The adventure begins…finally…again

Both the captain and I are anxious to leave the marina for our first cruise aboard Milagro.  Everthing seemed to take too much time: breakfast, showers, last minute checks, engine warm-up.  We finally cast off the dock lines and the captain steers Milagro out of the marina and into the channel.  I am excited and a little bit scared and my mouth goes dry, just as it always did before stepping onto the stage in my theatre days. Buddi seems to know something is different but she's more relaxed than I am.  We put her in her on deck cage and she's happy to be with us. Neither one of us had to worry; we have an uneventful exit from the dock and make our way slowly north.

 There is absolutely no wind so we motor up the channel by Marina Costa Baja and the Pemex plant.  The water is gorgeous, shades of blue and turquise and all kinds of birds swoop and dive near us, looking for their next meal. We are Almost to the Lorenzo chanel when alarm sounds below.  Larry checks: engine running hot. This is exactly what happened the last time he  took boat “out of country” to complete temporary import paperwork…and in the same place.  He is visibly upset. Six hundred American dollars went to a mechanic who "fixed" the problem and the engine had been running fine in marina.  He finds we can motor at about 4.7 knots and maintain a safe engine heat level so we decide to continue on, maybe to Balandra and turn around and go back.  Big disappointment. As we continue the engine temp stays below 180 degrees so we continue, hoping for the best..

We motor past the Lorenzo channel  watching  the gps display and our faithful Cruising Guide...surprise: sometimes as we look at a picture in the guide, then at the gps disisplay, then up for an aha! moment.  Everything's right on target. I begin to have more faith in our navigation systems and our navigator!

The scenery is spectacular: Rugged rock faced mountains, some sheer drop to the sea. This is desert country so there is little greenery, just the occasional cactus or scrub.

There are lots of birds and schools of fish. Off to starboard…is that a big pelican. Get the binoculars. No! it’s a seal, floating on his back in the current.  I swear he waves a flipper as we go by.  We see sting rays from time to time, leaping out of the water.  We have heard about the famous ballets performed by theses rays. And sure enough, as I’m below, getting something to drink for us, the captain captures a group of rays leaping and pirouetting on the surface.  I missed it this time and will have to catch this performance on video.  Next time…live.

We see more sea lions, some frolicking and diving such that I thought at first they were dolphins.  I give up trying to take pics for awhile.  I want to enjoy them right now!

We come to the southern end of Isla Espiratu Santo and begin to pass inlets (Ensenadas), each more beautiful than the next.  I hint to the captain that I would be happy to anchor in any one of these but he says no, we’re going on to Calteta Partida.  But the ride and views are worth it.  Each inlet is unique but all have at least some white sand beach, torquoise water and spectacular cliffs.  The crusing guides says many have picturesque hiking trails, some crossing over to the east side of the island. I brought my hiking boots. 

Our gps show a route that appears to go right through the middle of the island, but as we get closer we see we are passing between smaller islands (Isla Gallina (hen), Isla )Gallo (rooster) and Isla Balena (whale island). The passage looks narrow until we get to it and I see how wide it is…and we are in water 140-170 feet deep.

 Larry suggests I grab my kindle and go up on the foredeck to read.  Phooey, as much as I love to read there is way to much to see to bury my nose in a book.  It’s almost sensory overload.

We watch the temp gauge (there’s still no wind to sail) and it stays comfortably below 180 degrees.

As we travel toward our anchorage we see a pod of dolphins to our starboard (please note the sailing lingo, folks.)  They are diving some distance away and I doubt that I’ll get a close look.  That’s o.k. they’re beautiful to watch from a distance and I position my self up on the bowsprit for the best view.  All of a sudden a large dolphin  surfaces right beside me, one eye looking up at me, then immediately dives across the bow (I swear they play chicken!) to the other side. I try to take a picture but he’s too fast for me.  Another arrives and they play the same game. After a bit they get bored with our slow pace and swim off.

Just as we round the corner to Caleta Partida, our destination, the wind comes up briskly. For the first time today I’m actually chilly.  It’s about 4 pm and five or six boats are already anchored.  We explore the northern side where most of the boats are and then cross to the southern side, but the wind is stronger there and we come back and find a place between a power boat, Lady Ann and a 30 ft sailboat, Getus. I drive and the captain drops the anchor.  The anchor holds but we are only in about 7 feet of water and we draft 6 feet.  If we swing much and we probably will we could hit bottom.  Captain pulls the anchor and we repeat the process.  This time it works.  We watch to make sure the anchor holds. Our neighbor dingys over... he's concerned that if/when the cormuels come up we will bump in the night.  The two captains powwow.  Larry feels confident the anchor will hold.  We sit in the cockpit for a while, he with a beer and I with glass of wine (my first since my illness), then I go below to fix first dinner: a T-bone steak, a chix pattie, baked potatoes, salad, garlic bread. This is our

first time using the refurbished and recently cleaned grill. It works beautifully and we have dinner by the red night lights.

Wow, it tasted great!

While I clean up, captain watches boat movement and feels  confident in our anchor. He call me to come up on deck. Beneath the grill light we can watch huge fish munching on tiny fish.

We are both tired and crawl into bed ready for a good night's sleep. This is the first time I've spent the night at anchor in over ten years and I'm somewhat anxious about our holding capability.  The winds are strong (we learn later over 25 knots) and varied so we are swinging on the anchor and rocking about. I'm surprise that I am not sick. 

I finally go to sleep, having listened to the captain breathing the deep breaths of deep sleep long before I succumb.  About 12:30 I wake up to hear wind howling and wonder if we are still hooked to the bottom.  I confess, I subtly (ha!)wake the captain; he goes on deck says we haven’t budged.  Back to sleep for a while then I wake again at 3:30. I peek out the porthole next to my bunk and everything looks pretty good but what do I know? My  contacts out and I don’t know where glasses are. I finally go back to sleep and sleep through until awakened by sunlight streaming in.  The captain and I chat for a bit and snuggle with Buddi. Then uncharacteristically he offers to get up and make coffee.

We take our coffee go up on deck.  No talking, just sipping  coffee and watching the now still, smooth water and the beauty around us. The is absolute stillness. Seeing this reaffirms my belief that there is a power which, no matter what name it/he/she is given, is a greater than man.
We enjoy a light breakfast on deck then cap plays his guitar. When I wrote a rough draft of this blog I said the the crew of the boat nearest us applauded as that when the captain finished playing; he didn't like the sound of that! So my reword goes like this.  As the captain concluded his concert the crew of a nearby boat applauded his music. =)
Life offers good times and not so good times; despite engine issues and strong winds in the anchorage this has been a fabulous trip so far and I look forward to more adventures.
More to come.