Isla Isabel - first landfall

  The island came into sight just as the sun was rising after the third night.  Even from very far away one could tell that this was a rugged - very rugged - piece of landscape.  There were steep mountains rising straight out of the water, and while I am not a good judge of heights these mountains were really up there.  In the early morning light it was a spooky looking place, with a mist that shrouded the mountain and conveyed a great mystery about what we were getting into.  According to the cruising guide one should keep good distance off the shore due to numerous submerged rocks and pinnacles that would barely show above the surface of the water.  There were also the hazards of fishing nets and long lines that are used by the fishermen in the waters surrounding the island for many miles out.  The nets and lines are frequent propeller, keel, stabilizer, and rudder foulers.   Of course the abundance of this type of gear illustrates the excellent fishing found around the island. Actually Isabel is made up of several islands in close proximity with one another, but the main island is the only one that could be landed on or explored.  We had been advised that due to the relatively poor and rocky bottom, and the fact that there is little protection from steep winds, that anchoring off Isabel is best suited in calm to light conditions.   The island has a bad reputation for swallowing anchors, particularly in the southern bay due to the numerous reefs and underwater rock formations.  It had been recommended that due to the possibility of sticking the anchor that I should consider the use of a trip line and buoy on the anchor.  I had all that I needed to set up such a system but I had never used one before.  It seemed simple enough, just one more thing that needed to be coordinated when dropping the anchor.  If the anchor does become stuck, or bound, the trip line can be useful in getting the anchor up.

We rounded the island, in as close as I felt comfortable being.  We could see a small bay to the south of the island where there was obviously the fishing village.  The bay was lined by the most incredibly rugged looking rocks and formations and was actually quite scary looking, but there appeared to be a protected area at the head of the bay and we could see pangas on the beach; we figured that this was the only area  where a dingy landing would be possible.  This bay was the area that was famous for swallowing anchors, so we chose to anchor at the alternate location to the east of the island

The alternate anchorage was actually just behind one of the other islands that had a name, but was no more than a big pinnacle rock that towered up out the water 150 to 200 feet.  It did have a tendency to block the wind from the northern direction but that was about it.  I did not like this location at all, but it was better than  the other one.  So we deployed our anchor, our trip line, and our anchor buoy, and set back to see if the anchor would hold.  When the anchor first went down I could feel in the chain that the anchor was scraping across rocks, but at some point it must have set because the wind had come up to about 20 knots.

We ate some breakfast, again allowing time to test the sturdiness of the anchor, and when we were satisfied that Milagro would be there when we came back, we launched the dingy and headed for shore.

 

No vegetarians here!

At one time in her life, when Sharon and her then husband Rob were sailing on their boat in the Pacific, they virtually lived off what they could catch, trap, or harvest.  So soon after we cleared out of La Paz bay, Sharon dug out the fishing equipment and commenced to fish.  We had bought different types of lures and attachments and she was looking forward to catching something.  We have three rod holders on the boat, perfect for trolling for fish.  At first Sharon would hold the rod and feel for strikes, but finally she gave that up, put the rods in holders and tied them down securely.  Once in a while she would check on them, but mostly we just forgot about it, until………suddenly the rod doubled down, and started to screech.  Sharon grabbed it up and began the fight.  It was definitely a well caught fish, and after about 15 minutes of struggling the fish surrendered, and Sharon brought it on board.  It was a Trigger Fish and wasn’t particularly large, maybe a pound and one half, but would be a meal for two.  Sharon took a bucket and the fish and went up to the deck chairs on the foredeck and tried to remember how to go about preparing the fish for food.  She had forgotten a lot of what she had known before, and it took some time before she emerged with a small plate of neatly prepared fish parts.  When we were in Loreo John and Niki had introduced Sharon to ceviche, this may be spelled wrong, I am not sure, but it is like Sushi in that it is raw fish prepared with lemon and citrus juices.  Sharon loved what she ate in Loreto, and wanted to prepare our little trigger fish to be c  Supposedly the marinating of fish in lime, lemon, or other types of juices will actually “cook” the fish.  She made it and I ate it.  Luckily for me, there was a lot of other stuff in there, and I could not really tell what parts of it was raw fish.  It was remarkably good.  I was proud of myself for not throwing up, that would have just been rude.

eviche, and I promised to give it a try.

