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The Logbook of White
Swan....Bob & Dianna
Return to White Swan's homepage
Return to beginning of White Swan's Logbook
(August - December 2004)
This logbook is in
chronological order...to see the most recent entries
click here.
Logbook: January - December 2005
January 3, 2005 Dancing On A Bed Of Diamonds Happy New Year
everyone! After 4 nights in Hell town...sorry, I know some people
liked Cabo, however since I was also challenged with some kind of
Mexican flu bug (I had to run down below with the bucket and have a
long talk with Ralf just as we were pulling into the fuel dock) I
did not have a good time there. I got a bit concerned about my
health after 3 more conversations with Ralf that day and my fever
went up to 100.4, chills, upset stomach and of course we have to
throw in the intestinal Mexican jumping bean serenade....yuck.
Bob ended up not feeling very well either, thankfully
not as bad off as me. It was good to wake up feeling a tiny bit
better the following day, at least I knew I would live, ha. We were
on a mooring buoy the first two nights, $20 a night! These moorings
were right in front of some big major hotels all with big open bars
with tables and lots of lounge chairs on the beach. The hotels must
of been full of college aged party animals and the amazingly loud
music seemed to never end with lots of those stupid drinking BJ,
ha). Now imagine three of these all going at the same time right
dead next to each other, just nuts.
Sleep did not come easy there. We finally moved over to an
anchorage a little further away. We were thinking about going into
the dock for a night, however, it was $2.75 per ft. per night...can
you believe that! I saw Cabo the first time I went cruising, in
1978. It was a beautiful quaint little town, now the American
influence is every where. The whole town seems built around the
entertainment of the tourists. There were two different cruise ships
in every day. The other thing that was a constant onslaught was the
jet skies, probably no fewer than 30 to 40 racing around at top
speed, the noise was deafening and along with all the panga water
taxis, like being in a non-stop squall and getting tossed around all
day long. I never really did get to be a tourist there, only doing
window shopping as we walked from Immigration, the bank and Port
Capitan to check in (Entrada) the first day. And since we messed up
and didn't do the check out (Salina) at the same time we had to go
through the same steps + one more two days later. Anyway, we were
out-a-there Jan. 1.
We had a good trip up to the first anchorage at Los Frailes
catching our first dorado (mahi mahi), he wasn't very big, maybe
22", and then we caught a Sierra which was bigger, maybe 32", we
would be eating fish that night. The anchorage was really nice, we
cleaned the fish and I wish every one of you could have tasted it
with us, simply marvelous.
We have been tuning into the "Amigo" net at 0715 on the SSB
radio, you can do a radio "check-in" if you wish or just listen.
there is also a weather report given by Don up in Oxnard California.
He calls himself an ammeter weather forecaster, however, it's a very
in depth and impressive report every day for Mexico (Sea of Cortez
too) and all the way south down towards Costa Rica.
We were planning on continuing north towards the next
anchorage the following day, however, his forecast for a bit of
nasty wind coming down from the north was correct and we ended up
sitting the day out at Frailes. Had a nice time on the beach, saw
little sticked off arenas where turtles had laid their eggs and
people who try to care for them come in and lay wire over the top of
the eggs so the coyote's can't destroy them. Then we went back out
to the boat and had...more fish!
That afternoon a mega yacht ("Triton") came into the
anchorage, has to be maybe 125 or so feet, big enough for a little
helicopter on board. They fired the little bird right up and went
off to see the sights...what a reality check. That night I spent
quite a while looking into the water, lots of phosphorescence
punctuated with these intense darting ambers, the eyes of needle
fish as they sprinted from one place to the next...hence the Dancing
in a sea of diamonds...just beautiful.
It's the 3rd today, can't remember what day of the week it
is, can't tell you all how good that feels. We had a great day motor
sailing and even a bit of sailing on our way to Ensenada de los
Muertos, the last anchorage before La Paz.
We got to see a small pod
of sting ray jettisoning themselves 6' out of the water while
they are madly flapping their winds and then hit the water with a gi
ant "POP", Bob now calls them popcorn rays, we were guessing their
wing span at about 3'.
We are looking forward to some dock time in La Paz, it is way more
reasonable than Cabo, I can hardly wait for a real shower, it's been
since the day before we left San Diego, Dec. 9th with our beloved
sun showers only. Can also hardly wait for the fresh market in La
Paz, I hear it rivals Pike Place. I will let you all now what it's
like. All for now...personals below
Bill Sullivan...hey...girlfriend...did you say girl friend? Do tell!
Steve and Kay, we hear you on the Amigo net every now and then,
sounds like you are making tracks. Thanks for all the great info in
the last email. We are still plugging along, having a good time.
Thanks for staying in touch.
Craig and Evie, Hello dear friends, yes, you can go to
familyyachtclub.com/white_swan.htm when you get there just click on
"log book". Hope all is o.k. there.
Robb Peele, I love you, I miss you, I hope I have found you again,
please type me.
Hi Jer and Monica, hope Xmas was a real good experience. Have an
amazing 2005 in your White Swan...hey, in espanol it's: "cisne
blanco"
Brock & Mary, Can you believe in a short number of days we will be
more than likely seeing Cecil? Of course we will tell him we saw you
last summer. Can you send us an email and let us know what size
electric pump you ended up using in order to get enough pressure to
get the water (fresh) through the Dalton filter and out? We went
through two that just weren't big enough. Thanks
Tom and Maggie,Thanks for staying in touch , I was hoping to see you
up here!
Rick Rawls and crew...did I already say...welcome aboard!
Larry and Margaret, Thanks for all your little notes, Cecil's email
is:
cecillange1925@yahoo.com
Of course we will say hello if he is here.
Rob and Linda, we are planning on probably a week in La Paz, what's
your plan from La Cruz?
John, Sarah and Rayna, thanks for the Xmas pics, it came through
huge so we had to scroll around to see it all. Sounds like Xmas went
well, icing and all. I was reading your email about Christina while
Bob was on the phone talking to her, what timing and what amazing
news!
Hi Boucher family, Congratulations! tee hee, weeeee
We have been here in La Paz since the 4th. What a treat being at a dock, we spent hours scrubbing the boat off and ourselves! We have visited with Cecil several times already, he is coming back tomorrow and hauling us to the grocery store so we can provision...we are leaving Mon. to head back south a bit and then will jump across to the mainland side, probably sMazatlan. We just may end up coming back up this way to winter and do our decks and also paint the house top, sides etc. We shall see how all unfolds.
Dear Brats, hey, a little bird told us you were trying to buy a house...wow, that's some cool news. Sounds like you are a bit burned with school T but doing really well, that's awesome. You go girl! Sounds like all had a good Xmas
Julie and Aaron, thanks for all the great news, so glad you were able to entertain for the holidays and sounds like everyone liked your new place. Wish we could of been there. Thanks for staying in touch and glad you are enjoying the letters.
Al and Sandy, wow, skiing, hard to imagine that sitting here in Mexico. Sounds like we may be doing a season up here in the Sea, stay in touch about what you find in the South Pacific.
P & K, hey Kath, now if I could of gone to Florida with you we would of been having a blast. Hope it goes o.k. and you find a little fun there. Also glad you are looking forward to the cruise. Let us know the itinerary, perhaps we could meet you somewhere along the way, now that would be cool! P.S., though several days had already past, yes, we did hear about the tragic events of the tsunami :(
Bill Sullivan, You are so fun, thanks for the wonderful update...and she picks fish...on your new friend...and she picks fish..., she sounds like someone I would truly love to meet...and she picks fish...love you!
