Boat’s ready, crew’s ready. Time to go! I’m just about to untie the dock lines and say adios to continental soil for a very long time. The passage ahead fills me to the brim with excitement. It’s going to be an experience different from anything I’ve done before, and I’m looking forward to the challenge. It will be a test of determination, endurance, motivation, engineering, navigation, leadership and most of all, seamanship.
The first leg is 2,800 miles to the Marquesas Islands, which I expect will take between 23 and 28 days, depending on the weather. The first challenge is to get off the coast of Mexico into the NE trade winds. The weather can be quite calm for hundreds of miles out to sea, so the trick is to wait for a pulse of wind coming down from the north to carry us out into the stronger wind. Many boats are still waiting here, watching the weather forecasts for a significant signal to go, but a few are now starting to push out from Mexico to try and find wind. I think it’s better to be making some headway, if only slowly, than sitting in a hot, airless marina twiddling thumbs.
We sail south west for about two weeks (!) to the northern tip of the doldrums – an area just north of the equator where the NE trades and SE trades meet. Up until this point it should be pretty plain sailing, with the wind behind us or off to one side, warm and relatively calm. Often, sailors complain of too little wind. Once we get to the doldrums (otherwise known as the ITCZ – Inter Tropical Convergence Zone) the weather gets much more unsettled – think monster tropical thunderstorm cells, squally weather, and rain … interspersed with dead calms. The idea is to cross through this as fast as possible, which is why the line on the map above ducks southwards for 500 miles or so. We might have to motor through here, so I’ve loaded up with many cans of extra diesel.
You can see the current wind conditions on earth.nullschool.net, an excellent representation of the GFS global weather data. The green dot on the image below is the Marquesas islands.
Pacific winds on 9th March, showing a wide band at the doldrums (ITCZ)
Once we’re through the doldrums, we turn to starboard and with the south east trades behind us, make the final 800-odd miles to either Hiva Oa or Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas. We should be able to average 4 knots or so, which means we average 100 nautical miles a day. That’s the plan, anyway.
I’ll be sending updates from the satellite phone to the blog, but no pictures. It’s only sea and sky anyway, so nothing much to see! Though I’m expecting some pretty epic skyscapes as we go through the doldrums…
Mother earth, give us fair winds and calm seas.
Rafiki, do what you do best and carry us safely through whatever conditions come our way.
Off we go!
After waiting in line in the Puerto Vallarta baggage hall for maybe an hour and a half, I finally got to customs. There’s a button to press – if you get a green light, you’re clear to go through, but if you get a red light then the questions and searching begins. The lady before me got a red button, so probability was on my side. While her bag was searched, the customs man was looking my big, suspicious bag up and down, no doubt running questions through in his head. My turn came, I pressed the button, and got a green light. Whoopee! Through the airport, picked up a taxi and back to the boat. Rafiki was all well, but a little grubby from two months sat in a marina. Even though I was starving hungry, I found I had to at least give the cockpit a scrub down before unpacking bags and filling my belly.
It’s been a busy week, getting every thing ready. David and Eva, my Swiss crew, arrived on Monday with home-made biscuits in hand. We spent the day getting to know each other, and settling in. The rest of the week has been spent on a bunch of jobs, me working on the boat, David and Eva ticking things off their todo list and hunting down a place to make copies of the charts I brought out from the UK. We borrowed a huge stack of charts from a local boating group, but it turns out that the ones I’d picked up from the Admiralty were the best for having as emergency backup. We’ve made copies of a few old, interesting looking charts though – to put up on the wall later! David + Eva have packed a sextant and large stack of astro navigation books, so we hope to be proficient old-time navigators by the time we get to Australia 🙂
The boat was pretty much ready for an ocean crossing back in October last year, since the sail down the outside of the Baja peninsula is remote and long. Still, 2,800 miles of open ocean, and then a further 5,000+ miles of sailing to get to the other side of the biggest ocean on the planet requires a certain amount of preparation. In fact it’s a logistical behemoth. This will I’ve ticked off a few final jobs; adding a third battery, two more solar panels, inner forestay for the storm jib, and running backstays to support it, and then a load of little things around the place.
