Log Book
November 2007
November 2007
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| November 2007 |
San Diego to Bahia Magdalena. Sunday, November 4, we motored up to Mission Bay to
test out the new autopilot. It worked just fine. Monday we returned to San Diego, tied up at
the guest dock of Southwestern Yacht Club, picked up a few more provisions, showered,
checked our email, and cast off for Mexico about 4:30 PM. We had a few overnights ahead
of us, but the autopilot “Bobby” (while motoring) and the windvane (under sail) were both
working great. We spent one night at sea and dropped the hook at Puerto Santo Tomas on
Tuesday, spending a very windy afternoon and night and not getting a lot of good sleep.
Wednesday morning – after cutting off a LOT of kelp from the anchor chain – we motored
on our way. Not much wind to start out this leg, but on Thursday the wind came up and we
were able to sail using the windvane most of the way to Turtle Bay, where we dropped
anchor on Friday about 4 PM. We got fuel and left on Saturday morning to continue south.
We sailed off the anchor at Turtle Bay and continued sailing with the windvane most of the
way to Bahia Magdalena. We motored once in the bay up to Man O’ War Cove near Puerto
Magdalena, where we anchored about 4:00 PM.
We put away the sails, put on the sail cover and deployed the dinghy. Before going ashore,
Susie called out “Gloria” towards shore and very shortly thereafter there returned a chorus of
“Soooseee.” The people in this little fishing village remembered us. This is where in July we
spent about 5 days and Susie took her beading box ashore to make jewelry with all the
women – age 5 to 75. We went ashore to see Jose and Cristina and have dinner at their
restaurant on the beach – delicious fish, beans and tortillas. Gloria (13 years old) came over
to greet us and give Susie a big hug. We arranged for Jose to come out the next day and
pick up the two stainless steel water tanks we removed from under the V berth (we took
them out in San Diego to make room for more paper product storage, and tied the tanks to
the cabin top to take down to Mag Bay thinking Jose could use them) and he was thrilled to
get them. He plans to paint at least one of them black and mount it on his roof top to create
some type of warm water shower. He also helped us repair our toilet (which stopped working
about Santo Tomas) and even managed to produce a valuable piece of hose to replace what
was clogged. One of the girls in town, Lupe, came out for a visit to the boat one afternoon.
We met Craig and Vicky from “Magic” and Dan and Bobbie from “Bardan.”
On Friday we motored across Magdalena Bay to the little town of San Carlos, with Vicky and
Bobbie. After negotiating the crooked channel and anchoring out, we took a dinghy ride
ashore and took a taxi into town, for a visit to the store (fresh fruit and veggies) and the ATM
kiosk and a little lunch. It was a very sloppy choppy return in the dinghy to the boat, but salt
water eventually dries, so all was well. We returned to Man O’ War Cove in the afternoon safe
and sound, the women navigating and spotting channel markers while Sam sat below in his
underwear and played solitaire on the computer. We enjoyed a lobster dinner with Jose and
Cristina for our last night at anchor here.
Bahia Magdalena to La Paz. Saturday morning, November 17, we sailed off the hook and
began passage to Cabo. We were able to sail nearly the entire way to Cabo. We motored
around Cabo Sunday night and continued on past Lands End, past Los Frailles and Los
Muertos (the two most popular anchorages between Cabo and La Paz) on Monday before
turning into Ballandra Cove near La Paz about midnight. Then we proceeded on down the
channel into the beautiful City of La Paz on Tuesday morning, dropping the hook about noon
in the anchorage area off Marina de La Paz. Arrival date November 20.
La Paz. Since our arrival, we have gotten re-acquainted with old cruising, new cruising
friends and made more friends. We got the outboard serviced, the laundry done, and the
email checked. We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with 250 fellow cruisers, other meals at
restaurants with smaller groups of friends, and blueberry sourdough pancakes on our boat
with selected guests. We got our repaired Cruz Pro tachometer back from New Zealand, via
Downwind Marine in San Diego and friend Jans on “Veleda.” We took a one-week course in
Travelers Spanish, two hours each morning (Susie hated getting up for that one). We played
Mexican Train with the usual suspects. Sam chased down a fresh water leak and then the
part to fix it. We found Olimpia Café where breakfast costs only $3.00 (includes juice, coffee
or tea, eggs or beef, beans, chiliquiles and tortillas) and lunch $4.00 (includes soup, salad,
entrée, beans, rice, tortillas and desert). There was live music at The Dock Café on Friday and
Saturday nights with Steve and Jorge. After 11 days at anchor, the weather turned cloudy
then rainy and our amped-out solar installation just wasn’t keeping up with our electrical
needs, so we moved into Marina de La Paz on November 29. Another reason to move into
the marina was an expected strong north wind; at anchor these can be very nasty in La Paz,
so we parted with a few pesos to have some comfort. November 30 we are still enjoying La
Paz and will continue the narrative next month.
| Photos for November 2007 |