Author: paulcollister

Tuesday 25th May 2021
After a slowish sail down from my failed attempt at getting into Altata, I arrived early at Mazatlan, the dredging was not meant to start until 10 am So I was hoping to sneak past that obstacle on the way in. There was a fair amount of swell bring breaking waves close to the entrance so I was a little apprehensive, but I have done a few entries like this before, the scariest might have been in Miri.

The marina had assigned me a berth, but I must have misheard and ended up in the wrong one, It didn’t really matter, there are party boats everywhere blasting out lovely Banda music (not) from there PA systems.

I clear in, the office staff are lovely and offer to sort out my expired visa for me when they see it.

Later I cycle down the Malecon to see what this town has to offer. Sadly I’m very disappointed, The marina is in the ‘Marina’ district, an area that 15 years ago was just fields I expect, but was designated a development site where a big fancy marina, in fact several marinas were built, lots and lots of condos, shopping malls, superstores etc. A lot of it looks very smart, but overall it’s not finished, and large parts are already in decay, while other fields are being prepared for huge skyscraper type hotels and condos. In the UK, Marina generally is used to describe a place where richer people keep their boats. I have noticed in the rest of the world, it means an opportunity for property developers to make a killing. The marina district here only has about 5% to do with boats, the rest is big malls, strip malls, autozone type stores, fast food and lots of condos.

This marina is the base for many day trip / tour boats. Big catamarans, and power boats, plus a few other oddities, like a giant sailboat called the black pearl, that seems to take about 30 people just on it’s foredeck. They fill up with boisterous young people, many of them a little ‘happy’ , many smoking cigarettes that have a very distinctive smell I remember from California 😉
The boats put on some really loud thumping music and head off out into the bay for an hour or so. At the weekend there’s a constant stream of them.
To get to the famous malecon, I have to cycle through the hotel zone, that’s really depressing, massive hotels for a few miles front the beach. Again, only for the use of patrons, I get to cycle along the back of the hotels where the streets are lined with tourist trinket stores, fast food, and fancy diners, casinos etc. People here travel like they do in Thailand, little open backed trucks that take 8 people, often decorated, with disco lights and loud music blasting out. Or they use smaller golf cart type vehicles. Congestion is bad, fumes are bad, noise is bad, plus you have lots of diggers/cranes/trucks delivering steel girders & rebar iron to building sites set up wherever there is a chance to build. In my mind, just one ugly site after another for miles.

When I do reach the Malecon, it’s a characterless concrete affair, next to a busy highway making it noisy and polluted. However the sea and waves do look good. I plan to go to a supermarket, but realise I have lost or forgot (Lost it turns out) my padlock for the bike. So I can’t leave it outside anywhere. I cycle around and end up in the older part of town, things are looking up now. The cathedral looks great, and in a street next to it I find a bike shop, where I buy a new lock for £3.
Cycling back I call into Ley and get some fresh food, back to the boat and an early night. That’s a ten mile round trip.

Back at the marina and I confirm that the boat over from me on the next dock is indeed ‘Sailors Run’ Geoff & Debbie’s baba 40. It’s the same as mine but in Ketch format, an extra mast at the back. I followed Geoff daily as he sailed this boat single handed, non stop, solo around the world. He was 70 at the time, and an inspiration to us all. He was pivotal in my mind in deciding to buy this baba for our round the world trip, and I learnt a lot about extreme weather sailing from his blog updates and later his book. Sadly he’s not on his boat, as I would have loved to say hello.

Wednesday
I head on down the Malecon by taxi to the Oficina de Turismo, I have been told they can help me get vaccinated. Amazingly as I’m looking for the right door, a lady comes out and offers to help, she explains that they can vaccinate me tomorrow, but they only have the Chinese Sinovac vaccine, she thinks the Astrazeneca is better, but that ran out. I book an appointment for tomorrow.
Later that day I realise that there is a Walmart just 5 minutes away on the bike, so I head over there. I hate multinationals, and I prefer to shop in Mexican owned shops when in Mexico, but I have to say, they have everything I have been missing, and spend far too much on European chocolate, spanish omelette, whole wheat bolillo etc.

Thursday
I get a cab to the vaccine location, a big sports hall near the stadium, I’m wandering around, wondering where us foreigners queue when I’m pulled out of the crowd by a young lady who tells me to follow her, it’s the same lady from the tourist office, she is there to help out foreigners. She gets my paperwork done, and within an hour I’m jabbed up and sent on my way. Thank you Mexico for your kindness. You may be a poor country, but you show much generosity & humanity to foreigners.
I’m thinking I should get a taxi back to the boat in case I feel any side effects, but instead I set of an a 15 mile walk around town.

Before I get too far I decide a meal on the beach might be fun

6 Hours later I call a taxi from the far end of town. I sleep well.

Friday,
A man from the Immigration office turns up. I know a lot of people who complain about how things work in far away countries, but in the UK, had my visa expired, (due to covid I haven’t been able to renew it easily), I would be rounded up, possibly put in a detention centre, then deported. However, here I just pay a man from immigration (at least that’s what he said) some money and it’s all sorted. Seems much more civilised to me. I get a visa, he and his family get a night out on the town, everyone’s happy.

Saturday 29th May
Boat chores today, wash my clothes, have a little cycle around the marina. Now I have the vaccine and the visa sorted I can leave and head back to the Baja, but first I want to visit the cultural sights, tomorrow will be a bit arty and archeological, sadly the weather looks like I might have to stay here until next weekend, I’m sure I will find jobs to do.

Sunday
I cycle downtown, the roads aren’t really designed for cyclists here, and the drivers aren’t mad on us either. they have cycle lanes, but they’re dangerous to use and cars treat them like an undertaking lane. Also lots of pot holes and steep drops make them bumpy. The art gallery is closed, so are the other museums. I can’t work out when they should be open, but the lady at the art gallery says Miercoles (Wednesday) we will see. Still I have a great time cycling around the old town. Wonderful spanish colonial style buildings. I’m reminded of Barceloneta, Barcelona in places.

I cycle down to the beach and find a quiet little cove away from the crowds and jump in the sea to cool down. The waves are strong here and there’s lots of rocks, so after half an hour I jump on my bike and head back along the malecon, however the sea is calling again, so I wheel the bike down to the big beach and do some more swimming, it’s just perfect here, the temperature is great, the waves are fun, but eventually I have to head back.
I pick up some ice on the way as the fridge has packed in.

Monday and I checkout a big shopping mall, it has a C&A but no clothes that I want, I do find a big clothing store that claims to be in liquidacion, and I buy 5 pairs of shorts at a very good price, onto Ley and fresh stuff for a slap up fish dinner. I can’t really store food now so it will have to be fresh every day.

Wednesday 19th May 2021
I’m not really a beach person, but when I surveyed the horizon this morning for the first time in daylight, I was amazed at just how stunning this estuary is. It looked so relaxing that I decided to stay a day before heading into town. I tidied the boat up after the passage and restored some of the more fragile items to their normal place on tables or shelves.

Then after breakfast and my last banana I launched the Kayak and headed off towards the beach to explore. I had to use the chart plotter to determine how far away it was. The sand created an optical illusion such that meant I couldn’t tell if I was looking at some small sand dunes or a vast desert of sand. It turned out to be the former. I thought I could see a large building in the sand in the distance, the bottom hidden in a valley, later it turned out to be an upturned crate buried near the beach.

I kayaked around, a lot of the birds were quite shy, and I wondered if the dunes were protected and I shouldn’t be there. I was careful where I walked. I saw a few spots were fishermen had made camp, so I felt I was probably ok. I put a short clip on Youtube (Below)

Of course with this kind of unspoilt remote paradise there is always the bugs, that night they feasted on me, there is a mosquito who I think wants to be my partner, because she, I don’t think the males bite, seems to live in my bedroom and joins me every night for dinner (her dinner). I use DEET a lot, but I’m assuming it’s a pesticide, and the fact it has two of the letters of a famous pesticide DDT in its name worries me.

Thursday Morning
I haul anchor and head into town. It looks like a big commercial port, the main baja truck, car & passenger ferry from La Paz runs daily trips here, and there’s a big oil terminal. The guides recommend calling the harbour master to get permission to enter the narrow buoyed channel so I brush up on my “Puerto Capitanía, Solicito permiso para entrar al canal Por Favor” however he doesn’t respond, I’m deflated. I had phoned the marina and they answered but the girl went all shy on me when I tried my Spanish on her, she put me on hold, then let me time out. When I phoned back she wouldn’t answer. I actually think a lot of Mexicans are a bit shy when it comes to talking with gringos. So I had no idea if there would be a space for me when I arrived. Also the chart doesnt really show where I can anchor safely, the route to the marina is narrow and very shallow.
Still as I have said before, one’s fears rarely turn out to be justified, and I always prefer to take a punt. So off we went, it turned out that the channel was wide enough that I could skate along the outside of it, in 5 metres of water without issue, the secondary smaller channel was always 3-4 metres deep and as I approached the marina I called on the VHF and someone acknowledged me, but wouldnt have a conversation, presumably because they had walked down to the pontoons and were waving me into a big empty berth. £50 later, in the office, and I’m all sorted for 2 nights here. I now have enough Spanish to feel confident enough to start a basic conversation, which is nice. When the topic of where I come from pops up, Liverpool, football is often mentioned, Today I was able to explain, “Tengo dos hermanos, son fanáticos del fútbol, pero yo no.” (I have have two brothers who are football fanatics, but not me!).