David and Eva splicing backstays, late into the nightExtra solar panels, smuggled through customsForestay attachment and running backstays … had to cut a huge slot in the front of the mast … eek!Forestay – lower attachment on the deck
On Friday we did our first major food shop, spending over three hours and thousands of Pesos in the local supermarket … and having to take TWO taxis back to the boat with all the food. With a bit of extra shelving squeezed in here and there, and by squirreling things away under the floors, Rafiki soaked it all up easily. Shopping for many months at a time is an interesting challenge. The first time we’re going to be able to get decent supplies once we leave Mexico is 8 weeks later in Tahiti … where it’s expensive. So we’re packing in as much as we can carry.
Food everywhere! Here screwed under the floorboards
Last night we spent at anchor outside La Cruz, 10 miles north of here nestled in the corner of Banderas Bay. We got a good shakedown sail, making sure everything was functioning as it’s supposed to. I tightened the rigging, got the water maker back in action, and we threw the boat around a bit. All systems checked out A-OK. We’d made extra copies of the charts for some other sailors here in the bay, and delivered them up to La Cruz too.
Typical Mexican fishing sceneGrabbing a couple of kilos of dried fruit
The group of boats making the voyage from the Americas across to Australia or New Zealand are called “Puddle Jumpers”, and they have their own radio net each evening to give position reports to each other, and catch up with any other news. It’s on a shortwave radio system (SSB) that I can only receive, since I don’t have a transmitter. It’s the first time I’ve sat down and listened in … the first step towards being out there ourselves. Boats were checking in from as far as Panama and the Galapagos. There’s a “net controller” that will follow us all the way to the Marquesas – these radios transmit a long way. I’ll be sending position reports in by email, and another boat will be reporting us on the net. There’s a list of other boats jumpin’ the puddle here.
The same position (and weather) reports will be displayed on the Rafiki tracker, which I’ve put up on the blog. I hope to get a report sent every few days.
Tomorrow we do our final food shop for fresh food, fill up with water and propane, and get our Mexico clearance papers. Then we’re ready to leave! I’ll post again before we set sail…
As I pull into the drive the sky is just beginning to lighten up over the Berkeley hills on the eastern side of the bay. It’s early, not even six yet. There’s some flower round here that smells amazing at night, and it’s still going strong. I’ve just got back from dropping Rose off at Oakland airport – she’ll have just taken off. Hopefully with a window seat, so she can see the beginning of a new day over the Sierra Nevada as I watch the same sun rise over the back of Angel Island. Makes me think that it’s been quite a while since I last saw a dawn. We’ve been living indoors for nearly two months, though it feels a lot longer that we left Mexico. A lot has happened. And yet, compared to the next few months, it feels like things haven’t even got going yet. Crazy times ahead.
This time last week we moved to an empty apartment under Ali and Kate’s neighbour’s place, right on the water, and already it feels like home, even though there’s no furniture. We’re getting used to living out of bags, in a different place every few weeks! Now I’m doing the final cleanup, and then off to the airport again. All change. I feel so lucky to have been blessed by the generosity of new, but now very good, friends – staying at their place on the north side of the bay and enjoying time hanging out with Rose. I’m fizzing with a potent cocktail of emotions; a combination of excitement about the adventure ahead and sadness at not seeing my amazing, beautiful wife for a long time. Intrigue – what’s Rose going to discover in Paonia, what am I going to discover in the South Pacific? Both physically and psychologically, we’re starting out on some interesting journeys. Bring it on!
For the next four or five months I’ll be aboard Rafiki, squeezing the most light out of every day; catching almost every dawn and every dusk. And probably being awake half the nights, too, while we’re at sea. Getting up at 3.30 this morning reminded me of the feeling of forcing myself on deck when body and mind are saying “not now, sleep some more!” Night sailing can be the most beautiful time at sea, but I love my sleep…
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I got through check-in without having to pay any extra for my rather overweight bags, and through security without any questions, even with a remarkably bomb-like EPIRB in my hand baggage. Let’s hope getting into Mexico is this easy. I scuffed up my new radio to make it look used, and most other stuff is pre-owned from eBay so hopefully there shouldn’t be any crazy customs fees. Fingers crossed.