Ron and Linda, o.k., uncle I am beginning to think we are going to cross paths as you may be heading back up this way. After talking with Cecil Lange, (the father of our boat), we may be looking at doing the work on the boat here, so I guess we will be hanging out with ya over the lay over? Hope so!!! Thanks for staying in touch, we don't want to loose track of you.
Denise and Dan, thanks for the email Denise, I would imagine trying to work on your boat this time of the year may be a bit of a challenge. Good Luck, I don't know if you remember, but you made these cute little hand made Xmas cards while you were somewhere warm down here crusing a few (ha) years ago and sent me one, I still have it somewhere. Sweet thoughts of you.
Merilyn...Bob tells me he sent you a quick email, this is a good place for you to hang for awhile, it is so "not" Cabo-ized. It's more a place for Mexicans on holiday plus the ordinary. Also a big network of cruisers. Miss you!!! Hurry along now :)
Dear Marilyn from Icarian, thanks for the email! Glad to hear you are doing so well on your own and that we have another great place to look forward to ahead. We...Maggie and Tom from Aurora B and also John and Linda from the MadHatter have all realized we all know you now. Stay in touch, sounds like you will be up here in the Sea for the winter, we may very well do the same so are sure to bump into you! Hugs P.S. Guess who is here...Stan and even Dave!
Steve and Kay, your emails are just full of great info for things to come, I am saving them all. Thanks, hope all is absolutely fabulous there, see you before too long.Note above last sentence to Icarian :)
Hey you Dave, you are so nice to write, no, your letters don 't need to be in code, though that was pretty darn cute. Sounds like your doing good and even getting some sailing in. Wow, sounds like quite the wind storm there, glad we missed it. We are doing great, looking forward to heading further south and playing on the mainland side for awhile. As far as the tee shirts go, we really don't have tons of room to stash a bunch of stuff, if you have a few and wanted to add them that would be cool. I will however, remember you seem to once again have an in with someone for a larger quanity.
Larry and Margaret, needless to say we told Cecil you said hello, he seems to being doing quite well,once again, his email is cecillange1925@yahoo.com he said for you to write. Shirley and Jim are leaving tomorrow, us Mon.
Rayna, Hi from Gala and Gampa, we hear you had a really fun Xmas and got lots of cool stuff from Santa! Please tell your mom we hope she no longer has that nasty cold and that we love her and your daddy very much. P.S. we are going to try and see your Grama Jackie and Gramp Dale...will let you know if we can and how that goes.
Jeff and Jenny, thanks for the note Jenny, yes, you are not forgotten either, love you 2 lots.
Kathy and Andy, Hi Kath, thanks for the email and all the updates, hard to think about snow, sounds like your holiday with your buds was really fun though. Glad you are liking the letters.
Brian and Susan, Sounds like we are right kinda behind you! Surley we will catch up soon, thanks for staying in touch...we are also looking forward to a little more heat!
Hi lil" buddy Elaine and Joe, glad to hear from you, no I do not miss owning a car! What a mess you have been through, sorry about that. Also thanks for the link to the blind sailors, I had heard of them and have been watch for them, what a trip!
P.S. all, forgive all the miss spelling's, I lost the last long letter I wrote here by going to spell check last time, so will for go it this time.
January 21, 2005 Hello friends, it's Jan. 21st,
I had the whole trip from Cabo San Lucas to La Paz and then
across the Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan (which is where we are
now...got in Jan 6th) all typed out in my colorful fashion and
had it saved away as I have always done, I just went in to work
on it again and it had vanished. I some how can not face
re-writing it all over again. Just know it was all a wonderful
and most interesting journey as the rest has been.
Many new sights, visits with old friends (Cecil Lange in La
Pa) and other old cruising buds. The crossing over the Sea of
Cortez was not one of the most pleasant with 30 knot gusts dead
on the port beam for about 30 hours to Mazatlan. This is really
a cool town, though big, def. not as big a gringo tourist Mecca
as Cabo. The Mexican people are very friendly and happy.
We are in the Marina Mazatlan which is full of blue water
cruisers. Every morning except Sun. there is a morning net which
is very informative and there is almost nothing you might need
to know or where to get that someone else can't help you with. A
lot of the folks here have been here for years. As tempting as
it would be to stay for Carnival (the 3rd largest in the world)
we are going to take off this coming Wed. for points south.
Hope all are well, we have heard you folks in WA have been
having some really lousy weather. It's much warmer (humid too)
here on the mainland, we have all our fans running today. More
soon, I promise to do my best not to loose another in-depth
chapter again. Guess I have slipped into the manana mentality
about re-writing the letter...we did see a huge whale on our way
in here...we also caught a mahi-mahi, a sierra and a tuna, saw
lots of jumping, flying sting rays and also another pod of maybe
20-30 small whales. It continues to be an adventure. Here's
hoping you are all well, safe and happy.
P.S., we have downloaded an internet phone calling Co. called
"Skype", Bob has made a # of calls out while we have been on
line, not sure how we get calls, someone calling us would have
to know when we were on line. Anyway, I will keep all abreast,
as it's a cheap way to go...computer to computer is actually
free!
Personals
below: P.S the spell checker from here does not seem to work, so
forgive all my errors...
January 26, 2005 With much excitement Bob somehow stumbled onto the original Chapter 16 I thought for sure had vanished. So even though I know you have all gotten the drift of the transit across the Sea, I am going to send this on along too.
From La Paz we went down to Ensenada de la Muertos for the night and then into the next Bay south, Bahia Las Palmas the next day to drop the hook in front of Los Barrelies where we visited with old friends. They got on the radio and guided us in, it's a very open bay, so we were glad the wind was settled enough to let us be there long enough for a visit. Thanks again Dale and Jackie.
We left the next morning at 4:00 A.M. and headed across the Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan with another boat "Mary Joe", a single hander we have been cruising with off and on since Newport Oregon. The crossing was...well, lively, with sustained young to mid 20's with 30 knot gusts out of the north west, so it was dead on the beam. The seas were about 6' with the occasional rouge 10' and way too close for comfort. Once again, it's a good thing it wasn't my first time sailing or I would of wondered why these crazy sailors do it. It is a blessing for me when it is challenging out "there" and I start to almost hate it to have one of the many sea angulls come to visit, they are the sea birds that make the ocean, not the land their home. It's anything but nice out there with the froth of the seas flying everywhere, and there...off in the distance you think you see something and then sure enough there is a seagull or the littlest of birds riding the waves from crest to trough and up to the crest again and then gently lighting on the top of a wave as if it's the most natural thing in the world. It really does help to give you a perspective and I do very much consider them my sea angles. Believe me, I know some of you may think this is the most romantic thing we are doing ever, however, there are many, many trying times of which you may be questioning your decision to give up all for the pursuit.
Thirty Two hours later we were tied to the dock at the 5 star resort El Cid in Mazatlan. We spent 3 nights there and decided we liked Mazatlan well enough to spend more time so we moved to Marina Mazatlan which is quite a bit cheaper. We have been into the city from here several times and found it most enjoyable, there are many really fabulous sculptures along what is known as the Malacon, the tiled walk way along the water front. The city is also in preparation for the huge festival "Carnival" which starts the 3rd of Feb. We have started a paper work process that will take at least a week, possibly more, we shall see how all plays out with how long we will stay.
