Northward Bound

Wednesday, July 1. La Ramada.
This morning I poured a cup of coffee and went to the cockpit to enjoy the view. I heard a boat so I looked toward our starboard bow and saw a panga coming toward our little flotilla. I figured he was looking for fish. Dave said there was a fish camp around the corner from us. I watched the panga go around a couple of the sailboats and then he headed for our boat. I really didn’t want to buy any fish. Dave came up from down below and the man pulled alongside our boat and was asking us something. We couldn’t understand and he didn’t speak English. As he tried to explain what he wanted we recognized the word sonar. He was asking for help with his sonar. It was set up in English and he wanted it in Spanish. Dave ended up getting in the panga with the guy and started to mess with the sonar. I tried to make a little conversation with the man. I asked him his name and he said it was Saoul. He asked me what my name was and I told him. It was neat. Dave managed to change the settings so Saoul could read it and he was a happy camper. He had a boat load of trigger fish and he asked if we wanted some. We said sure. So he filleted 2 large fish and gave us the meat. It was quite a bit of fish. Now Dave doesn’t have to go fishing!!! That is what is so neat about Mexico. You do a favor for someone and they pay you in fish or clams. It is really neat. We thanked Saoul for the fish and said it was good to meet him. When he left we called Marni on s/v 2 Pieces of Eight and asked if they wanted some fish for ceviche. They thought we bought the fish and when we told them how we got it they were impressed. So Dave took a couple of nice fillets over to their boat. Today is Canada Day for them since they are from there and they had their dress flags up with a pink flamingo at the bottom.

After I put the bow awning, windshield cover, and side cover up, I hoisted the Canadian flag in honor of their day. They thought that was neat. When Dave came back to the boat he had a great idea and asked me to get his flamingo hat. So I did and he put it on and went over to their boat again and wished them a Happy Canada Day. I heard Marni say when she saw Dave, “He’s one of us now”. That was funny.

We took advantage of the calm waters and took a dinghy ride around the point and the outside of our anchorage, and then we went over to where the fish camp is. Cindy and Gary off s/v Distant Shores were on the beach just before you get to the fish camp. Cindy was searching for shells while Gary was in his cave reading his book. We told him he had a nice cave!! We talked to both of them briefly then we left and came back to the boat. I washed clothes and dishes and when Dave turned the generator on to make water, I typed from my notes for the blog. I have a lot of typing to do. Water is made and my plan is to go to work cleaning the stainless steel. I had been using WD40 to do that, but I really didn’t like the look and feel of the stainless steel when I was done. It took out most of the spots but not all of them and left the stainless steel slippery. We had picked up some metal polish in La Paz so I am going to work on the port side and then the next project will be to redo the starboard side and then work on the back of the boat. Then when that is all done it will be time to start all over again. There is never a time when there isn’t something to work on. The result of the polish is so much better. It has taken all the rust spots out and has left it looking like new. I’m impressed. The polish smells like ammonia, but it works like a charm.

Dave just spotted a large purse seiner passing by our anchorage. It looks like it might be going to the fish camp but then he turned. He is looking for a fishing spot to drop his net. We don’t know what he is fishing for but it has to be for big fish like tuna maybe.

Before I start on the stainless steel I have to clean the forward sump pump as it isn’t draining like it is suppose to. Now that that job is done I can start on the stainless steel. Oh yeah!!!

The starboard stainless is finished to the bimini. Now all that is left is the cockpit and stern. I put everything away then sat down and had a beer in the cockpit. Dave went out trolling for fish in the dinghy. Unfortunately he didn’t get any bites. He came back to the boat and now is relaxing. I boiled noodles to make a Mediterranean salad, boiled eggs and poured teriyaki sauce on the pork chops for BBQing later. I’ll serve some chopped potatoes cooked in butter and tarragon seasoning and coleslaw.

There is a bon fire on shore again tonight but Dave and I aren’t going. We have to get the boat ready for departure tomorrow morning. We have to eat dinner, listen to the weather on the net, take the engine off the dinghy and mount it and secure things for the night. Last time we went to the bon fire it was dark when we got back and I didn’t want to do all the prep work then.

It has been a relaxing evening. Dave and I had a glass of wine and a cigar. There is lightning on the mainland side so we have a little bit of a light show going on. We had a nice breeze for a while but now there is very little.

Thursday, July 2. La Ramada to Bahia Conception (Burro Cove).
We were up at 6:30am and were ready to go but we needed to wait for Pete and Marnie. We agreed last night we would leave at 8:00am after the Sonrisa Net. Marnie wants to hear the weather before leaving. Three of the other boats left from 6:00-6:30am. We started pulling the anchor a little before 8:00am and on our way by 8:00am. The skies are blue and the seas are calm. I spend an hour or so typing for the blog from my notes and now I am in the cockpit. Since it is calm and we are on the inverter might as well try to do some catching up. We have both the main and headsail out with 10 knots on our starboard aft. We put the headsail up to steady us from the rollers then we got some breeze so we added the mainsail. We are still motoring and with the sails we are making 6.4 knots. There are boobies (the bird type) flying around our boat and we don’t want them landing so the sails prevent that. We don’t have the fishing line out due to the birds because they will dive bomb the lure and then we will have bird on the line. Not a good thing. One cruiser that left early this morning had his line out and caught a boobie. It wasn’t a pretty sight I guess. The bird died. Burro Cove is where some of the cruisers go for the 4th of July. That is where we are headed. We are just mosing along right now having a nice ride.

The wind got too light to keep wind in the sails so we pulled in the headsail then centered the mainsail. We got a little further and had 13 knots of wind behind us so we pulled the headsail out again and positioned the main to fill with wind. We can’t sail wing on wing but we will put both sails out as far as they will go without rubbing on the spreaders and hope for the best. So far so good. I am still playing catch up for the blog and making progress. I took a break for lunch and then went back to the computer again.

I’m in the cockpit now giving Dave a break. Our wind has died so the headsail is coming in and the main is brought back to center. We are almost to the point where we make our turn. We were able to do a lot of motor sailing today. At least we got the sails up and that to us is what matters. It helps save on diesel.

As we were approaching Burro Cove, Dave was down below looking at his computer when a yellow light blinked. It is 5:16pm and we are finally anchored. He had no idea what that meant until later. He turned the computer off and waited a few minutes and turned it on again and nothing. His battery has died and he doesn’t have a spare. Now he is stressing. Without that computer for email and internet we are screwed. Nothing we can do about it now. Hope we can get one in Santa Rosalia.
LOG: 6657.5NM TRIP: 53.41NM
LOCATION: 26̊ 43:731N/111̊ 54:287W
ENG. HRS: 1259

It is pretty warm and the breeze is warm also. There are about 17 boats here in Burro Cove and more to come. There is going to be a big 4th of July celebration party with free hot dogs and $1.00 beers. All we provide is a side dish. There is a man that lives in a palapa here named Gary who is hosting the party. This is an annual event. This is a cute bay with a sandy beach and private palapas where people bring their RV’s and stay in the palapas. Some of them look like small cabins. There were a couple of the cruisers spending the afternoon in the water. Sounds like something to do tomorrow. We settled in for the night and watched kids play in the water and on the beach and heard generators start on shore. There is a restaurant at the head of the beach we are going to for lunch tomorrow. Marnie asked us if we wanted to join them. We heard the food is good and the price very reasonable.

It is dark now and there isn’t a lick of breeze anywhere and it is hot!!! I tried sleeping down below but it was too uncomfortable and was sweating too much so I went to the cockpit and joined Dave. He can sleep in the cockpit all night but I can’t do that. It gets real hard after awhile and then I need my soft bed. When it cooled down enough, I went to my soft bed.

Friday, July 3. Burro Cove.
It is going to be a hot one today. We were up at 7:00am and it was already starting to get hot. We put the bow awning up, the side curtain down and the windshield cover over the dodger windshield. There seems to be a little breeze coming up now so I hope it continues. Marni called us to say they were going into shore for lunch at 1:00pm. She wanted to make sure that was a good time for us too. It was.

Dave is not a happy camper already this morning because the freezer ran all night, not shutting off and draining the batteries. We are pretty low in our batteries. The freezer needs to be defrosted so it’s been trying to keep everything cold. It’s been a week since we last defrosted it which is really good for us. Dave started the generator and I defrosted the freezer and refrigerator. Dave made water and I typed for the blog. I’m almost caught up for June. The plan is to be ready to add pictures and post it once we get settled in Santa Rosalia.

Dave was checking the sailmail email and he had an email from sailmail saying they couldn’t renew our subscription due to the card we used didn’t work. Boy!!!! THAT didn’t go over well at all!!! He was wondering if our debit card had been compromised and if so we were screwed. It was a little unnerving to say the least. Even though the battery from his computer wasn’t working, as long as it was hooked to the inverter, he could use it to email. He was really concerned about not being able to get a hold of the bank so he could find out what was going on. We had talked to the bank quite a while ago, when we were in Puerto Vallarta, and we said we wouldn’t be making any purchases in the U.S. for a long time so Dave thought that since we were trying to renew our subscription for sailmail and they are in southern California, they may have denied the action. He was chomping at the bit so he turned on the satellite phone to try and get a signal so he could call Noreen, our great friend and money manager for us, to see if she could find anything out. He got a signal and called her and she said she would check it out and get back to us. After that Dave had enough of a signal he called the bank and explained the situation and asked if they knew anything about it. They did not and had no idea. Hmmmm!!! That wasn’t sounding too good. Now what!! Noreen got back to us and said the same thing as we found out. No one knew what was going on. Great!!! Noreen said she would walk down the block to the Key bank on her lunch hour and see if they had anything different to say. There is a disadvantage to traveling the Sea of Cortez. You are disconnected from everything. You can’t get internet service and if your computer dies like ours did there is no email. The satellite phone is not reliable for email or phone calls so it is very frustrating when we have a problem like this. Dave shared with me that he was not happy and wondered if this was a good idea to come to the sea. My thought was if we didn’t come to the Sea we would never know what it would be like. The first year is always a bust I guess. Later on he received an email from Noreen saying no one could figure out what was going on. Dave sent an email to sailmail and asked them about the card. He was able to double check what he had typed in because he thought he might have made a mistake, but everything checked out on this end. So we just had to wait until they got back to him. After about 4 hours of stressing and not having the bank know what the problem is, he gets a reply from sailmail. Get this!!!! They said they made a mistake and typed in our card number wrong. So then Dave asked if we were going to get a year free subscription for all the aggravation and satellite phone calls. They of course didn’t reply to that but only had their canned response saying thank you for renewing your subscription. We were very relieved the card was fine but what a hassle!!

We met Marni and Pete at Bertha’s restaurant around 1:00pm and had a good lunch. It is a neat place. Here are some pictures. Some of the other cruisers came in for lunch and beers or just for beer and get out of the heat. It is hotter here than anywhere else we have been so far. It is 96 degrees and the heat index is 126. Wow!!! Marni said that Santa Rosalia is hot too and places north, but we will live. After lunch we went back to the boat. I got in my bathing suit, grabbed my noodle and floated in the water behind the boat. It felt soooo good!! The water was warm but not hot. I finally got out and rinsed off and got changed. Dave was relaxing in the cockpit.

The freezer was working overtime so Dave was keeping tabs on that and I sat in the cockpit watching a bus load of kids play in the water.

We had left over salad for dinner and then it was time to just sit back and enjoy the scenery. We watched a couple boats come in and there will be more tomorrow for the festivities. It was pretty warm down below and in the cockpit so Dave and I got our cushions and put them on the bow. There was a nice breeze and I fixed us a margarita to enjoy. It was too hot to sleep down below or in the cockpit so I had a brilliant idea. I thought we would lay our cushions flat and put a doubled up blanket over them for padding and then put the queen size travasak on top of the blanket. So that is what I did. Hey!! It was pretty comfortable. So we slept on the deck. I woke up for some reason and the moon was shining bright and the semi’s coming down the road, were working their air breaks so it was a little noisy. It must have been around 3 or 4 in the morning. I got up and went down below and went to bed. It was cool enough now. The anchorage isn’t far from the main road that leads to a town called Mulege (mool-a-hay). The semi’s travel that road. Dave had the task when he got up later in the morning of folding and putting all the stuff I brought out last night away. Teehee!!! I got it out so isn’t it fair he put it away? Well he didn’t put it away. He just carried it back to the cockpit and put it there then I put it away.

Saturday, July 4.
Happy 4th of July everyone!! After we got up, Dave got our dress flags out and started to assemble them. So we both worked on getting them put together and mind you I haven’t had any coffee yet. I wasn’t the happiest camper, but we needed to get it done before the wind came up and it got too hot. Once we got the boat dressed and put up the bow awning and the side cover, I made coffee. Then it was time to enjoy it.

There is a celebration party on shore this afternoon starting at 1:00pm. There are free hot dogs, $1.00 beers and each boat is to bring a side dish. I needed to use up some of my salad fixings, so I made a green salad. We got to thinking that there may not be any ice later on because of the party and we need some, so we got in the dinghy, went over to s/v 2 Pieces of Eight and asked them if they wanted us to pick some ice up for them and they said sure. We can make ice, but it takes a really long time with the generator and so it is just easier to get ice when we can. So we left s/v 2 Pieces of Eight and rode around the anchorage saying hi to the people we knew then we went to shore. There was no more ice. But the saving grace was, one of the restaurant workers was on an ice run and was due back any time. So we hung out for a bit. We must have waited about 20 minutes. During that time another cruiser came in for ice as well. So we waited and sure enough the little red pickup truck came rolling in. The employee of Bertha’s restaurant did the ice run. He had to drive 15 miles to Mulege and back. The ice was a little melted but none-the-less there was still a lot in the bag. So Dave paid for the ice and we hurried out to the dinghy, put the ice in it and rolled the dinghy into the water. We have wheels for the dinghy and it is really nice. They make light work of pulling the dinghy out of the water and pushing it into the water when we are ready to go. So we got the dinghy in the water, Dave jumped in and brought the wheels up and lowered the motor then I pushed the dinghy out a little bit and got in. Then we were off to drop one of the bags of ice at s/v 2 Pieces of Eight, then off to our boat to put the ice in the freezer. Dave was concerned that the freezer hadn’t shut off yet this morning. We weren’t being able to charge batteries. We found the secret though to get it to turn off and cycle. We started the generator and then turned on the air conditioner and within a few minutes the hull cooled down so the freezer could shut off and then come back on and cycle like it is suppose to. If we did this before going to bed the freezer would have no issues and would run correctly all night.

