Off again.

Sat 29th October.
Just finished the main part of moving the computer system I work on in Latvia, to the cloud. It’s mostly been fun and very interesting. Decided to print everything off and stow the printer ready for my departure. However the macbook can’t see the wifi network of the printer, nor can the phone. Possibly the printer is at fault, but I suspect it’s down to Apple and the ventura upgrade I did on the mac and the IOS update I did on the phone, I bet apple have decided not to support old printers that don’t 100% implement the wifi standard the way they like, my printer could be a security threat after all and steal all my money, print off a few plane tickets and jet off with a handsome flatbed scanner down the road to somewhere nice. I’m furious, partly because I threw away all the old printer leads that had the big square USB V0.01, I’m so angry with Apple I may sell my shares in the business, that will get their attention once they realise I’m serious!. (P.S. in restrospect, selling my shares would have been a very smart move at that point [sad face] )

Monday 31st, Halloween I understand.
Just noticed a line in the Starlink dish warranty “.. not covered for damage due to: Lightning, electrical surges,fires, floods, hail, windstorms, earthquakes, meteors, solar storms, dinosaurs or other forces of nature”, I’m feeling comfortable on the dinosaur front. Now I don’t want you thinking I’m the kind of guy who routinely reads product warranties, it’s just I’m looking for evidence for a fictional row I’m having with a guy on facebook about using Starlink on boats. Thinking about it, that’s probably worse.
Just finishing stripping, sanding and applying two coats of varnish to the starboard rub rail. I was fascinated by the Greek myth of Sisyphus and his rocks after hearing a version on Radio 4 as a teenager.
Last night Peter and Marcia, who had the baba 30 along the pontoon from me, and now have a lovely tatoosh boat, invited me over for dinner. We celebrated the victory of Lula, I must say it was great seeing Marcia so pleased, she is from Rio, but lives in Chile with Peter now, He is from New Jersey. We discussed dialects and and how Spanish varies so much across latin America, and I made them laugh with some coarse scouse impressions like ‘yeritederlah‘ as a expression of concern for one’s welfare in true scouse (“Are you alright there lad”).

Skip ahead to the 7th December.

I took the boat out to the Islands to get a bit of snorkeling in before the sea cooled too much, it’s down to 24 degrees now, which is a bit on the cold side.
I stayed in Caleta Partida in between Isla Espiritu and Isla Partida. I was there for nearly a week, the starlink dish worked very well, and I had a relaxing time, kaying most days and doing a bit of snorkeling and I also cleaned the boat hull and prop. I decided to leave my boat scraper there for next time, it’s sitting nicely 5 metres down and is marked on the gps for my next visit.
At one point I dived into the water and found myself about 2 metres above a huge turtle that was slowly swimming away from me, quite a sight.

A strong northerly was forecast which would mean the port would be closed for several days so I headed back. I arrived in La Paz around the same time as the early Baja HaHa folks.

The Baja HaHa is a boat rally that travels from San Diego in California down to Cabo San Lucas at the bottom of the Baja Peninsula. There’s usually a few hundred boats, mostly sailboats, mostly Americans, that get together to travel as a pack, stopping off along the way twice for big organised parties. When they arrive at Cabo San Lucas, many of them travel on to La Paz and then explore the Sea of Cortez, others continue onto the mainland and explore there and many of them will continue into the south Pacific in the spring as the start of a much bigger ocean crossing. The rally didn’t run for the two years of covid so I expect the numbers where quite large this year. I can’t criticise people for wanting to travel as a big group, safety in numbers, comradeship etc, we did a similar thing on the ARC rally in 2006, but I couldn’t hack it now. Too many excited people all talking at once, and statistically, at least a third of them will probably be trumpers.

Back in my berth in La Paz, the marina is now full, thanks to the southern migration from the states, lots of excited people and the morning net is full of newbies asking where they can buy propane, who sells engine parts etc. The anchorage is quite busy too, but it could still take another 50 boats if needed.

November brought the annual day of the dead festival, again this was the first time the city had staged an event since covid started so I was very pleased to be able to attend the national theatre grounds to see some very strong visuals.

Then there was the parade to celebrate the revolution. Another event that hadn’t seen the light of day for a few years.

I took a bike ride up to the boatyard at the far end of town, known as Berkovitch. I need to find a place to haulout and paint the bottom some time soon, I went so I could speak to the manager direct and work out a price, however when I arrived, after a one hour cycle ride, I found out he was in Marina de la paz talking to potential customers there, oh well, I got some exercise, and got to see some old boats in various states of repair.

In three days time, I will fly to Mexico City to meet Kathy and accompany her back to La Paz, a few days after she gets back to the boat, we are signed up to take part in a christmas light parade where a few dozen boats, all lit up like christmas trees, literally, will parade along the anchorage in front of the Malecon, and I believe, a panel of judges. I have heard that it can draw crowds of spectators in the tens of thousands, seems unlikely, but we will see. I’m only doing it if it looks like we can get in and out of the berth easily, so let’s hope for light winds, gentle currents, and a christmas sale at the christmas light shop.
After the parade we are going to head over to the mainland to hook up with Arturo and his lady in topolobampo. After that, probably back to La Paz for Christmas, and soon after that we head back to the mainland for a three month lazy cruise down to Acapulco. I’m hoping it will be warmer down there.

Christmas has arrived in La Paz, doesn’t seem quite right?, he must be boiling in that outfit

Paul Collister.

I could put clickbait here, but I won’t ;-)

I have been back around 4 weeks now the first week was great, the rest not so good.

This plaque adorns one of the small piers off the malecon
Bravo mercado on a Saturday morning, great food serenaded by a guitarist

I had just got settled in and headed to the market early on Saturday to get some fresh food, the trip back from the market takes me down a steep hill towards the beach, I normally go quite slowly down these hills, scared the bike might run away with me, however this particular morning I was feeling very positive about everything, and decided I must fight my fear of falling off the bike and try to set a new record, if not for speed, at least for scaring myself. So instead of pressing gently on the brake as the bike speeded up,I peddled faster. All was going great, and would have been fine if it wasn’t for that pesky hole in the road, caused by all the recent flood water ripping up the tarmac. Having little bike wheels doesn’t help either. Anway, the bike stopped dead, I didn’t. Fortunately I was able to break my fall with my face. I smashed some teeth up, my glasses shattered and embedded themselves in the flesh around my eye and as I skidded along the tarmac, my skin sacrificed itself in order to provide some breaking friction. There was a lot of blood involved, I think my chances of pulling that morning were seriously reducing.
Lots of people rushed to help, and once I stood up I realised it was going to be ok, no broken bones, but a day later the ribs started to make their position on that matter known. Fortunately this all happened outside a dentists, as one of their staff was leaving. He obviously had medical training and persuaded me to go to his surgery so I could clean up and try to stop the bleeding. There they looked at my wounds and it just happened that a surgeon was in the building and he explained I needed stitches and he could do them right then if I wished. He removed my sunglasses from under the skin and put a dozen stitches around my eye and a few in my lip. Further inspection showed a few teeth to be smashed. They then bandaged me up and told me to come back in a week and they would remove the stitches and advise on the teeth. They wouldn’t take any money for the help they gave me, which was just amazing really.
So two weeks after the crash, I’m pretty much recovered, ribs still hurt a little and the dental work starts tomorrow. Once the teeth are fixed up, I’m sailing out of here to get some snorkeling in.
Kathy will be heading out to join me mid December, which will be great. Then we will leave La Paz and explore new places.

So now I’m back doing boat jobs and programming. I replaced the 12v Cigar lighter system in the cockpit with more sturdy connectors, I think they are called SAE and seem more robust and should be good for a few amps.

SAE 71?

Next I replaced the cigar lighter plugs on the Searchlight and the Foghorn I made in Malaysia. Now I knew there was a problem with the foghorn, besides the power connecter, something to do with the push button you press to make it work. So I put the thing down and plugged it in. Boy is it loud. I almost fell overboard with the blast. Then I remembered, the problem was the push switch I bought, was a push to break, not to make, so you had to press the button to stop it. Having woken up all of La Paz, I replaced the button and it works great, as did the searchlight.