There is a rather large community of cruisers here, it's pretty darn laid back, a nice facility and easy to do projects on your boat here. We attended a fund raiser for relief funding for the tsunami victims here tonight, it said: "just come, buy a beer for one peso, a hot dog for a peso and be glad you are alive". Pretty easy to do, our heads are still reeling from the thoughts of the event. At least we were spared all the visual media coverage you all no doubt saw. We are very much enjoying the diversity of the people we meet, from Doctors and teachers to the average Joe and everything in-between all co-existing and enjoying time together because of our common passion.
We had an adventure last Sun. catching the bus to Juarez on the outskirts of town, every Sun they have a 12 square block flea market, there is no way any of you can even begin to picture the amazing sight. Everything imaginable and more for sale. We finally got a "lot" overwhelmed and caught a Pulmonia...o.k., better give you a visual aid on that one...they are pretty much like a giant open air golf cart, often all decked out with that wonderful tacky fringe and loud Mexican music blaring. There must be hundreds of them, as they seem to be the popular mode of transit not only by gringos, but locals also. We heard they are manufactured here and then privately owned. After a nice lunch in Playa Machado with giant Margaritas it was our fun task to take pictures of all the amazing giant paper mache and rebar sculptures erected around the plaza and down the Malcon, the walk along the ocean front. They were taken from the work of the famous artist Bustemente who lives here, his style is tiny little heads and big bodies. I will hopefully be able to figure out how to downsize the photos so I can send them to Pam at: familyyachtclub.com/white-swan.htm and she will post them on our page.
All for now, personals below:
February 04, 2005 N 21
degrees 09.739', W 105 degrees 13.737' in a small Bay with
Chacala at it's head. The 1.25 long beach is full of coconut
palms (an abandoned plantation) it's beautiful from the
anchorage. The weather has taken a down turn and for the first
time in months it has actually been raining all day so far.
Bob has just rowed to shore to see the Port Capitan.
We left Mazatlan Jan 31st (Bob's 50th birthday!) in the
afternoon heading for Isla Isabela about 100 miles south and
approximately 40 miles off shore. Once again it is nice
to be podunkin' along with our single handing friend Stan. We
arrived at Islabela by 10:30 the next morning, the Island is
volcanic, about 281' tall and 2 square miles of low bushy
trees and has been a National Ecological Preserve for 20 years
with students from the University of Guadalajara's wildlife
project volunteering time to study and protect the 100's of
mating and nesting Frigate's and Boobies. It was another
National Geographic moment being able to observe these amazing
birds so up close and personal. The average tree height was
about 7 feet and there were sometimes up to 6 nests in each
with varying ages of babies, talk about white downy and cute!
There were also many Blue and Brown footed Boobies who build
their nest right on the ground. You would often times be right
next to them walking down a trail, they have no fear of humans
since they are being protected. We will email some more
pictures to Pam for the web page the next time we have an
internet connection and let you all know when you can see "the
birds". We would of stayed longer, however we heard there were
some bigger winds coming in from the S.E., 15-25 knots and
would make the anchorage at the south end of the Island
unsafe. So, here we are hunkered down until the weather let's
up and we can continue south again.
02/05, Couldn't get email out last night and this
morning since things had started to settle down a bit weather
wise we decided to make a huge 8 mile (ha) jump down into the
next bay south, Jaltemba, it's a Mexican resort area. We just
got back from shore leave with our bud Stan, had a beer in a
Palapa with some shrimp and then walked around the town for
quite awhile. Then got a recommendation for a great restaurant
and had a wonderful dinner. It's my second time of ordering
Tortilla Soup, although they called it Sopa Azteca. It was
absolutely fabulous and only 3 pesos, a little less than 3
bucks. It is a very rich tomato base soup and just before
serving they deep fry some thin cut corn tortillas and throw
them in and then top with fresh cut avocado and sour cream.
Hardly a weight watchers delight. We will head further south
tomorrow to Punta Meda and then shortly there after be in the
Puerto Vallarta area.
Personal notes:
March 28, 2005
Crocodiles, Bats and Pink Birds Hoppy
Belated Easter everyone, It's March 28th,Our location is N
20 degrees 01.979' W 105 degrees 32.623', we finally
dug ourselves out of the comfort of Barra De Navidad on the
23rd after spending a month there. It really is a
great place with just about everything you could want, yup
including a French baker who delivers in a panga every
morning. Another one of the many wonderful memories we have
was being able to watch the Roseate Spoonbills in the back
of the lagoon at low tide. There don't seem to be a whole
lot of them compared to the other numbers of birds, White
Egrets, many dif. kinds of Terns (some of which I recognized
from my Alaska days), many dif. kinds of Heron's, Ibis,
Ducks, Grebe and on and on. The most Spoonbills we counted
was 18. They are about 24" tall with a beak about a foot
long with that wonderful and comical spoon on the end. And
the best part is they are
June 9, 2005
Hola friends from back in La Paz, We had a good crossing
from Mazatlan with mild to moderate wind. The last night out
I had come on watch at 11:00 P.M., the winds were quite
light, Bob went down and hit the bunk. About 15 min. later
the wind died and I went down to apologize for the racket I
would make taking down sails and starting the engine. Then,
I saw some big lights off our port bow, went down and turned
on the radar and could see a huge target still miles off. As
I watched the big ship I could tell we were on an
unfavorable course with him then realized I needed to alter
course a bit, I also realized he had stopped moving, a bit
odd I thought. Then a couple min. later the whole sky lit up
brilliantly with a staccato of flashes. I immediately looked
up to see if we had blown out our mast head light, but all
was o.k. up there. I then looked around to see if there were
any clouds looming on the horizon that could be producing
some lightning…not. Then I looked back to note that the big
ship was still just sitting in the same spot with huge
halogen lights blaring…mystery, and I was a bit creeped
out. I finally went back down and woke Bob to let him know
that if he found the cockpit empty when he woke up for his
watch it would probably mean I had been abducted by aliens!
It wasn’t until a few days later in La Paz I mentioned the
bright lights and someone told me there had been a huge
meteor hit the atmosphere and exploded. Wow, what an
experience.
At first light the stark
beauty of the Baja was now visible. That day we saw what we
initially thought was a pod of small whale in a feeding
frenzy. We were talking to another boat on VHF describing
the creatures and they told us what we were seeing were
Rissos’ Dolphin. They were about 12’ long, mostly black,
some with mottled white heads. The white markings come from
the stinging tendrils of the giant squid (up to 6’!) they
are pursuing for food. Shortly after seeing the Rissos’ I
just happen to be looking in the right spot and got to see a
huge Marlin dancing across the top of the waves on his tale,
amazing.
As we were motoring into La
Paz we had a very sweet little boat come sailing across our
bow, we realized it was a Virtue built in Port Townsend and
wondered if we knew the people onboard. Several hours later
at the dock I heard Bob step back onboard and say “we have
company”. I looked up to see the face of an old friend,
Elizabeth Sudlow, good grief, it had been many, many years
since I had seen her, I think the first time I met her it
must have been in 1980. We squealed and hugged and I was
reminded she had a Virtue 27, and her name was “Bruja”. We
also fell in love with Elizabeth’s friend Sally Gray, the
four of us really ended up hitting it off, Bob helped
Elizabeth with a roller furler problem, and we also spent
four days on our boats anchored out in Caleta Partida, a
beautiful anchorage between Isla Espiritu Santo and Isla
Partida. We took great beach walks, cave exploring, swimming
and diving, and also did one of the most challenging
hike/climbs I think I have almost ever done. We took time to
make lovely meals and even bought fresh Sea Bass from the
local fish camp. It was an especially great time.
