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Life in La Paz, Mexico

Posted on Thu 22 December 2011 in Destinations

Deep Playa has been in La Paz for nearly a month now so I wanted to write a blog post about our experience of “living” at anchor in Bahia de La Paz.  So far this is the longest extended stay in one anchorage since leaving Seattle (with the exception of leaving for a couple short day sails).  La Paz is an international port city in Baja California Sur (B.C.S), Mexico in the southeast corner of Bahia de La Paz on the Sea of Cortez.

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The Malecon in La Paz

It is a must stop over for cruisers who are on their way up the Sea of Cortez, crossing the Sea to mainland Mexico or for those prepping for the “Puddle Jump” to the South Pacific in the Spring.  There is a cruisers VHF net at 0800 on 22A Monday through Friday which provides you with very helpful information like weather, marina updates, bay information and valuable “local” knowledge about where to find what you need.  We also joined the local cruiser’s club that is hosted in Marina de La Paz, Club Cruceros de La Paz  http://www.clubcruceros.org/. They do a lot of charity work in the local community and provide a wealth of knowledge to cruisers about the area and cruising in Mexico. A lot of the members have been living in La Paz for more than 15 years! We understand how cruisers can get stuck here for extended periods of time!   We will definitely be utilizing more of the services they offer when we return in the Spring when heading north up the Sea.

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La Paz Beaches lining the Malecon

Life in La Paz is pretty relaxed and laid back.  While there was the occasional rumor about a dinghy that had rode off into the sunset all on it’s own, we felt perfectly safe and occasionally left our dinghy unlocked at the dinghy dock at Marina de La Paz (which does have security).  I took multiple runs throughout the city, mostly on the Malecon, which wraps along the coast for several miles, and even has a nifty stop where they installed exercise equipment for pull ups, push ups, sit ups and stretching.  Getting around town was no problem when on foot and we had a couple copies of local maps which aided in the effort.

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La Paz City Municipal Pier

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Palm trees against a bright blue sky

The Collectivos (local small buses that are more like taxis) are a cheap way to get around but take quite some time in getting familiar with their usage.  We have only been successful in taking one to the Soriana.  I am certain with more time we would be more comfortable in utilizing this cheap mode of transportation.  The local area hosted a multitude of marina chandleries (that sometimes monitored channel 22A), local restaurants, taco stands (we found our fav stand with \$10 peso tacos) and bodegas (little family owned stores with beer and soda) all within walking distance.  The local grocery store Chedraui was only a 15 minute walk from the marina and a 50 peso taxi ride back.  They had most everything that you could want from a grocery store and more.  There was also a Mega, similar to Wal-Mart, nearby, which also had a couple hair salons, coffee shops and little restaurants in the same complex. Although we didn’t venture that far there was a Home Depot and Wal-Mart.  We also were recommended to a local seamstress, Katty, from s/v Lightspeed http://www.ecosailingcharters.com/, who makes custom spandex dive suits for \$49 pesos each!  I got black, because it’s slimming, and Patrick of course, got green.  I am planning on making him a cape and a large P for his chest.  We totally look like super heroes! These will come in handy while diving in waters that are a bit chilly and infested with stinging jellies.   Patrick also found all he needed when it came to electronics at Radio Shack and a couple local electronics stores that sold everything from serial cables to tiny drum kits for little kids.  The two local stores he recommends visiting, which were cheaper than Radio Shack, are Sterens (across from the Soriana) and El Sondido Electronics.

I have to say the best part of La Paz has been hanging around with great friends from the Pacific NW, making new and solidifying relationships that we made along the way down the west coast.  We met up with our friends from s/v Eagle  http://www.sailblogs.com/member/bigleftturn/ who we last saw in passing at the start of the Baja Ha-Ha in San Diego, s/v Bella Star, who we last saw in Newport, Oregon, s/v Lightspeed, and s/v Ventured http://svventured.wordpress.com/who we see all the time! Smile  One of our fav spots for the cruising community is The Shack.  It is a great restaurant owned by a Travis, hailing from Texas, his wife, Rosie, hailing from Mexico and their two very cute kids.  This place makes the best coconut shrimp I have ever had (Rosie’s signature dish), huge Texas-sized burgers (and I don’t even like beef, but wow, this is something to be had), and awesome \$15 peso margaritas for happy hour.

