Velella Cruising Log

Sailing in the Sea of Cortes seems a lot like sailing in the desert. The dry rugged cliffs look like the red rocks I remember from visits to my Grand folk's place in Arizona. It is dramatic scenery. Caleta Partida, where we've stayed for several days, is the water filled crater of an old volcano that split a single island into two. A winding shoal is all that is left that brings the two halves close together. The gap is navigable by dinghy at high tide past the small shacks where a few fishermen live. At low tide, we walked through the sand and desert scrub past cactus to the edge of the rocky wall that marks the eastern edge of the shoal that stretches nearly across the opening between the islands. We snacked on a prickly pear that we harvested from a nearby cactus in bearing fruit. The mild, light taste reminds me of a cross between strawberry and watermelon, very refreshing on a hot day.

A few days ago, we stayed in Caleta El Candelero, which contains a rocky rib that extends into the bay and an island that separates the bay into two more intimate ones, surrounded by high red cliffs. Our first stop out of La Paz a day earlier was to Puerto Ballandra, where rocky arms encircle a series of brilliant white sandy beaches, tucked into niches. We shared this beautiful scenery with a steel shrimper, who was then joined by two others in the morning, tied bow to stern like chain links to share an anchor between the 3 of them. Obviously, they were unconcerned about the wind coming up. They were fine neighbors until one of the shrimpers flushed its decks, surrounding our boat with dead fish. Time to move on.

In the Sea of Cortes, like in Puget Sound, there is either little to no wind or a lot. When we were heading north to La Paz, we encountered a series of 'Northers', which made headway north nearly impossible for days since the north wind in the sea brings up a steep chop pretty quickly. (Whenever Santa Ana winds are predicted for southern California, a 'Norther' is sure to follow. Those are good days to head south.) Or the wind funnels through a channel, while on the outside it is dead flat calm, misleading you into thinking you'll have a fast passage, only to find motoring necessary once beyond the channel.

Many of the names in Mexico are duplications. When talking with other cruisers about neat places to go, you need to specify which Puerto Escondido or which Ballard and use the entire name to distinguish between the Puerto and the Bahia or you come to realize that you are talking about different places. The same goes when looking anything up in the guidebooks. The charts of the area are from ancient surveys in the late 1800's mostly and the scale is a little smaller than ideal to navigate without concern. The guidebooks help fill in the gaps, with their sketches and descriptions. On many areas of the charts, landmarks remain unlabelled, and, having to guess where they correspond with the bays identified in the guidebook, makes some destinations less attractive.

As we head north in the Sea of Cortes, we pass San Francisco and then San Jose, but we are not backtracking. These are the islands of San Francisco and San Jose and look like islands in the middle of the Grand Canyon. The steep rock cliffs capture a rich history in the layers of sediment and presented a backdrop for some of the most amazing sunsets we've ever seen. While cooking dinner, I took several photos, but it just kept getting better. As we head further north, the cliffs become more jagged, some pointed almost like castle turrets, reminding Garth of the dramatic mountains of the Marquises and me, of Indonesia. The landscape is surprisingly green as we venture further north. This is probably due to the fact that it is December and the rainiest month is in September.

Our favorite place so far has been Honeymoon Cove, about halfway up the Sea of Cortes on the Baja side. The intimate nook where we anchored is within a three lobed bay on Danzante Island. We tucked the boat into a tiny basin surrounded by walls on three sides and a small beach at the head of the cove. We rowed over to each of the beaches in the larger bay and hiked all over the island. The views from the crest of the hill were spectacular, with Puerto Escondido, a hurricane hole, on the peninsula to the west and several more islands to the north and east. We rowed out into the larger bay to watch a huge pod of porpoises feeding and were completely surrounded!

We have seen some amazing wildlife. We were sitting in the dark cockpit one evening and looked down to discover the water was glistening with light given off by what looked like swimming fireflies. It wasn't phosphorescence; Stirring up the water didn't have the same effect. We saw Manta Rays jumping several feet out of the water on many occasions. We regularly see schools of fish charging out of the water to escape a nearby predator; they sound like rushing water and look like a sudden tide rip from a distance.

Pelicans are everywhere - dive-bombing the water in an attempt to catch a meal or a snack. They look so ungainly flailing themselves into the water beak-first, but usually resurface with a prize. We've often seen whales spouting from a distance. We saw several whales diving nearby and one gray whale within a hundred yards of the boat. Every night, we hear what sounds like a bowl of Rice Crispies (snap, crackle and pop) through the hull of the boat. We're still trying to identify exactly what is making the sound, but we've heard it down the entire coast and while snorkeling. Growth fills the paddle wheel on the speedometer and clambers onto the rudder, hull and keel whenever we stop for a few days. The sea life is abundant. The fishermen down here should have a good catch. We bought fresh camarones (shrimp) from Manuel and cooked them up within minutes for a fine meal. Manuel preferred to trade for tequila, but had to settle for pesos, which aren't nearly as useful in places farther from town as bartered goods.