We also recently helped
another solo friend, Jeanne on a Najad 36 put her boat on
Dock Wise. Dock Wise is the company shipping boat just about
anywhere in the world now a days. It was quite an amazing
thing to witness driving your boat into the bowels of a
ship! They basically get packed in bow and stern like
sardines. Then, the following day 6 divers go down and weld
cradles underneath all the boat so that when they drain out
all the water the boats are all sitting up sweet and secure.
Shipping a 36’ boat from here to Ketchikan cost’s $7,000, my
how times have changed. We have recently moved the boat down
to a brand new resort/marina, “Costa Baja” on the north end
of town as they were offering free moorage June, July and
August. I expect they are trying their best to rum up
business and hope to get people hooked. It really isn’t so
bad, we are forced to go to the pool every day about 3 or 4
just in order to stay cool, it’s a tough life. There is also
a free shuttle into town which is nice. We won’t be here
much longer however, it’s time to head north. I would
imagine by this Mon. we will be gone and looking forward to
seeing new sights.
Hope this
finds all wonderfully happy and content. Love to all
P.S., I think I mentioned in
my last letter we had met a wonderful Jazz musician by the
name of “Jock” (last name is Budleman), he also put his boat
on Dock Wise, however is picking his up in Vancover Canada
with plans to cruise up north for the summer. Jock is hoping
to find a semi permanent slip in Ganges and also to play
there. So, if any of you are kicking around up in that neck
of the woods, and you see his billing please go listen and
be enchanted. Also please give him a very huge long hug from
us
July 24, 2005 Hola Mi
Amigos! We hope this July 24 is finding you enjoying your
summers wherever you may be. We have been underway since
last Friday heading North at a fairly leisurely pace. We are
traveling with another boat, S/V Eagle Dancer with Tracy and
Julie onboard. The weather away from the dock in La Paz is a
bit more pleasant with usually some kind of breeze blowing,
though still in the upper 9o’s to 110 with the water temp
about 83. As we steam along the San Jose’ Channel towards
Los Gatos (our anchorage for the night) the scenery is
magnificent with 3,000 / 5,000’ peaks and dolphin jumping
out of the water in unison like some kind of Sea World show.
We just went by a very small fishing village with a small
dirt road visible as it spilled over the top of one of the
peaks and then snaked down through the valleys below towards
the shacks on the beach. Life out here must be a challenge
with little fresh water or food.
We are unsure how
long we will be gone, we do have an up and coming time frame
to plan for however. I will be flying out Sept. 1st
back to WA for 15 days, Bob will be flying out the 3rd
to go visit his youngest daughter Christina , extended
family and to meet her new baby outside Portland Maine and
will also return the 15th. We will have at least
4 weeks to play up north, so many people have told us how
wonderful it is, high time we see it for ourselves.
July 27th, Do you
all like the idea of schools of Dolphins playing all around
the bow of our boat? Two days in a row we have had the huge
pleasure of Dolphin visitations with their wonderful antics
and beautiful soft eyes rolling over to look up at us.
Magic! Haven’t had much luck fishing lately, though Eagle
Dancer was towing one of our set up’s yesterday and
something big hit and took the lure, leader and snubber ,
rats.
We have been using
our water maker every day, unfortunately not a lot of wind,
so a lot of motoring. We have the Pur 40 E, and are
making about a gallon an hour, we even filled a 5 gal.
container for Eagle Dancer yesterday. Can’t tell you all
what a relief it is not to have to worry about running out
of fresh water, always enough now even for showers.
The mountain range
that runs down this side of the coast is absolutely
amazingly beautiful rising 3,000 to 5,000 ft. right out of
the Sea. The mountains can sometimes be full of surprises
however like last night about 1 a.m. when a Chubasco wind
(25/30 knots) came ripping down out of them. It was all
hands on deck to get our awning down. Just before we crawled
into our bunks we sat on the deck after dark and watched an
amazing light show coming from across the Sea on the
mainland side. It was a constant staccato of lightning in
huge bursts that lit up the sky. Glad we are on this side
and hope I continue to be glad of that fact. We spent last
night in Agua Verde and are now heading for another
anchorage called Los Candeleros. We’ll be glad to get in,
it’s pretty darn rolly out here today, just enough to make
doing the smallest task a challenge. More to come…
Happy July 31 and HAPPY
BIRTHDAY SUSIE Q…I LOVE YOU! I also celebrated my 54th
birthday on the 29th. We were in Escondito. It is
quite a unique spot and considered a safe Hurricane Hole in
this neck of the sea. We ended up spending 3 days there
lounging tied to a buoy. There is quite the community of
cruisers that have comfortably found a home in one the 3
dif. anchorages with their own dilapidated building for a
yacht club. Almost every day at 4:30 folks gather in
Cocktail Cove for a giggling, frolicking, soggy game of
water volleyball a few beers and lots of laughs. As my
birthday fell on a Friday I was lucky enough to get in on
Pizza night when some folks bring in pizza’s from Loreto to
the cove. My friend Julie made a birthday cake for me and
there was more than one rendition of the Happy Birthday
song.
The Gigante
Mountains from Escondito are absolutely spectacular, right
up there with the Rockies, or imagine being anchored in the
bottom of the Grand Canyon surrounded by 5,000’ craggy
peaks. We left Sat. morning and are now in Ballandra Bay
across from Loreto by 9 miles. It’s a nice bay, well
protected with lot’s of reefs to explore and the water temp
is now 87.5!
Hope all are well and happy.
Personals:
Happy Birthday Joe Taffe!!!
Stan and Stinga, still in Nicaragua?
Have you felt safe there and what has the average temp been?
Also, is the water clear? As you can see we are doing good
and nice to be seeing more of Mexico.
August 20, 2005
Hello from back in
La Paz. I thought I had successfully sent out the above
letter at least a week ago, but when we got back and I
checked alas my sis never received it. So I will catch you
up on the rest of our trip.
We saw much more
spectacular scenery both in and out of the water. We have
been having a great time using our camera in the underwater
case and will have Pam add new pictures to the web site when
she get back from her summer cruise. We were underway one
day and saw whales off in the distance and decided to go
check them out. We were able to spend quite a while watching
at a fairly close range and were able to identify the pod of
10 as Bryde’s (pronounced Breedahs) averaging around 40/60
ft. At one point we noticed a herd of Dolphin racing towards
the Whale’s and watched with fascination when they arrived,
the Whale’s went into a wagon wheel formation as the Dolphin
jumped and played around them. It was absolutely incredible
to watch the symbiotic relationship between the two.
We spent several
days in several anchorages on Isla Carmen, while at the
Bahia Salinas ancorage we went to shore and poked around a
real live ghost town that was a thriving salt manufacturer
where huge old ships would come in to load. We stopped back
in Escondido for groceries and more wild water volleyball.
We arrived
back in Agua Verde a couple days later to see 4 boats we
knew and decided to get together for evening cocktail hour,
they were anchored on one side of the bay and we were on the
other. About ˝ say across in our inflatable I saw something
fairly large swimming in the water, upon closer inspection
it was about a 15’ Whale Shark complete with a pilot fish
firmly attached on either side. He was just lazing along and
tolerated our closeness for quite awhile, it was a very cool
thing to see, he must have been a young'in as I understand
they can get as long as 60’!