Into town for some shopping and to check things out, again I’m in a very poor town, it’s a bit like holyhead not far from my hometown, in that it’s a port for ferries and commercial traffic primarily, the road into town is full of trucks queued up waiting for their ship.

There’s also a big railway line right into the docks. This line goes to Mochis I think, the next proper big town, from where people start their trip up a classic old railway line into the copper canyon. Known as the El Chepe train. I would love to visit this, but it’s a bit complicated with Covid. Perhaps I will go with Kathy, it takes several days to do the round trip.
Yesterday the political leader of the state was murdered on the road into Mochis, assumed by the cartel, It’s election time here, and they take their canvassing pretty seriously. I was worrying about the state of democracy back home, but perhaps it’s not that bad. But slippery slope and all that!

The town has a malecon, with the obligatory sign, several vendors and a few eateries.

I find it to be a very pleasant place, nobody asks me to smuggle any mules into America, and the biggest upset is when I try to pay for 100 pesos worth of chocolate with a 20 peso note, having misheard the lady in the Oxxo. (For oxxo read 7-11) (for 7-11 read Spar)

Friday,

It seems to get diesel I need to take my cans around the corner to the fuel dock at what looks like another marina, but is in fact a private yacht club with their own fuel pontoon. I suspect it also services the shrimp fleets. It’s very rough and ready, and I’m glad I’m not taking the boat there, for one its dock is 10 ft higher than my boat, and has giant ropes hanging over the concrete as fenders. I take 115 litres in 5 jerry cans.

I have visited 4 fonatur marinas. These marinas were part of a plan by President Fox of Mexico in the 70’s. There were to be 22 roughly following the locations travelled by the early missionaries. The tourism ministry was given this task, the same government agency that took Cancun from a backwater to the delightful holiday retreat it has become today. Unfortunately these 22 marinas mostly failed, and in the case of this one pictured above in Topo, never got finished. They all have the same structure, I have been told it’s a French architects design, I have also been told the docking came from Ireland. The prices are very low, being government regulated, and where there are lots of yachties, they are full and you basically have to wait for someone to die, to move along the waiting list. (La Paz and here) In other places like Santa Rosalia, and Guaymas, the staff just keep them going but the original designs for swimming pools, captains lounges, modern facilities etc have gone by the way. The marina at Puerto Escondido, which is now run by a private consortium, with private prices, is stunning in comparison. I find the whole project of the Fonatur marinas to be fascinating and a possible insight into how business/politics/local economies work. I think once Fox lost the presidency, the will to make the project flourish left with him.

Saturday 22nd May 2021

Into town to do some last minute shopping before I leave. The market that looked so colourful and interesting yesterday is not there today. I wonder why, on a Saturday of all days. I go to the Oxxo and stock up on chocolate bars and fizzy drinks. Then back to the boat to ready for the off. While downtown I notice a big ferry, different to the La Paz ship is loading up with big trucks. I don’t want to meet it in the Channel so when I’m back on Sister Midnight I try to work out when it is leaving. Sadly I can’t find any reference to it on the internet, but I do hear the captain call the port capitania and mention 13:15 which is in an hour. I figure I shall wait until then and follow him out. Looking on the AIS I can see the big tanker that was out at sea anchored is making its way in, so hopefully I will be clear of them both.
10 minutes later I hear the oil tanker calling “Sailboat in the channel, this is MV Star” over and over again. No reply from the sailboat, this irks me as it’s bad practice and dangerous. The Captain of the tanker won’t be able to take avoiding action if they wander into his way. In fact he won’t even be able to see them once he gets within a few ships lengths. The situation is even more poignant given that the bow of the shrimper is sticking vertical out of the Chanel from the collision a few weeks back.

13:15 comes and there’s no sign of the ferry leaving, no action on the VHF so I decide to head out. I can stay out of the channel anyway, and follow the path I took in. I’m also not going all the way out to the sea, but will hang a right and park the boat back by the lovely beach I was on. The wind needs another day to turn to be with me, not against me. As I leave the marina, the said yacht passes me, I politely wave while checking that they do have a VHF antenna sticking out their mast, I’m tempted to wave my handheld VHF at them to get them onto 16 so I can tell them they were being called, but I’m pretty sure they know that anyway. They are US flagged and a couple in their late 50’s The boat is called something like ‘Getting Away’ So I think I understand what’s going on, and keep schtum.

Halfway along the channel I turn to the North West and back to the beach I anchored off, but curiosity, and a little too much swell  pushes me another few miles along the estuary. And I anchor off a lovely mangrove beach. It’s so pleasant here. I have a swim but the water is a little too hot. Also it’s very shallow near the shore, and near the boat there are hundreds of jellyfish floating past. 

Sunday, I leave about 10 o’clock and make my way through the channel back into the Sea of Cortez.
The channel is wide and safe, but on either side of me the waves break ferociously, they would easily tip me upside down if I strayed into them. I set the course for Altata, a town inside a bay/lagoon halfway to Mazatlan. It’s a bit of a party town, loads of restaurants, a nice Malecón, and very safe and protected there. I can anchor off the main town and dinghy in to the pier. The wind builds and I find myself sailing well the whole way. These last few nights have been crazy for condensation, actual puddles of water appearing around the boat. I guess the humidity is high. I abandon sleeping/watch keeping in the cockpit, it’s just too soggy, so end up in the passage bunk.

Monday

The approach to Altata is complicated, it’s a small gap where the estuary / bay / lagoon empties out into the sea, there can be strong tidal flows and we are near the spring tides which exaggerates the flow. Also either side of the entrance the flowing water has deposited sand making for a long narrow winding route in, with very shallow sandbanks on each side. These banks move around every year so the charts cannot be relied on. They tried to mark it with buoys, but the hurricanes kept taking them away.

It’s supposed to be safe in settled weather only, and it seems quite settled now, but as I approach I’m struggling to see the entrance. I edge closer, the massive waves that have appeared are right where I had hoped the channel was, and the calm bit seems to be where the sand bank is marked.

I keep my distance from the waves, but the depth is dropping quickly and now I have big waves to port. Holding my calm I move forward. The chart says that dead ahead in about half a mile I will be in the lagoon. But everywhere ahead is just roaring breaking waves, maybe 20ft high, the type surfers love in California, and the type that would flip me over in a flash. I presume it’s an optical illusion and some closer waves are overlapping distant ones and there is a way through. Checking the chartplotter, and my google earth images, the way through is into the biggest of the waves, and so, whatever charms Altata has, they will have to wait. I swing the boat around and head back. Thinking I’m out of there, I’m a little bothered that I’m now battling big waves that must have crept up behind me without me realising, some of them are breaking just a couple of boat lengths to port. I navigate through them and into calmer water.

Next stop Mazatlan in 24 hours. 
Later Arturo tells me on WhatsApp that he believes Altata is where Hernan Cortes lost half his fleet on his first expedition to the Sea that got his name. So I saved 100% of my fleet. I feel a bit better now.

Turning SE again, Up with the sails and off with the engine. I’m only making 3-4 knots, the sea is calming which is great as I don’t want to get to Mazatlan too early. One of the worrying things is that the entrance to the marina lagoon in Mazatlan can be dangerous if there is swell racing in, or if you should meet a big party catamaran heading out with or without the benefit of a dredger being at work on the first bend. I got to know a couple in Escondido who lost their yacht in just this spot, they took avoiding action and hit the rocks at the side, losing their keel and sinking. Note to oneself, be careful on that bend 🙂

Tuesday 25th May 2021
Safely tied up in Marina Mazatlan where I intend to stay for a week or two. The entrance through the waves around the dangerous bend was exciting, but as I had it all to myself, basically quite safe. More on Mazatlan to follow.

Wednesday 19th May
Did you see what I did there…
Yes I said goodbye to Guaymas and the state of Sonora and sailed south to Topolobampo, on my way to Mazatlan. I’m now at anchor outside Topo, in the state of Sinaloa. Sinaloa could be famous for its crops, it’s amazing coastline, but I think it’s most famous for its world beating drug cartel. In particular, a certain Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán who is now serving a long sentence in a US prison. I’m hoping to avoid having to become a mule or any other awkward moments with the cartel, and I believe Mazatlan is one of the few places Americans are allowed to visit here if they follow their governments advice. I havent checked with mine.

Sunday 16th Guaymas Fonatur Marina
I cleared out with the marina ready for an early departure on Monday morning. If I want to get to Topolobampo before dark on Tuesday I needed to leave here around 5am on Monday. I prepared the boat, which mostly meant stowing stuff away, I poured 40 litres of fuel into the tanks from cans, then failed to get them topped up. Popped to the shops and after an extensive hunt, found some cheap non slip plastic material I could use to keep things from moving on passage.
While out shopping I checked the tides and found that at 5:30am on monday the tide would be very low so I made the decision to leave now and go to anchor locally so that wouldn’t be a worry. If I went back to the bird island I could also shave an hour off the next day’s journey, and sleep in an extra hour.
So back on the boat, it took 30 minutes of work and the lines were cast off and I headed out.

I was soon near the bird island, but decided to push on as I still had an hour of daylight left and headed for a small bay called Catalina, not to be confused with the californian island.

