10-05-2012 to 10-17-2012 La Paz and Cabo

What an excellent couple of weeks!  We attended a birthday party for Nancy, on “Jessie Marie” at The Shack the night before we headed to Cabo for our much-anticipated boat break and get-together with friends from Boston.

On the 6^th, we rented a little Dodge Attitude and took a drive to San Jose del Cabo.  As always in Mexico the drive was an adventure, especially after all the rain this summer.  The roads leave a lot to be desired in many places and you must always, always, always…look for cows and pot holes!!  Very important (smile)! (Most of the road to Cabo was a 4-lane divided highway though not quite complete all the way. Even there you needed to watch out for cows and potholes  --- and let us not forget the Mexican obsession with speed bumps. – D) It took a little over two hours to get to our timeshare.  We had not yet been to this particular property and were not disappointed when we got there.  As usual, the condo was lovely and the property, pool and beach were well cared for and beautiful.  We had to laugh because, as we told most folks, we were not there to hang out by the pool or on the beach but to hang out in the air-conditioned room, cook and watch our favorite cop shows and movies on TV.  Watching the stunning sunrises was awesome!!

San Jose del Cabo is a darling little town to stroll through, shop in and is not far from Cabo San Lucas.  Our friends from Boston were staying in a resort hotel on the beach in Cabo.  We drove into Cabo our first night there to meet them for dinner on the beach at a nice restaurant and met their friends who came with them. 

The next day we met in Cabo to get our wrist bands at the Cabo Wabo Cantina for that night’s show, which was the opening night for Sammy Hagar’s Birthday Bash concerts. (We were fortunate enough to win the lottery to buy tickets for both the opening and closing night shows – D).  We had dinner at Cabo Wabo and stood in line early to get in so that we could get good spots for the show.  The show was fantastic!!   Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony, Deni Carmassi, Vic Johnson and Matt Sorum were playing with him.  They played a collage of songs spanning his career and some Hendrix and Led Zepplin for the fun of it!  Awesome night!!

We relaxed the next day after a late night out.   We went into San Jose del Cabo the following day to eat lunch at our favorite French restaurant in town.  (Well we discovered it last time we were here – I’m not sure that two visits qualifies it for favorite yet, but their crepes were excellent – D).  We made a stop at the Mega for a few provisions and got some pool time in that afternoon.

We went to dinner the next night in Cabo again with our friends at a fun restaurant called “The Office”.  We had great seats for a colorful Mexican folk dancing show.  We all got silly and had a great time dancing with the dancers.

Our only problem with this week was that we both ended up with a case of the “touristas” otherwise known as Montezuma’s Revenge!  We think it might have been the glass of water we ordered at the restaurant in San Jose del Cabo.  Oh well!  We’ve been in Mexico for almost a year now and have not had any trouble yet, so it was odd.  We didn’t feel like doing too much more than resting in the condo (which was fine) for the last few days of the trip.  

Unfortunately, we were not able to enjoy the closing night concert as much as we could have had we been feeling better.  That being said, the final night concert was a good one but was not as energetic and charged as the opening night.  It was enjoyed by all though! (This was his actual birthday, so I think he was a little more into partying than performing, he was obviously having a great time. – D)

Boo Hoo!  We had to check out Sunday morning and head back to La Paz at which time we found out that another hurricane was headed our way.  “Paul” was heading for the Baja Coast and predicted to pass over the peninsula.  When we got back to the boat we had to batten down the hatches and get ready for some possible wind and rain.

As it turned out, Paul made landfall far enough north of us that we only ended up with 25-30 knot winds and some rain.  The last hurricane, Norman, made more of a ruckus than Paul.  Once again we have been fortunate in the weather department.

We will now begin preparations to head to the mainland again for the winter.  We are planning to leave here around 10/26.  Dick is busily trying to make arrangements to get our auto pilot course computer and control head back from the U.S. now that they’ve been fixed and I’m working on planning the provisions for our trip.  We’re looking forward to visiting some of our friends here and at The Shack before we leave.

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.

08-18-2012 to 09-01-2012 Sea of Cortez

08-18-2012, Sat. -  Caleta Partida  to Isla San Francisco

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise this morning and delicate delicious breezes.  We weren’t sure if we were going to leave today for Isla San Francisco or not in the morning.  Of course Dick had his morning ham nets to monitor and check in with and I had some blogging to catch up on.

At 10:00 we decided that we’d go ahead and make the passage to Isla San Francisco, which is about a four hour passage.  It was absolutely beautiful!  Not enough wind to sail, but we saw a big Marlin jumping (or sword fish, not sure) and a HUGE pod of dolphins on our way and I got excellent video of them swimming under the bow of our boat on my iPad. 

We decided to try the Southwest facing anchorage, which is the most popular of the three on this island and the prettiest.  There was no one there!  We had the whole thing to ourselves.  Very nice!

We had a lovely evening with nice breezes!  Then three power boats came in for the night.  There’s plenty of room here however, so no big deal.  It is a no-moon night and very dark, so the stars were out in abundance.  Beautiful!

08-19-2012, Sun - Isla San Francisco (SW Anchorage)

Nice morning!  Some breezes are blowing and the power boats are gone.  We will spend the day here swimming and trying to find turtles.  I saw one yesterday when we got here and could hear him when he came up to take a breath and look around.  I would love to see them in the water swimming around.

We did go looking for them, but saw no turtles.  It was a very hot day, but the water was 82 degrees, so that was pleasant.  It was a relaxing day with the exception of preparing the pasta fruit salad, which was our main meal of the day (Mmmmm yummy!) and studying Spanish for a couple hours. 

The wind died down after the morning and by night time, it ended up being 103 in the salon (at 9:00 at night).  Thank goodness for fans!! 

08-20-2012, Mon – Isla San Francisco (SW Anchorage)

We awoke in the early morning hours to find a lightning storm and rain.  It is still probably in the high 80’s.  After the rain in the early morning hours, it is just 85 degrees at 7:30 a.m. (but climbing, just changed to 86 in the last 10 minutes).  In the end, it stayed cloudy all day and never got above 88 degrees!!  Yaaaaaay!  It was like being in Hawaii for the day. 

We worked on our Spanish, read, played computer games and enjoyed the cooler temperature for the day.  I made a fabulous frittata for our main meal and we enjoyed another episode of the West Wing.

08-21-2012, Tues – Isla San Francisco (moved to N Anchorage)

Another beautiful day in paradise!  Still no one in the anchorage.  It has been perfect, with only a few boats showing up, but leaving by the end of the day or by morning.  Nice! 