How many eggs will three people eat during a month at sea? What if we rip the main sail to shreds in a storm? How much diesel are we going to carry? What do the team back in Bristol need from me to be able to carry on with my projects when I’m gone? Will 2 inch bolts be long enough to through the pad-eye and the deck when I fit the new inner forestay? Is there anything else I need to do for my Federal or State tax returns? Do I need a Visa to get into New Caledonia? Are there any more spares I need to buy for the boat?
My head’s full to bursting in the final lead up to departing for Australia. As for Brightpearl, the promised “two months of intense work” has indeed been just that, ramping up in the last couple of weeks too. Long hours at the computer day after day. A trip to the UK to be in the office there for a while. Coding, thinking, planning, tweaking, testing. I’ve been getting headaches from thinking too hard for too long. Old Mr Brain isn’t used to this!
I’m coming up for air every now and then to make sure I’m on top of everything that’s needed for the trip ahead, making last minute purchases and downloading information off the interweb. My bag is full of shiny stainless steel bits, hi-tech ropes, charts, a storm jib, new EPIRB, couple of extra solar panels, games and a whole load of other gubbins. I hope they don’t sting me for import duty…
I’ve not been able to put as much time into mental preparation as I would have liked, my mind has been kinda preoccupied. I’m sure I’ll switch straight back into the groove as soon as I step out of the plane in Puerto Vallarta though. I’m really looking forward to getting back to a slower pace of life. The beautiful open expanse of days with not much to fill them with. Spending every hour outside, seeing every dawn, every dusk. Reading. Thinking. Meditating. Navigating. Just sailing along, keeping the ship in shape and the crew happy. For thousands and thousands of miles…
Rose is getting ready for her residencies in Colorado and Canada – we leave San Francisco on the same day in just over a week’s time, going our separate ways for a while. Being apart for at least a couple of months is going to be a tough one, but we’re tough and will see it through, journeying our own journeys and being able to share lots of stories on the other side. At the moment we’re staying at a buddy’s place on the north side of the bay – they’re away in Hawaii at the moment and we have the place to ourselves. It’s right on the waterfront with postcard views over Angel Island and the Golden Gate Bridge, we have our own room and a car to borrow. Thanks to their kindness we’ve been spared from going crazy in the small, skanky apartment we had in the city when we first arrived. Here we can just enjoy the space and get down to work without feeling cramped. Thanks guys! Grandma arrives on Sunday and is going to be moving into our room so we’ll need to find somewhere else. Best get those bags packed again for another move. I wonder where we’ll be living next week!
Half my time is spent focussing (or trying to focus) on work, getting as much coding done as possible, liaising with the rest of the team back in Bristol in the early mornings and then bashing away at the keyboard for the rest of the day. The other half is thinking about the upcoming trip to Australia; planning, researching, plotting routes on charts, reading about other peoples’ experiences, running scenarios through my mind. Context-switching between the two is quite a challenge. Sitting down all day is making me all antsy. I’m the only one in the office today due to a protest on the BART (subway), and I’ve been running up and down between the desks to spend some energy.
We’ve been in San Francisco for a week, and I’ve not traveled more than a mile or two away from our apartment and the office. Fortunately I have no real desire to get out and explore, for me a city’s a place I stay in not out of choice but necessity. Noisy, busy, smelly, intense. We’re staying in a tiny 300 sq ft studio with windows that look out onto a blank wall, in the Tenderloin district – not the choicest cut of meat when it comes to SF neighbourhoods. But that’s all we can stretch to with the rent being so ridiculously high, and it’s convenient. I thought that the fridge cycling on and off on Rafiki was noisy, but it’s nothing compared to the aged monster of a machine sat in the corner of our room that rumbles, grumbles and grinds through the night. Last night I shuffled it around a bit to stop the reverberation which I think has improved things a bit.
