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.

WHERE ARE WE NOW

The 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

You can now access our photo albums by clicking on 'Aphrodite's Albums' in the Links section of the web page. Happy viewing

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.

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.

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.

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

Paul at play in the Walker Bay

Well, things are moving along. I've now renovated the everything down below - just about - got the floor to strip back and varnish, but apart from that every little bit of wood or paint down below has now been scraped, sanded and either varnished or painted - a huge job and not one I anticipated doing but am now very glad that I have. The work was hard and exhausting but down below looks so different. The photographs don't actually do it justice, but I'm happy so that's fine!

In the meantime we have decided to replace all of our standing rigging (the metal bits that hold up the masts) and in order to keep the costs down, Paul is removing all of the old rigging (not all at once) and replacing it with the new. Once he has been up and down the mast(s x 2!!) approximately 20 times our rigger will come along and 'tune-up' the rigging. By Paul's efforts (and they are great) we are saving around 50% of the cost - bless him!



We are very fortunate in this exercise that one of the friend's we have made here is Sam, and Sam has gone sailing for 4 weeks and left us his car - we shall be forever indebted. This is going to make the daily trips into the rigger in San Diego much easier.

We have also been out sailing a few times in the last couple of weeks and are very pleased with the boat. It's been nice to take our Chula Vista friends out with us on these trips. We've been made to feel so welcome, it's nice to give something back. In the meantime, while the rig is in bits Paul will have to make do with sailing our new 'dinghy' at the end of each working day. We replaced the inflatable with a little sail boat that fits perfectly on our foredeck and while we have both been working seemingly unendingly, it has been very pleasant to be able to at least take to the water at the end of the day in our walker bay boat. And, as usual, this blogspot doesn't seem to want to allow me any more photographs with this posting. If anyone knows any way around this, or what I may be doing wrong, I'd be grateful for the advice!

So, to finally try and finish this first dreadful blog - spelling mistakes and all - I will file the last few photographs and endeavour to 'do better' in my next issue! Suffice to say that we had a lovely two weeks with Mum. Following her departure on 26 June, we have been so busy on the boat I have not actually stopped to take photographs - this will be remedied. We have however met lots of really nice people and been invited to more parties in 7 weeks than in the last 5 years at home! Needless to say, we are having a great time, and apart from missing close friends and family, miss absolutely nothing else.

Travelling up Highway 1 we passed through Big Sur and Carmel. As can be seen from the pictures, the 'June Gloom' was well established - when the cold Pacific Ocean waters meet the warm landmass of the west coast of the USA, a sea fog forms all along the coast. This meteorological anomoly occurs only in June, and although the view was somewhat obscured by the 'gloom' the scenery was still breathtaking.

We finally arrived in San Francisco and proceeded to undertake all the 'touristy' tours - China Town, Trolley bus, Golden Gate - over and under - Alcatraz

So, as I said in my previous blog, we then travelled back south to Los Angeles, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive and finally returning to San Diego.

Well, we finally made it, along with Mum and a very anxious dog. Having got over her jetlag. We spent the first two weeks touring California. Starting in San Diego - the city and bay. Then moving on down across the border to Tijuana where we saw more police activity in one day than I have seen in the last year at home - result, a nervous Mum. Wouldn't rush back and wouldn't recommend it either.













Anyway, moving on we took a drive from San Diego up the coast to San Francisco, calling at Ventura, Pismo Beach where the elephant seal colony had just finished breeding - the females had left but quite a number of males were still to be seen. Then on up to Big Sur, Carmel, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco. Did all the tourist things in SF - China Town, Golden Gates bridge - over and under -, Alcatraz, trolley buses - usual tourist attractions. Returning south through the Sierra Madres (fantastic and not a single photograph!) then Los Angeles, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo (that's Row-day-yo) Drive to y'all. Finally arriving back in San Diego for a rest. And as I don't seem to be able to add any more photographs to this page I am going to post it and try another one for further photographs!!!

Having sold our house in Long Eaton we are now homeless and tying up the last few loose ends before we depart for the U.S. and our adventure!

These pictures were taken in May 2005 during our trip from Ventura, CA to
San Diego, CA, via Santa Catalina Island in the Pacific Ocean approx 25 miles west of Los Angeles.