The stench of fish factories was awful on the way, and after one big shrimper passed me I found myself motoring through some horrible sludge, dead fish, and lots of waste, which I presume had just been dumped by the ship. Its big business here and the normally picturesque coves that line the coast were full of big factories with steam/smoke rising from them. My destination was the last cove, and upwind from them, so it was a relief to pull into a calm bay, that smelt ok and drop the hook just as the sun went behind the mountains. Stienbeck wrote about this area back in the 20’s, nearly a hundred years ago, and described the huge fleets of shrimpers dragging their nets along the seabed destroying and killing everything in their path. He wondered how long it might go on for, well sadly I have to report, it’s still going on, probably to a lesser extent.
It looked like I was rather close to a big rock, but the chart had me 100 metres away so I had to trust in the anchor and science.

Monday 17th
Up at 5:15 for a 5:30 departure, a last minute call to Kathy, but she’s out so up comes the anchor and were off, it’s 185 nm which at 5 knots average speed will take me 37 hours , or 24+13, which means now +13 hours tomorrow, or 18:30 arrival. The light is good until around 20:00, so we have a little bit of time to play with. I motor out into the open sea, and a bit of wind has started, I get the mainsail up and as we clear the land the wind picks up. I unroll the heasail and we are soon racing along at 6 knots. what a great start.

The wind is on the beam (Side on) which is the best for speed, but in a big open sea like this, that also means you can have big rollers hitting the side of the boat, which we have, so we are rolling a lot as well. This time the monkey has been tamed, and that’s not a euphemism, it’s just everything is stowed properly now. As the hours pas I’m pleased to be not using any fuel, if it carries on like this I won’t need anymore before Mazatlan. sadly as the sun sets, the wind goes and the engine comes on and stays on until I’m almost at Topo. Except that after about twenty minutes of running the engine I notice the oil pressure and engine temperature are not normal. You see the temp needle intersects the P of Penta on the display just before the stem meets the round bit of the letter, it’s been like that for 5 years now. and the oil pressure is bang on the vertical number, 60 maybe?, anyway the temp is now just slightly lower, maybe 2% and the oil pressure is just slightly lower. I ponder what on earth this could mean. The engine is working and sounding just fine, the readings are only slightly out, but why are they out at all. I don’t like mysteries. So I stop the engine, I want to be on top of things before it gets dark.

I take the engine covers off and check the oil level, it’s a little low, but still within the normal range. I examine the engine for leaks, nothing found, so I top up the oil, start the engine and examine for leaks with it running flat out. Nothing, covers back on, and back in the cockpit the dials are back to where they belong. I don’t understand what that was all about, but watch this space, I’m sure all will be revealed at some point soon. Losing the engine is not likely to be a big safety issue, I have sails, it’s more of a costly thing that can take a long time to solve. Generally they seem to get old and smokey and inefficient, or just stop dead in their tracks. The latter seems to just happen sometimes, people talk about piston failures, con rods breaking etc. How or why they break is beyond me, and how to prevent it seems a mystery. For now I will keep changing the oil and hoping for the best.
The motor runs great for the next 24 hours, devouring half my tank of fuel. I sleep for 30 minutes then the alarm wakes me up. I check the engine gauges, the course, the AIS display and once my eyes are adjusted to the dark I have a good look around. Then the alarm is set for 30 minutes, and I go back to sleep. There’s sod all out here and I see no traffic at all. I do however gaze at the amazing stars out, and the water is very luminescent tonight with the prop making a silver trail in our wake.
Tuesday 5:00 AM
I watch the sun rise, have a few more 30 minute naps then I get up around 8 and start the day. Checking around I see I’m just sailing into a small fleet of fishing boats, crikey, where did they spring from,

I quickly grab the binoculars to work out how they are fishing. I’m worried there might be nets stretched out that I need to steer around. I soon spot the fishermans arms flying in rapid jerking movements, that tells me they are hand line fishing, and they attract the fish to their bait/hook with rapid movements by jerking the line. I have watched tuna being caught this way, but I don’t know what they are after. We are in 75 metres of water here. I’m quite a long way offshore, so it’s a little boring, I can’t see much of the land, but I do see some amazing groups of jellyfish, in strings maybe 6 abreast, with glowing fluorescent centres, a little ‘finding nemo’ ish.
I see a group of sea lions lying down, in a circle, with their fins sticking up, it looks most odd, and later I see a great display of jumping mobula rays. About 3 hours before I should arrive the wind pickups and I kill the engine and get the headsail back out. The wind is behind and it takes a while to get the sails to set, especially given how much we are rolling. The speed drops to to an average of 3 knots, putting my arrival time into the dark, but I’m so happy to have the engine off I don’t care.

As the day is reaching its end I can see my destination. Topolobampo is a port some way inshore, from the channel entrance marker buoy to the docks is about 8 miles, and for a few miles from the land it’s all just a few feet deep. A long channel leads in, dredged to 20 metres, but stray just a bit to the side of the channel and your doomed.

As I come level with the chanel I haul in the headsail and start the engine. I’m able to reach down the channel, but the engine helps push us along. I’m a little startled when I see huge breaking waves maybe ten feet high just a few boat lengths to starboard, it was probably more, just felt that close. It could be very dangerous here in bad weather. I had checked the tides and we are near high water so that’s good.
I can’t make the town in daylight, and hadn’t planned to anyway, halfway up the channel I hang a left into a lagoon area and drop the hook. As I turn into the lagoon I spot something in the water, at first I think it’s a big buoy, but as I get closer my heart sinks, it’s the bow of a big boat, and it’s almost vertical in the water.

You can see the bow/anchor roller on the right, someone has stuck a light on a stick in it. Going left is the stem, then it turns down to the keel. As I write this I remember hearing of a shrimper that sank here just a week ago, after a near miss with the ferry, that must be it, it was right next to the ferry route. It also explains why it is vertical, and not on the charts. How very sad. News Article

The light is going fast now, but I’m aware I’m in a very beautiful place, and the wildlife is making itself known. There must be thousands of birds here. Plus no shortage of smaller flying creatures that seem happy to have a new visitor arrive for dinner, that is to be their dinner.

All in all nothing exciting on this voyage, just some good sailing, and I’m happy that I can do a 40 hour passage solo without any problems.
I will soon head into Topolobampo properly and get some provisions, I think I have another good window to head south for the final mainland leg of this trip on Sunday, so I should be in Mazatlan Monday evening, or maybe Tuesday morning

Paul Collister

Monday 3rd May 2021
I went to bed last night only to find I had left the portlight slightly open on the bash up here from San Carlos and the bed was soaking wet. I grabbed a blanket and headed for the sofa, but remembered that was home to the Aircon unit now, the passage bunk was full of stuff, so feeling around I found a dry patch at the edge and far end of my bed, crawled into that and quickly fell asleep.

Up at 6:30 due to the Port Capitania hailing a motor tanker on ch16, every 5 minutes, at first I assumed the ships radio officer/officer on watch was rubbish in not responding, it was only an hour later it became clear that the ship was a long way off and he couldn’t hear the capitania.
After a call to Kathy I hauled the anchor, it came up with a load of mud, and a plastic water bottle lodged inside the mud. Not sure how that could happen, unless maybe the bottle was there before the major movement of the tectonic plates five and a half million years ago that caused the Baja to form. That would be interesting.

This bay is quite big and home to a Pemex Oil terminal, a large grain terminal, other commercial docks, several large fishing fleets and it’s a navy base with a naval repair yard. It’s also very shallow with several channels marked out with buoys. I was a little bit concerned about the route, I tend to stay out of the main channels in commercial ports and edge along the outside, but with it being so shallow I wasnt sure if this would work, I didnt want to go aground. I also didnt want to meet any big ships on the way. A large navy patrol boat was heading in as I was preparing to leave. Also not knowing if there was a place in the marina was a worry, or if the anchorages were still available outside. Plan B was to just return to where I was on Pajares island. I also knew at the back of my head that these things nearly always turn out just fine.

The other night on the passage over from the peninsula, I messed up the settings on the depth gauge, these navman displays allow you to turn on the backlight for all the units by just pressing one. I normally press the Log unit light button, and hold it in for a couple of seconds, and all the navman displays light up, except that doesn’t work all the time anymore, so I had to press and hold the button on the depth sounder display, this didn’t work either and I ended up putting the unit into program mode where you can change the settings. Without being able to see the display, the random pressing of buttons I embarked on, created a most unusual sequence of beeps, but didn’t get the light on. When I did get to see the display with a torch, I had put it into setting the low water alarm mode, and who knows what else I had changed.

Now as I was sailing past the commercial port and the depth was showing as 2.2 metres, I was wondering if I had changed the offset, for or against me. The offset can make the water seem deeper or shallower on the display. I really need 2 metres to float.

Once past the navy pier I could see the marina and it had a lot of spaces, I called them up on the phone and they answered and gave me a choice of 3 berths, they had more. I went to the first one they said, but the boat in the opposite part of the berth had strung lines right across blocking my entrance, so I went to the one further down, which was a little small. The manager came down, and took my lines and suggested I move to one that he had reserved for someone else, and he would move them when they arrived, so out I went again, and back in on the other side. The neighbours complimented me on my docking skills, but really there was no current or wind, and I had a bow thruster at the ready, more for confidence than actual manoeuvering.
Once tied up, I visited the office and paid the grand sum of £55 for a week. (Water & Electricity may add another £5 to that)

The marina is one of a group all designed by the same guy and pretty much identical, except the one in Escondido is run by a private company and looks a lot better. It does seem that when you put the government in charge of a marina, it tends to fall apart, we saw the same in Malaysia. I can see the staff here try hard, but I suspect they don’t have the ability to raise the cash needed to make it work.

