LEAVING GOLFITO – THANK GOD! (or are we?)
6th November 2007
Finally, the engine is fixed, the leaky hatch no longer leaks, the bookshelf is dry. We don’t have a fixed GPS or depth gauge, but we do have a lead line, so we’re off. A couple of days before we checked out, Tom and Carol (Sussuru) returned to their boat at Land and Sea in Golfito and so it was lovely to spend some time with them once again before parting company – once again! Daryl (Liberty Call) is chomping at the bit to ‘get out of Golfito’ (it really isn’t that bad, just WET) and on 6th November we do the rounds – Customs, Immigration, Port Captain, get our paperwork and Zarpe and head back to the boat to make our departure around mid-day. I don’t know whether I mentioned at the last time of writing, how disgustingly dirty the water in Golfito is? Well anyway, we make plans with Daryl to up anchor at 1400 hours, naturally it starts to rain at 1350 hours – heavy. Paul hauls up the anchor, (Daryl’s already disappearing into the rain) and I motor forward – well, I go through the motions of motoring forward. Paul keeps shouting back to me – ‘you can power on now love’ and I gently ‘coo’ back to him ‘I’m at full revs and we’re going chuffin nowhere.’ Naturally Paul assumes that this is operator error rather than a boat problem and comes back to take over. We’re still going nowhere – well we managed a tiny little bit in astern, but we’re going nowhere forward fast. Paul checks to see if we have still have a prop. Naturally we assume it’s an engine problem as that’s been in bits for the best part of 10 days. Once Paul had ascertained for himself that we really were going nowhere we rapidly re-deployed the anchor to steady our 4 knot drift backwards into several other boats anchored behind us. Oh yes, as well as the filthy water there is an impressive tide in Golfito – up to 4 knots at half ebb. Daryl now returns from the fug and drops his anchor. Paul realises that he is going to have to get into the DISGUSTINGLY DIRTY water to check that we still have a prop (it’s man’s work) It’s still raining, it’s actually quite cold, and the tide is now running around 3 to 4 knots as Paul lowers himself into the murk. I have a line around his waist to ensure he sticks around. The minute he is in the water he is ‘whooshed’ away to the extent of the line. With effort I haul him back – it’s impossible to swim against it – and Paul sticks his head under water to discover that our prop (and hull) now resemble a coral reef! He can’t see the blades on the prop due to the build up of ‘crud’ barnacles, weed and general filth. He also can’t scrape it off at this point in time as the tide is so ferocious it’s all he can do to hold on. Just a word of warning to future visitors of Golfito – we were there for three weeks! Our ‘bottom’ was clean when we arrived! There are no diving services for hull cleaning. We inform Daryl that we’re going nowhere that day and Daryl heads out. The rain lashes down for the remainder of the day and all through the night - the silver lining – our water tanks are full to overflowing. Anyway, the next day dawns sunny! Paul’s back in the water at slack tide – which makes the water clarity even more disgusting – and gets the prop scraped off. I make him shower twice using anti-bacterial handwash. We have a last lunch with Tom and Carol and then leave with the outgoing tide. It’s not raining – YET.
As we look back at Golfito we see it disappear into a black hole whilst we head down the Golfo Dulce into a lovely sunset. By 0100 hours it’s hammering down – Paul tells me. I decide that’s a good time for me to take over duties ‘below decks.’ It rained the entire night and was a hard slog around Punta Burica - the border between Costa Rica and Panama – but boy, was it worth it. We arrived the following morning (8th November) in Isla Parida, (08 deg 06.0N, 82 deg 26.0W) the most westerly of the Western Panamanian islands – we’d finally found paradise or have we?
Monday, December 17, 2007
Saturday, November 03, 2007
FROM BAD TO WORSE!
Aphrodite's Album - Rain, Rain, Rain and Golfito Grey and Everything Breaks!
I was somewhat premature in my last blog, stating that things were as bad as they could get. The following day we decided to re-anchor, closer in shore, which necessitated starting our engine. In hindsite it's a good thing, but at the time, while we were re-anchoring our 10 month old alternator was siezing up! The blue smoke and gentle aroma were the immediate warning signs! The good thing in hindsite is that had we not re-anchored it would have happened as we headed out to sea, and having discovered it in the safety of the anchorage, we were also able to discover Robert - genius, saviour - I could go on. He arrived the following morning, unsiezed the alternator and then proceeded to check why it had done so. He discovered a leak in our heat exchanger, and on closer examination found it badly corroded in one end. Some parts are still available, obviously not the ones we needed, in the USA, at exhorbitant prices. Once sourced they then have to be shipped to Costa Rica - no mean feat - and, should they arrive (questionable), you then pay your 37% import tax and away you go! This all happened on a Friday, and by Monday, Robert got back to us and said he was very confident that he could rebuild the offending item. Long story short, we hope to have it re-installed today. Then we can run the fridge, and THEN, we can have cold beer! For anyone heading to Golfito, if you have problems with anything either electrical, electronic or mechanical - Robert is your man - 861 6561, He's American but has lived in Golfito most of his life. He fixes outboards, fridges, engines, computers, radars, etc, etc, etc. But, on the bright side, the weather seems to be taking a turn for the better. The rain photo's on the site give absolutely no idea of what a good downpour is like! Paul is still labouring on the forehatch as a leaky stanchion diverted his attention when we found that most of our books on the port bookshelf were very wet! And today is gorgeous - sunny, lots of amps pouring into the solar panels means Paul's a happy man. As soon as he gets them in I plug in my computer and take them out again, which makes Paul's an unhappy man! But what with mouldy clothes, an upsidedown FILTHY boat with internal waterfalls, a girl has to find some solace somewhere! We hope to be moving on early next week
Aphrodite's Album - Rain, Rain, Rain and Golfito Grey and Everything Breaks!
I was somewhat premature in my last blog, stating that things were as bad as they could get. The following day we decided to re-anchor, closer in shore, which necessitated starting our engine. In hindsite it's a good thing, but at the time, while we were re-anchoring our 10 month old alternator was siezing up! The blue smoke and gentle aroma were the immediate warning signs! The good thing in hindsite is that had we not re-anchored it would have happened as we headed out to sea, and having discovered it in the safety of the anchorage, we were also able to discover Robert - genius, saviour - I could go on. He arrived the following morning, unsiezed the alternator and then proceeded to check why it had done so. He discovered a leak in our heat exchanger, and on closer examination found it badly corroded in one end. Some parts are still available, obviously not the ones we needed, in the USA, at exhorbitant prices. Once sourced they then have to be shipped to Costa Rica - no mean feat - and, should they arrive (questionable), you then pay your 37% import tax and away you go! This all happened on a Friday, and by Monday, Robert got back to us and said he was very confident that he could rebuild the offending item. Long story short, we hope to have it re-installed today. Then we can run the fridge, and THEN, we can have cold beer! For anyone heading to Golfito, if you have problems with anything either electrical, electronic or mechanical - Robert is your man - 861 6561, He's American but has lived in Golfito most of his life. He fixes outboards, fridges, engines, computers, radars, etc, etc, etc. But, on the bright side, the weather seems to be taking a turn for the better. The rain photo's on the site give absolutely no idea of what a good downpour is like! Paul is still labouring on the forehatch as a leaky stanchion diverted his attention when we found that most of our books on the port bookshelf were very wet! And today is gorgeous - sunny, lots of amps pouring into the solar panels means Paul's a happy man. As soon as he gets them in I plug in my computer and take them out again, which makes Paul's an unhappy man! But what with mouldy clothes, an upsidedown FILTHY boat with internal waterfalls, a girl has to find some solace somewhere! We hope to be moving on early next week
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Current Position: 8 deg 36.9N
83 deg 11.1W
Miles to Date: 3,700 approx
10th October 2007 we left Guacamaya for Ballena Bay in the Gulf of Nicoya and had a wet overnight passage but arrived in the Gulf the next day to a glorious sun rise and, among the debris in the water that we had been warned we would encounter, two 40 foot whales surfaced around 10 feet from our bow, blew, dived and then surfaced again on our port side within stroking distance! Whilst I was nervously fumbling for the camera, Paul knocked the autohelm off and threw the helm over starboard and we still don’t know how we missed them – we love to see whales, but that encounter was just a bit too close for comfort. Needless to say by the time I had the camera ready, it was all over. The debris in the Gulf was not as bad as we had expected, but there were some sizeable branches and trunks that you wouldn’t want to go bump in the night. The reason for all this trash is – rainy season – torrential rains bring trees and garbage down the rivers and out into the gulf.
We arrived in Ballena Bay just as it started to rain and anchored there in pretty big swell for two nights. Paul set the kedge anchor and so kept us head up to the swell, which made for a more comfortable night’s sleep, but the surf at the beach defeated us and our attempts to make a landing were thwarted.
We know from the cruising guides we are reading that at this time of year, most of the anchorages in Costa Rica are going to be either uncomfortable or, at worst, untenable, and so from Ballena be crossed back over the gulf to Bahia Herradura, where we spent 3 rolly nights, before heading south again to Drake’s Bay. A further two rolly/rainy nights were spent here before another overnight passage brought us into Golfito in the Golfo Dulce in southern Costa Rica. Although the anchorage is very tidal, it is almost completely landlocked and therefore as smooth as glass most of the time. Here we have re-joined our buddy Daryl from Liberty Call, and next week we will head out together to cruise the Western Panamanian islands where we hope to finally get some clear waters, white beaches and good diving and snorkelling. Our time in Golfito has been spent in the main, hiding under our ‘bat tent’ of tarps but Paul has re-built our forehatch which was leaking quite badly and pouring into our sail locker. Thankfully we have had three (consecutive!!) dry sunny days in which I’ve been able to dry out all our stored sails (Drifter, Mizzen staysail and storm sails) and launder most of our mouldy clothing – yes, actual green furry stuff growing on almost everything, so, it’s not all blue skies and endless fun. We’ve also developed problems with our refrigeration but Paul and Daryl’s joint efforts seem to have it back up and running at the moment. I have to to say that Isotherm’s on-line support has been excellent – responding in less than 24 hours to our questions and pleas for assistance. We have also discovered that our Fishfinder/GPS/Depth has given up the ghost and now face the prospect of sailing to Panama without a depth guage. Something I’m not all too happy about, but which Paul is not in the least bit phased – I think he’s just looking forward to having a real reason to ‘swing the lead’ We hope to get a replacement in Panama. We have two back-up handheld GPS’s on board, so the only issue is depth really, and as we are cruising this next leg in company, don’t envisage it to be too problematic. Paul being Paul quite often uses the lead line when we are entering an anchorage – just because he can. I naturally am at the helm with my eyes glued to the depth readout, and invariably his soundings are within a foot or less of the gauge, so, on this, I will trust him. Anyway, hopefully we are nearing the end of rainy season, although as I look out of the window right now, it is hard to be convinced as we are once again enveloped in low cloud and non-stop rain – but as Paul keeps reminding me, each time I whinge about getting wet – it will soon be over and it’s not sulphuric acid – naturally this always immediately makes me feel better!
83 deg 11.1W
Miles to Date: 3,700 approx
10th October 2007 we left Guacamaya for Ballena Bay in the Gulf of Nicoya and had a wet overnight passage but arrived in the Gulf the next day to a glorious sun rise and, among the debris in the water that we had been warned we would encounter, two 40 foot whales surfaced around 10 feet from our bow, blew, dived and then surfaced again on our port side within stroking distance! Whilst I was nervously fumbling for the camera, Paul knocked the autohelm off and threw the helm over starboard and we still don’t know how we missed them – we love to see whales, but that encounter was just a bit too close for comfort. Needless to say by the time I had the camera ready, it was all over. The debris in the Gulf was not as bad as we had expected, but there were some sizeable branches and trunks that you wouldn’t want to go bump in the night. The reason for all this trash is – rainy season – torrential rains bring trees and garbage down the rivers and out into the gulf.
We arrived in Ballena Bay just as it started to rain and anchored there in pretty big swell for two nights. Paul set the kedge anchor and so kept us head up to the swell, which made for a more comfortable night’s sleep, but the surf at the beach defeated us and our attempts to make a landing were thwarted.
We know from the cruising guides we are reading that at this time of year, most of the anchorages in Costa Rica are going to be either uncomfortable or, at worst, untenable, and so from Ballena be crossed back over the gulf to Bahia Herradura, where we spent 3 rolly nights, before heading south again to Drake’s Bay. A further two rolly/rainy nights were spent here before another overnight passage brought us into Golfito in the Golfo Dulce in southern Costa Rica. Although the anchorage is very tidal, it is almost completely landlocked and therefore as smooth as glass most of the time. Here we have re-joined our buddy Daryl from Liberty Call, and next week we will head out together to cruise the Western Panamanian islands where we hope to finally get some clear waters, white beaches and good diving and snorkelling. Our time in Golfito has been spent in the main, hiding under our ‘bat tent’ of tarps but Paul has re-built our forehatch which was leaking quite badly and pouring into our sail locker. Thankfully we have had three (consecutive!!) dry sunny days in which I’ve been able to dry out all our stored sails (Drifter, Mizzen staysail and storm sails) and launder most of our mouldy clothing – yes, actual green furry stuff growing on almost everything, so, it’s not all blue skies and endless fun. We’ve also developed problems with our refrigeration but Paul and Daryl’s joint efforts seem to have it back up and running at the moment. I have to to say that Isotherm’s on-line support has been excellent – responding in less than 24 hours to our questions and pleas for assistance. We have also discovered that our Fishfinder/GPS/Depth has given up the ghost and now face the prospect of sailing to Panama without a depth guage. Something I’m not all too happy about, but which Paul is not in the least bit phased – I think he’s just looking forward to having a real reason to ‘swing the lead’ We hope to get a replacement in Panama. We have two back-up handheld GPS’s on board, so the only issue is depth really, and as we are cruising this next leg in company, don’t envisage it to be too problematic. Paul being Paul quite often uses the lead line when we are entering an anchorage – just because he can. I naturally am at the helm with my eyes glued to the depth readout, and invariably his soundings are within a foot or less of the gauge, so, on this, I will trust him. Anyway, hopefully we are nearing the end of rainy season, although as I look out of the window right now, it is hard to be convinced as we are once again enveloped in low cloud and non-stop rain – but as Paul keeps reminding me, each time I whinge about getting wet – it will soon be over and it’s not sulphuric acid – naturally this always immediately makes me feel better!
