La Paz, Mexico....Crew arrives from El Norte....minus one bag

Yesterday afternoon the shuttle crew arrived from the north... now the skipper doesn't have to carry on both sides of a conversation by himself.

For my readers that haven’t been introduced to the crew I’ll attempt to remedy that oversight right now…

TJ Stets is a long-time friend from Seattle who’s been bracing for a cruise in the tropics from years. He recently took an early retirement from the FAA where he worked as a wetlands ecologist. Now in his free time he guides white water rafting trips in the Pacific North West. TJ visited the Baja several times before, and recently drove down the Baja with another friend. Anyone who has seen the roads down here knows that it takes a brave soul to navigate the highways of the Baja. That’s just the kind of grit I’m looking for in a crewmember. As I edit this posting at 10:45PM,  TJ is fast asleep, snooring loud enough to raise the dead. I'm tempted to put him into the dingy, so he can drift off a ways while he slumbers, but alas I don't think I could lift him up through the companion way without waking him, so I'll just dig out my ear plugs so I can rest in peace.

Mike Gregory is a sailor from Calgary, Alberta who now keeps his 44-foot Hunter in Blain, Washington. He told me it was getting difficult finding a big enough slip in Calgary,but I think he might have been pulling my leg. I recruited Mike from one of the many sail forums on the internet that sailors use to find crew or boats looking for crew. I was leery about sailing with someone I never met before but with Mike my concerns were not warranted. As I discovered, Mike is easy to get along with, pitches in to help on the boat without being asked and is a real gentleman. Mike is retired from Ryder Truck Company where he worked as a service manager. I learned that Mike is a mechanic by trade, and having that skill set on the boat makes me very happy. Hopefully his skills will not be needed but it’s nice to know that he can help if some mechanical problem arises.

When Mike arrived we learned that some luggage doesn't fly as fast as others, or maybe its just that some luggage gets side tracked talking to other luggage when it should be running across the tarmac to catch the connecting flight. Whatever the reason, Mike's luggage never made it to La Paz. Hopefully Air Canada and Alaska Air can find this missing bag and return it to its owner before we have to leave La Paz. Mike's trying not to worry too much about it, but he's beginning to run out of clean cloths and may be forced to wear some of his boat mates hand-me-downs. So if you notice in future photos that Mike is wearing a pair of baggy shorts or an old Hawaiian shirt with salsa stains you'll know why. We suggested that if his new waredrobe looks shabby enough he may be able to build his cruising kitty by standing on the corner with a cardboard sign that reads something like, "Sailor stranded in La Paz, need money for fast passage to Tahiti and beer". All kidding aside, we're optimistic that Mike will be  reacquainted with his baggage when the next Alaska Airplane lands in La Paz on Saturday.


For our first evening together, I planned nothing but leisure time to get acquainted and for the crew to get the kinks out of their legs after their long flight. After showing them the boat and stowing their gear aboard, we walked about a mile and one half to the Tailhunter Restaurant and Bar for dinner and beer.
We sat on the second floor balcony at the row of tales that faces the street, so we could get a good view of the parade of people walking the Malecon. An ex-pat American was sitting a few chairs from Mike and began to tell us everthing he knew about La Paz. Soon the conversation between the three of us stopped as we couldn't get a word in edgewize. We hope that as soon as he asked for his check he would say good night and disappear into the night. Instead, he slid over to the seat next to Mike so he could more formally join our group. At that point I lost my patience and explained to the fellow that this was our first night together and that we wanted a chnce to talk among ourselves to get to know eachother. Then I wished the stranger a good night and invited him to leave. I was sorry to be so blunt, but I knew if I wasn't he'd dominate our conversation until it was time for us to walk back to the boat.
After the ex-pat left we enjoyed our tacos and beer while we got to know eachother. It was an early night as the crew was tired from travelling, so we returned to the boat and called it a night.

Today, we took another walk to town to exchange US dollars to Pesos and shop for groceries. Like other similar excursions, this took most of the day and we probably walked 4 miles or more. Along the way TJ and Mike took photos of many of the sculptures, we even found one that was perfect for a beginning of the trip photo. I hope you enjoy it and the few other we threw in for good measure…

The Crew of S/V Cool Breez'n posing infront of the sculpture of the "Old Man of the Sea in a Paper Boat", on the Malacon in downtown La Paz.

Horse sculpture made from palm fronds in front of the "Arte Hotel", this is the same horel that has the dead monkey sitting in the from seat of a junked Model T automobile in its out door lobby. Only the very daring would stay at this inn.

   

Dancing hamerhead sharks. There is a seamount near La Paz that is famous for its schools of hammerhead sharks. In the 1970's Capitan Cousteau visited the Sea of Cortez thrilled nature lovers when he filmed the schooliing hammerheads.