Off to town and I’m impressed, this town seems to have everything I could need. It’s quite run down, but has several charming bits, the market was lovely. I picked some provisions up in Ley, still no decent bread. There are definitely some things they do better in Baja California, Pan Bolillo being one of them.

On the 13 July 1854 the town defended itself against a French attack. For this success it was awarded the honour of being known as ‘Heroic Guaymas’. I heard that later in the revolution of 1910-1920 that the town found itself on the wrong side and most wealthy people left for the USA, and the town never recovered. I think there’s got to be more to it than that. I also heard that the Chinese are expanding the port as part of their ‘Belt and Road’ policy and plan to import goods to the USA through here.

The old churches I was hoping to see have long gone, they were out of town some distance and one has had a new church built on the site. Below is the San Fernando Church, I think this is early 19th C, but I will research more.

The Malecon runs along the waterfront in the centre of town, it seems rather unloved, but maybe it’s just that it’s monday morning, perhaps it comes to life at the weekends, we will have to see.

However I think this is definitely a trip hazard

On May the 5th I had a walk around town, there were many street venders out. Cinco de Mayo, as it is known, is a state holiday here, it commemorates the first Battle of Puebla where the Mexican army defeated the French during the U.S. Civil War on May 5, 1862, but only government offices close, everything else is quite normal.

Friday 7th May.
I start the day with a conference call with my customer in the UK, they want quite a few additions to the software I created for them last month. It’s going to take a few days, they realised that what they asked for wasn’t quite what they needed, and rather than leave them with software they can’t use I agree to fix it up. It’s going to take a few days to do, and I may lose my weather window to head south, so Im not very happy about it all. I agree that they must find someone to take over my role asap as I want to retire properly. Still the money is always useful.
After the call I head off by Uber to visit a pearl farm, the first modern one in the Sea of Cortez, using unique techniques to create and grow the pearls.

I can see the farm out in the bay, below you can see the workers cleaning todays batch of oysters, they are brought in on a regular basis and growth on the shells is removed. Come october the older ones will be harvested

After the farm I walk a mile or so along the coast to an old hotel from the 1930’s

It’s a very grand affair and I expect many celebs visited back in the day. They claim to have invented the mariachi band uniform here when the owners wife made the band dress up smartly in clothes she bought for them. This is supposed to have become the outfit worn these days.

I had been told to look at the wooden carvings that are known as the ‘Rape of Cadiz’ the adorn the bar room and are interesting,

I couldn’t raise an uber so walked back to the boat, it took me a couple or hours, but was great exercise and I took a few snaps along the way.

Mothers Day here is a little different

From the Mexican english news “The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) delivered Mother’s Day gifts to communities in Guanajuato, Jalisco and Michoacán on Monday in the name of leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho.”
Cartel members arrived in communities in pickup trucks with banners declaring “Mr. Mencho and the CJNG wish all mothers a happy day” with a photo of the gang leader alongside.
With their faces covered, CJNG members handed out household appliances like blenders, microwaves, stoves and irons, according to videos and images on social media.
Some of the women recipients stayed in the area to show their appreciation and pose for the camera, while others headed home to put their new appliances to use.”

Here in Guaymas central, mothers paraded with posters/pictures of their loved ones, husbands, children, family who have disappeared, mostly down to the cartels. Some of the women form search parties and dig up areas out of town looking for mass graves. Very few of the ‘disappeared’ ever re-appear.
Yesterday a young graduate of 23 who had just left university with a Masters in chemistry and pharmacology was killed because he refused to work for a cartel in their drugs lab. Not sure a new microwave will cut it with his mum.

Tuesday 11th May
I have been working on this damm software for 3 days now and have at least one or two more days to go. I extended my stay here, but hope to leave by the weekend, weather permitting and head south. I plan to go to Mazatlan next, which is a few days slog, 400 nm . From there I think I will skip Puerto Vallarta (PV) and instead head back to La Paz. I can do PV with Kathy when she returns.

It’s getting hot now, most days are in the high 20s and will soon be in the 30s. Nights are hot and a little humid. I love it, but wish I was out there on the coast so I could jump overboard to cool down once in a while.

Paul Collister

Monday 26th April 2021

“San Carlos is a beachfront subdivision within the port city of Guaymas, in the northern state of Sonora in Mexico. It is noted for the exceptional clarity and warmth of the ocean water in its shallow bays. It lies on the Sea of Cortez.”
_{Copyright Wikipedia.}

The trip from Santa Rosalia on the Baja peninsula over to San Carlos on the mainland, is a 75 Nautical Mile passage across the sea of Cortez heading roughly North East. As I usually try to average around 5 knots, this journey would take 15 hours. The question always is, do you want to arrive in the dark, and as it’s a new place for me, plus it has a rock near the entrance I had been warned about, I decided a daylight approach was best, as the sun sets around 7pm, subtracting 15, plus a couple more for good measure, means a start time of 2AM, given that the moon rose as the sun set, and vice a versa, then the passage should be well lit, and without issue.
Checking the weather suggested everything would be ok, so Monday night/Tuesday early hours was set as the start time. Marina bills were paid, and the boat prepared. It’s been a long time since I did a night passage on my own, so I had to make sure I was well prepared, a good stock of Milky Way chocolate bars was essential, mars bars can be a substitute. Checking the weather again in the morning showed a change and that strong winds from the north were expected on Tuesday so I made the decision to leave early, and worked back from an arrival time of Tuesday morning to give me a departure time of 7PM Monday. A quick trip to the supermarket, and a farewell ice cream in town with Dirk & Sylvia and then I was ready. I left at 7 as the sun was about to disappear behind the mountains, and headed into a flat gentle sea. The plan was for the wind to be behind me, in calm seas for most of the way. I hoisted the mainsail and the staysail headsail and pointed to boat to San Carlos. It soon cooled and the breeze stiffened, so I put on my oilies and lifejacket and rigged up the safety harness.

Within an hour the skies were very clouded, the wind picked up quickly and the autohelm gave up as the big waves that seemed to come from nowhere overwhelmed the system. I had considered putting a reef into the mainsail, something I usually do when night sailing alone, it can be very difficult doing anything when the wind and waves are trying to throw the boat around, and the autohelm won’t work. You have to stay at the wheel, and stop the boat getting into a bad position. It was surprising how quickly things were escalating, so I turned the boat towards the wind, motor back on, and the autohelm was able to steer a course close hauled into the waves and wind while I rushed to the mast and quickly dropped the mainsail. One thing about lazy jacks, a system of ropes that run up along the side of the sail from the boom to the top of the mast, is that you can drop the sail very quickly and not worry about the wind blowing it into the sea, as used to happen on Lady Stardust. With the main down, I tried to furl up some of the staysail, but the forces were too strong, and I gave up after getting about 10% in. That was going to have to do, turning the boat back on course, the autohelm performed better, but was struggling. The waves were still building all the time, and although the wind was on the quarter, almost behind, the waves were arriving mostly from the side. I could hear things flying around below, looking down into the cabin I could see the floor littered with books and things.

Fortunately I had fitted the rudder and vane to the wind vane steering and after 5 minutes of attaching ropes, it was connected and steering the boat well. The engine was off and we were flying along, above 7 knots, touching 8.5 at times, and rolling like crazy. Time to go below and do some better stowing.

On the chart you can see the blue straight line which was the planned route and the curved red (possibly green) line, which was the actual track recorded, The sweep to the north at the start was to keep the wind away from being directly behind, with the hope that as the wind went more to the north I could correct this later easily, that mostly turned out ok, but I think the tides may have been involved as well.

Once I had stowed a few things, I set the alarm clock to wake me up in 30 minutes and went to sleep. It didn’t take long before a big crash, water on my head and the anti gravity force lifted me from my dreams, and the sofa. Big waves were crashing onto the boat. The portlights (windows) were all shut, but the one above me wasn’t dogged down 100%, so a big wave must have hit it and water squeezed through. I went above and the sea was quite wild, big rollers crashing into the boat, but the course was good so back to bed for another 30 minutes. This went on until sunrise, when we were almost there. It was quite a relief to turn the corner behind the rock face at Punta Doble and make my way into the very protected bay of San Carlos. Anchoring was easy, then 30 minutes of tidying up, breakfast then bed.

The only casualty was an old mug used to hold pens, the coconut monkey head had smashed into the treasure box that had slid along and decapitated the mug.
I quite enjoyed the trip, it never felt unsafe, and I’m pleased I can still handle the solo night passages in my old age.

Not a lot happened on Tuesday, I just tidied the boat a little, and rested. I planned to go ashore on Wednesday, but the wind was blowing strong, the boat was sailing around on its anchor, caused by the gusts coming into the bay switching direction every few minutes. I didn’t want to be too far from the boat, just in case the anchor might slip out.

On Thursday morning the wind had dropped so I headed ashore, there is a lovely marina here, tucked into the corner of the bay, very popular, and I parked up at the dinghy dock and went to the office. There I paid the $2 for the use of the dock, and also checked into the port.

Once officially registered with the authorities I headed off into town. It’s about a 20 minute walk, but when I got there I found a main road with a lot of luxury holiday homes to the side, plenty of eateries and a big Ley Supermarket. Soulless!

