We're looking for the trash fence...

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.

The Cove of the Dead or the Bay of Dreams?  I laughed when I read that…really? Local land developers have been hard at work over the past few years trying to eradicate the name of this desolate little fishing village in hopes of attracting more clients to their high-priced resort.  Marketing dollars hard at work, even in Mexico.  The bay hosts several rather imposing homes perched up on cliffs overlooking the Sea of Cortez and an exclusive resort with individual infinity pools for each bungalow, horseback riding trails and a golf course.  Even the menus at the local restaurant (attached to the very expensive golf course and resort) read the “Bay of Dreams”.  They make really awesome nachos, by the way, we highly recommend them.

We arrived in Ensenada de los Muertos after one failed attempt at leaving Los Frailes two days prior.  During the winter months there are wind storms, called Northers, that race down from Colorado and Arizona and kick up some serious steep seas and increased velocity as they make their 600 mile journey down the Sea of Cortez.  The day we left Los Frailes, Deep Playa and her crew would experience their first Norther.  We had weighed anchor early in the morning to make some good headway up north after listening to weather reports that the Northers would start blowing later in the afternoon. We figured we could easily make it almost to Los Muertos before the full brunt of the Norther took hold.  After rounding Cabo Los Frailes well before dawn the seas and winds were calm enough that Patrick went down below to catch up on some much needed sleep.  I was just settling into enjoying the hint of a sunrise when I noticed the seas and wind start building…10 knots (that’s nothing), 15 knots (boat speed is slowing a bit now), 18, 20, 22, 25 and gusts up to 30 knots.  I thought, well, let’s see if we make it around this next point, perhaps the winds will shift and we won’t be beating so hard.  That was not to be the case and I watched the knot meter drop from 5 knots to 3 knots and then to 1.5 knots!  For those not familiar with what that actually means when applied to speed on land, let’s just say your Grandma using her walker would have made it to Los Muertos well before Deep Playa showed up.  I finally had to wake up Patrick to reassess the situation and make an executive decision to turn around and head 3 hours back or try to beat it the rest of the way to Los Muertos.  After the boat literally drove off the top of some of the steep waves and the towers located on the land weren’t moving south any longer we decided to pack it in and turn around.  With the wind and seas on our stern, we wound up making great time back to Los Frailes! :-/

The second attempt to leave Los Frailes behind was much more successful and we had a pleasant motor-sail.  Along the way up to Los Muertos we were boarded by the Mexican Navy. Yes Mexico has a Navy! The officer was maybe pushing 18 years of age.  All they wanted was to review our paperwork and ensure that it was in order.  The officers were very polite and respectful.  He even became uncomfortable when he was asking for my age. What a humbling experience it was for the two of us.  Their uniforms were ill-fitting and well-worn, they wore dress shoes (no boots), their guns were rusted, and the zodiac that transported them from the mother ship to ours was, to put it nicely, well-loved.  He politely thanked us for cooperating and asked us to sign a piece of paper that stated that we did not have pay a bribe nor were we abused by them in any way.  We happily obliged.

We finally reached our destination later that afternoon and proceeded to quickly pass out after a long day’s sail.  The next morning I got up early and rowed the dinghy ashore to do some exploring and go for a long run along the out-stretched white sand beach.  I also really wanted to check out this exclusive resort for myself.  I had the most wonderful run along the shore. The beaches were riddled with fenced off areas where mamma sea turtles had come ashore to lay their eggs some days prior.  I was hoping to catch some scrappy little ones making an escape, but no luck.  I ran around to the south end of the bay until I could run no further and decided to check out the resort.  I casually pretended as if I belonged there as to not attract attention to myself.  I wandered around for a while amazed at the luxury before me, while not quite grasping the fact that we were in the middle of NOWHERE in a DESERT!  I am not sure how that place stayed open while staffing, from what I counted on my short walk, four groundskeepers, two receptionists and several people who groomed the sand on the beach.  Crazy.  I went on my merry way after a couple groundskeepers began eyeballing my activities. I had a challenging row back to the boat which took a little longer as the winds had picked up while I was exploring onshore.  After putting the dinghy away and working up a good sweat from the exercise, I proceeded to jump into the crystal clear blue 80 degree water to cool off.  Now that was my kinda luxury.