If we were going to be here longer, I’d be keen to make friends and feel a bit more settled, but only being here for 6 or 7 weeks, with a lot to do, I’m at the computer pretty much all the time. Rose has been out and about catching up with buddies, and getting on with her research and art, leading up to her next Big Leap in Colorado and Canada.
So, much of the same for the next few weeks I suspect.
Today we fly back to San Francisco for a couple of months. It’s going to be a big change. On the rattly, shaking, only-just-in-one-piece bus today I was watching the palm trees flash by the window thinking how natural it feels. We’ve been in Mexico for more than two months, and have done a huge amount. We’ve voyaged down the remote, arid coastline of Baja California, spending beautiful nights at sea under the dark, starry sky. Sailed with friends around La Paz and across to Mazatlan. Sat out 50-knot winds in the Sea of Cortez. Moved from anchorage to anchorage, discovering the surroundings at each new port and bay. Dealt with the heat and humidity, which hasn’t actually been as bad as I thought it might have been – apart from a few days around San Blas in December. Snorkelled around remote islands, surrounded by boobies and frigate birds. Spoke Spanish every day, gradually improving, learning how to get boat parts bought or repaired, and getting our fill of fish tacos. Become familiar with Banderas Bay; the whales in it and the towns around it.
2000 miles from San Francisco to Puerto Vallarta
But we’ve reached another crossroads. Work calls, and I need to be full time in the office for a while. Again we’re packing bags for another move. Deciding what stuff stays and what goes. We’ll be in SF during Jan and Feb, and then Rose is going to spend a couple of months on art residencies in the US and Canada. And then I’m going to be heading back down here again at the start of March to set off for Australia! With the ship’s First Mate away painting, I’m currently looking for crew – a process I’ve not been through before, but I’m really looking forward to getting to know some new, interesting people.
The boat is pretty much ready to go; the last few months have been a good shake-down of all the systems. I bought a third marine battery yesterday and built a shelf for it under the aft cabin bunk – the first passage across from Mexico to the Marquesas Islands will be nearly 30 days non-stop sailing, with the autopilot on most of the time … which uses a fair bit of power. I’m going to squeeze in a trip to the local solar panel store just now to see what they have available, and maybe pick something up to install when I get back. That just leaves a few minor jobs, the task of filling the boat with months’ work of food, water and supplies, and then waiting for a good weather window. I can’t wait.
But for now, all that goes on hold while I get my head down for a final, intense push in the office.
Back on the boat after a few days away, it definitely feels like coming home. We spent a couple of nights up in Mexico City – wow, what a crazy busy place. We’d been before, a few years ago, but I still wasn’t prepared for the incredible mass of humanity. The first of the two days wasn’t so busy – a Saturday – we took a bus through the never-ending suburbs to the ruins of Teotihuacan and spent a leisurely day wandering around the ancient pyramids and temple structures. But on Sunday we headed into the old central district of the city. It looked like the other gazillion residents had the same idea. Every street was packed with Mexicans. Big streets, and lots of them. And fairly big people. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people in one day! A fun couple of days though, definitely getting a feel for a different side of Mexico. Exhausted, we made our way back to the bus station for our overnight bus.
Busy busy streets
Arriving in Puerto Vallarta fairly rested, we picked up some bags from the boat and then took a water taxi 25km across the bay to Yelapa – a small town where the only access is by sea, by foot or donkey. We’d booked a beach house, a pelapa, for a few days over Christmas. Typical wood and palm construction, just like the ones we used to stay in at the coast as kids. We got dropped off by the water taxi on the local beach, dodging waves to get bags ashore without getting soaked. The village was a short walk away, along the rocky coast path.