The sun is out and the sky is clear though today.  This means temperatures will be climbing and we’ll be getting in the water for sure!  We want to move to the north end of the island though today.  There is a little island just off the north end by the name of Isla Coyote which has a town (if thirty adults and no children can be called a town – D) on it.  The island is made up of a small community of pescadors and artists.  We want to take the dinghy over and say hello to the folks; maybe look at their art and jewelry.

So, we moved to the northern anchorage.  We have this anchorage all to ourselves too.  So, nice!  We can see Isla Coyote and the Rocas de la Focas (seal rocks) from here too.  It is a much more exposed anchorage, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that no weather comes from the east or west (it is not forecasted). 

Twas a pleasant afternoon, with more snorkeling/swimming, reading and playing games (in front of the fans, of course).

08-22-2012, Wed. – Isla San Francisco to San Evaristo

Our plan today was to go to Isla Coyote by dinghy in the morning after the net and before it gets too hot, but when Dick tried to get the outboard running on the dinghy, it wouldn’t stay running.  So, he thinks he’s going to have to clean the carburetor parts.  It must not have liked sitting in the heat for 6 weeks with no use.  Another lesson learned.  So, we had to cancel our plans to go to Isla Coyote and headed for San Eva

risto for the night.  This is another darling fishing village anchorage, which we stopped in on the way up and back in June.

We got here around 1:00 p.m. and were here with only one other sailboat (plus pangas, of course).  It was a very peaceful evening with absolutely no wind, so it was a bit humid and hot.  At least we got a fairly good night sleep.

08-23-2012, Thurs – San Evaristo and Agua Verde

We will be picking up anchor and heading to our other favorite fishing village anchorage, Agua Verde.  The trip should take about 6 hours today.  We are interested in getting ourselves up to the Loreto area to spend the majority of our time, since we have already been to these anchorages before.  We had not been to the two anchorages we went to on Isla San Francisco.

What a nice trip we had indeed!  No wind to speak of though, but we did get to see a small pod of Orca whales about of three hours into the trip.  It was VERY exciting!  At first I thought they were dolphins off in the distance because I could see their dorsal fins rolling out of the water just like dolphins do.  As I was watching, however, I kept saying “My those are big dolphins”!  As they moved closer to us, I saw the beautiful white underbellies that go with Orcas and I hollered to Dick “THOSE ARE ORCAS, get up here quick!!”  He got up just in time to see them approach our port side.  I throttled back while Dick grabbed my iPad so I could film them, but they must have dove down.  We never saw them after that.  Sorry, I didn’t get any footage of them.

We traveled through the beautiful Martes Reef and landed at Agua Verde around 3:00.  Such a pretty anchorage.  However, it is a bit warmer here, high 90’s. Around about 5:00 as we were wondering what we were going to do for dinner, a panga came to our boat and offered lobster tails for $100 pesos ($8 US).  We couldn’t resist!  They were about 1-2 lbs each and fresh!  I suffered turning on the stove and pan-fried them in butter, garlic and white wine.  They were delicious!!!

It was another beautiful evening, with very little wind.  We read in the cockpit well after dark and then retired to our fan-engulfed bed (it was still in the 90’s after dark) for a decent night sleep.

08-24-2012, Friday – Agua Verde

We decided to spend a day here to snorkel and relax.  That’s pretty much all we did today.  It is getting hotter as we head north now and the water is getting warmer.  It was 103 degrees in the boat at 9:30 p.m.  Yikes!

08-25-2012, Saturday – Agua Verde to Los Candeleros  

We were going to meet “Merilon” at an anchorage we hadn’t been to yet called Yellowstone beach on one of the islands just off Candeleros, but they stayed there last night and got eaten up by no-see-ums.  They reported this to us on the radio this morning so we wouldn’t go there.  So we met them at Candeleros instead.

This was about a three hour trip.  It was nice and breezy when we got to Candeleros, but the wind died down and it was 104 degrees in the boat at 9:30 p.m.!  More yikes!  Erlin and Jenn are here on the boat “Ventured”.  We haven’t seen them since we were here a couple months ago.  Erlin came by to visit for a couple hours and informed us they are going to “bash” back up to San Diego to work for a year or so.  Michael & Tiki pulled in later in the afternoon on “Merilon”. Michael came by to visit because Tiki was in bed having taken Benedryl to treat the itching from the no-see-um bites she got last night.  They have been up in the northern Sea until now.  They are heading home at the end of this month, leaving their boat in Puerto Escondido.  They won’t be coming back until about January this coming year.

We’re going to hang out here for a while, get some provisions, hopefully do some interneting and spend some time with Michael & Tiki.

08-26-2012, Sunday to 9-01-2012, Saturday – Candeleros

(For those who care to look it up on Google Earth enter “Ensenada Blanca” , we’re anchored about where the words are, the photo is three years old so the resort is still under construction and the little town is at the other end from the resort – D)

We’ve been enjoying the Candeleros Bay for the last week!  The weather has been stable around mid to high 90’s, a little rain now and then with some cloud cover to keep the temperature under 100.  Yaaay! (This little rain thing is actually very rare, it's been years since the last time they had this much rain, the local hills are a lush green, almost like a tropical island – D)

We’ve been snorkeling, swimming at the resort, having some nice meals at the resort and enjoying time with our friends Michael & Tiki.  Nothing super exciting other than the turtles that keep coming around and the nice snorkeling.  I did get to sing at the resort on karaoke night!  That was fun, of course! (Real nice day of snorkeling yesterday – best clarity yet – 30/40 ft easy.  Many fish of all sizes and colors – favorite was a bright blue with silver sparkle spots like jewels – D)

Still looking for turtles when I snorkel!!  We see them surfacing all over the place, but never when we’re in the water!  Oh well….. We will be heading to Puerto Escondido to do some provisioning and then heading out to the islands around the Loreto area for the remainder of Sept.  Will be heading back to La Paz, expecting to be there on 10/1.  Will have a new blog for you all then….  Ciao for now and have a great month.

07-09 to 07-23-2012, Trip to the States

What did we do??

My goodness………. Two weeks was certainly NOT enough time!  The main reason for our visit was the festivities around our friend (my Sissy) Yvonne’s 60^th birthday.  We won’t bore you with all the details, but here is the list of things we did and pictures too.

-Stayed with different friends and got to spend quality time with loved ones

-Visited friends around the Bay and in Half Moon Bay.

