GUAYMAS TO SAN FELIPE

So, as much as I hate to leave new friends, especially ones that make incredible frappachinos!!!! We must move on. We truly enjoyed our time in Guaymas even though it meant a lot of work. And we did take our time outs to enjoy the people and the town. I would like to come back and spend more time wandering around the town. I didn't even get a picture of the Cathedral! We did get some fireworks the night before we left. Although I maintain that they were telling us good-bye Rick says it had something to do with Sept. 16 being their independence day! I will stick to my story thank you!!

So, we left Guaymas (without pictures of the new bottom either!) on September 17, 2008. We headed out around 0830 and had to motor most of the morning as there was no wind. Late in the afternoon a real nice wind came up, 10-13 knots, and we sailed the rest of the afternoon. Mostly we were on a beam reach then later we were on a broad reach. Late in the afternoon we had to turn on the engine and motor/sail as the wind was dying out. That evening we had zero wind and took the sails down and motored all night. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful sail. I sat around and soaked up the sun and just relaxed and reveled in the beauty of the day and the water and being back on the move. I love the cruising life!!!

The next day there was no wind at all and we had to motor the whole day! We have not had to do that in a long while. In spite of having to motor it was another glorious day. It is amazing how quickly a day will pass even though it seems like you are doing nothing! With the modifications that Rick did on the stern and with the new bottom paint we sailed and motored much faster then we had since we left Oregon. When we got near BLA we saw a whole school of dolphin and 8-10 whale spouting off near shore. We didn't get to close to the whale but it was still awesome.

We arrived at our first stop at 1700 on 9/18. We stopped at Puerto Don Juan which is a great little anchorage just outside Bahia de los Angeles. It is, so far, one of my favorite spots. We had intended to just stay overnight but it was so cool (not temperature wise!)  that we stayed until Sunday 9/21. We swam every day and heard coyotes on the shore at night. We also saw a big turtle swimming around a couple of days. We rowed to shore to check out a boat that was beached and to walk around. While we were there two different boats that we had met in Mazatlan came in and we got to catch up with them and share our adventures. For some reason I failed to get pictures there too!! I guess I was just to caught up in the beauty and relaxation. The water was so nice I loved swimming every day. There were no bugs or bees so I cooked on the BBQ and we ate in the cockpit every night. The day we left we saw one bee and we heard from the boats that were still there that the next day there were a lot of bees so I guess we picked a good time to go!!

We up anchor and motored around to Bahia de los Angeles (BLA) on Sunday. We anchored a little off Gillermos restaurant where most cruisers land their dinghies. It's a nice restaurant and the guy that owns it is very helpful. We had fish tacos there and they were really good. Now, understand that we have fish tacos everywhere we go, so when I say theirs was really good it was really really good!!!

The shot above is of the cathedral and of two sailboat sculptures. I guess you call the sculptures, they are made of some kind of metal pipes. They look way cool from the boat. The town is spread out along the bay front. There really is not much here, several stores that cater to the fishing tourists and a few motels. Being spread out you have to walk a ways to get to anything but not really that far. The store that has the internet has desk top computers you can use that have Skype on them or you can plug yours into their system. They do not have Wifi. The system is reliable but sometimes slow. It is also very popular early in the mornings before it gets to hot. There are a lot of anchorages within hours of BLA. On our way back south to La Paz we plan on stopping there again and checking out some of them. It is a great place to summer as you can get fresh fruits and vegetables in BLA and then hit the anchorages in the area for swimming and snorkeling. We have also been told that you can swim with Whale Shark!! Since they are not interested in eating humans and are the largest fish in the world I think it would be a lot of fun to swim with them! We haven't seen any yet but we really didn't get a chance to see much while we were there. Here is a small picture of one.

They are the largest living fish and can grow up to 40ft. They are filter feeders so there is no danger to swimmers.

While we were in BLA we had a little storm cell go by us. It did not rain on us but as you can see below there was some rain

I got some shots of the town from the boat but it's kind of far away. As I said it is a long skinny town.

We left BLA and headed to Refugio, a neat anchorage on the northern tip of Isla Angel de la Guardia. We had to motor all the way as, again, there was no wind. We left BLA around 0830 and got to Refugio at 1600. Again, the first thing we did was jump in the water and go for a swim! The sea has awesome water to swim in. We only spent one night there but we did see a turtle swimming around. It was a nice place to spend the night. Below are a couple pictures of our approach to Refugio and the anchorage it's self.