The water temperature is about 90 degrees and the units are having a hard time keeping up. I made a green salad and was getting things put together to go to shore. Dave was so frustrated with the battery consumption he said he had to get off the boat before he went crazy. It was about 12:30pm so we got in the dinghy and took off for shore. When we arrive on shore we walked to the palapa where the party was being held. The hot dogs were boiling and people were starting to arrive, bringing in their dishes to share. There was a microphone in one of the corners with a speaker and chair. We were going to have entertainment. Before you knew it the palapa was full of people and food. It is a good thing we got there before the crowd as we were able to get a good place to sit. We ate lunch and listened to a guy play his guitar and sing some songs. It was cool. We visited with a lot of the cruisers we have met along the way, finding out what their plans are for the summer and beyond. Then it was getting pretty hot so it was time to take a dip in the pool. Well not really a pool but the water off the beach. You could walk out quite a ways and just stand out there with water to your neck if you wanted to. There were a lot of people already out there with drinks in hand just standing around talking or leisurely floating around. We had a good time and around 5:00pm Dave wanted to go back to the boat to see what the freezer temperature was. I had had enough of the party too so I was ready to go. We thought it was going to be really hot down below and were pleasantly surprised to find it was pretty comfortable. I rinsed the salt water off me, then changed out of my bathing and got dressed. After that we took the bow awning down and pulled up the side cover and put them away. We are leaving in the morning thank goodness, going to cooler water and temperatures. Dave took the pennants down he put up and then we undressed the boat. We were hoping to do all this before the wind came up. Too late for that!! We managed to get them down without a lot of trouble. We then brought them to the cockpit and had the duty of taking each flag apart from the other one and remarking the ones we couldn’t read very well for future use. We rolled each flag and put them back in the bag they came out of and put the bag away in the back stateroom. Then Dave took the engine off the dinghy and stored it back on the mount and we moved the dinghy to the side of the boat and secured it to the stantion. We decided we weren’t going to lift it out of the water tonight. I asked Dave if he wanted to sleep outside on the deck again and he said no. It got a little damp yesterday in the early morning plus he didn’t want to have to pick everything up again like he had to this morning. What a kill joy!!!! HA!! That’s alright; it saves time for getting prepared to get going in the morning. We will be sleeping in the cockpit tonight. As the evening wore on we took our cushions to the foredeck again and I prepared a plate of cheese slices and crackers and a glass of wine to finish out the wait for the fireworks. About 10:00pm there were about 3 or 4 small fireworks and then nothing. We waited for more but that never happened. We asked, “Is that ALL”. Yep it was! What a bummer. I know we weren’t going to have a show like we do on Lake Union, but this was really disappointing. Oh well. So we sat outside after that and just watched and listened to the happenings around the cove. There were some families that had arrived earlier in the afternoon setting up camp and they were having a good time. You could hear music, laughter and talking. Nice!! BUT—just before we were ready to retire for the night, a family drove in got out of their truck, cranked the music way up as loud as it could go and kids were yelling and hollering and splashing all around in the water. Mind you this is around 11:00pm or so. We figured they would go to bed later on and no worries right? Wrong!!! The music and the hollering and carrying on went into the wee hours of the morning. Dave and I didn’t sleep much at all. It finally got quite around 5:00am so I went down below to finish sleeping. It was still warm down below but much better than it was when we were ready to go to bed. Then around 7:00am the music is full blast again and they are making noise. Yeehaw!!! We are sooo outta here!! It was really hot last night too. If there was a breeze it was a hot one so you didn’t get any relief. We were ready to leave.

Earlier before we went to bed, Dave ran the air conditioner to cool the hull. It didn’t take long before the freezer was running like it is suppose to.

Sunday, July 5. Burro Cove to Bahia Santo Domingo.
Dave was up early and he started preparing the dinghy and cockpit for departure. We got a call from Peter asking if we would be ready to go soon as they wanted to get out of the heat. We told them we were ready anytime they were. At 7:45am we had the anchor pulled and we were outta there. Where we are going the water temperature is a little cooler. The water temperature was 93 degrees when we left and didn’t drop until we were ¾ of the way to Bahia Santo Domingo, where we are stopping for the night. There is no wind and the skies are blue. We are only traveling about 9 nautical miles so it’s not a long trip today.

We have arrived at our anchorage and dropped the hook. It’s about 10:00am. Once we were settled we put the bow awning up and the side curtain down. Already we can feel a difference in temperature to cooler. A breeze is starting to blow which is a good thing.
LOG: 6667.0NM TRIP: 9.51NM
LOCATION: 26̊ 51:969N/111̊ 50:790W
ENG. HRS: 1261

The water smells like dead fish so I looked over the side of the boat and found small chopped up pieces of dead fish floating. There are big fishing boats that anchor just outside a small town called Mulege (mool-a-hay), which is directly across from where we are anchored, and they grind the left over bait fish up and dump it. Then it floats away with the tide. So we had that lovely package all around the boat. Not much we could do about it except hope it went away.

When we anchored by Marni and Peter we took a reading and determined we were far enough away from them there wouldn’t be a problem. Little did we know it would be. The skies started to cloud up before sunset and they continued to grow to the east. Both Dave and I were in the cockpit as it was too hot to be down below. It was muggy and we started seeing lightning. We had made our beds for the night and were settling in. I couldn’t sleep so I laid there watching the lightning and then the clouds got really dark. I knew this wasn’t good and I kept watching to see if the clouds and lightning were coming our way. There was a breeze once in a while and then it would die. The lightning was coming closer and I sat up and said uh oh!!! This isn’t good. Dave had woken up and was looking at the lightning and the sky and just as he said here it comes we got a gust of wind that blew for a long time. I lowered the forward hatches so the wind wouldn’t blow them back and break them, and then we just sat in the cockpit watching this storm come at us. Dave went out and checked the anchor and he had about 15 feet of snubber line out. Peter was on the bow of his boat checking his anchor and Dave told him how much chain and snubber line he had out and Peter said that was good. At this point s/v 2 Pieces of Eight looked too close for comfort. The wind was blowing about 20 knots and the boat was tugging pretty well on the anchor. Dave and I prayed the anchor would stay put. We dug in really well when we set it so we knew it was buried, but you always wonder. As we and s/v 2 Pieces of Eight swung on our anchors I was getting a little nervous about us being too close. So without any discussion, Dave and I were doing anchor and boat watch through the night. When the lightning had moved closer, we took both computers, the VHF handheld radio, the thumb drive and the handheld GPS and put them in the oven to protect from any electricity getting to them. Then all we could do was watch and listen to the storm. The first round of the storm lasted about 3 hours. Then the wind died down and things got a little quiet but lightning was still going on. Then the wind picked up again and we got another round. This time the lightning was closer and we heard thunder. We immediately started going around and closing hatches because it was going to rain. At first it sprinkled then let up. Then we finally got rain. Not real hard rain but steady. We are getting another boat wash. Finally around 5:00am everything started to calm down and Dave and I were able to get some sleep. We have just experienced our first Chubasco in the Sea of Cortez.

Monday, July 6. Bahia Santo Domingo to a safe place.
We got up between 6:30am and 7:00am and Marni and Peter said they wanted to hear the net weather before leaving and then determine where we were going to go. The skies were grey and there was some wind with choppy waves. The chubasco we had this morning was not predicted. They usually aren’t. The wind was directly out of the east. After the weather we decided to head for anchorage around the corner from Punta Chivato called Ensenada El Muerto. We wanted to go to Punta Chivato and see the shell beach but not this trip. That anchorage is unprotected from south and east winds. We talked to a boat that had been anchored there over night and they said they got hammered. We watched the storm head north and wondered how the guys that we knew were anchored in Chivato were doing. We found out. No one slept that night either. They had rollers coming into the anchorage so they had to watch their anchor to make sure it didn’t come loose. They got hit directly overhead with the lightning and thunder and it poured really heavy there. They did not have a great night. What mattered though is they were safe and the boats stayed anchored. They left this morning for Sweet Pea Cove on Isla San Marcos.

When we left Santo Domingo it was about 8:10am and we headed north. The storm last night came right up the middle of the Sea of Cortez.

There were 3 to 4 foot wind wave swells which weren’t bad and about 16-20 knots of wind on our starboard beam. It was rolly polly so we pulled our head sail out to the first reef point to steady the boat a little and keep the bow down for a smoother ride. We still had our engine on so we were motor sailing and making pretty good time. We ended up in a bay call Ensenada El Muertos. We thought we would stop there and see what the seas and weather was going to be like. Pete said he’d give us a call about 1:00pm or 2:00pm and we could reassess the situation at that time to see if we wanted to move on or stay the night.
LOG: 6685.9NM TRIP: 18.91NM
LOCATION: 27̊ 05:913N/111̊ 58:664W
ARRIVAL: 11:37AM
ENG. HRS: 1265

The wind was directly out of the east and was blowing 16 knots with no indication of it calming down. Dave and I were hoping the wind would die down tonight as it usually does. In the meantime, 2 other sail boats, ones that were anchored in Santo Domingo with us, anchored behind us. Dave and I had lunch then a nap. It was a little hard to sleep as the boat was bouncing around pretty good. It was a little uncomfortable. Around 1:30-2:00pm Peter called us on the VHF and asked how we were doing and if we would be able to spend the night. We said it should be alright as we were hoping the wind would die as it normally does. We have anchored in worse. So we agreed we would spend the night. Dave went forward to the anchor locker and started to sew a leather chafe guard onto a line for a spare snubber in case we need it. The two boats that anchored behind us decided to leave as they were uncomfortable about the waves and wind. So they let us know they were going to Sweet Pea Cove which was about a couple hours from where we are. Marni talked to s/v Distant Shores about them leaving and they said they just didn’t feel comfortable staying any longer. So Marni thought it might be a good idea to pull anchor and move on. She contacted us and we agreed so off we went to Sweet Pea Cove on Isla San Marcos. We weighed anchor around 3:03pm. We went through Craig Channel which can be very shallow in a lot of spots with rocks. Peter gave us waypoints to follow which we set up and then we followed behind him. We figured with his draft of 8 feet, if he went aground we would be safe. HA!! It’s hard to be the first boat. When we finally got through the shallow area, we turned NE to our destination. We passed a large cargo ship that was at a dock being loaded with gypsum at the south end of Isla San Marcos. Large quantities of gypsum are mined and then exported to parts around the world. We arrived at Sweet Pea Cove. On the northwest side of the island and checked out a place to anchor. It is fairly calm here and Santa Rosalia is 11 nautical miles from here. We were supposed to be here in a couple of days, but due to the weather conditions we were forced to arrive earlier. I read there are caves to explore and also there are a couple more anchorages north around the corner from here. We found a spot to anchor and so we dropped our hook around 5:15pm.
LOG: 6697.1NM TRIP: 11.21NM
LOCATION: 27̊ 13:957N/112̊ 06:096W
ENG. HRS: 1267

We are officially out of hurricane alley. Anything north of 27 degrees is safe usually. There are of course exceptions to the rule. It’s peaceful here and the sunset was beautiful. You can hear the waves lapping the rocks on shore. I’m looking forward to a good night sleep.

Tuesday, July 7. Sweet Pea Cove.
We slept like babies last night. The cabin stayed cool for sleeping. It was nice. This morning we have clear turquoise water and you can see the rays swimming on the bottom and also our chain and anchor. We are dug in good. The skies are blue with a few clouds.

Dave was up before I was so he got the jerry cans off the stern and dropped the seat down so it is now a step, and then he got the dinghy taken care of where he can put the engine on the dinghy. I helped him put the bow awning out and he had already put the side curtain down. After the awning was up Dave started the generator and made water. I defrosted the refrigerator and freezer then started typing for the July blog. Last night I finished proofing the June blog so all I have to do now when we get to Santa Rosalia is input the pictures and post it. The July and August blogs will be posted when I can get internet service.

When we were almost finished making water, I helped Dave put the engine on the dinghy. Then I got the dinghy wheels out and Dave attached them to the stern of the dinghy. When we finished making water we got in the dinghy and rode around the cove checking out the fish. It was like looking at an aquarium. It was pretty awesome!! We saw angel fish. One was a black with a yellow tail and a white stripe behind his head and the other was a grey color with yellow on his head with 2 stripes at the end of the yellow. The dark one was a King Angelfish and the grey was a Cortez Angelfish. There was some small colorful fish and we saw some bigger fish so Dave will either go fishing later this afternoon and/or tomorrow morning. We went around the corner of where we are anchored and saw m/v Hobo, s/v Chrysalis, s/v Distant Shores, and s/v Alma Inquieta. We stopped and talked to Larry and Lena from m/v Hobo for a few minutes. He told us he caught 2 dorado in the deeper water from where they are. Dave is definitely going to try his luck at getting one of those. We said good-bye and continued on our exploration journey. The other three boats had their dinghies gone so we knew they were exploring and probably snorkeling. We found them at this neat spot where there was a rock that looked like an arch and they were snorkeling and then going on the beach looking for shells. We went further along and found the cave everyone was talking about. It was huge and you could go in there with a dinghy or kayak. There was even a small beach in there. We couldn’t go in due to us having our engine on the dinghy but it sure looked awesome. After that we went back to our boat. The wind is picking up and there is a pretty good current ripping in here. Dave was going to dive under the boat to check it out but with the strong current he decided he will have to wait. Now we are just relaxing. Dave is finishing the book he is reading called The Shooters by W.E.B. Griffin. I haven’t been doing a lot of reading or crocheting lately because it has been hot and I’ve been tired.

I did get some reading in and finished the Janet Evanovich book titled Eleven on Top. I took a dip in the large pool behind our boat and it was a bit on the chilly side. Dave thought I was a whimp and laughed at me but when he put his hand in the water later, he did say it was cold. Once you got in it was alright for a little while, but I didn’t want to stay too long. I got out and rinsed off and stayed in my suit to dry and stay cool. The bees started coming around so I had to get out of the wet suit.

I made ceviche and we had that and refried beans for dinner. Believe it or not I am tired of ceviche. After dinner and clean up we watched the sunset and just relaxed. I was tired so I went to bed around 10:00-10:30pm. Dave tried to wake me around midnight to watch whales but I was out of it. He stayed up and watched them for a while and then went to bed.

Wednesday, July 8.
We had some high clouds this morning and I wasn’t sure whether to put the bow awning up or not. I waited for a little while then decided to put it up. It stayed cloudy most of the day which was nice. It was muggy but the hot sun wasn’t beating down on us. Dave went out trolling in the dinghy and I stayed onboard and started a new Clive Cussler book titled Inca Gold. I spend most of the morning trying to get decent pictures of the manta rays jumping. After a million shots I think I got a couple good ones. Then I stayed in the cockpit and read a little, crocheted, and even strummed my guitar for the first time in eons. Dave came back with a small grouper and a Mexican Houndfish. He wasn’t sure about how it would taste but he knew the grouper was a good eating fish. Dave went out again to catch another houndfish, which he did. He brought the fish onboard and started to clean and fillet them. The grouper was small but we got a little meat off it. The houndfish was boney. He cleaned only one of them as they were difficult to get the meat off. We were sorry to waist the other fish but no one else wanted it. At least the other fish would eat it. So we bagged the meat f the fish that was filleted and I took it down below and put it in the refrigerator. We will cook it tonight to see how it tastes. Now it was the cleaning of the fish mess on the deck. We got salt water and rinsed the deck and I was the chosen one to scrub behind him to get the blood and slime off. Oh joy!!!