Friday, October 05, 2007
RETURNING TO NICARAGUA
Current Lat/Long 10 deg 34’ N
85 deg 43’ W
Following our return to Nicaragua from England, we spent a couple of weeks getting Aphrodite ship-shape – which meant Paul doing lots of jobs and me doing lots of reading. Most afternoons we hit the pool at the marina, or the pool at the beach where at least there was a cooler coastal breeze. We relaxed, watched local fishermen in their dug-out canoes and then decided that it was time to move on south to Costa Rica. And so we left Puesta del Sol on the 18th of September, on a cloudy dull day, and bumped out to sea on a rolly swell, which thankfully smoothed out a little as we made offshore and into deeper water. Our first passage was an overnight of some 135 miles and our destination, Bahia Santa Elena in Northern Costa Rica. We were quite fortunate with the weather until around 0300 hours the next day when we were hit by an unavoidable deluge – naturally I stayed below, dry, while Paul go his first real drenching. The day broke cloudy on the 19th September with around 25 miles to go to Bahia Santa Elena. We made our entry around 1500 hours that day and dropped our anchor. The bay is almost landlocked and therefore like a pond. It was incredibly calm and beautiful, surrounded by rain forest on three sides. We sat in the cockpit and watched the parrots flying overhead and marvelled at our surroundings. We were the only boat in the bay apart from a small fishing panga which disappeared to goodness knows where at night. We spent a very calm and relaxing 5 days pootling around in the dinghy and on the third day had visitors – the Costa Rican police came aboard to check our paperwork, and drink all our coke! While the senior officers were aboard dotting i’s and crossing t’s the rest of the boat crew slalomed around us in their panga having a hilarious time and sending tidal waves of wash our way! As beautiful as Bahia Santa Elena is, you can only have so much relaxation (well I can anyway) and so it was on the 24th of September, our 7th wedding anniversary, that I persuaded Paul to up anchor and carry on south. Our next stop was at the Islas Las Mucielagos, just a short daysail from Santa Elena and we dropped our anchor at Key Point off the Santa Elena Peninsula at 1530 hours to enjoy a glass of sherry!!! and a beautiful sunset. Not a bad anniversary as they go – no wrapping paper to throw away, but we had had a day of natural gifts – early on in the day a whale had surfaced quite close to the boat, followed by the company of dolphins and turtles for most of the passage – better than anything you can put in a box and wrap – and topped off with a glass of cheap cooking sherry – we know how to live!!! The anchorage in the islands however was a little rolly and so we upped anchor early next morning on the 25th September and headed towards Playa del Coco where we would officially check into Costa Rica. We engined through the morning and then had a lovely sail into the bay in the afternoon, anchoring at 1600 hours. The following morning we dinghied ashore, took care of the necessary paperwork with the Port Capitan, Immigracion and Aduane (Customs) – all very straightforward and FREE. I think it is the first country we have checked into so far that hasn’t charged anything.. Coco has everything the cruiser needs ashore – lots of internet cafes and free wi-fi, a good supermarket, a chandlery (marine hardware shop for our American friends), laundry and a wide selection of bars and restaurants.
So now it’s Saturday 29th September and we’re off again, but this time not very far – to Bahia Guacamaya – for those of you that follow us, I don’t think you’ll locate this one on any world map. A tiny little bay with excellent snorkling and diving (apparently) and good protection from all wind directions, so hopefully a couple of peaceful nights ahead. From here we will be heading down to the Gulf of Nicoya and expect a bumpy ride until we get into Bahia Ballena and spend a week or so cruising the islands in the Gulf.
So far we are extremely enamoured with Costa Rica – although I have my reservations about cruising during the Rainy Season – we are among a very small handful of people that havn’t taken shelter through to the end of October/early November – the main benefit is very obvious. Everything is incredibly lush and green. The Northern Costa Rica coast is beautiful – in many places the tropical rain forest stretches all the way to the sea and the coastal vistas are breathtaking. The photographs, which I hope to upload somewhere soon, just don’t do the scenery justice. The absence of photographs at present, I apologies for, due to the lack of an onboard wi-fi signal and the impracticality of taking my laptop ashore when we are making dinghy landings through surf onto the beach – hopefully I’ll be able to upload once we get further south.
Current Lat/Long 10 deg 34’ N
85 deg 43’ W
Following our return to Nicaragua from England, we spent a couple of weeks getting Aphrodite ship-shape – which meant Paul doing lots of jobs and me doing lots of reading. Most afternoons we hit the pool at the marina, or the pool at the beach where at least there was a cooler coastal breeze. We relaxed, watched local fishermen in their dug-out canoes and then decided that it was time to move on south to Costa Rica. And so we left Puesta del Sol on the 18th of September, on a cloudy dull day, and bumped out to sea on a rolly swell, which thankfully smoothed out a little as we made offshore and into deeper water. Our first passage was an overnight of some 135 miles and our destination, Bahia Santa Elena in Northern Costa Rica. We were quite fortunate with the weather until around 0300 hours the next day when we were hit by an unavoidable deluge – naturally I stayed below, dry, while Paul go his first real drenching. The day broke cloudy on the 19th September with around 25 miles to go to Bahia Santa Elena. We made our entry around 1500 hours that day and dropped our anchor. The bay is almost landlocked and therefore like a pond. It was incredibly calm and beautiful, surrounded by rain forest on three sides. We sat in the cockpit and watched the parrots flying overhead and marvelled at our surroundings. We were the only boat in the bay apart from a small fishing panga which disappeared to goodness knows where at night. We spent a very calm and relaxing 5 days pootling around in the dinghy and on the third day had visitors – the Costa Rican police came aboard to check our paperwork, and drink all our coke! While the senior officers were aboard dotting i’s and crossing t’s the rest of the boat crew slalomed around us in their panga having a hilarious time and sending tidal waves of wash our way! As beautiful as Bahia Santa Elena is, you can only have so much relaxation (well I can anyway) and so it was on the 24th of September, our 7th wedding anniversary, that I persuaded Paul to up anchor and carry on south. Our next stop was at the Islas Las Mucielagos, just a short daysail from Santa Elena and we dropped our anchor at Key Point off the Santa Elena Peninsula at 1530 hours to enjoy a glass of sherry!!! and a beautiful sunset. Not a bad anniversary as they go – no wrapping paper to throw away, but we had had a day of natural gifts – early on in the day a whale had surfaced quite close to the boat, followed by the company of dolphins and turtles for most of the passage – better than anything you can put in a box and wrap – and topped off with a glass of cheap cooking sherry – we know how to live!!! The anchorage in the islands however was a little rolly and so we upped anchor early next morning on the 25th September and headed towards Playa del Coco where we would officially check into Costa Rica. We engined through the morning and then had a lovely sail into the bay in the afternoon, anchoring at 1600 hours. The following morning we dinghied ashore, took care of the necessary paperwork with the Port Capitan, Immigracion and Aduane (Customs) – all very straightforward and FREE. I think it is the first country we have checked into so far that hasn’t charged anything.. Coco has everything the cruiser needs ashore – lots of internet cafes and free wi-fi, a good supermarket, a chandlery (marine hardware shop for our American friends), laundry and a wide selection of bars and restaurants.
So now it’s Saturday 29th September and we’re off again, but this time not very far – to Bahia Guacamaya – for those of you that follow us, I don’t think you’ll locate this one on any world map. A tiny little bay with excellent snorkling and diving (apparently) and good protection from all wind directions, so hopefully a couple of peaceful nights ahead. From here we will be heading down to the Gulf of Nicoya and expect a bumpy ride until we get into Bahia Ballena and spend a week or so cruising the islands in the Gulf.
So far we are extremely enamoured with Costa Rica – although I have my reservations about cruising during the Rainy Season – we are among a very small handful of people that havn’t taken shelter through to the end of October/early November – the main benefit is very obvious. Everything is incredibly lush and green. The Northern Costa Rica coast is beautiful – in many places the tropical rain forest stretches all the way to the sea and the coastal vistas are breathtaking. The photographs, which I hope to upload somewhere soon, just don’t do the scenery justice. The absence of photographs at present, I apologies for, due to the lack of an onboard wi-fi signal and the impracticality of taking my laptop ashore when we are making dinghy landings through surf onto the beach – hopefully I’ll be able to upload once we get further south.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Aphrodite's Album:
Conchigita
Casey
Norfolk
La Rochelle
Current Lat/Long: 12' 36.6N 87'22.4W
And it’s been forever since I updated our blogspot - my apologies - so this is going to be a quick round-up to bring us up-to-date through July and August. We left Barillas (El Salvador) on 28th June 2007, along with Daryl on Liberty Call, heading for Nicaragua via the Gulf of Fonseca, which has borders with El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras. We followed the Barillas Pilot nine miles down river and through the break in the reef. The surf was up and pounding on the reef and our exit was far more uncomfortable than our entry several days earlier, but once out to sea the swell was relatively low and the sun was shinning. From mid-day onwards we saw the squall clouds building (now re-named the ‘Alien Cloud’ by SV Hurrah who we were to meet later in Nicaragua) and at 1350 hours - just as we were about to round the point into the Gulf - it hit us. Around 35 knots on the nose and building seas, (we had already dropped sail) and so we pointed due west out to sea to ride it out, finally dropping our anchor off the shore of Isla Conchagita at 2130 hours. Spent the next day relaxing then the following day sailed around the top of the island, passing it’s one solitary village, and on to Isla Meanguera where we anchored in a small cove at the south east end of the island. We’d caught fish on our way across so Daryl joined us as we fired up the BBQ and we contemplated what the ‘really quite nice building’ could be in the bay. It was so unexpected that we assumed it was either the President’s summer house or a drug baron’s hide out. The next morning Daryl kayaked ashore and returned to us with the news that it was an ‘American-style’ hotel - no mention of it in any pilot book, and totally unexpected. We all went ashore and met Richard (American) who owns the hotel with his Salvadoran wife and their children Rachel and Arturo. We were made very welcome and spent the next two days eating fabulous meals prepared by Richard’s wife and chilling on their patio. The hotel is called El Joya Del Golfo and Richard can be contacted at the following Richardshagen@aol.com. If you’re heading down that way it’s well worth a stop - pretty much protected from any south westerly swell but open to anything big from the north. You could however always up anchor and in twenty minutes be around the bottom of the island in the anchorage to the south which affords shelter in a Papagallo, according to Capt. Pat Raines’ Cruising Ports, The Central American Route.
So, reluctantly we upped anchor on the 4th of July and headed out to Puesta del Sol in Nicaragua, arriving just in time to be invited to the Independence Day BBQ and celebrations! The entrance into Puesta is very straight-forward as long as you do your ‘tidal homework’ and enter on an incoming or high tide. It would be nearly impossible to enter on the ebb (around 5/6 knots against). We entered on the flood and had difficulty staying in the channel!!! But the entrance is short and you’re in within minutes.
On arriving in Puesta, and now fully into the rainy season, which sees huge tropical downpours with winds up to 50 knots and enormous thunderstorms, I suggested that it would perhaps be a good time to go home, if indeed we were going to go home. Paul’s son Adam and his wife Vicky were due to give birth to their first child - our first grandchild - on August 19th and so, after much debate we decided to book our flights. As we were now heading home, Daryl (Liberty Call) decided to continue on down to Costa Rica and a visit from his girlfriend.
Before I go any further - A BIG APOLOGY TO THOSE OF YOU WE DIDN’T SEE - our trip home was extremely hectic and absolutely flew by. We returned to England to MASSIVE flooding with large areas of the country without water and electricity - thankfully not Nottingham where we were staying with Mum, but my sister in Gloucestershire was without water for 2 weeks. In between ordering and supervising the fitting of new windows for my Mum, we caught up with local friends - and once again whiled away the wee hours at Gary and Dawn’s with Pat and Max. We also managed to fly out to La Rochelle and spend a lovely few relaxing days with Martin and Shirley on their boat Kismet, moored in the inner harbour in La Rochelle enabling a short walk ashore into this beautiful town/city? On returning, Vicky very conveniently gave birth the very next day - two weeks early - which was great for us as it meant we now had two weeks longer with our new grand-daughter. Mum and baby went through the usual trials but both were and continue to be very well - and naturally, she‘s gorgeous. Following that, many visits with family, placing daily internet orders for boat things that are impossible to source in Central America; the luxury of eating soggy white English bread and many other totally bad but uuuummmm so much missed foods - curry to name but one!!! We also arrived home in time to join our friends’ Helen and Richard for their wedding celebration. They had married in February but decided to delay the celebration until the summer where they planned a BBQ at the gliding club. It rained ALL DAY (!!!) but we nevertheless had a lovely time.
More shopping and baby cooing. Grandad was occupied for a week decorating the nursery - oh - baby’s name by the way is Casey and is a girl!!
A weekend with our friends Michael and Anne on their Contest 44 Nimue, along the south coast of England and across to the Isle of Wight, gave us the best sail we have had in months!!!???!!! A trip to Norfolk to visit John and Judy in their lovely cottage alongside the wharf in Wells Next the Sea came complete with a local regata and sailing races thrown in for good measure. Next a cross-country trek to the Cotswalds for a last visit with my sister Helen and her family.
Before we knew it time had run out and it was time to return. It had been lovely to catch up with friends and family, but sadly we only got to see half the people we had hoped to see - including 45 minutes with my elder sister and an unsuccessful trip to see Paul‘s sister. It’s amazing how my brother’s and sister’s children have changed in just over one year, but equally good to see that Mum hadn’t changed much at all, if anything looked better! My lovely brother rose at 4 a.m. on Sunday 2nd of September and delivered us back to Heathrow. 48 hours later we are back on our boat - tidying up and preparing to leave shortly for Costa Rica. It is still rainy season and I AM NOT looking forward to the lightening storms and 50 knot squalls, but Paul reassures me its only water and we might get wet!!! Hasn’t said much about the lightening though! More to follow in the next couple of weeks, assuming our safe arrival in Costa Rica.