Mermaid and dolphin sculpture on the Malecon.



See our geographic location .... new feature on blog... March 23, 2012

I've added a new feature to my blog that I’m really excited about.

You can now see my geographic position, just click on the second link in the sidebar to the right, entitled: "SPOT GPS Location".  That will take you to my SPOT Shared Page, which displays my current and past locations for the last week.

When I leave La Paz (March 31), I will send a new SPOT position at least once a day. Within 15 minutes my position will be displayed on my SPOT Shared Page. These positions are labeled "OK" to show that the crew and boat are "OK". If we run into trouble on the high seas I can send a "HELP" message or an "SOS". This alert will be secondary to our EPIRBs (satellite rescue beacons), VHF radio, and Short Wave radio, and hopefully it will never be activated.

After seeing where I am you can return to my blog by clicking on the BACK arrow in the upper left of the page.


If you have any questions you can post it as a comment in my blog and I will try to answer.  However, once we leave land’s end at Cabo San Lucas we will have no internet connectivity until Turtle Bay (450 nm away). Similarly, when we leave Turtle Bay that will be the last you hear from us until we reach San Diego. However, our geographic position will continue to be updated every day since that service uses direct satellite communication and does not rely on cell phone towers or WIFI.

La Paz, March 22, 2012

Up at 7:30 this morning …another beautiful day, warmer with little wind. I showered and caught the free shuttle to ciudad centero (downtown La Paz). My mission was to buy some tomales from a street vender that sets up her stand outside of the supermercado (supermarket). All the cruisers here say her tamales are the best! The boat people on this pier are having a dock party tonight so I thought the tamales would make a good contribution.

While I waited for the vender to set up I strolled around town. I spotted another street vender serving shark and manta ray tacos to a number of hungry construction workers across the street, so I got on line and ordered two for myself: they cost 12 pesos each ($1 US each) and were very tasty.  Further along I wandered through a store that sold just about everything from art supplies to toys, books, housewares, etc. They had a selection of music CD’s and I found a Billy Joel CD for $10 US: the “Essential Billy Joel”. It had all the old favorites that I like so I bought it. I wandered back to the supermercado and found the tamales vender there, so I quickly bough 10 tamales before she sold out (115 pesos ($9.50 for enough food for 7 or 8 people). I felt a bit like Anthony Bourdain wandering around and sampling all of the street vender’s fastfood, I just hope I don’t regret my actions later.

When I got back to the boat two Mexican boys were finishing the wax job they started yesterday, they were hard at work polishing the hull. I opened up the boat and put on a CD, Creedence Clearwater Revival. The boys working outside gave me the thumbs up for my choice in music....I told them it was my son's music and they stared to laughed.

I promised myself and family that I would take my camera to town this morning but I forgot, again. I promise I will bring it with me the next time I go wandering around town.  

More to come soon …

La Paz, March 21, 2012

The sun has just set on my second full day in La Paz. For those of you in the Pacific Northwest I need to tell you that the sun still exists, in fact its spending a lot of time here on the Baja. These past two days have been warm (mid-70’s) breezy and just delightful.

You might ask what I accomplished in these two days to prepare for my coming voyage. It’s a fair question, but when you read my answer, I hope you understand that I am a child of the cold, damp north and when you drop a northerner into the sub-tropics he’s bound to need a few days to get used to the sun. That said, you’ll understand that my accomplishments do not measure up to the expectations of productivity that City Light or Microsoft have come to accustomed.

In two days I completed the following:

Washed the outside of the boat; unpacked my duffel bag; went shopping for enough food and beer for three or four days; hired a few guys to wax the boat; took a siesta while the boat was being waxed; cooked one meal; walked downtown to exchange US dollars to Pesos; and purchased a Mexican cell phone. That’s about it. Tomorrow I Hope to complete an inventory of all food, and supplies that I’ll need to replenish and finish stowing all my gear. I’ll apply a coat of teak oil to the bright work and carry all the diesel jerry cans up from the cabin and lash them to the deck. Then on Friday I’ll install the autopilot rudder control driver in the engine room and test it. I may find the need to sneak another siesta in one of those days and possibly have a beer or two.

Right now as I’m writing this I’m listening to Jimmy Buffet and since writing is thirsty business I’m having a beer too and thinking of my family and friends.   I hope you enjoy following along on my adventure and as I promised my son, I’ll try not to do anything stupid.