Another Baja 1000 type affair
Not sure what’s going on here, but it made a pretty scene.

People are busy fitting Starlink systems to their boats here. If you don’t know, Starlink is an Internet Provider from Elon Musk which uses the 3000 satellites he has in low earth orbit, which increase by 50-100 most weeks as his spaceX company launches them. On your boat you have a small dish and can get 100mbs download or better. And it works as your sailing along. At the moment the satellite you connect to has to have sight of a land station for the downlink, which limits you to a few tens of miles from the coast when going offshore, but that will change soon. At the moment all of the sea of Cortez and the whole of the coast of North America (Not sure about up north around Alaska)is covered.
This really is a game changer in so many ways. The ranks of the Digital Nomads are swelling, property in remote areas, and sailboats in remote spots are being taken over by yuppies who prefer that life to crazy rents in LA or Silicon Valley. For us sailors, we now have Netflix anywhere we drop hook, or even on passage, that doesn’t interest me. What I love is being able to get good weather forecasts easily. Working at anchor has lots of advantages, but then again, I’m trying to avoid work. Downloading the parts diagram for the gearbox when broken down in the middle of nowhere could be helpful. Kathy will love the connectivity with family & friends.
So I did some research into how these Starlink dishes work, which took me into the workings of phased antenna arrays. Now I was really impressed, such clever technology that a flat printed circuit board can be made to act like a highly focused beam, and track a satellite moving really quickly while at the same time compensating for the boats motion!, this is done without the dish moving and happens in milliseconds. I just had to have one.

Dishy McFlatface (As Musk named it) sitting on my boom
Not the best rates, but impressive for the Marina

I ordered it and it was here about 4 days later. I bought the RV version, which basically means I’m licensed to roam with it, and I can pause the monthly $65 contract when I don’t want to use it. The dish was about $400. Bye Bye Iridium.
It was up and running in minutes, and I made a video call to Kathy and it was perfect quality, no noticeable lag or jitter.
So now I can anchor in remote spots and not worry when all the other boats up anchor and leave that they know something about the weather that I don’t.
I also need to have good contact with the rest of the world so I can keep up with who my prime minister is on any given day.

Dishy before I find a proper home for her.

I took the boat out the other morning just so I could reverse back into my berth. That went very well, mostly thanks to the bow thruster. Carlos had recently scrubbed the boat and the props so that helped.

There has been a lot of live music in town these last few weeks.

Just love those Sombreros
Tropidelic from Cleveland, Ohio,

So not a lot else to report on, the boats in good shape, The dinghy repairs might not be holding up and need some attention. Now I have the boat reversed in I can varnish the starboard side. I checked the gearbox oil in the outboard again and I think my repairs are good and that machine might last a bit longer.
I’d really like to go for an electric one as a replacement, I’m hoping to get a watermaker sorted soon, lots of new lithium batteries in the next year, and an electric hob and I can then get rid of the butane and petrol onboard, making us quite self sufficient, if only I could catch fish and bake bread!

Paul Collister

24th October 2022

La Paz to Liverpool and back

A month ago I left the boat and headed back to the UK. I try to get back during August/September to visit friends and family, it’s also very hot on the boat.

The trip home was easy and despite the UK being beset with public sector strikes, the trains were running fine on that day and I was soon back in Liverpool reunited with Kathy. As I left a hurricane had started to make its presence known and was on course for the Baja Peninsula, early tracks had it just missing the boat, but it was a worry, eventually it passed La Paz without causing too much damage, just a lot of flooding.

Hurricane Kay

The flight back to the UK, via Amsterdam passed over Galway and Liverpool, but sadly didn’t want to stop at either, wouldn’t it be cool if they had bell pushes like the busses!

Passing over Liverpool.

Liverpool was busy as usual, plenty of tourists and nice late summer weather, I managed to leave just before it turned to Autumn (Winter to most civilised people).

Liverpool: Apart hotels have a lot to answer for

After a week in Liverpool I popped over to Galway for a few days with Tim & Asta before they headed off for a long sailing break in our old cruising grounds in the Ionian. It was great catching up and enjoying the great cooking and fresh bread always on offer at Tim & Asta’s home on the waterfront

The big harbour in An Spidéal

Flying back from Galway to Liverpool one gets to see the scale of the offshore wind farms, below is just one of many in the Irish sea. I’m a big fan, I know plenty aren’t but given the current alternatives, i.e. mass extinction, then I’m cool with it.

West Hoyle/Rhyl I think

I toyed with the idea of buying a bigger apartment in Liverpool while I was there and looked at several possibilities, mostly in the new build/off plan area, so I could rent it out until I finish this bout of cruising, but I didn’t see anywhere that really excites me, also, I was aware that the UK was heading for big economic troubles, and I wondered if there might soon be a property crash, which looking at the current forecasts seems distinctly possible.

Warehouse conversion are common in Liverpool

Another job I had to tick off was changing my registered doctor, I joined a practice in the University area of Liverpool and below you can see the entrance. This is in the cluster of victorian buildings that house the Liverpool school of Tropical Medicine and has played a big part in finding treatments for diseases like Ebola/Aids/Covid19 etc. I’m looking forward to seeing inside the builing as compensation for my next illnes!

Doctors Office in The University quarter

Another thing that happens in September is that Kathy, my daughter Yasmin, my best friend from school days, Dave and myself, all have birthdays. So Yasmin generously hosted us in her house and Isaac (my son) drove up from london so we could all celebrate another year passing.

Happy Birthday
Customised cup cakes for all involved (Thanks to Lauren & Isaac)

So no sooner had I arrived, and I was on a plane flying back into La Paz.

Passing by Mazatlan (been there!)
Isla Ceralvo (Jacques Cousteau Island)

I took the shot below of a local fisherman after he returned to the dock a few boats along from me, he passed me on the way out and the pelican was sitting on the transom all the time and he was feeding it any fish bits he didn’t want. It seemed like the bird was his pet and seemed quite happy to go along for the ride. I didn’t see many scenes like this in Liverpool 😉

Jesus Cristo and his pelican friend

I have been on the boat for 3 days now, everything was perfect when I returned, the boat has had a good wash from the hurricane and everything was still working.

I set out this morning to kayak over to the Magote and explore a little mangrove creek. The entrance is silted up so you need a high tide to get in and there was a big tide this morning so off I went at 8:30 before it got too hot. It was an easy paddle and I had a swim before returning. While paddling around I had a video chat with Kathy who told me there had been heavy rain in Lpool and it was quite cold, I must say I felt a little bad about that, but it didn’t last. I’m hoping Kathy will be flying out to the boat soon, I’m not sure she would like the heat as it is right now.

Mangroves in the Magote

Arturo has left La Paz, he has moved to live with his new girlfriend over on the mainland, I’m hoping to visit him later in the year as he is only twenty miles inland from a port I can sail to. So I have lost my translator and dining companion, consequently I’m stepping up my Spanish learning.

Apologies to all my friends I had planned to visit but didn’t make it. Can I blame an old lady for messing up some of my plans, probably not, hopefully I will get to see everyone when I get back next year.

There’s tradition for you!

I’m planning to spend a week or two doing some programming work and a few small boat jobs before heading back out to anchor in the islands, I’m keen to do some swimming / snorkeling with the fishes before the water cools down too much. It’s around 30c right now, but will be dropping quickly, and in a few months a wetsuit might be required. When Kathy arrives we may well head over to the mainland and then travel south, possibly as far as Acapulco.

Paul Collister

A Postcard from La Paz.

