SUMMER 2009

So, now we are in the Sea of Cortez.  I am going to start with May when I returned from my trip home. I got back to La Paz where Rick was anchored at the Magote on Tuesday, April 21. We hung around La Paz visiting with people and provisioning until Monday May 4. We took off that morning and headed out. We were only going as far as Calita Lobo, maybe a couple hours out. Well, we made it as far as buoy number 4!! Our prop failed! What a way to start a new trip. Not to worry, we had a spare so we just pulled over to the side of the channel, anchored, and Rick jumped in and put on the spare prop. 45 minutes and we were on our way.

It may be hard to tell but this is Rick's back. He is in the water under the motor well pulling the old prop.

     this is the back of Rick's head while he put on the new prop.

not the most interesting pictures but since I had nothing to do I figured what the heck, people need to know that it's not all fun and games out here. We (Rick) does have to work on the boat occasionally. OH, and by the way, the only reason it was necessary to fix the prop right then and there, and not just sail, is that there was no wind at all.

So, after that was taken care of we continued on to Calita Lobo. I did not take pictures there this time as I put pictures from there in last years page.

After Calita Lobo we went to Calita Partida. Calita Partida is a neat little anchorage that is right between Isla Partida and Isla Espiritu Santos. These two are joined only by a low sand spit that is mostly covered during high tide.

There is a fishing camp there but nothing else. It is a favorite spot for a lot of people including the charter boats. Watch out for those charter's. The last ones that anchored in front of us decided to hang out (literally) in there birthday suites for an afternoon. (not young folks either) Well, actually only one of them did but I made Rick stay inside the rest of the afternoon until she decided to get dressed.

From Calita Partida we headed up to Isla San Francisco. It is a neat anchorage shaped like a great big hook. There were a total of 12 boats anchored in there by the end of the day. The pelicans were having a grand time too. These next two pictures were taken at night so I had to play with them so you could see the pelicans swarming all over the place. So, the colors are not really good but remember it's just after sundown.

Anyway, I hope you get an idea of the number of pelicans that were just swarming all over the anchorage that night.

After Isla San Francisco we jumped over to San Everisto and spent a night there. From there we headed up to Los Gatos. This was another overnight stop and not much around to do or take pictures of. It is a very nice anchorage to just hang out. There were some reefs that we could snorkel on but we choose to move on to one of our favorite places, Agua Verde.

When we got to Agua Verde Aegean Odyssey was there. We had a great time kayaking with Karen and snorkeling the rocks around the anchorage. We went into the little village and got a few grocery items, including Agua Verde's famous (with cruisers) goat cheese.

Above all the snorkeling was the most fun. I finally got to use our water proof camera and took some pictures underwater!!!

This one might be hard to see but directly under the fish, hiding in a crevice, is an octopus! You can just see it's head.

This one is one of my favorite fish. He is so colorful although this picture does not due him justice.

After we left Agua Verde we went to several different anchorages and spent a day in some and several days in others. There was new or unusual to record until we got to San Juanico. There we found this wonderful little water birds. I have no idea what they are but they were fascinating to watch. I made a little video clip and I am going to put it here. I hope this works as it is really cool.

Of course, our all time favorite are the dolphins. We have an old digital camera and the shutter speed is slow so it is hard to get pictures of these fast moving creatures. So, below is my attempt at capturing these beautiful creatures!

Here is another video clip. I really hope these work. I am not that good at taking pictures or videos but this is better then nothing and I thought you would enjoy it.

This last picture may also be hard to see but what these are are Ray's jumping. We were anchored at Sweet Pea cove on Isla Marcos just 10 miles from Santa Rosalia and it was about 0600 in the morning. There were dozens and dozens of them all over. Again being action it was hard to get good shots.

I think I will stop here for now. I need to get this out before we head up to San Diego for a few days. No, not by boat!! We will leave the boat in Santa Rosalia and take a bus. I will add to this when we get back.

June 25, 2009

We are back in Bahia Conception at El Burro cove. We will be here for two weeks, until after the 4th of July. There is a party/potluck here that we hear is great and a lot of cruisers attend. We were here for a week or so before going to Santa Rosalia for a trip back to San Diego. Conception bay is a long bay, nearly 25 miles long, that runs roughly NW/SE. Slightly less then half way in is an area that has numerous anchorages. It is very well protected and a great place to hang out. You can stay in the bay and yet visit a bunch of different places. The water, because it is protected from the sea, is really warm so snorkeling and swimming is a joy!! Rick said yesterday it was almost to warm as it was 86 degrees. He said it almost felt like being in a bath!

We had a great trip down here from Santa Rosalia. We even put up the spinnaker. For those who are not sailors that's the big sail that you see flying off the front of the boat and usually is very colorful. These shots are not that great as I had to take them from the boat and the sail is so big but it kinda looks cool.

 it looks a lot better when someone else takes the shots.

So, after Rick spent 20+ minutes putting it up.........it flew for maybe 5-10 and the wind died and I took it down.

and for those who want to know, Rick puts it up and I take it down because it's easier to get down then to put it up!!!!!!! And it is a lot of fun!!!

