24 degrees, 02 minutes North, 109 degrees, 37 minutes West

We’re heading offshore across the Sea of Cortez. Left this morning about 0930 and anticipate making landfall sometime Wednesday. With the right wind, that should be around lunch. Right now is not the right wind. It’s been very fickle today, not really deciding what it wants to do. Right now at 1900, we just finished dinner and the wind’s gone pretty light and we’re only making around 4.5 knots. The seas are confused; short period 4-5 feet/6 seconds from several directions, so it’s not a really comfortable ride. Hope it smooths out. On the plus side, the sky is clear and the stars are coming up brilliantly, so at least the ride will be picturesque. Saw a bunch of whales today. One cruised by about 30 yards away, very nonchalantly heading in the opposite direction. In fact, I think he came over to check us out as I did not see his spout until he was next to the boat. That’s about it for now as it’s hard to type as Charisma’s playing rolly-polly downwind and anything not tied down is flying across the cabin.

Sunrise crossing the Sea of Cortez

So, the plan was; stay at Ballandra one more night and have a fish fry with Rich and Cathy on Bella Brisa (assuming we could catch more of those delicious Sand Bass). Good plan, but the wind and sea Gods had different ideas. After an idyllic morning sipping coffee with our yogurt, granola and canteloupe, we decided we would kayak to the beach, climb the mountain and then fish for dinner in the afternoon. So…we kayaked to the beach, climbed the mountain and as we were on top, about got blown off by the North wind that developed. We rapidly moved back to the beach, and “survival” kayaked through two foot plus waves and 20 knots of wind back to Charisma. As we got there, Rich and Cathy along with several other boats were pulling anchor and heading back to La Paz. So… (as they say)…There we were! As we approached Charisma, she was bounding up and down in the waves and we had to get back aboard from our little inflatable kayaks. I won’t go through the details, but suffice to say we were both somewhat terrified as Charisma threatened to smash us as she went up a large wave while we trying to come alongside and get up the swim ladder. We finally got back on board and no bones were broken in the process. We bid adieu to Rich and Cathy via VHF, hoping to connect again sometime in the future. So now, we were in an untenable anchorage, yet needed someplace to stay the night before leaving for our Southbound journey tomorrow. We decided to sail out to Espiritu Santo. Once the anchor was up, we realized we actually had a very favorable wind angle. So we unfurled the jib, shut down the engine (after using it for only about ten minutes while pulling up the anchor) and sailed the ten miles out to Bahia San Gabriel on Espiritu Santo. Once there, we dropped anchor, deployed the kayak whereby Ann paddled about 300 yards into the beach (it’s very shallow and that’s as close as we could get) while I tried fishing for dinner. No luck on dinner, but Ann had a terrific ride to the beach and back. An awesome sunset with (of course, Charismas) and dinner and here we are! Now, we’re ready to depart tomorrow for our trip down to Mazatlan. It’s about 220 miles, will be a broad reach (I hope) and should take us from 40 to 50 hours (at between 4 and 6 knots average boat speed). In other words about two days pending wind. For any nautical types, the details are; Forecast wind: North, 15-20; Course 097 degrees magnetic; distance, 220 miles. We won’t quite go straight. For the first 30 miles or so, we’ll go more South through the Ceralvo Channel, then angle out across the Sea of Cortez. We’re thinking quesadillas with leftover chicken and mushrooms for lunch, if the wind/waves cooperate 😉