It’s been 6 weeks since I arrived back at La Paz and I haven’t left the dock in that time, other than in the dinghy on a couple of trips to the Magote sandbank to have a swim. So sorry, nothing exciting to report

I have fixed a few things on the boat, the biggest deal being the drains on the sinks, which are now plastic and should last a lot longer, or at least be maintainable, than the rusting steel originals. The boat has had some varnish, at about the same rate that it is losing it. The anchor windlass solenoid problem had been resolved. So the jobs list has dropped but also topped up by a broken outboard engine with no coolant and a failed oil seal in the gearbox, and a new design for the shower sump drain has been identified as needed, post the sink drain repair. Also the PI computer is dead, it has been eating up SDRam cards and I don’t know why.

On a personal level, I have been ill for 2 of the weeks since I returned, and I decided to get my ears looked at while I was here, there’s little chance of getting anything done in the UK with the state of the health service there, even before Covid, there was a 6-9 month waiting list to see a hearing specialist. I have Eustachian tube dysfunction, which is stopping me diving, in fact stopping me hearing. I saw a specialist here and had tests done, and I’m taking medicine and doing exercises involving balloons (Don’t ask) and things are improving, in fact my left ear is now working well. There may be hope for me yet.
I failed to get an appointment with the American Embassy in London for a visa, they were booked up 9 months ahead. That will have to wait, but after a lot of hassle, I booked an appointment with the Mexican Embassy in London for my return in August when I will be travelling back to Kathy for 4 weeks. However my Visa for Mexico ran out a few days ago, and I became an illegal immigrant thereby making me eligible for the new program of rehabilitation of people who had overstayed their visa. It cost a few pennies, but the upshot of it all, is that I now have a temporary Mexican residents permit, which allows me unfettered travel to and from Mexico for the next four years, after which I can upgrade to become a permanent Mexican resident. I’m not sure how long I will remain here, but I will be returning regardless of where we head next.

Arturo’s girlfriend has been here for the last few weeks, so I finally got to meet her, and she has been cooking me some wonderful Mexican food. I have been promised some Nopal, which is very Mexican, I have seen people buying it in the supermarket and wondered if they really would be eating it

Nopal (prickly pear)

There’s not a lot happening out in the bay here, an abandoned sailboat broke loose and went aground on the beach during some high winds a few weeks ago, It appears it was a good boat a few years back but the owner died and his family took over but as they lived in the states they seem to have neglected the boat and over a few years it was stripped of anything of value. Now it’s just an eyesore. I have popped a video I made on youtube, link below.

In other news, a couple of the die aboards died, in one case it seems to have been Omicron that pushed him over the top. A lot of people have been quite ill with it, but most are back working after a couple of weeks. Most people I have met here seems to be triple vaccinated.

Dirk & Silvia, our German friends on Lison Life made it safely to French Polynesia without issue, they seem to be having fun there.

So far the hurricane season has been muted, not a lot is expected with it being a La Niña year, during La Niña years the water is cooler so less likely to allow hurricanes to exist, but it’s still a worry as the boat will be on its own for 4 weeks during August/September. So far we had one hurricane very early in the season that wreaked havoc much further south.

I’m taking advantage of my stable situation here, with good internet to do a little work on the solar/wind monitoring projects I built, basically I’m moving all the software to the cloud on AWS, and re-writing a lot of the linux scripts to run as Python Lambda code. I’m finding it very interesting, this whole idea that I have no knowledge of where my code lives/runs or sends it output to, other than an email address you send data to, and a web address where you can look at results. Once completed in a few weeks I can hand the whole lot over to a younger person to maintain and I can finally hang my hat up as a paid professional software engineer and focus more on being a lazy sod living on a boat in Paradise 🙂
PS. I meant to post this two weeks ago, as my visa was due the be delivered the next day, but I thought by saying I had it, when it was really ‘in the post’ might jinx it, so I held off posting, which seemed to jinx it. The printing machine broke at the immigration office and after a lot of hassle, and some stress I got it a couple of days ago. So in the last two weeks, I have indeed fixed the PI, repaired the outboard, and greatly improved my hearing. Tomorrow (Sunday) I will be on a flight back to Manchester, via Amsterdam to be reunited with Kathy and my family for 4 weeks. Today was spent stripping the boat down just in case a hurricane comes this way.

Cheers,

Paul Collister.

Kathy has left the boat

Sunday 15th May.
We spent Saturday provisioning for the next month afloat. The plan was to deliver Kathy to an American Airlines flight to Phoenix, departing from Loreto on the 26th May, in 11 days time. I would then spend a couple of weeks slowly making my path back to La Paz, where the boat may well remain in dock until the hurricane season has passed later this year. 

We had a last meal with Arturo at a vegan / veg venue that has nightly music.

Cappuccinos bar/venue
A farmer brings his donkey and baby donkey to the town square

We left around 10:30 on Sunday on slack water and sailed up to Isla Partida, a four hour trip. Two days previous, Carlos had been with his cousin and scrubbed the bottom of the boat, it made a huge difference and we raced along in a light wind doing 5-6 knots. We were soon anchored in our favourite spot at Candeleros enjoying a very calm evening.

Sunset somewhere, Partida?

Later that night we watched the Total Eclipse of the moon in its full glory. 

Monday 16th
Up early for the 4 hour sail to Isla San Francisco, or Franciscito as it is also known. Again we sailed the whole way in a strong southerly, A walk across the island to the east side for exercise and then I made Guacamole for our dinner.

This old turtle has known better days

Tuesday 17th
A short hop up the channel between The Baja Peninsula and the island of San José and into the small fishing village of San Everisto. There was a strong southerly still blowing and the waves had been building all night, as we left the protection of the horseshoe bay it hit us full on the beam, the period of the waves had the boat rocking like the pendulum on a grandfather clock, and a lot of crashing noises filtered up to the cockpit from below. Kathy dashed down to protect what she could. On deck everything was fine and I enjoyed the lurching around, after 15 minutes we turned to starboard and put the wind and waves behind us. Out came the sails, off went the engine and we settled into a couple of hours of fast sailing.

Normally we would anchor in a small cove away from the town, but I had been told there was a nice beach restaurant there and I wanted to check it out. The bay has a spit that comes out and to get protection from the swell you have to tuck in behind the spit in quite shallow water. There was already a 45ft yacht there and so we went in front of them anchoring in just 3 metres of water. By the time we had swung with the wind, we were directly in front of them, but with 60m between us, given the short scope of 20m of chain I had out, I had no worries about us hitting them, but they called me on the VHF saying they were concerned. I let them know we were well dug in and I was sure in the lightish winds there was no chance of us dragging, but they were worried that it might be a problem as they were leaving at 5am. I couldn’t understand why that would be an issue, but assured them I would listen on CH16 and they could call me when they left if there was a need. As it turned out their anchor chain woke me up and they left without any issue. I’m still confused by the whole thing, as they had a boat that looked setup for sailing around the world, they were quite elderly, and I presume very experienced, so what was the problem?  I worried if I might get like that in ten years time.

We went ashore and I immediately recognised the restaurant as one that Jim and I visited over 2 years ago. We had drinks and promised to return for food, which we didn’t. Jim and I bought a Parga fish here from the neighbour who I recall had a very cute toddler granddaughter who was amused by us gringos.

San Evaristo

Wednesday 18th
The next leg is always tricky, going north from San Everisto, up through the San Jose channel, there isn’t anywhere to stop out of the waves for the night, unless it’s a northerly or westerly wind, any southern component in the wind will cause waves to build through the channel and creep into most anchorages, the nearest safe place is Agua Verde, but that’s 8 or more hours to the north. However the southerlies were still blowing strong and so at 9:30am with the sails up we left and were making great progress. I could tell that the anchorages en route would be too rough so we settled into a long ride to Agua Verde, arriving at 19:30 to find a crowded bay. There must have been about 15 yachts and a few motor boats there. But it’s a big space and we found a nice spot near the beach and anchored in 4 metres of water. We would spend the next 4 nights here. 

