A little teaser

Yes we are still alive!

We have been cruising in a part of Mexico that is very undeveloped and internet does not exist in most places.  Where it does exist it tends to be slow and unreliable.  We are slowly working our way north into the sea of Cortez enjoying a relaxed pace as we work our way towards Guayamas.  We plan to haul the boat out in mid April and then head back to BC for the summer.  We have been told it gets too hot here.  I was willing to try it but Scott is not and really it is wonderful in BC in the summer.  We are having fun, getting some great weather and seeing lots of cool places.

Just one of the beautiful places we have seen, 

La Paz

We spotted our first ever real live sister ship at the Marina
in La Paz, we have never laid eyes on another southern
cross 31 before.

La Paz has been a wonderful interlude, it has been a nice break from travelling to be living at the dock.  There is no pressure to make decisions about where to go next or when, we rarely check the weather and life has fallen into a rather relaxed pace.  

With the arrival of friends from Saltspring, Norah, Norbert and Glynis, followed shortly by my Mom and Auntie Anita and Uncle Tony, we started to party!  They had all come down to help me celebrate my 50^th birthday, and help they did.  Along with some of our new friends from the Umbrella Dumpers, we had a fun party with a piñata and cake and tons of wonderful food.  Special thanks go to everyone who came out!

We visited a saturday market that would make all Saltspring Islanders feel
right at home.

Me and Mom and my birthday Pinata

I had a wonderful 50th party, thanks to my friends and family
who could be here. 

During  Norah, Norbert, Glynis and Moms visit we took a Panga ride out to the islands to the north of La Paz.  Our first stop was the area where the whale sharks feed.  I have always wanted to see these amazing animals (the largest fish alive in the world).  They are breathtaking in size and grace and beauty.  Unfortunately my underwater camera packed it in that day so we have no photos, just our incredible memories.  We then headed to a rock called Los Islotes where there is a large sea lion colony.  Here the Panga tied up to a mooring ball and Mom, Norah, Glynis and I hopped in the water to snorkel.  There were all kinds of beautiful fish to see, but the real reason we were there was the sea lions.  They will swim right by with no fear, one of the smaller ones brushed against me as it passed.  The big ones are a little intimidating so none of us were sad to be more or less ignored by them.  Then we were off to Ensenada Grande, a stunningly beautiful beach where we had a ceviche and sandwich lunch.  Loreto, our guide for the trip, took us along the coast of the islands as we returned towards La Paz, showing us the interesting rock formations and beautiful beaches all along the coast.  As we crossed the channel towards La Paz Norbert spotted a massive pod of dolphins, so Loreto took us into them so they could play in the bow wave and wake of his Panga.  Then we spotted another pod of dolphins, these were larger and darker than the first pod.  As we were leaving this second pod Loreto spotted two humpback whales.  They were breaching and tail slapping and we were treated to an incredible show.  It was an incredible day. I have never experienced so many amazing animal encounters in one day before.

Getting ready to leave this lovely beach

aaaarrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

We were blessed with a spectacular humpback show.

Scott and Norbert enjoying the speedy panga ride.

After we bade farewell to our lovely guests it was time to get on with the boat chores.  We had a list of maintenance items to take care of and as we prepare to depart La Paz, Kialoa is looking clean and shiny and all systems are in good shape.  We plan to slowly work our way north into the sea of Cortez, looking for wonderful beaches and hopefully more whale stories!
                                                                                       

One of our projects while in La Paz was making a lifting
harness for the dinghy.  We can now easily store it out of the
water each night.  This acts as a theft deterrent and also keeps
the bottom clean, we have already had to scrape little
 barnacles off the bottom.

Cindy and Journey from Namaste decked out in
their team colors for superbowl.

at long last La Paz

San Jose del Cabo, the town square ready for xmas

We had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner with the crews of Adagio and Namaste in Puertos Los Cabos,  a traditional meal of Pizza and barbequed Marlin.  That was my first time eating Marlin and it was fantastic!   It was a wonderful time with good people.  Christmas day we said see ya later to Josh over a few margaritas at “the container” and after he left to get his flight the rest of us headed to the beach to continue to celebrate the holiday.  Life is pretty good.

Saying good bye to Josh, I think the big grins are from the
margaritas.......

