Catching up

Catching up can mean many things when you are cruising down here in Mexico. It could mean catching up with new friends that have been traveling to different anchorages, it could mean catching up on emails home to old friends we left behind, it could mean catching up on boat projects like washing the salt off the boat but this morning it means catching up the blog. So here it goes.

After leaving Loretto with a full refrig we headed up to San Juanico which is an uninhibited bay that gives you great protection from the north winds. When we arrived on Monday there we just a few boats in the anchorage but by late Tuesday there were over 25 boats hoping their anchors were well set! We had north winds kick up that kept everyone staying close to their boats. It became a great time to read a book. By Thursday the wind died down and we tried to do all our exploring in just one day which included walking the beach, snorkeling and a great pot luck to finish the day. We learned that most of the boats in the anchorage were headed to Guymas for their summer haul out. We still wanted to further north so we had everyone give us a bit of advice.

We experienced our first boarding by the Mexican Navy while we were in San Juanico and it went very smoothly. We gave them all our documents including our passports and boat import papers, they inspected everything from our flares to our GPS. All was in order to they progress to the next boat .

Early Friday we left for Bahia Conception unsure of what we would find after getting very negative reports from a cruising couple who had just come down from there. They reported messy birds, too many flies, a red tide and noisy trucks on the nearby Highway 1. We found little of this to be true and loved our two day stay. Satispac was a wonderful spot with some lovely homes built into the side of the hill, a natural hot spring right at the waters edge and a great restaurant. I was ready for a night off from cooking duties and Rog wanted a real margarita.

We have been listening to Gary on the Sonrisa Net for our weather reports for years now. He is always reports on his home weather in El Boro Cove so since we were in the area we wanted to stop by and thank him for all the effort he puts into his forecasts. We were surprised to see most of the homes in El Boro boarded up and residents gone for the season. Gary remains year round and looked very happy sitting on his porch overlooking a beautiful bay.

While enjoying our dingy ride we did encounter a whale shark, a rather big fellow that was just cruising along the surface of the water. He made me a little uncomfortable but Rog just loved getting close to the gentle giant.

A Beautiful Mother's Day

I awoke on Mother's Day to a beautiful sunrise! I have to admit I was up for just few moments before I remember that it was Sunday and there was no net so my head could go back down for a bit! I love Sundays!

It was Mother's Day in the States but don't think they celebrate quite the same down here if it all. Rog had scouted town on Saturday trying to find a spot for a nice Sunday brunch but apparently brunch is not big down here. He finally learned that the hotel La Mision would be
open. The Hotel is the tall building in the photo but you can also see how calm the
anchorage was here in Loretto.

There had been a group of ten joining us for breakfast but do one boat problem or another set backs only our friends on Destiny, John and Gilly, could join us. Three of us ordered eggs benedict and Rog had an omelet Mexican. We ate every bite.

It was hard to leave the hotel and go back to our normal schedule of a little grocery shopping, a little check of our Internet, maybe read a book and certainly a siesta. It is Mexico after all. Dinner will be something light after our huge breakfast but we will think about that later

I hope all my girlfriends back home and our newest Mothers Jennifer Stepaniuk and Judy Stouffer's daughter in law Amy had as wonderful a day as I did. Love to all

Ballandra aka Beelandra

I believe it was Friday, down here the only way you know the day of the week is by your pill box and that only works if you remember to take your pills everyday, we left Honeymoon Cove for Ballandra. This was nine mile trip that had us passing by Loretto and a cell tower! Yes I could catch up on my blog and check in on Dad. All is well at home. As we neared the anchorage we saw that Destiny had already dropped anchor and John was busy getting the dink in the water. Still not sure how they got to Ballandra before us since we had left way before them but I guess I was too distracted making calls home.

The water is as beautiful as any we have seen so far. It was both the deep blue and the turquoise at the same time. I can not wait to actually see the anchor from our deck.