So, I was sittin’ in my hammock taking a rare “nothing” day and thinking; “I should take some chicken out of the freezer for dinner”. Ann was out kayaking (a Manta Ray swam right under her I’m told) and all of a sudden I thought; “what am I doing sitting here? I could be catching some fresh fish for our dinner!” The concept of self-sustaining is no-where more clear than down here in Baja where everyone who lives here does so very simply and with whatever they can find. So, with grand intentions (but great regret), I left the very comfortable hammock and got my fishing gear out and started fishing. All I had for fishing at anchor was a “shrimp fly” rig. Basically three small hooks with feathers tied to them designed to look like shrimp. Good luck. I had no clue what I might catch, just some idea that if I caught it we might be able to eat it. Fast forward an hour and a beer. Ann got back to the boat from her kayaking expedition and was excited to see that I was fishing (she loves fresh fish). Ann: “So, you’re fishing?” Bob; “Well, yes, but not catching”. Ann: “Why don’t you use some of our “organics?” (“Organics” is code for leftover food we dump overboard when we’re far enough away from land). Bob: “You don’t understand….oh well, why not?” (How could I tell her it wasn’t esthetically correct to catch a fish with “meat” when you haven’t caught a damn thing with the silly feather rig?) So…with almost as much regret as when I initially left my hammock, I put some of last night’s steak scraps on the artificial shrimp I was fishing with and you know what? The fish started biting. Damn! And guess what? They were Cabrilla, better known to us gringos as a Spotted Sand Bass. Or even better known as some of the best eatin’ fish you’ll ever have. Well, they were a bitin’. I caught three nice ones in about 15 minutes once I baited the hooks with little bits of leftover steak. I stopped at three which gave us about enough for dinner for two. Filleted them out, cooked ’em with rice and some broccoli and I mean to tell you, I/we haven’t had better fish anywhere, cooked by anyone. Amazing! We just put some lemon pepper on them and sautéed them in olive oil on a very hot cast iron pan. Yum! I can tell you, we’re doing some more fishing manana! I am liking this self-sustaining thing. The chicken can wait in the freezer, I’m going fishing tomorrow. Well, unless it’s a warm day and the sun’s shining and the hammock’s waiting….no, no, there will be time to fish AND hammock. Yes, that’s it! We’ll leave for Mazatlan the next day! It’s way too nice to not just stay here and fish….and hammock…and kayak. We have no schedule-Yay. From Ann – Bob neglected to tell you that my kayaking friends and I (Cathy and Rich from Bella Brisa) had a life threatening experience while kayaking today. We had just paddled out of some very cool rock caves/secret water ways by the shore when we heard something. “Something” ended up being a rogue wave coming our way. All of us are novice kayakers and did not manage to get headed into the wave before it hit. We all took on water but happily stayed upright! We decided there must have either been an earthquake or…Bob had fallen out of the hammock and over board! We were pleased to find Bob happy in his hammock and were informed there had been a huge motor boat (about 140 feet) that whizzed by outside our quiet anchorage sending in the rogue wave. Did I tell you we don’t like powerboats? Now you know why!

Kayaking the secret caves

We’ve left La Paz for Mazatlan, but there’s no wind, so we’re anchored about 14 miles outside at a nice little bay called Ballendra. White sand, anchored in 15 feet, it’s a nice spot. We were very glad to see our friends Rich and Cathy from Bella Brisa, another Tayana from San Francisco, were also anchored here. We had dinner with them last night and said that we would likely be here and it would be great to spend the weekend kayaking and such. At their boat last night, we had cocktails and witnessed a great sunset punctuated by several breaching humpback whales right off the beach. What a great evening. Tonight, it was Charismas, followed by bbq steak dinner and then Mexican Train and Tequila. Quite a night. So…we’re hoping for some warm weather tomorrow so we can explore this little bay some more with the kayaks before Ann and I move on to Mazatlan (some 200 miles across the Sea of Cortez) and Rich and Cathy go back into La Paz where they are based for the time being.

Ballendra Bay with Charisma and Bella Brisa

Entering the Kayak is a very delicate maneuver...

...once you're in, it's all good...

...and they are great for exploring. As long as the weather's warm.

