Monday 3rd August 2020
Yesterday we finished our provisioning and stowing and this morning we prepared to leave, the breeze kept us cool and I called ahead to the Marina at Costa Baja, about an hour away to confirm we could get fuel. Sometimes they have a mega yacht visit for fuel and it can take all morning to refill, costing a small fortune I expect. We were lucky, partly because of Covid, there are few mega yachts doing much movement these days. As well as Carlos Slim, the richest man in Mexico, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and other internet titans keep a mega yacht or two in the region, just in case they get a free weekend and fancy a bit of a break. I’m sure we can all relate to that. Obama likes to holiday here on other peoples boats I have heard.
I showed Arturo how we pull the anchor up, and explain how he needs to jump ashore at the fuel dock with the midships line. I go to some lengths to explain the dangers inherent in both operation, I point out the windlass could sever a finger, maybe even a hand or foot if it was trapped, and how he mustn’t think that youth will stop his skull from being crushed between the dock and Sister Midnight should he try to jump too ambitiously and fail. Not to mention what a dock wall of barnacles does to a body as it is dragged along it.
He survived my lesson, but may have nightmares!
So anchor up and off to the fuel dock. Arturo steered for most of the way and seemed to have no problem, there was only a small space on the fuel pontoon, and I thought we would wait until the speedboat refueling had left, but the maranino waved to us to come into the gap, of course when I reached it it was probably big enough for two Sister Midnights, just it never looks easy from an approach. I looped around to get as fine an angle as possible and we glided in, Arturo passed the bowline ashore, jumped ashore, tied up the midships line and took my stern line and cleated me off. First class, I think he missed his calling.
Of course Arturo has me talk in Spanish to the guys fuelling the boat, and encourages them to ask me questions in Spanish, The fuel guys looks at me, right between the eyes and hits me with some fast speaking lingo, I look at Arturo in horror, Don’t do this; Arturo stares me out, “You can do this Paul, listen to what he said” I think, ‘dondeestassomethingy’ Ah where are you going! No problem, I strike back with “Voy a Puerto Escondido” (I’m off to port Escondido), he grunts in recognition and gets back to filling the tank, kind of pleasing and disappointing all in one hit.
Once fuelled up, and while Arturo is busy doing something with his phone, I untie, push the boat off and jump ashore to take us out. As we motor away he looks up all surprised we have left. I smugly say, yeah no big deal. You have to keep crew in their place after all 😉 .
We head north from the fuel dock leaving La Paz bay behind us, we pass the ugly Pemex fuel facility (refinery/storage depot ?) and we were going to spend the night at Bahia Falso just a few miles away, but as the weather is so fine, and it’s still early I decide to push on and head for the main island of Espíritu Santo, (Saint Spirit), there’s a story to the name from the conquistador days, but I won’t repeat it here. The problem being that after Falso, there is no cellular connection for the rest of our passage, so I show Arturo the autohelm, we put it into service and I start to ping out messages to people saying, “I won’t be online for a while, don’t call the coastguard”.
Next we clear out with the La Paz port captain, he rarely replies to me and I have a theory the he knows I’m English and doesn’t want the hassle of trying to get all my details off me in a language he doesn’t really speak. Of course some of the captains are better than others at English. I suspect some juniors don’t speak it at all. This time with Arturo as backup, and a whiteboard full of possible conversation topics I might get into, I call up the capitañia on ch16 with my best Mexican accent, which Arturo says is more Puerto Rican than anything else; I suspect that may be a subtle insult. Like when we say to people impersonating, say, John Lennon, “I didn’t know the Beatles came from Birmingham”.
The coastguard returns speaking very good English, but I continue in Español, ‘Dos personas a bordo’ etc etc. I tell him we are just leaving La Paz and we are going to Puerto Escondido, and he seems very happy, I’m very happy, everything worked out well, I wish him happiness, a long and prosperous life, and he wishes me a great time enjoying La Paz. Arturo is in with the old “FAIL” and I have to try again, to explain we are leaving, not arriving in La Paz, all is good in the end, but I think he was happier we were arriving not leaving. I have to do the reverse when we reach our destination. I will practice more.
