Category: 2019-11 (November)

Wednesday Nov 13

We had a fantastic day! We (all three boats) set sail at 7 am, had the sails up and the motor off by 8 and Renee’ had her first fish on the line by 8:30.

Then, the reel exploded and she had to bring the fish in by hand winding the line around a 2×2 piece of wood. So, the fish was aboard by 10:30. It was identified as a Skipjack Tuna (dark meat, not particularly tasty, according to the fish book) about 2 feet long. Probably 2 lbs of meat off the fish.

We sailed all day, Around San Geronimo island and the Sacramento Reef. We were probably the faster boat, (length and clean hull) “Lucky Pearl” was probably the slowest, (dirty hull, and reefed mainsail due to having torn along the boom previously). We had great wind, around 20 knots or less most of the day. Then in the late afternoon, after we made the turn in from due south to east to get to San Carlos, the wind came up, stead at up to 30 knots, with gusts to almost 40. The “Merry Lee” got beat up pretty good in this, Josh lost a hoodie that was almost dry from his previous falling in, and it went over the side. They also had a shelf that was above their bed fall down, and all the plants and dirt that was supporting the plants. All in all a huge mess, they also broke a spinnaker pole. As we were approaching land, with the wind in the high 30 knot range, we started to get our sails down. We got the Jib in, and in the process had an accidental Jibe, and broke the gooseneck on the boom, specifically the HINGE PIN a solid block of aluminum that has one bolt through it to connect to the boom (a horizontal bolt) and another bolt that connects it to the mast (a vertical bolt). We got the mainsail in and arrived at the anchorage just after “Lucky Pearl” and maybe 20 minutes or so before “Merry Lee”. Probably all three of were anchored by 3:30 or 4pm. 55-60 miles today.

I texted Bob via the Iridium that I was going to try and call him when we got anchored. The phone call did not work well, the iridium had too low of a battery charge to work on deck, and while in the window and plugged in, it lost the signal as the boat swung around the anchor. So, we texted back and forth about the situation. He got in touch with Steve at Pacific Offshore Rigging in San Diego who is going to look up the part number and figure out how to get it south.

Josh from “Merry Lee” took Bodie (their dog) ashore and then came over and brought his fish (a Bonita about 2 and a half feet long) and showed us how to clean the fish. Then he left his fish here, and went back to his boat and worked on cleaning it up. The plan is to get together tomorrow for fish tacos.

We went over to the “Lucky Pearl” to see their boat, chat and have a beer. About the time we were ready to leave our boat, the dinghy in the water and we had hosed down the deck to wash off the blood from the fish and had our flashlight etc. we went on deck in the dark and Renee’ said….. “Where’s the dinghy?” We used the flashlight and found it about 100 yards south of us and drifting away. I called on the radio for Jeff from “Lost Pearl” for some help, this was based on knowing that Josh was beat. Josh beat Jeff out in the water and got the dinghy, got it started and was headed back to us. Just as he was about 3 feet from the back of our boat, I asked him about the painter he said he did not have it, almost exactly at that point is when it wrapped around the prop, and killed the outboard, and he started drifting south. He was able to untangle the line and get it restarted and brought it back to the boat. He then said he was going to bed, and headed back to the “Merry Lee”. So, Renee’ and I got in our dinghy and went to the “Merry Lee”. It was an enjoyable time.

During all of this Bob was busy in California working on our problem, he got in touch with Steve at Pacific Offshore Rigging who said he would look up the part number in the morning and work with an importer to get it to us.

Like I said, we had a FANTASTIC DAY! (Some good and some not so good, but that is what makes memories).

Yeah, we are still here. We (all three boat crews) looked at the wind and decided that it would be a rest day, as the prediction said little to none. Of course we sat on our boats, did some work and … had 15 – 20 knots all day.

Oh well. Renee’ made some chili and rice, I cleaned the windows, she cleaned the bathrooms, and generally straightened up the boat. Everybody was here again this evening and we went over our plans for tomorrow. Next stop San Carlos, with a plan to leave here about 7- 8 am. I read a book for awhile and that is about it. It was a nice quiet day. Again, no pictures. Josh from “Merry Lee” said that he got a good picture this morning as the moon was setting behind our boat, and he will get it to us some time.