Southward bound...

On April 24, 2013 we undid our dock lines, and for the second time, set out on a cruising adventure.  This time I was going places that I had never been before and I was a little nervous about it. We fueled up at the fuel dock and by midday we were making our way out of Palmira Marina and setting a course for Isla Isabel.

Isla Isabel is an isolated volcanic island lying approximately 18 miles off the mainland coast, and 40 miles northwest of San Blas (21 deg – 51.568N by 105 deg – 52.923W).  This very unique island has been nicknamed the “Galapagos of Mexico” because of its enormous numbers of nesting birds and resident iguanas.  Like the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador Isla Isabel is isolated in the Pacific Ocean and relatively free of natural predators.  As a result many of the birds on the island, including blue footed boobies and magnificent frigate birds, allow visitors to approach without fear of being harmed.  In 1981, Isla Isabel was given national park status by Mexico (Parque National Isla Isabel), and in 2003 was deemed a World Heritage Site, resulting in protection on a national and international level.

Isla Isabel is a result of prehistoric volcanic activity and the caldera of this extinct volcano is still visible today.  Located in the middle of the island the caldera has since filled with water and is known as Lago Crater.  A series of trails crisscross the island and allow hikers to explore the interior of the island, including the lake, ridge tops, and some of the more remote beaches on the island.

The trip to Isabel from La Paz is about 328 miles according to the GPS, which means three long 24 hour days of sailing.   Sharon and I had worked out an informal watch schedule which is most important during the night time hours.  During the day light hours there is plenty of spare time for reading, napping, sunning, or in Sharon’s case writing.  She is thinking that there may be another book in this trip.  She had already sent off an article to a sailing magazine in South Africa about our trip to Loreto, and there was some hope and a positive indication that the article might be published.  South Africans seem to have a strong curiosity about Mexico, and the article covered not only the sailing, the cities, and the country, but the people and the food.

We were still checking out the boat.  It is my nature to always make sure that things are working properly as the failure of some types of equipment could be critical, and even dangerous, to our well being.  It was not long until I began to distrust the operations of the bilge pump.  At some point I realized that it was acting erratically, and after that I monitored it closely, and operated it manually to keep the bilge dry.  This was a repair that I needed to look into when we got to Isabel.

During the day, with our course set into the GPS and the steering turned over to the auto pilot, given that all the equipment performs properly, there is very little for the crew to do; therefore, we decided not to have a formal watch schedule during the daytime.  It was Sharon’s responsibility for the galley and the preparation of the food, and I spent most of the day time just monitoring the systems and our positions.  At about sunset we would celebrate the conquering of another day with a beer or a glass of wine. This was a tradition that we set up soon after Sharon got to La Paz; the sunsets are almost always spectacular and always gave us pause to stop what we were doing.  The clinking of glasses or bottles as the sun went down was dubbed as a “sundowner” and we did it almost every day.

I do not eat a lot when I am sailin, and most of our meals were simple but balanced and nutritious.  Sharon had told me during one of our first conversations that she was not much of a cook, but she could guarantee me good, wholesome and simple foods.   With the movement of the boat in even the calm or good times, it makes food preparation, and even eating with utensils, cups or glasses clumsy and difficult.  Except in the calmest of conditions, finger foods are much preferred by this sailor.

After an evening meal, and the cleanup, we would start a watch schedule that consisted of two and one half hours on, and two and one half hours off.  We came up with that by trial and error.  It was a reasonable watch that was a little short by most conventions, but worked perfectly for us.  During the night watch, again, there was little to do, but sails were something that came to be a problem during the night time.  It seemed that regardless of what winds that we had during the day when it got to be dark the winds died altogether, and the watch had to deal with flapping sails and sail adjustments all night long.  The winds were not consistent in any one direction, and at times would just spin around the boat, causing havoc with any sail plan.

