Musings on a month of cruising, by Ann

As promised by Bob in our last blog, I am going to take a
few moments and share my thoughts on cruising.
The first thing you will notice is that timelines are really not
important any more and thus this blog is probably a day later than you
expected!)

For those of you who like camping, we are camping on water
and moving camp with much less effort!
Put away the dishes, close the portholes and hatches, pull up the anchor
or release the lines and away we go! Quite pleasant. And I’ve taken advantage of a great area here in Los Cabos for morning runs!

I run over to the captured dolphin pens and try to encourage
them to escape. Apparently there is a dolphin training facility here.  Kind of sad.

But you will be surprised that there have only been two days
that we have not set an alarm! We need to get up to hear the weather reports which happen at 0730. But it gets you up at the best time of the day.  It is crisp and clean and beautiful. And this lifestyle has us going to bed early and sleeping very soundly. So nice to be
past the stress of preparing. Everyone in the other boats we meet has the same rushed prep stories. Fun to compare.

Cruising also means communicating with new friends on the
VHF.  I sound very official. Bob is worried that I may not need him so much anymore.  But he is safe, I can’t light the oven yet.
Yesterday I got Joan’s fabulous chocolate chip cookie recipe and set out to make the boat smell good! The oven is very tricky.  You have to sit and watch the temperature gauge hanging inside the door and constantly adjust the heat. I also found out that you only cook on the top shelf – first batch smelled burnt from the hammock (or so I heard from above). But I saved most of them and have a very successful second batch!

The cookies came in handy when we did our first entertaining
last night. Cruising means meeting lots of people with great stories.  And you know me, I’m digging for them. And I’m always comparing boats.  Charisma really stands out. We are always glad to have people come on board.

We watched many boats come and go today.  The largest being a mega-yacht complete with a helicopter on board and a motor boat that stores away.  Another cruiser told me he left his helicopter at home because he couldn’t fit his helicopter AND his bikes.  Bob left his helicopter at the ranch because the radio frequency wouldn’t work down here.  (I could just imagine him delivering messages to other boats with his toy helicopter).

We leave Puerto Los Cabos tomorrow to parts that I have
never seen.  Several of our new friends have moved ahead and we look forward to seeing them and exploring new spots.  This cruising life is hard stuff but I think I can adjust!

But we do miss our families and friends (and pets-Hi Tiger, Marley, Eve and Grover ).  Know that we think of you often and fondly. Keep the blog comments coming as sometimes we aren’t getting Facebook or email.

One more comment – friends last night looked at Bob and
exclaimed, “we were looking through all of our pictures thus far and just realized: you’re Tinkerbell!  The wig didn’t disguise you enough!” Hard to hide in some crowds!

Oh – another lesson learned at Puerto Los Cabos Marina: never throw out a single flip flop.  A friend knocked one of his flip flops off the dock while doing some work on his boat.  His smart first mate convinced him
not to toss out the other one.  They dinghyed over to join us for dinner.  As we walked to dinner, there, next to the garbage can was his missing flip flop.  It had floated all the way across the marina and someone had fished it out and put it on the dock!

Some Pictures at Cabo San Jose

Just an update and Ann’s blog is coming soon.  A day late, but I’ll let her explain why.  In the mean time, here’s what we’ve been doing (other than winding down from the trip down from Berkeley and winding up into cruising mode.  What’s cruising mode?  It’s where it doesn’t matter what time you get up, when you leave, or when you get someplace.  I don’t know what day it is, so I guess I’m getting there…

Our spot at the dock includes a dozen other boats from the HaHa. Who's that in the hammock?

It’s Ann!!  Not only is she taking over the hammock, but she’s learned to use the VHF radio to call our friends and invite them over for cocktails.

Ann's gone native!

 

Evening view from the dock

 

Joan didn't believe we had an oven! (Note the temp gauge inside)

 

Joan's cookie recipe was a success. And very popular with our new friends.

 

The town square at Cabo San Jose.