Conchigita
Casey
Norfolk
La Rochelle
Current Lat/Long: 12' 36.6N 87'22.4W
And it’s been forever since I updated our blogspot - my apologies - so this is going to be a quick round-up to bring us up-to-date through July and August. We left Barillas (El Salvador) on 28th June 2007, along with Daryl on Liberty Call, heading for Nicaragua via the Gulf of Fonseca, which has borders with El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras. We followed the Barillas Pilot nine miles down river and through the break in the reef. The surf was up and pounding on the reef and our exit was far more uncomfortable than our entry several days earlier, but once out to sea the swell was relatively low and the sun was shinning. From mid-day onwards we saw the squall clouds building (now re-named the ‘Alien Cloud’ by SV Hurrah who we were to meet later in Nicaragua) and at 1350 hours - just as we were about to round the point into the Gulf - it hit us. Around 35 knots on the nose and building seas, (we had already dropped sail) and so we pointed due west out to sea to ride it out, finally dropping our anchor off the shore of Isla Conchagita at 2130 hours. Spent the next day relaxing then the following day sailed around the top of the island, passing it’s one solitary village, and on to Isla Meanguera where we anchored in a small cove at the south east end of the island. We’d caught fish on our way across so Daryl joined us as we fired up the BBQ and we contemplated what the ‘really quite nice building’ could be in the bay. It was so unexpected that we assumed it was either the President’s summer house or a drug baron’s hide out. The next morning Daryl kayaked ashore and returned to us with the news that it was an ‘American-style’ hotel - no mention of it in any pilot book, and totally unexpected. We all went ashore and met Richard (American) who owns the hotel with his Salvadoran wife and their children Rachel and Arturo. We were made very welcome and spent the next two days eating fabulous meals prepared by Richard’s wife and chilling on their patio. The hotel is called El Joya Del Golfo and Richard can be contacted at the following Richardshagen@aol.com. If you’re heading down that way it’s well worth a stop - pretty much protected from any south westerly swell but open to anything big from the north. You could however always up anchor and in twenty minutes be around the bottom of the island in the anchorage to the south which affords shelter in a Papagallo, according to Capt. Pat Raines’ Cruising Ports, The Central American Route.
So, reluctantly we upped anchor on the 4th of July and headed out to Puesta del Sol in Nicaragua, arriving just in time to be invited to the Independence Day BBQ and celebrations! The entrance into Puesta is very straight-forward as long as you do your ‘tidal homework’ and enter on an incoming or high tide. It would be nearly impossible to enter on the ebb (around 5/6 knots against). We entered on the flood and had difficulty staying in the channel!!! But the entrance is short and you’re in within minutes.
On arriving in Puesta, and now fully into the rainy season, which sees huge tropical downpours with winds up to 50 knots and enormous thunderstorms, I suggested that it would perhaps be a good time to go home, if indeed we were going to go home. Paul’s son Adam and his wife Vicky were due to give birth to their first child - our first grandchild - on August 19th and so, after much debate we decided to book our flights. As we were now heading home, Daryl (Liberty Call) decided to continue on down to Costa Rica and a visit from his girlfriend.
Before I go any further - A BIG APOLOGY TO THOSE OF YOU WE DIDN’T SEE - our trip home was extremely hectic and absolutely flew by. We returned to England to MASSIVE flooding with large areas of the country without water and electricity - thankfully not Nottingham where we were staying with Mum, but my sister in Gloucestershire was without water for 2 weeks. In between ordering and supervising the fitting of new windows for my Mum, we caught up with local friends - and once again whiled away the wee hours at Gary and Dawn’s with Pat and Max. We also managed to fly out to La Rochelle and spend a lovely few relaxing days with Martin and Shirley on their boat Kismet, moored in the inner harbour in La Rochelle enabling a short walk ashore into this beautiful town/city? On returning, Vicky very conveniently gave birth the very next day - two weeks early - which was great for us as it meant we now had two weeks longer with our new grand-daughter. Mum and baby went through the usual trials but both were and continue to be very well - and naturally, she‘s gorgeous. Following that, many visits with family, placing daily internet orders for boat things that are impossible to source in Central America; the luxury of eating soggy white English bread and many other totally bad but uuuummmm so much missed foods - curry to name but one!!! We also arrived home in time to join our friends’ Helen and Richard for their wedding celebration. They had married in February but decided to delay the celebration until the summer where they planned a BBQ at the gliding club. It rained ALL DAY (!!!) but we nevertheless had a lovely time.
More shopping and baby cooing. Grandad was occupied for a week decorating the nursery - oh - baby’s name by the way is Casey and is a girl!!
A weekend with our friends Michael and Anne on their Contest 44 Nimue, along the south coast of England and across to the Isle of Wight, gave us the best sail we have had in months!!!???!!! A trip to Norfolk to visit John and Judy in their lovely cottage alongside the wharf in Wells Next the Sea came complete with a local regata and sailing races thrown in for good measure. Next a cross-country trek to the Cotswalds for a last visit with my sister Helen and her family.
Before we knew it time had run out and it was time to return. It had been lovely to catch up with friends and family, but sadly we only got to see half the people we had hoped to see - including 45 minutes with my elder sister and an unsuccessful trip to see Paul‘s sister. It’s amazing how my brother’s and sister’s children have changed in just over one year, but equally good to see that Mum hadn’t changed much at all, if anything looked better! My lovely brother rose at 4 a.m. on Sunday 2nd of September and delivered us back to Heathrow. 48 hours later we are back on our boat - tidying up and preparing to leave shortly for Costa Rica. It is still rainy season and I AM NOT looking forward to the lightening storms and 50 knot squalls, but Paul reassures me its only water and we might get wet!!! Hasn’t said much about the lightening though! More to follow in the next couple of weeks, assuming our safe arrival in Costa Rica.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
GUATEMALA TO EL SALVADOR
18th June saw an early morning departure from Guatemala – having received our paperwork later than expected, we decided to spend another night – expecting to get away early, and therefore without paying for it – WRONG. One thing you can’t fault at the marina Pez Vela in Guatemala is the tenacity of the security guards!!! So 0700 saw us head out to sea for our 48 hour passage to El Salvador. An uneventful passage with a little sailing and a lot of engining, arriving with Liberty Call off the Bahia Jiquilisco (Hi-ki-lis-co), awaiting the arrival of the Pilot panga that will guide us in and over the bar, past the shoals where the breakers are scary and nine miles up the river into paradise – baring the mosquito’s. Barillas marina is in fact mooring buoys ($11-20) per day in the river, surrounded by mangroves and alongside a very nice resort with pool, spa bath, bar, restaurant, hammocks swung in palm trees, all in all, a nice little stop. Here we find Maverick!!! Who we thought was in Costa Rica by now, but they arrived and 35 days later, where still here. They have in fact decided to leave their boat here – excellent shelter and great security – and fly back to Germany for 4 weeks. Three other cruising boats with people on board are still here (it’s now very out of season), and a handful of boats have been left here to shelter for the duration of hurricane season. We are still not quite out of the possible hurricane area, but El Salvador has never been hit to date. This is a fabulous place to relax. A 20 minute walk from the resort takes you into the forest where you will find partially tame – enough that they will come and take your banana’s – Spider monkeys swinging in the trees.
El Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America and also the only once without both a Caribbean and Pacific coast. It is still however chiefly remembered for its vicious civil war in the 1980’s and although Peace Accords were signed in 1992 Peace Accords, the country still doesn’t attract the tourism enjoyed by its neighbours, Guatemala and Nicaragua. We took a ride into San Salvador, the capital, with Kurt and Agatha then they left for the airport, but returned back to Barillas later that day pretty uninspired. For me the city was bland and had no soul, the only redeeming feature I found was an amazing church, which from the outside looked like a solid concrete semi-circle without a single window, it was only on entering that it became apparent that concrete was inter-laced with the most beautiful abstract stain glass windows. The botanical gardens where not the best, but an oasis in what is otherwise a fairly ugly city.
So here we are, still in Barillas, making the most of the pool, the hammocks and the general air of relaxation. We will probably leave later in the week for Fonseca, where we hope to anchor at the islands for a few days snorkelling, before continuing on to Costa Rica.
18th June saw an early morning departure from Guatemala – having received our paperwork later than expected, we decided to spend another night – expecting to get away early, and therefore without paying for it – WRONG. One thing you can’t fault at the marina Pez Vela in Guatemala is the tenacity of the security guards!!! So 0700 saw us head out to sea for our 48 hour passage to El Salvador. An uneventful passage with a little sailing and a lot of engining, arriving with Liberty Call off the Bahia Jiquilisco (Hi-ki-lis-co), awaiting the arrival of the Pilot panga that will guide us in and over the bar, past the shoals where the breakers are scary and nine miles up the river into paradise – baring the mosquito’s. Barillas marina is in fact mooring buoys ($11-20) per day in the river, surrounded by mangroves and alongside a very nice resort with pool, spa bath, bar, restaurant, hammocks swung in palm trees, all in all, a nice little stop. Here we find Maverick!!! Who we thought was in Costa Rica by now, but they arrived and 35 days later, where still here. They have in fact decided to leave their boat here – excellent shelter and great security – and fly back to Germany for 4 weeks. Three other cruising boats with people on board are still here (it’s now very out of season), and a handful of boats have been left here to shelter for the duration of hurricane season. We are still not quite out of the possible hurricane area, but El Salvador has never been hit to date. This is a fabulous place to relax. A 20 minute walk from the resort takes you into the forest where you will find partially tame – enough that they will come and take your banana’s – Spider monkeys swinging in the trees.
El Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America and also the only once without both a Caribbean and Pacific coast. It is still however chiefly remembered for its vicious civil war in the 1980’s and although Peace Accords were signed in 1992 Peace Accords, the country still doesn’t attract the tourism enjoyed by its neighbours, Guatemala and Nicaragua. We took a ride into San Salvador, the capital, with Kurt and Agatha then they left for the airport, but returned back to Barillas later that day pretty uninspired. For me the city was bland and had no soul, the only redeeming feature I found was an amazing church, which from the outside looked like a solid concrete semi-circle without a single window, it was only on entering that it became apparent that concrete was inter-laced with the most beautiful abstract stain glass windows. The botanical gardens where not the best, but an oasis in what is otherwise a fairly ugly city.
So here we are, still in Barillas, making the most of the pool, the hammocks and the general air of relaxation. We will probably leave later in the week for Fonseca, where we hope to anchor at the islands for a few days snorkelling, before continuing on to Costa Rica.
CROSSING THE GULF AND LEAVING MEXICO
Huatulco is the last recreational destination on Mexico’s Pacific coast and when heading south, cruisers have to negotiate the Gulf of Tehuantepec, infamous for its sudden gales. The bay is 260 miles across and is relatively shallow. The weather in the Gulf is dominated by the weather in the Caribbean and leads to approximately 180 days per year experiencing Force 8 winds or higher. A Tehuantepec gale, or T-pecker, is capable of blowing a 120 foot coastal freighter 350 miles off shore into horrendously steep seas. Each year a number of smaller boats are caught out by the T-peckers, with disastrous results. . They are impossible to predict from local cloud observation and onboard barometer readings. They strike suddenly and last from a few hours to several days, However, because the Gulf is so notorious, a great deal of resources have been poured into the forecasting of these storms, so we sit and wait with daily visits to the internet café, scanning every piece of weather information we can get. We want a five day passage. The Gulf is 260 miles and we then have a further 108 miles to the next tenable anchorage/marina in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. So, 9th June and, with a decent 5 day forecast we – Aphrodite, Liberty Call, Anna Lee and Xochitl - head out of Huatulco with light winds, as per the forecast, of around 8-10 knots. In fact the forecast shows nothing in the next 5 days over 14 knots. We turn the corner at the north western end of the Gulf and are hit by 25 knots on the nose!!! We are the first to turn back, swiftly followed by the other three boats. These winds continue for the next 24 hours and so on 11th June we all set out once more. This time we have more luck and, in fact, don’t have enough wind. We originally intended to by-pass Guatemala, making our first landfall in El Salvador, but four days later, and with dwindling diesel supplies – having engined the entire way, due to lack of wind, barring a 3 hour slot where we had 20 knots and a great sail – we decide to pull in to Puerto Quetzal. Liberty Call and Xochitl had had to stop and re-fuel in Puerto Madero, which is the last port in Mexico, and one that we wanted to bypass. We had checked out in Huatulco and obtained our Zarpe to leave the country. Going into Puerto Madero meant having to re-do the paperwork and a potential delay of 1 or 2 days. As it happens they weren’t required to obtain a new Zarpe and were therefore only held up for a few hours.
So, 0600 hours, Friday 15th June we arrive in Guatemala. Guatemala’s Pacific coast is only 132 nautical miles long and is dramatic, its volcano peaks, some 10 to 20 miles inland, rise abruptly from the coastal plane, Volcan Fuego at 13,000 feet being the highest active one. Also nearby is Volcan Pocaya, both of which can be seen at night spewing smoke and molten lava – a majestic coastline. We pull into Marina Pez Vela – the only option here as both anchorages have been closed – and are met by Miguel the paperwork agent. We had been lead to believe that you can manage your own entry here, but it transpires that you can’t, and are therefore obliged to pay the $165-00 entry/exit fee to the agent, who in fact probably only sees around $15. The Pez Vela marina is also staggeringly expensive $2.50 per foot per day – to be avoided if at all possible. However, if you wish to visit Guatemala, this is the only option. My Rough Guide tells me that “…spread across a verdant and mountainous chunk of land, Guatemala is endowed with simply staggering natural, historical and cultural interest. Though the giant Maya temples and rainforest cities have been long abandoned, ancient traditions remain very much alive. And, all over the country you’ll come across remnants of Guatemalas colonial past, nowhere more so that in the graceful former capital of Antigua.” ….. so we head to Antigua. But not before heading into town – San Jose – to try to obtain some local currency on my visa card. I forgot to mention that when we were in Huatulco my purse was stolen, not much money, but the huge inconvenience of losing credit and bank cards. The battle of the banks that followed, resulted in me obtaining one replacement card in Mexico – thank you so much Visa, nil points to HSBC and Citibank who both gave it their best shot to make a bad situation much worse. Anyway, we headed in to San Jose – which made the OK Coral look like Sunday school. Guns everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. Bank doors opened just enough for a hand to appear through the crack and beckon you in. Once inside you were surrounded by guards toting pump-action shotguns – a legacy of the bitter conflict that has dogged Guatemala. Rough Guide …”But with the signing of the 1996 peace accords between the government and the ex-guerrillas, Latin America’s longest running civil war ceased though many of the countries deep-rooted inequalities persist.”