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*Travis and his awesome Texan Blue Cheese Burger with Bacon

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*Sailor Jerry’s Kids Yacht Club has increased it’s membership quickly. We are still waiting for the dues to be paid!!

This was the destination to get together all the cruisin’ folks for a couple drinks and a round of darts (which I just learned how to throw, but not well).  Nicole from s/v Bella Star http://www.svbellastar.com/ is apparently a dart savant and kicked everyone’s ass including the guys who brought their own special darts.  Way to go Nickky! Smile with
tongue
out

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The Ringer!  Nicole with 115 points!!!! Johnny from s/v Michaela is stunned by her first-timer skills.

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Aaron and Jeannie congratulating the winner!

While the winds are blowing too hard for us to leave the boat at anchor, I have been trying my hand at baking on the boat (even though I really don’t consider myself much of one).  I have been craving cupcakes and pizza so I had to take matters into my own hands.  The cupcakes were a little heavy but you try to whip butter “until light and fluffy” by hand with a lousy plastic whisk!  Schweeeww what an arm work out!  But the whole wheat pizza dough came out pretty good.  Next time I think I will substitute 1/2 whole wheat flour with white flour to make it a little lighter.

Almond Butter Cupcake

Almond Butter with Roasted Peanuts                                   *

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Vanilla-Vanilla (made with vanilla scraped from pods) & Mint Chocolate-Vanilla

Homemade Pizza Crust

Homemade Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

Other than the occasional Norther (long lasting wind storms from the north) that forced us to stay aboard to ensure our anchor wasn’t dragging or inadvertently ramming into another boat, we thoroughly enjoyed La Paz and plan on coming back again soon. We are off to meet Patrick’s parents in Mazatlan for Christmas. We are definitely looking forward to warmer waters and weather further south. It is funny how quickly our bodies adapted to the existing environment. We had hoped to put all of the fleeces and long pants away for an extended period of time, however, I am currently wearing wool socks, long pants, a fleece and Patrick is wearing his skull cap to keep his bald head warm. It is 70 degrees outside. Last night we donned jackets and I actually began to shiver as the temperature dropped to 55 degrees.

Off to Mazatlan!  Feliz Navidad with the ‘rents!


Tired...

Posted on Mon 19 December 2011 in Living Aboard

It's a Charlie brown kinda night

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Beautiful Sail - Underway to Mazatlan

Posted on Sun 18 December 2011 in Uncategorized

We're about 71 NM from Mazatlan and we're sailing along on a beam reach in 11Kts of breeze with all the sails up doing just over 5kts.

We should reach Mazatlan just after sunrise. We plan to head to Isla de la Piedra (Stone Island anchorage) just outside old town. Sv Journey left Muertos right before we did -- actually, we left first, came back tightened the stuffing box on the prop shaft and then headed out. They have been about 4 miles ahead of us the whole way. They are also heading to the Stone Island anchorage.

Today we're also experimenting letting the Alpha Marine 3000 autopilot drive the boat instead of the Hydrovane windvane. A bunch of other cruisers have been using their autopilots instead of wind vanes, so I wanted to see how ours does under sail. The autopilot can only steer a compass heading, but the wind is consistent enough right now that its working great. The AMP draw is 9-12amps right now, but the stereo, computer, and NMEA network are also on and the refrigerator (6amps) cycles onoff occasionally as well. With the input from the solar panels we're only actually draining at 4.5Amps. Not too bad. We need more solar for sure...

Just wanted to drop a note to the blog. Dawn wrote a post last night with pics which we'll upload when we reach port.

All is well. Life is good!

Current Location 23°27.60'N 107°40.41'W


Back in Muertos!

Posted on Fri 16 December 2011 in Destinations - Mexico

The seas were too uncomfortable so we are now back on the hook at Muertos.


Heading to Mazatlan !

Posted on Fri 16 December 2011 in Destinations - Mexico

We're taking a little nap before we head off to Mazatlan tonight. We should be there Saturday morning. We really hope it's warmer; I had to put on long pants again. :(


Una Tuna!!

Posted on Mon 12 December 2011 in Uncategorized

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We caught this tuna today, but we can't figure out what kind. Any ideas?


