Susan, Sequoia, and Todd go sailing

I was a bit put out when we got to Mexico and realized how many Canadians are running around down here. After all, Mexico is our neighbor, not theirs! Who invited them to the party? But, being the tolerant, loving person that I am, I was satisfied with just occasionally throwing empty beer cans and other assorted trash into their dinghies.

Then, when my brother’s family was visiting in Nuevo Vallarta, my sports-crazed nephews were channel-surfing. You’ll never guess what they decided to watch. Not soccer, not Sabado Gigante, but… Women’s Curling! Alberta vs. Manitoba! What the hell was going on?! Had we stumbled onto the dark tendrils of an evil Canadian plot? While America was out protecting democracy in the world, was Canada scheming right under our noses, hoping to turn our amigos against us? Maybe the real threat was not “al Qaida”, but “al Canaida”? (more…)

OK, we admit that we were a bit disappointed when we first pulled into Bahia Tenacatita. Sure, it’s pretty, but we’ve seen a lot of palm trees and sandy beaches in Mexico. The problem was, our friends on Imagine had been in Tenacatita in January, and they reported that the sea was “like bath water”. We were ready for that! So when we dropped anchor and tested the water, finding it to be about 68 degrees F, well… I think my exact words were, “What the hell kind of baths are they taking on Imagine? Are we talking ice baths?”

On top of that, the nearest place to buy groceries was a long dinghy ride away. Sure, it was through some cool mangroves, with beautiful herons and jumping fish, but we didn’t even see any crocs on the way. Sheesh! And the lack of internet access? Don’t even get me started!

I think we first started to warm up to the place when we parked ourselves in the palapa and discovered they had 12 peso beers, which you could sip while you took in the view of the anchorage. Plus, the swell was up, so watching people land their dinghies in the surf was very entertaining! We decided that maybe we could stay a few days… (more…)

On Wednesday, my brother Bob and family flew home. We were sad to see them go! We sure enjoyed hanging out with them. Now we’re back in La Cruz, getting ready to make the overnight sail south to Tenacatita.

Just a couple of things I forgot to mention in my last post. For entertainment on passages, I bought Koiya a set of 5th Grade Brain Quest trivia cards. The other day I was quizzing her. The question: Who was the leader of the Nazi party during WWII? Her response: “Wait, wait, I know his name… it was… Arnold Schwarzenegger?” (more…)

We left San Blas on Wednesday, Feb 6, for the little town of Chacala. We had a nice sail down, and saw plenty of humpback whales. Chacala is in a beautiful little cove, but it is not very protected from the swell. Unfortunately, Capn Sloth was too lazy to set a stern anchor, so during the night we went beam-to the swell, rolling so much that it was hard to sleep. The one upside was that it was easy to get an early start for Punta Mita the next morning!

Punta Mita is on the northern-most edge of Banderas Bay, a huge resort area that includes Puerto Vallarta. We had another good sail, with even more whales, including one that surfaced about 50 feet from the boat! Further away, we also saw a whale repeatedly doing tail splashes, sending huge plumes of spray into the air.

“I wonder which house is his?” mused Todd. “Whose?” I asked. “Well, duh, Antonio Banderas?” he replied snidely. “Um, Antonio Banderas is Spanish,” I said. As Todd only stared at me blankly, I added, “You know, from Spain?” I searched Todd’s face but saw no sign of comprehension. Finally Todd broke the silence with “He was great in Desperado!” (more…)

We left Isla Isabel on Friday, Jan. 25, bound for San Blas, a coastal town on the mainland. Not far from Isabel we saw whales spouting and diving, and one surfaced about 30 yards off our stern! They looked like small humpbacks.

We arrived outside the entrance to the San Blas estuary that afternoon. We noticed that waves were breaking across the channel- not a good sign! We watched and waited a bit, and it seemed that there were periods of flat water, so we slowly made our way in. The depth sounder read 14 ft, then 12, and then as we neared the channel entrance, we saw 8 feet! Capn TurnTail yelled, “I’m bailing!” and took us back out to deeper water.

We tried again… and this time, we saw 7 feet! San Blas would just have to wait; instead, we anchored in nearby Mantanchen Bay, which is famous for two things: the lovely coconut trees surrounding it, and the biting no-see-ums at dusk. Luckily the bugs weren’t too bad, and it was so relaxing there that we decided to stay for a day. We took the dinghy to the beach, which was full of Mexican families enjoying the sun, water, and restaurants. (more…)

Susan and I agreed early on that it would be good to apply sarcasm and humor to our blog to make for more entertaining reading. Every sailor knows a yarn isn’t a yarn if you don’t take some liberties with the truth. Little did I realize the humor would largely be at my expense, but as First Mate Mischief Maker keeps the ship’s log, I should have seen it coming a minute of latitude away! So I decided to pick up my marlin-spike and do what any formerly hard-working executive turned Capn would do: I delegated to Susan the task of writing a witty rebuttal in my defense that would restore my good name and that I would then ultimately take credit for.
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We had a wonderfully relaxing week in Altata, but it was a bit on the cool side, so we decided to bypass Mazatlan in search of warmer water. We figure we’ll hit Mazatlan on the way back up to the Sea of Cortez. We plotted a course for Isla Isabel, a nesting place for frigate birds and boobies, about 200 nautical miles southeast of Altata.