On returning to the marina we made VHF contact with Daryl of Liberty Call, who, despite the outrageous marina charges, decided that he was going to come in for a break. A few minutes later and we raised Xochitl who for 15 excited minutes thought that they too would be coming in and ending a five day passage, only to find that the charges were beyond their budget and so turned around and headed back out to sea.
The only other sailboat in the marina was the Elizabeth with Paul and Charlene on board. They gave us the details for an excellent local taxi driver who would take us to the city of Antigua. The following day Paul, myself, Daryl and Charlene made our way inland, taking the opportunity to see, sadly, only a small portion of this beautiful country.
I was going to write lots of information here about the Mayan ruins in Guatemala, but can’t get on line to down-load it, but suggest that you take a look at it for yourself.
We went to Antigua, a beautiful city and the former capital of Guatemala. On the way we passed through the town of ……………………… and it was our fortune that that day they were celebrating their town’s anniversary. Virtually everyone in the town was gathered at the church for a service of thanksgiving. The town is famed for its fabric factory (the gracefully arched building in the photographs, not looking the least bit like a factory) where it weaves the beautiful multi-coloured cloths worn by all the local women, old and young. On arrival in Antigua we went to the jade museum, Guatemala and Burma being the only two countries in the world producing jade. A fascinating visit with as much information about the Mayan history of Guatemala as the history of jade. A very beautiful city that deserved more time.
We returned to the marina and awaited the arrival of Miguel who was bringing our Zarpe’s for our departure later that evening.
Huatulco is the last recreational destination on Mexico’s Pacific coast and when heading south, cruisers have to negotiate the Gulf of Tehuantepec, infamous for its sudden gales. The bay is 260 miles across and is relatively shallow. The weather in the Gulf is dominated by the weather in the Caribbean and leads to approximately 180 days per year experiencing Force 8 winds or higher. A Tehuantepec gale, or T-pecker, is capable of blowing a 120 foot coastal freighter 350 miles off shore into horrendously steep seas. Each year a number of smaller boats are caught out by the T-peckers, with disastrous results. . They are impossible to predict from local cloud observation and onboard barometer readings. They strike suddenly and last from a few hours to several days, However, because the Gulf is so notorious, a great deal of resources have been poured into the forecasting of these storms, so we sit and wait with daily visits to the internet café, scanning every piece of weather information we can get. We want a five day passage. The Gulf is 260 miles and we then have a further 108 miles to the next tenable anchorage/marina in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. So, 9th June and, with a decent 5 day forecast we – Aphrodite, Liberty Call, Anna Lee and Xochitl - head out of Huatulco with light winds, as per the forecast, of around 8-10 knots. In fact the forecast shows nothing in the next 5 days over 14 knots. We turn the corner at the north western end of the Gulf and are hit by 25 knots on the nose!!! We are the first to turn back, swiftly followed by the other three boats. These winds continue for the next 24 hours and so on 11th June we all set out once more. This time we have more luck and, in fact, don’t have enough wind. We originally intended to by-pass Guatemala, making our first landfall in El Salvador, but four days later, and with dwindling diesel supplies – having engined the entire way, due to lack of wind, barring a 3 hour slot where we had 20 knots and a great sail – we decide to pull in to Puerto Quetzal. Liberty Call and Xochitl had had to stop and re-fuel in Puerto Madero, which is the last port in Mexico, and one that we wanted to bypass. We had checked out in Huatulco and obtained our Zarpe to leave the country. Going into Puerto Madero meant having to re-do the paperwork and a potential delay of 1 or 2 days. As it happens they weren’t required to obtain a new Zarpe and were therefore only held up for a few hours.
So, 0600 hours, Friday 15th June we arrive in Guatemala. Guatemala’s Pacific coast is only 132 nautical miles long and is dramatic, its volcano peaks, some 10 to 20 miles inland, rise abruptly from the coastal plane, Volcan Fuego at 13,000 feet being the highest active one. Also nearby is Volcan Pocaya, both of which can be seen at night spewing smoke and molten lava – a majestic coastline. We pull into Marina Pez Vela – the only option here as both anchorages have been closed – and are met by Miguel the paperwork agent. We had been lead to believe that you can manage your own entry here, but it transpires that you can’t, and are therefore obliged to pay the $165-00 entry/exit fee to the agent, who in fact probably only sees around $15. The Pez Vela marina is also staggeringly expensive $2.50 per foot per day – to be avoided if at all possible. However, if you wish to visit Guatemala, this is the only option. My Rough Guide tells me that “…spread across a verdant and mountainous chunk of land, Guatemala is endowed with simply staggering natural, historical and cultural interest. Though the giant Maya temples and rainforest cities have been long abandoned, ancient traditions remain very much alive. And, all over the country you’ll come across remnants of Guatemalas colonial past, nowhere more so that in the graceful former capital of Antigua.” ….. so we head to Antigua. But not before heading into town – San Jose – to try to obtain some local currency on my visa card. I forgot to mention that when we were in Huatulco my purse was stolen, not much money, but the huge inconvenience of losing credit and bank cards. The battle of the banks that followed, resulted in me obtaining one replacement card in Mexico – thank you so much Visa, nil points to HSBC and Citibank who both gave it their best shot to make a bad situation much worse. Anyway, we headed in to San Jose – which made the OK Coral look like Sunday school. Guns everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. Bank doors opened just enough for a hand to appear through the crack and beckon you in. Once inside you were surrounded by guards toting pump-action shotguns – a legacy of the bitter conflict that has dogged Guatemala. Rough Guide …”But with the signing of the 1996 peace accords between the government and the ex-guerrillas, Latin America’s longest running civil war ceased though many of the countries deep-rooted inequalities persist.”
On returning to the marina we made VHF contact with Daryl of Liberty Call, who, despite the outrageous marina charges, decided that he was going to come in for a break. A few minutes later and we raised Xochitl who for 15 excited minutes thought that they too would be coming in and ending a five day passage, only to find that the charges were beyond their budget and so turned around and headed back out to sea.
The only other sailboat in the marina was the Elizabeth with Paul and Charlene on board. They gave us the details for an excellent local taxi driver who would take us to the city of Antigua. The following day Paul, myself, Daryl and Charlene made our way inland, taking the opportunity to see, sadly, only a small portion of this beautiful country.
I was going to write lots of information here about the Mayan ruins in Guatemala, but can’t get on line to down-load it, but suggest that you take a look at it for yourself.
We went to Antigua, a beautiful city and the former capital of Guatemala. On the way we passed through the town of ……………………… and it was our fortune that that day they were celebrating their town’s anniversary. Virtually everyone in the town was gathered at the church for a service of thanksgiving. The town is famed for its fabric factory (the gracefully arched building in the photographs, not looking the least bit like a factory) where it weaves the beautiful multi-coloured cloths worn by all the local women, old and young. On arrival in Antigua we went to the jade museum, Guatemala and Burma being the only two countries in the world producing jade. A fascinating visit with as much information about the Mayan history of Guatemala as the history of jade. A very beautiful city that deserved more time.
We returned to the marina and awaited the arrival of Miguel who was bringing our Zarpe’s for our departure later that evening.
PUERTO ANGEL TO HUATULCO
17th May we headed out for a day sail to Marina Chahue (chow-Way) with very little wind. We had decided that since adding our second new electronic fuel pump in Puerto Angel, that we would engine all the way there just to check that we could ! We arrived without incident late afternoon, and, unable to raise anyone on the VHF, made our way into the marina, chose a slip and tied alongside.
Our time in Chahue passed quickly, Paul spending the first 3 days fitting the autohelm that has become our 4th crew member. Because we have a wooden wheel, the fitting wasn’t that simple, and so he spent hours in lockers and under floors while I relaxed at the pool by the beach and checked the weather. Southern Mexico isn’t clear of the Pacific hurricane belt and in order to be safe, all cruising boats are advised to be in Northern Costa Rica by the middle to end of May. It was now May 20th and on checking the weather that particular day I, along with the crew of another boat that had arrived in Chahue just a few hours before we did - Rusty and John on the Anna Lee – noted a tropical depression forming approximately 150 miles due west of Huatulco. This became a conversation stopper in the marina and by the next day it had been named as Tropical Storm Barbara (later to develop into hurricane Barbara), and was forecast to make landfall in approximately three days time with predicted wind speeds of 180 kph. So, what to do? Batten down and have a party! We avidly tracked the storm, hoping that it would follow the regular track of all such hurricanes, and head off north west, out into the Pacific. Contrary to all known weather models, it actually turned and headed south east, and into the Gulf of Tehuantepec, making its landfall between Salina Cruz and Puerto Madero, approximately 150 miles south east of Huatulco. The only effects felt by the boats in Chahue was a few hours of heavier winds, but nothing significant. The boys on Anna Lee and Xochitl decided that these winds would make for great surfing conditions and took off for the beach, to return several hours later battered.
So, having fitted the autohelm, Paul then had to get to the bottom of the engine problem, once and for all. He thought that we may have had some bad fuel which was now the cause of our problems, so decided to empty both fuel tanks and clean them. We had noticed that the problems seemed to occur when we were using the starboard fuel tank. The port tank was emptied and cleaned with nothing evident. Paul re filtered the fuel before returning it to the clean tank. Next the starboard tank which still had around 45 gallons of diesel in it, and so, with a siphon pipe, he set about emptying the tank. Long story short, the starboard tank had a very large amount of water in the diesel, the most disconcerting thing being that we still don’t know how it got in there. Three days later Paul had filtered, re-filtered and re-re-filtered the diesel, cleaned both tanks and, crossed fingers, we may now have got to the bottom of our engine problems. !!??!!
Although the majority of ‘traffic’ had gone through this marina for the season, there were still another couple of boats around, the Vrouwe Christina, an immaculate and beautiful dutch barge, crewed by Ari and Hillier, and waiting for a window to head north, which is just as difficult at this time of year as heading south, and Kim, another single hander, waiting to go south. We’d only been in the marina a day when a large catamaran came in, enroute from Panama to Puerto Vallarta, with engine problems. There was a delivery crew on board who jumped ship the following day to return to the States, but not before emptying out their fridge, freezer and cupboard contents to us, supplying 9 of us with enough food to eat for the next 5 nights!!!! Every night in Chahue was a BBQ and party, we needed to leave soon to get some rest!!! We were just waiting for a good window to cross the dreaded Gulf of Tehuantepec (T-peck).
17th May we headed out for a day sail to Marina Chahue (chow-Way) with very little wind. We had decided that since adding our second new electronic fuel pump in Puerto Angel, that we would engine all the way there just to check that we could ! We arrived without incident late afternoon, and, unable to raise anyone on the VHF, made our way into the marina, chose a slip and tied alongside.
Our time in Chahue passed quickly, Paul spending the first 3 days fitting the autohelm that has become our 4th crew member. Because we have a wooden wheel, the fitting wasn’t that simple, and so he spent hours in lockers and under floors while I relaxed at the pool by the beach and checked the weather. Southern Mexico isn’t clear of the Pacific hurricane belt and in order to be safe, all cruising boats are advised to be in Northern Costa Rica by the middle to end of May. It was now May 20th and on checking the weather that particular day I, along with the crew of another boat that had arrived in Chahue just a few hours before we did - Rusty and John on the Anna Lee – noted a tropical depression forming approximately 150 miles due west of Huatulco. This became a conversation stopper in the marina and by the next day it had been named as Tropical Storm Barbara (later to develop into hurricane Barbara), and was forecast to make landfall in approximately three days time with predicted wind speeds of 180 kph. So, what to do? Batten down and have a party! We avidly tracked the storm, hoping that it would follow the regular track of all such hurricanes, and head off north west, out into the Pacific. Contrary to all known weather models, it actually turned and headed south east, and into the Gulf of Tehuantepec, making its landfall between Salina Cruz and Puerto Madero, approximately 150 miles south east of Huatulco. The only effects felt by the boats in Chahue was a few hours of heavier winds, but nothing significant. The boys on Anna Lee and Xochitl decided that these winds would make for great surfing conditions and took off for the beach, to return several hours later battered.
So, having fitted the autohelm, Paul then had to get to the bottom of the engine problem, once and for all. He thought that we may have had some bad fuel which was now the cause of our problems, so decided to empty both fuel tanks and clean them. We had noticed that the problems seemed to occur when we were using the starboard fuel tank. The port tank was emptied and cleaned with nothing evident. Paul re filtered the fuel before returning it to the clean tank. Next the starboard tank which still had around 45 gallons of diesel in it, and so, with a siphon pipe, he set about emptying the tank. Long story short, the starboard tank had a very large amount of water in the diesel, the most disconcerting thing being that we still don’t know how it got in there. Three days later Paul had filtered, re-filtered and re-re-filtered the diesel, cleaned both tanks and, crossed fingers, we may now have got to the bottom of our engine problems. !!??!!
Although the majority of ‘traffic’ had gone through this marina for the season, there were still another couple of boats around, the Vrouwe Christina, an immaculate and beautiful dutch barge, crewed by Ari and Hillier, and waiting for a window to head north, which is just as difficult at this time of year as heading south, and Kim, another single hander, waiting to go south. We’d only been in the marina a day when a large catamaran came in, enroute from Panama to Puerto Vallarta, with engine problems. There was a delivery crew on board who jumped ship the following day to return to the States, but not before emptying out their fridge, freezer and cupboard contents to us, supplying 9 of us with enough food to eat for the next 5 nights!!!! Every night in Chahue was a BBQ and party, we needed to leave soon to get some rest!!! We were just waiting for a good window to cross the dreaded Gulf of Tehuantepec (T-peck).