No cars in Yelapa, just a few quad bikes and battered old motorbikes to help ferry provisions and building materials around. The odd horse wanders through with home supplies on its back, without an owner, knowing where to deliver the goods. A quiet, peaceful place – couldn’t have been more different from Mexico City. Though the waves crashing on the rocks just below the front of the house were relentless – we had to shout to be heard, whether the tide was in or out. We played games, explored the village and beach, and spent a day wandering up the valley for an hour or so to a waterfall. A chunky dog followed us all the way – perhaps 4km into the hills. When another group left the waterfall, he followed them back until we overtook them … then he was on our heels again. We finally lost him in the narrow alleyways of Yelapa.
We made a Christmas “tree” from a twiggy branch we found in the sea, and decorated it with whatever we could find. Turns out beer cans made pretty good baubles!
Leaving Yelapa in the water taxi
On the 27th, we headed back to Puerto Vallarta, where all five of us crammed into a small taxi for the 10 minute ride to the marina at the north end of town. Unloaded all the bags onto the boat and relaxed for the afternoon. Next day was a town day, back in the old town area of PV – the southern end. We’d got Sandy and Jenny a food tour for Christmas, and while they were off exploring taco stands and dulcerias, Ozzi Rose and I caught up with emails, supped coffee and watched the world go by. Lots of touristicos down this end of the town on the Malecon – the big long boardwalk that runs for kilometres along the beach front. And loads of market stands and gift shops; with stuff ranging from cheap junky tee shirts to multi-thousand dollar Mexican art; life size jaguars covered in teeny tiny beads.
On the 29th we had a leisurely morning around the marina, then set sail for Punta de Mita. Within a few hundred yards of leaving the marina entrance we found our first whale, and a lone dolphin. The wind picked up, so we managed to sail – but it was on the nose so it took a little longer than expected, tacking up to the north end of the bay only 15 miles away.
We arrived just as the sun was setting, rushing to get the anchor down so that we could enjoy a rum’n’coke surrounded by the warm colours, peace and magic that comes at the end of pretty much every day round here. Looking back at Yelapa from the other side of the bay, it seems that there’s a different weather pattern over there; cloud cover under the large mountains that make up Cabo Corrientes; the headland at the southern end of Banderas bay.
An early start to get to the Marietas Islands before the hordes of tour groups. We upped anchor at daybreak, and motored out through calm seas. Within minutes the first panga sped past at four times our speed, loaded with people in bright orange lifejackets. Arriving at the first island, we saw all the tour boats hanging around. Looked like everyone was in the water snorkelling. Later turns out that this was the “hidden beach”, and they were swimming in. We carried on past, to the western island, and picked up a mooring as another boat was leaving. Another yacht came in just behind us, and within an hour, we were surrounded by motor boats, tour boats and hundreds of tourists in the water, swimming, paddle-boarding and kayaking.
We spent the day there – great snorkelling, swimming, relaxing, people watching. Hearing that the secret beach was on the other side of the first island, we took the dinghy for a recce. Still hundreds of people swimming around late in the afternoon, so we decided to stay on the mooring ball for the night and motor round early in the morning. Had a peaceful night at anchor. Though Sandy heard a boat come alongside early in the morning, voices in the dark, and torches flashing into our boat … but neither Rose nor I heard anything, so we were a bit puzzled.
Look! A fish!
Even at 8.30 the next morning the cave entrance was full of little orange lifejackets as the first wave of explorers swum in. We picked up a mooring ball, left Rafiki to fend for herself, and jumped in to join them. Yes, it’s a pretty dramatic beach, and probably does qualify as one of the more impressive beaches in the world, but the crowds really detract from what could be a truly magical place. The first boats must have arrived soon after daybreak. We got out of there before the real carnage of mid-morning, and sailed / motored gently back to La Cruz. On the way back, we had our closest whale sighting yet; not twenty metres off the bow was a “whoosh” of breath from a big, slow moving beast, gracefully making its way across our path. Its tail came up to prepare for a deep dive, and then silently slipped below the surface without a ripple. We didn’t see it again.
We stopped in La Cruz marina only to fill up with diesel, and then dropped the anchor just outside to rest for the afternoon. Rose and Ozzi took the kayaks out. A chap motored out from the marina to take a look at the kayaks (which are for sale), but decided against it. Boo. I don’t really want them on deck if I’m going to be spending a long time at sea.