-Went to Quinn’s Lighthouse for pirate night, more good friends and our favorite sea chantey band

-Went to our friend Petra’s birthday dinner

-Went to San Francisco in a limo for Yvonne’s birthday dinner and then saw Beach Blanket   Babylon

-Went to a birthday brunch the following day in Los Gatos and a wine tasting

-Went to a surprise birthday party at one of the neighborhood friends home

-Spent a day in San Francisco with lunch at the Cliff House and Pier 39.

-Visited our Yacht Club in Half Moon Bay and got to spend quality time with friends and loved ones there

-Had lunches with former work mates

-Went to Cash Creek with Ciska V

-Had dinner at our favorite sushi place in Alameda, Yellow Tail (twice)

-Shopped for all kinds of things we wanted to take back to Mexico

It was odd to wear lots of clothes.  It was odd to drive a car after 10 months of no driving. We slept great!!  I think I only sweated once.  It was WONDERFUL to see those whom we were able to see and sad not to be able to do everything we would have like to have done and see everyone we would have liked to have seen.

Thanks to all who put us up for the night, thanks for all the good laughs, good times, good food and for sharing your love and friendship with us as always!  Now……. Who’s coming to visit Mexico next??

This week we are preparing to head back up into the Sea of Cortez for the next couple of months.  We are going to try it and see if we can handle the heat.  If we cannot handle the heat, we will probably get a studio apartment for the remainder of Aug and Sept.  It is HOT HOT HOT even as we write.  The temperatures have been in the high 90’s to over 100 degrees with a heat index of 107+ degrees.  We are trying to change our habit patterns to do work in the morning or late evening and take cover in the mid-day hours.  It is hard to change, but necessary!   We both like to lounge around in the morning drinking coffee/tea, computering and reading but we simply must change our ways.  I had to order eye glasses for distance and reading.  I found that when I was home driving I couldn’t read the street and road signs!  Ack!  When we get those, we will be heading into the Sea.

When we leave for the Sea again, we will not have communication abilities, so you may not hear from us for weeks at a time.  Have a great rest of the summer!  Be safe in your travels and please do stay in touch.  We love to hear how you are doing and what you are doing.  Kisses & Hugs!

06-18 to 07-08 Candeleros to La Paz

06-18 Bahia Candeleros

It took me all morning and early afternoon to upload pictures and get the blog posted for up to yesterday, but I finally did it around 2:30 in the afternoon.  Soooooooooooooo, we rewarded ourselves with an afternoon by the pool at the resort, wheeeeee!!  Nice!

After that we had dinner at the nicer of the two restaurants with Bob & Sherry, who were doing pretty much the same thing we were all day.  Nice dinner and good company!

06-19  Bahia Candeleros

Today was a kick around day on the boat, catching up on stuff, reading and napping.  Another toaster of a day!!  Yesterday was 98 degrees and today feels about the same.

We had dinner aboard and will be taking the free air-conditioned shuttle bus to Loreto tomorrow to wander around town and check it out.  It looks like a lovely place. 

06-20  Bahia Candeleros

This morning was Dick’s first day as the Net Controller on the Sonrisa Net (a ham net). He did a great job, of course!!  And after the net we, Bob and Sherry went to the resort prepared to go to Loreto on the 9:00 shuttle.  Well…. Because we are boaters, we have second priority for catching the shuttle to the resort guests.  It turns out that the 9:00 shuttle was full and since we did not want to be walking around town in 100 degree heat, we signed up for the 6:00 p.m. shuttle that evening.  Sherry & I were prepared for swimming and reading by the pool, just in case, so that’s what we did.  The boys went back out to the boats to do things like charge the batteries and other “things”.  They joined us around lunch time and we ate at the more casual restaurant.  It was a lovely day at the pool. 

Since we were prepared for town, we went and changed in the restrooms and off to Loreto we went for dinner.  It was a lovely drive on a looooooooong dirt/gravel road to the highway and then about 15 miles to town.  Since the last shuttle pick-up was at 9:00, we had to hussle down to the restaurant old town square area to see some things Bob & Sherry wanted to point out to us and to get dinner, including the best margarita “in the world”.  Well… it was quite good anyway.  The bartender recommended a restaurant “Papagayo’s” (I think it was), which was excellent!  We enjoyed the meal quickly and took a taxi back to the hotel where the shuttle was to pick us up.  No pictures as it was already late in the day and then dark.  We will go back to Loreto in a couple days when we get over by it with Journey.

The resort had Karaoke night going on so we stopped there and I got to close the night with Tracy Chapman’s “Gimme one Reason”.  Fun!

We were both hoping for a good night sleep, as it has been too hot to sleep really well, but first it got rolly in the anchorage and then the wind came up at about 3:00 a.m.  Dick got up a bunch of times trying to chase some banging noise that sounded like a cupboard door banging, but he couldn’t find it.  Then the wind came up and we stopped rolling so the banging noise stopped.  However, when the wind came up he had to take down the sun shade.  Needless to say, it wasn’t a good night sleep…

06-21  Bahia Candeleros

We were going to move on today, but we decided to stay another day.  It was looking to be another HOT one as well although there was a nice breeze in the morning.  Dick went to shore so he could order more books on his Kindle and I did some cleaning on the boat.  We are having a dinner party with “Nirvana” tonight.  Wheeee, always fun!

The wind kicked up this afternoon to 20+ knots, so I had to take down the sunshade!  We are grateful for the winds though as it keeps the temperature under 100 and a sense of coolness (you notice I said “sense”).  While I was “sensing” coolness, I tried to recreate this sweet jalapeno paste we had at the restaurant last night. 

Recipe:  You take equal weight of jalapeno and your choice of Pinapples, Strawberries or Mango, or pear.  Any fruit that is sweet.  Put in the blender together with honey (to taste) and a little oil.  Blend until smooth.  Bring to a boil for however long it takes to get to the texture you would like.  Mmmmmmmm  Yummy!  Serve with fried crisp tortillas (chips or tostada rounds work too).  (Muy yummy – D)

I fixed a delicious white-wine sangria, marinated chicken fajitas with tortillas and fixin’s, Sherry brought rice and refried beans and Bob brought his home-made guacamole!  Excellent!!  OH and Sherry brought a rum cake for with sweet cream for dessert!  Another lovely evening in the anchorage.  Beautiful stars and sliver moon! (Bob informed us it is waxing).  A great way to spend the longest day of the year.