We enjoy pulling into a bay and catching up with other cruisers we've met along the way. There's nothing like an impromptu cocktail or dinner party after a long day's sail or a week on our own. We swap stories with other cruisers, discuss good places to go and share information about how things work. We caught up with a group of boats at Isla San Francisco for a pleasant change of pace. Most of us went snorkeling on the nearby rocks, seeing electric blue and bright yellow fish of several kinds. The variety of tropical fish has made snorkeling a treat. After snorkeling, we went on a big group hike up the ridges. It was a challenge, trying to get sure footing as the earth crumbled away beneath us to reach the top of the cliff and take in the view overlooking the bay of yachts and other nearby islands. We finished off a full day by gathering for cocktails on one of the boats. We traded flour for a couple of loaves of fresh bread dough, ready to put in the oven. The cruisers form a tight community, offering information, assistance, parts or provisions as needed.

Life in Port

When we arrive in a larger port, we are supposed to check in by first visiting Immigration, then visiting the Port Captain's office. When we are ready to leave, we repeat the process with an additional stop to API to pay a port fee. Some ports don't have the API port fee. The most efficient way seems to be to check in and check out on the same day, as long as we plan to leave within a few days. So far, the authorities seem to be somewhat casual about the dates and times of arrival and departure, and even pretty flexible about incorrect paperwork. As long as we are friendly and patient, the process usually goes quite smoothly. This check in and check out process usually involves a bit of walking since the offices are always at opposite ends of town, but we see it as a chance to do a little sightseeing. While some take taxis, we've never found the walk to be overly cumbersome. Combined with a stop for lunch or an ice cream en route, it's usually a pleasant experience.

Each morning in the larger ports, there is a morning net on VHF, with weather info, announcements, mail call and the like. Each net follows the same pattern, including the SSB nets, which we can listen to whether we're in port or not. In port, we need to remember to leave our radio on, so we can hear when people are trying to call us. The radio is such a large part of the community that most cruisers have even gotten to the point of carrying a handheld like a cell phone around town! It's not quite a habit yet for us, but many cruisers listen for sheer entertainment. Using the VHF radio is a bit like a having a party line. Everybody jokes about allowing a few extra seconds for everyone who's eavesdropping to switch to the new channel before we recommence talking, so no one misses anything.

La Paz

We saw the Vela, the boat that Garth sailed around the world in, right in La Paz! It looks a bit worse for the wear, but it is amazing that it is still floating after all these years. For a 40-year-old wooden boat, that isn't too bad. (Of course, our many T-bird friends wouldn't be impressed by that lifespan, but their old wood boats haven't taken the kind of abuse that the ocean can dish out while skimping on maintenance like the Vela.) Many of the splices and knots Garth made are still in use. Garth went to say hello and when he said that he'd sailed around the world on the boat, the fellow who owned it replied "Then you must be Garth Wilcox!" The same owner that bought it from the Wilcox clan 22 years ago still owns it! They couldn't have been more welcoming towards us.

La Paz is a nice town that has everything you might need and seems pretty prosperous. There is an abundance of stores and roadside stands selling all kinds of wares. It is not as touristy as Cabo, and seems more like a regular town with few street hawkers. Although La Paz has several marine stores that are reasonably well stocked, the selection in marine parts is not as extensive as in the U.S. We broke down a purchased an outboard motor for the dinghy, since many anchorages are a long row against current and/or wind. While we don't use it all the time, it is handy in the larger ports and gives us greater mobility. I think we were the only boat that didn't have an outboard for the dinghy, but unfortunately the crowd wasn't just being frivolous as we originally thought. We bought a 2 horse Yamaha and it is more than adequate to push our small inflatable.

When we arrived in La Paz, we anchored in a "virtual" marina, not realizing that where we anchored was the sight of a planned marina that was charging fees for the space. Once we checked into it, we realized that we received many privileges that were well worth any extra nominal fee, like showers, laundry, ice, a pool, etc. When we checked out to leave, it didn't end up being any addition money, and I am still confused about the cost, since everyone was quoted a different price.

Loreto

We found Loreto to be another prosperous town. We decided to stop and reprovision before heading south to Zihuatenejo for Christmas. Loreto offers no protected anchorage, so we knew that if the wind came up, we needed to leave. We headed off to do our check in and check out, then planned to grocery shop and get fuel and water. We got lost in a residential area on our way to the airport. When we stopped to ask for directions, a fellow offered to give us a ride to the new immigration office that they set up in town. He couldn't have been nicer and his English was pretty good. He then dropped us off at the supermarket on the way back, so we could do some provisioning. The wind came up before we had the chance to get fuel and water. We knew we could get water in Puerto Escondido, but were pretty sure we couldn't get fuel next until Mazatlan, about 300 miles south. We were a little nervous about that since we only had about 10 gallons, and with light winds, we knew that wouldn't get us far. Our only other option was to stay an extra day in Puerto Escondido and take a taxi back to Loreto with jerry jugs. We decided to risk it, since a 'Norther' was predicted.

To the Tropics for Christmas . . .

We got lucky on our passage south and got 30-35 knot winds for several days from behind us. On our way to Zihuatenejo, we had decent wind almost the entire 727 mile trip. We only had to motor for about 8 hours total, when the wind was in the process of shifting and we even made it before Christmas!

Well, all for now. More news soon.