We ran the generator for about 2 to 3 hours to cool the hull and I typed the July blog. Then we made water. When all that was accomplished we had a drink and I fixed the fish for BBQing and made some tomato rice. We had a white wine with our meal and surprisingly the fish was really good. I don’t think we will get another houndfish, but it was good eating. After dinner Dave and I sat on the foredeck drinking our wine as we watched a school of dolphins go by along with watching a beautiful sunset. We also saw whales in the distant blowing their water spouts. When I finished my wine I went below and did the dishes. Dave stayed on the foredeck watching the stars. It is a pretty quiet night. The clouds have cleared and when that happened, late this afternoon, it got hot!!

Just before sunset, Larry from m/v Hobo, came by and dropped off a zip lock bag with 2 dorado fillets. He’s been catching dorado and tuna every day. Dave and I, Marni and Peter are going fishing tomorrow morning. I think we will be lucky.

Dave called the Singular Marina today in Santa Rosalia to verify our reservations. We have been watching boats go in right and left and were getting a little concerned about us getting in on Saturday. We were assured there would be a spot for us and s/v 2 Pieces of Eight on Saturday. They actually looked in their records to make sure we had made reservations. They did find us so everything was alright. It will be nice to do laundry, take a shower, hose the boat down and clean everything. We also have to clean the dinghy as it has sand in it and covered in salt water and fish goo. It will also be nice to contact my family and friends to let them know we are alive and well and where we are.

Our son Michael is due to come home from Iraq sometime in July. Hooray!!!! He can at least enjoy the last 4 months of pregnancy with Dani. May he never have to ever go back again!!!

It was a warm evening. We had a little breeze this afternoon but it is all gone now. I sure hope I don’t have to sleep in the cockpit. We ran the generator to make water and run the air conditioner. Well here is to a restful and awesome evening!!

Thursday, July 9.
We had a quiet and restful night and I woke to cloudy skies and a wavy sea. Nothing uncomfortable, however. We heard it got really rough around the corner to the north of us where m/v Hobo, s/v Chrysalis, s/v Distant Shores, and s/v Alma Inquieta are. m/v Hobo moved to where we are in Sweet Pea Cove. The rest stuck it out or went into Santa Rosalia. We are tucked in nicely so we don’t get a lot of weather.

Marni, Peter, Dave and I were going to go fishing this morning, but with the wind and waves it was not a good idea or safe. Before I got up and the boat was rolling around, I figured it would be a little bouncy in the dinghy so I decided I wasn’t going to go with them. But as it ended up, nobody went. Maybe Mañana.

So now we have to figure out what we are doing today. Dave may go out a little way from the boat in the dinghy, when it calms down and fish the tide line. I am having thoughts of shining the stainless steel in the cockpit. Already at 9:00am it is hot with no breeze. If I am going to work doing that I need a breeze or wind. So I bagged that idea for today. I’m not feeling really energetic anyway.

Dave decided to go out and try to catch a dorado. The wind and waves have slackened off so now is the time. I didn’t want to go so I stayed on the boat and read a little bit then did some crocheting.

Around 12:00pm Dave calls me on the VHF radio and tells me he caught about a 15 foot dorado and he was coming home. In the meantime, I fixed tuna sandwiches and when he got back, after off loading all his gear and the fish, we had lunch. Now it was time to go make a mess on the deck. Dave decided it was too hot to be in the sun so we both crawled under the bow awning to where we could sit and fillet the fish. What is hard is that we don’t have a designated cleaning area for fish and so we have to do it on the deck. Eventually we will get a fillet table to install it on the bow rail for when we need it and take it off when we don’t. For now it is a messy job!! We got 2 very large fillets off that fish. We threw the carcass overboard and then Dave manned the bucket dipping it into the sea and pouring it on the deck while miss Cinderella here, scrubbed the blood and slime off the deck. Oh boy!!!! I had such a great time!!!!! I hope you read sarcasm in this because that’s what it is!! It made me pretty grumpy. It didn’t help when Dave said that is what a boat is for. NOT!!!! When we were done with that chore I took the bagged fish down below and put it in the refrigerator where Dave would debone it and cut it in pieces, then I would package it and put it in the freezer. Marni and Peter went out after Dave did and tried to catch something and had no luck. So we ended up giving them a couple nice fillets. We’ll be eating dorado for a while. Tonight we are having the dorado steaks Larry gave us. After dinner and clean up Dave and I sat on the foredeck again and watched the sunset and the lights of Santa Rosalia. It is a pretty night.

Friday, July 10.
At 6:00am we got a blast of wind up to 20 knots. We got up and went into anchor watch mode. There were a few clouds in the sky but no thunder or lightning, just wind. It blew for a short time then died. Then it picked up again and by 6:30am it was all gone. Strange! Dave and I went back to bed and woke up again about 8:00am. It was already getting hot. Dave got the bow awning out and started putting it up while I went down below and turned on the stove to boil water to make coffee then I came up to help him.

We had a few bees yesterday on the boat and we thought they were after the dampness from the fish. We swatted and killed those that were in the cockpit. Then the sun went down and the bees went away. This morning we were inundated with them. Dave was swatting them left and right and at one point had to spray them. They are looking for water. We were told that by August they are gone due to no water.

Dave was going to take me to shore so I could look for shells. We zipped our side curtains down and gathered the fishing gear in case Dave wanted to try his luck at catching another dorado. I gathered our garbage and another bag with bags from fishing and put them in the dinghy. We are taking the garbage ashore at an abandoned fish camp. We closed the hatch so bees wouldn’t get down below and took off. We stopped at the abandoned fish camp and took our garbage to their burn sight. The camp was a mess. There were all kinds of things lying around and strewn all over the place including garbage. We were really surprised they left it in such a mess. There were some murex shells that are pink inside piled together so I looked through them and picked one I liked. We dumped our garbage and left. We went around the point and Dave was heading out away from shore. I asked if he was going to drop me off at the beach so I could look for shells then he could go fishing. At that moment he saw a couple of fish jump and the rest is history. His fishing rod was out and cast and we were trolling it behind the dinghy. It wasn’t 10 minutes when he hooked a dorado. He didn’t have his glove on and when the dorado took the hook, he went down and pulled a lot of line out with him. Force of habit Dave always puts his thumb down on the line to slow it, but it only took a second and his thumb got burnt from the zinging line. Ow!!!! I got the glove and put it on his hand and he continued to reel in the fish. They are fighters. We were wondering how we were going to get him in the boat. Dave’s thumb was hurting really bad and he couldn’t put any pressure on it. I got the gaff hook and tried to grab the fish with it but it was not going to work. So we put it away and the fish almost jumped in the boat so Dave used that to his advantage and when he lifted the rod up with the fish attached, the fish jumped in the boat. We now have about a 10-13 pound dorado. They are pretty fish. The last one Dave caught was a female. So after all that excitement Dave says, “We have to go back to the boat and take care of the fish”. I told him I knew that was going to happen if we caught a fish. So much for looking for shells. Well maybe this afternoon. When we got back to the boat I got off and got some plastic garbage and zip lock bags, the knife and cutting board. We still were getting bees but they seem to stay more around the stern of the boat. Of course that is where we have to park the dinghy to get off and on. We both dodged the bees and took off for the abandoned fish camp. We figured we would make a mess there rather than on the boat. Halleluja!!!! As we approached the fish camp I saw vultures above the camp on the rocks looking down. One had his wings spread. Thought it was a good picture. We chose a table that was there and took the fish out of the bag and set it on the bag then I took a picture of it and then Dave started in on cleaning and filleting it. When Dave was done he took the carcass down to the water and threw it in. Then he came back and we picked up the bag the fish was laying on and dumped it in the garbage pile and then got all our stuff together and got in the dinghy and headed back to the boat. As we were heading for the boat I told Dave we would eat lunch and then we could go to the beach to look for shells. Shortly after I said that the wind came up and it was getting pretty choppy so no shelling today. That was fine as I had a pretty shell. When we arrived at the boat we off loaded all the gear and I took the bag of fish down to the galley and put it in the refrigerator to cut into serving pieces later. There were bees everywhere so it was my turn to be the bee killer. We managed to lessen the bee population a little bit and when I didn’t see any more I put the step on the stern of the boat up (it becomes a seat) and then draped a towel over the back side of the seat to keep the bees out. It seemed to work pretty well, however a few were still finding their way in. So I sat in the cockpit and held my book in one hand and a fly swatter in the other. I was the bee swatter queen. When I thought it was safe to leave I went below and fixed lunch for us and Dave went to the cockpit and sat out there without being bothered by bees. Bees are pretty persistent and they manage to find their way in no matter what. I thought the towel was a great idea until Dave took the towel away so he could lower the seat to get to the dinghy and found that the bees were by passing the towel and going in a space that would take them where the emergency tiller is and also up to the consul in the middle of the cockpit. Not good!! We ended up having to spray in that space and I think about 8 bees came flying out, looking for a fight. Well!!! That was exciting!! Dave got in the dinghy and took fish fillets over to Marni and Peter’s boat, s/v 2 Pieces of Eight, and then over to Gary and Cindy on s/v Distant Shores. Neither one of them were able to catch a fish today. While Dave was gone I was on bee watch. Dave got back and we had dinner and when the sun set the bees were gone so we took our cushions out on the foredeck and sat out there stargazing. We watched the moon come up and then it was time for me to go to bed. It was cooler outside but still warm down below. It wasn’t too bad so I went to bed. Dave had another night in the cockpit. He just gets too hot if he sleeps down below. It took me a while to fall asleep but when I did it was alright.

Saturday, July 11. Sweet Pea Cove to Santa Rosalia.
It is going to be another hot one. The temperature in Santa Rosalia is supposed to reach 106 degrees today. Dave had a devil of a time getting the snubber off the anchor chain due to his thumb hurting so badly. You don’t realize how much you use your thumb until it gets hurt. He managed to do it and we weighed anchor and were on our way to Santa Rosalia by 9:00am.

We arrived at the Singular Marina in Santa Rosalia around 11:15am.
LOG: 6708.4NM TRIP: 11.01NM
LOCATION: 27̊ 20:227N/112̊ 15:795W
ENG. HRS: 1270

There were men on the dock ready to receive us when we got there and they helped us in. Once we were secured to the dock we got the power cords out. They don’t have 50 amp electrical services on that dock so we had to use two of our 30 amp cords and plug each one into an electrical outlet then connect them to the back of the boat. One cord is for the A bus, which is for all of the AC on the boat and the B bus is for the air conditioning. As soon as we flipped the switch on the dock power supply we got reverse polarity on the boat. Not a good thing. So we turned off the switches on the dock power supply and Dave had me switch plugs, after checking our plugs and cords out. We were at a power supply box that had 3 plugs to use. So I switched out the plugs and it seemed to work. So we were good now. Being the water and the electricity is not metered we can use as much as we want and not be charged. That is nice because we will be using the fans and air conditioning on a continual basis while we are here.

I put the bow awning up and the windshield cover on the windshield of the dodger. It was too hot to do anything else outside. We will rinse the boat down tomorrow morning.

We went to the office and checked in and got the access code for the internet. We asked Carlos (dock master) if the water the dock was potable and he said no. Most of the marinas in Mexico will tell you that because it isn’t purified but we figure it will be o.k. if we filter it. When we got back to the boat we hooked the water hose up to the water spicket on the dock and then put the other end with the filter attached on our boat. It screws into a fitting that is made to run water off the dock to the boat. We let the water run for about 10 minutes or more before testing the water. Dave has a TDS meter that tells him if the water is safe to drink. It has to be below 1000 for that. It was about 700 which are close to what we get with the water maker water. We tasted it and it tasted alright. So we are hooked up and using it.

After getting settled I gathered all the dirty clothes for laundry and my shower bag and went up and took a shower then did 2 loads of laundry. I went to a cool place to read while I waited for the wash cycle to finish and then I took the clothes out of the washer and put them in the dryer then went to the cruisers lounge where it is air conditioned and read some more of my book. When laundry was done I took it back to the boat, put clean sheets on the bed and put the clothes away. The clothes are clean, next is the boat. Dave had the air conditioning going when I returned so it felt really nice.

Dave hooked up to the internet and checked his email and I wrote in my journal. I didn’t feel much like doing anything so I played my Mahjong Titan tile game.

Peter, Marni, and us went to dinner up at the marina restaurant. We had a nice visit and good food at a reasonable price. After finishing our dinner and listening to the band, we decided it was time to go back to our boats. So we walked back and saw a couple of the cruiser couples talking so we stopped and talked for a little bit and found out that the power was acting up. So we quickly ended our conversation and went back to the boat to check it out. We had power but it had dropped from 120 volts to 90. This is not a good thing especially with the air conditioner running. Dave went out to the dock power supply and felt the cord and it was warm. We turned off the B bus in the boat. Then he was talking to some of the cruisers on the dock about the situation when the power went back up to 120 volts again. We turned on the B bus again and it was reading 120 volts as the A bus was. We were good as new. We have no idea what happened but it didn’t happen again. That was very strange. We relaxed for the evening after that and then went to bed.

Sunday, July 12. Santa Rosalia.
We were running our fans but it was still warm in our stateroom so Dave got up around 4:00am and turned on the air conditioner. That was nice. We slept in until about 8:15am. For me that is a normal thing but for Dave it is late. I didn’t get the restful sleep I was counting on but there is tonight.