I popped into the ley supermarket and bought a few goodies, mostly fresh bread, that turned out to be stale, then headed back to the boat. I took a side road leading towards the beach, but ended up at a dead end, having walked a long way parallel to the beach, but with no way to access it. I could see through the lovely homes right out to the sea. They had a great location, but didn’t want to share the view, or access with anyone else. Still I have a great view, and easy access from the boat if I want.

Just before the Marina there’s a lovely square and classic looking church. Catch 22 was filmed in San Carlos, one of my favorite books and films.

Back on the boat I fixed the port navigation light, on the pulpit. The wire connection had corroded and was an easy fix. I use that light when motoring at night, and the tricolour light on the top of the mast when sailing. The red green and white lights let other boats know which direction you’re travelling in.

Sitting down I put the fan on to cool down, but it didnt want to turn. A little investigation revealed the switch had broken, fortunately I carry a spare, as I expect most of us do. Unfortunately, despite being a perfect fit, it was black, not white. Well I will just have to live with that.

Saturday and I head ashore to get some food, I’m leaving for Guaymas in the morning.

Back at the marina, the place is full of tourists waiting for boats to take them for a whiz around the bay. There are many nooks and crannies here. I’m not sure I approve of outsiders just turning up and expecting to have a good time on the water 😉

I return to the boat and spend the afternoon doing a bit of planning, my flight home is in July, so I divide up the weeks between now and then and assign ports to them. Right now it goes, Guaymas, Topolobampo, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, then La Paz. There will be lots of little stops along the way. I do some Spanish and marvel at the number of pleasure boats streaming in and out of the harbour. I’ve never seen so many in all my travels. For such a small port and bay, they sure pack them in.

Later a loud band kicks off in the marina, so loud I have to go below deck to be able to read. Then fireworks, in the marina, but also around town.

Sunday morning, I decide to skip church (again) and head out to sea. The forecast is for light winds, a calming sea and generally a pleasant 3 hour passage to an island near Guaymas. Nearly 5 hours later, a little beaten up, I arrive at the island. It was a hard passage, and often only making 2 knots against the 15 knot wind with huge steep waves on the bow. I’m going to have to improve my weather forecasting. The boat was thrown around quite violently at times, but nothing broke. The monkey went after the mug this time. I should have left him wrapped inside the towel.

I’m anchored in the lee of an island called Isla Pajaros, which means ‘Birds Island’, there’s a lot of them around, mostly pelicans. Yesterday I saw a duck surface with a fish in its beak that was massive. It flipped it up into the air and caught the end of it in its mouth and proceeded to swallow the whole thing. Very impressive, but I felt bad for the poor fish. A bit like a James bond kind of death!

From here I’m able to see the industrial end of town, I think the bright lights are in the main dock, and oil terminal. Tomorrow, Monday, I will head over and try to get a berth in the marina, which could well be full. If so I will anchor near the town and try to find a way ashore. It’s a very industrial town, and may not be as safe as most of the places I have been to, so I need to find a safe place for the dinghy. Petty theft is more likely here, but shopping and exploring the centre should be fine during the day. I want to visit some churches which I think date back to the conquistadors time.

Paul Collister

Safely tied up in the marina I took off to explore town. It’s not a big town and you can walk all of the streets in half a day.
I love the place, it’s unlike anywhere I have been in before, but some of it similar to the area I grew up in on Merseyside, where decaying industry was all around.
Santa Rosalia was just desert scrubland until a rancher discovered copper in the ground, he couldn’t make money from it, but the French company Compagnie du Boleo moved here in 1884 and built the town and started large scale mining and processing here. The town has a French influence, and although you can see much variety in the houses and shops, they were all built to serve the mine and the company.
The mine (El Boleo) was profitable until the 1950s when the French pulled out, the Mexican government took over rather than let the 10,000 people in the town down. There was nothing else here, and given how scarred the place was due to the mining, there was little chance of tourists visiting. The mine ran at a loss until the 80’s when the government finally called it a day. It must have been hard here until 2010 when a Canadian & Korean consortium reopened the mine and with modern technology were able to make it profitable. Initial delays caused the Canadians to pull out and the mine is operated soley by the Koreans now.
Just a few days ago I read in the Mexican press that Mexico’s often controversial president has announced the the mine cannot be expanded once current reserves are finished, causing the Korean company to say they will pull out in the next year causing much unemployment here once again.

While here I pulled down the Genoa, and put up the traditional, and newer Yankee and Staysail sails. I’m going to be doing a fair bit of sailing I hope along the mainland coast and wanted the best sails up.

Halfway through my stay here Dirk & Sylvia arrived, on Sunday I helped them replace the forestay wire inside their furler. They will follow me across to the mainland in a few days time.

Not much else to comment on, so I will just dump a load of pictures of the town here with some info in the captions.

The harbour wall is mostly build from compressed blocks of Copper slag waste.

Tonight around midnight I will leave for the 75 nautical mile passage over to the mainland, hoping to arrive in San Carlos tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon.
My first night passage in a long time, so I’m stocking up on munchies for the passage.

Paul Collister

Sunday 11th April 2021
Time to leave the safe and comfortable setting of Puerto Escondido and explore to the north. 

Sunday arrived and I was up at 6:30 to ferry Dirk & Sylvia to the marina dinghy dock. They had a hire car and were heading back to the USA to get their second shots for covid. Perhaps shots is a bad choice of word for the USA these days.

It’s been foggy the last few mornings, and today is the worst, I had to put a waypoint for the boat on my phone so I could find my way back.
Back at the boat I tidy up, have a coffee and start the engine. A msg arrives from Dirk, who is now speeding along the main BCS highway north, he says the bay and the Loreto area is clear of fog. So I cast off the lines to the mooring buoy and motor on out.

To hours later and I’m in Loreto. It’s calm and I motored all the way. A quick trip ashore in the dinghy and I’m stocked up with bread, fruit & veg and chocolate to see me through a couple of weeks. I also buy a big bag of empanadas, these are often just like pasties in shape and filled with meat or cheese etc. However these are stuffed full of sugar and chocolate, then coated in sugar. That’s pudding sorted for a while.

Back on the boat, I download the weather and decide that it’s early enough in the day to go north to the Coronados, One big island and the other very small. I will have two nights there and do some research for the journey ahead. The wind has picked up, from the south so I unfurl the Genoa, and very slowly, 2knts, make my way north. 4 hours later I drop the hook in the northern end of the bay. It’s gorgeous here. Quite a few other yachts and a couple of motor boats share the bay with me, but it’s not crowded.

Monday.
A lazy day after yesterday’s early start, up at ten, lovely bread for toast and coffee, and it’s going to be a hot day, probably in the 30s. I launch the kayak and head off to explore the northern side of the island. I row for 2.5 miles and get it into my head I must be about halfway around the island now so will push on and do the lot. It’s actually 8nm all round, and as I round the next headland I’m exposed to the windy wavy side of the island and it doesn’t feel so good. I’m a long way from the boat now and I start to think about what might go wrong. I’m pondering on the ‘up the creek without a paddle’ scenario, and can’t help thinking that’s got to be better than drifting in the Sea of Cortez with no paddle; surely you can just drift to the side of the creek, grab some branch and fashion a paddle out of it.  It’s very barren here so I decide to turn around and head back. I had been hoping to find some good snorkelling spots as I had brought my mask and fins with me in the kayak. Sadly the best spot was reported as just after the headland, and the second best was where I started from. Should have done my homework before the trip. I stopped in a sandy cove on the way back and donned my mask and flipper and dived in. It was freezing. I only had my trunks on, and jumped out again, however on my second go it seemed ok and I did a 20 minute snorkel, I was keen to test out my new GoPro, it worked great, but visibility was poor where the best fish were. 

I made a huge tuna salad for dinner and lay in the cockpit watching the stars which are so bright out here.
Around midnight I was woken by some fishy business. Going into the cockpit I could hear, what one could only assume to be a giant seal pretending to be a whale, or more likely a whale. Every two minutes a large exhalation and splash was heard, quite close by, and slowly heading north through the bay. 

Tuesday, and a chat with Kathy early on, then up with the anchor and north it is again. This time to San Juanico.

There’s no wind but a lot of swell from the SE, this bay is great for every direction except the East, as I approach the swell is coming more from the east and I’m not expecting to be able to stay there. I decide that as the wind is low, and will be for days, this will be a good time to practice laying out a stern line with the Danforth anchor. It hasn’t been used since we landed on top of the rock in Thailand, some time back. It could do with an airing, and I could do with the practice. The plan would be to load up the dinghy with the anchor and its 10 metres of chain, row to the shore with the remaining 60 mtrs of rope line trailing out from the boat, and position the anchor so that when I tightened the line back on the boat, the bow would point into the swell. 

The bay is very popular according to the guide/pilot book, and I was expecting it might be crowded, but with the swell I expected most people would leave. It’s rare to see an AWB (average white boat) or first timers stay long when it’s rolly.

Turning into the bay I was stunned with the beauty of the place, the rock formations are amazing. If possible I might dwell here a few nights. I saw no boats until I was further around the corner when a boat, looking a bit like mine came into view. But between us the waves were breaking ferociously on a line of rocks. He must have gone behind them. Getting closer I could work out how he got there, and I copied him. Behind the line of rocks, the swell was much reduced, so I dropped the hook, waved to my new neighbour and just spent 15 minutes staring at my new surroundings; Stunning. An hour later a pod of dolphins swam in, but I won’t put pictures on as I have posted the last video I will make of dolphins on YouTube here, I can’t imagine ever getting better footage of them again, so if you like watching a huge pod of them leaping and diving, check it out.
The wind increased, with it the swell, and although I felt safe, I didn’t fancy braving the waves and exploring ashore. 