I was surprised, and to tell you the truth a little disappointed about how cold it was during the night time hours.  You could feel the chill start at about sundown, but by eight o’clock one began to bundle up.  I think I even wore long pants and long sleeve shirts during the daytime, from the time that we left La Paz bay.  At nights there was a sequence that I went through every night…..long sleeve pants and shirts…..sweat pants and shirts, layered on…….by midnight…..fleece tops and bottoms… by three o’clock adding a jacket to the collection.  At some point we would each add toboggans, or ski masks, gloves, and anything else we could pile on including sleeping bags and blankets.  Sharon made heself a nest underneath the dodger to keep out of the wind and stay warm, and would come out every half hour or so to look at the instruments.  I just hunkered down at the helm and used the cold air to keep me awake.  Where are those soft tropical winds I have heard so much about?  I’m freezing!

Going, going...

Goodbye from neighbor and friend, Damon....mmmm

We had several things on the boat that we discovered during our shake down cruise that needed to be fixed or improved, as well as servicing the engines before we pulled out for Panama.  The generator just will not cooperate.  I am almost convinced that the problem is in the thermostat, but I am afraid if I try to take it apart that it will require a gasket set, and more likely the thermostat is special and will have to be ordered from the states.  This would likely take weeks and that time is not available.  I have decided that as long as this generator had set up and was not used, that the parts just need to be exercised; then they will go back to work properly.  I hope this proves to be true.  To make this trip without a generator would be difficult.  I depend on it to charge the batteries every couple of days, and when it comes to making water, the generator is absolutely necessary.

We changed the oil in each of the engines, drained, flushed, and put new coolant into the cooling systems.  Flushed and cleaned the bilge, and generally checked out the entire boat.  We had some work to have done on the bikes.  A couple of cables had broken on Edie’s bike, one of the brakes, and the gear shifter cable, and the handle grips on my bike had deteriorated, and needed to be replaced.  We had the laundry done, and the boat was cleaned to pristine condition, and Louis cleaned the bottom just before we were to leave.

Cruisers develop a special relationship

John and Niki had also come back from Loreta, a couple of days after we did, and were docked right down from us on Dock 5.  They planned to put their boat in San Carlos, and return to Alaska for the summer.  John had taken a job as a consultant on some sort of airport work, and was planning to spend the summer funding new electronics, new solar panels, and a radar tower: great improvements on an already great boat. Then they plan to come back here for the winter. 

Niki decided that we should have a going away dock party, so two days before we left there was a gathering of about 15 people, some I knew and some I didn’t, but we all had a wonderful time.  At this time of the year most of the cruisers had gone back to the states for the summer, but there are always enough people around to have a party.  Everyone was generous with their best wishes, and Sharon and I both felt very special.

Moving north - Puerto Escondido and Loreto area

Sunset at Puerto Escondio

We left early the next morning, April 10, 2013, travelling  from Aqua Verde to Puerto Escondido.  This was a trip of about 23 miles. (25 deg – 48.740’N by 111 deg – 18.077’W)  The day was fair, still very cold (we were wrapped up in fleece and toboggans) with some haze, light winds, and 7 to 10 knots right on the nose from the North; we therefore motorsailed all the way. 

Puerto Escondido is a major marina located about 14 miles south of the City of Loreta.  Puerto Escondido is one of the Baja’s most protected harbors, being almost completely landlocked with the exception of a 200 foot wide entrance channel.  The inner harbor can easily hold over 150 boats and is often used as a hurricane hole during the summer months.  Last year Edie and I endured Hurricane Paul in Puerto Escondido and did very well.  The hurricane did not totally develop and the huge mountain range, Sierra Gigantia, helped steer it away from us; we couldn’t have found a more secure location.

Puerto Escondido is made up of three separate anchorages.  There is a fairly deep anchorage located just outside the enclosed harbor and it is very popular with cruisers based on the protection it offers, and the very small fee for anchoring there.  This outside anchorage is called the “Waiting Room”.

Just past the Waiting Room is the entrance to the main inner harbor which is fairly shallow and always causes me to squench up a little bit when I go through the shallow part.  We had a saying in Florida that there were only two types of sailors, those who admit to having run aground and liars.  I have run aground before, but I don’t like the sound that it makes and I avoid it whenever I can;  and I think squenching up really does help a lot.

