09-02-2012 to 10-02-2012 Puerto Escondido back to La Paz

(PLEASE ENJOY THE SLIDESHOW AT THE END OF THIS POST)

Soooooooo  what have we been doing.  Hmmmmm…. We left Candeleros and went to Puerto Escondido, which is nice.  We were on a mooring and enjoying the fine breezes, the restaurant, the store, the hotel and restaurant up the road at Tripui and generally trying to stay cool.

We stayed at the Tripui Hotel for two nights for our anniversary on the 10th, which was excellent and a nice respite from the heat.  We were able to watch some of our favorite criminal shows on TV, like the CSI’s-Criminal Minds-Law and Orders, and some others.  They have excellent food in the hotel restaurant and the pool was lovely. (We were the only people in the hotel the first night and they cleared the restaurant veranda overlooking the pool and set one table just for us – very romantic! D)  We had planned on only spending one night, but they gave us a second night complementary for our anniversary!!  Woo Hoo!  So very sweet of them!  So, we availed ourselves of the pool and other amenities for another night.  Excellent!!

Not a lot of exciting things happening other than a butterfly migration, which has thousands (and thousands- D) of yellow butterflies passing through every day, some cool looking jellyfish floating around and some pretty impressive lightning and thunder storms rolling through.  Not a lot of rain or wind (although there was some rain), mostly thunder bumpers.

We were about ready to drop the mooring and head out to Isla Coronados for a week or so , but ended up sticking around Puerto Escondido until Monday the 17^th.  We wanted to see the 49ers 1^st home game, which we were glad of because they won it!   We headed out the next day for Isla Coronados after getting supplies.  It was a lovely anchorage with sugar-white sand and some really good snorkeling.  They also have some great trails there, but will have to save that for a winter in the Sea because it is much too hot to hike.

We were in the company of two very large plastic yachts and two other sailboats, both of whom we had seen and met before.  We had one small problem though, when we went to anchor, I couldn’t move the gear-shift out of reverse! We had to shut the engine off once we were set and Capt’n. Dick had to put his mechanical expertise to work.  He established that it was NOT the transmission (Thank goodness!) and that it was the control cable.  It had seized and would no longer move.  This was an easy enough problem to solve as the local marine shop in Loreto would most likely have the cable, and did!  So Dick took off the next morning in the dinghy, while the seas were calm, to Loreto (about seven miles each way in open sea – D) for the part and repaired it that afternoon.  Yaaaaay!  He is such a handy hubby!  Actually we could not be doing this if he wasn’t.

We spent five days there at Isla Coronados enjoying the snorkeling and the scenery (Shared one snorkel with a 4 ft. green Moray eel – D) .  Then we headed for the anchorage in front of Loreto.  We had planned to stay there for a couple of nights, go into town, enjoy a nice dinner out and go to the market, but that was not to be.  Hurricane Miriam formed just south of Cabo (about 300 miles) and was projected to come up the Baja Pacific coast.  We decided we better high tail it to La Paz, or at the minimum Puerto Escondido.  The next morning we turned the motor on and started to head for Candeleros as a first stop, but discovered that the batteries were not charging and the RPMs wouldn’t register either. Once again Capt’n Dick had to evaluate the situation and found that a wire had broken off the back of our smaller alternator.  So, we pulled back into Puerto Escondido instead of going on to Candeleros.  He was able to fix the problem and we have power!  Whew… He has really earned his keep lately, I’ll say.

We enjoyed a nice meal at the restaurant that evening and checked in with the weather the next morning.  The hurricane had been forecasted to stay on the outside of the Baja, which would only mean a little (? – D) wind and rain on this side of the Baja.  We didn’t hear anything differently the next morning, and decided to head on back to La Paz. 

When we got to Agua Verde, we decided that it would be more prudent to continue pushing on to La Paz (the local fisherman had pulled their pangas out of the water and well back from the beach (when the local fisherman are making serious preparations, us newbies should pay attention – D), because now another storm had formed south of Cabo and was projected to come up into the Sea!  So, we continued through the night arriving in La Paz at 7:30 in the morning.  Dick had to do his Net Controller thing on Sonrisa Net and then the Marina was open.  We were able to get a slip on dock 2 this time.  Our regular slip was occupied, unfortunately.  We had become accustomed to that slip and liked it.

Later that day the sky got dark and the rain, thunder, lightning and wind began.  We were very glad we pushed on through instead of trying to go from anchorage to anchorage.  Evidently La Paz area experienced three earthquakes the night before also.  At any rate, it rained for three days on and off. (The first day I had to get to the bank and Tecel before the end of the day so I had to venture out. The streets here have no drainage system, it simply runs down the street. When I left the bank in the middle of the downtown section, right after an hour-long downpour there was knee deep water rushing down the street to the bay two blocks away – D).  The roads were a mess and many open-air places were closed. 

The rain finally stopped on Saturday night, so Sunday was a beautiful day.  We got to go to a local restaurant & sports bar where we were able to watch the 49er shut out the Jets.  I was also able to do some cleaning and some laundry.  The temperatures have been in the high 80’s and low 90’s!!  Such a nice change.  It would appear that fall is coming here.

Now we have to deal with getting the auto pilot fixed!!  Dick will be having it shipped up to the Bay Area.

We will be traveling by car to Cabo San Lucas this coming Saturday the 6^th to take an 8-day boat break.  We are going to stay in our timeshare at San Jose del Cabo, go visit friends in Cabo who will be visiting from Boston and generally enjoy condo life.  We haven’t seen these friends from Boston in 8 years, so that will be fun.  It will also involve going to the Sammy Hagar Birthday Bash shows at his club called “Cabo Wabo”.  Should be great fun!!

Will update you all before we leave for the mainland at the end of this month.