Make Me Laugh Again

We woke up at 6:30, and then rolled over and slept for another half hour. We had a gorgeous sunrise and a clam sea. We eventually got up and got underway. After we were moving, we had breakfast and set up our course for the day.

For awhile, we motored, and then the wind came up a bit and we sailed and were able to turn off the motor and still we were doing about 6 knots. Then the wind died down and we motored for a bit, then the wind came up again and we set up the sails Wing on Wing (Jib out to one side and mainsail out to the other. We have a cutter rig, which means we have a stay sail between the jib and the mainsail. When sailing Wing on Wing, we tried having the staysail out on the same side as Jib, this seems to shadow the Jib and was not very effective, so we put the Staysail over on the other side and that seemed to help push some of the wind into the Jib. We did our devotions underway this morning, along with breakfast.

Eventually, the wind died down a bit and we checked our distance and time and since we still had plenty of time to get to Santa Rosalia before dark, we decided to try the Spinnaker (this is a large sail that is normally kept in its bag in the forward state room). I got it out of the bag, and ran it to the top of the mast, the Tack (that is the point of the sail that is at the bottom and goes to the center of the bow) tied to the line that we use as a preventer on the port side for the main sail (this allows us to adjust the Tack for the Spinnaker) Then looked in the aft lazarette for the sheets (the lines from the Clew, the last corner of the sail) back to the cockpit for adjusting the sail. I found a line that looked like it would work, it was the longest line that we had. So, we got the spinnaker up! First time and it worked pretty well. When the wind dropped to virtualy nothing, we took it down and went back to using the motor.

We arrived at Santa Rosalia at about 3 pm, and after having called Puerto Peñasco and finding out that it was still closed, we went to the marina and checked in. This means that we are here for the duration. The local port captain has said that anyone that checks in, can’t leave. We are allowed to walk to the store, but only one person can go in, we are not allowed to just walk anywhere. We are not “quarantined” but restricted. There are NO cases of Covid-19 here or in Puerto Peñasco. We hooked up to shore power and put the covers in place on all the windows and electronics. We talked to our neighbors here on the dock, and found out that the government is planning a decision in the middle of May on whether or not to open the ports, and no decision is expected before then that would allow us to leave. Salvador (the guy who runs the yard at Puerto Peñasco) sent us some texts that said that he was trying to get permission to haul one boat a week out of the water. It will take us a week to get there, and since the port is closed, there is no marina to stay in there. Oh, and it is an area of really high tide swings as in 22 feet. So, anchoring is not really an option in that area ether. Bottom line, we will sit here in Santa Rosalia for a while. We will clean the boat and work on some boat projects as well.

We do have room for guests, if anyone is interested in visiting and spending a week or so with us, drop us a line and we will coordinate. What you have to do/have is you need a sport and will need to be able to get to where we are when you are going to be down. When we know what time frame you are thinking about we can let you know where we expect to be so that you can make your travel arrangements.

If you want to know where we are, click this link: 

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Make_Me_Laugh_Again

We woke up at about 6 am. We were surprised to find our we have “some” cell service here. It is 3G and does not seem to have internet, but I got a text message, and Renee’ got a game request on Words With Friends. We also got notifications of messages and Facebook updates. Of course we can’t do anything with those notifications. After breakfast we will get underway.

We found a place to drop anchor tonight that is about half way to Santa Rosalia one book that we got as pictures of pages from Kevin on S/V Tashee has information on this anchorage. We did not find it in any of the other books. The name of the place in the old book is Caleta Lobera, in Navionics it Bahia La Pila. There does not appear to be a name in Navionics. We have info on it based on Navionics and OpenCPN (not very much info) and this old book. If we don’t like it when we get there we will continue to Santa Rosalia and anchor at night. I really don’t like anchoring after dark, but we have been to Santa Rosalia before and have seen that it is pretty well lit at night. We will see.

So, we anchored at about 2 pm, at Caleta Lobera (Bahia La Pila) in about 15 +/- feet. There is a little protection here from the west, and it is a very small cove. There is a rock just to the south of this cove, and it is home to a colony of Sea Lions. The paragraph from this old book:

Caleta Lobera

The offlying rock that gives this small cove some of its protection is home to a small colony of sea lions. In behind the rock and another rock detached from the land you anchor in sand at about 13 feet. I thin that in any strong weather from east of south, Lobera would not five much protection. No cruising guide describes these two anchorages, and the Mexican Topo maps do not show much of an indentation, but an aerial photo in old Baja Sea Guide showed this to be a viable cove, so we decided to explore it and we spent a quiet night in relatively calm southerly weather.

(The two anchorages referred to here are Caleta Lobera and Punta Salina to the south).

We just discovered that one of the affects of having cell service (even briefly) last night was that the iPhones updated for the time change here in Mexico, we have an electric clock that does not auto advance, and it shows 2:30, our phones say it is 3:30, the computer says 2:30 etc. So, we left this morning it was probably 8 am, and we got up at 7 not 6. etc. So, we will adjust the clock and the chart plotter for the current time, and get started at 7 tomorrow (local time). The time change happened 15 days ago. We are a bit “Out Of Touch!”

