05 February 2010 | Sonora to La Paz
24:07.37N110:20.58W
Headed out from San Carlos, after cleaning organizing
and more cleaning and organizing. Overnight accross the Sea of Cortez to Santa
Rosalia went smoothly and "cool runnings" lived up to expectations. Out from
there and down to Conception Bay and Coyote, a stunning anchorage and after
Santa Rosalia, which mmm...was OK, our first taste of the Sea of Cortez wow!
factor...... Wind gets up to 30 knots, and first signs our anchor isnt up to the
job. Dragging and more dragging thankfully in daylight, but no restful night was
had. Ate (and Margarita'd) after pulling the dinghy up to great Mexican beach
shack and ordered the Mexican special. The 300lb bar "lady" when asked what was
in it replied, "Mexican Things" in a baritone fit for the welsh valleys. Next
night to San Juanico, towering rock formations around a moon shaped bay
overlooked by an eagles nest....deserted of boats and people, with amazing
fossils (aside from Nick and I) and scenery to die for. Hard to get accross just
how shockingly beautiful and completely devoid of people this place is. Every
day we sit there and just say "wow"
Off again and next night to Isla
Danzante. Beautiful location, but our anchoring system once again was found
lacking, with the windlass system now regularly jamming the chain due to the
whole contraption having moved in the 50k winds, and the anchor consistently
failing to hold. At 11pm, we decided to abort, and head over to Puerto
Escondido, the "hidden" harbour, being even more hidden by the cursory Mexican
navigation light maintainance (or lack of) which was as flawed as our weather
data. As the night went on we dragged anchor consistently, the wind increased,
the chain dragged, and the wind increased some more. Each time, with the
windlass now not working at all, we retrieved 300lb of chain and anchor, by
"driving" up the chain 50 meters, running to the bow and hauling, repeating this
until the 290 ft was recovered to start again. As fun as this was, by 4am the
joke was wearing a bit thin. Daylight saw wind gusts of 50 knots plus and it was
obvious that we were having a day "hanging on" in the shelter of the harbour.
Late evening saw the wind drop and a good sleep followed until we slipped out at
6am, and with hearty breakfast of rum and coke, headed for San Everisto, our
next bout of man against Chain. After a quiet night, La Paz was getting closer
and we had one of finest days sails Ive ever had in my life. Flat sea, weather
perfect, wind at 10-18 knots, and the Cool Runnings romping along with Screecher
flying. Just magic. Could it get any better? As late afternoon aproached we
headed down a 2 mile "fjord" to anchor totally alone again off isla Espiritu
Santo. Total silence and a dinghy in to the deserted beach for a quick "bath" in
the shallows. We headed to the mouth of the bay in the dinghy to check out the
next cove. Thus far we had seen smaller whales and dolphins, but we were about
to have an almost mystical encounter that will remain etched in my memory. A pod
of around 15+ dolphins came into the bay close to us, with 2 mammoth and a
smaller humpack whale, and we sat and followed spellbound for an hour or more.
They worked as a team, slowly heading down the cove towards the Catamaran,
coralling whatever was in there. The whales blowing echoed off the canyon walls,
and their huge flukes dwarfed the dinghy. Nick and I sat in silence, awestruck
at what we were witnessing. As they left the cove, the setting sun over the
mountains towards La Paz outlined the last sight we saw of the huge fluke going
under for the last time. The crushing silence of the cove, was only interupted
by an owl hooting in the cliffs. A very special place. Next morning, more
Dolphins, breaching humpbacks and jumping Manta Rays greeted our traditional rum
and coke breakfast as we headed out for the last leg to La Paz at 6am. We hit La
Paz late afternoon, and headed into Marina Palmira against a strong tide and a
stronger thirst. After tying up and showering off the salt it was off to town
for hearty steak and a long appointment at the Mariners Bar with Don Julio. A
good band and good service contributed to our unexpected arrest some way further
down the street as we left. After trying to plant drugs on middle aged guys that
were quite obviously "not up to it", The Police consoled themselves by stealing
$200 out of Nicks Wallet, and setting us loose after I shouted con...shshulate
at them in my finest Spanish. Ahh, Mexicos finest. Predicatbly Nick missed his
5am Taxi, his flight, and his brain cells lost to Tequila abuse. We both endured
a "difficult" day as I caught up on work, and he tried to get back to the
UK.
Nick as ever proved to be the finest cruising buddy one could hope
for and I look forward to our next adventure/ with a big thanks for all his
invaluable help and companionship. The Cat was hauled out Wednesday at the
Singlar yard to fix all the things we broke on our "shakedown" cruise. She will
be there, hopefully safe and sound for the 2 months until the family finally
make it to see what Ive blown our life savings, house and childrens education
fund on.
