Homeward Bound Again

Ben left us a few days ago, and we got to serious business getting our boat ready to leave for a few weeks while we head home! Our luck continues to be phenomenal. We knew our Mexican visas were running out by the end of June, but we had been told in Mazatlan by immigration personnel that it would not be hard for us to ask for an extension. When we spoke with the immigration officials here, it WAS a big deal. And since it is their country, we are not going to ask for favors.

Also we heard from several long time cruisers who have waited out the hurricane season up north in Bahia Los Angeles that you really want to be 70 miles north of Santa Rosalia by August 1st for safety. So then we were scrambling, trying to figure out how to get all of us home cheaply (including Rudy.) And that is when, by chance, our good friend Gary in Mulege happened to mention that he had a car in Mexico that he wanted North (it was too nice for the roads). And there you are. Just like clockwork, it couldn't have gone better if we had planned it.

So we are headed home. These last few days, Jack has been off for hours playing with the cruiser kids who are also in Santa Rosalia (there have been six to eight over the last few days.) Like a cloud of locusts they have overtaken our marina and he has spent hours off the boat having a great time. Right now is movie night for 5 of them up in the air conditioned cruiser's room, with popcorn. Jack is having the time of his life. He comes home to sleep, but other than that, we see him in the morning until his home schooling is done (about 10 or 11) and then we only see him for about another hour the rest of the day, combined. He has so much more freedom here in this setting than we were ever able to provide him in our old neighborhood. He takes the dinghy alone across the harbor to pick up his friends and bring them back to our marina (we have a pool!) In our old neighborhood, we couldn't safely let him go three blocks from our house due to a high traffic area, and there was never enough room for him to be completely out of sight for hours at a time, in the company of several other really nice children, all around his age. It is magic to finally be able to experience this.

I am picking this blog up a few days later. Our preparations for leaving the boat were exhausting. Preparing for probable storms (and a very unlikely hurricane) is hard work. Plus the marina is home to several osprey and many pelicans and cormorants that love to land on top of masts and sit and poop. One large bird already broke our anemometer (wind measuring instrument) in the first week we berthed at Santa Rosalia. Everything had to be gone over and prepared to sit unattended for several weeks - toilets,, through hulls, refrigerator, water maker, even the top of the mast. It took us hours of work over many days. It was a joy to finally be done and go sit in an air-conditioned car with nothing to do. We are now just north of Los Angeles and will be home by the end of the weekend.

Laura

Ben's Visit

We have been out of contact for the last few weeks mostly due to my clumsiness and plain bad luck. We left America with two computers, both laptops from Dell. In one week I managed to spill apple juice on one, and push the other off a bed causing it's screen to crack when it landed. Ouch! Major setback. The computer anointed with apple juice occasionally agrees to turn on and work, so we haphazardly have internet access. Since it decided to turn on today, I'll post a quick update so you know we are still having fun.

Our good friend Ben came down to visit us Tuesday the ninth. We back tracked south so we could pick him up in Bahia Concepcion. He flew into Loreto and took a bus that dropped him off at one of the beaches in Conception Bay. We picked him up and have been having fun ever since. We spent days touring our favorite places in Conception Bay, and then have been working north. He's been to Chivato, the Arches on Isla Santo Marcos and now Santa Rosalia. On Sunday Ben leaves and we will be sad to see him go.

So fear not, we are all great and having fun (except our computers.)
Laura

Tour of our home

I erased these pictures about a week after writing this posting, but then heard from many people that they did not get to see them in time. So here is a quick recap. From top to bottom in order are: the master stateroom; the kitchen; outdoor cockpit with table; one of the two engine compartments found at the back of each pontoon, shown with Patrick working in it like he often does; the "office area" but who needs one if you have quit your job and are touring around in a boat?; Rudy and Jack's bedroom; the main bathroom with walk-in shower; the spare bedroom which we call the garage; a view from the cockpit into the main salon with Jack seen at the dinette; a view across the cockpit looking at Patrick at the helm. It was hard to take the pictures, since the boat really is small compared to a house, but it has every thing we need. If I had to guess, we are living in about 400-500 square feet. It is actually very spacious for just the three of us. The living quarters of our boat have not been modified much since the day it came out of the factory in France in 2001. A mirror was added in the master bedroom and we removed the doors from the kitchen cupboard.
Cheers,
Laura

Punta Chivato to Santa Rosalia

After several days at Punta Chivato, we picked up anchor and headed to Sweet Pea Cove, Isla San Marcos. This island plays host to a gypsum mining operation at the southern end, and just a few fish camps at the northern end. Sweet Pea Cove is just one of three anchorages at the northern end. The cliffs fall right into the Sea here, with just a few small rock beaches tucked in, and some sea caves in other places. A couple caves are big enough to enter by kayak or dinghy. The area surrounding the coast is littered with boulders of all sizes, from pumpkin to house sized, and so the snorkeling is very interesting. We really wished we had diving gear with us. We saw some of the biggest game fish here (and the biggest octopus) that we have seen snorkeling. But no luck with our spears. We haven't gotten the knack yet.

The beaches on Isla San Marcos are some of the more remote that we have seen and so there were all sorts of interesting finds on them. I found pieces of sea turtle shells bleached white in the sun, the vertebra of a sea lion (a dried flipper was nearby), and even the jawbone of a dolphin, judging by the size and teeth. Jack found one of the prettiest, biggest pieces of old blue sea glass that I have ever seen. We have collected beach glass from Vancouver Island and all over the Pacific Northwest, but it is pretty rare to find down here, for some reason.