The bottlenose dolphins in the Altata channel gave us a grand send-off, riding our bow and cavorting about our boat. Koiya was beside herself with excitement, because she spotted a mother dolphin with a baby! The calf was about 4 -5 ft long, so it wasn’t tiny, but we were thrilled to see it. As Koiya said, “Not many people get to see dolphins, and even fewer get to see dolphins in the wild, and even fewer get to see a calf!”

We had no problems with depth in the channel itself, but by the time we were making our way out to sea, the tide was going out and there were breaking waves directly in the path indicated by our GPS waypoints! “Yee-haw!” yelled Todd, “Let’s see what this baby can do!” (more…)

When we told people in La Paz that we were headed to Altata, we got two types of responses. One was, “Where’s that?” The other (always from people who hadn’t been there) was “You shouldn’t go there!” Altata is about 100 miles north of Mazatlan, on the mainland of Mexico. The first cruising boat came here in 2001, and since then more boats have followed. Last year there were about 8 boats that made it here. Cruisers are scared away by the tricky entrance to the bay, and the long (11 mile) trek up the unmarked channel, where it is easy to go aground if you don’t know where the deep water is.

We left La Paz on Thursday, January 10, and spent the night in nearby Caleta Lobos. Taking our 4.5 knot average speed into account, and guessing that high tide in Altata (the best time to enter) would be around 10:30am on Saturday, Todd and I got up at 4am on Friday to start our crossing of the Sea of Cortez. Soon after we pulled up anchor, I went below to get some more sleep. When I came back up shortly before 7am, we were through the San Lorenzo Channel and into the Sea. I took the helm, Todd got the sails up, and soon we were zipping along at around 7 knots!

Capn Nailbiter was worried about the sea state, fearing that the wind would pick up and create waves bigger than the 2 to 4 foot (and occasional 6 ft) swells were were seeing. In my mind I was composing an ad for the La Paz newspapers: “Lost: One pair of big girl panties, size XL, ‘Todd’ written on tag. Last worn off the Pacific coast.” I couldn’t mock Todd directly at the time, because he was really sea sick. Luckily I had nothing else to do but commit my sarcastic comments to memory, and just had to wait until we were comfortably anchored to let loose. (more…)

Well, we’re back in La Paz, and Koiya is back aboard! We really missed her, but she had a good trip back to San Francisco.

Todd and I headed out to Isla Espiritu Santo and Isla Partida for Christmas and New Year’s. We had a couple of great snorkeling trips, despite the 65 degree water, as well as some fun hikes. The dominating theme, though, was the strong north winds that blew almost constantly while we were out, causing our anchor to drag on a couple of nights.

I won’t go into all the details, but for those of you who don’t sail, dragging anchor is like erectile dysfunction: it happens to everyone, but no one wants to admit it, and men find it terribly embarrassing!

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We came back to La Paz on Dec. 15, and pulled in to the swanky Marina Costa Baja. This place is a marina and a resort, and we have access to the hotel’s beautiful (but unheated) swimming pool. It is about 20 minutes away from downtown La Paz, but there is a free shuttle service that runs frequently. They also gave us a cable modem, so internet access has been fantastic! Todd even played CounterStrike online with his nerd buddies.

Koiya’s favorite thing about the place is the trampoline in the playground. She got in quite a bit of jumping before flying back to SF on Dec 18. She even tried to teach Capn ADD a few moves, but he was too distracted to focus on her coaching.

There is also a “Beach Club” here, for use by the condo owners. We went in once but apparently we didn’t look like we belonged there. A guy explained to us that we could talk to the marina office about buying a membership for $20/day. We looked around a bit, and since there were only a few other people there (and no one in the pool), I asked if we could just stay and have a quick swim. He agreed. We set ourselves up on some lounge chairs and read a bit. Todd decided it would be nice to give the restaurant and bar some business, so he went and asked to see a menu. The guy wouldn’t show him one! He said we should really talk to the marina office and get a membership. We were like, “Buddy, your club is so exclusive, there’s no one here! We’re trying to give you some business and we’ll tip you!” Anyway, Todd felt unwelcome, so I took a quick swim and peed in the pool, then we left. (more…)