Enough said about the beauty of Ballandras because there is a down side to this anchorage beter known as "Beelandra". After a lovely swim to both cool off and to check the bottom of I decided to rinse off on the back of our boat. Everyone knows about the fresh water wash down on the after steps of all Catalina, they are great every where but in the Sea of Cortez. Fresh water doesn't at track one bee it at tracks hundreds that just swarm the entire boat looking for more fresh water. We had to close up the entire boat and the inside temp of 87 degrees required that the air conditioner had to be turn on. Thank goodness for the air as it turned out all our friends were attacked at the same time! Turned into a dinner pot luck on Di's Dream and no one got stung. So there is the story of Beelandra.

Honeymoon Cove

Thats right, Honeymoon Cove is the anchorage we stopped at first after leaving Puerto Escondido.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Destiny with John and Gilly abourd and Miss Teak with Katie and Chip joined us for two days of hiking, swimming and drifting cocktails..

We took a hike on the island just to see to see what we could see. The was a path that led from the beach clear to the summit where we found a marriage proposal written out of stones! Sorry, that picture is on the other camera and I can't upload them at this time.

The morning we were leaving we had an amazing display from dolphins who appeared to be herding fish in our anchorage. They were tail slapping, diving and even doing flips for our enjoyment
for the better part of an hour. We were sad when they suddenly just left the anchorage.

Di enjoyed the kayaking, there was very little wind so she could see all the fishing hanging around the rocks and there were lots.

The Weather is Frightful

We are loving the Loreto Fest but just wish the weather had held for the entire weekend. Late Saturday the wind started picking up but the forecast for Sunday through Tuesday did not sound good. True to the forecast the wind in the anchorage reached a high of 32knots where we were on a mooring ball! Hold on tight. Rog did attach a second bow line to the mooring ball for safety and were glad we did. Overnight two boats chafed through their lines and got set adrift. Several anchored boats found themselves floating free too. Not a good night.

Today the wind subsided down to 24 knts until late in the afternoon. Finally it has blown through and we can been thankful for the six ton block holding us in place. Tomorrow we will do cleaning chores and prepare ourselves to leave on Thursday.

Pictures to follow

Beautiful crossing

We crossed from Mazatlan to Isla San Francisco one week ago. There has been no email connection since we left Mazatlan so I am a bit behind on my posting, please forgive me!

We had a beautiful crossing that took 40 hours with very mild wind and virtually no waves until the last few hours. Rog hooked a marlin the last morning out and gave it a big fight before he lost him.. The fish jumped at least 20 times as he circle the boat giving his best effort to shake the lure. We had the boat in reverse just trying to keep him close when he finally gave up the lure. We will keep trying.

Isle San Francisco was unbelievable, water was every shade of blue and surrounding hills changed colors as the sun moved. I would go back there any time. Our next stop was Agua Verda that was even more gorgeous. Water was warm enough to finally swim or snorkel which we did every day. The kayaks were deployed too so we were very busy. We thought the dingy had been repaired but no such luck, still leaking.

We stayed in Aqua Verde two nights before heading heading up to Puerto Escondido for the Loretto Fest. That is where we are now, enjoying the company of over 100 other boats. I will post pictures shortly, camera is not working so well right now but I will figure it out.

Change of plans

We are currently sitting in Marina El Cid waiting for our digny to get returned after being fitted with chaps to protect it up in the sea of Cortez.  This was suppose to be a three day project and we are going on day five right now, latest completion should noon on Wednesday.  If we in fact get the digny back we will be leaving around 2pm with Gilly and John on the Catalina 42 Destiny.  Originally we had planned to head up the mainland coast of Mexico to Topolobampo before heading over to Lorretto however there has been thick fog along the coast that has not been breaking up at all.  We have had enough fog to last us a lifetime so we are going to head out on a course of 248 directly to Isla San Francisco which is approximately 240 miles or 40 hours away.

We understand that there will be limited internet connections so I am not sure when I will post again but stay tuned