Tanque de Tiburon: February 2013

Sunday, February 24, 2013

La Paz, Carnaval and Friends!

We arrived La Paz February 8th, 2013....

In the middle of Carnaval!

February 8…La Paz! We finally made it south and into our waiting slip in Marina Palmira. Adrianna has patiently saved our berth for us and we came in nicely, easy landing. Our neighbor boat, s/v Orion, a big Catamaran, is still around, as well.

Kind of feels like getting home again.

Here's a view of bill and our boat in our slip taken from the neighboring boat. Makes the marina look pretty crowded!

Oh my! We have arrived in the middle of Carnaval! The town is totally immersed in parties, festivities, music and parades. Plus costumes, drinks and food. We made a few street nights to people watch and find cheap margaritas as well as watch the parade from the Tailhunter, a fun restaurant/cantina combo. I love their Hawaiian Poke, a sashimi’d ahi tuna. YUM! And…they have Chope/Negra Modelo on draft, too.

Linda and Judy from s/v JUCE, shopping for Carnaval junk.

NOT Linda and Judy...a couple of dancers from a parade float teasing us at a restaurant.

Bill with Bruce and Judy.

Typical Carnaval Fare.

Um, ok...these are for the grandkids but we had to try them on.....

So far we have been able to meet up with s/v JUCE, Bruce and Judy for some wild times, m/v Maitairoa, Alex and Sue to plan Mark Mulligan’s upcoming gig here and get tickets to sell, s/v Kasasa, Ellen and Ian – all in other marinas, Lisa from s/v Andiamo and Seattle, but now living here part time, and Susan and Dennis on s/v TwoCanPlay with their business of boat care, Ross Marine, and our neighbors on s/v Orion, Mike and Cathy from Seattle, here at Palmira.

Us with Ian and Ellen at the Valentine Party at La Costa.

...and Lisa with a friend at the V party, as well.

We’ve also seen and heard on the NET a few boats we recognize and have chatted with over the years. Old home week, LOL.

The La Paz plan to renew our FM3/Mexican Visas, has slightly changed as the Mexican law changed (again) last November. We found out that with our 4 years on-board with FM3’s has earned us the privilege to now apply for permanent residency! No, we are not moving full time to Mexico, LOL….but we can now come and go as we please without the Visa hassle! So once we are home in May, we will start the process at the border. It’s so easy here but, alas, we need to start it before November.

Sunday February 17: a sail day away with s/v Orion on their beautiful Catamaran along with 10 or so others….for a sail race in the La Paz bay area. I counted 17 boats entered and crewed with friends – so they all had lotsa people aboard. Had a great day out…weather was perfect. Not much wind to start but it kicked up to 15 or so later. The guys crewed and Bill had a fun job with the port jib lines and got to drive us part way out of the channel. It’s a BIG boat with real power. I sat around with “the girls” and watched, ate and sunned, LOL. The start line was funny as everyone has to have engines OFF at least 5 minutes before the “start” so we all just milled around and tried not to run into each other using sails alone. What a fun day.

Some La Paz Bay race shots and aboard s/v Orion....crew shirts to boot!

Now back to work...have the new stainless rails done and getting some new canvas work/repairs.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

To Baja or Bust....again

OK! Finally - let's head south!

The second departure was January 27^th and the destination – the Baja! Looking at winds and weather, we headed more south, looking to get to San Juanico as a first stop. We passed San Juanico at 0700 the next day so just kept on going and ended up anchoring at Isla Coronado, near Loreto. The key was wifi there and we did get stuck for four rocky-rolly nights in the anchorage. It was so rolly that I actually fell off the toilet once. Ow!

On February 1, we headed more south faster. The next stop was into Puerto Escondido for fuel. We dropped an anchor in there, as well, as we don’t trust the balls. Did a little provisioning at Pedro’s store there and had a nice fish dinner at his restaurant, PortoBello’s. From there, we cruised to the bay in front of the Villa de Palmar resort for a night at anchor – hoping to catch a Super Bowl game ashore. We did stay a night but decided to go to the next bay on the agenda for listening to the game as the resort appeared pretty quiet.

The next anchorage was Agua Verde, motor-sailing on February 3. We had a bit of excitement on anchoring! After about 50’ of chain out toward an anticipated 100+ foot rode, the chain had a knot in it about the size of a volleyball! We are guessing it was from much of the rock and roll we had done over the trip so far, causing it to amass into a ball. So…we had to clear out the V berth (my very full storage locker) to get to the chain locker to un-ass the mass of chain so it would fit thru the windlass/hole. Luckily, the 50’ out held us during the project. Phew.

What?? the anchor is in a KN0T!

"Linda - clear out the V berth?" aye yi yi...there goes the salon...

OH! We DO have an anchor locker back behind all the valuables stored....anchor sails, food, crafts, first aid, Sunbrella and supplies....

And we try to miss that giant ROCK! Note the rainbow!

Ho Hum, another gorgeous view of the Baja's "spine"....

What a sunset!

Yes, getting the salon back together after the V berth dump!!

OMG! Schools of dolphin - many this year joining us here and there to say "hello". They are very hard to capture because they are so fast....but we got one lucky shot:

This is Bill, a view from inside, of the refueling process on deck - using the Baja filter from the jerry cans. Helps keep the tanks clear of debris. We never fill direct from the fuel dock to our tanks.

Next Port: Los Gatos and anticipating Manuel and LOBSTER.. On February 5^th, we cruised in and stayed a night and traded for lobster. We did buy some great fish from a few local pangero fishermen and it was very tasty. I ceviche’d some for the next day’s lunch and we grilled 2 filets that night. Manual arrived with our “order” the next AM before we left - 4 good size lobsters! We traded some cash, a fresh cup of coffee, a bottle of water, batteries, bought some hand-work his wife does, a few spices…and we got lobster. Cleaned and froze them for a future meal. We met a new boat…Victoria LA, a seasoned sailor couple aboard, from Maine and Florida. We encouraged them to order lobster, as well. And they joined us for cocktails aboard.

Looking at weather prediction of more “norther” winds and waves, we decided to skip San Evaristo, as well…and head to Isla San Francisco and meet up with Victoria LA.. Also, perhaps to sit-out the next “blow” in a semi-protected bay. We did deploy our dinghy and shared a happy hour at Victoria’s cockpit. Thinking we had finally hit the night time Cormuels, the famous westerly winds in the Baja’s La Paz area, we blew at anchor for two nights before we decided enough was enough. Bill pulled up the anchor with a bit of wind – 22 knots – tugging at us to stay. He did a great job getting the anchor up with the boat wandering side to side on the anchor chain. We then rolled south, crossing the open area between San Francisco and Espiritu Santo.

Manuel's Fresh lobster!

YUM!

At sea, sailing and anchored, etc....

Isla San Francisco fisher persons... there's a girl, very unusual!
They are dragging a net across the bay....tight in front of us as we are trying to pull up the anchor and depart so we had to scoot around them to miss their net....