Late in the evening we hauled in the anchor and sailed south, towards the fireworks planned for midnight off the Puerto Vallarta malecon. A lovely land breeze powered us along at over six knots in perfectly flat water, and dropped off just as the fireworks begun. Being out in the bay was an amazing place to watch them from – all the different shows all the way up and down the coast were spectacular. Thousands of candle lanterns we being launched from a spot just up the beach, floating off gently into the sky like slow-motion shooting stars in reverse.
No space is not an excuse not to dance!Welcome 2015!
Back to the marina for the rest of the night, and then a restful morning before dropping family off at the bus station for their overnighter back up to Mexico City. A really nice couple of weeks. Now to catch up with some work, and prepare the boat.
Son Saturday morning, we spent a final morning in Matanchen Bay, waiting for wind to carry us on south towards the next stop, Chacala. Wonderful jungle and mountain scenery around the bay – Emma took a good panorama:
Matanchen bay, San Blas
When ashore, we left our dinghy in the hands of Tony and Rodriguez, where we managed to get our first coconut drinks of the trip 🙂
Usually any wind there is comes along around midday. With Chacala only being 20 or so miles away, there was no point motoring in the morning and sitting around at anchor during the windy afternoon, so we were in no rush. After a short while motoring, a little breeze came in and we managed to get the spinnaker up for the rest of the afternoon.
Well trained crew getting the spinnaker down
Dropped the hook in the bay just as the sun was starting to give some colour to the dramatic skies forming in the west. A storm out in the Pacific was pumping up some impressive cumulus clouds, and also sending some good sized swell into the anchorage. To stop the boat from turning side-on to the waves when the wind dropped off, which would make it too rolly to sleep, we set out a stern anchor to hold the back of the boat towards the beach and the bow towards the incoming waves.
With both anchors set and holding well, we rowed ashore to find a mojito. Chacala (the beach front at least, we didn’t explore more) seems like a lovely little place, no big hotels or condos; just a few bars on the sand and houses amongst the palms rising up onto the hills around town. The dinner menu was too tempting, so we ended up filling our bellies with nachos too, before heading back to the boat. A beach bar was thumping out music well into the wee hours, which turned into karaoke at 3 in the morning – so the night wasn’t peaceful.
We woke ourselves up with a swim to the beach for breakfast and fresh coffee in the sunshine. It doesn’t get much better than this!
Breakfast view – Rafiki at anchor at Chacala
Sunday 14th
Leaving Chacala mid-morning, we motored and sailed 40 miles to Punta de Mita, just inside the northern end of Banderas Bay. We anchored as the sun was setting, and had a tranquil night at anchor.
Emma takes the wheel!
Monday 15th
Set off in a light morning breeze for La Cruz, further along the northern shore of the bay. La Cruz is a popular spot to anchor, with a marina, shore services and a community of people that spend months here on end. It was the busiest anchorage since La Paz, but plenty of space for loads of boats. Pretty hot, and not much breeze. I scrubbed weed and barnacles off the bottom while the girls relaxed, and then we explored ashore when it got cooler in the late afternoon. Not many people around. It feels like the off-season; maybe the Christmas peak hasn’t come yet, or maybe tourism is just bad this year? A nice little town though, I can see why people prefer to be up here rather than down in the big city of Puerto Vallarta.
Looking out over the anchorage at La Cruz
Tuesday 16th
Anchor up again in the morning, for a short 5 miles down to Paradise Village marina where we planned to be based for the next few weeks. Ended up waaay down the end of the marina, in a slip by a casino, car park and road – not ideal. We made use of the pool, had showers, and spent some time online. Being a long way up an estuary, the water was dead calm and there wasn’t a breath of wind – which made for the calmest night since we were at El Cid marina over 2 weeks ago. It’s only when the boat stops moving completely do you realise that at anchor the boat is always moving, even just a tiny bit.