Agua Verde
Kathy starts to Kayak
Kathy delighted to find her retirement home

Monday 23rd May
We left Agua Verde at 10 am, heading north we had many options and I wanted to see how the wind played out as we sailed up towards Loreto. Had the sea been rough, we would have gone into Puerto Escondido, taken a mooring ball, and ordered a Taxi for Thursday to get Kathy to the Airport, however the sea was very calm. The winds had dropped off a lot, and although southerly still, were generally around 5 knots in the daytime, picking up in the evening. We also had 4g on our phones now and I could get decent weather forecasts showing very calm days ahead. Basically it looked like we could anchor anywhere now and be fine. So we went to Juncalito, a small strip of beach with some fishing shacks and a row of gringo houses/trailer truck huts. It seemed lovely until we heard some Mexican Banda music, followed by some very rude US Rap songs blasting from the beach.Several groups had setup there for a days outing and had brought along a PA system that would be better suited to Glastonbury than here.  I wonder if it’s because they don’t quite speak English well enough to get the lyrics that they let their children dance to this stuff, Even I was blushing, I’m not even sure it’s legal what the Rapper was suggesting! Fortunately as the sun set, they departed and left us to enjoy a quiet evening.

Tuesday 24th 
We left early for the Coronados, an island and islet just a few miles north of Loreto, where we will enjoy a day before Kathy’s flight is due. 

Kathy in the Coronados

Wednesday 25th
A great day walking the beach, snorkelling and relaxing. Today is Kathy’s last time here, I doubt she will visit these islands again, but who knows what BA 25.1 or CC 22 might bring.
In the morning we sail down to Loreto, anchor and then go ashore so Kathy can get a Covid Test, required before flying into the USA, in the evening we go back ashore for a farewell meal at ‘Mi Loreto’, where Kathy can enjoy a Mexican Vegan meal.

Kathy’s first encounter with Mole, a yummy Mexican sauce.
The very old mission at Loreto, where it all started on the Baja for the Spanish

Thursday 26th
Up early and we lug Kathy’s 23 kg of potatoes, biscuits, stale bread and kitchen tiles into the dinghy. In no time at all we are in a taxi on the way to the airport. Kathy Checks in, and has a 2 hour wait for her flight, I get a taxi back to the supermarket, provision up for a few days and head for the dinghy, only to be accosted by the API (port Manager) that I need to visit the Port capitanía in his office up the road with all my papers. Something I haven’t ever had to do here before, I’m a bit miffed, but I shouldn’t be, I really should have checked in when we arrived. Normally this is done for me when I go into the marina here at Escondido. So I dinghy out to the boat, get my papers and head back to the office to join a queue of other sailors in the same boat, well not literally, but all queued up outside the capitania’s office. When I do get in it seems I am missing a paper, the original entry clearance into Mexico from 2 years ago. He is not very happy with me for not having it and I explain it must be on the boat but it’s not in my folder because I have never been asked for it, he says he must see it, or he can clear me in for a fee. I explain that I will return with it, he again asks why I don’t have it with me and I can pay the fee, I explain that in Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, Santa Rosalia, Guaymas, San Carlos and Mazatlan, I have never been asked for it, this makes him more abrupt with me. I explain that I can bring it in on Monday when I clear out and he is happy.
I leave feeling like I can’t deal with authority anymore, and wonder if my hobo life on the waves is going to make it difficult to reintegrate with land based officialdom, I’m already getting stick from banks and the like wanting to know if I’m still a British resident!.
Back on the boat I quickly find the form, and then file it away, haul anchor and head back to the Coronados. Ten minutes into my trip I see Kathy’s flight take off, it’s heading right over me but with her side looking down, so she will have a perfect shot of Sister Midnight, putting along, dinghy in tow sailing up the Sea of Cortez, I bet she doesn’t have her camera ready. As it turns out, I’m right on both counts.

I do accidently record a ray while snorkeling here. It has amazing markings

I kill time by polishing stuff

Soon I’m anchored and snorkelling with the rays and sergeant majors. Kathy is starting her long trip home.

Friday – Monday 30th
I spend a few days just chilling in the Coronados, internet is good here, but on the Monday it’s time to start heading south. I stop off at Loreto, provide the required paperwork to a smiley friendly capitanía, buy some fresh fruit and sail onto Agua Verde for more chilling. I bump into a few hundred dolphins out lunching on the way, they don’t mess when they go out to eat as a group, almost feel sorry for the small fish.  

There’s only a few of us here in AV now, 3 sailboats by Wednesday, I buy some of the local goats cheese, but I’m reminded of the comment in the Navionics app from a guy who spent two days here violently sick, blaming it on food poisoning after eating said cheese. Not sure that should be in a nautical guide, especially when there’s little mention of the huge rock in the middle of the bay.

Gorgeous bay at Agua Verde
But a widened road and new gate portends development?

Sunday 5th June
It seems I have spent 6 days in Agua Verde, The southerly winds are staying strong, not massive at 10-15 knots, but it means a lot of motoring to get south, after 7 days I opt for the first day when they drop to just 10 knots and head out at 7am when it’s flat calm. Once out in the main sea, the wind gradually picks up and by 2pm it’s blowing over 15 knots with fairly big waves, causing the bowsprit to dip into the water occasionally. I push on anyway, as it’s not worth tuning back and waiting another week or more, I’m going to burn a lot of fuel, but it’s ok given I got the northbound trip for free on the same winds.

At the last minute I decide to turn into the protected bay on the Northside of San Everisto for the night. I’m all alone here and it’s very sheltered and peaceful. An early start and I should be in Isla Partida, just one hop from La Paz by tomorrow afternoon.

Monday 6th June
I head into Bahia Candeleros, as we did on the way up, I have the place to myself as a strong westerly wind is due and there will be waves. I’m not fussed, but the boat does end up bouncing around in the night, but all is good and I still get a good night’s sleep. I manage to film a Mobula ray jumping out the water after I kayak over to a group of them and follow them around the bay.

Tuesday I head back to La Paz, anchor overnight so I can get the morning low water / slack tide the next day and on Wednesday at 11 am I’m back in the marina in my usual spot.
It’s been a good trip, and now Kathy has left I can start doing the bigger messy jobs around the main cabin. But first I need to book my flights home for September, and also organise Visas for the USA and Mexico, more on that next time.

Paul Collister
16th June 2022

Popping to Mazatlan

21st April 2020
Location on google maps

As I mentioned in the last post Kathy fancied a trip to Mazatlan,  she hasn’t been there before and although I had spent plenty of time there thanks to pigeons and strong weather, it seemed like a good run for the boat. Mazatlan is 240 nautical miles from La Paz, we plan our trips based on averaging 5 knots, which is 5.75 mph, or the speed of a good jogger. So it works out that 240/5 is 48 hours passage non stop. Leaving at midday on Easter Sunday meant we would miss Easter Sunday in La Paz and arrive midday Tuesday. If we made good speed, we would arrive at best at first light Tuesday, and if we were slow we should still get there before sunset. The plan was to head for one of the three Marinas in the newer part of town to the north.

I suppose we must be getting the hang of this sailing thing as we didn’t fuss over preparing for two nights at sea, one trip to the supermarket on our trusty bikes sorted out the provisions, a couple of hours organising various ropes around the boat, sheets, jibe preventers etc and we were ready. We would have left early the following week, but Sunday was meant to have the only decent blast of NW winds for a while so we wanted to catch them, however as Sunday approached the forecasts showed lighter winds each day. The forecasts turned out to be quite accurate in the end and we left under motor for a few hours until we cleared Isla Espiritu Santo and caught some good wind.

Isla Cerralvo (East side, ski resort development?)

For the next 24 hours we flew along at between 5 and 7 knots. However the waves were much bigger than expected and were more on the beam, causing a lot of rolling and a small of amount of crashing inside the boat. The new Basil and Jade plants took a hit. The second day the wind left us, so on went the motor for the rest of the passage. Six hours before Mazatlan the wind picked up to ten knots on the nose, and the waves started to build from that direction, so it wasn’t the best of rides, but as we approached land the wind calmed and the waves dropped making for a lovely sunrise and entry into the old commercial harbour anchorage. 