Our trip was very
enjoyable and being back in La Paz is o.k. too, hitting the
pool every afternoon is pretty darn nice. We are now in the
process of getting the boat ready to be away from her while
we are gone. As this is still hurricane season there is much
buttoning up to do.
I will do my best to see as many of
you as possible while I am back in WA., however, if I don’t
get a chance to see you, please forgive me. Hope everyone is
having an excellent Sept.
Hugs from Mexico, Dianna and Bob November 09, 2005 Love to all, Dianna and Bob
Cecil, really great to see an email from you. We aren't
really sure how much further we will go, maybe only to Barra
Navidad. We shall see how it unfolds. Here is Larry and
Margaret's email address:
m1466@olypen.com Small
world as we were checking the internet one last time before we
left the Mazatlan Marina and were sitting right across from
Jerry & Cerila. They told us Carmen wouldn't even let you
drive you were so sick. Sure hope your better now.
Phil and Kath, are you still there? Let me know your
itinerary for stops along this coast, I think you were coming
back up this side weren't you? Miss you!
Elaine, hey girlfriend, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! You look smashing
:) Talked to Jade P and am all set with the HRT's. They will
be waiting for me when we get to Puerto Vallarta. Hope winter
hasn't been too brutal. Pats for Sunny, Hugs for you and Joe.
Hi Merilyn, how's La Paz? Good thing your not at Frailes or
Muertos right now! You def. need to plan a stop at Isabela, it
really was fabulous, although the smell a bit overwhelming.
Hey Bro Andy, Bob caught another Sierra, 30" long. What a
feast we had! Will forward a pic soon.
February 17, 2005 Belated
Happy Valentines Day all, it's now Feb. 17th. I would like to
remind
all you can go to the familyyachclub.com/white_swan.htm site
to see lots of cool pictures (and for those of you new to the
letter all our previous letters also) from the sculptures in
Mazatlan for "Carnival" to the Frigates and Boobies on Isla
Isabel and a couple others too.
Unfortunately we just heard that a sailboat sunk while
anchored in the same place we were at, Isabela, by swinging
down on a rock. We are thinking they must of been there during
a fairly big southerly which makes the anchorage pretty darn
unsafe and the reason we ended up only spending one night
there after hearing there was a southerly coming in. The
prevailing winds are North to Northwest, the anchorage is at
the southern end of the Island. The good news is the local
fisherman got everyone safely off the boat.
We enjoyed our trip from Isla Isabela over to the coast again
and found some pretty quaint little bays. Then it was around
Punta Mita and into Banderas Bay. We spent a night anchored
off a little village called La Cruz knowing we would be going
into Paradise Village the next day to pick up our greatly
awaited newly repaired wind generator and a few other
packages. We will look forward to checking La Cruz out when we
head back up in a month or so.
What a trip Paradise Village is, it's a hug posh development,
even has a zoo! I did take advantage and relaxed by the pool
more than once. The bus service into Puerto Vallarta was
pretty easy with only one transfer, my how that place has
changed from 25 years ago. There are now many, many wonderful
art gallery's and way too many cool little restaurants to
count. Of course P.V. is the big city and we looked forward to
taking off and seeing Yelapa, a sleepy little village 16 miles
south on our way out of the bay.
We left Paradise the 15th once again with our good friend
Stan on S/V Mary Joe. My memory of Yelapa was of a little boy
who paddled out in a dug out every morning selling fresh
coconut and lime pie. Now that's my idea of breakfast!
Unfortunately the little boy wasn't there anymore, but Yelapa
is still a pretty undeveloped village. The thing that saves it
is no road in, it's just too remote, however they did get
power 2 years ago.
It isn't the most pleasant anchorage for motion as the cove
faces northward and therefore open to the prevailing wind and
swell. It is also deep right up to the steep beach which just
as 25 years ago can prove to be quite the challenge
getting to shore. Stan came over in his inflatable to pick Bob
and I up, we sat just outside the breakers and tried our best
to time the waves before attempting a landing. Unfortunately,
we got caught side ways and all got soaked. Oh well, at least
it was warm.
We decided to spend yesterday also and walked into the small
village which is mostly cobble stone and cement winding steep
little paths. The only hazards are making sure to get out of
the way for the occasional donkey and horse caravans which
seem to be the popular mode of hauling things around. We hiked
up to a waterfall and heard stories from a local about seeing
several dogs and Iguana's and even a Boa Constrictor at some
point accidentally go over the falls...yikes! Yelapa has
become world renowned for paragliding and we sat and watched
many people soaring around with the buzzards.
We said good bye to Yelapa this morn and are now rounding
Cabo Corrientes, the southern point of Banderas Bay and
heading for an anchorage called Punta Ipala. It's 82 in the
shade today and we have about a 8/9 knot head wind, all in all
it's great. The water temp in Yelapa was about 80, we did get
some water line scrubbing done. Hope all are well, feel free
to send a line or two, also as we are now underway and who
knows when we will have internet again so use the
WDB5588@sailmail.com
address. Bye for now
02/18 Since we didn't manage to get this mail out I
will tell you about Ipala. There turned out to be a little
town there with several little open air restaurants and one
had a 15 piece Mariachis Band playing from Puerto Vallarta.
Evidently they just enjoy going to Ipala every now and then, a
three hour drive. Lucky us as they were really, really good.
We even got to watch as they enjoyed a private ritual of
drinking raw Dove eggs with hot sauce...really! We are now
underway for Chamela, it's a fairly large bay and looks pretty
interesting with a few dif. anchorages.
Harold, can't tell you how tickled we were to hear from you!
Extremely glad to hear you sis in law is doing well, I sure
hope that continues. You know, we will be in the Sea for a
season working on the boat, so you will have time to catch up
with us again. Hurry!!! Love you bunches
Hello Al and Sandy, Wow, do I think this coast has changed in
25 years...oh my yes. I am totally astounded. Yes, the marinas
are all very nice and I get way to comfortable there. Also, we
are spending a lot more money than we had planned needless to
say, way too many temptations. I really didn't expect to be
seeing Tigers, Panthers, Flamingos and Ostrich walking around
the
Paradise Village Marina either. I just have to keep reminding
myself to try and see things with new eyes. Glad Yelapa wasn't
too dif. The other think I have noticed is the average age of
the cruisers is now approx. my age. Also there are 100's more
of us now. Are you going to be a grand parent again? We have
another on the way also, Bob's youngest daughter Christina and
her husband will bring another youngin' into the world
this July. I am hoping for a Leo!!! Thanks for staying in
touch. Of course I can't help but think of our voyages
together so many years ago.
Jerry and Joni, I am hoping to have a letter from you come in
after we send this one out. We ran into Joel and the hat
transfer was made. Still haven't met his wife. It's really
beautiful down here, hope you can make it a little further
south before you have to go north again. The good news is that
we will also be in the Sea for the season. Love, he and me
Hi P & K, if you got my last mail you may of replied to the
hot mail address, if you did and could resend it to this
address I will probably get it quicker. If you are coming down
this coast I sure don't want to miss you if possible to meet
somewhere. Hope you are excited!
Dian and Bob, Hey you guys, when are you coming for a visit?
Miss you an awful lot!