Later in the day, Rich and Cathy from Bella Brisa (Charisma's sistership-built in the same year) came over for dinner and a rousing game of Mexican Train (which Ann won)

That's Bella Brisa in the Baja Sunset

Finally! After trying three tries, (once with Cliff and Leslynn, and once yesterday), we finally found an arroyo that wasn’t so steep we couldn’t climb up. This one came up out of the Southern cove of Ensenda Grande. It was an all day event-we left Charisma around 1000 and didn’t get back until 1600 or so, but we made it up and back. Well worth it too. Beautiful scenery and on the other side a sheer cliff several hundred feet high looking down on the Eastern side of the Sea of Cortez. One the way back to Charisma via the dinghy, we stopped and rowed inside of a sea cave. It was only about 20 feet in, but fun to row in-it was deep, you couldn’t see the bottom-then get out and sit on the inner wall. Back to Charisma-just in time to get ready for sunset-Ann found a fun new hobby. She has adopted the pucker-fish (actually called a balloon fish, which is a member of the puffer family, but after eating her lime yesterday, he’s now the “pucker” fish). He in turn has adopted the kayak which is tied right next to the cockpit. He stays under it until Ann throws a tidbit, then out he comes to nibble. His preference so far; tortilla chips, although he will nibble on anything tossed over the side. Ann giggles hysterically every time she drops something and he ambles out. Tomorrow-leftover canned spinach that we need to get rid of. As I was preparing our Charisma’s, the manta rays started jumping. They do that around sunset for some unknown reason and tonight we had the show about 30 yards off the stern. I snapped a pretty good pic that I’ll post when we have the bandwidth. They are so fun to watch. The come flying (literally) out of the water waving their wings as if they could actually keep on flying, then hit their apex and drop into the water. They they do a belly flop, and sound like a shotgun blast. POP! The show lasted about half an hour and was over. But, this is Baja and that’s not all-during the show a big sea turtle decided he needed to get from one side of the cove to the other, so in the middle of the manta ray jumping was a cruising sea turtle. It was a big one too. The head was the size of an otter head. Also, this morning we had fun watching stingrays on the bottom underneath the boat. The water’s clear and we’re in about 17 feet, so we pour a cup of coffee and go on deck to see what swims by. This morning it was a family of stingrays. A good reminder to shuffle our feet when we come in to the beach on the dinghy.

Finally, made it to the other side of Partida

Dramatic views on the other side.

The arroyo up and over the island was just beautiful

They keep trying and trying to fly...

Here's our "Pucker" fish eating some tortilla chips after sunset.

Success! We launched one of our kayaks today and Ann successfully did two circuits around our cove without incident. As told by her; “I really scared a couple of crabs who weren’t expecting me to come from the sea!” It’s two hours later and she hasn’t stopped smiling yet. I can tell we’re going to enjoy them a lot. While Ann was frolicking, I dove the zinc on the prop shaft. I’ve been concerned it might be ready to fall off, but it looked fine. I spent some time cleaning the bottom, then when I got out looked down and there was a little puffer fish poking his head at the dive ladder as if he wanted to come up and play. Later, when Ann threw her lime overboard (the one in the Charisma and yes, Lisa, she eats it to avoid scurvy), our little puffer fish came out from under the boat and sampled it. You could almost see his face pucker, so we might have to call him a “pucker fish”. Anyway, he seems to be our pet fish now. Not a lot to report today. We went for a hike up one of the arroyos and it turned out to be more of a climb than a hike. We ended up a couple hundred feet up the hill sitting in a cave eating lunch. No trail, just a lot of climbing. When we got back down we looked at the map again and found the trail is the next cove over. Oops. OK, so now we have something to do tomorrow 😉 I’m cooking up some chicken and sautéed cabbage (chop, then sauté in butter really slowly for a long time to carmelize) to go with our cabbage salad with Jicama. Cabbage and Jicama last a really long time so they’re going to be staples on our voyage. Good thing we have a lot of ways to cook them-well, the cabbage, anyway. From Ann – I just want to repeat that the maiden voyage of the kayak was without incident! I went ashore and came back and circled the cove again! I even tested getting back in the kayak from the water and again — success!!! We are really going to enjoy these kayaks! And I just checked on it, happily tied to the side of Charisma waiting to play again tomorrow! Thanks so much Marily and Tom!!! FYI – Bob was filming my test ride just in case I wasn’t as graceful as I was! And our hike today – really bouldering! Thank God for our walking sticks! Can’t wait to see how easy the real trail up to the top is tomorrow!