A few hours later and we drop the hook in Ensenada Candelera, I think named so because a candlero is a thing that takes a load of candles, like a chandelier, or prayer thingy in church. There are three islands within the cove (Ensenada) which all look a bit like candles, the rock sides looking like dripping wax. We have the place to ourselves and it’s just stunning. Later in the evening as the full moon rises over the mountain into a perfectly clear star laden sky, I explain to Arturo how this might just be a valid time to use the adjective ‘Awesome’ and how it should never be used to describe a hamburger or beer. There are many gringos in the Marina that I wish understood this too.
We dinghy over to the bigger rock and swim around it with our snorkels, just amazing, I had wondered what the effect of Covid might be, very few humans have been allowed to visit this area since March and I wonder if the fish realised this. It certainly seems like there are more fish, more varieties, and a lot more coral looking healthy. However I don’t think 5 months could have that much affect, who knows, but later we visit the beach and have a stroll, and there is much more life here than before. There are mountain goats and their kids everywhere, Arturo calls me for help when a male deer/stag stares him out and he thinks he might charge, I’m not quite sure of my ground, but I tell Arturo that stags never charge and he doesn’t need to fear them. I’m underwater anyway, absolutely gobsmacked (in awe) of the fish in the shallows off the beach. I have never ever seem so many fish in one place, they swim in perfect coordination, and from a few meters away, make the shape of a giant fish, maybe 20 metres long. I try to count them, the fish aren’t big, maybe 6 inches long, silver mostly. In front of me I work out a square of 10 x 10 fish, i.e. 100, and it takes up a small space in the overall school, I guess from that there are at least 10,000 fish swimming in front and around me. The coordination is stunning. I swim with them for about an hour. Arturo is following a goat up the side of the mountain at this point. The fish are quite fascinating, they react to every movement I make, but some more than others, I float amongst them trying to figure out which movements scare them most, and I find my arms and legs are best kept still, making a noise and spurt of water when I clear my snorkel doesn’t bother them at all.
Many other fish pass by and there’s no shortage of turtles and those very long snake like fish here.
Fish soup for dinner, and I now know how to heat tortilla the Mexican way, which basicaly is throwing them on a hot flame until they nearly catch fire. I will stick with my omellete pan method.
Tue 4th
A lazy start, but after some breakfast a swim is required, it’s so hot. Today is going to be crazy. We dinghy over to the big rock again, we are at slack water so there is little current, yesterday Arturo struggled to circumnavigate the rock without any fins the current was so strong. Again it’s amazing, more fish than yesterday, some fish I have never seen before, a big ray fish, but almost translucent in colour. What looks like a fog, or cloud of darker water turns out to be zillions of small creatures, it reminds me of frogspawn, but the individual elements are distinct when you get very close.
A couple of other day tripped boats arrive with illegal tourists, I hear a lot of ‘Awesome’s’ being shouted out as a gang of them swim around the rock, and as I row the dinghy around the rock later I’m buzzed by a drone. It’s a shame I can’t be the only tourist, mustn’t grumble. I expect they will all be gone before nightfall. Back at the boat we are moving into a more Mexican routine. Arturo is cooking up some special garlic shrimp meal, it’s going to be delicious, I had to hand over some of Kathy’s vino blanco. We will have a big lunch and a light dinner from now on.
Wed 5th
I just have two bananas for breakfast, Arturo has two bananas and a couple of fried eggs and some tortilla. I’m doubling up on the bananas as when shopping we didn’t coordinate well and ended up with about 40.
Did I mention that every day has been scorching hot, and today is no different. Yesterday for some reason, I assumed that having been in Mexico for so long the sun had lost its power to harm me, well of course I’m paying for that idiocy now. I did the classic swimming for hours in the cool water while toasting my shoulders and the top of my back, so after breakfast I have a swim for some relief.
We weigh anchor late morning and head to the bay that separates this island from Isla Partida, It’s a picturesque spot, with a lot of fish and wildlife. There are lots of goats bleating from the hillside. We aren’t there long when a Park Official arrives in his panga and tells us the Islands are closed for us because of Covid and we have to leave. Arturo compliments him on his English, in Spanish and they chat, then he talks to me in English and I try my best to reply in Spanish. We both appreciate the language practice and at the end he says we can stay for just one night but we must not return. It seems we were lucky to get away with the last two days in Ensenada Candelara, however I don’t feel like we can take the dinghy ashore because the park ranger is sitting in his hut chilling, and stays there for the rest of the day. Instead we tidy up the boat and prepare for our next journey of 25 miles, which is the longest so far. We get the Genoa out from under the cabin table, where it has sat since Thailand. I remember it was a big sail and in good condition, but I can’t remember much else about it. We start to bend it on to the furler, (I’m not sure technically if you can bend a sail onto a furler) just as the calm gives way to a building wind. We leave the sail draped along the deck and wait for a lull in the wind which doesn’t come for a few hours. In the meantime we have a swim, we keep seeing a pod of manta rays swimming around the boat, but fail to get any pictures.