Dave and I had our coffee and then got the hose out and rinsed off the boat to get rid of the fish and salt residue. When that was done I came down below for some cool air. There is a breeze this morning which is nice. It will make doing things outside much better. Today is dedicated to boat cleaning and straightening up. I’ll space the boat stuff out over a couple of days. Nothing is open in town today so it’s a perfect day to be doing stuff on the boat. Surprisingly the clouds moved in and it was looking like it was going to be a little stormy. The sky wasn’t really dark but clouds were building. Then we had wind and it didn’t quit until later in the afternoon. Dave looked on the internet for weather and found a convection system was moving up through Baja and going over to the mainland side and then turned and headed up our way. We had about 35 knots of wind in the marina. We called our friends on s/v Distant Shores, who were anchored off an island across from where we were, to see how they were doing and whether they were coming into the marina. They said they were doing alright and the anchor was dug in good. They thought they would be alright so they were going to ride out the weather and come into the marina tomorrow. I told them what Dave found out on the weather. None of this had been predicted. It is a good thing they didn’t come into the marina with it blowing like it was. The waves were crashing over the breakwater and we were surging around pretty good at the dock. I don’t think I would want to be here in a hurricane. Our boat danced around at the dock and we retied lines and did what we could to minimize it at 35 knots of wind. I can’t imagine what it would be like with winds 70 mph plus. It definitely was a day for boat chores. Almost everyone on the dock was doing some kind of cleaning of either their boat or dinghy. It was refreshing to have the wind and cloud cover. We never did get any rain but did feel a sprinkle here and there. I took advantage of the cool weather and air conditioning and vacuumed the floor then washed them. I Shook rugs, cleaned off the table and washed it. Put some things away. Polished the ice maker since the outside is stainless steel. Cleaned the stove top and counters. That was it. I was finished. I then sat down and imported pictures into the June blog. I didn’t get a chance to get them all in because the internet is slow but I’m working on it. Peter and Marni were going to go get a hot dog wrapped in bacon for dinner and asked if we wanted to come along. We said “sure”. Santa Rosalia is famous for their bacon hot dogs. So in the cool of the evening we headed to town. There on one of the streets across from the church there is a little cart stand that serves these “Equisitos Hot Dogs”. I guess there are days when the line is really long. There were a few people ahead of us but we didn’t have to wait very long. We ordered our hot dogs with all the fixins and boy was it good. Definitely not a diet food!! After we ate we walked around town. Peter and marni had been there before so they remembered where a few things were like the bakery and hardware store and grocery store. When we were tired of walking we came back to the marina. We stood overlooking the marina for a while and talked and watched the ferry that goes to Guaymas load up. The last vehicle to get on the ferry was a bulldozer. You could see the bow of the ferry rise up a bit when the bulldozer drove on. The ferry only has one entrance and so the cars have to back down to the ferry so they can drive off when they get to the mainland side, however the bulldozer didn’t do that. He drove on like normal. So I would imagine he would be backing off when he got to the mainland. Very interesting. We started walking to the ramp that leads down to our dock when we met Larry, Lena, and their dog Morgan from m/v Hobo, coming up the ramp. They were on their way to the ice cream store. They asked if we wanted to join them and Marni said no she was still full from the hot dogs, but Peter, Dave and I went. I had to run down to the boat to get some water. The hot dogs made me really thirsty. I came back up and joined the rest of them and off we went to get our ice cream fix. It was a busy place. We finally got the flavor we wanted and went outside in front of the store and sat and ate our ice cream. As we were walking back to the marina Lena shared a bit of history she read about the mines and the wood buildings. She said the boats were loaded with copper ore and taken to Tacoma, Washington, and in return were loaded with lumber and brought back here to build with. Most of the houses are made of wood not cement. It definitely does not look like your traditional Mexican town. It is a cute place and the buildings remind you of the buildings you saw in the old western movies. You could just visualize a horse tied to a post on the outside of a building. Pretty neat. This is the only Mexican town I have seen so far that the homes are build out of wood. It is quite interesting. Then we came back to the marina and said goodnight. That was fun.

I checked email and then played my computer game until I was ready to go to bed.

Monday, July 13.
We woke to sunshine and it was already getting warm. Again we slept in until about 8:30am. We had coffee and then we had to get busy before it got really hot. We put the bow awning up then got the dinghy out of the water and hosed it down. We took all the stuff out of it and hosed it off and set it aside to dry. We ended up having to scrub the inside because the sand ground in a little. Then we rinsed and drained it. The bottom looked like new. There was nothing growing on it. When we finished that chore, it was time for me to rinse off the solar panels and dodger then rinse the cockpit. With the wind blowing so hard yesterday there was a lot of sand and dirt blowing and it got all over the boat so what was rinsed yesterday had to be rinsed again today. So I just started rinsing away. It wasn’t a bad job because I could get wet. HA!!! When I got done, I used the shammy mop to get the excess water off everything and let it dry. It didn’t take long before I could put everything back together again. It looks so much better. Then I went below and tried to get on the internet but the signal was so weak I couldn’t. Dave was having trouble getting on too. We had lunch and then we walked to a little store not far from the marina because we heard they carried tall containers of tonic water and sold them as a 12 pack. We were getting low so we wanted to buy more. The last place that had them sold out before we could get some for us. So we bought the tonic water and came back to the boat. Then Dave started his project for the aft head. We emptied everything off the bed in the guest stateroom (Eian’s room) and first looked for a piece of hose to attach to the air conditioner drain tray and run it to the aft sump pump so we wouldn’t have to siphon the water out of the tray all the time. He didn’t find any so onto his next project which was fixing the air leak in the pump for the aft head. It runs better but he can’t find where it is leaking. He has done all he knows how to do. He thought he had some spare parts for the pump but he couldn’t find them. That was too bad. So he was done with that project. While he was doing that I was catching up my journal for July. When he was done with the head and everything was put away, we walked to the hardware store to see if they had the size hose he needed. They did so he got it. We came back to the boat and found out that the hose fits the sump pump but not the air conditioner tray drain. Now he needs to get a fitting that will fit where he needs it. So we will have to go back to the hardware store tomorrow.

Marni and Peter stopped by the boat and let us know they were going for ice cream later and earlier had found the grocery store she liked but couldn’t find last night. So they asked if we wanted to go with them and we said yes but we needed to eat dinner. That was alright because they weren’t going until the sun went down and it was cooler. So we went ahead and had dinner then about 7:30pm we met Marni and Peter on the dock and we walked to the ice cream store. We picked out flavors and went outside to sit and enjoy. They had their dog, Kela, with them. After we finished our ice cream we walked to the mini market Marni wanted to show me. It was a better grocery store than the one we were in last night. We will plan on going shopping tomorrow evening when it is cooler. The store is open until 8:00pm. In the morning we are meeting Marni and Peter for breakfast. There is a hotel that serves good breakfasts so we will go. Then we will go to the museum, do some shopping in town and by then it will be too hot to do anything but come back to the boat and have a siesta. Sounds like a fun morning.

I am anxious to do some exploring and see what is left over from when they mined copper ore in 1866.

Tuesday, July 14.
We met Marni and Peter on the dock at 8:00am and walked to the Hotel Frances, built in 1886, which is on top of the hill. It was beautiful and it is furnished to resemble the way it was. There are also many pictures telling the history of the Hotel. After breakfast we went to the museum which is up the street from the hotel. It was really interesting and had a lot of neat pictures, tools, and a library full of log books from the beginning of the copper ore mining business to when they closed it down. That would have been some interesting reading, however being they are so old, they would probably crumble at a touch.

After we left the museum we walked into town and went to the bank, hardware store, and then the guys went one way and Marni and I went the other to the fabric store. I got some webbing to replace the ties to hold our screens up. The other webbing is so thin they are starting to rip. I got another journal book and a couple of neckerchiefs to use as sweat cloths. They are also good to wet and then wear around your neck to keep you cool. When Marni and I were done we went to one little grocery store where she was told they would have the powder drink, lime Zuko, she likes. Sure enough they had lots so she bought plenty. It seems everyone likes that flavor because it is hard to find. After that we walked back to the marina and we even beat the guys back. How about that!!! I did some journal writing and then worked on the blog for June putting pictures in. Unfortunately the internet was extremely slow and it got to the point it took too long to get the pictures in or I would lose the internet connection so I finally shut everything down and took a nap. Around 2:00pm Dave came back to the boat. He said he and Peter had been up by the marina store having a beer and waiting for us to come back. Oh well.

He got hose and fittings so he started to work on getting the air conditioner tray to drain into the hose then the water would drain into the sump pump instead of overflowing and getting everything wet around the tray and go into the bilge. This way I won’t have to siphon the tray out anymore. I will still have to siphon the one in the back room, but that is a smaller one and doesn’t take much time. So hopefully it will work.

When he finished hooking that all up, we met Marni, Peter, Gary and Maryann off of s/v Gallant Fox, on the dock and walked to the chicken restaurant to have dinner. It was really good rotisserie chicken. After dinner we went and got some ice cream and walked back to the marina. We said goodbye and I spent the rest of the evening adding pictures to the June blog. It was slow but I could do it without the internet going flakey on me. I didn’t get to bed until 1:00am, and I’m still not done, but I can do more tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 15.
This morning I got up and started adding pictures to the June blog. Things were going really well until around 12:00pm. I think everyone was on the internet at that time so I had to stop and do other things like empty the vacuum cleaner, defrost the refrigerator and freezer, wash dishes, put them away, and clean the sump pump.

We got an email from our son that was in Iraq. He is now in Kuwait waiting to come home. We are so excited he is finally going to be done over there. He just found out that he and his wife Dani are going to have a boy. How exciting!!!

Now I am catching up the July journal. Unfortunately it won’t be going out this month and probably not in August either. No internet after we leave here so there will be lots to read when I finally post July and August.

I made a teriyaki chicken cabbage salad for dinner this afternoon. Then I rinsed off the two rugs we have, since they were really dirty. Then Dave and I walked down to the old smelter factory and right there was a Yamaha shop. Dave needs spark plugs for his outboard engine. They had spark plugs but Dave needs to find the number. So we walked back toward the marina and when we got to where you turn up the street to go into town, I went that way and Dave went back to the marina. I needed to find the market so I can go back after dinner tonight, when it is cooler, and do some light provisioning. I found it and then I stopped at the bakery and bought a loaf of bread to go with our salad. I came back to the marina and checked my email and sent a couple. The internet is really slow. I haven’t been able to get on my blog because of the internet being bogged down with the cruisers using it. The best time I have found to do the blog is when it is late or first thing in the morning.

We had dinner and then after I did dishes I walked to the market. I got a few things and spent 668 pesos. The prices are higher here. We expected that. It is a good thing I don’t need a lot of stuff. Tomorrow I will probably walk to another store and get 6 cans of chicken. I haven’t been able to find that anywhere else up here. Then on Friday I will get my fruits and vegetables. There is a lady that comes only on Fridays, that has really fresh items. I will buy my eggs then too. We are leaving on Saturday morning to go to an island called Punta Trinidad. We will be anchoring again for the next 2 months.

The groceries are put away and now Dave is reading a new book and I am typing this and trying to work on finishing the June blog. I should be able to post it in a day or two. That is if the internet behaves itself.

HISTORY OF SANTA ROSALIA, from the Sea of Cortez guidebook by Heather Bansmer & Shawn Breeding.

In the late 1860’s, copper was discovered around the area of Santa Rosalia, and within a few years time, claims were staked and copper was soon being mined. Two men by the name, Guillermo Eisenmann and Eustaquio Valle, merged a number of the claims and formed El Boleo Company. They originally operated 11 mines in four different areas around Santa Rosalia using Yaqui Indians serving time in Guaymas prisons to work the mines.

With Mexican copper exports to Europe increasing, French entrepreneurs became interested and sent researchers to the area. Finding a great deal of copper, the French Company, Compagnie du Boleo purchased the claim from Eisenmann and Valle on May 16, 1885. Working with the Mexican government, Compagnie du Boleo struck a deal enabling the company to be exempt from customs duties and import tariffs on fuel until the year 1942, exempt all their employees from military and or civil service duty, and to acquire an additional claim of land that eventually totaled 2,317 square miles.

Soon wood for construction was being shipped from Canada, Oregon, and Washington and plant equipment like rails, railcars, engines, vehicles, fuel, etc. were being shipped in from Europe. Laborers to work the mines came from Guaymas and Mazatlan, and later during labor disputes and shortages, from Japan and China. Breakwaters for a protected port were completed in 1922, using blocks of slag from the mining process, and an electrical plant was built to run the massive plant operations.

By 1896, 52,000 tons of copper had been produced. By 1905, 261,000 tons, and by 1910 366,000 tons had been produced. The high production and profits came at the expense of the laborers however. Working conditions were very poor and very dangerous. Frequent explosions in the mines, lung disease due to the constant inhalation of mining dust, cholera, yellow fever, tuberculosis and typhoid claimed the lives of hundreds of laborers. Fresh water was in short supply and an inadequate sewer system spread disease. This, along with low wages spurred frequent labor disputes and strikes.

By the late 1930’s Compagnie de Boleo realized the mines were beginning to slow down in production as the copper stores were being depleted. Eventually they turned the mines over to small outfits while maintaining operation of the smelter. During the years leading up to and during World War II, demand for copper increased, but soon after the war ended, the price for copper fell.

On February 1, 1954, Compagnie du Boleo was shut down, and the French directors and managers left Baja. The Mexican company, Compania Minera de Santa Rosalia, took over shortly before the mines ran out of copper. In April 1986, the plant was officially shut down.

With the building of the Transpeninsular Highway (Mexico Highway 1), the Guaymas/Santa Rosalia ferry, and fish processing and canning plants, Santa Rosalia remains an active, vibrant town today.

Another interesting historical site here is The Iglesia Santa Barbara church which is known for its famous architect, Gustave Eiffel, creator of Paris’ Eiffel Tower. The steel church was originally in Brussels when it was purchased by the Compaigne du Boleo. The church was then disassembled and shipped across the globe to Santa Rosalia, where it was reassembled in 1897. The Iglesia Santa Barbara is still in use today, over 100 years later.

Thursday, July 16.
There were clouds when we woke up. Both Dave and I slept in late. He got up at 8:30am and I got up at 9:00am. I think we both slept well last night.

Dave’s hose contraption is working for the air conditioner water to drain into the sump pump. It is so nice not to have to siphon it out 2 or even 3 times a day.

I am so frustrated with the internet. I guess I shouldn’t be as I’m lucky we have it. But I am trying to get pictures into the blog and it will go o.k. then the internet goes down and it doesn’t save what I last did. I may have to forego the rest of the pictures and just get the blog published. Tomorrow is my last day to work on it and if I can’t get them in today, tonight, or in the morning I will publish it without the rest of the pictures.

I cleaned the heads today and vacuum packed coffee, did dishes and put them away, worked on the blog, checked emails, and put things away and got the boat nice and pretty for our company tonight for dinner. Dave is fixing carbonara for Marni and Peter tonight as a thank you for all their help. Dave uses romano cheese but they don’t sell it here so he will have to use parmesan cheese instead. It will still be delicious just not as robust without the romano.

Tomorrow’s laundry day, another vacuum sweep of the floors, and make potato salad. In the morning Marni and I will go to see the vegetable/fruit lady at one place and then go to the mini super to get some canned chicken. Then I will be ready to go out and anchor again for a couple of months. Before I leave I want to walk the malécon which is short compared to Mazatlan.

Dave is checking out compatible spark plugs for his outboard. If he can get a number we will walk to the ferreteria (hardware store) and see if they have any. If not, we are out of luck. We also have to get some line that will float in the water tied to the back of the boat so we have something to grab onto when we are floating or swimming at anchorage.

I had added some more pictures to the blog and then I viewed the blog and found a couple of mistakes so I was trying to fix them when the internet went down. I am so close to being done. I will try again later and hopefully post it tomorrow.