All in all it was a good passage, we were joined by dolphins and a few whales, one young whale coming very close which worried us a little, we didn’t want any agro with the mother. A hundred miles from land a gull decided to rest for a bit on Sister Midnight, it circled several times getting closer each time, before finally trying to land on the arch at the rear of the cockpit, sadly it didn’t see the vhf AIS antenna sticking up and flew into it. It broke the antenna off and also lost control and fell into the water behind us in a most ungracious manner. I think it was ok, it recovered its composure and sat on the water until we were out of sight. The AIS Antenna is now held together with gaffer tape and seems to be working. We had a full moon to enjoy, Kathy got to see it rise on her first watch and I saw it the next night. After sunset and before the moonrise the sky looks amazing, so far from land with no clouds the Milky Way is very clear. It should be better on the way back with no moon at all.

On passage it dawned on me that as Kathy would mostly want to see the old part of town there was no need to go to the Marina district, it’s pricey and requires a taxi to go anywhere. We are so self sufficient on board now that anchoring in the harbour where we can use a nearby dinghy dock for $3/day and we can walk to the old town seemed the obvious choice. Once I had a 3g cell signal I messaged Dirk who had stayed in the old harbour before and he confirmed it had everything we needed. The only problem here is that they built a huge waste water treatment plant next to the harbour and when the wind blows the wrong way it’s a bit whiffy. Also you need to bring your dinghy onboard at night, but that’s a wise thing to do in any anchorage. 

I won’t bore you with details of our trip around town, other than my highlights, which consist of buying some amazing Atún Ahumado (Smoked tuna) from the market, along with some very tasty Manchego cheese. Hopefully Kathy will post a blog with her first impressions of the place.

Friday 22nd April
I have been trying to take advantage of the local produce lately, Fresh Mangos, Pineapple and Melon, all very cheap and wonderfully fresh and tasty here. Today I made Agua de Jamaica, which is also know as hibiscus tea, it’s a very Mexican or Latin drink made by boiling up a load of Hibiscus flowers with various spices like cinnamon and ginger, straining it and cooling it. I made 4 litres which will last for a few days. It’s very refreshing, especially as the days get hotter here.

Jamaica flowers, cane sugar, cinnamon stick and herbs
Agua de Jamaica

Chafe problems.
This is a big deal on boats especially when doing long passages,  I noticed that the plastic jerry cans that I have on deck to carry spare fuel had worn thin underneath. I expect 10 years of rocking ever so slightly around on the hard non-skid deck covering has shaved off some of the plastic and two of them will have to be ditched. The last thing I want is 20 litres of fuel sloshing around the deck. They are tied down, but must be moving just a little. I also noticed the mainsail is looking bad where it rests on the aft lower shrouds, the batten sleeves are cut through.

So we headed off to the hardware store today and I bought some non skid matts which I cut up and put under the cans to help remove the friction there. I wanted to buy some of the foam pipe lagging, readily available back home, the stuff you put on water pipes to stop them freezing, but I failed to even get people to understand what it was, freezing pipes is not something people know a lot about here! I did find some flexible stuff 1” outside and 5/8” inside, presumable to protect pipes so bought a few lengths and I have attached them to the port shroud to see how they work, I figure we might have northerlies on the way home so that would be right, but looking at the forecast later it seems we might get southerlies, in which case I will be wrestling them onto the starboard shrouds crossing the Sea of Cortez.

Monday 25th April
We hauled the anchor up and left the harbour in the morning. We headed to the marina area in the north where there are two fuel stations. The forecasts showed that we may well be motoring all the way back, so we would need to top up the tanks. My plan was to get fuel and then anchor overnight off one of the two islands that face the main malecon and leave Tuesday morning early. To get to the marinas with the fuel you have to enter a somewhat treacherous channel, the entrance gets battered with big surf and is very shallow. Best avoided at low water with any wind/waves.

However it turned out to be close to low water when we wanted to go, but there didn’t seem to be much surf. I phoned up the marina El Cid to see what conditions where like. The number I called didn’t want to talk to me, I wrongly assumed that I had a wrong number, I searched the web for El Cid marina and was put through to the marina office, I asked if the channel to the fuel dock was ok, and got into a strange conversation, based around everything being fine, but they needed my passport details and visa info. I thought this was odd, but went along with it, then she asked were my last port was and I stated Mazatlan harbour, thinking that might stop the questions, but then I was asked how I got there from Mazatlan and had I come via the Panama canal. I told her I didn’t think I had and surely something was wrong that she should ask me such things. I was transferred up the chain and it became apparent I was talking to El Cid Marina in Cancun on the other side of Mexico in the Atlantic!
I then phoned the original number, this time with my microphone turned on and spoke to the friendly staff at El Cid Mazatlan, who said, the channel was clear, deep and I should head in without any worries. If any attorneys are reading this, can you get in touch please 😉


We headed in, I knew from previous trips that it is only deep close to the breakwater and you really have to hug the wall, way closer than is comfortable, as we approached and started our turn, a big roller raced in behind us and lifted the stern high, pushing us forward at which point we hit the ground with some force, the wave continued to lift and spin the boat, the bow swung to port violently, and Kathy thought she was going to be thrown out of the cockpit. I could see we were seconds from having the bowsprit ripped off and being thrown onto the wall. This was the first time I ever thought we could lose the boat in all the scrapes we have been through. However the big wave raced underneath us and lifted the boat out of the silt we had grounded in and I turned hard to starboard, gave it max revs and we swung away from the wall and into 7 ft of water and out of the waves. A quick visual check and the boat seemed to be intact and behaving and I started breathing again. I doubt my actions made much difference as the wave had so much power in it I think it threw us wherever it felt like. We refueled and I spoke to the staff on the fuel dock who didn’t understand when I explained the problems I had had, they just said it was very safe and I would have no problems. I felt it was best to leave right away and get this behind us rather than sensibly find a spot for 3 hours to let the tide in, so we headed back, running aground on the way out, with Kathy exclaiming horror as the depth gauge showed us dropping to 1.7 metres, we need 2.0. I wasn’t too worried about driving into the surf, especially as I was turning into it this time, so full revs agan, and we slid through the silt into deeper water, turned into the surf and we’re away. I won’t be returning at low water again, that’s for sure.
We had a pleasant night at anchor, despite many tour boats arriving and blasting out their music. A few boats would arrive with a mariachi band on the bow.

Tuesday 26th April
We left our anchorage around 07:00 to try to get back to the La Paz area before night on the 27th. We ended up motoring for most of the trip and arrived at Bonanza bay at 3:30 on thursday morning, slept for 7 hours then headed back to our spot in the marina arriving at slack water around 14:00.
The trip back was notable for the number of Jellyfish, Portuguese man o’ war, turtles and various other creatures we saw. No wind and flat seas makes these much more obvious.

Pictures of Mazatlan as we wandered around:

Lovely colour schemes
Our favorite drinks spot
The Cathedral
Tree of the day
Can’t get away from these guys, very odd statues though
Malecon at the old town end
The Main Mercado
Just lovely
Someone’s dream car once?
He’s about a foot long
Sister midnight at anchor
Up by the lighthouse
SM behind
The old town
A trip toStone Island
Love the music here

Paul Collister
30th Sept April 2020

Spring has arrived, and it’s getting hot

Yes it’s officially spring here and the temperatures are rising, usually in the high twenties most days, sometimes hitting the thirties. The nights are cool enough to make sleeping easy. However I remember last year and trying to work on the boat and kicking myself for not doing the big jobs while it was cool. So with that in mind I have decided to make a big push on the boat varnish and paintwork this week. I’m up at 7:30 every morning and Arturo arrives at 8:30. Together we scrape off old varnish, sand and proceed to get 7 new layers of varnish on all the wood.