Anyway that is all we have to report on today.

Once again we attempted to sleep in. But pretty much up with the sun. We lazed around waiting for it to warm up. It was gray and overcast. The view was really good, the sea waves breaking on the rocks at the base of the bluffs extending off to the east from where we are. The tops of the bluffs have that light green that the desert gets when there is enough rain/dew to liven up the plants. Just a little east of us the boat “Merry Lee” is anchored and just a little east of them is “Lost Pearl”. We have been playing tag with these two boats since we got to Punta Santo Thomas.

Directly north of us is the fishing village. That was part of what woke us up this morning. All the fishing boats, actually the lobster boats were running out of this bay to get the traps picked up. It actually sounded like an airport with the jets all taking off.

In any case we eventually got to the point of saying ok, lets go ashore and check out the restaurant. We got the kayak down and rigged, and headed over to talk to Josh on “Merry Lee”. He had said that he was a boat mechanic in San Diego, and I wanted to work on one of our winches that has been squeaking (needing grease?). I figured that if he knew how to do this, he could help with the first one, and then I would have seen it done at least once rather than just a video on YouTube. So, Cozette (his wife) said that she would have him stop by after he woke up from his nap. We then headed into shore.

We got to see how the lobster boats get back into shore and back onto their trailers. These boats are about 20 feet long, and have a 75 horse power outboard. They are open boats with a crew of about 3 or 4. They come back into the bay, and stop at the lobster receivers (baskets under water with floats on the surface) and deposit their catch for the day. Then line up on the beach and go full throttle into the beach. As they near shore, they pull the prop out of the water and kill the engine. One or more of the crew then gets out of the boat and gets the truck and backs the trailer down to the boat. They line the front of the boat up with the center back of the trailer then push the trailer back under the boat. The boat points up at the sky and then flops down on the trailer, they stop the truck, go back and hook up the wire to the front of the boat and crank the boat the rest of the way up onto the trailer. No soft rubber, or carpet lined boards, the trailers are all steel, the boats appear to be steel as well. Pretty. Impressive overall.

So, we got ashore and dropped our trash off in the barrel and hiked off looking for a restaurant. We really didn’t have far to go. When we got to the top of the road from the beach, there was a crew prepping their boat to leave town. Renee’ asked them how their day had gone, and if they had been successful fishing, they said that they were not catching fish, rather lagostinos (lobster) laughing. She then asked about the restaurant, (we had seen references to it on the internet). They told us there were two restaurants (pretty impressive for a place with maybe 20 little houses. But then again, the people out catching lobster have to eat too.

We headed off to the two restaurants, side by side and picked one. There were a half dozen tables that could each seat 4 people. We were approached by the waitress who Renee’ spoke too about what to have for lunch. We decided on lobster taco’s. The waitress left and came back a short while later and said that they only had one lobster, so they would split it and we would each get half of a lobster. We said sure sounds fine. We asked about beer and got a couple of Tecates. When the meal arrived, it was a very tasty arrangement, we each got a half of a grilled lobster, a portion of rice a fresh salad, and a small bowl of retried beans, and three soft flour tortillas. All very good. Renee’ spoke with some of the people there as they asked about where we were from etc. and she speaks Spanish, and I don’t. When we got the bill it was about 460 pesos. Or about $25. This include our three beers. All in all a pretty good deal.

We hiked back to our kayak and then kayaked back to the boat. Renee’ worked on the straps on the side of the kayak, and I took a nap. An hour or so later, Josh came over and helped me with the winches. We talked about what the situation was on the boats.

Josh and his wife Cozette and their dog Bodie are the couple on “Merry Lee” a Columbia 30′ sloop, Jeff and his wife Angie are on the “Lost Pearl” with two dogs (I did not get the names of the dogs), both couples are friends and have been living aboard in San Diego getting ready for this cruise. The “Lost Pearl” is a 45 foot ketch, both boats are older and have needed a bunch of repair to get them ready for this cruise. The two couples are working their way down the coast together providing resources as necessary. Both Josh and Jeff were in the Navy, Josh was on a small boat and worked with a seal team. Jeff was a corpsman.