Addendum: Thanks Jerry for the info on the duplicate blog. The first time I tried to send, I got a really slow connection and disconnected, but I guess, too late. So it went again when I finally got a “speedy” connection. Sending via shortwave is a bit of an art. You have to hit the right frequency and the right time of day (usually night) to “bounce” the signal off the ionosphere. Sometimes it has too much interference and thus a slow connection. Lately I’ve been sending via the server in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Sometimes I get Texas though. Go figure! I’ll try and fix it when we’re in La Paz for resupply in a few days. We’ll hit the Bagel Store-they have a great wireless connection, great bagels and more importantly, they will grind some of their great coffee for us! The coffee in the grocery stores is terrible.

Even Bob can fit in the kayak

A brave new world....

Ann heading off to look for flying Manta Rays

And she found them! (click to see larger image)

January, 14, 2012-We’re on our way South now. Left Isla San Francisco today to a conch salute by Star. We replied with our new conch of course. A little over four hours later, we anchored in Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida; about 15 miles East of La Paz. Enjoyed a pastel hued sunset and blew our new conch right as the sun dipped below the horizon. The cliffs around us replied with a deep, perfect, echo. Wow! On the way here, Ann saw another sailboat and just as she asked me to get the binocs and see who it might be we heard a call on the VHF; “Charisma, Klikitat”. Our friends Bill and Katy from Klilkitat (he’s a bush pilot and Klikitat is a town in Alaska) were on their way North and we had a nice bit of a chat on the radio as we passed about ½ mile apart. Bummer we missed them as they were bound for Isla San Francisco where we had left just a couple hours before. Hope our paths cross again sometime. We also had some productive time on the passage testing the storm jib and trysail. Both were great. In 20 knots of wind we were very comfortable and made about 4 knots. A little too slow for the passage, so we took them down and unfurled the big jib which got us up to 7 knots, but nice know the new storm sails work and good to get the leads sorted out. Our plan for now is to spend the day tomorrow hiking on the island and hopefully diving and kayaking if the wind and temperature cooperate. It was warm today and the forecast is for the winds to lay down a bit over the next day or so, so maybe. After that, we’re looking to alter plans a bit and go back into La Paz to resupply. We’re about out of beer and we ran out of wine. We’re also out of fresh produce and protein, so all in all, looks like it would be worth the detour of a day or two to hit La Paz one last time before heading across to Mazatlan otherwise we’re down to the canned, dried stuff. OK, I know we’re supposed to be getting used to that, but why suffer needlessly 😉

Addendum: Since finishing this, we’ve had dinner and just went outside. It’s so clear, I was just able to see two of the moons around Jupiter, directly above us with the binoculars!

In sitting down to write a quick note, I asked Ann; “what did we do today?” and she just shook her head; “Nothing honey, we were boat bound by the wind”. Some days are like that. A front is passing through. It’s been windy (and a little chilly) all day. There’s even been some rain this evening along with continued gusty wind. Good thing we’re tucked into a nice little bay with protection from the waves and a good sand bottom. The anchor holds pretty well as it digs nicely into the sand when the wind gusts. Other than just sitting around and reading our books (OK, I sat around-Ann did laundry), we did have a visit from our new friend Reno. He rowed over with a present. A conch shell that he had trimmed so it would blow as a horn (all these years I thought the Polynesians just blew them. Turns out you have to trim one end to make a mouthpiece). And it works! It’s got kind of a haunting but beautiful tone floating out over the water. Quite loud too. So this evening at sunset we blew our conch shell horn and Reno and his wife Cathy blew theirs in return. Fun! We could hear both horns echo from the cliffs. I’m now a conch shell musician. All those years of trombone lessons served me well. The conch shell they gave us is also a wonderful souvenir because they painted a yellow star on the inside face of the shell in a replica of their boat name; “Star”. Something to remember them by. Tomorrow, no matter the weather we’re going to sail South back to Partida. If it’s still blowing hardc, we’ll just unfurl a little bit of jib and take it easy, but it’s time to get moving toward Mazatlan. We’ll spend a day or two on Partida hiking and if the weather cooperates maybe get to do some diving as well. We’re also now officially out of fresh food, so we’ll set the fishing line in the hopes of catching something for dinner. After Partida, a two day sail over to Mazatlan and a whole different experience in mainland Mexico. Adios for now.