Wednesday 17th
Next day we caught a couple of buses into the centre of Puerto Vallarta to explore. I also wanted to check out the other marina in the area, to see whether it was worth moving, and if they had any spaces. Turned out that there was plenty of room, and it looked like a much nicer place to be based. Fortunately we’re only paying day-by-day up at Paradise Village. We wandered along the malecon (beach front), did some Christmas shopping, and then took a series of 3 buses back up to the boat.
Paradise Village is in Nuevo Vallarta – a few miles up the coast from Puerto Vallarta. It’s a “beach resort and spa” – full of tourists, shops and tackiness. There’s a yacht club there which appears to be the social hub of sailing in Banderas Bay, but again it seemed really quiet – we stopped in for a drink before making a basic dinner aboard.
Thursday 18th
Last day with Emma! It’s been an awesome couple of weeks, seeing a load of different aspects of Mexico – from the remote island of Isabella to the dusty, hot streets of San Blas, and the bustle of Puerto Vallarta. While I went and sorted out the marina fees, the girls cleaned the boat; emptied water tanks, filled with fresh water and prepared to move the boat down to Marina Vallarta, about 5 miles further south.
Marina Vallarta from the bar at the top of the old lighthouse … see Rafiki looking small in slip 4 of the first dock!
With Rafiki settled in her new slip, we spent the day doing errands and chores. I checked the boat in with the Capitania de Puerto; basic paperwork that needs to be done at each major port. Some ports are OK with just a radio check in / out, but as we’re leaving the boat here for a while, it’s good to be on their records properly. Turns out the slip they gave us is right next to Jeff on Amante! Just time for a final beer as the sun set over the marina, up in the old lighthouse, and then goodbyes before we jump on the bus up to Mexico City to meet Rose’s tribe.
Finally it feels like we’re slowing down and starting to soak up the tropical coast of Mexico. We’re spending more than one night in places, and spending more time resting and exploring than sailing. Emma joined us nearly a week ago in Mazatlan, where we stocked up on fresh fruit, veg and of course a big bag of tortillas, and then set off for Isla Isabella – 80 miles southwards. Sailed through the day with plenty of wind behind us, sun and calm seas – a perfect introduction to tropical passages for Emma. Late in the afternoon we saw a couple of whales – probably humpback, with the biggest breach we’ve seen so far.
We sailed on through the night, but ahead of schedule, we had to do a big dog-leg to pass time so that we arrived during daylight. As we approached the island, another boat came powering out of the darkness and snuck into the anchorage just ahead of us, taking the last bit of sandy bottom. We had to anchor over rocks, which sometimes makes it hard to get away again with tangled chain, or sometimes the anchor won’t set properly. We dropped our hook over a nice solid looking ledge, which was strong but gave us some trouble a couple of days later. First job; get in the water! The island is a natural reserve, with supposedly the best snorkelling on the Pacific coast of Mexico. With clear water at over 32 centigrade, it was good – loads of different species of fish of all colours, but very little live coral. I cleaned the barnacles off the bottom of the boat – they’d attached themselves in the week we were at Mazatlan in polluted water. We’re also a bit heavy, and low in the water, so the antifoul paint doesn’t come all the way up to the waterline. That’s something I need to figure out how to sort … ideally without hauling the boat out of the water.
We spent a couple of days exploring the island and the sea around it, meeting up with folk on another couple of boats; Jeff, Paige, Kim and Conrand on Amante, and Rob, Nancy and Mike on Shindig. The island has thousands of nesting frigate birds and boobies, including the rare blue-footed boobie. Most are not afraid of people, so we managed to get up pretty close. Iguana too, though not large one, and I think just a land species.
During the second night, the wind swung around, and we dragged our anchor chain neatly around a large boulder on the sea floor. This meant that whenever the boat rose on a wave, the short chain came tight with a nasty crunch. Sleeping in the forward cabin wasn’t really possible; Rose moved to the main saloon, but I stayed up front as I wanted to try and stay awake to listen for anything breaking. If the chain had broken, or something else gone awry, we would have been on the rocks of the island pretty quickly. It wasn’t windy, but we were only anchored in 4m of water not far off the shore. Morning came without any problems, and as is often the case with noises it sounded worse than it was. We spent a while shuffling the boat back and forth around the boulder to free the chain, then headed off towards the mainland.