When I couldn’t work on the computer I crocheted a little bit. Then all of a sudden I remembered I didn’t have any eggs or whole milk. So I walked up to the marina store and they didn’t have anything so I walked across the street to the little store to see if they had any and they didn’t have eggs but they had milk. I grabbed a container of milk and looked at the date and it was expired. So I was getting ready to put it back and check to see if there was a good one when the guy that runs the store came over and took the milk from me and said the milk was bad. He would have more tomorrow. I thought that was really nice of him to do that. He pointed up the street and said there was a store there. So I thanked him and went back to the boat. I told Dave I had no luck, but I was going to walk up the malécon and look for a store along the way. So off I went. The malécon is nicely tiled and there is a rock carving of a train engine with a cart of copper behind it. It was pretty neat. There was a store half way up the malécon so I went in to see if they had what I needed and low and behold they did. So I got 6 eggs and a small carton of milk and went back to the boat. All was well. Just before it was time for Marni and Peter to come over, I cooked the bacon, and chopped garlic to help Dave with the preparations. That way he won’t have to do it all at once. Then I made a salmon paté out of canned salmon, cream cheese and capers. It turned out pretty good.

Our guests arrived and I served the salmon paté and gave them a margarita. We visited for a little bit then it was time for Dave and me to get going on dinner. Dave cooked up some dorado and cooked it in garlic and olive oil and added it on top of the cooked carbonara. I served bread and wine with it and it turned out really good. Dave out did himself again. The meal was fabulous and Marni and Peter loved it. After dinner we sat and talked for a little bit and drank some more wine then Peter and Marni said goodnight. It was about 10:00pm and I wasn’t going to do dishes. I’ll do them in the morning. I cleared the table and put things away then tried the internet again. I finally gave up and turned the computer off and went to bed. I’ll work with it tomorrow.

Friday, July 17.
This is our last day in Santa Rosalia. It isn’t 9:00am yet and you can already feel the heat. Thank goodness for our air conditioner.

I drank my coffee after getting up and at 8:30am and met Marni and Peter on the dock. We were going to the vegetable and fruit lady. Dave stayed behind to get some things done. When we got into town I stopped at the pharmacy and got Dave’s blood pressure medicine. Yeow!!!! That cost more than I thought it was going to. For two little boxes it cost 644 pesos. That shot a wad out of our budget!! Oh well. After that I met Peter and Marni at the bank. They were not having a good morning. They couldn’t get any money out of the ATM machine. They tried about 3 times then went into the bank when it opened to talk to them. One of the guys that worked there went with them when they used their card. Still no luck. So there wasn’t anything the bank or they could do. They went to the other bank on the next corner to see if maybe that one would work but it didn’t. They had a little bit of money so we went and got our vegetables and fruit, then went to the mini super market and I got my canned chicken. Then we came back to the marina. Marni called her bank and they had reached their limit for taking money out. The bank said they would increase the limit. So life was good again.

After coming back to the boat, I was so tired. You don’t realize how much the heat takes out of you until you do some walking and sweating. I felt like I was ready for a nap. Couldn’t do that though. I had too many things to do. We are leaving tomorrow and I needed to do laundry, I had my sink and counter full of dirty dishes that had to be washed, and I needed to do another sweep of the floor with the vacuum. So before I did the dishes, I got back on the blog and got the rest of the pictures in and posted it. Tada!!! The June blog is finally posted. Then I washed dishes, cleaned up the cooking mess from last night then took the sheets off the bed and also the travasak because that was in dire need of washing. I gathered the other dirty clothes and went up to the laundry room. I took my book with me so I could do a little reading. I had a nice conversation with a couple of the guys that work at the marina. I did have a little trouble understanding one of the guys but when I told him I didn’t understand, he went further into hand motions and such to where I understood what he was saying. He was the diver that cleaned the bottom of our boat yesterday. Nice guy. When he left there was another gentleman that was sitting in a chair next to where I was sitting and talked to me for a little bit. He didn’t speak any English but we were able to understand each other. Then I went back to reading my book and he went back to work. When I was finished washing clothes, I put them in the dryer and took the travasak back to the boat and hung it to dry. Then I went below and helped Dave a little with the sea strainers. He was cleaning them while I was gone. After helping him I started cooking potatoes in the microwave so I could make potato salad. I boiled some eggs and when all that was done, I peeled the potatoes and made potato salad. Then I went up and got the clothes out of the dryer and folded them and brought them back to the boat.

I sent some emails letting close friends and family know we would be moving again and would be without internet or phone service. Then it was time to go to dinner. Marni and Peter were going up for a bacon wrapped hot dog and we said we’d go with them. We had dinner and then went to the hardware store where Marni and Peter bought a fishing lure. Then it was ice cream time. I didn’t have any because I was full and besides I was fixing popcorn for Dave and me tonight. So after Dave, Marni and Peter got their ice cream, we walked back to the marina. We needed ice so Dave and I and Peter walked over to the convenience store to get some ice, while Marni went back to her boat. When we came back to the boat and I put the clean clothes away, made the bed then went and took a shower. When I got back from the shower, I made Dave and I some popcorn. Now we are just relaxing. It was a full day today. This is our last night with air conditioning running all night long. When we run the generator while at anchor, we turn the air conditioner on to cool the boat. So it is o.k. We are going to go to Punta Trinidad tomorrow. It is about 38 nautical miles from here. We will spend the night then move on to our next anchorage. I’m looking forward to seeing more rock formations and sea creatures and maybe even get more shells.

Saturday, July 18. Santa Rosalia to Punta Trinidad.
The boat is ready to go. We are waiting for Peter and Marni to fire up their engine so we can help them out of their slip. While we get fuel they are going to be outside the breakwater making water and waiting for us.

We have finished fueling up and have left the fuel dock and are on our way out of Santa Rosalia. It is about 9:00am.

The sea is calm and we have some partly cloudy skies. We’ve had a nice rest being in the marina and now we will be hoping for lots of breezes.

We were 4 nautical miles out of Santa Rosalia when we encountered long liners and a huge net stretching about 6 nautical miles. We had to alter our course to avoid them which took us closer to the shoreline. That kind of fishing is illegal here.

We have finally made it away from the nets but ever a watchful eye for more. We have 8.4 knots of wind and we have rolled the headsail out.

We are getting closer to Punta Trinidad where we will be anchoring for the night. I’m glad the wind is behind us; otherwise we would be having a very wet uncomfortable ride. There are a lot of white caps and the wind is about 18 knots now. With the headsail out it helps keep the bow in the water so we don’t yaw around a lot. There have been a couple of large manta rays (about 4 to 5 feet across) jump out of the water near the boat. It is so awesome to see that.

I’ve been thinking about some of the things I have said about hurricanes and moving north. I may have given the impression that the further north you go the safer you are from a hurricane. That is a true statement, however, hurricanes have been known to come up the Sea of Cortez and go north above Bahia de Los Angeles, but it doesn’t happen very often. The thing is you want to be around the Bahia Los Angeles area so if a hurricane does come you aren’t far from protection. If there is a hurricane predicted for this area, the cruisers head for anchorage at Puerto Don Juan. There you are protected from all exposures. From Bahia de Los Angeles it is only a short trip. So that is why cruisers head up there.

The waves are starting to subside and so is the wind. We’ve managed to keep our headsail out all this time which is nice.

We have seen manta rays, a shark, and a whale. It is 4:02pm and we are almost to our anchorage. By the time we drop anchor it will probably be about 4:30pm. It’s been a long day.
LOG: 6745.2 TRIP: 40.81NM
LOCATION: 27̊ 49:584N/112̊ 43:725W
ENG. HRS: 1277

Not much here as it is pretty desolate. There are some small sand dunes, an abandoned fish camp on shore, rolling hills, some cactus and scrub. It will be a good night to rest up. Tomorrow we are going to Bahia San Francisquito. We will probably spend a couple of days there. By no means are we moving out of the heat, but it won’t be as bad as it was in Burro Cove with temperatures in the upper 90’s and a heat index of 126!

We will enjoy our night here and be ready to move in the morning.

Sunday, July 19. Punta Trinidad to Bahia San Francisquito.
What was it that I said about a restful night? The early part of the evening was but after that around 2:00am all hell broke loose. We have experienced another Chubasco. This time we had winds up to 38 knots and at one point the snubber came off the anchor chain. We didn’t drag anchor, it held really well. We bounced around a lot because we were exposed to the waves that wrap around the point. We saw lightning on the mainland side and it was going crazy. I have never seen so much lightning flash in only a matter of seconds of each other. There was no thunder, just lightning. I had gone down to bed. I noticed the wind had picked up quite a bit and the funny thing about that is when I was sitting out in the cockpit earlier watching the clouds build, I thought it might be windy. I had no idea how windy though. The guide book we have said it has been known to blow about 40 in there. Well we almost got to that number. Dave let out more chain and we closed the hatches expecting rain. We never got it just a lot of wind. So now it was anchor watch time. Marni and Peter on s/v 2 Pieces of Eight were bouncing around like we were. They called us to see how we were doing and we said so far so good. This was worse than Santa Domingo. One good thing about it was we were far enough away from Peter and Marni that I didn’t have to worry about bumping into them or vice versa. The wind howled until about 4:00am. Then it subsided then after that we had the fetch from the wind waves coming around the point and we were in the troughs. That means the waves are hitting on the beam of the boat and you are rocking side to side, sometimes pretty far over. I knew the anchor was set well so I didn’t worry about that but I was concerned about the dinghy as we didn’t hoist her out of the water. She was tied to the cleats on each side of the stern of the boat. With each wave the dinghy would pull strong out away from the boat and then crash back into the stern of the boat. This isn’t good plus I had to make sure the waves weren’t going to flood her. So eventually I decided it wasn’t good to leave the dinghy tied to the cleats. What we do is crisscross the lines that are tied to the dinghy and then tie one line to the starboard cleat on the stern and the other line on the Port cleat. That is how we tow it. It was not safe to leave it tied that way so I undid the starboard line to move it over to the port cleat so it would have a little more room to maneuver. Well I had a hold of the line and at the moment I was trying to get the line to the other side of the boat a wave came and jerked the dinghy away from the boat which in turn jerked me which made me hit my head on the aft stantion and almost pull me off the back of the boat. Wow!!! THAT was exciting! All this time Dave was forward watching the anchor. He would have never known I was gone until he got back to the cockpit. I have a little bruise on my forehead above my right eye but other than that I am fine. You can hardly tell there is a bruise. I put ice on it after it happened so that is why it isn’t worse. That was a little scary and I was saying my thank you to God for keeping me safe. There was so much going on I didn’t tell Dave what happened until after the sun came up. He had enough on his mind and I was safe so that was all that mattered at the moment. I won’t be doing that again anytime soon. The stars came out again and so we opened the hatches to let whatever breeze was left filter down below. Right after the wind quit we heard coyotes howling on the shore. It was pretty interesting. Then they stopped. Dave and I tried to sleep in the cockpit but it was really difficult with the boat flopping back and forth, sometimes violently. I could really do without that much excitement ya know!!! Finally the sun was coming up and we got a call from Marni saying she was ready to get out of the rollers even though we would be beating into waves on our way to Bahia San Francisquito. We pulled anchor between 6:30am and 7:00am and headed out. We had to power up the engine to get over the swells that were coming in from the sea. It was definitely a bumpy ride. When we got to deeper water we turned up to go north. The wind was at one point about 22 knots and we had the headsail out to keep the bow from yawing around with the wave action. The wind was close hauled and then worked its way to the beam and then it finally went behind us. The waves at one point were about 8 feet high and when one of those hit us, we were pushed to one side and then the other and not nicely either. I have a lot of respect for the sea. It has a lot of power and nothing you do will make any difference. The auto helm was on so I didn’t have to worry about steering. I did steer all the way out of the anchorage though because it was easier for me to keep the boat under control. This day reminded us of coming down the Oregon coast. Peter and Marni said this is the worse they have ever seen in the sea. They have been traveling the sea for 2 years. At one point Dave and I got real nervous because a wave picked us up and tossed us further over on the port side than was comfortable and then again on the starboard side. You have no control when that happens and you just pray you won’t capsize. I trust our boat and she did just fine. Dave and I don’t want to go through that again!!! Peter and Marni were doing the same thing so it was just a very uncomfortable ride.

We were so glad to be getting close to our destination. We were ready to be done with the rolly polly seas. We were making very good time though. Our speed was about 7 knots which is pretty good. We got to the anchorage an hour earlier than was figured.

Just as we were thinking our troubles were going to be over and we would be out of the wind and waves once we turned to go into the anchorage, we were wrong! There were very strong tidal waves and currents going into the anchorage and we had watched about 4 fishing boats come out of there and smash against the waves. We knew this was going to be ugly. So Dave tells me to follow Peter. Well he is rocking back and forth so bad that Dave was concerned about how we would do, but keeping in mind that their boat is a lot lighter than ours I figured we would be alright. We powered up the engine and plowed through those waves. It actually wasn’t bad. I had done it before so I knew how to handle the boat, but don’t think I was calm, cool, and collected. I was white knuckling it to keep the helm under control but we came through it with flying colors. Dave was afraid we were going to have a lumpy anchorage like last night because of the wave action, but once we were in far enough it wasn’t bad. We found a really nice spot to anchor and now we are set. There are a few clouds forming in the sky but as far as a Chubasco, it won’t happen because that comes from the east and we are protected from that direction and the south too. Now if we have a north wind then that is another story. So we are wondering what tonight has in store for us?

After we got anchored and put the side curtain down to protect the hull from the sun, and put some things away, we had lunch and then around 2:00pm we laid down and took a nap. We woke up around 5:00pm. Those kind of trips take a lot out of you with the stress and all. Can’t say there are any dull moments. If it was dull I wouldn’t have anything to write about.

We are safe and now relaxing. We will be here in Bahia San Francisquito for a few days before moving farther north. We might get a lightning show tonight. A convection system was building toward the mainland this afternoon. We will see. I’m hoping for an uneventfully night.

We are running the generator to defrost the refrigerator and freezer, plus cooling down with the air conditioner. Nice!!!! Tomorrow we plan on doing some exploring in our dinghy. I can’t say this is a beautiful anchorage, but it is interesting. There is a lighthouse marking an entrance to another anchorage, but it is too shallow for us to get the boat in so we will check it out in our dinghy tomorrow along with Peter and Marni. Well let’s hope tonight is uneventful. I don’t think Dave and I are up to any more excitement. Ha!!
LOG: 6777.3 TRIP: 42
ARRIVAL: 1:00PM
LOCATION: 28̊ 26:064N/112̊ 51:775W
ENG. HRS: 1284

Monday, July 20. Bahia San Francisquito.
There was lightning in the distance to the East and South but it didn’t come our way. We had a slight breeze all night and no Chubasco!!! It was a restful night. We heard coyotes howl in the distance which was pretty neat. Each place we go there is always something fascinating. It is truly full of life here, in and out of the Sea.

We woke to sunshine and partly cloudy skies. A little breeze is blowing and some small rollers are coming from the outside to gently roll us. Before Dave can put the motor on the dinghy it will have to calm down a bit.

We put the bow awning up and lowered the dinghy into the water from the side of the boat and then moved it to the stern of the boat. I put my net up across the opening of the dodger windshield to keep the bees out and then put the windshield cover on. We have had a few visits from them this morning already, but not like we had in Sweet Pea Cove. We do have pesky flies. They drive you crazy. I put up my last fly strip. Hope it works.