We invited them all to come over to our boat this evening so that we could discuss the weather for the trip. They have limited internet and weather resources. So, they were all here for an hour of so this evening. We talked about the weather, we talked about lots of little things, and together I think we all decided to sort of stay together for awhile as we head south. We also decided to hang out here one more day.

While we took pictures at the restaurant and of the silhouette of their two boats against the almost full moon, I am not even going to try and up load them here tonight.

We are at Punta Baja, 195 miles south of the border. It appears to be a bit of a rolly anchorage. We are anchored in about 18 feet of water. There are lots of lobster/crab traps around, and perhaps tomorrow we will go ashore for lunch. Again, there is no dock, so that means that we will take the kayak.

This was a 35 mile or so trip south from Bahia San Quintin. We motored virtually the whole way, not at full speed, but at about 5 knots to conserve fuel. We ran the generator and made water for about 3 hours today bringing the tank up to about 80%. We also ran the heaters to try and dry out the interior of the boat some. One thing that we do to pass the time on this longer passages is listen to sermons. We heard the message from North Coast (Vista, Ca.) on Hebrews 4. August 12, 2017. We have also listened to some from Stonebridge church in Cedar Rapids, IA. We try to listen to the current message from one of these churches when we have internet, when we don’t we listen to one that was previously downloaded onto one of our devices.

It is a damp and overcast sort of day. Not much wind, and a little cool. But we are safely anchored and plan to spend a couple of days here.

(This was supposed to be a picture).

Punta Baja from the pacific side.

Renee’ suggested that I include a screenshot of where we are. So here is Google Earth and it shows where we are. Well, it would be IF I could get it to upload.

So, while we have 2 or 3 bars of signal (internet) it is 3G and actually very weak. I attempted to upload the second picture and failed, then tried to do an update with just the first picture in it. After 3 hours, I gave up and took the pictures out.

We attempted to sleep in this morning, but were unsuccessful. Something about going to bed when it gets dark or shortly there after. So, when the sun comes up we pretty much start waking up.

It is a bit foggy, and a little cool (lower 60’s). We will get the dinghy out later and go ashore in the mean time it is laundry time. Generator on, washer running all three A/C units working to warm up the boat, water heater heating up, and the battery charging running.

Well, we got the dinghy down, got the outboard setup and went ashore. We remembered to get the wheels for the dinghy (they are a really cool setup, they have a single bar for each wheel, it slides into a rack on the transom and can either be up (so the wheels are pointed up into the sky), or they can be down the wheels underwater. The idea is that when you get to the beach, they lift the back end of the boat and that way you can go to the front of the boat and pull it out of the water. Great idea!

But, our outboard weighs about 100 lbs, the dinghy probably another 300 lbs or so, the sand is a bit soft, and the result is that the wheels actually work well to keep the motor from hitting the bottom. In fact I was able to drive the boat with the engine while the wheels rolled on the bottom both going in to the beach and out. But, we were not able to pull the dinghy out of the surf As a result, I was not convinced that I could leave the dinghy where it was and go to the store and or restaurant. So, I sat on the beach, and Renee’ went to the hotel and got a cab and then to the store.

After about a half hour, I pushed the dinghy back into the water, got in and ran around the area for a little bit. I was concerned that the tide would go out while I was sitting there and we would be unable to get the boat back in the water, or that the tide would come in and the boat would float away. (Yeah, I know I should know when the tides are). So, I sat there and drifted around for a while, eventually Renee’ called and I brought the dinghy in and got her and we went back to the boat. All in all a pretty long, involved trip to get a few groceries.

What we have decided is that in the future if there is no dock, then the kayak will be the mode of transportation. Because this was just too frustrating. Another thing, we will not anchor a mile off the beach, and further from the hotel/business district of the little towns.

Oh yeah, we didn’t take any pictures today. I did see a bunch of seals, and birds. Lots of birds.

Renee’ said there were a lot of green houses, growing tomatoes and she only went to the grocery store. Calimax, pretty big.