First Day Back... La Paz, Mexico March 19, 2012

I flew into La Paz yesterday afternoon. Travelling from Seattle to La Paz doesn’t take more than four or five hours door to door but in that time you travel to a completely different land. From the rain and snow flurries of March in the Pacific Northwest to sunshine and desert landscape of the Baja: from a world with too much of everything, to a land where nobody seems to have enough. I've learned from our last time here in La Paz, what the people lack in material things they more than make up with in smiles and a willingness to help visitors to their land. The friendliness of the Mexican people and the American ex-pats ease my transition south of the border.

The taxi dropped me off at the marina office. I hoisted my bags from the taxi into a waiting dock cart and wheeled it to the office. I told one of the girls behind the desk that I was back and needed a key for the dock. She welcomed me back to Marina Palmira and gave me the key after taking 50 bucks for a deposit.  It was a warm afternoon, so I bought a six pack of Pacifico beer. The refrigerator was started yesterday by the guy who was watching our boat and I thought it needed something to keep cold. I found the boat much like we left it, safely tied up to the pier, second slip from the gate. Her decks were covered with a light layer of dust and the droppings of few passing sea birds like business cards casually left behind to remind us of their visit, nothing that a little soap and water couldn't remedy.

I was not anxious to leave home this time because Cindy and Alex weren’t coming along. Cindy was back at Microsoft working long hours on another highly visible project with an aggressive deadline.  Alex was back at Woodinville High School with a renewed commitment to get good grades so he could get into a good college. Just before I left Alex came down with a virus that gave him a sore throat, headache and pimples all over his body. The doctor ruled out Chicken Pox but he couldn’t definitively say what virus it was that Alex caught. It was hard to leave home with all this going on but my plans were set and I had crew coming to La Paz in less than two weeks. I had to get the boat ready for the trip north and I really wanted to have the boat back in Puget Sound for the summer. I reminded myself that I had tried to help Cindy while I was home by taking care of the house, and doing the cooking and cleaning while she was working so hard. Since I was not working I could also help Alex with his school work and drive him to his activities and that made me feel less of a heal for leaving them.

The three months that passed since leaving the boat in La Paz before Christmas passed quickly. During this time I was still on my sabbatical from work which gave me the opportunity to spend a lot of quality time with Alex, that I really enjoyed. I guess Alex enjoyed having me around too because he gave me a big hug before I left for the airport. The night before, Alex asked if we could watch a family movie together. It had been a long time since we had all sat together to watch a movie: in fact the last time was when we were moored in Puerto Escondito. This time between cruises has shown me that special memories can be made at home too.

After dumping all my bags below into the cabin, I walked along the sea-side walk they call the Malecon to the center of La Paz and had dinner at the Tail Hunter restaurant and bar. Its name reflects the sporting interests of its owner. He’s a deep sea fisherman and “Tail Hunter” is what these sportsmen are called in some circles. Yeah I know some of you younger bucks are probably thinking there’s another sport that goes by the same name. If you tried to practice that sport at the Tail Hunter you’d probably come up short, nothing but old Ex-Pat sailing couples at the reef they call a bar. From the balcony of the restaurant I watched as a parade made its way down the street in front of the restaurant. A police truck led the procession, with a school band following close behind. Several groups of school kids in different school uniforms followed, then a float with a Mariache Band followed.  It wasn’t a big parade but it was fun to watch them march by as I ate my dinner, and it was a wonderful welcome back to La Paz.

When I got back to the boat I moved enough gear aside to make room for my bags in the cabin, then I cleared the port berth, spread out a sleeping bag and settled in. I drank a beer or two and tried to read but didn’t get past the first few pages.   I woke at 1AM with a dry mouth and tried to quench my thirst with the remains of my last beer. That didn’t help.  I woke up again at 2AM still parched and uncomfortable from the hard mattress.  I finally resorted to drinking the boat water that’s been sitting in the water tanks for 3 months. Tomorrow morning I’ll make it a top priority to buy some drinking water and I’ll put it next to the beer in the refrigerator.

Well there you have it, that’s was my first day in La Paz. Tomorrow I’ll begin getting myself and the boat ready for the cruise north. I invite you to visit my blog again in the coming days to see what develops.  Cheers!

Puerto Escondido (Hidding Place) December 3rd – 9th, 2011



Puerto Escondido (inner harbor is on left)







We arrived at Puerto Escondido at 1:00 PM on December 3^rd and tied up to the dock. The wind had not started to blow yet.  We had dinner at the marina restaurant: scallops and lobster fettuccini were the choice of the crew and no complaints were heard. We headed back to the boat and napped until 5:30 PM. Cindy and Alex woke up and went for a walk, returning with a fresh baked pizza. Craig slept until 7:00 PM.  Alex enjoyed having access to the internet and connected with his friends in Woodinville, while Cindy and Craig read.