Today I need to rinse out some clothes and hang them to dry. I will have to hang them inside as the bees are drawn to anything that has fresh water on it.

I checked and cleaned the 2 sump pumps because they aren’t draining properly. When I add water it lifts the float far enough so as to suck the water out so it doesn’t look like the float is bad. I’ll just have to keep it clean.

Thank goodness we have a nice breeze because without it Dave and I would be sweating more than we are now. It is hard to stay dry in this heat. The only way to control it is by jumping in the water to cool off and when you get out rinsing off and getting all the salt and stickiness off or sponge off. The only problem with going into the salt water and rinsing off with fresh water is it draws bees. Some cruisers wash the deck down with salt water after they rinse off with fresh just to keep the bees away but that creates another problem of tracking salt all over the boat inside and out and it gets slippery. So we don’t do that. Everyone has their methods. Dave and I carry sweat rags, mine being a neckerchief and Dave’s is a small towel, to wipe the sweat then sit in the cool breeze to dry. It is just something you live with when you want to be in this climate. That is why I rinse our clothes out every day to rinse out the body sweat. It’s just a way of life.

We bought an extractor for insect, snake and other bites when we were in Puerto Escondido. That was worth the 200 pesos we paid for it because I had to use it this morning. I stepped on a bee in the cockpit. It works really well and it didn’t hurt afterwards either. I ended up extracting twice because I didn’t think I got the stinger out the first time. I’ve only been stung now twice and I wish I had had the extractor the first time. The extractor is a plunger that has different size heads to attach depending on the type of bite or sting. I used the smallest one. You put the plunger over the sting and push the plunger all the way down and hold it for about 60-90 seconds. Then you slowly lift the plunger up to extract the venom. It didn’t hurt at all. So that was my exciting morning! The rest of the day was doing whatever I wanted. I read pretty much all afternoon and so did Dave. I’m reading Clive Cussler’s Inca Gold and Dave is reading John Steinbeck’s, The Log from the Sea of Cortez. When I got tired of reading I crocheted then went back to reading again. There was a really nice steady breeze in the cockpit so that is where Dave and I hung out.

The sun was getting lower in the sky so it was time to take the bow awning down. The wind had subsided so I thought now is the time. Dave was busy reading, but I have taken it down by myself before without his help and I didn’t see where it would be a problem. As soon as I started to unhook the bungee cords from the lifelines, the wind picked up. Now I had to make sure I rolled the awning as I moved forward to the bow to unhook the cords. I moved from the port side over to the starboard side and the awning was just in front of me. I stepped and leaned to unhook the bungee cord and fell through the shower hatch. At least it was small. The last time I fell through a hatch it was the main one and I went all the way down to the bottom of the stairs. Not on this boat but on our 43 footer. So only my left leg went through the hatch. I knocked out the screen and I thought it was destroyed, but at the time I was hurting as I scraped my shin and the back of my thigh, so I wasn’t all that concerned about the screen at that moment. Dave asked if I was alright and I said yes but my leg was banged up. I climbed out of the opening and continued to take the awning down. Dave got on my case about taking the awning down when it was still windy and why didn’t I ask for help. Well it wasn’t windy when I started and I have handled taking the awning down before in more wind than what we had today so I didn’t bother. Plus he didn’t seem interested in helping me when I told him I was going out to take it down. I think I just scared him. He then came out and helped me finish taking the awning down and putting it away. Then we went below to check out the damage to the screen. Low and behold the screen only had a little bit of the screen material loose and the screws that held it in place were still intact. Wow!!! I was impressed. Dave went ahead and fixed the screen while I put and ice pack on my shin and another one on the back of my thigh. I knew I was going to be bruised and sore tomorrow. So what else is new?! I am always banging against something causing a bruise. It is just the way it is on a boat. Next time I will move the awning out from under my feet so I can see where I am walking. After I had iced my leg for a while, I put the ice packs away and started fixing dinner. We had dorado steaks, some noodles and a green salad with wine. After dinner I washed the dishes then Dave and I went out to move the dinghy to the side of the boat and lift it out of the water. When that was done, I took my net down from the windshield and then the windshield cover and stowed them. We had heard there might be some remnants from a Chubasco happening south of us this evening so we wanted to make sure everything was secured that needed to be. We were already seeing lightning in the distance. We kept an eye on it for a while and it didn’t seem to be moving our way so I went to bed and Dave stayed up to be on lookout. It is a beautiful starry night where we are with a nice breeze blowing.

Tuesday, July 21.
I didn’t sleep soundly and that was probably because there was a possibility of a Chubasco and that means anchor watch. At one point I heard an anchor chain from a boat that came in and I thought it was a longliner shrimp boat. Well it was a fishing boat but not a longliner. Dave called me and said I had to see this. So I got up and stuck my head out in the cockpit to see what he was talking about. What I saw was this big boat on our starboard side all lit up with bright white lights and a string of double pangas tied to the stern of the boat and extending outward from the boat. Once they dropped the anchor and was set, some of the people on board got in a couple of the pangas and motored around the bay looking for bait fish. This boat was a charter fishing boat. I went back to bed and Dave stayed out in the cockpit where there was some breeze and he could keep an eye out for anything abnormal weather wise.

We didn’t get any weather last night and according to the weather report this morning, it died when it got to the middle of the Sea of Cortez. So the people in the marina at Santa Rosalia and Sweet Pea Cove were very happy as it would have been a nasty storm.

Dave said another charter boat came in and as soon as the anchor was down and set, everyone went to bed. The first boat that came in, left first thing this morning, and the other one had there pangas full of people going fishing.

We lowered the dinghy and moved it to the stern of the boat then put the bow awning up, the windshield cover on and my net to keep the bees out. It does work but they find their way in through the back of the boat. We had a bunch of bees already buzzing around the diesel jugs as there is a piece of scoot guard under the jerry cans we secure on the stern that had dew on it. The jerry cans needed to be moved before we were able to put the seat down so we could get off the boat. So I climbed down and started to get the jerry cans moved, which I did then more bees started showing up so I got out of there. We ended up having to spray the area to get rid of them. The spray slows them down enough where you can smack them. Once the coast was clear, we got the scoot guard out of there and put the seat down then moved the other two diesel jerry cans out of the way so we could access the stern. I helped Dave get the engine prepared so he could put it on the dinghy. Once the engine was on the dinghy we were done. We were going to go exploring with Peter and Marni later this morning into a smaller bay just a dinghy ride away. Dave is thinking we should start shamming the deck to get rid of the water that forms overnight and then we won’t have so many bees. So we will start that tomorrow morning and see how it goes. We were going to do it this morning but we had already put the bow awning up.

Dave is working again on the back head trying to find the place that is leaking air and making the head lose pressure. I stayed out of his way and read my book. I wasn’t in the greatest of moods this morning and Dave has a habit, when he is working on something, to tell me to get him a screw driver or whatever he needs. Well today wasn’t the first time he has done that but because of my mood and his tone in wanting something, I got upset. I didn’t say anything and I really thought it was because I was tired. I was very quiet and I usually get that way when something is bothering me or I am tired. So Dave noticed I was more quiet than normal and asked if there was something wrong. I thought about it and decided I wouldn’t say anything because maybe it was just me. Dave needed to take a break and it was time by our clock to go meet Peter and Marni for our dinghy ride to the other small bay. They said they would call us, but it was almost 12:30pm and we didn’t hear from them so we called them. They said they weren’t ready and Peter was taking a snooze, plus it was only 11:30am. We forgot to change our clocks when we got here. We are now on Pacific Time. So we said we were sorry and no worries. So instead of going back to working on the head problem, Dave went out in the cockpit and noticed the boat wasn’t turning into the wind like it normally does and he wondered why. He wondered if maybe the anchor chain was stuck on something preventing us from turning so he needed to go to the bow. So we started taking down awning. He was trying to tell me what he wanted and I miss understood and then we were both hollering at each other. Attitudes were exchanged and I finally told him I was tired of being ordered around because he thought I was being obstinate. After that the air was clear and we were able to be more civil to each other. Sometimes you do stuff or say things and you don’t realize how it is coming across to the other person. Dave didn’t realize he was doing that. To him he was asking for help. To me he was not saying would you get me this or whatever, it was get me this on a demanding note. I don’t take too kindly to that after awhile. When you spend 24/7 on a boat you do get irritated with one another but you can’t let it carry on like that. The air needs to be cleared. After we got our act together and got the awning down and Dave and I stood at the bow to watch the anchor, we decided the awning was preventing the boat from swinging because the boat wanted to go one way and the wind was pushing on the awning causing the boat to stay put. Once the awning was down, we began turning like we are suppose to. So everything was good again. I went below and fixed us lunch and then about 12:00pm Peter called and said they were getting ready to leave in their dinghy to go explore. We told them we were ready. We got in the dinghy and followed Marni and Peter. We went ashore and walked around and saw some whale bones and there were buildings but didn’t look like anyone was living in them. They probably come later on in the summer because there were trailers there and a house. We walked up the road a ways to see what we would see and it was pure desert. It was hot and dry. We turned around and walked back to the beach and then got in our dinghies and left. The bay wasn’t as protected from the south wind as where we are so we are glad we didn’t try to go in there to anchor. The other reason is it is shallow and there are lots of rocks. It would be tricky to get two boats in there and have room for them to swing. We came out of there and past our boats to another sandy beach. We saw some strange looking bugs. They looked like bugs, but when we got close they scampered off into the water. They were black. We have no idea what they are. Creepy looking though. We picked up a couple of scallop shells and went back to the dinghy and then to the boat. It was a nice break. When we got back Dave went back to working on the head and I took a well needed nap.

Dave was unable to fix the head so we will have to get replacement parts for it when we go home for a visit.

When I got up from my nap I felt so much better. Dave cleaned the strainers to the air conditioner and water maker then the chores were done.

We had been invited to Peter and Marni’s boat around 6:30pm to play the Mexican Train game. Dave turned on the net to hear the weather and check in, then I cut up some jimcama and made gin and tonics for us to take to Peter and Marni’s boat and off we went.

We had a great time and when we returned to our boat, Dave started the generator to charge the batteries and run the air conditioner. So that was our day in a nutshell. Now it is time to relax and play a game on my computer before we turn off the generator and go to bed.

Wednesday, July 22.
We are still enjoying the nice breezes and calm waters Bahia San Francisquito is giving us. We had a calm night with no lightning and very little breeze. Luckily I borrowed a battery operated fan from marni to put into our stateroom at night so it is easier for us to sleep. It worked like a charm.

The morning started out with excitement. Before I was out of bed I heard this whomp, whomp, whomp, and wondered what it was. It sounded like the dinghy was bouncing in a big wave, but the big boat wasn’t moving. Then I thought that it might be a sail flapping and wondered if our headsail had come loose. I got up and about that time Dave said it was a whale. So I went to the cockpit and took a look and sure enough there was a whale that had beached itself and its tail was flapping the surface of the water. I grabbed my camera and then I joined Dave on deck. We watched helplessly while this whale was trying to get free. Then all of a sudden it quit flopping its tail and laid still. We thought it was taking a break because it had been doing that for at least half an hour. No one could help it because you didn’t want to get close to it and in the way of that tail if in fact it started to move. We had the other cruisers in the bay trying to figure out what type of whale it was and one of them said it could be a bryde whale. We had never heard of it. Dave thinks it is a minki. We were hoping the tide was going to come in and hopefully help him to get free, but the tide was still going out. After awhile we knew it was dead. Dave and I got in the dinghy and went over to check the whale out but kept a safe distance away. It was dead. Poor thing. It was a very big whale. I’d say about 50 feet. After we studied the whale for a few minutes, we went on to explore the other side of the bay. We went past some neat rock formations and lots of sandstone. We were heading toward the sandy beach and had thoughts of putting the dinghy on shore, but with the tide out there were numerous rocks lining the beach so we decided we weren’t going to go in. Bees were buzzing around us and we didn’t want to stay any longer so we headed back to the boat. Just as we were almost to the boat we saw a small Mexican Navy vessel come out of the harbor. So we went up to it and told them about the whale. They followed us to the whale and they looked at it and we went back to the boat. They stayed there for a few minutes then they left. Not their department to do anything about a dead whale, but we were hoping they would call whomever to come and maybe take care of it. Once on our boat we ran the generator and made water. After that Dave gathered his fishing stuff and went in the dinghy in search of fish. I stayed behind and polished stainless steel in the cockpit. When Dave returned he was empty handed and I was finished polishing for the day. He went down below and settled in and was reading, I cleaned up and then sat in the cockpit in the breeze reading. Then it was happy hour and Dave and I had a rum and orange juice. Then I fixed dinner and we ate. After dinner I did dishes and took down the bow awning as the wind was picking up. I managed to avoid the open hatches while I took the awning down!!! Dave and I also prepared for a Chubasco that was predicted. So we took the net down on the windshield, windshield cover, and side curtain and stowed them then closed the hatches as the sky was getting dark. I got a bottle of wine and Dave and I sat in the cockpit drinking our wine and watching for lightning. We did see some and the wind picked up a little and just as we thought it was really going to blow it would die down. Then later on it would pick up again. It did that all night. Dave stayed in the cockpit so as to be right there in case something needed attention. I went to bed.

Thursday, July 23.
I slept pretty soundly. I woke up about 5:00am because I heard the wind pick up and thought oh no! I checked on Dave and he said it had been doing that all night and just when he thought we were going to get a big wind, it would die. So basically the Chubasco missed us, thank goodness! I went back to bed and left Dave to finish snoozing in the cockpit. Around 7:00-7:30am I heard this yapping sound. It woke me up. As I lay there listening, I smiled because I realized it was the sound of the young coyotes. We heard them last night too. I got up and went to the cockpit to see if I could see them and at first I couldn’t then I saw something move so I got my binoculars and found a family, mom, dad, and two pups on the beach. They were lounging around. Then they moved and were on the shore in the rocks off our bow. They were looking for food and it looked as though they found something because there was red on the rocks and the pups were eating. The whale was still there and had washed onto shore and most of it was exposed due to the tide being out. Peter got in his dinghy and stopped by our boat and told us he was going over to see the whale. When he got back he said it looked like it was a female and she may have been trying to give birth. He said it was hard to tell so we really don’t know for sure.

It is overcast today and the anchorage is a little rolly. The fishing fleet that came in last night is still anchored in the bay. They tried to leave this morning and ended up coming back because it was too rough on the outside.

I washed out a few items and hung them. Peter and Dave took off in Peter’s dinghy to burn garbage. Marni calls it a blue job and only the men do that job. So Dave being the guy he is, got his flask and filled it with scotch and then grabbed a couple cigars in case Peter wanted one. Dave knew Peter drank scotch. So off they went to do the blue job. I thought it was kind of funny. Why not!!!! If a guy has to go burn garbage, why not enjoy doing it. Marni has told us that on their boat there are pink jobs that she does and blue jobs that Peter does and they don’t mix. It doesn’t work that way on our boat. It doesn’t matter what kind of job it is, if something needs to be done and that person knows how to do it, it will get done by me or Dave. When Dave got back it wasn’t long before Marni was calling on the VHF. Dave answered and Marni said that the next time there is a pink job to do her and I would do it and drink Kaluha and milk. I laughed. I guess Peter told her about the scotch. She didn’t sound like she was thrilled with that. Oh well!!