06-22  Bahia Candeleros 

Yep…. Still here!  Not leaving today either.  The boat “Tantori” showed up with Roger & Tori on board with their cat Mordecai.  We havn’t seen them since La Cruz, where we only saw them briefly.  They are going to have a sundowner party tomorrow night, so we will stay for that.  We just did some more “hang-out-on-the-boat” stuff today.  There is always HOOTB stuff to do (just made that up). (Amen - D)

Another lovely day in paradise!  We decided we wanted to try the palapa restaurant on shore by the kayak and paddle board rental place for lunch/brunch today (depending on what they are serving).  It is amazing how much hotter it is on shore than on the water.  The guys at the Palapa are super nice and today they are serving fresh clams, quesadillas and fish tacos.  Dick had the tacos, which he said were the best he’s had yet in all of Mexico, and I had the quesadillas with sliced avocado and ceviche.

Once we got back to the boat, I prepared turkey wraps with cream cheese and that jalapeno paste spread on the tortillas, rolled up and sliced.  It was a really fun night with Nirvana & Journey on Tantori.  Lots of catching up to do, lots of laughter.  “Whatever Happens in Mexico, Stays in Mexico”

06-24  Trip to Loreto by Car

Bob made arrangements yesterday for a minivan to be delivered to the resort so the six of us could go into Loreto by car.  So, we met at 8:00 on the beach and headed into Loreto.  We were specifically looking for the farmer’s market so we could get fresh veggies and fruits.  It took a while, but we found it on the edge of town.  We all selected our pickin’s and headed to town for brunch.  We ate at a lovely hotel on the malecon with a great view of the Sea and nice cool breezes flowing through the restaurant.  Loreto is a really clean town, we all noticed!  They also host the oldest mission on the west coast. (Serra’s first – D)

We visited the super mercado they have in town and picked up some more provisions.  We drove around town some more (Basic discovery – D) and then headed back.  We stopped along the way at a new condominium community that is still under construction.  It appears that a lot of units were built and then when the economy tanked, the construction halted.  It had an odd feeling to it!  We also stopped at a little community called Juncalita (pronounced hoonkaleeta).  This is a community of folks who came with RV’s or trailers, started with sunshades and ended up building all kinds of things around them, so that you can’t even see most of the RV’s or trailers from the outside any more.  Very interesting!  We also stopped at Puerto Escondido to see what the lay of the land and water was, since we will be going there next and probably tomorrow.

Sorry!!  I didn’t take ANY pictures :--(  What a dork!

06-25  Trip to Puerto Escondido

The wind blew hard last night, 20 knots sustained and gusts 25+ so sleep was difficult.  It was flat calm when we woke up in the morning though.  We had to pay our bill at the resort so Dick went in to settle it and we readied the boat to weigh anchor and move to Escondido.

Well….. no wind was the story for the day.  It was flat calm on the 6-mile trip.  We actually turned it into a longer trip because we needed to make water.  So, we cruised a couple of the islands, turned around and headed for the harbor.

It is an interesting harbor, in that they don’t have slips.  Well….they have 11 slips that are taken up by charter fishing boats.  The rest of the harbor is filled with mooring balls and a big open space for anchoring in about 45 feet of water.  It is what we call a “hurricane hole”, in that it is VERY protected from sea surges, surrounded by land and break-water it is protected from wind to a fair degree as well.  Unfortunately, it makes for a very HOT anchorage with very little wind.  As we found out on the land trip, they have a well-stocked store, yummy restaurant, showers, laundry, lap pool and a hotel with nice restaurant up the road.

We pulled in and figured out how the mooring balls worked and picked one up.  We decided to have a late lunch/early dinner at the restaurant after Dick checked us in at the office.  He didn’t realize that he hadn’t put our registration renewal in the ship papers when our friends brought us mail back in April, so he had our expired registration in the ship papers binder. He wasn’t sure he even had them at that point. So, they were going to kick us out until we were able to produce a current registration.  They let us stay the night though and tomorrow to get the current copy to them.

Marilon, with Michael & Tiki are here so we went by to visit them for a spell (it was Tiki’s birthday – D) and back to the boat to settle in for the night and hopefully a good night sleep.

06-26 Puerto Escondido

Well, sleep was not in order for the night.  It was HOT, in the 80’s and no wind.  We tried the big fan in back, but it wasn’t enough to keep me asleep.  I went up and tried to sleep in the cockpit, but fish were jumping and keeping me awake, so I went into the salon and slept on the couch off and on.  At some point, Dick came and put the small fan on the coffee table pointed at me. (Her hero – D J)  I think I’ll be having siestas off and on today.

The good news of the morning is that Dick found the current registration amongst the pieces of mail he had stashed in the guest room.  When our friends came to visit we got busy doing stuff and he forgot to put the mail in its proper places by the time they left.  At least we have it!!

Since it was not a good night sleep, we both took siestas and felt much better.  It is another scorcher today, but the breezes came up in the afternoon.  We went in to the shore in the afternoon to dip in the lap pool, which was nice and refreshing.  Then we took showers and had an early dinner at the restaurant there.

Bob and Sherry invited us over to play a board game called “Dread Pirate”!!  What fun!  We followed that up with what we were hoping would be a good night sleep.

06-27  Puerto Escondido

Indeed we got a much better night sleep.  I slept in the salon on the couch with the fan on me and the breezes, when they came up, coming through the hatch.  I feel much better this morning and Dick got a better night sleep too, but not quite as cool as mine.

This is our last day in Puerto Escondido as we are going to start our trek back to La Paz.  We have to be back to catch a flight to the States on 7/9.  We are going to a friend’s 60^th birthday party, so will be visiting for two weeks. 

Didn’t do much today.  We were going to go to shore, but Dick started a back-up on the computer and it did not go as planned.  So, we were babysitting the computer all day.  Didn’t really feel like doing much anyway, nor is there that much to do here besides dip in the so-called lap pool and eat.  One could take the trail to Juncalita, but it is too hot for that.

Had a nice dinner aboard and looking for another good night sleep.

06-28  Trip to Agua Verde

We both got a pretty good night sleep!  I was quite pleased!!  We readied the boat after the morning nets and dropped the mooring around 10:00.  It was a four hour trip back to Agua Verde, bypassing Candeleros.  I was very happy to see Agua Verde again.  It is such a pleasant anchorage and remains my favorite in the Sea so far.  We had delicious breezes blowing across the boat keeping us nice and cool.  I fixed a nice sautéed fish & veggie dinner, we read a bunch and “hit the hay”.