Later we have fun when Arturo tries to get his voice activation working on his GoPro, he shouting at it, “Go Pro, Turn off” over and over in his best English, but his Mexican accent is defeating the Go Pro and it steadfastly refuses to respond, I shout in my my best Queens English from the far end of the boat “Turn Off Go Pro” and Arturo shrieks as his camera shuts down. It works every time for me and I spend ages coaching Arturo in Queens English, to no avail. I try the command in Scouse “Go Pro Turn off Like”, but I guess Liverpool may not have been their target market.
I make a fish salad for Arturo, He says he loves it, he has never had one before.
Thursday 6th
We leave early after a quick swim and head for Isla San Francisco, a lovely Island I have been to twice before. We get the Genoa (head sail) and mainsail up and are making a good 5 knots for the first 2 hours. This is my first sailing for many months and it feels great, the boat is a long way from being ocean ready, with sail bags and tarps stacked up on the coachroof, but for these short passages everything is working well. The Genoa looks great, and will stay on the boat now for the rest of this season. Just before reaching the bay we are joined by a small pod of dolphins.
On my previous visits to this stunning bay their have usually been a few yachts and the odd motor boat, however this time my heart sinks lower and lower as we approach and the full bay opens up to my view. It appears Disneyland have a new branch. The place is rammed with boats, gin palaces, catamarans, a few expensive 50ft yachts and as we approach I see jet skies racing back and forth, maybe 4 of them, a speedboat towing a water skier, and to top it all off, an inflatable playground with slides. Some boats are swinging at anchor, others have taken stern anchors towards the shorn so they won’t swing, one has taken up the space four yachts could fit in. I find a space but it’s not where I want and we may be subjected to some swell tonight. I update the log book with the arrival details and then jump into the water for some welcome relief. Arturo is not long behind me and after a few minutes he is screaming at me to come and see, I swim over not sure what could be so exciting, but he is right, one of the most amazing sites is just below the boat. I think they are young tuna, maybe 9 inches long, and packed together in a tight ball moving along slowly. I don’t know how many, but certainly tens of thousands, they are the size of a couple of houses and around the outside are some huge fish, maybe 3 foot long, At first I think the big fish are rounding the smaller ones up into a ball, the way sharks do with tuna before an attack, but later I think perhaps the larger fish are keeping guard on them. Either way it truly is awesome. I’m able to glide into the pod, if that’s the right word, and find myself in quite a surreal world where there are thousands of tightly packed fish in every direction as far as the eye can see. I’m hoping Arturo gets some video of this. This was a time to use the word awesome in my mind.
Back on board I notice more gin palaces arriving, along with two cats from Dream Yacht Charter, an international version of SunSail. The flotilla leader drops his hook quite close to me, and I’m put off right away by the amount of auxiliary watercraft they are towing or have on deck. The second cat doesn’t even anchor but rafts up to them, now they are going to be very close if I swing around there way. But not to worry about them, my attention is taken by one of the gin palaces directly astern of me that has decided to entertain everyone in the sea of Cortez with some very poor Mexican rap music. It’s really loud and horrible. The speakers are distorting badly. I’m starting to feel the steam rising and I’m wondering how long before somebody tells them to shut up. They don’t and I have to wait until; 9pm before they turn it down, but not before the gin palace on the other side of me has also up with traditional Mexican ballads at an excruciating volume.
It’s quite once the dark descends, but now all the big boats have turned their underwater lights on and I feel like in in Blackpool at midnight on a Saturday.
We will leave in the morning!
Friday
Up early and we depart by 8. It looks like the massive motor launch in front is sitting above our anchor and as I’m below flaking as Arturo is pulling the anchor chain in, I’m not sure how this will turn out. It turns out that we get within a boats length of their car park for jet skies and various toys. We motor out passing a small cruise ship called ‘Valentines’ that must have arrived in the night, how nice. Our choice is to go to Evaristo, 2 hours away, but that seems too easy and they don’t let you ashore there. So we head for El Gato, some 5 hours away, the wind is good and we are soon sailing along on a most pleasant cool wind. This passageway between the Baja Peninsula and the large island of San Jose is about 4 miles wide and 15 miles long and is a main migratory route for whales, sadly this is the wrong time of year, but we do have some dolphins and sea lions for entertainment.