Anyway, after we got it down the wind, of course, came back up even stronger and we ended up doing 7.5 knots the rest of the way to Punta Santo Domingo where we stayed one night before heading into Bahia Conception and El Burro. Rick jumped in the water in Domingo and found this........

the color was so amazing and it has these spiny things all over it.

There are many houses around the different coves here. There is no electricity or running water so each place has to put in their own solar panels or generator, mostly solar panels, and bring in their own water. Below are some of the houses.

As you can see, there is a big difference in sizes in the houses around here. Some are very simple small places with palm fran roofs and others are obviously much larger and more elaborate.

We went snorkeling yesterday and had a great time. The water was in the high 80's and it felt like swimming in bath water, especially near the surface as that water was even warmer. Below are some of the pictures we took. It is so much fun having an underwater camera, even if it can't go more then 10' deep.

Some of the wild life is more elusive............

And some are just scary!!!!!

While we were snorkeling Rick picked up an admirer........

The orange is Rick's gloves. The little guy below hung around with Rick for more then an hour, never leaving him. Eventually another little guy came along and joined them

 It was amazing how they never got any further away from him then what you see here.

We will be here in this area until after 4th of July but I won't be able to publish this until then and the guy that has internet here has a broken router and is waiting for a new one. So, until then!!!!

July 7, 2009

We are now back in Santa Rosalia. We spent 4th of July in El Burro doing lots of fun stuff. We started the day at 0600 getting ready for a hike up a mountain that has petroglyphs. We never did find them but we had a great hike with our friends from Native Son. Her name is Barbara but for the life of me I can't remember his. We also had a great view.

Barbara and her husband from Native Son

Below are a few shots from the top

Santa Rosalia is great and we look forward to spending about a week here. We will then head further north to Bahia de Los Angeles for the rest of the summer. We should have internet service there but, as was proven in El Burro when Geary's inter went out, anything can happen.

See ya next time.

August 1, 2009 - Santa Rosalia (again)

We are back in Santa Rosalia for a week. We left here on July 13 and headed up to Bahia de los Angeles. We stopped at two anchorages on the way up but didn't stay long as the winds were with us and the forecast was that the winds were going to start coming from the north. We stopped at Punta Trinidad and Bahia San francisquito.  They were both beautiful anchorages but I did not take pictures as they really all start to look alike in pictures.  In person it is so beautiful though!

Anyway on the way north we spotted tons (no pun intended!) of whales. It was so amazing! Some were really far away and all you saw were spots but some came fairly close. None came so close we worried about it though.  Below are a few pictures we took. The one on the left is a large whale but I don't know what kind. The ones on the right we think are pilot whales and there was a whole pod of them. I always want a closer look but worry about getting to close!

So we arrived in BLA and hung out near the village for a couple of days and met some new cruisers, Trumpeter. Anna and Gary. We hung out with them for a day or so then headed south of the village, still in the bay, to a anchorage called Gecko Beach. There is really nothing there but a few private houses but it is more protected from the night time westerly winds that can come up and be really strong. Also we had been told that it was a good spot to see whale shark. We hung out a couple days and didn't see any so decided to back to the north end. On the way over we ran into (nearly) two whale shark! It was great. They swam right by the boat. They were so close Rick got some really good shots.

This is what you see first

Then when they get closer.............

And closer.............

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      WOW!!!!!!!!!! This is his head.

They are so hugh! These were actually smaller ones. They get as long as 40 feet! Our next goal is to go swimming with one! Several cruisers have said they did. One even said he "caught a ride". I don't think I will go that far! They are not a danger to humans in that they would attack you but they are still hugh and to swim they have to use their whole body not just their tale. That is  a lot of weight thrown around! I will swim near and take pictures! I hope.

One other thing we got a picture of was a ray. I don't know what type this one is and the picture isn't the greatest. We actually took the picture from the back of the boat looking down through the water. The water was so clear we could see the bottom and this ray. I had to adjust the color so the ray would stand out. What I will show below is the original picture then the adjusted one so you can actually see the ray.

They really aren't the greatest pictures but I wanted people to see that we can see the bottom from the boat. The water is so clear, we were in about 20 feet here. There are a lot of different kinds of rays from very small to very large! They are fun to watch when they jump out of the water and do flips.

So, since we are back in Santa Rosalia we got a few more pictures here. Santa Rosalia has been a copper mining town since the middle 1800's. At first the french had the concession. In 1954 the French left and a small Mexican company took over. In 1986 the mine was shut down but has since been reopened a little farther to the north of town. Below are some shots of the old mining equipment they have set up around the museum. We still haven't made it inside the museum.

                                                                                                                                                                          Hotel Frances - 1886 still operating

We have had a great summer. We were hot as I said in my First Mates Log but it was not unbearable and the swimming really helped keep things down.

This is a shot of Puerto Don Juan. There are not many boats in here now but during the hurricane alert there were 22 boats.