We just had lunch and now I think it is time to read. I’ve been reading history of the Baja Peninsula and Sea of Cortez. Pretty interesting.

The whale is still pretty much exposed to the naked eye now so I got my binoculars out and took a look. Peter was right. It was a female and she was giving birth. You could see the baby being born and the sack was attached. That was sad.

The fishing fleet is starting to venture out now. The waves have settled down and it looks smoother out there.

I finished polishing the stainless steel on the stern of the boat. Dave was down below reading and then he fixed the leak on the air conditioner thru haul. He put new pipe compound on it as the old was almost gone. Now he is just going to wait and see if it continues to leak or it is fixed. I’m going to do my reading now. I finished the history of the Baja and Sea of Cortez and then started reading my other book. Dave went out fishing gain and when he got back he said he caught a couple snook but they weren’t big enough to keep. At least he had success this time. The sky is getting darker and I think it is going to rain. It would be really nice if it poured so we could wash the deck. As it was it started to lightly rain and enough water was on the deck I could take the shammy and mop the deck to at least get the first layer off and some salt. Dave was on the bow with the brush earlier but there just wasn’t enough water. As soon as I got done mopping the deck, it stopped raining. Darn. I am hoping it will rain later tonight so the decks can really get a wash down. The sky is still pretty dark.

We are running the generator and the air conditioner. It is warm and muggy and it will help the boat stay dry. No sitting in the cockpit tonight as it is sprinkling again. Hope it will be a calm night. We have all the hatches closed in preparation for rain. Tomorrow will be a sunny day as this is all suppose to move out tonight.

Friday, July 24.
We were invited, along with s/v 2 Pieces of Eight, for coffee aboard s/v Trumpeter with Gary and Anna aboard. This is their first time in the Sea of Cortez and they had been in Bahia de Los Angeles and wondered why no one was up there yet. It was too early to be there. While they were there they found out there are no ATM or Banks and no fuel. So they were heading south to Santa Rosalia to get both of those. They ended up in Bahia San Francisquito with us. Once aboard s/v Trumpeter we were served fresh banana, mango muffins and coffee. We had a wonderful visit. When we were getting ready to leave Anna invited us all back at 6:30pm to have snacks and play Mexican train. When Dave and I got back to our boat, we realized that if we go to s/v Trumpeter, we will be getting back when it is dark and it will be really difficult to get the engine off the dinghy and mount it without sufficient light. So Dave suggested we invite everyone over to our boat and we can have snacks and play the game and enjoy all of that in the comfort of an air conditioned salon. So we called s/v 2 Pieces of Eight and s/v Trumpeter and they thought that was a wonderful idea. After that I straightened up the boat, washed some clothes and hung them out to dry on the lifelines. We haven’t had many bees so I thought I would try it. Then I made brownies and a salmon pâté. When dishes were done I went out to sit in the cockpit for some reason and saw Peter in his dinghy coming toward our boat with our dinghy in tow. I was really surprised. Apparently it wasn’t tied on securely enough and it got away. Thank goodness for good neighbors. I grabbed the lines and started to secure the dinghy to our boat and Peter took off to his boat. Luckily he was in his cockpit reading when he saw our dinghy go by. We were really lucky and very fortunate to have them there. After securing the dinghy I sat in the cockpit and read my book. Once in a while I got a whiff of the dead whale and I told Dave it was a good thing we were leaving tomorrow. Around 5:00pm I went out on the bow and took the awning down and brought that and the side curtain in and stowed them down below. Then I took the windshield cover off and stowed that. At 5:30pm Dave came up from down below and took the engine off the dinghy and put it on its mount. Then we moved the dinghy to the side of the boat to make room for the other dinghies to tie up to the stern of the boat. When we were done with that I went below and started getting cleaned up. Around 6:00pm Gary from s/v Trumpeter came over to listen to the net. He couldn’t get it on his boat. Anna was making popcorn back on their boat so he would go back and get her after the net was over. As soon as Gary left to get Anna, Marni and Peter showed up bringing their snacks. Shortly after that Gary was back with Anna. They had the colorful version on the Mexican Train game. We ate and drank and then played the game. Peter won 3 games in a row and I won 1. It was a lot of fun and everyone had a great time. Then everyone said goodnight as we are all leaving in the morning. Gary and Anna are heading south and Marni, Peter and we are heading north to Bahia Las Anamas. We’ll see Gary and Anna again when they come back to Bahia de Los Angeles. We will stay in Bahia Las Anamas for a while and then move up to our destination at Bahia de Los Angeles where we will stay around that area until October.

Saturday, July 25. Bahia San Francisquito to Bahia de Las Anamas.This morning we woke to the pungent odor of dead whale. It is really starting to stink now. We are very happy to be leaving. We had a good stay here with winds blowing everyday to cool us down and usually a little breeze at night. But now it is time to move on and see more of the northern part of the Sea of Cortez. The rest of the fleet is still south of us but are slowly moving north and before long will have caught up to us. Everyone will be in Bahia de Los Angeles by mid August.

We listened to the net weather and then took off after that. We had the anchor up and were on our way around 8:00am. As Dave was hoisting the anchor he had to try and clean off the anchor and chain from the stringy seaweed. He said he cleaned about 90 percent of it off. Yuck!!

The skies are blue, the seas are very calm and there is a little bit of a breeze. We rolled our headsail out to help us go a little faster against the current. Unfortunately the current is on our nose and will be that way for a long time. Right now we are going 5.4 knots. That is slow.

We had a nice leisurely ride and finally reached our anchorage around 2:30pm. We picked a spot and dropped the anchor with Peter and Marni behind us. It is a neat area. The hills have a pink hue to them and there is an area that looks as though a big dump truck dumped piles of dirt all around. As we were getting to the area we were going to anchor in, there was a spot along the way that really looked neat. The hills were pretty pink and neat shapes. Unusual I guess you might say. After the hook was dropped, we put things away and put up the bow awning, side curtain, windshield cover and the net that goes across the open part of the windshield. There was a breeze blowing which felt good. It is hot.
LOG: 6809.1NM TRIP: 31.9NM
LOCATION: 28̊ 49:283N/113̊ 17:244W
ARRIVAL: 2:30PM
ENG. HRS. 1291

We have settled in and have done some reading. As the sun was going down we noticed there were a lot of tiny black flying bugs on the screens in the cockpit. Not a lot, but enough to make me get the mosquito coil out and burn it. The generator is running with the air conditioner going and we are cooling down the hull as it got really hot today. The refrigerator ran a long time and the freezer wasn’t shutting off. Now things are back to normal. The water temperature is 88 degrees which is cool so after today the refrigerator and freezer should behave themselves. I hope!!! Dave is working on a spread sheet of his log of engine, generator hours, and that type of stuff. He was all done last night and he hit the wrong button and wiped it out so now he has to start all over again. Not much going on tonight. We are just going to enjoy the quiet solitude of this place. Tomorrow we will go exploring. Dave wants to catch some fish.

Sunday, July 26. Bahia de Las Anamas.
It is a beautiful sunny day and the waters are calm. We had some rollers come in during the night and early this morning but nothing bad. The forecast today is for north wind and if it reaches us and we get big rollers from the wind waves we will move instead of bouncing around for hours.

I just washed clothes and had to have them inside to dry because the bees are looking for water.

Dave and I were feeling a little sleepy so we needed to do something to get our blood moving. Dave didn’t want to take the motor off the boat and put it on the dinghy right now because we didn’t know if we would have to move to a more sheltered spot from the north wind swells. So I suggested we paddle ashore and check things out. He said that was a good idea so we did. We secure the dinghy on shore and started looking for shells. I was walking along the water’s edge and Dave went inland a little and found all kinds of tiny shells. So I met him up there and I looked at the shells and then proceeded to look all over the beach. Dave went to the dinghy and got a paddle out to see if he could find any clams. There wasn’t enough sand for them to bury in. Most of the shoreline was gravel and rock. He saw fish jumping out from the beach but he didn’t bring his fishing rod so he couldn’t try and catch anything. I found some neat looking shells. I am trying to find different ones each time I look to get a variety. The other gals that are collecting shells are doing it to make jewelry and other things. I’m not so inclined to do that. I just like finding out what they are and displaying them. I found 4 sea urchins, but 2 broke. They are very fragile. But to me that was a great find!!! My ultimate find will be to get a paper nautilus. Then I will have to get a shadow box to put it in as they are extremely delicate and fragile. Soon after we landed on the beach Peter and Marni came in their dinghy to join us in exploring. Marni and I looked for shells and interesting small rocks and the guys walked to the end of the beach up a little hill. I wanted to meet up with them to see what they could see so I picked up my pace a little. Marni caught up with me and we walked most of the way there and then she said she was hot and didn’t want to go any further. I still wanted to carry on so I left her behind. She was waiting for Peter to come down from the hill so they could head back to their dinghy. They guys were coming down from the hill and I caught up with them and Dave said there was a lagoon on the other side and he was going to check it out. I told him I wanted to go with him. Peter said he was going back to meet Marni so we parted ways. We got to the spot where the lagoon is and I was very hot and didn’t want to walk down the rocky slope to get there so I told Dave I was going to head back. He said he wanted to check out the edge of the lagoon to see if there were clams. So I walked away. He said he was right behind me. Well he didn’t come right away but while I was walking I looked back several times to see if he was coming. Finally I saw him and I knew he would catch up to me soon. As I walked the beach I saw a turtle shell. It was all intact but the back was starting to crack from the heat and dryness. I guess in order to preserve the shells you have to shellac them. Anyway it was pretty neat to see. Haven’t found out what type it is yet. It may have been a leatherback but don’t know until I can get internet to look it up. We caught up with Peter and Marni and Marni and I walked in the water to cool down and Dave and Peter walked on the beach. We got back to our dinghies and being we paddled over, Peter asked if we wanted a tow back to the boat. Well sure we did!!! So we gave Marni the lines and Peter started his engine and away we went. That was fun. They dropped us off at our boat and they went back to theirs. We went below and had lots of water as we were pretty hot. We didn’t think to bring it with us. Next time I will do that. We ran some water and we are on the aft water tank which seems to have a lot of air in it. I usually get air bubbles from that tank but not like this. We ran the water to try and get the bubbles out and it would be alright for a little bit and then another air bubble. Don’t know what is going on. Dave is hoping it isn’t the pump. If so we have a repair kit for it. We will continue to run the water and see how it goes. It did get better.

I am going to read my book in the cockpit where there is a little breeze. Dave is going to look for fish. After a while, Dave came back empty handed. He said his fishing rod is falling apart. The rings that the line goes through at the end of the pole are breaking. Dave super glued part of it and hopes for the best. That is the only good pole he has for catching big fish. Hope it holds together. Bummer.

After dinner Dave fell asleep in the cockpit and I took my seat cushion out on the foredeck and watched the stars. There were a couple faint shooting stars and one satellite but nothing else too exciting. I heard some heavy breathing coming from off our port side but couldn’t see what it was. It was probably a seal. After all that excitement I went below and got ready for bed. Then I sat and played a couple games on the computer then went to bed. Dave followed later.

Monday, July 27.
Today was another sunny, blue sky day. We had some rollers come through this morning at around 2:00am that woke us up. For some reason we get them each night and have no idea where they are coming from. There isn’t any wind so they aren’t wind wave rollers. Our boat lays beam to them which rocks us back and forth. It isn’t uncomfortable but just annoying. I had a hard time sleeping. It was warm and I was tossing and turning. I must have dozed off because when I woke up I noticed Dave was up. He was in the cockpit. He had retied the dinghy as it was banging against the stern. I got up and looked around and then went back to bed. Even though I had the fan running, it was still hot. Dave decided it was time to cool down in the cockpit so he took his pillows and that is where he was this morning when I woke up.

I had my coffee in the cockpit where there was a breeze and the view was nice. It isn’t a beautiful anchorage, but when the sun sets at night the rocks get their pink hue going and it is pretty. It is very quiet and peaceful here and it reminded me of when we went to Blake Island at home and hung on a hook on the west side of the island. You felt you were miles away from everything and it was peaceful.

Dave went out fishing for a while this morning. He took his handheld VHF and he told Peter that he was going out to see what he could see and then come back for him and they would go out together. A little later we hear Dave call s/v 2 Pieces of Eight and say he ran out of gas. I laughed my head off. I thought that was really funny. He never has done that before since I have known him. And the bad part was the paddles were still on our boat. They needed to be rinsed in fresh water. I tried to hail him but he never responded. The radio died. Thank goodness our friends from s/v Distance Shores was passing by on their way toward us to anchor and picked him up. Peter went out to get him and brought him back. The picture is priceless. After Dave got the dinghy tied up, he transferred all his stuff to Peter’s dinghy, off they went to hunt for fish. I stayed behind very content to read my book.

When the guys returned they were empty handed. So Peter dropped Dave off and went back to his own boat. A little later Dave called m/v Hobo and asked how his fishing was. After they chatted for a few minutes, Dave decided to go get his computer battery from Larry, as Larry got it from Rich that went home last week. So off he went and I was still reading my book.

Dave came back and put the battery in and everything works like a charm. Thank goodness. Then he went out for the third time to catch fish and this time he was successful. He caught 2 medium sized trigger fish. We kept the fillets of one and gave the other fillets to Peter and Marni. Dave is talking about going again tonight to see if he can catch a bass or something different. He loves to fish.

It has been a pretty low keyed day. I am trying to finish my book so I can pass it on to Peter. Hopefully he hasn’t read it yet.

We had talked to Peter later on in the afternoon and asked if he wanted to go out fishing again and he said he would have to see how he felt after dinner. After dinner we didn’t hear from Peter and Dave was kind of pooped so nobody went fishing again. We secured the dinghy for the night and plan on watching the sky again for shooting stars. It is really quiet here and it is just s/v 2 Pieces of Eight and us in this bay. That is nice.

Tuesday, July 28.
There was a breeze this morning but not significant enough to cool the boat down. Larry and Lena from m/v Hobo came to visit. He and Dave talked fishing lures and fish. When they left I washed some clothes and since there weren’t a lot of bees around I decided to hang them on the forward lifelines. Dave took off to find fish and I was on a mission to finish my book so I could pass it on to Peter. As soon as I hung the clothes out the word was out to the bees there was water. There were quite a few that came to investigate. Because it was already hot the clothes were drying quickly so I knew the bees wouldn’t be around too much longer. The ones that ventured into the cockpit had a short life span. Dave came back empty handed but I finished my book.