 

Cabo San Jose

We’re about 25 miles to the North of Cabo San Lucas on the Sea of Cortez side of Baja. Sailed, er, motor-sailed here today. Winds were 25-30 right on the nose (what else?), so a reefed main and engine were in order since we knew the “fleet” of Baja Ha Ha boats wouldn’t yet be disbursed enough to guarantee a slip if we didn’t get here early. Sure enough, about an hour after we got here, boats coming in had to settle for the more expensive slips since all the cheap ones were taken. There were probably ten boats behind us that had to settle for the expensive side of the marina. We also got to park with a big group of cruisers, so there was an evening pot luck/party and we got to socialize with folks who we’ll be seeing for the coming months. It’s fun, since we’re all tied up at a really long dock normally reserved for megayachts. It’s called “Battleship Row”. Instead of the megayachts, there’re about 20 of us 40 footers tied end to end down the dock.

On the way up here after the umpteenth wave crashed over the bow and spray covered the cockpit and a gust hit 30 knots, I remarked to Ann: “Hmmm, no worse than a Sunday sail in SF Bay”. Her response: “Oh, it’s much better because you don’t have to go to work tomorrow!” Oh, so true. So, we’re here through Thursday. Tomorrow (Wedesday) we’re going to take a bus into the old town. Cabo San Jose is the kind of town you expect from Mexico and a great antidote to Cabo San Lucas which is more like Las Vegas than Mexico.

Also, as we were sailing here today, I mentioned to Ann that we’d be getting in by around noon and we could spend some time working on the boat. “Boat day” as it were. Well we got here, made some lunch and then we both promptly fell asleep. I, in my hammock on the foredeck and Ann in the cabin. Later, Ann came up and took over the hammock. In remarking on how tired we were, we realize that we’ve been gone a month now and it’s been absolutely non-stop. Each day is full of things we have to get done and places we have to be. We’re looking forward to the pace slowing down. On Thursday, we’re leaving for Bahia Frailes (about 40 miles North of here) where we’ll anchor off a nice beach for a couple days of doing little more than snorkeling and visiting the other boats. Finally, no schedule.

OK, no pressure, but I’ve told Ann that tomorrow it’s her turn to blog. The title: “Reflections on a month gone cruising” So, stay tuned.

At Anchor off Cabo San Lucas

We moved out of the marina today after some provisioning (mostly fresh vegetables since we won’t be near a store between here and La Paz) and a shower and are now anchored off the beach in front of the hotels. It’s actually nice and almost quiet out here. After the last few days in the Cabo marina, it’s a relief to get away from the noise. You have to experience Cabo to understand.

A pleasant dinner of tuna in soy/wasabe sauce on rice with a nice salad. Yum. We’ve been wanting Tuna the whole way down. (no we didn’t catch this one. A very nice young guy crewing on one of the sport fishing boats on the dock next to us gave us a huge filet that they caught)

Nice sunset, had the hammock up (finally) and just enjoying being back “outside”. Leaving tomorrow morning early to start making our way up to La Paz. First to Cabo San Jose if we can get a slip (it’s first come, first served, no guarantee) since we like the old town. Then Bahia Los Muertos, Bahia Frailes and several less known spots between here and La Paz along the Sea of Cortez. We’ll probably be out two weeks. I think there’s a little cell phone coverage in one of the bays, but other than that, it’s just this radio email for a while.

OK, cross fingers for good fishing and good winds and we’ll catch up in a day or so.

In the mean time a few pictures:

All smiles because we're leaving the Cabo Marina to anchor out. Peace and quiet.

 

Enjoying my hammock in the Bay off Cabo.

 

Twilight off Cabo

 

Bye, Bye, Cabo. It's been a little crazy and noisy but fun...

Bahia Santa Maria

This post is a little out of order, but some pictures of the beautiful bay that was our second stop.  There’s nothing here but beach and water.

One of our neighbors at sunrise

A beach landing

Water is very clear

After a week on the boat, time for a hike

Beach Party at Turtle Bay

Ann and I climbed the cliff for a view of the party.

We climbed up above the beach

You take your dinghy into the beach

Dinghies on the beach

 

Baja Ha Ha beach party photo op (Elan is in the right foreground

Here’s Elan claiming the beach for Charisma after coming in throught the surf.

"I claim this land in the name of the sailing vessel 'Charisma'"

One casualty of the party.  “Younger Girl” (the boat name) parked a little too close to the beach.  She got off at high tide, and won the award for dummest move of the event.

Younger Girl on the beach