Wednesday. 

The swell was still rolling in, and I figured there probably wasn’t going to be any places I could stop safely before the Bahia Concepción, so decided to leave early. 7:30 and I’m away heading north, the plan is to go to the top of Bahia Concepción and nip around the corner to a small bay protected from the east and pass the night there. En route the wind moved to the NE which allowed me to sail for a good part of the trip and on turning into the bay, some 8 hours later, the wind was from the NW so my plans to stop at the head were out. Instead, given that I had a few more hours of daylight, I pushed on to a little cove at Santispac, roaring down the bay with the main fully out.

Again the scenery is stunning, volcanic remains all around, a geologists dream. It was just as I was thinking how I really should rig the gybe preventers that the boom took off, A crash gybe, however the dutchman saved the day, a device made of ropes and pulleys attached to the boom that slow it down as it tries to fly across. One of the reasons I like this boat’s design is that the boom is so high and short, it’s hard to get in its way when it crashes across. The end of the boom has foam padding on it, that won’t stop it killing you when it strikes, but it might cut down the amount of blood spilled around the cockpit, especially on the new spray dodger. Turning west out of the wind I arrived at my destination. What an odd place, very pretty, little sandy coves dotted around a bigger cove, with pretty islands dropped in for effect, just one sailboat and two motor boats in this cove. Along the beach of my tiny cove were RVs (Mobile Homes) lined up with no end of attachments adorning them. Further along were groups of tents, and little palapa style huts with cars/trucks backed up to them. Lot’s of families, and extended family groups come here to holiday on the beach. The big RV’s seem to be from the USA, with the tents and smaller setups being Mexican. There are 2 restaurants on the beach, and everyone seems to be having a great time, kids in the water, adults in kayaks and SUPs (Stand up paddle boards).
Come the evening, there are campfires, music and singing drifting across a very calm bay. 

I have a terrible snobby attitude to  RVs , seeing them as souped up caravans, and in some way an inferior mode of travel compared with, say, yachting. Of course, there’s not a lot in it. They can’t visit Santo Esperitu in their RV, and I can’t get too close to the Grand Canyon in Sister Midnight. Other than that, both modes of transport are pretty similar, weird toilets, cookers, electric supplies etc. I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t got into this boating malarky I could well have ended up RV’ing it around Europe and further afield. 

One guy, and I don’t know why I presume that, but I’m sure it will be a guy, has his RV towing a trailer with his 4WD SUV on it, hanging from the cars rear is a hammock chair, on the roof of the SUV as fishing traps, on the front of his RV is a barbecue grill. For American readers you will surely know the kind of thing, for the Brits out there, this is not like caravanning as we know it. 

Thursday.

I’m not going anywhere today, so I launch the dinghy and have an amble around the next bay from here. It’s lovely, and proved popular as many houses have been built on the beach and cling to the rocky hillside at the edges of the cove. I suspect the main reason for this development is its close proximity to Highway 1. This is the main road from the USA border that runs the length of the Baja Californian peninsula, ending in Cabo San Lucas. But thinking more about it, the road is probably here because of existing communities. The town of Mulege a few miles to the north has been here a long time. I once read that everything that ever happened, is down to geology, The clashing of the tectonic plates and volcanic activity here created a beautiful, safe harbour, along with fresh water supplies, leading to a safe place for humans to prosper, and ultimately to bring giant mega trucks pounding down the highway behind the beach every ten minutes  or so as they take their goods south. 

Friday.
I weigh anchor, and head further south down Concepción, I go to what I think might be the furthest south worth visiting, a place called Playa Santa Barbara, but later when I do my homework, I realise there’s many more places to explore. However this spot is just fine. I’m alone in the bay, there’s a few holiday homes set back from the white sandy beach, but nobody seems to be in. It’s a little early in the year still. I’m very exposed to the north here, but as we haven’t had a northerly wind in the Sea for a while, I’m hoping it will be ok. Yesterday, the wind from the north reached 25 knots in Santispec, and it was windy the day before, but I’m sure this can only be down to katabatic winds caused by the afternoon cooling of the surrounding mountains & hills. As both evenings turned out to be completely still. I did push on last night and got my boat web system to display a rolling 24 hour wind report, as logged at the top of my mast. A picture is below, it’s the last 24 hours since whenever I screenshotted it around 8pm and you can see the wind falling off quickly as night arrives.

I kayak to the rocky promontory and snorkel around, masses of weed on the rock, loads of fish, but little variety.
I’m away from everybody here, the highway is a few miles inland and the sky is clear. I’m hoping to get some stargazing in tonight, perfect conditions. I can now easily find the North star using Ursa Major & Minor and I can also spot Orion easily. Last night I found Mars, just under the sliver of a moon, I don’t think I have ever seen it before so clearly. I must be due a badge or something for all this.

Saturday 17th
I depart early, not quite sure where my next stop will be, my destination is the marina at Santa Rosalia, a mining town 30-40 miles north of here, but I want to check out the Island of San Marcos on the way. As I progress north I pickup a signal again and download a weather forecast, it seems I’m in for another week of very calm weather, I decide to stop at Punta Chivato for the night and catch up with the internet world. Like a lot of spots around here, it’s a lovely coast line with many low lying areas and beaches. This, and the close proximity of highway one, has caused a lot of fancy properties to be developed here, along with a few resorts.

I anchor off a quite flash looking hotel, but there’s no one around so it’s a very quiet. I’m annoyed to see many of the beach front properties have put obstructions out to make it difficult to walk along the beach in front of their properties. As with many countries, the beach is public property and cannot have access restricted. There have been a few high profile cases here, one where a hotel had a man arrested by the local police for walking on the beach in front of the hotel, hundreds turned up at the weekend to set up on the beach and protest until the policeman was arrested, which he was. It shouldn’t annoy me, especially as no one would want to walk on these beaches, there’s hundreds of others close by that are better, it’s just the principle. Although I’m sure if I had a beachfront property I would probably hate people walking in front of my exclusive view out to sea.

Sunday 18th
Whilst talking to Kathy in the morning a gang of rays swim past the boat, they wave their wings in a funny way to propel themselves, it’s like they make a sine wave shape.
I leave around 10am and head for San Marcos island, around the headland and a little further north. Between the island and the mainland, there’s a channel I have to navigate, it’s about 5 miles wide, yet it’s recommended to stay in a small section under a mile wide, near the coast. A large rocky reef extends from the island’s southern end, it has many visible rocks, but continues much further than you might expect to the mainland. To add to the fun, in the middle of the channel, just before the reef is a pinnacle rock, think of something the size and shape of the eiffel tower, but made of hard solid rock, sitting on the bottom of the sea, with the tip just below the surface. Best avoided, the annoying thing is that it’s not marked on the charts I have, so I add it from coordinates in the pilot book. I use the Eiffel tower as an analogy, as I’m going to visit a church next week made by the same man Monsieur Eiffel himself, Made in France and shipped out here to Santa Rosalia, so the mine workers had a church to go to. I hope to learn more next week once I’m in the marina.

Safely past the obstacles, I motor up the west side of the island, the wind is showing 20 knts now, on the nose, with an open sea ahead, normally I wouldn’t dream of anchoring in this, but I’m assuming this is the normal afternoon blow we have had here for the last 3 days. The forecast has nothing more than 10 knots.
I pass the mine/quarry workings, this island is being disassembled by diggers, loaded into big ships and sent around the world. The product is Gypsum, used in plasterboard/drywall, portland cement, food production and a stack of other things.

Sitting at anchor a few miles away is a large cargo ship, I suspect it’s waiting to load up.

I have seen a few islands, especially in Japan, being carved up and shipped out. This can’t be a sustainable way to behave, surely. So I start to think about volumes, and decide to research how many islands the size San Marcos will be consumed in our need to have smooth walls? a quick wikipedia search tells me that one source in New Mexico (White sands) has enough Gypsum to supply all of the USA’s needs for the next 1000 years, so perhaps it’s not too bad. I drop anchor on a ledge of sand, so the guide says, but it sounded like rocks to me, just north of the mine in a small indent called ‘Sweet Pea Cove’. The wind is already dropping and there’s little swell here. Tomorrow I hope to get a place in the Marina and move there.

Monday 19th April
Not a great night, the wind dropped but the swell continued. When this happens the boat no longer points into the wind, which is usually the direction of the swell, but instead turns side on to the swell and rolls. A boat rolling side to side is much more annoying than front to back. Eventually I fell asleep and at 9 in the morning the anchor was raised as I made the short trip to the Marina in Santa Rosalia. On the way out the fishermen on the small beach camp wave as they work on their nets. It looks so lovely, but I’m wondering if they delivered a load of shark fins to their customer in the night or maybe worse.

I had been trying for days to contact them to reserve a space, I had initially thought if they were full I could anchor off, but I just found out that’s no longer allowed, so I was a little worried I might be turned away and have to return south, the wind change meant I couldn’t go back to Sweet Pea cove, but would be heading back towards Concepción. But as usual, things turned out for the best, as I approached the marina, a man waved me in from the end of the dock, and I could see spaces available. Two guys where waiting to take my lines, which I hadn’t got out yet. Ten minutes later I was safely tied up in the harbour and looking forward to mad crazy shore life again.