Our next stop on our way to La Paz was Bahia los Frailes which is not too far from the Tropic of Cancer at 23° 27’ N.  The trip north was well planned (actually it was more luck) because we had an amazingly speedy motor sail with south winds and south swells, which is highly unusual for this time of year.  We were enjoying trying to best each other’s fastest speeds while surfing Deep Playa down the large swells.  We arrived in Bahia los Frailes and were yet again taken aback by the lack of protection from the Sea of Cortez.  Patrick and I had become so accustomed to well-protected Puget Sound anchorages where we rarely were exposed to anything except tidal changes and swift currents. But we quickly got over our concern and dropped anchor close to the beach in 5 fathoms of crystal blue 83° water in good holding sand tucked behind the large headland of Cabo los Frailes.  Cabo los Frailes juts out into the Sea topped by Cerro los Frailes (the Hill of the Friars) which rises 775’ above sea level and provides some good protection from north winds and swell.  I had big plans of climbing that bad boy the very next day in hopes of taking some pictures of the breath-taking panoramic views.  According to one of the guidebooks you could scramble to the top even though there were no trails.

Bahia los Frailes Anchorage – Deep Playa in the background

I was so excited to wake up early the next day to go exploring the very long white sand beach and hike up that hill.  Patrick, on the other hand, was let’s just say, less than enthusiastic about the idea.  As we set out early in the morning to avoid the heat of the day we hiked closer and closer to the foot of the hill.  Patrick was growing concerned as it did not look as if it offered good holding on its steep scree-covered hillside.

Cerro los Frailes on Cabo los Frailes

Patrick, being an experienced climber, vetoed the whole plan as there were fairly large areas of recent rockslides and not to mention the loads of really good hiding places for snakes. I understood the logic but I was extremely disappointed anyway.  So instead we hiked a little while over the dunes and went into the village in search of a restaurant that, according to the guide book, offered cervezas fria.  We stumbled into the little fishing village and RV park where we ran into some Americans and Canadians that made this place their home for 6 months out of the year for the past 15-20 years!  We asked about the restaurant and learned that the old guy who ran the place just passed, in some unusual circumstances, three weeks prior and that no one had come forward to take it over.

No cerveza fria…it’s closed.

As luck would have it, the little village was host to a couple locals who had brought fresh organic produce from the farm a few hours away. Oh I had been craving fresh lettuce and other veggies to make a huge salad.  We had used up our last stalk of celery and carrot just a few days earlier for a rice and beans dinner.  They were also patient enough to allow me to practice my Spanish and helped me with pronunciation. “Lechuga” (holding up lettuce) “Si Senorita!” “Ajo” (holding up garlic) “AH hoh Senorita”, stressing the A and H syllable, and so it went back and forth until my veggies and fruit were packed in una balso (bag) and taken back to Deep Playa. That night I made a huge taco salad complete with fresh avocados, chilies, tomatoes, peppers and black beans.  Muy bueno!

Fresh produce from local organic farmers helping me with my Español!

Since we were planning on leaving early the next morning to head further north 50 NM to Ensenada de los Muertos we went to bed early.   We will be back again soon enough to explore further and to enjoy the long beautiful white sand beach.

That was a question all cruisers were asking each other after the completion of the Baja Ha Ha XVIII in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  Cabo San Lucas is located on the most southern tip of the Baja Peninsula in the state of Baja Sur (South in Spanish)  It is affectionately known as “Cabo” which means cape in Spanish.  Hablo poco Español There are only a few choices.  Either you head north to La Paz for Thanksgiving (which we had planned), take the couple days sail over to Mazatlan or do the Baja Bash, which is for those who were not continuing on cruising in Mexico and must beat their boat and crew back up the Baja peninsula 785 miles to San Diego (ughhhhh no thanks)  If not for Matty coming for a visit, I think Deep Playa and her crew would have spent a couple days recovering from the Ha Ha and then skedaddled outta Cabo.  While Cabo has it’s “must see” attractions, for instance Playa del Amor (Lover’s Beach), Neptune’s Finger, and the 85 degree water, we really didn’t enjoy the city very much.  We knew it would be a tourist town but I don’t think we were totally prepared to be barraged by locals pandering their coffers especially after experiencing such remote and quiet anchorages on the western side of the peninsula. Patrick and I quickly got very tired of saying “no gracias…no gracias…no gracias” that we joked about opening up our own little store in Cabo pandering t-shirts and hats to tourists that simply read “No Gracias!”  We had heard from other cruisers that the bay was very rolly with loads of jet skis, parasailing boats and of course, cruise ships.  All of these nuisances added up to make for an extremely uncomfortable sleep and stay aboard Deep Playa.

