake on JAKE, the August bash drew more than 25 boats. Covered in our last 2 summer passage notes in greater detail, its a great locale to get together, dress up in costume and float out of the lagoon when the tide changes. This year Linda did her usual outstanding job of building a costume out of aluminum foil, showing up as the Star Fish Witch (a good witch)! The evening pot luck on the beach under the rising full moon was great fun as usual except for the fact there were no musicians in the fleet this year to entertain us! But we did watch the sky in unison as the space shuttle orbited overhead!
After the full moon party we headed north to San Felipe, one of the northern most towns in the Sea of Cortez that is accessible by boat. We left the boat in a marina and hauled our anchors and 340 feet of chain to get galvanized in Mexicali, then continued onto San Diego for 10 days. The trip to SD was a whirlwind of activity with revamping the garden of our rental house, visiting with friends and family, and seeing son Joe play his music at a local venue. We were excited to be there to greet son David who returned from a year of teaching English in Seoul, South Korea. Sadly, we received the news of the death of Lindas Dad on September 5, after several years of debilitating decline. Stan passed on his love of sailing to Linda and it was a joy we were able to share together whenever he would come visit us.
Most of the anchorages we visited this year were repeats from previous years and already covered in past passage notes. Therefore, we were familiar with many of the good fishing spots and we did well this year. I had one lure that I kept count of the number of fish caught and was hoping to retire it at 100 -- but then I finally lost it when a large yellowtail took it and ran. The tally on that one lucky lure was 82 fish in 5 weeks!! And that wasnt the only lure I used during the summer but the only one on which I kept track of the catch. The yellowtail were larger than last year and just as tasty! We had a really exciting day when, leaving Puerto Refugio on Isla Angel de la Guarda, we sailed through a school of mahi mahi and had 3 double hook ups within 30 minutes!! We only kept 2 of the six since we only keep what we can eat.
Late in October we departed Bahia Concepcion and headed eastward across the Sea of Cortez to Topolobampo on mainland Mexico the place to jump off and go inland to visit Mexicos famous Copper Canyon. The trip across was uneventful except for the rather rough sea conditions that were strange - we never saw more than 7-8 knots of wind yet the sea state appeared as if it should have been blowing 25 knots. We later learned that there were major earthquakes occurring in the Sea along a fault line right underneath us during this time!! No wonder the sea was so agitated luckily there were no tsunamis! Topolobampo (Topo as the locals refer to it) is a small fishing village renown for its fresh seafood, located about 150 miles north of Mazatlan. Marina Palmira has nice new docks but is still under construction. This was a convenient spot to leave the boat in a safe place while we traveled inland by bus and train to Copper Canyon a definite must see.
Copper Canyon (Barrancas del Cobre) is Mexicos version of the Grand Canyon. Located in the state of Chihuahua, it is actually an area four times the size of the Grand Canyon and contains six canyons, several of which are deeper than the Grand Canyon. At the top, the 8000 foot elevation is cold and forested with pines yet the bottom of the canyons are hot and semitropical with orange and mango trees. We traveled by local bus and also by train. The famous El Chepe railroad is one of the most scenic railways in North America and is very exciting! Running alongside the edges of canyons, it offered fantastic views of stunning scenery.
The area is home to the isolated Tarahumara Indians and we saw many living in the area in simple log or stone houses or in caves. They call themselves Raramuri and are known for their unbelievable long-distance running ability. They hunt deer for ceremonies and run them down until the deer collapse from exhaustion! The men compete in races over 100 miles lasting 2-3 days where a small ball is knocked along using a curved stick (similar to a lacrosse stick). These races are run not on the flat but over the mountains. The women also compete in similar races but use a hoop in place of a ball. These shy people are dressed in wonderfully bright clothes and wear sandals of leather with straps around their ankles. The women and girls weave remarkable baskets out of pine needles and grasses. Everywhere the train stopped, all through the towns, and at every scenic overlook where there was likely to be a hiker or tourist, dozens of women and girls were selling their work. The prices were ridiculously cheap and yes, we came back with an arm load of the beautiful woven handicrafts.