Christmas on the beach with Namaste and Adagio

Puertos los Cabos is just around the corner from the Sea of Cortez  which has a weather phenomenon known as “northers” at this time of year.  When the northers are blowing it is wise to just stay where you are as progress is slow and uncomfortable or not possible at all.  So we waited in Puertos los Cabos for our window.  It came on Dec 30 and we departed early in the morning, had a brief stop in Los Frailes to say hello to our friends on Sea Rover II, and also test our watermaker, it has an issue and we could not run it in the marina.  It still has an issue……People keep saying that cruising is just working on your boat in exotic  places and so far there has been some truth in that.  However it is much nicer working on your boat in Mexico than it is when your hands are freezing cold and you can barely hang on to the tools, a reasonable trade off in my opinion.

One advantage of a smaller boat is that the ospreys
much prefer to sit on the delicate wind instruments
of the taller masts!

Yup we got wet. Photo courtesy of Namaste.

Anyway we arrived in La Paz on the morning of Dec 31^st after motoring through the night.  When we turned the corner to head south into La Paz harbour the wind picked up and we got thoroughly saltwater splattered.  In fact we have never been so wet on Kialoa before.  It was just something about the shape of the waves because they were not even very big.  However once again it is much nicer getting salt spray when the water is 70 degrees!  We managed to tough it out!

New Years Eve, just goes to show you are never too old to
party in a parking lot!

There is a cruisers club at Marina de La Paz that sponsored a New Years Eve party.  They were celebrating on UTC time (aka Greenwich mean time) so midnight was at 5 pm local, perfect for us as we were tired from the trip up here and were sound asleep before 8pm.

shopping for fresh fruits and veg in La Paz

and the butchers

Scotts back/shoulder is still hurting him so we have been trying to get some help for that as well as slowly checking out the city of La Paz.  So far so good, it feels clean and safe and the people are nice.  We are booked into Marina de La Paz for the month of January and we are looking forward to visits from friends and family while we are here.

A fish story

We arrived in Cabo San Lucas on Dec 21^st, the first day of winter, and went snorkeling the same day, no wet suit necessary!  I realized at that moment that this was what I had spent all those long cold winter nights dreaming of,  I am so incredibly grateful to be where I am living this life that I have dreamed of.

This one was very tasty!

Coming down the Baja coast from Bahia de Tortugas it was 100 miles to Abreojos.  Josh caught two fish during this leg, a tuna and a something else.  Luckily we had friends in Abreojos with refrigeration…We were hoping to see some whales as it is near a large lagoon that is a breeding and birthing area for Grey Whales.  Sadly we did not see any whales  and getting to shore here was not so easy due to the breaking waves on the beach so we pulled anchor at 3:30 am and made the next jump as far as Magdalena Bay.  As we were approaching Mag bay, Josh got a bite on his line, he caught a glimpse of it just before it broke the 100lb test and sadly that is all he caught.  It was probably way too big to get in the boat anyway……

Luckily no damage was done by this hitchhiker.....it was on
top of the windex at one point... 

Another tasty one!

Magdalena bay is so huge that you cannot see the shore on the far side.  There is a town in there somewhere but we did not see it and spent an uncomfortable night at anchor in bouncy waves and fairly high winds.  Another place we did not choose to linger and with a favorable weather forecast we left in the afternoon for the 166 mile run to Cabo San Lucas.  We had such favorable wind and made such good time that we were doing our best to slow the boat down so that we would arrive in daylight.  In the process we discovered that Kialoa can make 5 knots speed over ground with a push from the current and 22 knots of wind under bare poles.  That was not slow enough, however as we approached the harbour we lost all wind and then drifted around for a while till there was enough light to see as we entered.

After the quiet, undeveloped wilderness we experienced down most of this coast pulling into Cabo San Lucas was a bit like arriving in Las Vegas after camping in the desert for two weeks.  The hot shower felt totally fantastic but the hustle, bustle, noise and so many people was a bit overwhelming.  We have moved over to San Jose del Cabo and are enjoying a quiet Christmas here.

 Josh is leaving to fly home today so we will be missing him…..

A quiet moment on the way to Cabo San Lucas

This one was too small.

The arch at Cabo....I think everyone has a photo of this!

repairing hurricane damage

A fun night out with our new friends

                                                                                                                  

its been a great trip so far!