MANZANILLO, LAS HADAS TO ZIHUATANEJO (Zee-what-a-nay-o)
6th May we left the lovely harbour of Las Hadas, Manzanillo, and headed out for Zihuatanejo. On passage we received our first visit from the Mexican navy who came along side but didn’t board us. Fortunately we had actually brought our paperwork up to date in Las Hadas. Up to this point, we had not reported in or out of any of our anchorages or harbours since Ensenada and had a crew list showing four persons. This we amended in Las Hadas, and were grateful that we had. We were able to sail at least 50% of this leg but as soon as we started engining, the hand steering recommenced. Although we have had many dolphins before, on this leg we were surrounded from one horizon to the other by thousands of dolphins that stayed with us for several hours. They were incredibly entertaining – porpoising and dancing on their tails, their entire bodies waving around above the water – quite amazing, and not a single photo to prove it!
We arrived in Zihuatanejo to find Maverick and Susurru at anchor in the bay, and were joined later by Liberty Call (Daryl) and Xochitl (pron. So-chi) with Ben and Ava. Zihuatanejo is the greatest town – probably my favourite so far. A little touristy but still very Mexican and certainly we could have spent more time, however, due to the increasing number of hours spent at the helm, rather than spent reading or sleeping, I decided that we weren’t going to go any further south until we had an auto helm on the boat. Denis, our windvane, is great and steers the boat for us when we have wind (which in recent experience isn’t often), however he cannot steer the boat when we are under engine; for this we need an autohelm. So within a couple of hours of arriving in Z-town, I have located a Ray Marine autohelm in San Diego and have booked my flight. I was very excited about returning to San Diego and Chula Vista, an unexpected opportunity to visit with our lovely friends there, albeit for 2 days! The next day I flew out, via Houston, where we were grounded by an enormous storm. At one point the Tower was evacuated as it started to rock in 69 mph winds!!!! I arrived late Thursday night in San Diego to be met by 4 friends from Chula Vista, Jim and Heidi in the terminal, and Glen and Kent driving around outside! I was thrilled to see them all again, and although the delay meant I had arrived too late for my party, it was still great to be ‘home’ Friday I raced around San Diego, chauffeured by Glen and with my own ’private shopper’ Terry, at West Marine who soon had my trolley overflowing with most of the items from my list and that of Liberty Call and Sotchi. Friday night Penny and Charlie threw a party at the houseboat and it really was just like old times, except for the fact that Paul had stayed with the boat and had left Z-town along with Liberty Call and Xochitl and headed for Acapulco, where I was too meet them the next day. So 5.a.m. Saturday morning saw me on my way back to the airport and heading back to Mexico. We anchored in a small bay just southwest of Acapulco and so it was relatively easy to locate the boat and Paul on my return. Acapulco was somewhat of a let-down, not at all what we expected, but just a large dirty city with a dirtier bay in front of it. I arrived back on Paul’s birthday (May 16th), and just as we were settling down that evening, we were boarded by ‘pirates’ (Daryl, Ava and Ben) who had baked up a birthday cake for Paul (who they have christened ‘Salty’), baked by Ava on Daryl’s boat (Xochitl having no oven), just late enough to make it unbearable for Daryl to sleep down below on his boat that night! We were now in the tropics and temperatures below were not often less that 90 degrees plus. Oh, almost forgot to mention Paul’s ‘one that got away’ Enroute from Zihuatanejo to Acapulco he set his hand trolling line with the hydrovane in-line. Some time later, having forgotten that the line was out he heard an enormous splash behind him and startled, jumped up just in time to see the 10 foot sail fish, with sail fin flying, jump twice more out of water before snapping the line and taking most of the kit with it. We were quite lucky that it didn’t take the pushpit too. He still can’t believe that he hooked this enormous fish on a trolling line and medium sized hook, but was quite relieved that it got away.
So the following day saw us all heading out of Acapulco for Puerto Angel; Aphrodite towing Xochitl out of the anchorage following their recurring engine problems. Approximately 2 hours later the wind filled in we dropped Xochitl off the tow, telling them to call us at any time, should they need taking back in tow. We all managed to maintain our sail until around 10pm that evening when, as seems to be the pattern along this coast, the wind died and we all went for the ‘iron’ sail. Xochitl’s engine problems appeared to be resolved and so they were no longer reliant on us for a tow, which was quite fortunate, as our engine, once again, cut out on us. Paul spent the entire night with his head in the engine bay, trying a number of fixes, including fitting an electronic pump into the fuel line, as at one point he thought that it was the mechanical lift pump that wasn’t working. Thankfully we were fortunate enough to get some late wind which gave us just enough to ghost along at around 2.8 knots – just not quite enough for Denis to steer, so while Paul spent his night in the engine, I spent the night, once again, hand steering (we needed to be at a clock to fit the autohelm, which was therefore, still in it’s box). Without the engine we made a slow passage through the night but the following day got enough wind to actually sail at around 5 knots, putting us approximately 8 miles off Puerto Angel with around an hour and a half’s day light left, which was essential to make the entrance into this tiny bay, and the wind died, completely. Our friends from Xochitl and Liberty Call had arrived earlier in the day and where way up on the hill at the lighthouse when they call us up on the VHF – Daryl having the foresight to take his hand-held ashore with him. We asked them to check out the possibility of organising a panga to come and tow us in once they returned to the bay, but in the meantime we decided that we should try forcing the engine to run by hand-pumping the ‘squeeze ball’ that pushes diesel around the engine for bleeding, etc. We were relieved to find that it worked, but God, what a job. Paul took the first hour while I steered. His moans and groans seemed somewhat excessive to me until we switched over so that Paul could take the boat in (it was now virtually dark). We were just dousing our sail when Ava and Ben appeared in a panga alongside, but decided that we would continue under our own way for as long as we could, with them standing by to take us in tow, should the engine cut out. The entrance into the small bay was narrow and very rocky on both headlands. So with me now hanging over the incredibly hot, noisy engine bay, pumping for all I’m worth, having to use both hands as the grip from one wasn’t sufficient, I now completely understood Paul’s occasional grunt as I wailed and moaned, as we made our way in to the bay. What a huge relief to get the anchor down.
Puerto Angel is a beautiful little bay, but open to any swell from the south which makes it very uncomfortable. We had swell, but not too much, although the anchorage was somewhat rocky-rolly. It’s a very pretty bay and worth stopping into, although it is only just over 30 miles from Huatulco, the stop to wait and see what is happening in Tehuantepec, anchorage and marina.
We spent 3 days in Puerto Angel, visiting Pochutla – a small market town inland, where we bought another electronic fuel pump, having established that the one Paul had fitted, actually didn’t work. Ava, Ben and Daryl had discovered a deserted hotel at the top of the hill with an even more deserted swimming pool where we spent a great afternoon, and which also gave us an amazing view of the bay. The day before our departure a local fisherman named Luis gave us all a number of fishing lures he had hand-carved from bone, wood and metal. Paul says they are too special to actually use!!! However, I’m going to try at least one of them. So, next stop marina Chahue (chow-Way) where we will sit and await a window in the weather to cross Tehuantepec.
6th May we left the lovely harbour of Las Hadas, Manzanillo, and headed out for Zihuatanejo. On passage we received our first visit from the Mexican navy who came along side but didn’t board us. Fortunately we had actually brought our paperwork up to date in Las Hadas. Up to this point, we had not reported in or out of any of our anchorages or harbours since Ensenada and had a crew list showing four persons. This we amended in Las Hadas, and were grateful that we had. We were able to sail at least 50% of this leg but as soon as we started engining, the hand steering recommenced. Although we have had many dolphins before, on this leg we were surrounded from one horizon to the other by thousands of dolphins that stayed with us for several hours. They were incredibly entertaining – porpoising and dancing on their tails, their entire bodies waving around above the water – quite amazing, and not a single photo to prove it!
We arrived in Zihuatanejo to find Maverick and Susurru at anchor in the bay, and were joined later by Liberty Call (Daryl) and Xochitl (pron. So-chi) with Ben and Ava. Zihuatanejo is the greatest town – probably my favourite so far. A little touristy but still very Mexican and certainly we could have spent more time, however, due to the increasing number of hours spent at the helm, rather than spent reading or sleeping, I decided that we weren’t going to go any further south until we had an auto helm on the boat. Denis, our windvane, is great and steers the boat for us when we have wind (which in recent experience isn’t often), however he cannot steer the boat when we are under engine; for this we need an autohelm. So within a couple of hours of arriving in Z-town, I have located a Ray Marine autohelm in San Diego and have booked my flight. I was very excited about returning to San Diego and Chula Vista, an unexpected opportunity to visit with our lovely friends there, albeit for 2 days! The next day I flew out, via Houston, where we were grounded by an enormous storm. At one point the Tower was evacuated as it started to rock in 69 mph winds!!!! I arrived late Thursday night in San Diego to be met by 4 friends from Chula Vista, Jim and Heidi in the terminal, and Glen and Kent driving around outside! I was thrilled to see them all again, and although the delay meant I had arrived too late for my party, it was still great to be ‘home’ Friday I raced around San Diego, chauffeured by Glen and with my own ’private shopper’ Terry, at West Marine who soon had my trolley overflowing with most of the items from my list and that of Liberty Call and Sotchi. Friday night Penny and Charlie threw a party at the houseboat and it really was just like old times, except for the fact that Paul had stayed with the boat and had left Z-town along with Liberty Call and Xochitl and headed for Acapulco, where I was too meet them the next day. So 5.a.m. Saturday morning saw me on my way back to the airport and heading back to Mexico. We anchored in a small bay just southwest of Acapulco and so it was relatively easy to locate the boat and Paul on my return. Acapulco was somewhat of a let-down, not at all what we expected, but just a large dirty city with a dirtier bay in front of it. I arrived back on Paul’s birthday (May 16th), and just as we were settling down that evening, we were boarded by ‘pirates’ (Daryl, Ava and Ben) who had baked up a birthday cake for Paul (who they have christened ‘Salty’), baked by Ava on Daryl’s boat (Xochitl having no oven), just late enough to make it unbearable for Daryl to sleep down below on his boat that night! We were now in the tropics and temperatures below were not often less that 90 degrees plus. Oh, almost forgot to mention Paul’s ‘one that got away’ Enroute from Zihuatanejo to Acapulco he set his hand trolling line with the hydrovane in-line. Some time later, having forgotten that the line was out he heard an enormous splash behind him and startled, jumped up just in time to see the 10 foot sail fish, with sail fin flying, jump twice more out of water before snapping the line and taking most of the kit with it. We were quite lucky that it didn’t take the pushpit too. He still can’t believe that he hooked this enormous fish on a trolling line and medium sized hook, but was quite relieved that it got away.
So the following day saw us all heading out of Acapulco for Puerto Angel; Aphrodite towing Xochitl out of the anchorage following their recurring engine problems. Approximately 2 hours later the wind filled in we dropped Xochitl off the tow, telling them to call us at any time, should they need taking back in tow. We all managed to maintain our sail until around 10pm that evening when, as seems to be the pattern along this coast, the wind died and we all went for the ‘iron’ sail. Xochitl’s engine problems appeared to be resolved and so they were no longer reliant on us for a tow, which was quite fortunate, as our engine, once again, cut out on us. Paul spent the entire night with his head in the engine bay, trying a number of fixes, including fitting an electronic pump into the fuel line, as at one point he thought that it was the mechanical lift pump that wasn’t working. Thankfully we were fortunate enough to get some late wind which gave us just enough to ghost along at around 2.8 knots – just not quite enough for Denis to steer, so while Paul spent his night in the engine, I spent the night, once again, hand steering (we needed to be at a clock to fit the autohelm, which was therefore, still in it’s box). Without the engine we made a slow passage through the night but the following day got enough wind to actually sail at around 5 knots, putting us approximately 8 miles off Puerto Angel with around an hour and a half’s day light left, which was essential to make the entrance into this tiny bay, and the wind died, completely. Our friends from Xochitl and Liberty Call had arrived earlier in the day and where way up on the hill at the lighthouse when they call us up on the VHF – Daryl having the foresight to take his hand-held ashore with him. We asked them to check out the possibility of organising a panga to come and tow us in once they returned to the bay, but in the meantime we decided that we should try forcing the engine to run by hand-pumping the ‘squeeze ball’ that pushes diesel around the engine for bleeding, etc. We were relieved to find that it worked, but God, what a job. Paul took the first hour while I steered. His moans and groans seemed somewhat excessive to me until we switched over so that Paul could take the boat in (it was now virtually dark). We were just dousing our sail when Ava and Ben appeared in a panga alongside, but decided that we would continue under our own way for as long as we could, with them standing by to take us in tow, should the engine cut out. The entrance into the small bay was narrow and very rocky on both headlands. So with me now hanging over the incredibly hot, noisy engine bay, pumping for all I’m worth, having to use both hands as the grip from one wasn’t sufficient, I now completely understood Paul’s occasional grunt as I wailed and moaned, as we made our way in to the bay. What a huge relief to get the anchor down.
Puerto Angel is a beautiful little bay, but open to any swell from the south which makes it very uncomfortable. We had swell, but not too much, although the anchorage was somewhat rocky-rolly. It’s a very pretty bay and worth stopping into, although it is only just over 30 miles from Huatulco, the stop to wait and see what is happening in Tehuantepec, anchorage and marina.