We had a fabulous trip down from Yelapa, we are now in Bahia
Navidad anchored in a lagoon behind the quaint little
village of Barra. Yesterday afternoon I felt two pretty good
"thumps" and immediately said to Bob "we are draggin", he
paused for a second and said "no, I think that was an
earthquake"! Only moments later the chatter on the VHF radio
was all about "did you feel that"? Within 20 min. someone
had already done some research and found out it indeed was a
quake with the epicenter only about 60 miles south east of
us and about 30 miles off shore, with a magnitude of 5.1.
The interesting events weren't over yet...we went back into
the head of the lagoon (it's quite large) this morning in
the inflatable to do some bird watching, while I had the
binocs on some birds I looked up into the hills and
mountains beyond and realized I was seeing a smoking
volcano. We looked back to see it again later and there was
no more ash/steam coming out so I am thinking we may of just
happened to look up at the right second. The bird population
in the back of the lagoon was extremely impressive and we
just sat quietly in awe.
I almost forgot to tell you about the French Baker (yes
really) that lives here and comes out to the anchorage every
morning in a Panga selling fresh baguettes, croissants and
Danish. He stands right up in the bow with his arms crossed
and says, "Hello", I am the French Baker", gotta love this
place. We have been here 4 days, there is really quite a lot
to see and do. Our plan is to spend today doing last min.
errands, then tomorrow head for the fuel dock and then out
to either anchor in front of Chilaque a little town in
the bay here or go back up to Bahia Tenacatita. We stopped
there on the way down, anchored one night behind a bite on
the NW corner of the bay. There is a fabulous place to
snorkel there called "the Aquarium", it was too choppy and
cloudy so we headed down the bay to Tenacatita to find about
40 other cruising boats. Quite a surprise seeing that large
of a number all together, though it's a very snug anchorage.
We got a chance to meet some boats we haven't seen in a very
long time. One in particular we hadn't seen since our mutual
haul out's back in Port Townsend in July of 04'. Hi "Rob" (I
promise to remember), Linda and Cubster!!!
We have decided this will be our turn around spot for the
season and we will slowly start making our way back north to
spend the summer hurricane season up in the Sea of Cortez to
work on the boat. It is truly amazing how harsh the tropics
are on the boat. We will be removing all the caulk out of
the deck and replacing it with TDS, a teak deck system. We
also plan to repaint the cabin top, sides, cockpit and a few
other parts. All that will give us a chance to rebed a lot
of things in need, plus we may even remove our ports and
rebed them. Sounds like a lot of work huh!!! And the list
goes on from there. Anyone interested in coming down and
helping, ha. More soon
flamingo pink!
We spent many long lazy days in Barra, visiting with a lot of
other cruisers for sun downers (cocktail hours!) and fun
trips into town. It was also a place of saying good bye to
other boats preparing to do what's called the puddle jump to
the Marquesas, or heading south to Central America or the
Galapagos. The rest of the boats are slowing heading back
north for hurricane season. We left Barra the 23rd and
headed back to the anchorage in Tenacatita. We spent another
three days there, one of which was motoring over to a little
village called La Manzania.
We noticed a couple bees on the boat on the way over,
unfortunately I put my left hand down right on top of one
and got stung on the side of my wedding ring finger...ouch.
With in moments it started to swell. We got into town and
found a Farmacia and bought some anti histamines. Then we
went to see the popular crocodiles that hang out on the
river there, something tells me they are fed often. We have
also heard stories of crocodiles right in the marina at
Zihuantanejo, something about FiFi turning into Poodle Tar
Tar. My now throbbing finger was continuing to swell and I
finally couldn't even turn my ring and it was freaking me
out. So that evening, out came the bolt cutters and in no
time my trusty Capitan "Roberrrrto" had the strangling
device off my finger. I
will get it fixed hopefully in P.V. and my finger is getting
better.
We spent last night in a nice anchorage called Chamela and
ended up meeting up with some friends and hitting the
beach for a nice little palapa dinner. John mentioned those
weren't flocks of birds we were watching at dusk, but
bats!!! Cool!!! There were hundreds of them.
The weather has been pretty fabulous, it was 78 at 9:15 this
morning. We are motoring right now, not enough wind to sail
and what little there is, is right on the nose. We had
better get used to that going back "up" north. There are
lots of turtles out here today, I hope the picture I took of
a bird sitting on a turtles back comes out, if it does, I
will let you know when it's posted on the web page.
We are headed to the last anchorage (Ipala) before going
around Punta Corrientes, the point can be a bit of a
challenge, but we hear there is a good no weather
opportunity for the next several days, so we are going for
it. Then we will be back in Banderas Bay and I am hoping
right on into a slip for several weeks while a couple dif.
friends come down for a visit. Wow, I just looked at the log
book, we haven't been to a marina since Feb. 15th. Tell me
standing under a real shower isn't calling to me. The good
news on the water end of things is Bob got the fresh water
maker hooked up and we are merrily making about 1 & 1/2 gal.
per hour while motoring. It is really kind of like magic
making fresh water out of salt water.
More for you all later...love, hugs and fond thoughts to
all, Dianna and Bob
P.S., There is a letter in the Latitude 48, March issue
about the Xmas rescue by the crew of White Swan in Mag Bay
and the poem our good friend Jerry wrote in commemoration.
03/29 Update: we left Ipala early this morn in the
fog, sheeze, thought we were back in WA. No problema getting
around Corrientes, in fact we motored through hundreds of
pods of skate. They showed up as approx. 1 ft. polka dots
about a foot under the surface. I spent quite awhile up on
the bow sprit as we were peeling them back along each side
of the hull. No, don't worry, none were injured, in fact I
think they were enjoying the extra rush of water. It was an
amazing sight.
The wind came up in the afternoon and we got to sail in about
14 knots for about 5 hours, it was lovely. We are now at
anchor in La Cruz which is about in the N.E. corner of
Banderas Bay, the home of Puerto Vallarta. Had cockpit
showers and are ready to hit the beach for dinner. Life is
GREAT!
Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday Dian, I sure wish I could of
been there to help you celebrate, I certainly hope Bob was,
We love you!!!
Tom and Maggie, we are having major with-out-you-drawls! We
love you oodles of Chile Cheetos!!!
Wes and Ann, we met another Union 36, couldn't help but think
of you, hope all is groovy.
Shirley and Jim, thanks for all the P.T. updates, we loved
it. Hope you are settling into the routine there and all is
good. How are you keeping Jim busy?! Glad things worked out
so well with the boat at Paradise, especially the decks.
Stay in touch, we would love to hear from you.
Merlyn, are you still in La Paz and what's your plan?
Pam, how did the haul out and stuff go?
B.J. and Trish, how are you doing in the new house...we are
so curious. How's the boat?
Jerry and Joni, where are you 2 now? Something tells me you
will be far north by the time we get up there :(
Stinga, where are you and Stan and what's the plan?
S.Q., I love you
Hello family and friends, we spent a grand total of
27 days in Marina Vallarta just outside of downtown Puerto
Vallarta. It costs a whole 40 cents for a ride into town.
I was excited to be able to have my wedding ring repaired
since all the swelling from the bee sting was gone, only
took one week and cost $12.00. We did two pretty cool
hikes outside of town a bit, one up to a waterfall having
to traverse back and forth across the river 18 times and
the other hike up to a natural hot springs for a much
needed soak. Of course, many interesting sights along the
way, butterfly's, Brama Bulls, Donkey's and the like. Have
also now done two Tequila factory tours, arrrriba! It is
really quite interesting how tequila is manufactured, they
use the root or Pineapple of the Blue Agave plant, not the
top. We were also taken on a very long hike up (and I mean
up) into the mountain's behind town with some gorgeous
views by our new friend Luis and his girlfriend Mily, that
was quite the adventure. We met Luis on our dock, he is
the lead guy on the work team for upkeep on a 98' power
boat and we became fast friends.
