Blue-Footed Boobies, Flying Sting Rays, Whales, and other Tales

February 10, 2014

Bill and I have been out of touch for 10 days, 10 days without cell or internet. We arrived in Puerto Escondido to be met by the Mexican Navy.  Now what have we done?  Sadly, I was informed that my mother had a massive heart attack and had passed away on Thursday, Feb. 6.  My children had contacted the Coast Guard who contacted Mexico and they tracked us down.  I am writing this paragraph as I am on the plane from Loreto to Salt Lake City to be with my family.  My mother was an incredible, talented women who will be greatly missed but who supported me 100% in this crazy adventure.  In fact, I received and email yesterday from her that she had sent a few days before she passed away, “Have fun!  Take care.  You are living every ones dream.  Your dad would have been so jealous.”  I will truly miss her!

(I am going to post what I had already written before I got the sad news and before I returned to Utah.  I will rejoin Bill on February 20th to finish our adventure.)

February 9, 2014

Yesterday, we started having real withdrawals feeling the need to be in contact with our kids and families.  But, we held strong and spent the day in a beautiful bay, Bahia Agua Verde, meeting other yachties and having lunch at a one table restaurant with  a local fisherman, who ran across the road to a tienda (store) to get us cervasa.  I think this twitching from our withdrawal from the cyber world will stop now that I have posted this.  We also learned today from a boat from Colorado that the Broncos did not win the Superbowl as we thought :).  Yeah!!!! Although Bill is sad, I am happy for my Seattle family.  Way to go Seahawks!!!!

Bahia Agua Verde

January 31, 2014

We have now embarked on what we are calling Leg 3.  Leg 1 was San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Leg 2 was Cabo to La Paz, and now Leg 3 – adventuring north up the Sea of Cortez.  This leg will truly take us into some spectacular bays and test our endurance, going many, many days without civilization i.e. wi-fi.

We left La Paz, Friday, Jan. 31, and sailed back to Espiritu Santos Island and dropped anchor in Ensenada de la Raza.  On our way to this bay, we heard a hissing and then saw a whale breech off our starboard side.  What a surprise and a treat to see, it looked just like Shamu!!  We also caught a glimpse of the Blue-Footed Boobie, thanks to Bill’s eagle or should I say Boobie eyes!  Yes, their feet are truly blue, the picture doesn’t really do justice so I have included a little synopsis about them.

Blue-Footed Boobie

After rocking and rolling through the night, we pulled anchor and headed just a few miles north to Caleta Partida.  A great bay that got us out of the rough, windy seas.  Here we stayed for 3 nights, savoring the calm of the seas.  This bay actually, at high tide, allows dinghies to be able to cruise through to the other side of the island.

Caleta Partida

Sunday was Superbowl Sunday and as Bill is a Bronco fan :(, we went in search, ha-ha, of the game.  We thought of hitting up the big powerboat and then noticed the fishing village had a satellite dish.  How weird is that, all these little shacks, deserted, and a big dish just sitting there.  No luck finding anyone, so the winner is a mystery to us at this point, although the boat that just pulled in and anchored next to us seems to be flying a Bronco flag, an indicator?  Either way, Bill is celebrating a Bronco (Donkey) win!

Our day spent sailing to Isla San Francisco was one of those days were we were able to say that once we left the bay we sailed the whole way to our next anchorage (5 hours) on one tack!!! Haven’t been able to say that before.  Now I understand why people love to sail!

I don’t want to bore you with Bay by Bay details, but I do need to share Bahia San Evaristo.  It is a small fishing village of about 20 families, a K-6 school, two tiendas (stores) and a white rock you can hike up to in hopes of getting cell service.  (We had no luck with the cell service).  They also have an agua (water) desalinization plant run by Tony Agua!  For 10 pesos, you can get 3 gallons of water, so we made several trips into the beach to get water and refilled our water tanks.  We bought cervasa and a few other things at the store as well as fresh fish from a young man on the beach.  He filleted it and I got 4 fillets for 50 pesos!  I would love to come back here and spend some time in the school with the teacher, Manuel.

Bahia Evarista

A couple of side notes….

Bill says ‘hi’ to the guys at “Mike’s Bar and Grill” and thanks you all daily for the sailing knowledge you shared with him.

Puerto Los Gatos

Besides insisting on a few creature comforts such as a BBQ and a solar heating water bag, my biggest insistence (and expense) was to purchase memory foam for the berth.  Now all of these items seemed frivolous to Bill at first, but he will be the first to admit how nice each one of them is. In fact, the memory foam has become the joke…you can leave the berth or the boat but not with the memory foam!!!!

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