Swaps n Trades - Survival Safety Engineering CARD

Posted on Thu 08 December 2011 in Uncategorized

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This is a Collision Avoidance RADAR Detrctor model number 050. Works, you just need to wire it up!


Serial Cabl

Posted on Thu 08 December 2011 in Uncategorized

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Here is what that filleted serial cable looks like after you've ID'd all the wires to the pins.


Actisense NGW-1-ISO Firmware Upgraded fixes incorrect Position passed to Icom M504

Posted on Thu 08 December 2011 in Nav Station

I have been noticing a problem with the position displayed in my Icom M504 VHF. My current latitude is 24°09.200N. But the VHF was displaying 2°49.200. The GPS data is fed to my VHF and my SCS PTC-IIUSB modem from the NMEA 2000 network via the Actisense NGW-1-ISO (NMEA 200 to NMEA 0183) gateway.

I contacted Actisense support and they suggested I upgrade the firmware in my NGW-1-ISO. That involved a multi-day hunt for serial cables here in La Paz. In the end, I found them at Sterens which is on Forjadores across the street from the Plaza de La Paz (AKA the Soriana shopping center) with help from the gang at Club Cruceros de La Paz. BTW, Sterens is an electronics store with all kinds of cables, connectors, and electronics doo-dads. More like a Radio Shack than a Frye’s, but better than the Radio Shack’s here and cheaper too! I paid \$89 MXN for 2 6ft serial cables.

Once I had the serial cable in hand, I cut one end off the end I wouldn’t be connecting to the computer. I then used the continuity test on my multimeter to label all the wires so I knew which wire went to which pin on the DB9 connector I would be plugging into my computer. You need to label each wire to its proper DB9 RS232 cable pinout because later you’re going to need to connect Pin X with the Red wire on the NGW-1-ISO, etc. This is not hard at all. Your digital multimeter has a continuity test. You stick one of the probes into Pin 1 and test each wire, when it beeps you label that wire as #1 and so on.

With all the wires labeled, I was ready to connect the NGW-1-ISO’s wires to the Serial Cable as specified in the NGW-1-ISO manual for connection to a PC. Once that was done, I ran Actisenses’s upgrade utility, selected the COM port the serial cable was connected to and performed the upgrade. I offer all that detail in case one of you needs to do it too. There currently is no other way to upgrade the non-USB Actisense gateways.

After all that, I connect everything back up to my ICOM M504 and the position is now being displayed correctly. This is VERY important in case we ever need to use the DSC Distress call on our VHF which transmits an alert and our position. Without this fix the position would have been wrong!

Crisis averted. The world is now safe for eating delicious homemade cupcakes which Dawn made last night. Its good here. Its very good here!


iPhone Personal Hotspot is AWESOME !

Posted on Mon 05 December 2011 in Gear

Dawn has been providing some travel log entries so I though it was time to give you some more geek info!

When we were a few months out from leaving Seattle I broke the screen on my aging iPhone 3G. I was tempted to get an Android phone because they are cheaper, but I loved all my iPhone apps. So, I broke down and decided to get the then newly released unlocked iPhone 4. Coughing up the small fortune for the unlocked iPhone 4 allows me to use the phone with any carrier in the world.

The other day, I finally had some free time to take my iPhone 4 to the local TelCel support center here in La Paz and bought a new sim card (\$150 MXN) and signed up for a month to month 3Gb data plan (\$500 MXN). They were having computer problems and it took HOURS to get my sim card setup so they even gave me 6GB for the first month and said I’d probably get 6GB again next month too!

You can refill your account at any OXXO store (like 7-11) or TelCel store or franchisee. By the way, everyone here in La Paz says you do not want to buy 3G modems or Sim cards from the franchisees or other stores.

Now that I have the data plan, I can tether the iPhone 4 to my laptops, ship’s computer, iPad, etc via WiFi, Bluetooth or with a USB cable and use the cell phone to access the internet from any device! Apple calls this iPhone Personal Hotspot. It works great and I still have an iPhone I can carry around and look at maps, etc while we are roaming around the town!!

I’d highly recommend using a phone that supports tethering. You could use other phones which are cheaper than the iPhone, I’m not sure which ones though. Getting the 3G USB modem is also great but it doesn’t give you the freedom of using a handheld mobile device in your pocket.