Other jobs are being fitted in. This morning after hearing a joke that went “Q: What’s the easiest way to double the value of your boat? A: Fill it up with diesel” We poured all the cans of fuel into the tank and took a walk to the petrol station to fill up. The price of fuel in Mexico hasn’t changed at all, but is expected to rise a lot. Mexico is a major Oil & Gas producer, but somehow manages to lose money on every barrel it extracts, don’t ask how, that’s just Mexico.

Not used to my fish in this form

We met up with Dirk and Sylvia for drinks after Sylvia returned from a quick trip to Germany. They will leave in a few weeks for the South Pacific. Dirk has done his research well and should have a good passage through French Polynesia if all goes to plan. They are busy filling the boat with dried goods and doing final checks and modifications for the long passage from here to FP.

Snacks at Harkers bar overlooking the Malecon

One of the strange jobs I started was on the port Lewmar winch. It was seizing up, this can be due to old grease, but I had serviced the winch only a year ago, and this didn’t seem right. Once apart I could see the top half of the self tailng flange was corroded, this is down to the usual mixing of dissimilar metals. In this case an aluminium alloy and steel. The corroded aluminium was flaking off as a powder and falling down the shaft into the top bearing. I cleaned it up and rather than waste a stack of anti corrosion compound, I decided to make a gasket / washer to separate the metals. I will know in a year when I next service them if it worked.
My main worry is why after 35 years of being fine should it suddenly fail. I presume salt water must have got in to accelerate the corrosion, but why now. Perhaps I left a washer off or something leaving a small gap. Also I don’t normally get salt water in that area. Although I did wash a lot of bird shit off that area with the deck wash which is sea water?
I have covers on them now.

I make a terrible mess, and always end up with grease or oil on the teak

Once the boat varnishing and painting is complete we will head out to the islands for a few days, this should be fun, knowing we have a berth waiting for us anytime we need to return.

Varnish and a bit of a polish

On a sadder note, a catamaran was found washed up on the beach in Loreto with the owners dog aboard, It may not actually have been washed up, but possibly drove straight onto the beach by it’s autohelm, either way the solo male skipper was not onboard. A week later a body was recovered from the sea, which I believe is the owner. Presumably he fell overboard on passage, There was quite a blow around then of 25-30 knot northerlies, he was crossing the sea from the mainland and would have been in some big seas. A stark reminder of the dangers of solo nighttime passages especially if you don’t wear a harness.

2nd April 2022
We are back from a trip around the islands. It was very relaxing, despite the calm weather not quite performing as expected, our first night in Bonanza bay had us bouncing in a heavy swell from the SE which wasnt expected. Our last night in Caleta Candeleros was similar, but the heavy old baba didn’t worry about the 20 knot gusts through the night and we both slept through it. On the plus side, all the other boats ran away to hide so we pretty much had the two bays to ourselves, excluding turtles, dolphins and sea lions.
I heard a photo of the recovered man I mentioned above had a diving fin on one foot and that he died of heart failure while in the water. I can’t imagine why a solo sailor would be diving on that passage from the mainland to here, unless he got something wrapped around his prop. Very sad whatever the reason.
I’m now working my way around the jobs I still need to do. A bit more varnishing, also Kathy has said she wants to visit Mazatlan, so we may sail over in a week or so, it’s a two day trip involving an overnight passage.

Not a russian one, but they have a mega sailboat alongside
As you do.
Kathy on Bonanza beach on Espiritu Santo
Our failed attempt to find the trail
Canderleos Bay with Sister Midnight in the background

Anchored in 5 metres, over sand
Roca Lobos (Sea Lion Rock) en route back to La Paz.

Paul Collister

Status update & long term plans

We have been tied to the dock in La Paz for a few weeks now and have quickly settled back into the lazy easy going life here.
The day starts with the morning net on VHF CH22 waking us up at 8am. On the net we hear of any medical emergencies, anyone who has lost their dinghy or other valuables, people looking for knowledge or assistance and sometimes a bit of gossip, which keeps us amused.
I spend the rest of the day doing little boat jobs and learning some more Spanish. Arturo calls around a couple of times each week to give me face to face Spanish lessons and I try to help him with his Kumon maths course.

The original plan was to depart La Paz in the next month for the South Pacific and beyond, however I have been thinking long and hard on this one. Many of the islands there have been closed to visitors, and although most are opening up now, things could easily change if a new virulent strain of Covid should emerge. I’m optimistic that this will not be the case, but there’s enough doubt there for my other nagging questions about the trip to get the better of me. Firstly I’m not 100% sure I actually want to do another massive passage, I’m not totally sure what the South Pacific has to offer that we haven’t had bucket loads of already. I know this sounds terrible, but we really have already seen the best beaches you can imagine, been in amazing rainforests, climbed volcanoes etc etc. The South Pacific will need to have some serious wow factor to impress us now.
Saying that, the coral fringed atolls do sound amazing. Also I have been toying with the idea of sailing to Hawaii then onto Canada/Alaska. We both loved the Pacific Northwest so much and really want to return, but that trip is probably more taxing than the south pacific, and in a way seems like going backwards.
Places I really want to visit still are Sri Lanka, India, the islands east of Africa, and Africa itself. Also I still have to do some fairly big jobs on the boat before undertaking any serious offshore passages.
So the upshot of this is I have decided to take a gap year out of passage making, I put a wad of dollars on the table and secured this berth in the marina for the next year. Phew, the pressure is off now, I can focus on being lazy, learning Spanish, getting the boat up to scratch and working out a cruising plan for 2023. Of course we will still sail around the Sea of Cortez during the next year, but without any deadlines, it will be a very relaxed affair.

Chores continue:
Last week I hauled out the two anchors and chain onto the pontoon for their regular inspection. this allows me to clean the chain locker which can get a bit smelly if left unattended for long. The port anchor, which we have never used has a smallish length of chain at the anchor end, but is mostly rope. Checking the chain I found the shackle that joins it to the rope was very rusted and also the chain had one very rusty link. I will refrain from stating the obvious cliche here. I hacked the rusty link out and replaced it with a couple of big shackles. This anchor is only used in extreme weather, and so the problems you get with shackles in chain shouldn’t be an issue.

You are the weakest link (couldn’t resist it)
The chain locker with peeling paint. Cleaner now

I had also hoped to replace the Windlass’s solenoid. while I was there, but I can’t find that safe place I put the replacement in just a few weeks ago when we arrived from the UK, early onset Alzheimer’s? One of my tasks is to go through every locker on the boat re-cataloging where everything is and hopefully making some new space in the process.

Went up a fun side road with Direct and Indirect pronouns.

Maria returned with her male friends, she may be defying the lifespan of a chaffinch, but we don’t care. She provides us with entertainment daily and is almost brave enough to eat out of my palm.

The local herons are very used to us yachties.

We have a large 100 ft, 150 ton motor yacht next to us, but when she leaves with charter guests our view expands so we can see across the bay to the Magote.

Not quite sure on the naming of this boat, but good luck to these optimistic fishermen.

Jesus Christ on a boat
Kathy hard at work

We bought some plants for the boat, partly to have fresh basil, but also to brighten it up a bit. Kathy planted a few different herbs and her main task these days is to check on the seedlings. 7 days later nothing has happened, but we’re not giving up hope yet.

Sunday dinner at Estrella del Mar with Arturo.

There have been a few outbreaks of Covid here in the marina and the anchorage, I think this BA.2 strain has arrived, also we are hearing of lots of infections amongst our friends/family back home. Thankfully nobody seems to be getting too ill, although I believe a lot of people are suffering badly for a few days. Shops and restaurants still insist on masks, gel and often a temperature check before you can enter, and most locals are wearing masks when out on the Malecon. Let’s hope it’s all gone soon.

Spring has arrived.

Paul Collister 20th March 2022

Has Paul forgotten how boats work?

Friday 11th February

Before we left Puerto Escondido we took a hike up one of the overlooking hills. The views are great looking out into the Sea of Cortez, and while we were there we saw a whale hanging out at the entrance to the port.

Local Radio/Internet connection
Looking South from Puerto Escondido
Vultures disappointed in our success at getting down from the mountain.