We spent 3 days in Puerto Angel, visiting Pochutla – a small market town inland, where we bought another electronic fuel pump, having established that the one Paul had fitted, actually didn’t work. Ava, Ben and Daryl had discovered a deserted hotel at the top of the hill with an even more deserted swimming pool where we spent a great afternoon, and which also gave us an amazing view of the bay. The day before our departure a local fisherman named Luis gave us all a number of fishing lures he had hand-carved from bone, wood and metal. Paul says they are too special to actually use!!! However, I’m going to try at least one of them. So, next stop marina Chahue (chow-Way) where we will sit and await a window in the weather to cross Tehuantepec.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
I've now decided it's too much trouble to try and insert photo's into the text so all pictures are in 'Aphrodite's Album'
Albums for this log - Puerto Vallarta/Turtles - Tenacatita to Manzanillo/ La Cruz Early Morning/
LA CRUZ DE HUANACAXTLE (whan-cash-ley – it’s a tree, so the cross of the tree)
Or more commonly called ‘La Cruz’ is in the North Eastern corner of the Bahia Banderas, approximately 8 mile north of Puerto Vallarta. We had a two day passage from Mazatlan, once again with variable winds, sailing well from mid-day to early evening (on the drifter) and then motoring/motor sailing through the night – tiresome! We, or at least I, am very much regretting not having an autohelm. Denis our windvane is great when there is wind, allowing hands-free sailing, but without the wind, and no autohelm, we have to hand steer. This soon becomes tedious, and there’s not a lot we can do about the situation until we get to Panama, so only another 1,500 miles-ish to hand steer! Anyway, awaiting our arrival in La Cruz were our lovely friends Paul and Lynne on Pincoya, who we hadn’t seen since Christmas in Ensenada – it seemed a lot longer than 4 months ago. We first met Paul and Lynne (who are from Birmingham, UK) at Chula Vista marina in San Diego, and became firm friends. We were really looking forward to meeting up again and spending a few days with them. Sadly our cruising plans are taking opposing directions and so it is highly unlikely that we shall see one another again until we are in Europe, where, we don’t know, but wherever it is, it will be a great reunion. We were in La Cruz and Puerto Vallarta for 8 days and on anchoring in La Cruz, had became close up and personal with a local fisherman by the early hours of the next morning when his panga ‘clonked’ into Aphrodite around 0600 as he was trying to extricate his fishing net from our anchor chain. I think it may be the last time he sets it in amongst anchored boats! The crab by the way, which got proudly passed over for photographs, somehow got dropped during its transfer back from Paul to the panga, leaving his 500 yard fishing net bringing in a catch of three tiddlers and two crayfish. Following the dropped crab incident, the panga sped off, giving our boat a skimming ‘clunk’ for good measure – Paul says it was an accident – maybe I’m just too cynical! We also crossed paths with Tom and Carol on Susurru and Kurt and Agatha on Maverick, who we will hopefully be catching up as we now head south, a week after them. We had a truly lovely and fun time in La Cruz, an interesting town/village (?) which at the moment is undergoing major change as a new marina development is to permanently alter the coastline, creating many more marina berths, but at the same time, creating devastation for many of La Cruz’s residents. What was once the shoreline boasting beautiful beachfront homes is now one block back, the developers having ‘filled in’ the bay creating land to build condominiums, hotels, bars and restaurants. A time of flux, anger and change. It’s a place of many faces. A small Mexican town – cobblestone streets, poor (by western standards) homes, but because of it’s charm, it’s a place that people have come to and stayed. Walking down the dusty streets passing little tiendas with minimal stock on the shelves, you then turn into the courtyard of an Italian restaurant with a cascading waterfall and amazing food. Paul and I both love Mexican food, but boy, was it good to eat European for a change. There are two or three such restaurants in La Cruz, and not surprisingly, in the time we spent there with Paul and Lynne, we didn’t by-pass any of them! We also spent a day in Puerto Vallarta, which for all it’s touristy resort reputation, I really liked. The sculptures along the Malecon are probably the finest we have seen so far, the old town quaint and interesting, making me wish we had been able to spend more time than we did. A quick trip was made to Marina Vallarta in order to ‘clean our bottom’ and at the same time, Paul installed ‘lazy jacks’ on both masts. Heading back to La Cruz to say our farewells and to spend one last evening with Paul and Lynne, we headed into town and back to Anna Banana’s – cruisers used to dinghy into and tie up at the dock at Anna Banana’s –AB’s no longer has ocean front and it’s view of the sea is now eclipsed by a huge ‘sand-dune’ – more landfill waiting to be levelled into the sea. But the spirit lives on at AB’s, and every Sunday night there is great live music from both local and American musicians, a great atmosphere and a must for anyone stopping over in La Cruz.
1st May saw us saying our final farewells to Paul and Lynne and La Cruz, and heading south once more for Tenecatita.
TENECATITA
A lovely bay with good shelter and a quite 2 night stop. Here we met Ruth and Buddy of Anapurna who welcomed us into the bay as we made our arrival around 1930 hours on May 1st, inviting us over for coffee the following day. Anapurna a Hanns Christian 48, is my new favourite boat, AND, it’s for sale!!! AND, if we had the money, we’d buy it RIGHT NOW! Absolutely everything the perfect cruising boat (if there is ever such a thing?) should be and therefore out of our price bracket, but if wishes were horses…….!!
Our entire time in Tenecatita Aphrodite was surrounded by thousands of fish, and on our departure, we were surrounded once again, but this time by large jelly fish – literally thousands of them as far as the eye could see. Did very little in Tenecatita – including not even going ashore! Paul of course was busy – oil change and other boy things that I can’t remember, but I’m sure were essential.
So, 4th May – da dar!!! My birthday – and we are heading on down to Manzanillo for 1/ 2 nights and then chasing after Maverick and Susurru who are already some 200 miles ahead of us. Sadly, once again, there is insufficient wind to sail so we are engining, but, due to the lack of wind and therefore the smooth surface, we have seen lots of turtles – fab! Fishing lines are out and Paul and I are competing to see who gets the first bite – as it’s my birthday it should really be me – it’s only fair – but I have a niggling feeling that it’ll be him – that said, neither of us are trying very hard, but a nice fish dinner would go down a treat tonight – I already have the white wine in the freezer chilling.
Albums for this log - Puerto Vallarta/Turtles - Tenacatita to Manzanillo/ La Cruz Early Morning/
LA CRUZ DE HUANACAXTLE (whan-cash-ley – it’s a tree, so the cross of the tree)
Or more commonly called ‘La Cruz’ is in the North Eastern corner of the Bahia Banderas, approximately 8 mile north of Puerto Vallarta. We had a two day passage from Mazatlan, once again with variable winds, sailing well from mid-day to early evening (on the drifter) and then motoring/motor sailing through the night – tiresome! We, or at least I, am very much regretting not having an autohelm. Denis our windvane is great when there is wind, allowing hands-free sailing, but without the wind, and no autohelm, we have to hand steer. This soon becomes tedious, and there’s not a lot we can do about the situation until we get to Panama, so only another 1,500 miles-ish to hand steer! Anyway, awaiting our arrival in La Cruz were our lovely friends Paul and Lynne on Pincoya, who we hadn’t seen since Christmas in Ensenada – it seemed a lot longer than 4 months ago. We first met Paul and Lynne (who are from Birmingham, UK) at Chula Vista marina in San Diego, and became firm friends. We were really looking forward to meeting up again and spending a few days with them. Sadly our cruising plans are taking opposing directions and so it is highly unlikely that we shall see one another again until we are in Europe, where, we don’t know, but wherever it is, it will be a great reunion. We were in La Cruz and Puerto Vallarta for 8 days and on anchoring in La Cruz, had became close up and personal with a local fisherman by the early hours of the next morning when his panga ‘clonked’ into Aphrodite around 0600 as he was trying to extricate his fishing net from our anchor chain. I think it may be the last time he sets it in amongst anchored boats! The crab by the way, which got proudly passed over for photographs, somehow got dropped during its transfer back from Paul to the panga, leaving his 500 yard fishing net bringing in a catch of three tiddlers and two crayfish. Following the dropped crab incident, the panga sped off, giving our boat a skimming ‘clunk’ for good measure – Paul says it was an accident – maybe I’m just too cynical! We also crossed paths with Tom and Carol on Susurru and Kurt and Agatha on Maverick, who we will hopefully be catching up as we now head south, a week after them. We had a truly lovely and fun time in La Cruz, an interesting town/village (?) which at the moment is undergoing major change as a new marina development is to permanently alter the coastline, creating many more marina berths, but at the same time, creating devastation for many of La Cruz’s residents. What was once the shoreline boasting beautiful beachfront homes is now one block back, the developers having ‘filled in’ the bay creating land to build condominiums, hotels, bars and restaurants. A time of flux, anger and change. It’s a place of many faces. A small Mexican town – cobblestone streets, poor (by western standards) homes, but because of it’s charm, it’s a place that people have come to and stayed. Walking down the dusty streets passing little tiendas with minimal stock on the shelves, you then turn into the courtyard of an Italian restaurant with a cascading waterfall and amazing food. Paul and I both love Mexican food, but boy, was it good to eat European for a change. There are two or three such restaurants in La Cruz, and not surprisingly, in the time we spent there with Paul and Lynne, we didn’t by-pass any of them! We also spent a day in Puerto Vallarta, which for all it’s touristy resort reputation, I really liked. The sculptures along the Malecon are probably the finest we have seen so far, the old town quaint and interesting, making me wish we had been able to spend more time than we did. A quick trip was made to Marina Vallarta in order to ‘clean our bottom’ and at the same time, Paul installed ‘lazy jacks’ on both masts. Heading back to La Cruz to say our farewells and to spend one last evening with Paul and Lynne, we headed into town and back to Anna Banana’s – cruisers used to dinghy into and tie up at the dock at Anna Banana’s –AB’s no longer has ocean front and it’s view of the sea is now eclipsed by a huge ‘sand-dune’ – more landfill waiting to be levelled into the sea. But the spirit lives on at AB’s, and every Sunday night there is great live music from both local and American musicians, a great atmosphere and a must for anyone stopping over in La Cruz.
1st May saw us saying our final farewells to Paul and Lynne and La Cruz, and heading south once more for Tenecatita.
TENECATITA
A lovely bay with good shelter and a quite 2 night stop. Here we met Ruth and Buddy of Anapurna who welcomed us into the bay as we made our arrival around 1930 hours on May 1st, inviting us over for coffee the following day. Anapurna a Hanns Christian 48, is my new favourite boat, AND, it’s for sale!!! AND, if we had the money, we’d buy it RIGHT NOW! Absolutely everything the perfect cruising boat (if there is ever such a thing?) should be and therefore out of our price bracket, but if wishes were horses…….!!
Our entire time in Tenecatita Aphrodite was surrounded by thousands of fish, and on our departure, we were surrounded once again, but this time by large jelly fish – literally thousands of them as far as the eye could see. Did very little in Tenecatita – including not even going ashore! Paul of course was busy – oil change and other boy things that I can’t remember, but I’m sure were essential.
So, 4th May – da dar!!! My birthday – and we are heading on down to Manzanillo for 1/ 2 nights and then chasing after Maverick and Susurru who are already some 200 miles ahead of us. Sadly, once again, there is insufficient wind to sail so we are engining, but, due to the lack of wind and therefore the smooth surface, we have seen lots of turtles – fab! Fishing lines are out and Paul and I are competing to see who gets the first bite – as it’s my birthday it should really be me – it’s only fair – but I have a niggling feeling that it’ll be him – that said, neither of us are trying very hard, but a nice fish dinner would go down a treat tonight – I already have the white wine in the freezer chilling.
Friday, April 27, 2007
24th March LEAVING LA PAZ – FINALLY!!!
(Pictures to follow)
And no slur, La Paz is the kind of place where people make a stop-over and never leave and it is easy to see why, but we were anxious to start making our way south and made our third, and final passage, through the San Lorenzo channel which is a mile wide with reef and shallows either side, and completely unmarked. A recent hurricane took care of the old one’s and they’ve never been replaced – Cmap at this point made itself useful – thanks Sully!! Having cleared the channel and set our sails and our course south for Bahia de Los Muertos we were immediately drawn back to the channel as a Mayday went out from a sail boat going into La Paz that had hit the reef and lost their rudder. We took the call and turned back as first responders, but thankfully a boat heading into La Paz also turned around and offered to take the tow in order that we could continue south – we had finally left La Paz! The passage to Los Muertos was awful. The wind died rapidly but a large and uncomfortable swell stayed with us for the entire passage. Engine on once more – that is of course until it stopped!! We bled the engine and anchored in the bay at 2300 hours. Our friends Kurt and Agatha on Maverick where laying at anchor awaiting our arrival to sail in company with us across the Sea of Cortez to the Mexican mainland and Mazatlan.
26th March 2007
0730 hours we engined out of Muertos along with Maverick – no wind – uncomfortable swell – it’s our mantra! To cut a long, boring and tedious story short, apart from 8 hours sailing in the late afternoon/early evening, we engined the rest of the way, arriving at 0930 on the 28th, having engined for 34.5 hours, and amazingly the engine ran the entire time – steady – too soon to feel confident!
During the passage to Mazatlan it became evident that our poor old ‘Denis’ (our windvane steering) required emergency surgery. This we had anticipated prior to leaving the UK and had a full service kit on board. Why Denis? When my Dad died he left us (his children) a small sum each, and Paul and I decided that we would spend it on a windvane for our previous boat ‘Dreamcatcher.’ For the non-sailors among you, the windvane is your extra crew member. He doesn’t sleep, he doesn’t eat and he doesn’t winge, he just steers your boat uncomplainingly while ever there is wind – in short, he is vital. However, we never did buy the wind)vane for Dreamcatcher as our plans changed, she was sold and we bought Aphrodite – our current boat, and Aphrodite came complete with a windvane. As some of you will know, most sailors have a name for their ‘invisible crew’ so Paul agreed that we could still call him Denis, in memory of Dad, but it is, and was always meant to be, an acronym for Definitely Essential Nautical InStrument! (and yes, I know most Dennis’s are spelt with two ss’s, but my Dad’s was just the one!)