After I left the office to check in, I bumped into Karl, I think he is Latvian, but we met him the day after we arrived in Port Hardy, Canada from Japan. He had arrived from Alaska. He said he was sailing to Mexico. Later we met him near Seattle and again in Ensenada. What a small world.

I’m expecting to spend a week here before I cross to the mainland, I have to get the weather right so it’s an easy passage. Rosalia is a working town, not for tourists, but it has plenty to see, including the Effiel designed church, a museum, and plenty of historic sites.

Paul Collister.

March 2021
As the title says, this is a little technical, and probably worth skipping unless you are interested in Engine Starter motors, solenoids, and stupidity.

As I mentioned before, the instrument panel in the cockpit wasnt working and I had to start the engine manually with a hot wired jump to activate the solenoid. The solenoid is just a big electro-magnetically operated switch that provides power to the starter motor, which is just a big motor that gets the engine spinning fast enough for it to start exploding fuel in its cylinders. I also have to pull on a coat hanger connected to the high pressure fuel pump to stop the engine, as the electric panel stop option wasn’t working either.

It turns out that the negative or 0v wire from the battery, via the engine electrics box was broken. As I took the lid off the engine electrical box, sparks started flying around me, eventually I worked out it was coming from an earth wire, that was chafing on the solenoid positive terminal, once repaired, the panel lit up, and the engine started and stopped as expected.
I should have stopped at this point and moved onto the failing herb plants, but instead I decided to work out how the earth system worked, the engine block is floating from the battery negative, the alternator, starter motor, and all the sensors, which would normally have there -ve side connected to the block, were 2 wire isolated devices. This prevents stray currents from flowing through the engine. On my Beta engine on Stardust, these stray currents destroyed bronze bolts holding my heat exchanger together because I didn’t know there was a zinc anode inside it that had to be changed. There are no anodes on my volvo engine so I worry that if the earthing isnt working as designed, some part of the engine might be corroding away as I speak.
So measuring between the battery negative and the engine gave me a reading of 0 ohms, meaning that the intended plan wasnt working and there was a short somewhere. I set off to find this, disconnecting the starter motor and alternator earths didn’t help, I then removed the throttle cable, but didn’t do the gear shift, as that’s hard to get too. There is a route from the throttle, to the steering and from there to the quadrant which is earthed to the boats external zincs and thru hulls. I found the SSB earth wire stuffed under the engine and saw where it had once been connected, the SSB earth goes to the ATU earth, and thru the coax to the SSB case, which is connected to the -ve 12v supply from the battery, so that sets up a route for current to flow, especially when transmitting. I gave up, put it all back together, started the engine to check I had done it properly and nothing. De Nada. The solenoid was clicking, but not providing any power to the starter motor. The multimeter proved the solenoid had given up the ghost, I had wondered why the post that the power goes on was a bit loose, and I had remade the connections to it. I must have caused something inside to move. As I don’t know anything about solenoids, this seemed like a good time to learn. I managed to pull it off the starter and dismantled it in the cockpit. By this time the boat had become a bit of a mess.

The contacts on the solenoid were touching, but not passing any electricity. Looking at them, I could see they were covered in a black crud. once cleaned they conducted just fine and I reassembled the unit and attached it to the starter.

Thinking this was the end, I started the engine, or tried, all I got was a sad groaning from the motor and a lot of smoke coming from the starter motor. I assumed I had not fitted the solenoid properly, so out it came with the starter this time and I took the end of the starter off, refitted the solenoid, connected properly, refitted the lot to the engine, reconnected the big fat 12v cables and started it. The engine started with a whiff of smoke from the starter. I tried to think of a way to make the little whiff of smoke ok, it was way smaller than the last bit of smoke, and the engine did start. I tried again, no smoke, and the engine started, job done I thought, but really I knew I had to come up with an explanation for the smoke. I tried the engine again, and this time the starter groaned, did a quarter of a turn, then looked like it was going to burst into flames, smoke poured out and didn’t look like it would stop, despite me pulling the power pronto. Bummer, starter motors are hard to get for this engine, and cost £300-£400. I hoped it could be repaired, I dug it out and started to take it apart on a sheet of newspaper in the cockpit.

The problem was obvious, somehow I had tightened the nuts on the +12v and 0V terminals so tightly, they had crushed the plastic brush holder inside, this was old and brittle, and as I took it out to examine, it crumbled more in my hand. The brushes had been touching each other and presenting themselves sideways on to the armature. Normally fixing this would be out of the question, but given my predicament, what’s to lose, and I like a challenge.

I figured I could glue it all back together, my childhood expertise with airfix WW2 fighter jets could come in handy, however I had memories of once gluing the wings of a spitfire on backwards, also detail wasn’t my thing, those little tins of paint never got opened, and the transfers often ended up on the scalextric cars.

The first problem was getting the surfaces clean, but just gently rubbing a wire brush over them caused more cracks and lumps to fall off. I devised a strategy, just get some glue on to hold it all together, a bit like tack welds, so i can clean the surfaces better, then more glue, then a final coat over large areas to give it strength, this took 3 rounds over three days, in the end it seemed great and quite strong, the only problem was I had glued one half of a brush socket to the other out of line, so the brush wouldn’t slide through freely. I had to build it up with epoxy then file it back until I was close to the right shape. I reassembled it all but didn’t fit it to the engine.

Then I left it another day, just to give the epoxy a good 48 hours for a final set. This was the hardest part.
I then connected some wires to the battery supply and touched them onto the lugs to see what happened. as you can see in the video below.

When I came to bolt it to the engine, one of the three bolts was missing, this was crazy, I would have heard it fall from the top of the fridge, could it have gone into the bilge to be lost forever, I doubted I had a spare. I’m always thinking my efforts can all be ruined by one stupid mistake at any point. I spread my search further, and found the bolt had hitched a ride with my gopro magnetic gorilla grip to the other end of the cabin. Phew.

It worked, I mounted it onto the engine, being very careful with the connecting lugs, and it fired up right away, without any smoke, confirming my earlier suspicion, that there really is no acceptable excuse for smoke coming from electrical equipment, no matter how much it helps out with the logic.
I do need to buy a replacement starter, and this might represent 50% of my hold allowance when I return from the UK in September. Should I get back there in July. I have started the engine some 30 times now and it starts quickly without fuss, I’m hoping we will get a few more months minimum without any trouble.

Paul Collister

Monday 22nd March 2021

There’s not a lot happening since I got here, I’m just swinging on the mooring buoy with the odd trip into the marina to buy an ice cream and make use of the fast wifi there. My chances of getting vaccinated here look slim. The rich countries are all boasting about the money they have pledged to let developing countries buy the vaccine, yet at the same time making damm sure none of it leaves their shores and recently seem to be stopping other countries that have vaccine factories from having access to the recipe due to patent concerns.

Dirk & Sylvia have returned, vaccinated, after their mad dash up to the states by car. Mike from Ikigai is sailing from Ensenada on a friends boat, and will return to his boat which is on the buoy behind me in 2 weeks.

In an effort to improve the connectivity here I tried putting my at&t android (Hot Spot) phone into a bag and sending it up the mast. It works a bit, but I haven’t worked out how to get the charging cable up there yet.

Kayaking around the lagoon is fun, the stingrays in the shallows are spectacular.
I planted some herb seeds today, Basil and Mint, They should be easy to grow on the boat, and Basil can be hard to get here.

I saw this guy swimming around the marina, I might have talked about manta rays before, apparently there are none here, this might be a Devil Ray, I think a ray from the Mobula species. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but it’s about 5ft, or 1.5 metres across, or OMG when you see it swim past you. Ever so graceful too.

I’ve spent some time walking around the marina estate for a bit of exercise. Somebody had a big dream for this place once, there’s a grid of roads laid out in concrete, covering quite an area, waterways weave through with one property under construction as you can see below.

However most roads go nowhere, some are fenced off, and in places the concrete is cracking and weeds are starting.

Just around the corner is the harbour masters office and a jetty for a rescue boat. I got this picture of some locals reeling in the fish.

After a week here I decided to head out to the local islands, Isla Carmen is only 3 hours away and has the lovely Balandra bay. Leaving the lagoon I snapped this mega yacht, which I overheard someone saying was Steven Spielberg’s yacht, who knows, owners are always secretive, and buy and sell yachts quite frequently. I think John Wayne kept his yacht in this region.

I sailed north into the wind, by heading close hauled towards Loreto, then tacking for Balandra, however either my bad sailing, the boats poor sail trim, or a coincidental wind shift, (most likely the first), when I tacked, I ended up heading back to my start. On came the engine for the last bit. Unfortunately the autohelm had stopped working again, so I hand steered for the last hour, which wasn’t so bad. It turns out the screw that holds the key in the keyway had come loose and the key had fallen out, yet again. I was so sure I had fixed it good last time. This time I used some of the red loctite, I think I needed a less strong one, but thats all I had. It says something about needing nuclear weapons to undo the screw should I need to in the future. This may be why I didn’t use it last time. I feel this story isn’t over yet. There were three other boats in the bay when I arrived and the prime spots had gone, strong winds from the NW were forecast and I would have preferred to be tucked further in. however that night the winds weren’t too bad, the next morning one of the boats left and I moved closer in. another boat arrived later in the day and took my place, they had a rough time of it for the next 48 hours as we had constant 20+knot winds and quite a swell was rolling into that part of the bay.

After a few days just chilling I decided to anchor off Loreto and go into town and get some groceries.