Playa Del Amor, Cabo

One of the highlights of the Cabo trip was Matty’s visit.  We hadn’t seen Matty since leaving Seattle 3 months prior and we kinda missed the big ol’ jerk.  (We really do love ‘em though)  It was Patrick and his 40th birthdays the end of October, so we had planned to celebrate both in Cabo.  After some trials and tribulations and communications issues we finally met up with Matty late at night in down town Cabo.  There was nothing better than seeing (and hearing) Matty running across tourist central to receive a big welcome bear hug.  Matty treated us by allowing Patrick and I to stay in his suite for a couple days (which had a huge warm shower AND a laundry) at Sirena Del Mar Resort http://www.welkcabo.com/ not too far from where Deep Playa was anchored.  This resort was beautiful, cheap and empty!  There were only a few couples staying there throughout our entire visit.  The staff was A+ and so incredibly friendly.  He also gave me a little gift by taking Patrick away for a road trip further north, where I then spent the whole day lounging in total solitude listening to breaking surf and swimming in pools warmed by the Mexican sunshine… ahhh bliss.

View from Matty’s Balcony at Sirena Del Mar Resort

After all the Ha Ha festivities were complete and Matty departed for Seattle we quickly weighed anchor and departed Cabo to head north 17 NM for a more remote and relaxing setting.  We left Cabo for San Jose Del Cabo to get a slip in Puerto Los Cabo Marina We were lucky to acquire a slip in the section of the marina that moored huge luxury cruising and fishing yachts.  Let’s just say that we brought down the property value a bit during our stay. We were able to finally relax (after cleaning Deep Playa for the first time since departing Monterey, Ca) and enjoyed being in Mexico!  The marina’s grounds were so beautiful and well-groomed by very hard-working groundskeepers.  The marina was encircled by winding paths and gardens that contained paintings and sculptures from local Mexican artists.

Patrick pretending to be impatient with me.  He’s standing in front of one of the local artist’s sculptures

I took off on my own several times for some much-needed exercise and felt very safe running on the beach and through the tourist areas in San Jose Del Cabo.  (Don’t worry Mom I asked the marina security staff if it was safe prior to my departure) We also enjoyed 2 for 1 all day happy hour (well only 11AM- 6PM) at Tommy’s Restaurant across the marina.  They have really great tacos (which we wound up sharing due their large size) and a very good Mexican BBQ chicken pizza baked in a wood-fired oven.

Tommy’s Restaurant complete with a pup to stand guard (or to take siestas)

Soon it was time to cut the dock lines once again and head north towards La Paz so we could could meet up with our friends from Seattle, CB and Tawn from s/v Palarran, who would be joining us for some sailing and exploring the last week in November.  Next stop, 28 NM north to Bahia Los Frailes.

This morning we headed out early with the hopes of making it to Ensenada de Los Muertes before the forecasted winds would build to 20kts around noon, according to the GRIB. Well noon was apparently at 0700 today. We made good time until then we were driving into 20kts at 2-3kts and pounding seas. So we turned tail back to Los Frailles as did three other boats.

I just went over the Sonrisa Net, Buoy Weather and a new source I found Stan’s Weather Pages. Only Stan had it correct. His forecasts are available on Saildocs, here’s a link to his home page: http://www.weather.solmatesantiago.com/

We’ll be cross-comparing more but its nice to see one guy who got it right.

<click through to see the video>

I love to do me some research and as I was figuring out what to do about our fishing setup, I read The Cruiser's Handbook of Fishing by Scott and Wendy Bannerot. I even had a couple of one on one email exchanges with Scott about our setup. Some of the advice is a bit outside our budget the general advice in the book is awesome and I highly recommend it.