We do have room for guests, if anyone is interested in visiting and spending a week or so with us, drop us a line and we will coordinate. What you have to do/have is you need a sport and will need to be able to get to where we are when you are going to be down. When we know what time frame you are thinking about we can let you know where we expect to be so that you can make your travel arrangements.

If you want to know where we are, click this link:

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Make_Me_Laugh_Again

http://a%20href=

 

We got up at 6:30, had breakfast and got underway by 7:30. After we were underway, we started the water-maker then the washer and motored with almost no wind all day. We ran two loads of clothes and ran the water-maker for about 6 and a half hours. When we got to Puerto San Francisquito, we saw a coyote on the beach and saw wind speed as low as 0.4 knots. We figure to get into Santa Rosalia by 4:30 in the afternoon, we have to leave at 2:30 in the morning. This is going to be a long day.

On the way south, we saw an algae bloom, very green water and kind of oily. We saw pelicans flying in a line, and a couple of sea gulls that circled the boat. Those are the birds we see, Pelicans flying in lines about a foot off the surface of the water, it appears synchronized, the first one flaps his wings a couple of times and a second later the second one does and a second later the third one dos etc. until a dozen birds are flaming their wings in unison. The seagulls come up on the boat no mater where we are and circle the boat, sometimes as much as a half dozen times. No noise just circle the boat, then fly off.

We do have room for guests, if anyone is interested in visiting and spending a week or so with us, drop us a line and we will coordinate. What you have to do/have is you need a sport and will need to be able to get to where we are when you are going to be down. When we know what time frame you are thinking about we can let you know where we expect to be so that you can make your travel arrangements.

If you want to know where we are, click this link:

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Make_Me_Laugh_Again

http://a%20href=

We got up right at 7 am. We tuned into the SSB net (1st time!) it is somewhat difficult to follow, as the net controller (the person that “runs” the net was somewhere pretty far south, like is Puerto Vallarta (maybe, as I never heard her) people in this net are stretched out from as far north as Puerto Peñasco to as far south as somewhere pretty far south like P.V. The farthest west seemed to be someone out going to Hawaii, (maybe ?) certainly Turtle Bay on the other side of the peninsula. They mainly seemed to be discussing the weather, and port status (open/closed) due to viruses. After that we had breakfast and did our devotions.

We were sitting around thinking about what to do when we heard a call on the VHF from the newest boat in Puerto Don Juan S/V Tashee with Kevin and Amalia, looking for status of cell service/WiFi etc locally. Also looking for weather. So after breakfast, we downloaded the weather and packed the iPad in a dry bag and kayaked over to their boat. We spent an hour or two there. Then came back to our boat and had lunch. He gave us a book for the Sea of Cortez (I don’t know the name), but it is pictures of the pages. It was on a thumb drive and So, we brought it back to our boat so I could transfer files. After lunch, we got down the small kayak (single) and I paddled over to return it and share some movies. We talked for a couple of hours, then I came back to our boat. They may come over later to play a game.

In the meantime, Renee’ read her book and backed a loaf of bread. She is planning shrimp for dinner and bread pudding with rum sauce for desert/game food.

Kevin and Amalia came over about 6 pm and we chatted and played Qwirkle. They left about 10 pm, and we headed off to bed.

We do have room for guests, if anyone is interested in visiting and spending a week or so with us, drop us a line and we will coordinate. What you have to do/have is you need a sport and will need to be able to get to where we are when you are going to be down. When we know what time frame you are thinking about we can let you know where we expect to be so that you can make your travel arrangements.

If you want to know where we are, click this link:

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Make_Me_Laugh_Again

http://a%20href=

 

No pictures today

We woke up early, about 6 am, had breakfast and did our devotions. Then read for a bit. We decided to do some kayaking this morning, and went across to the little lagoon. We walked a bit on the rocks, and Renee’ took the GO Pro to get some pictures out on the point. I was not watching the kayak and when she came back we found out that the tide was coming in, and our kayak was leaving without us. I went out and got it, and then we kayaked over to the new boat in the port. They are a couple from Canada, he is a transplant from Australia, they are friends of Lucy and John . There are now four boats here, two ketches, one trimaran and us. The first ketch is Christina and Michel, the se second ketch is Lucy and John, and the trimaran is Janice and Colin. We all have plans on going to Puerto Peñasco.

Eventually we got back to our boat, and read some more and had lunch. Another quiet day.

We do have room for guests, if anyone is interested in visiting and spending a week or so with us, drop us a line and we will coordinate. What you have to do/have is you need a sport and will need to be able to get to where we are when you are going to be down. When we know what time frame you are thinking about we can let you know where we expect to be so that you can make your travel arrangements.

If you want to know where we are, click this link:

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Make_Me_Laugh_Again

http://a%20href=