Inner Harbor at Puerto Escondido

Puerto Escondido, Spanish for “a hiding place”, was just what we were looking for… a place to hide from the coming norther. In the Sea of Cortez, when the winds blow from the north short choppy seas can develop in a few hours, with wave heights in excess of 8 to 10 feet. Experienced cruisers head for shelter, double up their mooring lines and batten down the hatches when a norther is forecast. It’s a time to relax and stay because northers can blow for days.

Las Ventanas (openings in the land surrounding the harbor are called the windows, north winds blow into the anchorage through these portals) 

The next day we missed our opportunity to leave the dock and pickup a mooring ball before the winds began to blow. We were tied up to the dock with our port beam facing north. The north winds had caught us at leisure and now had us pinned hard to the dock. With every gust our boat was pushed against the dock and our fenders were squeezed between the hull and dock.  We asked a Mexican fishing boat crewman who was operating a tender with a powerful motor if he would help us get away from the dock. He happily threw us a rope and pulled our bow into the wind as we turned to port and engaged our engine. With his help we were able to get away from the dock and motor into the wind toward the mooring buoys out in the middle of the bay. We looked for the mooring ball that we were assigned but when we found it I didn’t like the looks of it. I had to feel confident that a mooring would hold us safely during a blow or else I’d worry about it and not want to leave the boat unattended. So we searched around for a mooring ball that looked like it was in better shape. Cindy sometimes gets frustrated with me when I take time to find the right parking spot at the mall, you could easily imagine that it takes me longer still to find a mooring ball that I want to commit to for several days. After several turns around the bay and a few false starts we settled on a moorage that looked serviceable and tied up.

After securing the boat we rode the dinghy to shore to shower, eat and hang out in the restaurant. Cindy helped Alex work on his history studies while I looked over Alex’s 3^rd algebra test.  After several hours we headed back to the boat. The dinghy ride back was straight into the wind and the waves in the bay threatened to swamp our little craft. By the time we got back to the boat we were all soaked. Next time out we remembered to take our foulies for the ride back to the boat. After changing into dry clothes, we watched two movies on the lap top computer: ‘Stepford Wives’ and ‘Charlie’s War’.

At 1:00 AM I woke up with a sudden case of Montezuma's Revenge …my body was revolting against something I forced it to eat and now it was exerting control. Luckily before we left home we thought to pack an orange Home Depot bucket on the boat. That bucket became my new best friend and for the next 24 hours I didn’t go anywhere without it.  Not wanting to perish from dehydration I reached for the medical bag and hunted for the Arithromycin pills. The first 4 pills stayed down for about 2 minutes before I cast them into the orange bucket. I had better luck with the next four pills, I took them immediately after throwing up again. The pills stayed down this time and it wasn’t long before I was able to leave my orange bucket on deck and burrow myself under covers. Cindy assumed the role of nurse, tucking me in and bringing me tea and crackers while I rested in bed for the next 24 hours. During the night the wind howled, and Cindy reported the wind speed every time it gusted past 40 knots. We could only imagine how strong the wind was blowing outside of our protected harbor.



Central Plaza in Loreto



The next morning I was still weak from my bout with foreign bacteria and remained in bed while Cindy and Alex caught a taxi for Loreto. Loreto is a charming little city with a well preserved central plaza area fringed with many inviting restaurants, souvenir shops and historic buildings. We learned that it was the first capital of Baja California Sur until the seat of government was later moved to La Paz in 1830 after Loreto was partially destroyed by heavy rains. Cindy hoped to find presents for her co-workers in Loreto, while Alex wanted to see what cool stuff he could find  to buy for himself with the his allowance that he had been saving: he was particularly interested in aviator sunglasses and pocket knives. Many hours later Cindy and Alex returned with shopping bags full of great finds and stories of their exploits in Loreto.  I was feeling much better but was glad for the chance to regain my strength by sleeping the day away.

Catholic Church in Loreto

View of church from the central plaza

Tree canapy creates a shady street.

During the days that followed in Puerto Escondido that annoying bacteria that laid me low, struck first Cindy and then Alex, and this time it was my turn to play nurse.  For a while it looked like I wouldn’t get to see Loreto, but happily the crew regained their health sooner than expected and all three of us were able to visit Loreto on our last day in port. I thoroughly enjoyed Loreto’s shady, tree lined streets, colorful shops, restaurants, and the historic look of new buildings that complements that of the older restored churches and government buildings in the central district.  

Escheresk Hotel

Colorful wares on sale in Loreto

Loreto was the farthest north that we travelled in the Sea of Cortez, from here we turned south and retracted the path we travelled back to La Paz.