Our buds, Craig and Evie arrived from Seattle and we played
with them often going for little adventures and walks. One
day we rented a jeep and drove up to a little village
called San Sabastian about a 2 and a half hour drive. Most
of the road was paved, but some was a real adventure
including having to drive through a small river. It was
truly beautiful scenery and the town itself was really
quite precious. As soon as we arrived we were greeted by
our small furry black tour guide, the pero "Al". He stayed
with us the whole time, even came right into the
restaurant where we had a late breakfast. I am hoping to
go back up there upon our return and perhaps even spend
the night.
Some how we also fitted in working on the boat now and then.
Bob made our new deck awning, it looks and works great. He
also made weather curtains that extend further forward to
the boarding gates and did repair on the dodger. The hull
was also compounded and waxed.
We left the marina the 27th, late in the day as we had been
out the night before with Luis and Mily to help celebrate
her 38th birthday. We went down town and had happy hour at
a water front restaurant with a great sunset view and then
let Mily pick a place to have dinner. We caught a cab and
started driving straight up a small steep mountain right
behind P.V., it was quite a funky little road and Bob and
I began to wonder where we were going. Low and behold we
came to a gated off paved road with a guard who collected
$10 to go in, we found out later this was applied to your
meal. The view was absolutely amazing, as if you were
looking almost straight down at the city, I could hardly
take my eyes off it the whole time we were there. As if
that wasn't enough it was time to go Salsa dancing. I
hadn't been dancing in a very long time and was really
excited. Off we went in the cab & back down the hill and
off to Salsa away the next 2/3 hours. It was a very
special night with special new friends.
We spent the first night anchored at La Cruz and left early
the next morning for a 70 mile trip to Matichan Bay just
outside the town of San Blas. We had heard there was
supposed to be some bigger winds heading our way(30 knots
on the nose) and had expected to have to wait it out for
several days, however the weather looked good this morning
so we are now underway for Isla Isabela, yup, back to
Frigate and Booby land. All is well. The air temp is
averaging about 86 and the sea temp is now 83/84. Our
position is 2134.570 west 105.32.752 north
I don't want to risk having all the personals wiped out
due to this long letter, so will send them within the next
two days. We do however want to say:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET TRISHA WE LOVE YOU
Andy Brown, as of 2200 tonight we are leaving for Mazatlan
by 0900 tomarrow morning and should arrive the morning of
May 1st and will connect with you then...Hi to Kath and
Kitties
May 2 update, after 22 hours of beating into 15
knots we arrived in Mazatlan, dock side at the El
Cid Marina. Will be here about a week before making our
passage over to La Paz.
Personals below:
getting hotter, sea temp is 84 now! Kiss P.T. for us.
Hugs, Dianna
bobanddianna@hotmail.com
We left Marina Costa Baja yesterday and came out and anchored
in the Mogote just off La Paz, pretty interesting as there
is a 2+ knot current that runs through here, the
boats that anchor here are known to be well versed
in doing the La Paz Waltz. We went ashore and did some
provisioning today and will do laundry tomorrow morning
and then take off up to the Islands north until the first
of Nov. when we will meet folks who were kind enough to
drive back with some much needed boat stuff from the
states. So, if anyone types us please use our onboard
email address:
Hello everyone and welcome to all those new to the letters of
our journey. Speaking of journey's...drum roll
please...we are finally underway again. As I said before
we spent a welcomed uneventful hurricane season in the
Sea of Cortez using La Paz as a home point. After a 5
month hurricane season it is pretty much over, I guess
the real end is the end of this month, but everyone
feels pretty safe to start moving around again now. We
waited for some friends to arrive who had driven back
down to La Paz from the states (some cruisers have cars)
and brought us back 3 gallons of bottom paint they got
on sale, was way cheaper back there than here. We left
the anchorage in front of La Paz this morning at 1045
and have been underway for about 20 hours now. The moon
is fabulous, a perfect half just like a semi wink. As it
began to set it turned a perfect Halloween orange and as
if looking straight down at his target sank into the
Sea, really beautiful. Also had a Frigate bird try at
least a dozen times to light on the top of the mast, as
he would get close enough his whole under body (which is
White) would light up red, white and green from the
reflection of the running lights then he would fade away
into the darkness. Bob just woke me for my next watch,
it's about 0500 now and it will be light soon, the winds
have been light and variable all night. We are very glad
to be under way again and leaving The Baja behind.
We should be in Mazatlan mid morning on the 11th. Our most
recent plan is to be at Marina Mazatlan until early
December, I hope to be able to get some much needed
painting done on the boat. I can't believe how brutal
the tropics are on a boat, especially one that is half
wood. I am actually thinking of painting the guard and
cape rails, I can hear a few of you gasping that know me
and how much I love my bright work.
It's now 1100 on the 10th, we just had a little hawk
figure out after many tries how to land on top of the
running lights, he is a very handsome little thing and
he is a long way from home, glad we can give him a much
needed rest. I also stood out on the sprite for quite
awhile watching the florescent antics of a small pod of
dolphins playing around the bow, what a show.
Nov. 11th, 0820 and about an
hour outside Mazatlan. I awoke to Mazatlan in sight and
Bob telling me our little hawk had just flown towards
land.
0925 and we are now sitting tied to a dock at Marina
Mazatlan. I will go check us in and hope to get a chance
to send and receive emails from the office, you have to
pay for computer time here, no free WiFi like La Paz.
Then we will start striping everything off the outside
of the boat for a good wash down before I get busy
prepping for paint. Hope all is well with everyone and
many good wishes for the upcoming holidays.
Love, Dianna and Bob
We did take time to enjoy the festivities organized by Marina
Mazatlan for Thanksgiving, the meal certainly wasn't anything to write home
about, but the live music and dancing was really fun and the culminating
fireworks, well you just had to be there for a great belly laugh when they set
the words that were "supposed" to spell Happy Thanksgiving 2005 off, instead
it said Happy Tranksgiving 2005. We love this country and forevermore it will
be Tranksgiving to us. We do like Mazatlan for a city, though this time there
it was all work and pretty much very little play.
When we left Mazatlan we decided to go to San Blas about 155
miles south. It has a reputation for demonic no-see-ums so many cruisers tend
to pass it by. We had heard pretty positive things about the village and
decided to take our chances with the bugs. As it turned out it was an
absolutely delightful little village, not for tourism, but a true Mexican
town. Due to it's location on the coast it is abundant in sea food, in fact
one of the local gringos that has lived there mostly for the past 40 years
told us it has been an active fishing port since 1530. We saw a huge humpback
breach completely out of the water on the way in. Not only is the village very
charming there is also a jungle tour trip up a river our local friend help set
up for all of us cruisers interested in going.