So, having arrived, Denis was de-mounted from the stern and surgery commenced. It soon became evident however that we would need an engineering shop with a hydraulic press to remove a couple of parts. We gathered information and finally found a shop, half an hour before it closed for NINE days for the Easter holidays! There was no point leaving without the service as this was perhaps the last place we could get this done for some time. So, in the meantime we decided that it would also be a good time/place to fit boom gallows to our main and mizzen which thus far had swung around madly, usually with one of us clinging on to it as we tried to reef or drop one or the other. Having drawn up our requirements we ordered the steel (pre-fabricated_ and the wood, which Paul shaped and got we got on with the installation (NOTE: For ‘we’ read Paul) got on with the installation while awaiting the opening of the engineering shop. Once the parts were pressed out by Changs on Calle Pesqueira – from the harbour take the Sabalo Centro bus get off at the Fisherman’s Monument on the Malecon, walk one block north then turn right – keep walking along the road until you come to an orange building, which is Changs. We removed all the old bearings and bits and restored Denis to full working order – a bit like hip and knee replacement with some extra work on the elbows and neck joints thrown in!
We loved Mazatlan, the harbour was handy for everything – either a 15 minute stroll into the old town, or a 5 minute walk to the bus stop. The harbour doesn’t do diesel. While we were there we had time to re-acquaint ourselves with Greg and Nancy off Festima Lente, and Michelle, Bernie, Lola and Jana off MoMo. (Nancy is the lady that allocated us our slip in the marina at Chula Vista). We also had an evening at the theatre with Greg and Nancy, the Sinaloa Symphony played Sherezade. It was lovely, excellent orchestra and the first culture we’ve had outside of a yoghurt since leaving the UK!!!
Well, time presses on along with the need to head south and so on the 19th April we left Mazatlan, heading towards Puerto Vallarta (200 miles) It’s presently 1800 hours, we have the cruising shute up (drifter for non UK readers) and are pottering along at around 5 to 6 knots, with our invaluable Denis steering and very much looking forward to our reunion with Paul and Lynne on Pincoya, an English couple we met in Chula Vista, San Diego, and last saw in Ensenada at Christmas.
(Pictures to follow)
And no slur, La Paz is the kind of place where people make a stop-over and never leave and it is easy to see why, but we were anxious to start making our way south and made our third, and final passage, through the San Lorenzo channel which is a mile wide with reef and shallows either side, and completely unmarked. A recent hurricane took care of the old one’s and they’ve never been replaced – Cmap at this point made itself useful – thanks Sully!! Having cleared the channel and set our sails and our course south for Bahia de Los Muertos we were immediately drawn back to the channel as a Mayday went out from a sail boat going into La Paz that had hit the reef and lost their rudder. We took the call and turned back as first responders, but thankfully a boat heading into La Paz also turned around and offered to take the tow in order that we could continue south – we had finally left La Paz! The passage to Los Muertos was awful. The wind died rapidly but a large and uncomfortable swell stayed with us for the entire passage. Engine on once more – that is of course until it stopped!! We bled the engine and anchored in the bay at 2300 hours. Our friends Kurt and Agatha on Maverick where laying at anchor awaiting our arrival to sail in company with us across the Sea of Cortez to the Mexican mainland and Mazatlan.
26th March 2007
0730 hours we engined out of Muertos along with Maverick – no wind – uncomfortable swell – it’s our mantra! To cut a long, boring and tedious story short, apart from 8 hours sailing in the late afternoon/early evening, we engined the rest of the way, arriving at 0930 on the 28th, having engined for 34.5 hours, and amazingly the engine ran the entire time – steady – too soon to feel confident!
During the passage to Mazatlan it became evident that our poor old ‘Denis’ (our windvane steering) required emergency surgery. This we had anticipated prior to leaving the UK and had a full service kit on board. Why Denis? When my Dad died he left us (his children) a small sum each, and Paul and I decided that we would spend it on a windvane for our previous boat ‘Dreamcatcher.’ For the non-sailors among you, the windvane is your extra crew member. He doesn’t sleep, he doesn’t eat and he doesn’t winge, he just steers your boat uncomplainingly while ever there is wind – in short, he is vital. However, we never did buy the wind)vane for Dreamcatcher as our plans changed, she was sold and we bought Aphrodite – our current boat, and Aphrodite came complete with a windvane. As some of you will know, most sailors have a name for their ‘invisible crew’ so Paul agreed that we could still call him Denis, in memory of Dad, but it is, and was always meant to be, an acronym for Definitely Essential Nautical InStrument! (and yes, I know most Dennis’s are spelt with two ss’s, but my Dad’s was just the one!)
So, having arrived, Denis was de-mounted from the stern and surgery commenced. It soon became evident however that we would need an engineering shop with a hydraulic press to remove a couple of parts. We gathered information and finally found a shop, half an hour before it closed for NINE days for the Easter holidays! There was no point leaving without the service as this was perhaps the last place we could get this done for some time. So, in the meantime we decided that it would also be a good time/place to fit boom gallows to our main and mizzen which thus far had swung around madly, usually with one of us clinging on to it as we tried to reef or drop one or the other. Having drawn up our requirements we ordered the steel (pre-fabricated_ and the wood, which Paul shaped and got we got on with the installation (NOTE: For ‘we’ read Paul) got on with the installation while awaiting the opening of the engineering shop. Once the parts were pressed out by Changs on Calle Pesqueira – from the harbour take the Sabalo Centro bus get off at the Fisherman’s Monument on the Malecon, walk one block north then turn right – keep walking along the road until you come to an orange building, which is Changs. We removed all the old bearings and bits and restored Denis to full working order – a bit like hip and knee replacement with some extra work on the elbows and neck joints thrown in!
We loved Mazatlan, the harbour was handy for everything – either a 15 minute stroll into the old town, or a 5 minute walk to the bus stop. The harbour doesn’t do diesel. While we were there we had time to re-acquaint ourselves with Greg and Nancy off Festima Lente, and Michelle, Bernie, Lola and Jana off MoMo. (Nancy is the lady that allocated us our slip in the marina at Chula Vista). We also had an evening at the theatre with Greg and Nancy, the Sinaloa Symphony played Sherezade. It was lovely, excellent orchestra and the first culture we’ve had outside of a yoghurt since leaving the UK!!!
Well, time presses on along with the need to head south and so on the 19th April we left Mazatlan, heading towards Puerto Vallarta (200 miles) It’s presently 1800 hours, we have the cruising shute up (drifter for non UK readers) and are pottering along at around 5 to 6 knots, with our invaluable Denis steering and very much looking forward to our reunion with Paul and Lynne on Pincoya, an English couple we met in Chula Vista, San Diego, and last saw in Ensenada at Christmas.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
WHERE ARE WE NOWThe chart shows our route from San Diego to Panama - approximately 3,000 nautical miles.
At the moment we are in La Paz but will be heading out tomorrow, 14th March 2007, for Isla Partida - under engine to check that it is finally fixed - and then crossing the Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan
Current Lat/Long is:
24°09.281 north
110°19.689 west
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Friday, March 09, 2007
So, our new sail arrives in La Paz and I retrieve it from the bus station. We are very happy with the repair undertaken by Ullman Sails, and re-install it on Aphrodite. But now we are waiting for a book!!! (Fishing Guide for Cruisers) - excellent book and a must for anyone cruising anywhere if you are not already au fait with the tying of knots, types of lure, etc., etc., so we decide to cruise to the islands north of La Paz for a week to 10 days. Prior to departing however, we take on our new 'First Mate - Monty'
It's been four months since my very sad parting with William, my faithful friend for just over 16 years, but I wanted another pet on board, however, not another dog, as those of you who knew William will know, William is irreplacable.
It's been four months since my very sad parting with William, my faithful friend for just over 16 years, but I wanted another pet on board, however, not another dog, as those of you who knew William will know, William is irreplacable.
My beautiful William
So, we left La Paz, with a dolphin escort, and our first stop was Isla Partida - gorgeous! The anchorage is actually tucked in between the north end of Isla Espiritu Santo and the southern end of Isla Partida, the two being joined by a sandspit.
You can just see Aphrodite at anchor, far right of the picture - and below, in the crystal clear waters, our anchor and chain in 20 feet of water. Isla Partida is uninhabited (by humans) other than the occasional panga fisherman, and from some of the remnants on the beach it would seem that they have been here for some time
The water is turquoise and as clear as glass (the photographs don't do it justice) and we drop our hook and the skipper relaxes!
He'll keel haul me for that one
We had arrived in flat calm weather but sadly this was not to continue, and for the next three days we had a 'Norte' blow through and at times had 30 knots of wind over the deck, but thankfully no sea state. Our anchor dragged a little the first day but then found better holding and held us rock steady until the wind declined. We took the opportunity to move on and headed further north to Isla San Francisco, passing the seal colony at Islas Los Islotes on the way.
We arrived at Isla San Francisco late afternoon, dropped the hook and decided that we would wait until the following day to launch the dinghy and go ashore exploring, so, with gin and tonics duly poured, we settled down to enjoy yet another beautiful sunset
Early the following morning we were awoken by the 'rolly polly' of a breeze from the south blowing into the anchorage, making it rather uncomfortable, and, not knowing whether it was going to build from this direction (the forecast said not, but as Paul always says "what's a forecast other than a horoscope with numbers!," we decided to move on to a more sheltered anchorage and sadly left Isla San Francisco without stepping foot ashore. Once out 'in the open' the wind dropped and once more we engined on to Bahia San Avaristo on the mainland. After dropping the hook we dinghied ashore and spent a couple of hours on the beach collecting beautiful shells - to be incorporated into Aphrodite's decor at some point - and, on our way back, visited a fishing trawler, also at anchor in the bay, where we purchased a kilo of HUGE camarones (shrimp) which provided dinner for the next two nights. We awoke the next day to another full-blown Norte with gusts once again up to 30 knots coming through the anchorage which made it impossible to leave the boat. On the fourth day (yes fourth day) our anchor suddenly decided it had had enough and would not hold the ground. We spent the day dragging around and re-setting - all, I have to say, still in glorious sunshine, and at 2100 hours, having dragged again, we made the decision to head back to La Paz rather than reset the anchor AGAIN. The forecast we had was for the weather to moderate through Saturday night down to almost Force nothing by the morning - WRONG. If we thought we had had it rough on the way down to Cabo, then that was just a foretaste of what we had this night. The winds built and built, the seas built and built, my stress and anxiety built and built, and the engine stopped!!! So now we decide that we will set a 'handkerchief' of our new headsail with its super-dooper reinforced/ renewed fittings and make the most of the 35 knots and have a cracking (if somewhat rough) downwind sail. We havn't even got the sail set when BANG - deja vu - we have a full head sail flogging wildly from the top of our mast, except the boat is on its ear 'ole because the sheet is still around the winch - we knew the machette would come in useful at some point - except this one wouldn't cut butter!!! A leap below and a bread knife took care of that and the boat righted itself, but with no engine, a mad, wild flogging headsail, complete with metal fittings still attached reminded me that I have said for years that every boat should carry a full motorcycle crash helmet for just such moments. Anyway, long story short, we bled the engine, whilst being pounded sideways on by huge seas and regained some control. And to keep the long story even shorter, we did, by some small miracle, manage to capture the aforementioned headsail - both of us on the foredeck whilst 'Denis' our Aries windvane steered a steady course from the flogging headsail! and tame it - largely due to the amount of time Paul had spent at the top of the mast in La Paz, servicing the sheave following the difficulty we had encountered getting the sail down during our previous headsail disaster!!! With this lashed on deck we were able to set our staysail and by daybreak - because of course these things NEVER happen during daylight hours - we had regained control of our sturdy little vessel and headed back into La Paz. The failure, naturally was caused by the one piece of rigging that got overlooked when Paul re-rigged the entire boat but 
overlooked the swage fitting between the roller furling drum that extends to the clew of the headsail - naturally it broke - following that adage - that if it can, it will!! What we did learn is that we are stupid and should never have left the anchorage but should have kept an anchor watch and re-anchored all night long if necessary, but also that our boat is a marvel and stood up to everything thrown at it that night, and that I'm not so bad either!!! After an initial 10 seconds of 'we're doomed and we're all going to die (poor Monty - he didn't sign up for this!!) I regained my wits and can honestly say that although I may have been a little anxious at times - when atop the 30 foot waves rushing forward like a matchbox toy - I actually surprised myself that I just got 
practical and got on with it. Paul naturally remained unfazed throughout and did whatever was necessary (at least I that's how it looked to me - love him!). So here in La Paz for 5 more days - having collected our fishing book, we will be heading back to the islands briefly to test out our 'fixed' engine - we believe and then head on over to the mainland and Mazatlan.
overlooked the swage fitting between the roller furling drum that extends to the clew of the headsail - naturally it broke - following that adage - that if it can, it will!! What we did learn is that we are stupid and should never have left the anchorage but should have kept an anchor watch and re-anchored all night long if necessary, but also that our boat is a marvel and stood up to everything thrown at it that night, and that I'm not so bad either!!! After an initial 10 seconds of 'we're doomed and we're all going to die (poor Monty - he didn't sign up for this!!) I regained my wits and can honestly say that although I may have been a little anxious at times - when atop the 30 foot waves rushing forward like a matchbox toy - I actually surprised myself that I just got 
practical and got on with it. Paul naturally remained unfazed throughout and did whatever was necessary (at least I that's how it looked to me - love him!). So here in La Paz for 5 more days - having collected our fishing book, we will be heading back to the islands briefly to test out our 'fixed' engine - we believe and then head on over to the mainland and Mazatlan. I will also endeavour to maintain our blogspot in a more efficient manner!!
Cabo San Lucas, the famous arch, is the first thing that greets you on arrival - and what a welcome sight it is. As per our 
previous blog, we spent three weeks in the anchorage awaiting the mending and return of our new sail. The anchorage itself wasn't too comfortable, but it was the first time we have been able to jump off the boat and swim in crystal clear waters. We took days out at 'Lovers' Beach' and relaxed following our eventful trip down.
Moments later, and sadly without the camera watching, Paul disappeared under a HUGE breaker but was proud to inform me on his soggy return that he had managed to get his hand over his beer can before he disappeared from view!
So, keeping this brief to bring us up to date, and then, you never know, even current(!!??!!) we moved on from Cabo eventually, sailing towards La Paz, where our new sail had been despatched to. We made three stops on the way at three lovely and remote anchorages and finally started to feel that we were 'cruising.'