Taking a local bus 6 hours down to the bottom of one of the canyons to the old silver mining town of Batopilas was in itself an experience..a white knuckled one! The dirt switchback road was just barely wider than the bus itself with no guard rails, drops of a thousand feet, and the bus tires within inches of the edge. And the bus driver chatting with his girlfriend who was standing in the door well next to him had the locals on the bus crossing themselves and saying prayers! Linda said she was doing fine until we had to squeeze past a cement truck that had gone off the road well, not completely, it still had two wheels on the dirt while two wheels hung in the air.
We returned to Topo after 10 days of traveling mostly with Mexican tourists. In many places we were the only people staying in the hotel and the locals told us tourism was down in that area almost 85% due to the US State Department warning for the Mexican State of Chihuahua. We never saw any indication of trouble during our whole journey although we heard the stories of marijuana growing in these remote areas and drug-related friction with federales. After all, many of the new SUVs and Ford Explorers we saw in the canyons were not purchased with basket money.
We departed Topo on November 10 and our trip westward back across the Sea to La Paz was a motor boat ride with very little wind and flat sea conditions. In fact this summer we motored more than the previous two summers combined. The generally light wind conditions this summer put many hours on our not-so-new-anymore engine.
We are currently in La Paz on the Baja peninsula after just returning from our annual Family Thanksgiving in Philadelphia and New York. We plan to spend about 6 weeks doing maintenance on JACARANDA and preparing to head to Central and South America this season.
We would love to hear from you so please drop us a note and let us know how you are!
Wishing everyone a good holiday season and a healthy new year!
JANUARY 28TH, 2012
Jacaranda Passage Note #43
Goodbye 2011 and welcome 2012! It's been a while since we wrote - about a year to be exact. To make up for our lack of correspondence, this Passage Note will look more like those annual holiday letters you no doubt have been receiving at this time of year.
First, we'd like to announce our new and improved website, jacarandajourney.com. It's gotten a new facelift and redesign from son Joe who started his website business, Kitchen Sink Creations ( kitchensinkcreations.com) . If you need a website, he is the creative and affordable man to see!
Last winter of 2011 saw Jacaranda in an uncharacteristically sedentary mode, comfortably ensconced in Don Jose Marina in La Paz, Baja California, Mexico. It started out with the need to do a whole list of boat projects and was followed by a decision to stay and experience the Baja winters - which we knew would be cold but the mainland reports were that it was not much warmer over there this year.
So La Paz - the beautiful Mexican working town, capital of Baja California Sur, became our home for 6 months. And it lives up to its name - "The Peace". Every Paceño uses the same word to describe this beautiful town of 250,000 people - "tranquilo" say the taxi drivers, the store owners, the university students...."calm". So tranquil and safe that it is rumored to be the vacation /second home playground of many a major drug cartel leader's family. After all they too need a break once in a while from their daily business. La Paz - 2nd largest city in Baja, 5 marinas, huge bay, close to several islands (the jewel of Espiritu Santo), home of Carnaval and the Baja 500 off road race; town of streets with no name, a beautiful malecon with golden sunsets, a major university specializing in ecology programs, seafood tacos, whale shark-watching central.
And the winter was indeed cold - blankets, sweatshirts, heaters, and lots of yummy tortilla soup dinners. We had boat work to do and La Paz is the best place in Mexico to find supplies, parts, and skilled craftsmen. It has a few well stocked chandleries, lots of ferreterias (hardware stores) and other specialized supply stores, is more easily accessible to getting parts down from the U.S. one way or the other, and has some very resourceful welders, woodworkers, canvas makers, etc.
Jacaranda got new coats of varnish on the cockpit combings, deck repair, new paint on the deck and toe rail, new jib cover, other various canvas coverings, engine riser replacement, new wiring for our Bebi anchor lights, shocking the water tanks, install of an AIS system and new battery charger, radar repair as well as general routine maintenance and clean-up. Chuck also decided to do the "W" word and worked for three months for his old employer, Computer Science Corporation, remotely from the boat (using phone and internet).