06-29  Agua Verde

Since we love this anchorage so much, we are going to stay today, float around the water and enjoy the cool breezes.  They blew all night and kept us cool, so we slept well, and are still blowing nicely this morning.  We want to be back in La Paz by July 4^th, so we can celebrate with the local expats and get prepared to leave the boat for two weeks.  It will only take a couple more days of travel to get to La Paz, so we can enjoy Agua Verde today.

We saw Las Brisas with Rich & Cathy aboard.  Rich was our landlord at the Alameda Marina for our office unit.  He is the Harbor Master there.  They took a leave and did the Ha-Ha this year too, and have been cruising the Sea of Cortez the whole time since.  They are flying home this mid-July until October.  They are planning on doing the mainland this next season. 

Also!  Our friends Mizzy & Brian on Alegria came sailing into the anchorage around lunch time.  They heard Dick on the morning net that we were here and wanted to stop and say hello.  We hadn’t seen them since we left La Paz.  They had been working on a couple of boat projects that ended up taking a month to complete and had finally gotten out of the harbor.  We got to chat with them for a bit before they headed farther north.  It was good to see them, they are such sweet people.  We will be looking to see them later this summer when we get back up here.

We got in the water to cool off, read, napped and had a nice steak dinner before bed.  We will leave tomorrow.

06-30 Trip to San Everisto

It was a calm morning in the anchorage.  No wind and we took off after the net.  It was an uneventful day trip, about 7 hours, to Everisto.  The beautiful mountains are just incredible.  All wind was off the bow, of course.  This is the time of year for winds out of the south.  We arrived at about 5:00 and dropped the anchor.  We anchored a little too far in with a high tide, so at 1:00 a.m. we were banging on the bottom (ooops”!!!!)  So, we had to raise anchor and move a little away from the shore.  Good thing too, because at 4:00 a.m. a big “blow” started.  We went from zero to 25 knot winds with gusts to 30.  Thankfully it ended about another hour later.  Neither of us were sleeping well anyway.  Oh well!

07-01 San Everisto

Nice breezes this morning.  Since we didn’t really get much sleep last night we will hang here a day.  Strong southerlies are blowing so it will make beating against them difficult. 

It was a pleasant day temperature wise.  The nicest in a while!  We never got too hot, just comfortable.  We napped, read, had a nice Orange-Ginger Chicken dinner and watched a movie before bed.  The winds never got above 10 knots out of the southeast, but the seas were coming into the cove from the east.  This caused lots of boat noises in the aft cabin.  So, it was an unpleasant evening for me.  I was not able to sleep very well, yet again.  Dick slept out in the salon this time because of the noise and so he could get up quickly and check things if necessary.

07-02  Trip to Caleta Partida

It’s still rollie this morning, but a little better.  I must have fallen asleep after sunrise and after the swells settled down a bit, because I slept until almost 8:30!!  I usually wake up before 7:00.  We left for Caleta Partida after the nets.

The sky was hazy today and this is about a five-hour trip.  We will hole up there for the night and head to La Paz tomorrow.

Well… what should have taken 5 hours took nearly 9 hours!!  We were only able to do about 1.5 to 2.9 knots for our first 3 hours and then only between 3 & 4 knots for a few after that.  The seas were VERY lumpy and short-period, plus the winds were between 15 – 20 knots right on the bow.  Yuk!!  Oh Well, we made it just in time to prep for dinner and try to get a good night sleep.

07-03  Trip to La Paz

Well the winds continued strong all night, but we had 180 feet of chain out, so we didn’t worry about dragging anchor.  We also backed down on the 180 feet with 1500 RPMS and didn’t move!  So There! Ha! 

We’ve been “on the hook” now for over a month and I’m looking forward to some dock time and getting excited about our quick trip to the States.  Headed back to Marina Palmira today.  We were up with the sunrise and ready to go.  The winds are still up, but it doesn’t look like there are white caps out there.  We’ll see.  Let’s hope this doesn’t take another 8 hours.

It wasn’t too bad at all.  We got there around noonish.  Right back in our usual slip.  Almost feels like home now.  We got all checked in and rested up.  We decided to dinner at the Dinghy Dock restaurant right there in the Marina and get a good night sleep.

07-04  La Paz

4^th of July!  We listened to the net this morning to find out if any local celebrations were going on.  We heard some old friends on the radio, Nick & Nancy on “Jessie-Marie”.  Got a hold of them and decided we’d go to the party at La Costa restaurant.  They have their mini-van down here with them now and came and picked us up.  It was $110 PESOS per person for a BBQ rib dinner with vegies and BBQ beans.  Pretty yummy!  We hung out for a bit and then hit the road.  We went by the Shack, but Travis wasn’t there.  The whole place is a wreck because they are remodeling.  They have now rented the place next door and are going to have a 6-table Italian Restaurant.  They have changed the current restaurant all around and are adding a little kitchen.  We said hello to Rosie and the kids and went home. 

07-05  La Paz

I am working on figuring out what to take to the States and Dick & Nick went off to do some “man shopping”.  We had agreed to all meet at Marina Palmira in the afternoon for the pool during the hottest part of the day.  I did some cleaning around the boat and rinsed the outside off.  It was terribly dirty, dusty and salty and we’ve got to put sail and rail covers on and get them secured before we leave.

Nick & Nancy came over at 1:30 and we hung out in and around the pool for a couple hours, then we went and tried this fabulous restaurant we heard about from Mizzy & Brian called “Il Rustica”.  It is an Italian restaurant with pizza’s.  It was fabulous!  (I want to come back here often – D) Come to find out they have a B&B associated to them as well.  The rooms were $55 & $65 US dollars per night!  Excellent dinner!  We went back to the Shack to check on their progress.  They got the new grill & hood installed in the new location and some cleaning done, but it still looks a wreck.

07-06  La Paz

It was a HOT morning this morning.  It is already hot at 6:30 a.m. and no wind or breeze, so it will probably be another pool afternoon.  Gotta get stuff done before it gets hot!  Today was “girl shopping” day.  I met Nancy down town at 9:30 am to do a little looking around and have lunch.  Went back to the Marina about 2:00 and got in the pool immediately!!

It was Travis’s birthday, the owner of the Shack, so we went there for a fabulous shrimp spaghetti dinner. There were only 11 of us and it was a private dinner that Rosie cooked up, with cake for dessert.  It was wonderful!  (A good time was had – D) Yum Yum!  The breeze came up finally at night after we got home.

07-07  La Paz

Gotta run some more errands, get packed and work on this blog.  It was another scorcher today too however there was a cloud cover, which only meant it was humid for a change.  It was 94 degrees, with a heat intex of 99 degrees at 7:30 in the evening, after sundown.  We went to the Panga restaurant for dinner because we know it is air-conditioned.  It was very difficult getting to sleep.  We are ready for some Bay Area weather.