Another job I had to do was to dive on the hull and clean as much as I could and get the propellor to look like a prop again, not like the barnacle covered football it currently was. I took this little video to show what I mean, in it I have done as much of the prop and rudder as I can.

A final shopping trip for Bananas and some Salsa ingredients

So we finally headed out for a test of the boat, and also to see if I could still remember how everything works.
Leaving at around 11:00 we arrived in Loreto about three hours later and anchored just off the harbour. The harbor here is too small and shallow for yachts, but has a small dinghy dock where we can go ashore. It’s totally exposed from every direction other than the west here, but it rarely blows from the west, so one has to pick the moment to anchor. It was too rough to spend a night, and our main purpose for the visit was to get some groceries in.
I haven’t anchored in 4 months and was hoping everything was working, down went the anchor and as Kathy put the boat into astern she shouted something sounded wrong. I couldn’t hear anything of the engine from the bow and so the engine stayed in slow astern as we tried to set the anchor in hard, however Kathy was getting more concerned at the noise so I shouted ‘Neutral’ at her and headed to the cockpit. I hadn’t reached the cockpit when I spotted that we hadn’t brought the line to the dinghy in. We had towed the dinghy here, it has a very long painter (towing/tying up rope). By the time I reached the cockpit I knew from the location of the dinghy, and the very tight rope on the cleat heading straight down to the prop what had happened. I had reversed over the dinghy line, and the floats on the line, designed to stop the rope being sucked down hadn’t worked. 
A possibly very difficult situation as the wind was blowing towards the rocky shore and no chance at sailing off. Fortunately the anchor had dug in enough to keep us there, I couldn’t be sure how well it had dug in, as we never got to reverse on it, so it was just down to the force of wind and waves that had set it.
Now I had been boasting about how the water wouldn’t be too cold for me to enjoy some swimming, I was about to find out. Diving on the rope and cutting it free would take some time so I donned my 3mm windsurfing wetsuit. I haven’t really used this much since I bought it in Galway some decades ago, I was worried that any passing fashionistas might mock me. As it turned out, even with the wetsuit on, the water was cold.
I worked for about 20 minutes with a hacksaw cutting through the rope, until I dropped the hacksaw, and realised the string that attached it to my wrist had come undone. I then got some cramp in my leg and was starting to feel dizzy. I can’t remember the symptoms for hypothermia, but I didn’t want to find out so abandoned the job for a while. Back on board I was shaking with the cold, so obviously it’s a lot cooler than I thought. Once warmed up, I jumped back in with a new, better secured backup hacksaw and managed to swiftly remove nearly all of the remaining rope. Back on board we carefully engaged the engine in ahead then astern and it seemed to be ok. We firmly backed down on the anchor and headed ashore for some groceries.

The back streets of Loreto


Returning to the boat, somewhat later than planned, we headed north to anchor for the night at the Coronados islands. By the time we arrived the sun had set so we anchored in the dark. Fortunately I know this spot on the protected southern side of the main island and it’s a doddle to anchor. 

Sunrise reveals our anchorage and neighbours that were just masthead lights before

Saturday 12th
A quick walk over to the western beach on the island then a lazy day on the boat. I repaired a dinghy oar that snapped when I sat on it the other day.
We may head back to Escondido tomorrow as the weather looks rubbish for a while. In the meantime I have to start planning for what comes next. It looks like 2023 will be the year we spend in the South Pacific. There’s a massive amount of preparation for me to do. We could be passing through quite a few countries before we end up in the SE Asian area. Many of these countries, like New Zealand are not letting boaters in. Hopefully this CoronaVirus will have eased enough to allow these countries to open up before the end of this year, but I think we have been here before. Also since leaving the EU we don’t get such easy access to the many islands of French Polynesia. I’m not sure what the state of play is with the American islands but if they are on our route we may need to arrange a visa with a visit to the American Embassy in London. On top of the bureaucracy I have to do a lot of work on the boat,  I need to drop the mast and replace the wiring, and some of the lights. The dinghy may need to be replaced soon, the main VHF and the handheld radio are on their last legs, also the watermaker needs to be replaced or have a major overhaul. So lots to consider, but for now the aim was to work our way south to La Paz and try and get a marina space for a while so Kathy can stock up on supplies and I can order bits and bobs for the boat.

The start of an iFixit video for an oar!
5-6 Knots heading south with just the Yankee sail

19th February
Leaving the Coronados we picked up a lovely bit of Northerly winds and quickly scooted down to Agua Verde.

Fantastic sailing conditions
Our favorite anchorage in AV, SM is on the right of the three boats

While in Agua Verde I managed to buy some local goats cheese, we had a great meal ashore on the beach in a small restaurant run by the delightful Leonora, She brought us the visitors book and I was able to find the entry from 2 years ago, written by Jim when we visited here.

21st Feb
We had heard of some old cave paintings/handprints that where a short hike from the boat. We headed off following a buried treasure style map Dirk had sent us. Turn right at the cemetery, then left at the palm lagoon etc.

The Village Cemetery
The Palm Lagoon
Someone who died looking for the treasure?
The alleged area where the handprint exists.

We didn’t fancy the scramble up the cliff face to the cave entrance, and I was told we would be able to see it from the beach, so I announced I could see it then we promptly started our march back. On the way I figured we could go around the other side of the lagoon, but much to Kathy’s annoyance we found ourselves in quite dense undergrowth with no obvious way out. Kathy has a much more vivid imagination than me and wasn’t at all happy with the ‘lost in a jungle’ scenario. I climbed a rock face at the edge to find there was in fact no easy way out, but could see the direction we wanted to go in, so we scrambled through the trees and shrubs and eventually got out.

22nd Feb
The next day we upped anchor and sailed south for the bay at Everisto. It was a long trip and we made good progress, such that I realised that we could make it to the small island of Isla San Francisco before it got dark, another 10 miles further on. On the way we took in a small rocky reef, home to a lot of sea lions, but the light was failing and we could only make out silhouettes, but we could sure hear them.
We arrived in the lovely bay just after sunset and as always the shore and rocky cliffs looked closer than they where, we anchored easily behind a group of loud Americans on a big catamaran, they were having a great party time, as were quite a few other cats there. For many people this is their first stop away from tourist pangas and free from connectivity with the rest of the world. It’s a beautiful spot and the aquatic life here can be spectacular.
We added the extra 2 hours to the trip to make the next passage a bit easier.

Wednesday 23rd Feb
A lazy start, as we head back to civilisation. We are heading for Isla Partida or Isla Espiritu Santo

En route we spotted some whales, or big dolphins and a very sleepy turtle. We also saw lots of dolphins and whales during our trip down. I have a little youtube video with these guys in. I feel really bad for how we startled the turtle.

To the very north of Partida is a small rocky outcrop known as Islas Islotes, home to a sea lion colony we have visited many times. We swung by and I very gingerly moved the boat quite close to the rocks, the pangas get a lot closer.

We ended up popping into one of my favourite coves for the night, Bahia or Caleta Candeleros. We didn’t go ashore, just rested and hoped the predicted strong northerly winds would not bother us.

By the morning the winds had picked up, but we were sheltered tucked into the corner. We took off for La Paz and managed to sail the whole way to our anchorage. In all from Escondido to La Paz, via Coronados we only used a quarter of the tank, about 50 litres of fuel. Not bad at all.

Setting the anchor didnt work the first time, and we were dragging into the main channel, not a problem, but Kathy did not appreciate the stares from all the other boat owners I was trying to anchor amongst. People here are quite wary about other anchored boats as the currents are strong, and boats often swing around wildly sometime with the wind and other times with the current. Often the current points the boat a different way to where the wind pushes it. In trying to recover the anchor, I forgot to flake the chain and the locker filled up and the chain clumped up under the windlass and jammed, it wouldn’t go up or down, with ten meters still out and the anchor dragging across the sand it didn’t look that cool. I was able to get the chain off the windlass and with a bit of cajoling (bashing with lump of iron), freed the chain. We then motored away from the glares and dropped the hook a little further up the bay from them.