Immediately inside the entrance to the main harbor, and to the west is the third anchorage called the Ellipse. 

Main harbor, Puerto Escondido

The Ellipse is too close quartered for me and my boat.  The turning radii are too tight and the distances between moorings is not enough to accommodate Milagro, so we go straight to the main harbor where we have all the room to roam.    

As I had said, I have been to Puerto Escondido before, and was looking forward to the morning net,where they have a really good weather man, and the last subject of discussion on the net is “News, Trivia, and Jokes”.  I have never heard that category at any other net I have listen to.  It was really fun.

As we were coming into the main harbor we got a call on the VHF radio from a boat anchored just inside the entrance.  The boat’s name is Seychelles, and the owners were some of our dearest friends from Alaska, John and Niki Stone.  It was a delight to hear from them, and a total surprise to find them here.  We made arrangements to eat at Pedro’s the next night as they had ready made plans for that night.

Stunning mountain view from habor

We got the paperwork together along with our computers, launched the dingy and headed out to the office for check-in and to Pedro’s Restaurant for a beer and the free internet.  We had been at sea for days and out of contact with the world.  We both needed to catch up, check our emails, and talk to family, and doing that with a cold beer in your hand makes it even sweeter.  It is sort of funny here, the internet connection through either the restaurant or the marina office is quite good but there is no cell phone service at all.  At times, when all conditions are just right, you can even Skype, and therefore, I have a chance to speak to Edie back in North Carolina.  It always brightens my day when I can hear her voice, even if it crackles and breaks up in a weak internet connection.  But on this night it was an extremely good connection and we were able to chat.

I had installed two 42 inch long, blue LED light strips, one on each side of the top of the mast.  The purpose of these light strips was to be able to find our boat when we were in a crowded anchorage.  People have come to know me by my bright blue glowing anchor lights, and therefore we had no problem finding our way back to Milagro on a moonless, totally dark evening,  even after a couple of beers and  great chicken sandwichs under our belts.

The next day was spent doing some house work, cleaning up the boat and resting some. Sharon was writing, as she so often does; maybe this will be another book.  I told her she could make me any kind of dashing and hardy sea captain that she wanted to, that I wouldn’t mind if gave me some snappy sea faring name.  She reminded me that this was non-fiction adventure and would require that she tell the truth.  I still wonder what she meant by that.

We had decided to rent a car and visit Loreta the next day.  Loreta is a really neat historic little town, and a whole day can be spent just walking around and looking.  There are great places to eat and all sorts of shopping in case you are so inclined.  The car rental companies will bring the car to Puerto Escondido and we are allowed to leave the keys with the office for the company to pick the car up later.  We needed a few things from the tienda anyway, and the garbage needed to go out, so I dingied over to the office to make arrangements for the car.

John and Niki came by in their dingy to visit for a while.  It’s always a pleasure to spend time with them.  John is so funny, you can never tell whether he is telling you is the truth, or whether he is just putting you on, and it is actually a lot of fun trying to figure out which it is.   John is also very smart and knows a huge amount about boats.  At one time he was the Harbor Master in a big marina in Alaska, and has been around boats for a long time.  I have found that taking advice from John is a good idea and I listen very closely.  I was telling him about the trouble I was having with my generator, that I thought it was the thermostat that was causing the problem, and was about to take the heat exchanger off.  He doubted the thermostat going bad, and warned that the gaskets might be a problem on re-installation.  I better put that off till I get to La Paz. We confirmed that we would do dinner at Pedro’s tonight, and after a very pleasant visit, John and Niki dinghyed away.

We were low on water and made arrangements to go over to the fuel dock to fill up our tanks.  There were other boats that were tied up to the dock, and it took several hours for the dock to free up so we could go in.  There was some problem with the fuel pumps, and the other two boats were waiting for fuel.  Finally it was our turn, and we pulled the anchor, and headed for the fuel dock.  After another spectacular landing, without a single mark on the boat, Sharon or me, we filled the water tanks to the brim.  Oh boy, we can take another shower today.