Our first stop was at Cabo San Jose where we anchored just inside the breakwater of a new marina (still under construction) which will now sadly
transform this area into a commercialised resort. There was also much building of holiday homes in the area, resulting in the locals being 'chased out' of their homes encouraged by large offers of compensation.
Our next stop was at an anchorage called Los Frailles which is on the south east tip of the Baja peninsula and from hereonin we will be in the Sea of Cortez proper. We have been seeing whales (in large numbers) ever since leaving Cabo San Lucas - the excitement never wains. Los Frailles (the Friars) is again a very remote anchorage, but by now there are between 3 and 6 boats generally in all the anchorages as we are all making our way around into the Sea, and at the sametime, making new friends.
This one joined us for a rest as we sailed! Didn't want to leave either - took some serious encouragement and rig wobbling to persuade him to finally part company.
From Los Frailles we engined on to the Bahia Los Muertos (Bay of the Dead!). It has recently been renamed as the Bahia Los Suenos - which is perhaps more appropriate-the Bay of Dreams. Unfortunately, this is where we encountered our engine problems and found that it wouldn't run consistently. The end result was a night-time entry, under sail, into the bay, amongst a dozen other boats at anchor, and rapidly shallowing water! Thankfully with help from friends already ashore, we stopped just shy of the beach but Paul is now more commonly refered to as Captain Ron! This was a beautiful anchorage, miles from civilisation, but, excellent, a bar and restaurant on the beach with WI-FI!!
Just another day at the office!!
Following three fabulous days in Los Muertos, it was time to move on towards La Paz, where we were to collect our new/repaired headsail before continuing our cruise on into the Sea of Cortez and its many islands.
previous blog, we spent three weeks in the anchorage awaiting the mending and return of our new sail. The anchorage itself wasn't too comfortable, but it was the first time we have been able to jump off the boat and swim in crystal clear waters. We took days out at 'Lovers' Beach' and relaxed following our eventful trip down.
Moments later, and sadly without the camera watching, Paul disappeared under a HUGE breaker but was proud to inform me on his soggy return that he had managed to get his hand over his beer can before he disappeared from view!So, keeping this brief to bring us up to date, and then, you never know, even current(!!??!!) we moved on from Cabo eventually, sailing towards La Paz, where our new sail had been despatched to. We made three stops on the way at three lovely and remote anchorages and finally started to feel that we were 'cruising.'
Our first stop was at Cabo San Jose where we anchored just inside the breakwater of a new marina (still under construction) which will now sadly
transform this area into a commercialised resort. There was also much building of holiday homes in the area, resulting in the locals being 'chased out' of their homes encouraged by large offers of compensation. Our next stop was at an anchorage called Los Frailles which is on the south east tip of the Baja peninsula and from hereonin we will be in the Sea of Cortez proper. We have been seeing whales (in large numbers) ever since leaving Cabo San Lucas - the excitement never wains. Los Frailles (the Friars) is again a very remote anchorage, but by now there are between 3 and 6 boats generally in all the anchorages as we are all making our way around into the Sea, and at the sametime, making new friends.
This one joined us for a rest as we sailed! Didn't want to leave either - took some serious encouragement and rig wobbling to persuade him to finally part company.From Los Frailles we engined on to the Bahia Los Muertos (Bay of the Dead!). It has recently been renamed as the Bahia Los Suenos - which is perhaps more appropriate-the Bay of Dreams. Unfortunately, this is where we encountered our engine problems and found that it wouldn't run consistently. The end result was a night-time entry, under sail, into the bay, amongst a dozen other boats at anchor, and rapidly shallowing water! Thankfully with help from friends already ashore, we stopped just shy of the beach but Paul is now more commonly refered to as Captain Ron! This was a beautiful anchorage, miles from civilisation, but, excellent, a bar and restaurant on the beach with WI-FI!!
Just another day at the office!!
Following three fabulous days in Los Muertos, it was time to move on towards La Paz, where we were to collect our new/repaired headsail before continuing our cruise on into the Sea of Cortez and its many islands.
ABOUT TIME!!!
Well, I am going to try and update the last three months!!! Due to hard work (!!??!!) leaving USA, nightmare trip to Cabo, poor internet connections, and one thing and another, I have been very remiss in updating our blog spot so am going to try and do a quick round up to bring us up-to-date – 26th January 2007 – and then make a better effort to stay on top of things but don’t hold your breath!
So, November saw us completely renew our standing rigging which meant Paul spent more time up the mast than he did on the dock, then the new sails arrived – much excitement and more on those later.
Then Thanksgiving came and we went to a number of Thanksgiving parties with our friends in Chula Vista.
Followed by Halloween and more parties!!! And finally December 4th arrived and it was time to leave Chula Vista, the USA, and head to Ensenada in Mexico – our first stop. Aphrodite was lifted out of the water, had her bottom painted, a new survey and back in within 5 days.
Christmas was spent in Turtle Bay, 300 miles from Ensenada, including an overnight stop at Islas Cedros. We left Ensenada on 20th December and arrived in Turtle Bay in 35 knot winds, on 23rd December. We were invited to spend Christmas Eve with Ernesto and his family – as in Spain/Germany /France etc, Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve in Mexico.
Ernesto it seems runs everything in Turtle Bay from the fuel dock to the water taxi, laundry, local bar etc., etc., We had a lovely evening – I even went to church – didn’t understand a word, but it was very beautiful.
The passage down saw a number of squid on deck in the mornings and just the one flying fish!
We left Turtle bay for Bahia Magdalena , but due to unforeseen problems with our new sails we unfortunately had to sail right on by and didn’t actually stop again until some 650 miles further south. The problems we had with our sail our outlined in the following e-mail I sent to our sailmaker.
FEEDBACK ON SAILS
Hi Chuck
I was hoping I wouldn’t have to write this e-mail, in that we wouldn’t have had problems with our Ullman sails. Unfortunately for us, we had an extremely serious problem with our new genoa on the third time of use. On a 2 day passage to Magdelena Bay we had a forecast of 18 – 23 knots for a period of 5 days and so decided it would be excellent passage weather and headed out. In fact the forecast was not accurate (no surprise there) and as the winds picked up in the early evening we reefed the genoa to half. Later in the night when the winds were up to 28/30 knots we undertook to reef the genoa further and to our horror as we hauled the outhaul to furl the sail, the drum turned but the entire genoa unfurled. By early morning (0200 hours) we had 35 knot winds, 25 foot seas and a full headsail. I’m sure you can imagine how unsuitable this was. We were totally out of control and unable to do anything about it. We were very upset that our sail had failed us but at this point, due to the dark, high seas and winds, were unable to investigate. Morning came and the weather stayed. It was impossible to get on the foredeck, let alone the bowspit to try and deal with the problem. We spent the next day and night, with the same conditions, and weren’t able to do anything about retrieving/furling/taking down the sail until the third day, when the conditions improved slightly. At this point we had assumed that the wire luff had somehow ‘spun’ in the stitching, allowing the sail to furl out.
Paul devised a way to furl the sail when he was finally able to get to the pulpit in what were still difficult circumstances. Initially we wanted to try and furl it rather than take it down – the conditions had not abated sufficiently to take down an unfurled genoa, but we couldn’t continue without control. We had already had to sail past Magdalena Bay – our destination – the previous evening.
Paul clamped the foot of the sail at the luff to the luff wire and remained on the bowspit as I pulled the furling line – to our horror the wire luff pulled out of the swage eye and the sail flew out wildly. Two hours and the sail was finally tamed and retrieved.
We are obviously extremely disappointed that our new sail should have failed on only its third time of use, and it really doesn’t bear thinking about what would have happened had the swage and luff wire parted during the first night in 35 knots of wind and 25 foot seas. I believe that it’s only due to our considerable years of experience that we were able to retrieve the sail when we did. We had two guests on board at the time who were terrified.
We have finally arrived in Cabo San Lucas and the reason I am writing first, rather than telephoning, is to appraise you of our problem in order to give you time to consider the action required by Ullman to collect/repair/launder and return the sail to us at Cabo San Lucas.
I will phone on Tuesday, 2nd January. In the meantime, Happy New Year to you Chuck, and for us, I guess there are worse places we could have ended up for New Year!
Speak to you Tuesday.
Very restrained I felt!
So, by now we were in Cabo San Lucas, arriving 30th December and in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve at a restaurant on the beach, ate lobster and steak, drank champagne and sat around bonfires to watch the fireworks then dinghied back to Aphrodite, anchored in the bay.
And by now, even Paul had his shorts on! We unfortunately had to spend three very rolly polly weeks in the anchorage in Cabo, awaiting repair of our sail, and two days ago finally decided to move on around the corner – just 15 miles – to Cabo San Jose, where, we had been told there was a new marina under construction and the outside breakwaters had been completed and therefore made for a very quiet anchorage. We had a great trip from Cabo to San Jose – it was a beautiful day, we were surrounded by whales, blowing and breaching and we caught our first edible fish! Tomorrow we are off again, leaving for La Paz which will be approximately a 30 hour sail, and will take us into the Sea of Cortez ‘proper.’
Apologies for the lack of photo's
Well, I am going to try and update the last three months!!! Due to hard work (!!??!!) leaving USA, nightmare trip to Cabo, poor internet connections, and one thing and another, I have been very remiss in updating our blog spot so am going to try and do a quick round up to bring us up-to-date – 26th January 2007 – and then make a better effort to stay on top of things but don’t hold your breath!
So, November saw us completely renew our standing rigging which meant Paul spent more time up the mast than he did on the dock, then the new sails arrived – much excitement and more on those later.
Then Thanksgiving came and we went to a number of Thanksgiving parties with our friends in Chula Vista.
Followed by Halloween and more parties!!! And finally December 4th arrived and it was time to leave Chula Vista, the USA, and head to Ensenada in Mexico – our first stop. Aphrodite was lifted out of the water, had her bottom painted, a new survey and back in within 5 days.
Christmas was spent in Turtle Bay, 300 miles from Ensenada, including an overnight stop at Islas Cedros. We left Ensenada on 20th December and arrived in Turtle Bay in 35 knot winds, on 23rd December. We were invited to spend Christmas Eve with Ernesto and his family – as in Spain/Germany /France etc, Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve in Mexico.
Ernesto it seems runs everything in Turtle Bay from the fuel dock to the water taxi, laundry, local bar etc., etc., We had a lovely evening – I even went to church – didn’t understand a word, but it was very beautiful.
The passage down saw a number of squid on deck in the mornings and just the one flying fish!
We left Turtle bay for Bahia Magdalena , but due to unforeseen problems with our new sails we unfortunately had to sail right on by and didn’t actually stop again until some 650 miles further south. The problems we had with our sail our outlined in the following e-mail I sent to our sailmaker.
FEEDBACK ON SAILS
Hi Chuck
I was hoping I wouldn’t have to write this e-mail, in that we wouldn’t have had problems with our Ullman sails. Unfortunately for us, we had an extremely serious problem with our new genoa on the third time of use. On a 2 day passage to Magdelena Bay we had a forecast of 18 – 23 knots for a period of 5 days and so decided it would be excellent passage weather and headed out. In fact the forecast was not accurate (no surprise there) and as the winds picked up in the early evening we reefed the genoa to half. Later in the night when the winds were up to 28/30 knots we undertook to reef the genoa further and to our horror as we hauled the outhaul to furl the sail, the drum turned but the entire genoa unfurled. By early morning (0200 hours) we had 35 knot winds, 25 foot seas and a full headsail. I’m sure you can imagine how unsuitable this was. We were totally out of control and unable to do anything about it. We were very upset that our sail had failed us but at this point, due to the dark, high seas and winds, were unable to investigate. Morning came and the weather stayed. It was impossible to get on the foredeck, let alone the bowspit to try and deal with the problem. We spent the next day and night, with the same conditions, and weren’t able to do anything about retrieving/furling/taking down the sail until the third day, when the conditions improved slightly. At this point we had assumed that the wire luff had somehow ‘spun’ in the stitching, allowing the sail to furl out.
Paul devised a way to furl the sail when he was finally able to get to the pulpit in what were still difficult circumstances. Initially we wanted to try and furl it rather than take it down – the conditions had not abated sufficiently to take down an unfurled genoa, but we couldn’t continue without control. We had already had to sail past Magdalena Bay – our destination – the previous evening.
Paul clamped the foot of the sail at the luff to the luff wire and remained on the bowspit as I pulled the furling line – to our horror the wire luff pulled out of the swage eye and the sail flew out wildly. Two hours and the sail was finally tamed and retrieved.
We are obviously extremely disappointed that our new sail should have failed on only its third time of use, and it really doesn’t bear thinking about what would have happened had the swage and luff wire parted during the first night in 35 knots of wind and 25 foot seas. I believe that it’s only due to our considerable years of experience that we were able to retrieve the sail when we did. We had two guests on board at the time who were terrified.
We have finally arrived in Cabo San Lucas and the reason I am writing first, rather than telephoning, is to appraise you of our problem in order to give you time to consider the action required by Ullman to collect/repair/launder and return the sail to us at Cabo San Lucas.
I will phone on Tuesday, 2nd January. In the meantime, Happy New Year to you Chuck, and for us, I guess there are worse places we could have ended up for New Year!
Speak to you Tuesday.
Very restrained I felt!
So, by now we were in Cabo San Lucas, arriving 30th December and in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve at a restaurant on the beach, ate lobster and steak, drank champagne and sat around bonfires to watch the fireworks then dinghied back to Aphrodite, anchored in the bay.
And by now, even Paul had his shorts on! We unfortunately had to spend three very rolly polly weeks in the anchorage in Cabo, awaiting repair of our sail, and two days ago finally decided to move on around the corner – just 15 miles – to Cabo San Jose, where, we had been told there was a new marina under construction and the outside breakwaters had been completed and therefore made for a very quiet anchorage. We had a great trip from Cabo to San Jose – it was a beautiful day, we were surrounded by whales, blowing and breaching and we caught our first edible fish! Tomorrow we are off again, leaving for La Paz which will be approximately a 30 hour sail, and will take us into the Sea of Cortez ‘proper.’
Apologies for the lack of photo's
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