All went well until on my return I tried to start the engine and the instrument panel was dead. This isn’t unusual, there’s a stack of connectors between the panel and the engine, the wiring loom comes in three sections, and each sections suffers from corrosion, so I usually pull them apart, spray some contact cleaner in and wiggle them around. This time it didn’t work, and after an hour I decided to leave and work on it on the way. I jump started the engine so I had some power to haul up the anchor, then I raised the sails and set the now repaired autohelm for Puerto Escondido.

With the engine off I pulled out the wiring diagrams and starting chasing through the fault with my multimeter. The problem seemed to be related to an open earth fault in the engine end of the wiring. That’s complicated as the engine earth is floating from the battery earth. I’ve always been confused by this, Volvo did it to protect the engine I think, but with other parts of the boat being grounded for galvanic corrosion purposes, and then another ground system exists for the SSB radio, I have never been sure that everything was connected and working correctly. What I don’t want to do is have corrosive currents flowing through my heat exchanger destroying it. I decided to spend some time when I get back to port to investigate properly.

The next day started with a trip up the hill with Dirk & Sylvia

It was quite a walk, but led to some spectacular views

Back on the boat I started chasing wires to find the fault, it turned out to be a earth wire to the alternator lug that had chafed on the positive terminal of the solenoid. I remade a few connections around the area and up fired the instrument panel, it worked fine, sadly the engine made no effort to start when I turned the key. It appeared that the solenoid had stopped working on the starter motor, this was to be the start of a difficult few days. I will put up a post on the starter motor separately, so you can all skip that.

I filmed some amazing dolphin scenes on the way up to Loreto, but I haven’t had a chance to edit them yet, hopefully I can put a link in my next blog post.

I’m going to wait for Mike to arrive, he’s due in the next few days, I have booked another week here, and I will leave at the end of this week, maybe Saturday 10th and go North then across the sea to Guaymas/San Carlos on the mainland.

Happy Easter.

Paul Collister.

Monday 15th March 2021
Up at 6:30 as the sun rises, a cup of coffee, then to work. At 7 I will leave La Paz, possibly for the last time, and head north to Loreto. I’m hoping I might be able to get vaccinated there, then I will sail over to the mainland, possibly somewhere around San Carlos/Guyamas and from there head south to Puerto Vallarta. That will all take a month or two, depending how much I like the places en route. Last night I had a farewell meal with Arturo, I’m not sure when we will meet again, hopefully not too long. 

I setup the GoPro 9 on the bow to do some time lapse, I haven’t used it yet, and I’m keen to learn more about it. At 7am I haul anchor and start making my way down the long buoyed channel that leads out of La Paz bay and into the Sea of Cortez proper.

Boat traffic is light, but I’m struck by the five Cruise ships, mothballed at anchor.

Three are sister ships, the westerdam, the zuiderdam, and the edam or something like that. Another two cruise ships look similar, and I think are from the Carnival cruise line. It’s scary to think they will soon be pressed back into service and crammed with holiday makers, hopefully antivaxers and covid conspiracists. Best keep them all together in a big floating box in my opinion, what could possibly go wrong, other than accidentally cruising over the edge of the earth.

Not long after I pass the Pemex oil terminal and power station I’m in open water and I can spot quite a commotion ahead of me. There appears to be hundreds of pelicans and seagulls swarming around a few small boats, I assume it’s fishermen, but as I get closer, they’re right ahead of me, I spot a large pod of dolphins, maybe a hundred or more diving, jumping and generally having a big feeding frenzy. I end up steaming right through the middle of it. The smaller boats who keep out of my way are tourist pangas, who diverted here to see the spectacle. Once in the middle of it, I’m surrounded by dolphins and swooping pelicans. What a great way to get the day going.

Shortly after it’s all over and as the sun gets higher I can tell it’s going to be a hot day. I have a 9 hour passage to San Evaristo, so I settle down and start a few small jobs around the boat.

I don’t catch a fish, but do see many Manta rays doing their dance. 

At 5pm I get the anchor down and relax, The mainsail helped for about 2 hours, but mostly it was motoring. One fact yachties might find interesting, is that you can keep the engine block cold-start heaters on for 2 hours by accident and they don’t burn out on the MD22 🙁 .  After running hard for 10 hours, I feel confident the new timing belt has gone back on ok. 

Retired General Tom and Debbie on the motor boat ‘At Ease’, my neighbours from Marina De La Paz, are anchored two boats down from me here. 

Tuesday 
Up early again for a long slog to Agua Verde. It would be nice to have some time at these stops, but I have been here before, on several occaisions now, and I’m on a mission to get to the clinic in Loreto before they run out of vaccine.

The waves are substantial, and of a short period, i.e. close together, so it’s not a very comfortable ride, but another huge pod of dolphins in the San jose chanel cross my path. We all love them, but they’re a serious bunch of fish committing mass murder as they travel along in these big groups. I don’t feel so bad about trailing a hook behind me now, I didn’t catch anything yesterday, the first time this cedar plug hook has let me down, and today is no better. To make matters worse, as you can see in the video of the trip later, a seagull is convinced the painted cedar plug is a real fish and tries to eat him. As it’s dive bombing the hook, I’m terrified it will get caught and I won’t have a clue how to help it. The thought of reeling in a seagull on the end of the line struggling to escape causes me to bring the hook in as soon as I can and wait until the skies are clear before I launch it again. The wind reaches 20 knots (apparent) on the nose, so we are struggling at 3 knots for some of the time. I have the engine running flat out at near maximum revs for a couple of hours, it’s supposed to be good as it burns off excess carbon at the higher temperatures, but who knows, I’m not a mechanic, despite earning my timing belt badge. After we hang a left at Point San Marceal I manage to get some help from the sails for an hour as we approach Agua Verde. Again, Tom on ‘At Ease’ is anchored there along with a couple of sailboats. It’s a little crowded in the only corner of the bay protected from the swell, and I tuck in behind them, it looks like I’m too close, and I’m worried they might be nervous with my proximity, but I also feel quite sure I know the anchorage well, and there’s not going to be a problem. As it turns out, we are all perfectly separated, even when we swing 180 degrees in the night.

Wednesday
Up early again to get away before the wind builds, that turns out to buy me about 30 minutes, soon after I leave the calm cove and hit the exposed sea, the waves and wind build and it’s a long 5 hour slog to cover the 23 miles to Escondido.

The entrance to Puerto Escondido is via a very narrow channel, perhaps 60ft wide in places and only 10ft deep. I had heard it was being dredged and some special marks were out, but it turned out to be an easy entrance.

The actual harbour is a natural bay and hurricane safe area. It’s like a big lagoon, with huge hills and mountains all around. To the north east there are two gaps, or windows, where northerly winds can blow through. Refreshing in the summer, but in a gale can make some waves in the harbour.

Once in the harbour I picked up a mooring buoy, completed the log book and put my feet up for a bit. Next a quick dinghy ride ashore to check in and book a car for my trip to the clinic tomorrow.

I made a 10 minute condensed video of the trip, it’s on Youtube, but embedded here. It’s 1080p HD so should look ok on a big screen.

Thursday 9AM

I pick up the hire car and head into town. It’s a glorious day and I’m pondering on what a strange life I have these days, I realise I’m more used to driving on the right side of the road than the left now, and as I’m driving through a back road to a small town in Mexico to get a possible vaccine, where I don’t even speak the language when suddenly a couple of mules pop out in front of me. I can’t help smiling.

So onto Loreto, I pull into a deserted emergency clinic where I’m told they have been administering the vaccines, but they have none left, possibly next Tuesday or Wednesday. They take my name and phone number and tell me they will phone if they get any. I’m quite chuffed as I manage to converse in Spanish, with minimal help from Google translate.

I push on into town, but take a different route, just for the heck of it and end up by the arroyo, which is the dried river bed at the side of town. There’s a dirt road across it, and I follow a track along its side to the sea. It’s stunning scenery, and quite green, I expect due to there being a lot of fresh water at some point in the year.

I wander around town, past the old mission, the first in BCS I think, they are remodeling this part of town and it’s very dusty and noisy.

I wander down to the beach, the centre of town is odd as there’s a few trailer parks here, I guess from a simpler time, and big hotels have been built around them.
I drive along the coast a little in town, then decide to see what the main highway is like to the north of town, I have the car for a day, but nowhere to go really. I have just left the centre and I’m passing a few out of town stores when I can see a road block ahead, and I know straight away this isn’t right. there’s no police cars or anything official looking, as I get closer, a man has blocked most of the highway with his car and has just waved the car ahead of me through, to his left is a big grizzly looking guy with a submachine gun across his chest. No uniforms or any hint of who they are. With some relief I’m waved through, but I realise quickly that I have to return this way, loreto has one road in and one road out!

So I drive north for a bit, but it’s just scrubland desert, cactus after cactus and I’m soon bored, it’s a couple of hours to the next town and I don’t want to risk driving back in the dark so I head back to the road block. This time he stops me, I wind down the window, he looks into the car then shouts at me “GO”, which of course I do! I’d love to know what that was all about, Narcos, undercover police? who knows. Loreto did set up roadblocks to stop people coming into town at the start of the covid pandemic, but that was different.

So I push on back to the marina and notice a very odd looking boat in the boatyard, I’m assuming it needs a keel, surely it can’t use a drop-keel?

Back on board I decide to tackle the mess on the chart table.

Finally to wind the day off, some home made guacamole and strawberries as the sun sets

Paul Collister