Blowing the Conch horn at sunset

Each day cruising has some kind of surprise. Sometimes the surprise is not so fun, such as when the head (that’s “toilet” to you lubbers) is broken, and sometimes it’s the kind of delightful surprise we had today when we had the privilege to go for a hike on Isla San Francisco with Reno (“my first name’s Rex and I don’t like it, so I go by Reno, which is may last name”) and Mark Richardson who we met because we anchored next to his boat when we got here yesterday.

We had been hearing about Reno for a few weeks now from a number of other cruisers. Apparently he’s a bit of a legend in the area for the amount of knowledge he has about the people, plant and animal life and geology of Baja. Turns out he and his wife Cathy (hope I spelled it right, she was on the boat working on a book about their cruising adventures so we didn’t get the opportunity to meet her) have been cruising for at least 30 years. They have been to the South Seas several times and now spend winters here in Baja and their other months in a cabin up in Montana. Anyway, we have been hearing; “you should have been here yesterday when Reno was here”, for some weeks now. Finally we were in the same place at the same time on Isla San Francisco and were introduced by another cruiser we met (Mark) who was anchored next to us. He was a fun character in his own right. He’s been cruising some years now in the Sea of Cortez and had a wealth of information to share. As he motored past us last night in his dinghy (he had been fishing), Ann asked him if he caught anything. He came closer so they could talk a bit and one thing led to another and Ann invited him aboard for a beer as we were sitting watching the sunset. We had a nice chat getting to know him and as one thing led to another, it turned out he was going hiking the next day with Reno and invited us to go along. We jumped at the chance. The other bonus from the whole serendipitous meeting was that Mark also makes the best looking hammocks we’ve ever seen. We are now the owners of a extremely well made and great looking “Deckhand Hammock” (check them out on www.deckhandman.com I haven’t seen the website, so don’t know if it will do them justice, but the actual hammock is gorgeous and extremely well made.)

Anyway, back to Reno and our hike. I could go on and on about how much information he imparted today, but two examples will make the point. The first is that he showed us some of the Mexican Indian artifacts on the island. There are large rocks up on top of the hills that the Indians used to grind seeds into a paste. We would have never “seen” them for other than just rocks if he hadn’t shown us where they were worn smooth. As we progressed up to the top of the hill and now inspired from my newfound knowledge that there were Indians on these islands, I found several arrowheads on the ground carved from the local equivalent of obsidian. Treasure! The second thing I would pass on about Reno was Mark’s comment that; “he doesn’t just go fishing, he gets fish!” Sure enough, Reno and wife Cathy go dive for fish with their spear-guns (judging by when they started cruising and such, I would hazard a guess that they are in their early 70’s, although you’d never know it be the spring in his step or his looks for that matter). Reno’s spear is one a native Polynesian in the Marquesas made for him when he was there!

So, on a day where we thought we were likely going to just sit on the boat and read books, we instead left at 1000 and didn’t get back till 1530, and found treasure along the way in both the company we were honored to be able to keep in the persons of Reno and Mark, as well as artifacts and stories collected along the way.

Serendipity is a way of life down here and it’s really, really fun! (A big P.S. to Stephanie: Your Mom and I wish you a very happy birthday this coming 13th of January. Have a great one!)

The start of the hike across Isla San Francisco. You can see "The Hook", our little bay in the background

"The Hook"

Leaving The Hook behind for the other side.

Reno, Mark and Ann

The view North from the other side

View from the top of Isla San FranciscoAnn at the top of the island