07-08  La Paz

One more day….  Just trying to get through the heat.  Have all the last minute things to do to the boat before we leave tomorrow.  It is already hot this morning at 7:30.  We spent this day getting ready to go and IN THE POOL!!

La Paz to Bahia Candeleros 06-02 to 06-17

06-02 La Paz to Caleta Partida

Our 1st day heading for new territories. It feels good to be off the dock again and headed for new places. We are expecting to run into our friends Bob & Sherry on Nirvana, as we have communicated via e-mail and Facebook. They had just arrived the previous day in the channel at an anchorage following their crossing from Mazatlan. Sure enough, as we were leaving from La Paz we contacted them on the VHF and they were heading to Caleta Partida as well.

It was quite windy in La Paz as we were leaving and we had to stop at the fuel dock to fill two of the diesel tanks we had pretty much emptied. So, it was a little precarious getting on and off the fuel dock, but we managed. Once we were done with that we headed off to Caleta Partida. It was about a six hour trip and we arrived at 4:00 that afternoon. It is a beautiful anchorage set between the Islands of Isla Ispiritu Santo and Isla Partida. There are only fishermen camps on the low-lying shore. Quite windy conditions in the anchorage, so we put out five-to-one scope on the anchor chain. It took two tries to get the anchor hooked. 

That all done, Nirvana called and invited us to a pot luck dinner on their boat with the folks from Buena Vida, Jeff & Julie, too (also on the Ha-Ha). They had buddy-boated with Buena Vida across from Mazatlan. So, it was fun to get to know them and hear stories back and forth. I made a nice vegetable & pasta dish. Julie brought a spinach salad & Sherry prepared a rice with scallop dish! Yumm!

The wind came up hard so we all scattered to our boats. Just as we got to Journey, she started dragging anchor. We started the engine and the anchor re-hooked a couple hundred yards towards the middle of the anchorage. Then we let out more scope (chain) and watched for a couple hours. Poor Dick was up every hour all night checking our position. I didn’t sleep well either, but was in bed. Sometimes these things happen.

06-03 Caleta Partida The wind was still blowing in the morning but not quite as hard. The big power boat that was anchored by us left, so we let out some more scope. We were pretty sure we wouldn’t be going anywhere after that! Since we were both pretty tired, we just stayed aboard, tidied up the boat and rested. It is a lovely anchorage with beautiful desert mountains and white sandy beaches. We are looking forward to exploring tomorrow and maybe snorkeling. Every morning one of the fishermen from the small camp comes by the boats asking for things like shampoo, powdered juice packets, pens, batteries, etc. Sometimes he trades fish. ( We always had something to give him and I think this may be why the park ranger did not harass us for a park pass – required for the islands – as they did some of the other boats. - D) 

Buena Vida called and invited us and Nirvana to potluck dinner on their boat tonight, so I made a vegetable salad with Papaya-seed dressing for that dinner. Buena Vida had traded with the fishermen for some delicious white fish, which they grilled and served with pineapple salsa. Julie also made a Pineapple upside down cake with rum. Nirvana brought an Orzo salad dish (small Greek mini-pasta). All in all a super yummy meal. The wind wasn’t too bad tonight and with the extra scope out and we both got a really good night sleep.

06-04 Caleta Partida Another beautiful day in Paradise! Nirvana was off to La Paz to get their Jellyfish suits made and will join us in the Sea as soon as they are done with that. Buena Vida headed for Isla San Francisco or San Everisto and we may catch up with them when we are done staying here. It was a very calm morning and we wanted to get to exploring before the heat rose too high. So, we took the dinghy over to the first little beach on the north side of the bight where we were told there was a cave you could climb to. I found out that roaches can not only fly, but swim too!! EEEEUUUWWwww! They were all over the beach and rushed under our dinghy to get out of the sun. We climbed up to the cave, or should I say scrabbled up. It wasn’t much to see and didn’t go too far into the mountainside, so we scrabbled down and went further into the shallow cove beach and found that it was covered in tens of thousands of tiny one-clawed Fiddler crabs. They moved like the sea as we approached them and climbed in and out of tiny holes in the sand. We walked to where there was a sign indicating that there was a trail going up into the canyon, but it was getting too hot to attempt that. We took the dinghy over to the eastern beach, which was a long sandy beach and was the low point between Isla Ispiritu Santo and Isla Partida. This is also where the fishing camp is. We said hello to the fellow who comes around to the boats, walked over to the long rock wall and looked over to the other side. We could see that there was a narrow passage of water that would allow us to motor the dinghy through to the other side, so we did. Sea caves were along the Isla Partida side of the cove. It was very pretty and nice and breezy!


We went back to the boat with plans to get ready to have our friends Mary & Bill from Jade Dragon over for dinner. We met Mary in Ventura on our way down to San Diego last fall and met her husband Bill when they came to La Paz. However, while I was preparing the dinner fixin’s, we got a call from the boat Merilon with Tiki and Michael Kehir aboard. Michael belonged to HMBYC many years ago and Dick taught him to sail there 20 years ago in the adult sailing class. They have been cruising down here for 11 years. So, we invited them to dinner too. I had to make some changes to the meal to accommodate them and Tiki brought an Orzo salad to contribute. I prepared Tahitian marinated Chicken with Tropical fruit and rice (super yummy!) and Mary brought home-made garlic/parmesan loaf bread and Margaritas.

 We had a lovely meal, more story-sharing, catching up and getting to know “stuff”. A pleasant time was had by all.

  06-05 Caleta Partida

 We were going to head to Isla San Francisco on this morning, but Merilon is staying another day and we wanted to stay another day too. There were a lot of turtles swimming around in this anchorage and I wanted to float on a raft and look through my mask to see if I could see some. 

Dick went and visited his old friend Michael on Merilon for a while giving me alone-time on the boat. Nice! When he returned I put my raft in the water and floated around for a bit to see if I could see any of those turtles. Unfortunately, the water was very green and murky. No turtles….bummer. (One very calm evening, when the ripples of surfacing turtles was quite obvious, I saw at least a dozen of them swimming around us. Another time we had to back off on the dinghy throttle suddenly to keep from running over one – Dive, dive. - D) We will be heading to Isla San Francisco in the morning.