The approach to Refugio. From the south you have to go around the big white rock (white from bird droppings). So from this approach we went to the left and hung a right and shot straight in until we passed the first large section you can see, which is an island though it's hard to tell from this distance.

                                      This is a view of the shore as we were anchored in the west bite of Refugio.

After Refugio we headed over to Willard. The cruising guides indicated that there wasn't much there but a resort but we found a lot more buildings then stated. We were a little unsure of how low the water got there so we were cautious and stayed near the entrance. Next time we will go farther in and maybe go to shore. At this point we were just making the trip up to San Felipe.

North end of Willard. Not sure you can call it a town, just a lot of buildings.

South end of Willard. A lot more buildings but not sure if there are stores

The very very North tip of the mouth of the entrance to Willard. Someone's private house. We saw them launch a motor boat.

So, next time we will go ashore and check things out a little more. This does not seem to be a place cruisers go to but one can never tell.

Now we are in San Felipe. When we first got here it was early 0830. We had left Willard at 1630 the night before as we calculated that it would take 20 hours or so. But!! We did not count on our faster speed and it only took us 13 hours. Way cool huh!! So we came into the harbor (man made with breakwaters) and got a slip. We met Mary and Wolf who live on their power boat docked directly across from us. Mary gave us a driving tour of San Felipe and took us to immigrations with her. We did not end up renewing our visa's here as we found out they expire in December not October as we thought. Anyway, we got here on Tuesday morning and left for San Diego Thursday morning. We got back from San Diego this last Thursday, Oct. 9. So far I only have a few pictures of San Felipe, just the marina as we have not gone exploring the town yet. The one picture I want to share right now is of the docks with the winds doing about 28 knots.

The wind it's self was not so bad but it really kicked up the waves and we, along with all the other boats here, really got beat up! We were slammed against the docks and jerked away so hard I got sea sick! So bad that I had to leave the boat and go up to the marina office. I spent the time playing on the internet to have something to do. That was yesterday, 10/11. Today it is doing it again but not nearly as bad. The forecast is for even worse on Monday but if it is from the NNW it won't be as bad. Rick spent the whole day on dock line watch. Literally the whole day. Below are some shots of the web of lines he put on to keep us from getting banged up too bad.

Even with these lines we had a couple chafe through and break and a few small ones snap. He was running around watching all day. He had to adjust as they stretched and watch for chafe. Every boater here was doing exactly the same thing. More then one had lines snap and one boat, a small motor launch, left the slip and either anchored out or I think took his boat out of the water. The ponga's did not go out and the Shrimpers anchored on the other side of the bay against the breakwater.

So, enough for now of San Felipe. I hope to get into town and get a few more pictures before we leave. It seems like a nice town to explore.

Well, I did not get back into town for pictures as we continued to have fun with the waves! After three days of fighting the swells and trying to keep TIGGER from being damaged against the docks we said enough is enough and during a lull with the help from friends on JACARANDA we threw off the lines and went to the north end of the harbor and anchored out. That was Monday night the 13th. Tuesday the winds continued as hard as ever but we hardly noticed them being safely (hahaha) anchored. Well, we were safely anchored as far as the winds were concerned however, the ponga's are a whole 'nother story!! We had a nice man in a ponga come over to the boat to ask if we wanted camarones (shrimp). Rick went outside and said no thank you but as he took off he swung the back corner of the ponga into the E of Tigger on the port side! It punched a hole clear through the hull!

If you tip your head slightly to the left you can see that it hit us right in the middle of the middle leg of the E. It punched all the way through the hull but was high enough off the water and did not hit any structural places so although it looks bad it could have been a lot worse!

This is an up close shot. Realize that I had to hang over the side and stick my arm down but really could not focus so it is a little blurry.

This is a shot from inside. I was obviously agitated and did not focus but you can see well enough the damage.

So much for leaving the dock to avoid damaging the boat!! Well, the next morning at 0130 we left good old San Felipe and headed back to happier times!! Rick of course did a quick bandage fix on the outside to keep water from getting on it and then planned to fix it when we got back to BLA. Thus ends our trip to the very northern most part of the Sea of Cortez.