Linda was absorbed with art and community events. She is continuously busy now trying to keep up with the demand for her beaded necklaces which are selling at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC. In addition she started a some new artwork - fabric mosaic wall hangings - textile collages embellished with embroidery, beads, ribbons, etc. She volunteered at two fundraisers - Subasta ("Auction" for needy Mexican kids in La Paz),
and Club Cruceros' annual BayFest where she helped get donated gifts from local merchants, gave two seminars on art, and organized a presentation about pearl culture in the South Pacific and in La Paz (which included a tour of our friend's La Paz Pearl Farm). A big milestone for her was becoming a "hamster" - passing both the tech and general exams to earn her Amateur Ham Radio License and call sign KJ6NYI!
A visit from son David In April was much enjoyed - strolling down the malecon with the locals in the cool evenings, long beachwalks with the destination of palapas offering big seafood cocktails and cerveza, and introducing him to our favorite and oft-visited street taco place. In February we traveled to Austin, Texas to visit son Joe, fell in love with the city, and did our part to "Keep Austin Weird". We ate great barbeque, got to hear Joe play several music venues, and explored.
La Paz knows how to throw a good fiesta and what better way to get immersed in the life of the town! At Christmas we enjoyed an excellent Folklorico dance troupe from Mexico City who performed outside at the brightly festooned government center. It was great fun to be in La Paz for Carnaval in February. The parade of floats and bands marched the length of the malecon for three consecutive nights and we watched from a balcony above the crowds and at street level with the crush of people. This year's theme was the natural environment so floats included giant sailfish, jaguars, and flowers. The costumes were elaborate and glitzy. May Day (May 1st), which is the day that honors workers in just about every country but the U.S., was celebrated with long parades of school buses, taxis, sanitation trucks, police cars, and dump trucks (with their truck beds tilted up in salute), rolling past a grandstand filled with city and state officials. El Dia de Los Muertos, one of the most beautiful Mexican rituals of honoring ancestors and loved ones who have died, takes place in November. The Teatro Ciudad (City Theater) Plaza was filled with homemade altars, traditional food vendors, craft booths, and strutting Catarinas (women - and some men - costumed in fancy dresses and matching hats whose faces and bodies were painted as living skeletons in the tradition of the celebration) who were vying for coveted first place in the Catarina contest.
With the coming of warmer weather and the approach of summer (and the hurricane season), our thoughts turned toward spending another summer in the northern Sea of Cortez - our FOURTH!! We finally said our goodbyes to our many friends, untied our dock lines, put away our fenders and left Marina Don Jose on May 12. By 1 p.m. we were swinging on the hook at Bonanza Beach on Isla Espiritu Santo. After six months at the dock we had almost forgotten how great it felt to be in an anchorage again!!
Soon we were poking our way slowly north, stopping in many favorite bays and island anchorages - Isla San Jose, Los Gatos, San Telmo, San Marte. On June 8 we were able to sail to Isla Catalan off the beaten path and had favorable weather to stay for a week at Water Tower Bay on the southern end. What a gorgeous spot and we had it all to ourselves!! Wonderful snorkeling with the best visibility we had all summer, scenic hiking among the largest barrel cacti in Baja (5 feet and more), and good fishing. In fact, we caught our first dorado of the summer here - the precursor to an incredible season of dorado fishing. In fact that became the highlight of the summer of 2011!! They were plentiful and everyone was catching them! We were eating fresh dorado every night until we became sick of it! Now that is being spoiled! Chuck must have caught at least 15 or 20 from the dinghy - one even in the inner harbor of San Francisquito!! One day he was fishing in the outer San Francisquito Bay and caught a nice dorado for us (and to share with others) for dinner. On his way back to the boat he caught another and decided to take it over to the Mexican naval boat parked nearby as a gift. Boy, were those sailors appreciative - they all ran out on deck and were so excited!