Ensenada to Turtle Bay

Josh with his first fish caught, Isla San Martin is just visible in the
background

The Baja Peninsula west coast is a very wild, beautiful and desolate area.  Our first stop on leaving Ensenada was Isla San Martin, a small volcanic island just off the coast.  There is a small area to anchor in the lee of the Island and we followed our friends on Sea Rover II into this little haven.  After 24 hours at sea it was a delightful stop but not a place to linger for too long.  Josh caught a fish just before we arrived so during our short 3 hour stopover we had a chance to clean and cook some wonderful fresh fish.   We also had some local fishermen come by looking to trade some crayfish.   We did not have any beer or cookies which is what they wanted but they seemed to be happy with the apple ciders and rice krispie treats, we were certainly happy with the crayfish! 

These guys were a yummy treat

Down wind sailing on a beautiful day, been dreaming of these moments

We left Ensenad on Dec 7th and arrived in Bahia Tortugas on Dec 10th after 72 hours at sea minus our stop at Isla San Martin.  It is a wonderful large protected bay with a fairly big town and a fascinating look at the Mexico that is not on the tourist map.  We spent 5 days there enjoying the town and recovering from the 300 mile jump from Ensenada.  That was the longest leg for us on the trip down the Baja and Josh was a huge help to us as Scott hurt his back in Ensenada and was not able to stand watches.  Luckily Josh is a quick learner and he was soon able to run the boat on his own.

I am not quite sure what this procession was for, there was
a celebration of some sort happening on the weekend.

Some of the boats anchored out.

I thought this was a funny little townsite outside of town, but it
is the cemetery.  The buildings here are in much better condition
than most of the homes in town.

A closer look at someones final resting spot

The waterfront

The Mexican Navy Base in Bahia Tortugas

We left San Diego with a loosly organized group of boats.
These are the crews from left to right of Adagio, Astraea, Kialoa,
Tappan Zee, Namaste, Searover II and The Red Thread. 

As we were all hailing from the Pacific Northwest we called
our sun seeking group the "Umbrella Dumpers"
It has been alot of fun and the cameraderie and support
has been totally fantastic.

Apparently pvc pipe elbows are only available in 90s in Turtle Bay

Entering Mexico

Scott with Fred and Roberta Wise, it was so nice to see them!

Hola

We have made our first Port in Mexico!  Our last few days in San Diego were spent doing last minute shopping,  getting Josh settled into life on board and Scott had a visit with some special friends from his youth.  It was a little hectic but we left feeling well prepared and ready for Mexico.  We departed San Diego on Thursday afternoon for the 70nm run to Ensenada.  We were in company with four other sailboats all with the same goal.  We did manage to sail for the first 20 miles and then it was back to the usual motoring.  The five boats stayed in contact through the night and come early morning we were all on the approach to Ensenda.  The first and only one to get seasick on our boat was Josh, (Scott was fine for this leg!) but he recovered after a long nap and took the watch in the wee hours allowing Scott and I to get some rest.  We are both still having a hard time getting sleep when we are underway but it is getting better.

The crew on Kialoa leaving San Diego

We arrived at the Marina in Ensenada at 8am and the first order of business was to get checked into Mexico.  This is done very conveniently in one centralized building a short walk from the harbour.  We had to visit four different kiosks within the building, some of them more than once, but we were done in about 1 ½ hours and are now legally visiting Mexico.  Kialoa has a Temporary Importation Permit and can stay for 10 years however we can only stay for 180 days without leaving the country to renew our visitor visas…

Ensenada has lovely parts

and not so lovely parts

We spent the rest of that day relaxing and everyone had an early night.  Today we did a little shopping and exploring in the city of Ensenada.

 There is a lot of pressure to buy things, so many useless trinkets are available at 50% off…..Ensenada has a cruise ship terminal also and that brings a lot of tourists to the town.  One arrived just after us spent the day and left that night and another came in today.

just some of the wares available

Still hanging in there!

We are now preparing for the rest of the Baja Peninsula and working on our Spanish.  Blogger is now coming to me in Spanish so I am learning some new words as I make this post, including phrases like "Ocurrio un error" and "reportar un problema".  The wifi is rather intermittant here......