We get to El Gato around 2PM, the wind has dropped but instead of the South East to South wind we usually get the wind was from the East and El Gato bay was deserted and was going to be way to Rolly for us to stop. It’s a shame as this bay is stunning with its giant red rocks along the northern shore, and lively reefs. We motor around the reefs and Arturo takes lots of pictures. At some point on this trip he thanks me for showing him Mexico, a nice compliment, coming from a Mexican. There’s an anchorage just an hour further north and we head there, the pilot says it is well sheltered from Southerlies and looks good for Easterlies as well. It’s deserted and looks a bit rolly so we drift around for a few minutes before deciding to head north to Agua Verde, another 3 hours or so. We had dropped the main down and as we enter back into the sea, the swell is strong on on the side so we start rolling. At some point we hit just the right frequency for the boat to start really getting into the old rock and roll and there’s a huge amount of crashing below. Arturo had devised a way of stowing things, and I didn’t want to undermine him, but perhaps I should have as his favourite Maté cup he drinks his Guatemalan tea from had shattered, it’s quite a complicated device with a steel straw and combined filter. We also lost a lovely glass beaker from the Sointula co-op. Arturo managed to catch and save a bottle of spirits as they flew through air.
We motored offshore a bit, raised the main and proceeded to Agua Verde. There is a village here with a couple of shops, but I was worried they might not let us anchor here. Arturo is stunned by the mountains in the background as we approach, it is quite a stunning setting, there’s a slight mist in the air making everything seem very magical. He points out that there are two jet skies racing around the bay, so I’m pleased it’s open to visitors, but hoping it won’t be like yesterday. It turns out that there is one big motor launch and two sailboats, they are tucked into a cove within the bay, and we opt for the main beach which we have to ourselves.
After setting the anchor I remember that I forgot to bring in the fishing line. I am definitely out of practice. I pulled the line in but it was snapped off, I dive and fortunately all is not lost, the propeller managed to save the line for me and the lead weight and maybe 50ft are safely wrapped around the propellor and prop shaft. Memories of Malaysia and Jelly fish flood back! Arturo loves to free dive so between us we should be able to recover all tomorrow..
Arturo cleans up the bottom of the fridge after discovering we have 8 cans of fizzy grapefruit juice and no chilled water or lemonade left. On doing this he finds a bag of 6 day old fish, behind the beers. He is sure they will be ok and sets about cooking them up, They look like giant worms or slugs and a little apprehensively I ask, ‘Qué tipo pescado Arturo’ to which he replies, I think they are stomachs. Apparently he loves them, possibly his favourite dish. I don’t want to seem squeamish and tuck in. They’re not great, they taste like kidneys, but wrapped in a hot tortilla with a fresh salsa and guacamole they fill me up. I’m a little concerned as we approach what I’m thinking of as ‘Covid Day’. Tomorrow morning Arturo and I will have been living closely together for 7 full days and I think if one of us was going to infect the other, one of us would have some symptoms by now. I’m hoping that we don’t get food poisoning and get confused, as so far we only have coughs and a slight fever,… just kidding.
Saturday 8th Augosto.
Day 8 and still no Covid on board the good ship Sister Midnight. We have a leisurely start to the day, and have a big breakfast. A local fishing boat passes us and offers to sell us some lobster tails he has just caught. He has them at 100 peso each, £4 which seems. Lot, they are not that big, but he tells us he will get a good price for them, so we tell him we only have $200 peso budget for dinner and he offers to sell us three. The last time I had lobster was with Max and the boys in The British Virgin Islands, many years ago and it was tough and horrible.
After breakfast we set about diving on the prop. Arturo has a sharp knife and I have a long saw. We take turns diving and cutting and I manage to extract the lead weight intact. There is about 10 metres of nylon line wrapped around the prop and inside the prop shaft/cutless bearing. We are keen to recover all of the line and not create any pollution. It takes nearly an hour but we get it done. I should have donned my diving kit, but I’m not quite ready for that adventure yet. Arturo has his advanced open water certificate, but hasn’t dived in a while. Just after we have finished, my saw detaches itself from the rope holding it to my shorts and sinks 6 meters to the bottom. Arturo free dives down and recovers it. I videoed his dive and hope to upload it here.