I did end up following some of his advice and bought a really big Penn 12/0 Senator  reel (used on EBAY). I originally had planned to mount this in a fixed fashion without a pole on the stern pulpit. I couldn't figure out how to make that happen and others advised me I'd never be able to reel in any sizeable fishes that way. Now if you get an Alvey Deck Winch which is mentioned in the book (>\$1000 not available in the US) then yes you can do this. We made a last minute purchase of a pole in West Marine in San Diego. And now that we've caught and landed two 15" bonitos and two 36"+ Dorado I can tell you yep, without being able to "pump the rod" to get slack line form the fish, there is no way we could reel in those suckers without the rod.

The rest of our gear includes several lures which were recommended by Outdoor Emporium in Seattle. I forget the guys name, but he was awesome! Our lures break down into the "Mexican flag" colored feather looking squid things, a purple and black cedar plug and a red\white cedar plug. We caught bonito with the Mexican flag and we caught the Dorado with the purple\black plug. My assumption was the Dorado eat the bonito and the purple\black looked more like a bonito. Throughout the Baja Fleet boats were fishing with similar gear and caught similar to us as well as a 67" Wahoo and some squid of various sizes. One boat was even using homemade lures made from Heineken cans with good success!

In order to land the fish, you need a gaff to haul it on deck. The retail gaffs were too short to pull a fish onto our boat or too expensive so, we made our own. The gaff hook itself is the same as the commercial ones. We bought it at the chandlery in Newport, OR. For the pole, we used a broom handle.

When we bring the fish alongside the boat we gaff it, haul it on deck and hold it down and use cheap vodka to subdue the fish by spraying it on its gills and in the mouth. This makes the trashing stop pretty quick. We then bleed the fish and clean it on the side deck. The fillets are then soaked in salt water and taken below. Dawn does the final filleting and skin removal in the galley while I wash down the boat. The whole process can be a bit messy!

Our system has worked pretty well so far for fishing while on passage.

Not many updates from us in a while, too much fun, too little wifi. I did want to take a second and throw up the link to the Baja Ha-Ha XVIII Flickr group I created. https://www.flickr.com/groups/bajahahaxviii/

This has nothing to do with Latitude 38. If you want your pics published you need to follow the link Andy Turpin sent out to Smug Mug.

If you don’t care about that, don’t want to upload 5 photos at a time, or just prefer Flickr, then the group is a great way to do bulk uploads and share your pics. The group is public anyone can join. I tried to tag all my photos with names of people and boats and the locations are mapped in Flickr or in the EXIF data on the images.

More stories about the trip to come…

Just a quick hello I turned 40 day. So go drink a beer in my honor! We caught two Bonitos this morning and they will be our special dinner tonight.

Currently sailing in very light winds but 70F and sunny. We're on our way to Bahia Santa Maria. Will be there in two days or so.

Talk to you soon!

After many months of motoring into the wind and being cold, we're officially sailing wing on wing and to top it off we're in Mexican waters ! Woo Hoo!!!

We started the Baja Ha-Ha yesterday about 11am and the entire fleet was instructed to motor due to light winds. This morning after the 0730 position reports on SSB everyone was told to start sailing and tracking any time spent motoring. The Ha-Ha isn't really a race so motoring is something they just ask that you track and report with your self tracked times. We don't really care about "our time". Nor do we even know what they will do with them, but we're using the fleet directions as an opportunity to compare what we're doing with others. We actually started behind most of the fleet and passed by some of the smaller (slower) boats during the motoring. At this mornings position reports we seem to be within 5-10 miles of most of the boats in our division (boats of similiar size) so that was reassuring.

Sojourn, a sister Pearson 424, is also in the Ha-Ha!! We had no idea, Scott the owner isn't very active on the list. I got some pictures of him as he was motor sailing yesterday. I'll upload them next time we have WiFi.

If anyone has information on taking Spanish lessons in Cabo San Lucas, La Paz or anywhere else, drop me a note. I'm thinking about doing that, but the one place I saw was over a thousand dollars... or was it Pesos.. it wasn't clear. ;-)

Anyway, things are good. Things are Sunny. Viva Mexico!