Our next stop was a marina at Santa Rosalia. We have a few minor repairs to attend to and cleaning. We have been off a dock for about two months and it is time for laundry facilities for for our clothes, and a hose, copious amounts of water, and a brush for our boat. We are salt encrusted from bow to stern.

Bahia Concepcion to Punta Chivato

Our second week in Conception Bay was spent mostly in the company of two other kid boats - Don Quixote and Windfall. Don Quixote is from Seattle, sailing in our sister ship, a 2001 Lagoon 380', hull #63 (we are # 65). They are a family of five - Dean and Toast and their three girls, Jamie, Mera and Aeron, ages 13 to 8ish. They have owned their boat about 4 years and circumnavigated Vancouver Island before heading to Mexico. Windfall is a couple (Meri and Jim) from Colorado with their two kids, Tim (13) and Caroline (9). Their story is similar to ours - little ocean sailing experience, but what the hey! Don't let that stop you! Don Quixote is going home for the summer, but Windfall will be floating around in the N. Sea with us.

We left Bahia Concepcion after two weeks enjoying the warmer water and sheltered harbors. Our next stop was Mulege, a fairly large town on the outskirts of the Bay. Unfortunately, there is really no safe place to anchor your boat there, so Ru and I stayed on board while Patrick and Jack ran into town on the dinghy to get some business done. Their first stop was to find Gary Bott, a buddy of Patrick's from Rinker, who is now retired and lives in Mulege part of the year. With Patrick's usual luck, they found him first thing. Patrick and Jack were so happy to see Gary and his wife Annie. They were very kind and Annie made homemade brownies for Jack, while Gary picked beautiful tomatoes from his garden for us. Gary loaned Patrick his van so Patrick could get groceries and dinghy gas. Boy were we running low on supplies! But our coffers are filled now. Patrick and Jack had a great visit with Gary and Annie and we all look forward to visiting them again.

With our business taken care of, we left Mulege that afternoon and set off for Pnnta Chivato, a nearby sportsman fishing enclave. Beautiful, expensive homes line the bay here, enjoying one of the most amazing beaches. I am not an expert but this is the best shell beach I have ever seen. Loads of beautiful shells, lots of different species, in great condition over a beach that stretches at least a mile.

We leave tomorrow, headed to Sweet Pea Cove on Isla San Marcos. We have to get into a good anchorage without high surrounding hills for our upcoming Amigo Net gig on Friday the 29th. It's best to be somewhere where your radio is not limited in power since the distances broadcast are from CA to people on their way to Hawaii and others way down south on their way to the Galapagos. After that, we hope to secure a berth at the marina in Santa Rosalia for a week for a break. It is very restful to be tied to a dock, with easy access to a town, laundry, Internet, restaurants, and other people. We will update the blog more there.

One of our next blogs will be a picture tour of our boat (as suggested by our cousin Michelle) and a run down of our systems (another question from Kirk in Toronto).


Take care everyone,

Laura

Honeymoon Revisited

Today finds us anchored in front of our old honeymoon haunt, FKA George Ole's. Turns out it may have a new name, but one of the owners is the same from when we were here. It is great to sit at the same table, looking out at Just a Minute just 250 feet away.

We are really enjoying our time in Conception Bay. We are the only boat anchored this far into the Bay. All the other boats hang out closer to the entrance. There is a lot of life here. We have seen many pods of dolphins, hundreds of balls of bait fish breaking the surface, and even a whale shark. He was just a little guy - probably about 20 feet long. It is amazing to think of one being 60 feet long.

We will probably stay in Conception Bay for another week and then head on to Mulege, the closest town. We are running out of food and have to re-provision.

Conception Bay

There is a dearth of anchorages north from San Juanico, so our next leg was 45 nautical miles to the lip of Bahia Concepcion. Yeah! We are finally here! Conception Bay is very large (22 miles long by 5 miles wide), fairly shallow throughout, and surrounded by high hills. It is one of the hottest spots on the Sea since it is so protected. The water is noticeably warmer than San Juanico, only 45 miles away. The water temp is somewhere in the mid to high 80's, the air temp is 90 to 100. Conception Bay is a very popular camping and vacationing spot for Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans. There are numerous anchorages spread throughout the Bay.

Finally at Conception Bay, we spent a couple nights anchored at a beach that is right at the entrance, before heading into the Bay. Our first stop when we passed into the Bay was at a popular cove that has a restaurant on the beach. We parked our boat, dinghyed in for lunch and promptly left to find a more secluded anchorage. We still wanted a little solitude, but it was nice to let someone else cook for a change.

We found the perfect anchorage tucked into the lee of a small island here in Conception Bay called Isla Coyote. We spent three days there, doing what we love - snorkeling, fishing, swimming with Rudy and being together. We had the place to ourselves, our own little deserted island with a perfect little beach. The cove is perfect for one boat and the island is uninhabited.

On our second morning at Isla Coyote, a pod of dolphins came into the cove while we were all snorkeling. We were only about 30 feet from them while they were feeding, but we could only see them if our heads were out of the water - visibility wasn't that great and they didn't come close enough. but is was still very exciting. Bottlenose dolphins are typically 11 feet long, some as long as 13 feet - they look big in the water.

The next day, Jack and I saw our first sea horse poised in the sea weed. It was so amazing to see one. He stays very close to the same spot and we saw him again the next day. His is about 6 to 8 inches long, black with lighter spots. The snorkeling is excellent around this island and Jack and Patrick have been practicing their spearfishing. Jack had his first kill that morning.