Isla Isabella is the white star
9 hours of motoring later, in calm, grey, humid weather, we arrived at Matanchen Bay, just south of San Blas, where we anchored way out in the middle, hoping to be out of range of the attack squadrons of mosquitoes and jejene bugs. Amante had arrived a short while ahead of us, and invited us ashore for a beer – right into the depths of bug territory, at the worst time of day (sunset). We went anyway, plastered with bug repellent. After a couple of beers and a bit of leg slapping, the bar owner wanted to close up so we headed back to the boats where we joined up for dinner aboard Amante.
Spent Thursday exploring on land – starting with a “Jungle tour” up the river to a crocodile sanctuary. Mangroves turned into trees, rushes and reeds as we bumbled further upstream, eventually ending up at a slightly run down place where they had a range of creatures in cages. Crocs, parrots, pigs, deer, coati (something I’d never seen before – a bit like a possum) and a couple of agitated looking jaguar in a cage that was too small and too much concrete. Just around the corner from the sanctuary was a restaurant with a netted-off area of river for swimming. Nice to get the salt off!
Caught a taxi into San Blas to get some lunch – tasty fish tacos on the street – and have a look around. The look-around turned into a lazy afternoon in town, and we ended up getting back to the beach at sunset again, walking through the mangrove swamps just as the nasties were rising to go out hunting for blood. Running, for the dinghy, we threw a couple of dollar bills to the guy looking after the boats, and dashed out to sea. Everyone came back to Rafiki for beers, drinking late into the night – late for us being any time after 8pm now!
It’s been really humid for about a week now; I’m not sure if it’s just the weather at the moment, or the location. We’ve not had much wind. Hopefully it will get a bit drier soon. All the bare teak on board is dark with moisture; little specks all over the floors where I’ve dropped tools and damaged the varnish over the past year. Our veg only lasts a few days – oranges going mouldy pretty quickly. We washed all the fruit and veg in an iodine solution in Mazatlan to kill bugs and make things last longer. Getting used to food management in the tropics!
Off to town now to stock up on provisions again, and find some internet.
Puerto San Lucas > Los Frailles > La Paz > Isla Espiritu Santo (two separate anchorages) > Maztalan
We arrived in Puerto San Lucas, in San Jose Del Cabo, a couple of days before Dan and Mel arrived, which gave us time to get on with some work. A load of Ospreys around – causing trouble with peoples’ masthead instruments. I ran a stick up the spin halyard to make it harder to land, but the cheeky thing still managed.
Osprey kept sitting on our instruments even after I put a spike up
We left Puerto San Lucas and headed around to Los Frailles – an anchorage about 35 miles up the coast. Hopped over the side – water at 32 degrees! Some good snorkelling.
Dead crab at Los FraillesAnchorage in Los Frailles, first stop after Puerto San LucasFresh shower on deckPipe fishStripey fishMore stripey fish
Then round from Los Frailles to La Paz – 100 miles upwind through the day, a windy bumpy night, and then into La Paz the following afternoon.
Leaving Los FraillesSunset in La Paz
Stocked up on food and fuel in La Paz, then a short day sail across to Isla Espiritu Santo – a large open bay on the south western side. Spent a couple of nights here, exploring ashore, having fun in the water and relaxing.
Dan and Chris practicing backflips off the boatsFrigate bird colony on Isla Ispiritu SantosIsla Ispiritu SantosLoads of dead puffers on the beachAnchorage on Isla Ispiritu SantosRowing back homeDan paddling at sunsetMmm BBQStrong wind up to La PartidaGetting the main sail tucked awayBeach at La PartidaAnchorage at La PartidaHappy crew!Diving over the sunRafiki, La PartidaFishing shacks on the beachLeaving Baja for the mainland – still windy on the tail of a northerSquid on deck in the morningDinner!Maybe a bonito?Anchored off Club Nautico in Mazatlan
Road and Ocean 