Cabo was pretty fun. It was our first time in that City and what a time it was. Following a week of anchorages in small to nothing fishing villages, we found ourselves immersed in sensory overload. Lights, action, and loud music around the clock for three days and nights. We spent too much, ate well, walked a lot, and slept little (thanks to the loud music).
When it was time to leave, we looked forward to an easy 50 mile day to Los Frailes anchorage. But the weather and sea had another plan for us. We were out of the Pacific swell, but strong North winds in the Sea for the past several days - and continuing against all predictions - made the Sea really ugly. I've heard it described as sailing into a sea of refrigerators, the steep, short waves beat us up. We thankfully pulled into Marina Cabo del San Jose after only 22 miles.
Following a restful night there, we again headed out for Los Frailes. Again, with an excellent weather forecast. Well, we beat ourselves up again for the 25 or so miles but did finally drop the hook in Los Frailes. The anchorage already held several boats, and to our surprise, our friends on sv Sea Boa were among them. They had left Mag Bay - 150 miles prior to Cabo San Lucas - two days before us with plans to sail directly to La Paz. So they had been waiting in Frailes for more than a week for decent weather while we had been partying in Cabo. That's the best description of the weather this fall that I can give you.
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| Helping a neighbor |
Friday, December 3rd, 1430 nautical miles from San Francisco. It was by help from a good friend and good fortune that we were allowed a slip in our favorite marina for a month. At almost $500 US per month, we will only be here for one, but it has been action packed.
We got the big outboard motor repaired - no, I couldn't get a clear idea of what was wrong - but it now runs beautifully for 600 pesos, about $44. Built and rigged a mount for the small outboard. Had new glasses made and remade. Rebuilt the aft toilet. Sewed several areas of the furling jib where the threads had rotted away. Changed engine oil. Replaced our anchor chain with new (that's 300 feet of 5/16" chain). Emptied our storage bodega and sold all the excess at a swap meet. And we're getting our little freezer turned into a refrigerator / freezer, and having a full boat cover made for IRIE. Whew. And that's just the stuff I remember.
Emptying out our storage was really interesting and fun. You recall that before we left Sojourner in April of 2010 we removed all our personal items - and we should have taken a lot more - and put them into storage so we wouldn't have to come to Mexico when she sold. It was great seeing all our things again and, of course, Maxine was thrilled to be let out and see daylight. She's been really camera shy as you might imagine, but I'm sure we'll have a photo op soon.
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| IRIE from the fourth floor |
The mess and confusion of having two of many things aboard is mostly over now, and we're getting down to simply enjoying the City of La Paz. And, for us at least, that's really easy to do. For one thing, the weather. While it's not what most people imagine, the temps are pretty darn near perfect for just living. A little cool for vacationing perhaps, but upper 50's at night and 75 in the daytime with no rain works for us. Then there are the people. The Mexicans are totally friendly and helpful when we treat them with just a bit of respect. And, it seems, we have friends most everywhere we go here. Then, to complete the package, there's always something interesting going on. And, if that's not enough, we
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| Birds eye view |
can always go sailing to some very cool cove and
anchor out for some quiet and privacy.
For now, we have 11 days left with dock power, and we intend to use it to operate a heat gun for removing old varnish for one thing. Yes, it's time to begin some cosmetic improvements. Then, we plan to move 1/4 mile or so to the harbor anchorage where we will spend the month of January. We intend to sail North and across to the mainland at San Carlos and Guaymas, but right now it's rather cold in that direction, so we get to stay here a little longer.
Then, we plan to use the month of February to work our way North in the Sea with day trips and island hops to Santa Rosalia. From there, we'll cross the Sea to San Carlos on the mainland where we should have a week or so to explore that area and select a place to store IRIE for the Summer. At that point, we'll be looking for a way home and hope to be back in Grants Pass by mid March for the countdown to GRANDBABY.
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