Made it to La Paz!

We are now anchored in the bay at La Paz!

We enjoyed our trip up the East Cape and spent some time at the local islands. We will be going in to Marina de La Paz tomorrow, so will have internet all the time (yahoo, which means I can update this blog and share the whole trip and bore you all to tears...)

To tide you over until I have the time to update, here is a picture of the boat anchored at "No Name Cove #7" at Isla Espiritu Santo~~~

Thursday 03-06-08 - Isla Cedros to Quebrada

I heard some flapping noise around 3:00 am, got up, checked the deck and couldn't find anything, so went back to bed. I heard it again, so got up (again) and checked the dinghy. There was a small sea bird stuck behind the fuel tank desperately trying to get out. I couldn't reach it - now what do I do... Well, I should have woken up Stan the bird lover, but I made the mistake of waking up Jim the bird hater. He grabbed a towel and scooped up the bird and set it on the deck. It walked around a bit, the flopped off the deck into the water, never to be seen again. Karma bank deposit for Jim & me...

Up later, coffee, washed the dishes and the guys fought with the tempramental generator. Then the wind came up out of nowhere!! Time to go.

Cruised along the East side of the island along where they have the salt from Guerrero Negro waiting to be picked up and taken away by freighters.



Lots of tug & tow traffic along here!

Saw dolphins and whales once again as we headed through the Dewey Channel.

None of us had a huge desire to spend a night in Turtle Bay, so we pulled into "Quebrada", an anchorage just inside of Punta Rompiente. There was a fish camp on the beach with a vhf radio - we were told "this is not Turtle Bay" as we pulled in!

We had up to 30 knots of wind as we pulled into the bay, and huge surf at the point!We also had whales just outside of the anchorage.

The guys continued to fight with the generator after prevailing on the watermaker and getting it to do exactly what it was supposed to!

An excellent dinner of flank steak, mashed potatoes and salad. Chocolate & to bed!

Wednesday 03-05-08 - Heading to Isla Cedros

Pam kindly woke me a little before 4 am for my watch (very kindly - no yelling or shouting "it's your watch - get up!!!")

The guys had dropped the main just before midnight as it was getting sloppy. It made for better sleep! Jim & I were on the early morning watch, so pulled out the headsail and cruised along for awhile.

Gray skies...
Gray ocean...

More whales in the distance and more dolphins...

Watched Isla Cedros get closer! We took turns sitting on the bow and watching the island and dolphins. We pulled into the small anchorage South of the harbor and dropped anchor. Just got settled and here came the Mexican Navy! They boarded us and checked our paperwork. They were all very kind and waved goodbye as they pulled away.The girls made tacos for dinner, then a little chocolate and to bed early (tired after the overnight trip!)...

Tuesday 03-04-08 - Leaving Ensenada heading to Isla Cedros ~ Happy B-Day to Susan!

On Tuesday, March 4th, we got up early!! We needed all of our daylight hours as we had an "overnighter" to do. We left Marina Coral in Ensenada just before sunrise. We had to wait until we had some decent visibility, as the marina entrance is extremely narrow...We had great weather - just a little wind from the South East to start. We went through a big pod of leaping dolphins who entertained us for awhile, then saw 3 or 4 whales in the distance and 1 ocean sunfish right next to the boat. Then no more sea life for the rest of the day...

We had a nice easy motorsail at 8-9 knots. We took turns napping, watching, sitting and always eating. We had more wind after the sun went down and with Jim, Stan, Tim & I in the cockpit, heard a loug "BANG" - uh oh, what was that? Got the flashlights out and looked up and realized we had parted our first reefing line. So lowered the sail to a 2nd reef and continued. Took turns doing our nightwatches and nothing else "exciting" until the next day!

A Few Pictures of the Trip Down

Motoring down the backside of Isla CedrosSunrise near San Juanico






Whales & Turtles!










Sand dunes in Bahia Magdalena










Arriving at the cape at sunrise!

Made it to The Cape!

We are currently in San Jose del Cabo - about 15 or 20 miles East of Cabo San Lucas! We had a great, smooth trip down, with only a few minor injuries to the crew and boat. We aren't having the best luck with internet right now (I am actually on someone else's boat using his computer - a guy Jim knew from Marina del Rey - Jim used to work on this boat!)

So I will update when we get hooked up and will upload some pictures. We have seen 100's of whales & one turtle right next to the boat!

Mas tarde...

Heading to Cedros Island

Had a wonderful dinner last night of bacon wrapped shrimp.

Now we are up early and as soon as we can see the extremely skinny harbor entrance, will motor out and start our overnight to Isla Cedros.

Hasta luego for who knows how long...

Port Captain, Immigration, Customs & Our First Mexican Birthday Celebration

Happy Birthday to Me!
What do I get to do today?
Go check in with Mexico!
Actually, checking in here at Marina Coral is pretty easy. Pedro drove us to the central office, that now includes immigration, the port captain and customs so we could get our tourist cards, check the boat in and get our 10 year boat import permit - all in one place!