06-06 Trip to Isla San Francisco

  We made the nearly four hour trip to ISF by 1:00 pm. The winds were in the 20’s coming out of the South, so we blew right on up the Sea at about 7+ knots with the jib out. We chose to stay in the Eastern bight which gave us protection from the SSW seas & winds. We were the only boat in the anchorage until late afternoon. One of the other boats moved from the other side of the island to stay here. It is a stark and beautiful desert island with many colors and rock formations. I posted an aerial shot from the cruising book. Our anchorage was just above the heel of the foot-shaped end of the island, on the upper left side of this picture. Keep in mind the picture was taken from the North, so South is up.

It is not as windy here and gets HOT in the afternoon. We cooled ourselves off in the water and got a pretty good night’s sleep.

 06-07 Isla San Francisco
  It was nice and cool this morning. It sure is a beautiful spot. We were trying to decide if we wanted to stay here and explore or head on up to San Evaristo tomorrow. Bob & Sherry are going to leave La Paz tomorrow and head straight here to ISF and then to San Evaristo. We plan to stay a while in San Evaristo as there is a LITTLE town there and things to explore along with a little tienda (market).

 It got pretty HOT today and no breeze, so we did not get around to exploring anything here. We just tried to stay cool, played some backgammon, read, worked on my music and I actually broke out the paints and started working on a painting. I fixed a fabulous Caribbean Chicken dish (sweating profusely) with noodles and papaya for dinner after the sun was mostly down. Mmmmm yummy! By the end of the day we decided we would move on to San Evaristo tomorrow, so we took all the sunshades down that night. We finished off the night with a couple episodes of Bewitched on DVD.

  06-08 Trip from ISF to San Evaristo

A nice breezy morning and cool. We have been listening to the Sonrisa Net every morning at 7:30, so we listened to that again this morning before leaving for San Evaristo. We heard on the net this morning, though, that the tienda is closed for a week. However, our next destination would be Agua Verde and we heard they now have a couple of tiendas. We were hoping to get some ice there, so we had to run our icemaker when we ran the engine on the way to San Evaristo. (Interesting navigation here, the paper charts and chartplotter indicated islands that no longer existed and the islands that were there were by radar 1½ miles off the charted position, glad to have gone through this area in the daylight. In both San Evaristo and Aqua Verde, we ended anchored in what the plotter indicated to be land. The charts down here are often based on surveys performed in 1867!!!– D)

San Evaristo is a lovely little village. Not many people, but they do have a school. There are houses up in the hills as well as along the beach. It is definitely a fishing village where the panga pescaderos go fishing every day. We will have to get ourselves some fresh fish.

It was nice and breezy this afternoon, coming right off the Sea into the cove, making for a pleasant stay our first day. We were all by ourselves until late afternoon when a Moorings charter catamaran came into the anchorage, then another mono-hull and yet another mono-hull. So, we ended up having four boats in the anchorage. The Mooring charter people stopped by our boat to say hi. Two nice couples from Texas, who evidently have chartered all over the world together, including Tahiti, Greek Islands, BVI’s, Red Sea, etc. Nice folks! We will be exploring the village tomorrow.
  06-09 San Evaristo

Woke up to a beautiful morning, light breezes and a hazy sky from the previous night’s light fog. We heard Bob & Sherry on the Sonrisa net this morning indicating they had just left La Paz heading for here. So, we were expecting to see them that evening. . (Bob has now talked me into becoming one of the Sonrisa net daily net controllers – I will be doing Wednesdays starting on the 20th. – D)

We went exploring on the beach starting at one end. There are quite a few goats, chickens, chicken hawks, cows and dogs. I had to give the goats some water in their bowl because it was empty and one of them took a liking to me. He nuzzled his little head against my thighs while I petted and scratched him. (Tami’s newest best friend – D) I gave half my bottle of water to a VERY pregnant dog. She drank it right out of the bottle and was my buddy after that. She followed us down the beach as we explored the shore. There is a water desalination plant here and a couple of small tiendas, of which only one is open, and quite a few homes (if you can call them that). There are a few nicer structures and some mobile homes. There is also a school on the road to the salt ponds. 

We met a cute young couple, traveling with his parents (our age) who were visiting them on their 30’ boat. They loved our boat, so we invited them over to “Journey” for a tour. We were having such a nice time sharing stories, I put out some munchies and they ended up staying until about 10:00 p.m. (Four people on a 30 footer – well they did appear to get along very well. - D )

Nirvana didn’t make it by sundown, so we probably won’t see them until tomorrow.

06-10 San Evaristo

Another lovely morning with light breezes. I did some more painting, worked on the lyrics to my song list and read today. Nirvana made it today at about 4:00. So, we picked them up in our dinghy and went to shore for a while. Then we had dinner together on Journey. I fixed shredded beef quesadillas and Sherry brought a vegetable salad. It was a windless moonlit evening and the stars were outrageous! We had a great time of course laughing and talking about stories.

06-11 San Evaristo

We spent one more day in Evaristo so Bob & Sherry could do some exploring of their own and maybe snorkel. We did some more relaxing and some boat projects, then had dinner on Nirvana. Dinners are always pot luck. Sherry fixed arracherra with tortillas with roasted peppers and I fixed a vegetable dish with peas, carrots, tomatoes and potatoes. We all headed to bed early for an early departure tomorrow

. 06-12 Trip to Agua Verde

 Anchor up at 9:00 a.m. we traveled through some beautiful waters between the islands and peninsula. There was no wind and the water was glassy. The mountains were spectacular all cut with lines and colored earth and lava. The mountains were cut in dramatic shapes and rocks and reefs were jutting out of the sea. It was quite warm as well. We had the fan running while under way, with all the hatches open.

We arrived in Agua Verde at about 4:00 or so. What a really pretty anchorage! There is a small village here (larger than the last two) there are even palm trees in a small area on the beach. Must be water underground. There’s a small tienda and an actual restaurant (what that means we are not yet sure). We will probably visit there tomorrow. Once we got the dinghy in the water we relaxed until we had a light dinner of hot dogs and watched a movie. Lights out!

  06-13 Agua Verde

There was no wind this morning, so it was already heating up at 7:00 a.m. It is a beautiful place, our favorite so far. We had to laugh at rush hour here though. The morning started out quiet and then all of a sudden panga after panga started heading out to sea for the day. Rush hour happens again in the evening too when the pescaderos return.