We had lunch and then I went to the cockpit to crochet, and Dave was doing his own thing down below. We had a nice breeze blowing all morning and when the afternoon came it stopped and it got hot. It was hot topside and down below. As we were sweating to death, Dave decided he wanted to cool off and take a dinghy ride. He asked if I wanted to come and I said “sure”. So off we went. He took his fishing pole with him just in case he saw fish and there was a chance he could hook one. We just rode out of the bay and round the corner. There was a lot of seaweed close to shore and so we shut the motor off and drifted into it and we could see bottom with the rocks but no fish. We did see one grouper but he wasn’t big enough to catch. So we paddled out of the seaweed and started the motor again and turned around and headed back to the bay. The wind had died down, therefore making the seas calmer, but there was still a little wind wave left where we were, as we were not protected by the hills. Our dinghy is so light it gets blown off quickly so we just didn’t want to work the motor too hard and waste gas. There were three fishing boats anchored at the mouth of the bay and one of the boats deployed a panga and the guys were fishing off the point. We passed by and said hi and they smiled and waved at us. It looked like they were catching more boobies and pelicans than fish. I’m sure they were trying to catch dinner. We got back to the boat and it was just in time for a margarita. Just before the evening Southbound net was to come on, Marni called and asked if we had garbage to burn and we said yes. She said Peter was finishing a beer and then he would be coming over to pick Dave up so they could go to shore and burn garbage. The blue job as Marni puts it. We heard a little of Don’s weather and then it was hard to hear him anymore, so when Dave left with Peter, I turned it off. Marni called back after a while and asked if the guys were smoking cigars and drinking scotch and I told her no. She had dinner ready and I was about to fix us sandwiches, so we were waiting for the guys to return. Marni asked if we wanted to get together and play a game and I said that sounded like fun. Dave wanted to run the generator and air conditioner, and he didn’t want to do that too late, so I invited them to come over to our boat and enjoy the air conditioner. We all needed some cool air as it was hot and humid. So she said they would be over after dinner. Peter dropped Dave off and then went to his boat to have dinner. When they got finished with their meal, they called and asked if it was a good time to come over and we said “sure”. They arrived and Marni had her homemade kaluha and milk and Peter’s bottle of scotch and a game called Sequence in a bag. So we sat down and they explained how to play the game. We won 2 games and Peter and Marni ended up winning 3. It was a fun game and pretty mindless. It was a game of strategy and wits. At 9:30pm they left as she has to get up early to do the Wednesday edition of the Amigo net. So we said goodbye and they went home. We turned off everything and left the hatches closed hoping to keep some of the cool air in. There wasn’t a breath of wind at all outside and it was hot and humid. Thank goodness Marni let us borrow their operated fan. We wouldn’t have gotten any sleep. You couldn’t sleep outside and without some air blowing on you, there was no sleeping inside either. We went to bed and then I remember waking up. Dave had gotten up to open the hatches as there was a breeze blowing. I think he was getting warm. Then he came back to bed and that’s all she wrote.

Wednesday, July 29.
Dave slept in this morning. Usually he is up at 7:00am, but he got up at 7:25am just in time to hear the last of the net. He missed checking in. He called Marni and asked her what Don said and she said he was predicting SSW winds today. That is a good thing. At least it will be cooler than it was yesterday. It will come over the hills so there won’t be strong breezes.

We had a very busy morning. I went out to the bow to put the awning up and there were bees all over the place. The deck was covered in dew from overnight. So I put the awning down and I would come back and put it up when there were less bees. I went back to the cockpit and got the shammy and proceeded to mop down the deck to rid it of water. As it dried the bees would move on to another spot. When I finished that I went back to the cockpit and helped Dave kill the ones that came in. It was sunny when we got up this morning but now the clouds were starting to block the sun. That wasn’t a good thing because our solar panels don’t charge the batteries when that happens. So Dave was not too happy about that. You see, when we ran the generator last night, battery bank 2 was not holding a charge. Dave didn’t understand why. It was either the solar panels were dirty, or the batteries were low in water. So he said we would have to check the batteries before running the generator. So that is what we did. I emptied the seat under the table of canned and dry goods, then we moved the seat out of the way so Dave could take the screws out of the floor board and lift it up to get to the house batteries. He had just checked the start battery and it was low on water so he filled it up. So he checked battery bank 2 and the water level was actually pretty good. He didn’t have to add a lot of water. The other 2 batteries were the same so that was good. We have 4 golf size batteries as our house batteries. He tested them and battery back 2 was low. This was not good. The other two were good. So what Dave decided to do was charge them up all the way and see what happens. So he started the generator and we turned on the air conditioning. I had to defrost the refrigerator and freezer so I started with the refrigerator first. When that was done and everything put back and turned on, I emptied the freezer and defrosted that. That one I can prop the hairdryer so it blows on the coils underneath and go about doing other things. Can’t do that with the refrigerator the way it is set up. But the refrigerator doesn’t take long to defrost. I washed dishes from last night, and then washed some clothes and towels. I couldn’t hang them outside today due to all the bees, but I found places to hang in the heads to hang them. Then I plugged the ice maker in and made some ice. I also made spaghetti sauce and boiled some eggs. I figured I would take advantage of the cool air. Then I was done. While I was defrosting the refrigerator, Dave went on bee kill mode. He went to the bow and I could hear him below whapping the deck to kill the bees. They were all over the deck which made them easy targets. When it was safe to hang the awning, Dave did so. By the time we were done with all of that, it was time to turn everything off. After that Dave tested the battery bank 2 and the results were much better. They had to be bubbled to get the gunk off the coils I guess. Anyway, that is done and he is feeling better about it. The frustrating thing after that was that both refrigerator and freezer kept running so whatever charge we put into the batteries were being sucked out by those two. The clouds went away so that helped the solar panels a little, but we just can’t win the battery battle. Right now the way things have been going since we have been in the Sea of Cortez, we may not come back next year. The heat in the air and the water are hard on the boat and batteries. For a summer that was supposed to be fun has turned out to be very frustrating and not fun. We have had a few fun times, but not like we were hoping for. The fun is just not there when you are worried about batteries and fuel all the time. Thank goodness I did well on provisions because we haven’t had a problem there. Well that is how we are feeling now. When we return to Mazatlan, we will have to get batteries and repair other things on the boat before setting of cruising again. The cruising season is from November to June and so a big chunk of that time is going to be at a marina getting things done. It never ends. Of course our boat is 8 years old and she has been very good to us, but there is only so much a boat can take before things start to break and not work. Oh well. You just don’t realize what goes into the cruising life. It isn’t all fun and games.

There is a wonderful breeze blowing which is like heaven. The bees are gone but we managed to pick up a couple of wasps. They didn’t last long. I did some crocheting and Dave took the dinghy to shore to see if he could help Pete with putting in a new valve in his dinghy. After crocheting I started reading John Steinbeck’s book The Log from the Sea of Cortez. I never read it and Dave just finished it so since it is a small book I thought I would read it and pass it on.

When Dave returned from his shore duty, I helped him put 10 gallons of diesel from 2 of the jerry cans into the tank. When we get to Bahia de Los Angeles, or otherwise known as BLA, we will empty the other two jerry cans of diesel in the tank and then take the four jerry cans to the Pemex station and fill them up and bring them back to the boat. We are thinking of heading a little further north on Saturday. It will be a short trip to our next anchorage.

Right now we are running the generator again to put more charge in those batteries because the solar panels didn’t work all day to do that. It should be a quiet night.

Thursday, July 30.
We had a little wave action this morning early and it wasn’t until this afternoon that it finally calmed down. It was annoying but outside of that it was o.k. Dave and I didn’t have much energy so we didn’t do much. Eventually we both took naps.

Marni called on the VHF and told us the sour dough started was ready for pickup anytime we wanted to come get it. After Dave got up from his nap he got in the dinghy and went over to get it. When he returned he asked me if I wanted to go explore the other beach which was around the corner from us and of course I said “yes”! I got in the dinghy and off we went. We arrived at the other beach and secured the dinghy up on shore and went looking for interesting shells and rocks. We noticed we had more of a breeze where we are anchored than here. There was nothing and it was hot. I’m glad we are on the other side. We found some tiny shells and a lot of snail shells which I already have plenty of. I did find a little sea urchin, but it broke on the way back to the boat. They are so delicate. I got a couple of neat looking rocks and some tiny shells. One rock looked like a glacier rock and the other had layers of different colors and you could feel the ridges of each layer. It was pretty interesting. My treasures! It was getting pretty hot so we decided to go back to the boat. It was nice when we rounded the corner to have the breeze in our face. When we got on the boat Marni called us and said she was glad to see we made it back safely. She was giving Dave a hard time because of the time he ran out of gas. So she said she was keeping an eye out just in case they needed to rescue us. Very funny Marni!!!!

Dave was going to run the generator for a couple of hours to charge batteries but before he runs it he always checks everything out on the engine first to make sure everything is alright. He opened the access door and looked in and what he saw was not good. There was a large amount of oil in the oil pan under the engine (generator). Where in the heck did that come from!!!! Yeah I know---the engine. But what caused it. So Dave got a little excited and the first thing he thought was a blown head gasket!!! Oh no!!! Boy if that IS the case we are in dire straits. We can’t charge batteries or make water. Making water is the big thing as we can run the engine to charge batteries. But it would be really bad for us. Since we knew that Peter use to be a mechanic for Honda and also for race cars, we figured he would be able to help us figure out what the problem is. So Dave got on the VHF and called Peter and a few minutes later he came over. Dave got the parts and owner’s manual out and studied it and in the meantime, Dave cleaned up the oil on the starboard side of the generator and I cleaned the other side. When all that was done they could have a better look at everything. The mystery was what was the oil doing in the water reservoir? One thing we did find out was we did not have a blown head gasket. Thank goodness for that!!!! Peter has a great way of looking at things to defuse the apprehension on a situation. He would say, “The bad news is-----BUT the good news is -----“. So that was always nice to hear the good news after the bad.
What they found was that the oil was leaking out of the raw water pump connected to the engine. The water side was fine. Since the tube for the water reservoir was laying in the pan, when the engine heated and the oil spilled out and went into the pan, the water reservoir tube sucked up the oil. So the first thing was to get the reservoir off, which ended up to be a major effort, clean it out and put it back together. We had a small empty bottle we used to put the tube in so that won’t happen again. Then they tried to solve the mystery of where the leak was coming from. After about 3 hours they finally figured it might be the raw water pump. The way it was now, we could run the generator for a short time and keep an eye on things, and then tomorrow take the pump off and investigate. Dave filled the engine with oil and put water in the reservoir and started it up. It was leaking a little bit of oil, but if we kept rags around the area it was leaking it would be alright. So we ran the generator long enough to charge the batteries then shut it down. In the meantime Peter went back to his boat and Dave and I sighed, a sigh of relief that it wasn’t a major problem. Dave got the generator spare parts out so he wouldn’t have to dig for them in the morning and he studied the diagram for the generator. We had dinner then relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Friday, July 31.
We woke to rolly polly seas again. It was about 2:00am or so and we were rocking and rolling from the tide change. Dave went outside to check the dinghy and he saw a seal swimming around the dinghy. He got a little nervous about that because the seal looked like it wanted to get in the dinghy. So he went on seal watch. He slept outside not just because of the seal but it was a little too rolly down below for him. I just went back to sleep.

When we got up I got the awning and went to the bow through a bunch of bees. There were too many for me to put the awning up without getting stung so I dropped it on deck and went back to the cockpit. We were killing bees left and right. They were looking for water. The majority of them were between the windshield of the dodger and the mast. They were trying to get at the water that was trapped between the crevices around the start battery solar panel. So we ended up having to pour salt water on that area to get rid of them. They didn’t leave right away. It took about an hour or so before they finally got the idea that there was no fresh water. They definitely don’t like that salt water. After the bees were gone, I put the awning up.

About 9:30-10:00am Peter came over so he and Dave could solve the mystery. Dave had already removed the raw water pump and was examining it. When they took it all apart, they found there was a seal in there that was not fitting snugly and that definitely would cause leakage. We had to use the existing seal because we didn’t have an extra. The guys put some sealant stuff in there, to help seal around the oil seal and then did other stuff I can’t explain. Between what we had and what Peter had they were able to replace most of the parts that needed it. So the guys put the pump back together and screwed it onto the generator engine then hoped and prayed it would work. Peter said sometimes you have to put it on a couple of times before it works. Let’s hope we don’t have to do that. Dave clicked the engine on and Peter was right there next to it watching for leaks and told Dave to turn it off. It was leaking on the water side this time. So the oil side was good now it was the water side that needed looking at. So back to the drawing board. Dave took the pump off again and the guys took it apart. It was easier and faster doing it this time. They eventually had to replace the ceramic seal on the water side. We did have one of those so when that was done, they put it together and installed it on the engine and started it and there were no leaks, drips, or errors!!! As it ran they did notice just a hint of oil coming out from a hose under the engine, but not enough to make a big difference. We need to get a better seal for the oil side. The sealant Peter put in there won’t solve the problem so at some point the oil seal will need to be replaced. As soon as we can get one, we will do that. But for now we can run the generator, keeping an eye on it. Peter was a life saver. I think it was about 1:00 or 2:00pm now and he was heading back to his boat for a siesta. I told Dave we had lots of spaghetti sauce leftover and I could make a green salad and we should invite them for dinner. So I hailed Marni on the VHF and invited them to dinner around 7:00pm. They said they would bring a bottle of wine. So we proceeded to clean up the mess on the boat and put tools away. We ran the generator and made water and charged the batteries. We are very fortunate to have them as our traveling buddies. Peter has saved our bacon a couple of times now.

I made a green salad and deviled eggs and Dave kept an eye on the generator for leaks and did see a tiny one. Nothing bad. He just put a cloth around the area it was leaking and just kept an eye on it. We filled one of the starboard tanks and partially the other before shutting the generator off. That was enough run time for now.

It was going on 6:00pm. Dave turned the Southbound net on for weather and I took the awning down and stowed it. When the net was over, Dave took the engine off the dinghy and stowed it and then we pulled the dinghy to the starboard side of the boat and then we hoisted her out of the water. I had put water in a pan and was heating it while I was doing the other stuff so I went below after I was done to check on it. It was ready so I added the spaghetti and let them cook. I heated up the sauce and about this time Peter and Marni arrived. She brought with her the Mexican Train game, her homemade Kaluha and milk for us, and Tequila for the guys. Just before they arrived Dave started the generator again so we could turn the air conditioner on and be comfortable. Dave told Peter there was a tiny leak and he wasn’t concerned. He just mentioned to keep a rag there and an eye on it. After dinner we played one game and Peter won. Then the booze came out. Marni fixed us her Kaluha and the guys poured their tequila. Then we played a couple more games after that. It was a fun night after being such a tense morning and afternoon. Peter and Marni packed up and went back to their boat. Dave turned the generator off and we enjoyed the rest of the evening. There is very little breeze tonight so I sat in the cockpit awhile before going to bed. Everything worked out really well today.