I came back to this on the table!



I am savoring the cards and gifts, so I have only opened the card from Bob & Nancy so far. Tim gave me a "monopod" for my camera on TOP of my 30 to 50 amp adaptor! And there is a bag from Tim & Pam, a card & a bottle of Chalk Hill Chardonnay from Jim!
So, yes, Happy Birthday to me!

After a skype chat with Bob & Nancy, Jim & I hit the indoor pool and jacuzzi.We even had a view of our boat from the pool area!Tonight we are going out to dinner at the restaurant at the hotel / marina. Then tomorrow morning at first light we will head to Cedros Island - another overnighter with a run of about 32 hours. We are not sure when the next time we will have internet, so it may be a few weeks before the blog is updated.

Keep the comments coming! That way we know there is someone other than the 5 of us reading this thing...

Hanging with the Big Dogs...

Hmmmmmmm.....
We look a little out of place.
The blue boat to the left of us is 61' and the boat to the right is 59'.What on Earth are we doing on this dock?

Saturday Evening & Sunday Morning 03-02-08

I enjoyed the indoor jacuzzi with the view of the marina and whitecaps outside of the marina! We were all glad we left on Friday instead of Saturday - we had some wind here yesterday late afternoon...

We all enjoyed hot showers and then hora feliz with brie, crackers and nuts - wine for the ladies and Arrogant Bastard ale for the men. We watched the sunset and met some of the owners of some of "The Big Boys" (as we call the yachts that surround us).

A correction on the boat values I gave in my last post...
The values of the two powerboats on either side of us are $2,500,000. Each.
We fit right in.

Then the skype calls began! First my brother, Gary from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Then Mike & Cyndi from Ohio (shown here):








Then Dave of "Sweet Lorraine" who is anchored in Zihuatanejo!

Then a wonderful dinner of leftover potatoes by Cherryl, salad & steaks. Orange chocolate sticks for dessert and only one catastrophe... a broken scotch glass.
We are now down to two scotch glasses...
Good thing we have lots of plastic cups!

Jim listened to the Amigo Net weather and we have a weather window for Tuesday morning. We all thought electricity on the boat would be nice, so for my early birthday present, look at what Stan, Tim & Pam bought me! A 30 to 50 amp adaptor!So now we have the washing machine going, we used the microwave and have internet!

Pam made scrambled eggs, I made a fruit salad and we heated leftover bagels from Kim.

Now the boys are polishing the stainless!



What a great crew!





And here we sit at Marina Coral...

Ventura to Ensenada 02-29 to 03-01-08

Up early and finished getting the boat ready. Took showers, took the final trash up and collected our crew! Tim, Jim, Heather, Stan & Pam

So we know who is who, I made sure our hats included our names... or what I call them...

Timay, El Jefe, Heather, Stantheman & Spamela

What a crowd to send us off!We made lots of friends and a few family members late for work on Friday! Thanks for coming down, thanks for the hugs, wishes and gifts!

Here was the first glitch - the thorn in my side for the last few weeks...

The dredge!

They were running some pipes or something across the channel, so we had to wait about 10 minutes and make the friends on the beach even more late for work!

Had a smooth motor out to Anacapa light and went through a huge pod of dolphins! Then turned left and motor-sailed down to the backside of Catalina, where we saw three whales and more dolphins. We enjoyed Pam's pre-cooked meatloaf and Cherryl's famous potatoes! Then figured out our nightwatch schedule. Jim & Stan took the first 4 hours to try to get me (who caught a cold) some much needed sleep. Pam & Tim took the mid-watch from midnight to 4 am, then I took 4-5:30 / 6:00 when Jim joined me, then I went back to bed. We pulled into Marina Coral, fueled up and parked with the "Big Boys" around 11:30 am. About a 27 hour run, with a couple of slow-downs to pump out holding tanks and back off some kelp from our starboard saildrive.



And here we are!


This reminds me of Fort Lauderdale, as we are paying a lot of money (had to put us in a 64' slip) and are surrounded by large sportfishers and brand new Mikelson's. The Hotel / Marina does offer an indoor pool, jacuzzi, outdoor pool, ping pong, fusball, pool tables and a workout room.
So what more could we want?
Oh, we could use a 30 to 50 amp adaptor so we could have electricity on the boat. They do offer the adaptors for sale in the marine store here for $199.95. So we can either pay $199.95, steal one off of one of the $775,000 boats parked near us or run our generator. What do you think we will do? The generator is powering this computer as I type...

We are enjoying hanging out on the boat and watching the palm trees and flags blow. The wind has really picked up since we "parked". Once again an EXCELLENT weather call by Jim "El Jefe"!

I think I will go soak in one of the indoor jacuzzis for awhile and update you with our late afternoon activities at a later hour!