The social scene was not lacking again this summer - Geary's annual 4th of July party (too hot in Conception Bay for us to attend), net controller's party at Guillermo's in Bahia de Los Angeles, and two Full Moon Parties. Linda won first place for her "Blue Ringed Octopussy" costume at the September Full Moon Party in La Gringa. It was a masterpiece that she worked on for two weeks covering floaty noodles with silver lame material and making the "hat" out of an aluminum foil covered colander from the galley, all decorated with sparkly blue pipe cleaners for the rings and suckers. Like in years past, the much coveted first prize was a DVD movie - "The General" with Danny Kaye in spanish, no subtitles - a premium award!!!! (Thanks to Jake on "Jake", the party king!)
Weatherwise, we escaped another year from any hurricane warnings and avoided the jockeying in Puerto Don Juan that these warnings entail!!! BUT - we did have some nasty chubascos - sudden winds from the east mainland that reached forty knots a few times - in San Francisquito, Isla Partida Norte, La Gringa, and La Mona when the big ones hit! In the last one we were anchored in front of our friend Mary's house (Baja Gal) and were covered with brown dust and sand from her beach as 50 knot winds roared over the hill !
Our fourth summer in the Sea was much fun with many old friends and "regulars" and new ones too! We did miss those of you who were not there this summer and you know who you are!
At the end of the summer with hurricane danger mostly past, we headed south and made our way back to La Paz where we left Jacaranda to return to the States for our annual Family Thanksgiving on The Farm, outside of Phila., Pa. We had an extra reason to anticipate this beloved gathering this year - a surprise 80th birthday party for Linda's Aunt Aileen!
On Dec. 29, we arrived in Banderas Bay after a three day sail from Los Frailes, Baja, welcomed by breaching humpback whales and a large school of "popcorn" manta rays jumping like flapjacks all around the boat. We spent New Year's Eve in La Cruz which has gotten very upscale since we were last there one and a half years ago!
We are sending this Passage Note from Puerto Vallarta where the call of little yellow Kiskadees remind us how much we love this place! The weather is perfect now - warm and humid - no more desert; the smell of jungle is pervasive.
Remember you can always tell where we are by copying the following address into your online favorites. It should drop you into our most recent report. We update our location each time we move to a new spot.
www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=WTF6014
From Jacaranda, we wish you all the best in 2012 - may it be a year of happiness, health, laughter, love, beauty, and great adventures.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 08, 2010
TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2010
Jacaranda Passage #41 (7-2010)
Back to Baja
Bahia de Los Angeles, Baja Norte
Air 95 Water 85
We are back in Baja California - spending our third Summer in the Sea of Cortez for the hurricane season - and it feels great to be back eating fresh fish for dinner every night, snorkeling in a warm sea- aquarium, and watching the night skies for shooting stars. Of course, we are enduring the heat again too - right now sunrise temperatures of about 82 rising to near triple digits during the afternoons. Comes with the territory. After our three months in cosmopolitan Puerto Vallarta, most of our old routine is returning - day-hop sailing to new anchorages (and old favorites too), daily swimming, fishing and beachwalking, listening to the morning and evening radio nets for weather forecasts and connections with cruising friends, blowing the conch horn at sunset to gratefully say adios to another day in a most magical place - the Sea of Cortez - where the sea and the desert meet and the water is filled with all variety of marine life from the biggest whales to the smallest nudibranchs.
When we left Puerto Vallarta on June 1, we sailed north, stopping for two days at Isla Isabella, before reaching Mazatlan to haul the boat out of the water to paint the bottom. The Singular boatyard there is fairly new and is one of the most spotless yards we have been in, with really nice amenities (clean bathrooms with hot water, comfortable lounge, strong wifi, friendly staff). Besides, where else can you sit in a second story swimming pool/jacuzzi overlooking the yard and watch the work progress on your boat? We stayed at the Singlar dock rather than go to Marina Mazatlan this time. The haulout went smoothly and once we were lifted, pressure washed, and blocked in our spot, Bob and his crew at Total Yacht Works went right to work sanding the old paint, putting on two new coats, readjusting the propeller, and getting a check-up on the Yanmar engine that we installed through them about two years ago. We were in the yard for 6 days before being returned to our slip at the Singlar dock.