Michael & Tiki on Merilon are here in the northeast anchorage so they offered to give us, Bob & Sherry a tour of the village. We all caravanned to the beach in our dinghies and walked the area. What can I say. Hot, dry, dusty, quiet and colorful. There is green here though, which means plants trees and flowers here and is unusual for up here. We discovered there is an underground aquifer here. They even have some sort of basic water distribution pumping system. There are goats, chickens, burros and horses here as well. A bit more populated than San Evaristo. We shopped at the two tiendas in town, got some fruit and freshly killed chicken pieces. We also made reservations for tomorrow night with the only “Restaurant” in town, which is a family who will cook a meal for you. According to the lady, she will be fixing fried fish, rice and beans.

We finally got to try out our new jellyfish suits when we went over to Merilon’s anchor spot and went snorkeling. Had a fun time! (There were over a dozen different types of fishes – D) The prettiest were the big black fishes with bright purple trim, orange fins and a fat white streak on their sides.

Nirvana didn’t come because they were having dinghy engine problems and Bob wanted to get that figured out. When we returned from snorkeling, we tried to start our engine to charge the batteries and it wouldn’t start. Same symptoms as air in the system. So, Dick got in the engine compartment again and our fuel filter was filthy. Fortunately there is a second filter set up ready to go and all he had to do was switch over to it. That way he can change the bad one at a more convenient time. We just had to bleed the air out of the system and it started right up.

To finish off the day, we went over to Nirvana for some libations and tostadas, I brought a super yummy cream cheese and Jalapeno Jelly dip with crackers. Nice and busy day.

  06-14 Agua Verde

 Another gorgeous day in Agua Verde Paradise! A quiet day, with the exception of having to change the oil filter and assisting Nirvana with their dinghy engine problem. Both his dinghy engines conked out in the same day, so we are all figuring it is dirty fuel. He bought new fuel in Mazatlan on the way up. Dick gave him some gasoline so he could check if it was a case of bad fuel or an engine problem. Our fuel was a combination of La Cruz & La Paz. It was the fuel because both engines worked on our gasoline. So we gave him a gallon to use till he can get some more, probably in Puerto Escondido.

We lounged around reading, playing computer games and napping for the most part. Buena Vida showed up this afternoon with Julie & Jeff aboard. They were just getting back from where we are about to go. They are on their way back to La Paz.

We had dinner at the “Restaurant” in town with Michael & Tiki. They were low on gas and out of cash, so we picked them up and treated them to dinner. The meal was simple, but delicious! It was breaded & deep-fried white fish of some sort. Nice and tender and juicy! It was served as promised with rice, beans and home-made tortillas. Very nice family there! Too bad my Spanish isn’t better, I would have liked to converse with them. The lady is really pleasant and her “Papa” (either father or grandfather, not sure) is a very friendly and pleasant man. We brought Michael & Tiki to Journey for some after-dinner libations before delivering them to Merilon for the night.

  06-15 Agua Verde

 We are anxious to see Candeleros and the new resort we hear is there. There will be internet!! Yay & a pool! There will also be a more substantial provisioning store there too. Not that we particularly need it, but I’m running low on cheese and bread so far, which was expected.

 Agua Verde was beautiful this morning and already warming up. A local gal, Fatima, came by in her kayak to see if we wanted to off-load some garbage for 25 pesos a bag. We had two bags in the forward head, so YAY we off-loaded the stinky bags.

Well as cruisers plans are always “written in sand”, we got talked into staying one more day by Nirvana and Buena Vida. They said the snorkeling was pretty good over on the south anchorage and that there isn’t really any snorkeling in Candeleros. So, we stayed and snorkeled the other side of the bay. It was indeed very nice! 

We all got together that evening on Buena Vida for dinner. Julie fixed sushi with salmon and dorado as well as an Asian cabbage salad aaaaaaand a chocolate/Kahlua cake. Sherry brought some delicious fresh dorado she had been given by a power boater in the cove in trade for information she gave them on the radio regarding the cove as they were coming from the South. Jeff BBQ’d it up beautifully. I brought a Tahitian Chicken casserole and some Kahlua to go with the cake. We received this home-made Kahlua with chocolate from our friends Larry & Maria as a farewell gift last summer and it was perfect for this occasion. Super Yummy!!

  06-16 Trip to Bahia Candeleros

 Sooooooooo, yes we left today for Bahia Candeleros. Got the boat ready after the morning net and headed for Candeleros, which is only about a 4-hr trip. More beautifully chiseled mountains, rocks jutting up out of the sea, volcanic reefs and no wind. It was a very warm passage and we were mucho calor by the time we got into the anchorage. It is yet another beautiful anchorage! Merilon was already here a day before us and Nirvana was an hour behind us. There are a couple other boats here as well.

Turns out Sherry isn’t feeling well, so she stayed on the boat while the rest of us took our dinghies to the western shore to check out a mini-mercado. It was about a quarter mile walk, but flat. It was much more stocked than the smaller tiendas we’ve seen so far up here. We picked up a pair of frozen chicken breasts, bread, onions and a couple potatoes. We’re doing alright so far in the provisioning department. 

Once we put everything away, we joined Michael & Tiki at the resort. We had to check in at the front desk and get a wrist-band as if we were regular guests. They are very friendly and glad to have us spending money at their pool and restaurants. We had dinner at the sports bar restaurant (outdoors) after we cooled off in the pool, of course!

The wind had piped up while we were eating, so we zoomed back out to the boat and scurried to take the sunshade down before it got trashed. (Successfully – Yay! – shade is very important – D) It was blowing 20-25 knots steady, gusts to thirty. In anticipation of a possible all-night blow, I went to sleep on the couch while Dick sat up to watch, because we would take turns watching in that case. However, he woke me up at 10:00 to go to bed because the wind had died down. Yaaay!

  06-17 Bahia Candeleros

 “Dead Calm’” is the perfect expression for the weather this morning. There is supposed to be internet pumping out from the resort, so Dick worked on getting our internet antenna and cable hooked up. There seemed to be a problem, so it took a while but he was successful. So, yay we can touch base with everyone!! We made some phone calls, checked e-mails, did some “facebooking”. Got to talk to my Dad on Father’s Day!! It was a nice surprise for him. The Skype is working okay to a land line, but not too good on a cell phone. It was still difficult talking to the land line, but it was nice to be able to say hello.

We tried to start the motor this morning and we experienced the same symptoms of air in the diesel system again. So Dick had to go back into the engine compartment AGAIN and bleed the air out. We are not yet sure what is causing that and are hoping it was just residual air somewhere from before. We’ll see.

We managed to get some messages out and e-mails written. I also got the blog done so I could send it out tomorrow. Just have to upload pictures for it. Will do that in the morning. The next time we blog will probably be in La Paz in early July.

We decided not to go into the resort today as most of the day slipped away.