Our Neighbour at anchor. An interesting boat from New Zealand
A very nice boat, maybe a formosa, looking great.

We headed ashore the next day as the wind had now picked up considerably and the waves were breaking all around.

They handle some big boats in the yard next to Marina De La Paz.

We ended up spending three days out at anchor before I managed to secure a place in the Marina.
My entry to the marina was yet another disaster, the current was flowing strong and the marina were surprised at my request to enter at full flood. But because I had a good handle on the currents I figured I would be able to do it easily, there was going to be over two knots from astern pushing me onto an end tie and with a boat in front of me I had to be able to stop quickly, but we had a lot of lines and cleats available. As I lined up for the dock and approached, the boat took off big time, and the current changed direction enough that I had to abort the approach, however the hard astern manoeuvre only caused the stern to kick around and the current took over and pushed me sideways onto the end of the pontoon where we started to exchange bits of boat for bits of pontoon. The marina staff tried to push us off. I could have left the current to push us away but a mega yacht was in the way and we would have gone under its prow and bashed it with our mast. So I motored full speed ahead and ground my way out of the mess. Kathy was not pleased.
Going around again, with the knowledge of where the current really was, and people on the pontoon giving me guidance I was able to drift into the berth perfectly second time around. everything is repaired now and it all sounded a lot worse than it actually was.

Friends of our friends Jim & Ivana in Canada were in La Paz, so we arranged to meet up for dinner with John, Joan, Dan & Janice all from Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. We had a great time.

Sayin Nothin

The following morning around 8:30 there was a knocking on the hull and the marina manager was there offering a space closer inside the Marina, and as there was no current or wind at that moment we moved.

Our new home for a while
Our local companions.

We are now in La Paz for a while. There won’t be many more posts until something of interest happens. La Paz is a lot more lively now, and perhaps there will be festivals and parades coming up. For now we plan to just chill.

Paul Collister.

Nevada to the Baja

Friday 4th Feb
We are safely back on the boat now, but not without a fun trip from Havasu back to Phoenix.

Monday 24th – Leaving Havasu and London Bridge

We leave Lake Havasu and head south to the Parker Dam. This dam, although not as big as the Hoover in overall size, is the world’s deepest dam.

From the dam we continue in a SE direction, heading more into Arizona hoping to stop in the town of Parker, but there seems little of interest there so we continue onto a strange place called Quartzite. It’s basically a huge community of budget accomodation, many trailers/RVs and some quirky shops including a Camel ride area. Kathy is keen to visit the Naked Mans Bookshop. There’s no naked man present, but plenty of books in the most ramshackle bookshop I have ever seen.

Quartzsite⁩ bookshop

Onto Prescott, where we stop in a once fancy hotel, but now quite tired, that overlooks the town. I think this was once a frontier town, and its proudest boast is a row of pubs called Whisky Row. It dates back to the late 1800s which they are very proud of. I’m always amused as the last three apartments I owned in the UK all predate Whiskey Row. We dined that night in an Indian restaurant in town, but were a little disappointed in the quality and shocked at the prices. But then I think what is considered a cheap night out in England, might be a speciality in Prescott.
On Tuesday we had a lazy day wandering around the stores of Prescott and at sunset we visited a lovely lake just outside of town. Kathy also found an amazing new wholefood type supermarket ‘Sprouts Farmers Market’ real products, but not at Amazon’s ‘Wholefood’ prices.

Prescott

Wednesday/Thursday
We leave Prescott and drive back across the desert to Sedona. We passed through here at the start of our trip, it’s a few hours north of Phoenix and it looked so pretty we said we would visit on our way back.

Talk about straight road

We stay in a resort style apartment with a lounge, bedroom, kitchen and dining area. Very comfortable, our own porch and washing machine, dishwasher etc. It’s so nice we decide to extend it for another night but are told the price has doubled and that’s for a much more basic apartment. Instead we find a similar deal at the golf resort a few miles down the road.

Bell Rock
Bell rock

We visit Montezuma’s castle, which is an old dwelling situated in the rock face near Sedona. It’s very interesting to see how people lived in caves constructed quite high above the ground, the site was chosen due to the nearby location of a river and fertile land.

Montezuma’s Castle

A little further along we visit Montezuma’s well, a natural spring that was crucial here in times of drought.
Montezuma never actually visited this area and the names should really be changed as he had no connection at all.

The well

Not far from Sedona we visited an old US Army fort, the type that was in the movies where the ‘goodies’ would gallop too in order to escape the ‘Indians’ , A big gate in a high walled stockade would open, they would ride in and be saved. However as the museum at the fort pointed out, there were no trees in the desert to build such stockade walls, in fact it was just an open field with a few buildings. Still it did the job of protecting the new occupiers of the lands from raids by the indigenous peoples.
The museum had a lot of exhibits showing how difficult life was for the soldiers.

The next day we did a bit of sightseeing in the tourist shops of Sedona before driving off to Phoenix via Jerome.

A bit of wind must have blown through here in the night.

Stunning vistas on route to Phoenix

Jerome was added to the route for no reason other than to try a different road than we used at the start of the trip. It turned out to be one of the best stops we made. A delightful town that had gone from bust to boom, then back to bust and now was thriving as an artist / tourist hotspot in the area. Originally created to exploit the minerals in the area, mostly copper with some other precious metals, it had made a few men very rich. However it stopped production abruptly in 1953 and the population declined from some 15,000 to 50-100. It became a ghost town.

Jerome’s ghosts?

Someone forgot their car

From Jerome it was a two hour drive back to Phoenix.

Quaint stores along the route

Our last stop before arriving in a cheap motel near the airport was to see the Roosevelt dam. This is a substantial dam on the Salt river, built to manage the river better and to resolve the frequent droughts there. From there I had planned to follow the river back toward Phoenix along a very scenic route, however the road had been closed, recent fires had stripped the foliage and subsequent rains had caused landslides. The authorities had decided to keep the road closed until the foliage grew back. I wonder if this is how we will first experience climate change, with roads and railways being closed more droughts, more fires, more floods and so on. I’m not sure pouring concrete is a viable way out.

The bridge built before the first dam was demolished to make way for the current structure

Roosevelt Dam
Roosevelt Dam

Sunday 30th Jan 2022
An early start and the car was returned, our bags checked in and we are off to Loreto. No Vaccines needed, no forms, just like it used to be. A new car awaited us at Loreto Airport and we drove down to the Boat at Marina Puerto Escondido.
We had been warned by Dirk, our German friend that an Osprey had made the boat its home and we would have some cleaning to do. I hadn’t quite appreciated how much until I saw that we now had a white dinghy, not a blue one!

In climbing over the pushpit rails to clean the solar panels I managed to lean on the WiFi antenna and snapped it off at the N connecter. A bit of a pain as this is not something easily fixed, at least not by me. I did fix it on my second attempt but I think my first fix may have blown up the transmitter stage and so it’s now a bin job. Thankfully Dirk had a spare one and has loaned it to me until we meet up in La Paz in a couple of weeks time. I now need to find a replacement unit.

Consequently my boat data wasnt uploaded, and as part of the fix, some data was lost. But if you are interested, I have a new page that shows the wind the boat is seeing here on the mooring buoy along with todays and three days worth of battery voltage statistics.
As Zuk would know, it’s amazing what raw data can tell you, after sunrise you can see the battery voltage increasing steadily until the batteries have reach the absorption stage, however there’s big dips in voltage during the morning. This is the point when the toaster is running, so from this you can determine how long we stay in bed each day!
Check out the link above Ship’s Vitals

The boat is quite clean now, the dinghy retstored to its original colour and the engine ran for an hour without issue. We are just chilling here in the bay, chilling being the appropriate word for once the sun sets. Next week we will have a day or two at the Coronados Islands before we head south to Marina La Paz.

Paul Collister