At about dark we met John and Niki at Pedro’s Restaurant and had another great visit.  I tried Pedro’s pizza, and I will say again, I have not had a good pizza since I’ve been in Mexico.  It was big, and it had a lot of stuff on it, and Sharon was looking forward to cold pizza for breakfast, but it was not the best pizza I have ever had, even in Mexico.  John and Niki had planned to leave the next day, but when they found out that I had rented a car and was going to spend the next day in Loreta, they were willing to put off their departure for a day and join us.

We met the car rental lady at the office at 9:00 in the morning just had been arranged.  She had a lot of fun talking with the gringos.  She was new to Loreta, and although she spoke English very well, she had spent very little time around gringos where she lived on the mainland.  We invited her to ride back to Loreta and save her company the trouble of having to pick her up.  John kidded her unmercifully all the way to Loreta, and she seemed to enjoy every minute of it.

Larry, Sharon, John and Niki

Loreta looked familiar to me, having been here just last year, and we took a route similar to the one we took last time, starting with breakfast in a typical outdoor Mexican fashion.  I was hungry and it was good.  During breakfast who should wander in but our neighbors across the dock from us in La Paz, from a boat named “True Love”.    Its fun to run into people like that that you know; we weren’t really all that close to them in La Paz, but when you run into them in another place, it was like we were best friends.  We then wandered around city hall, up to the historic Jesuit Mission that had originally established the town in 1697.  We went through the museum, and watched Loreto develop through the ages.

We then found the tree canopied street with all the amazing Mexican art and crafts, and spent the better part of the afternoon just meandering through the amazing shops.  That’s the good thing about living on a boat; you can’t buy all those arst and crafty things 'cause you don’t have the room to keep them.  So this type of shopping has little to no risk to the purse.

Cave Paintings

After visiting the Malecon, and hiking around the dinghy marina, we were all beginning to tire.  John and Niki had taken a road trip with a historic guide the last time they were in Loreta more than a year ago, and it was amazing all that the guide had to tell them. They could still remember the roads they had taken, and wanted us to see them.  We turned off the main road and immediately started up into the mountains.  It was an incredibly curvy road and we made our way along slowly.  Suddenly Niki says, pull over, there it is.  Niki had remembered from her tour that up this creek bed there were old caves, and inside the caves were paintings from a thousand years before.  They of course were fenced off, and protected from the hands of the public, but we could peer inside and see  figures on the wall: graphic figures, designs, and rectangular images.  These were not pictures of animals, or space aliens like regular cave paintings, but were designs instead.  Amazing.

We then hiked on up the creek, which was most unusual for the Mexican desert, because running water is almost unheard of.  We followed the creek for probably a mile, as long as my ankle would allow, and it was obvious the amount of washed away trees and debris was from the huge storm that had hit here about a year ago.  That storm was Hurricane Paul, and as I had said before, we had been here for that storm.  You could see how savagely the earth had been eroded and the vegetation swept away Even a year later, the devastation was obvious.

         We continued to drive up into the mountains looking for another old mission that had many years ago been associated with the original mission down town.  John had dubbed it as a sub-mission, and I kept trying to make a religious joke out of sub-mission but never got it just right.   We did find the mission, and it was beautiful, well kept, and worth the trouble. 

The road up to the mission made the drive particularly interesting, because even though Hurricane Paul had hit over a year ago, this road was still washed out and in places treacherous.  There were places where the road was unpaved, rough, rocky, only one car width wide and with enormous drop offs on each side.  But the ride was exciting, beautiful and well worth the time spent exploring the back woods. At the end of the day, we were all tired, and pleasantly so, we all went back to our boats, and made early nights of it. When we woke the next morning John and Niki had left.

Sharon and I had agreed before leaving La Paz that we would make the trip back an overnight passage, very much the way Edie and I did it last year.  This was a good exercise to see how well we would do watches, and how we would sleep under way.

On April 13, 2012, we left Puerto Escondido, on our way back to La Paz.  The distance back to La Paz was about 128 miles, and we estimated that it would take us approximately 24 hours to complete it.  The wind was very light, and right on our nose.  It didn’t make any difference which way we turned the boat as we maneuvered around the rocks, the pinnacles, and the islands on our way back: the wind was always right on our nose which made sailing impossible. We ended up motoring for the entire distance.