We were up by 5:00 and caught a taxi out to where the trip
begins. We all pilled into one of the pangas and off we went with a local
self-made Audubon guide that spoke wonderful English. We saw many new bird
species a lot we already knew or a variety of: King fishers, Fly Catchers,
Akingas, Tiger Heron, Stork, Blue Heron, Humming Birds, Falcon, Night Heron,
Bow Billed Heron, Turkey Vultures, Dove, Green Heron, Cormorant, Oreo, Isibis,
Big Billed Fly Catchers, Nut Catchers, Swallows, White Winged Doves, Black
Hawk, White Pelicans, Black Phoebe and one of our favorite, the Rosette Spoon
Bill. Our guide told us that within 15 square mile during the months of Oct.
through April there are 300 variety of birds. There were also amazing plants,
water lily's, Xmas Cactus, Cat tail, huge 1000 year old Cypress trees, 4 dif.
kinds of Mangrove, Bromeliad Orchids, Air plants and abundant dif. ferns, of
course Philodendrons climbing in almost every tree. We also saw Iguana,
turtles and even a crocodile. The guide also pointed out many dif. kinds of
nests, the huge termite Condo, wasps, hummingbird and Nut Catchers.
The first stop was an area set aside for the purpose of
making sure the cockatiel population stays healthy. There were probably twenty
huge crocks in cages, they feed them once a week 30% of their body weight,
this was also where they collected the money for the tour, ha. Evidently a lot
of the Crocodile eggs get crushed by the shear weight of the creatures so the
eggs are rescued and incubated in another area. There were also several other
cages where the babies were, there seemed to be 100's of them. It was a pretty
amazing thing to see.
Then back in the panga and off we went again to see more
birds and amazing sites with one more stop at an artisan spring where some of
the group decided to go for a dip, no one was disappointed with the tour. Bob
and I spent the afternoon checking out the town and enjoying the town square.
There is a great little open market with beautiful fresh fruit and vegetables,
juice bars and meat markets. Outside the Market were venders selling buckets
of Prawns (140 pesos for a Kilo, about 13 bucks for over 2 lbs), Octopus,
Clams, Oysters and Lobster, and many kinds of fish, Fresh Flowers, Fresh
roasted Peanuts and on and on. You could def. eat a very healthy diet here and
it is very inexpensive. San Blas got a big thumbs up from us.
We took off this morning about 6:30 and worked our way
through many areas littered with water Lilly's floating every where. We saw
a few Whales and at one point slowed way down to see if we could be closer to
them. We were patiently waiting when all of a sudden a small Humpback
(probably about 50' long) came shooting out of the water only 150' from the
boat and then crashed back down, we almost got wet. It was truly an
unbelievable siight.
There are many planned Xmas Eve and Day meals and there will
be no lack of cruiser company as there are probably about 50 boats anchored
here at the moment. I am beginning to think there are more and more people
cruising every year, 26 years ago there were under 10 boat cruising down the
coast of Mexico when I was here then.
When we went to shore yesterday we noticed there was a bit
more wave action than usual, we walked up to a little cafe with a view of
the water where we use internet. The waves continued to build and we watched
as a crane on a barge that is part of the building process of a new marina
here was getting knocked back and forth by probably 15/20 degrees as the
boom was slamming back and forth, wow. Eventually the force ended up kinking
the boom into a most painful angle...no more digging for that rig. After
what turned out to be a full day on shore we didn't get back to the dingy
till dark. We could see the surge and waves were quite large and even
breaking coming into the area where we all haul our dinghy's out and in the
dark it was quite the challenge to make sure we didn't get swamped, but Bob
did a lovely job and I was even yelling "Yippee" as we flew up the front
side of the wave and down the back.
The sound of the huge crashing breakers on the beach made it
a challenge to sleep last night and I'm feeling a bit wasted today. The
buoy out at Punta Mita at the North end of Banderas Bay is reading 6'/11'
swells. One of the cruisers said these waves (there isn't much wind at all)
are coming all the way down from weather at the Aleutian Chain, amazing
isn't it. Not sure if we will attempt a landing today or not although hour
after hour of rolling out here (thank goodness we have rocker stoppers) gets
pretty tedious and you just want some terra firma under foot after awhile.
We continue to meet wonderful people cruising, retired
Doctors, Nurses, Architects, Pilots, Choral Directors and all other walks of
life. It's a wonderful life style that allows us to all gather and enjoy our
common passion with delight and questions of "where are you going next"?
December 26th, as you can see we haven't gotten the chance to get
emails out yet. The surf has still been a bit big and taking the lap top to
shore not advisable. Also I seemed to of given my initial cold to Bob who
has now almost lost his voice and is coughing and snotting around so he has
been laying a bit lower than normal. Our Xmas eve dinner at Philo's was
quite an amazing feed if you can imagine 5 turkeys and all the boats who
came (maybe 45) brought side dishes. There was no way to taste it all.
A lot of the cruisers had gathered at Philo's several days
before to put a lot of little goodies into gift bags for all the local kids
in La Cruz, we ended up with 400 bags. Complete with a Santa all the gifts
were given out later on Xmas night. From what we were told the children
(from babies in arms and up) were lined way down the streets.
Yesterday Bob was feeling poorly and elected to stay onboard
while a single handing woman Christine and I got on a bus and after one
transfer spent Xmas day in Sayulita a quaint little Mexican surfer town on
the open ocean side. Today we will spend getting the boat ready to leave
early tomorrow morning to continue south in the company of Christine on her
Pearson 31. At least we want to make it to Barra by New Years.
December 28, 2005
Whale Tails and Scrawny Necked Kids
Day two after leaving the anchorage from La Cruz heading to
points south. Being underway again I am reminded of how the constant
movement visually and under foot reminds me so much more than when I am on
Terra Firma of how much we are all apart of this living breathing planet and
how much we are all responsible for taking care of her. One of the many good
things about cruising is the low impact lifestyle. I am already starting to
prepare myself mentally for our crossing to the Marquesas, what we will need
and not need. Garbage is a big problem especially when you arrive in these
beautiful pristine Islands...there is no where to get rid of garbage. So,
all these convenient little tetra pack juices we are now drinking we will
have to be rethinking and a lot more.
What a lovely day we had, once again way more whales than we
could count. Looking out and seeing a Whale breaching is common place,
or seeing a huge tail slowly sinking into the depths. This afternoon I
watched as a whale slammed his big flukes down into the water 23 times in a
row. Hey, can someone do some internet research and let me know why they do
that? Is it to stun their prey or are they just doing their daily aerobics?
These are humpbacks we have been seeing.
Then there are the turtles/tortuga...Bob still enjoys calling
them speed bumps. More than once today I would see their little faces
looking at me from maybe 100' away and thinking, hey, is that a mermaid?
Then realizing it's a turtle sticking his head and neck out of his shell to
see what all the noise is. It reminded me of a scrawny necked little kid
looking up to see if anyone is watching as he is up to some sort of
mischief.
We dropped the hook in Chamela tonight relieved to have
gotten here just before dark. Coming into an anchorage in the dark is never
a desired move, even if you have been here before. Our new friend Christine
on Island Girl a Pearson 31 has been doing a fabulous job on her own. It is
so awesome to see single handing woman out here living their dreams.
We made the decision to stay one day and another night here
so we can go check things out a bit, it's a wonderful bay with a few more
anchorages and a delightful little village with many little palapa canteenas
on the beach just waiting to serve you with cold beer or margaritas and
local seafood. Wish you could all come down here and share a meal with us!
We will leave for Barra De Navidad Friday the 30 so we can be
there in time to celebrate with friends already at anchor in the lagoon...
if you don't remember, this is where we first saw the Pink Rosette Spoon
Bills.
O.K., time for some chow, hope all are very happy and ready
to bring in a wonderful New Year.
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December 2004