There are very large Ray fish underneath us as we work and I’m thinking the day has already been amazing, no need for any more excitement.
The fishermen had told us we are allowed ashore with masks on, so after a break we dinghy over to the beach and walk into the village. It’s lovely and in the Tienda (Shop) we stock up on Garlic/bananas/Avocados and a few other items. I also purchase an hour of internet time and whack out a few ‘don’t panic, I’m still alive and eating lobster’ messages to friends and family. I download the weather and although there is a small chance of a hurricane forming in 48 hours it looks very unlikely to head this way and for the next week the weather is very benign.
Scores of goats pass us onto the dirt tracks as we walk through this tiny village to the far tienda, There we buy some tortilla cooked by the owner and her mother. I thought the lady was a bit offhand with us, but Arturo explained that she was very shy. It’s a tiny community here quite cut off from the rest of the world. In fact one villager asked if we could take him to the hospital in La Paz for his check up. The lady in the shop spoke to Arturo and he translated for me, she said it was an honour for her to welcome us into her small shop, I had Arturo explain to her I felt privileged to be here in their beautiful village. It’s these little exchanges which make all the difference, and hopefully one day I might be able to do this without a translator. We had heard we could buy goats cheese here and were directed to a house ten minutes walk out of the village. We found a man snoozing in a hammock who had a bountiful supply of goats cheese he had made himself from the village goats, this was too much of an opportunity to miss so we bought a kilo for $70 peso, (£2.50), we tipped him 50% and he seemed very confused, Arturo probably said something like ‘don’t worry. This crazy Englishman has no idea about money’ He seemed happier and we left with enough cheese to last a few weeks.
Back at the beach the whole village seemed to be in the sea having fun, so we climbed in the dinghy and headed back to the mothership. As soon as we unpacked it was straight into the sea to cool.
I served up the lobster with some rice and vegetables, I cooked it in the oven basted in garlic butter, it was quite tasty, but not worth the cost or the reputation in my estimation.
We watched the space station pass quite low on the horizon, watched the fish sparkle in the luminous sea, and I was ‘drilled’ on several new Spanish phrases.
Not a bad day. I need tomorrow to recover.
Sunday 9th Agosto.
Arturo has 3 fried eggs and a packet of beans on tortillas with manchego slices and salsa for breakfast. I have the last banana. Once his stomach is settled we dinghy off to a little cove on the far side of the bay, there’s a bit of a chop in the sea today, the wind has picked up and we keep taking big splashes over the bow of the dinghy. Once in the cove there is nowhere obvious to dump the dinghy as the shoreline is covered in nasty looking rocks. We motor up and down and eventually find a gravelly spot. Arturo is keen to try the spare fins I have and the diving belt, soon he is swimming down several meters and filming skates and rays on the sea bed. It’s a magical place and perhaps because of its remoteness, the tropical fish aren’t scared and approach me face to face quite often. It’s so weird, the younger tiger fish are very curious, often the older fish give you a sideways glance as they swim past with a , ‘oh it’s you lot again’ kind of look. Over the last week I have seen so many species of marine life including rays, turtles, crabs and starfish. We swim around a large outcrop of rock and then through a cutting in the reef towards the shore. The light is perfect, it’s like swimming through a fairy tale grotto.
We head back to Sister Midnight for a rest and some lunch, then we dive to retrieve the fishing hook the prop had removed from the line. Arturo had seen in yesterday under the hull when we were removing the line. However the tide had swung the boat 70 metres in the other direction and we couldn’t find it this time. We thought we saw it at one point and Arturo free dived down some 5-6 metres only to find the shiny shell of the lobster tail we had thrown overboard last night. It freaked him out a bit and he shot back to the surface very quickly.
We then motored over to the reef not far from us and spent a few hours swimming with the fish again.
Monday 10th
Another glorious day, but I hear on the Chubasco SSB net that a hurricane is forming to the south of us and is predicted to strengthen to a cat 2 or 3 and head directly to us. This is going to take several days and tomorrow we will be moored in Puerto Escondido, reportedly one of the safest hurricane holes here.
We have breakfast and dinghy off to another distant reef and spend a few hours snorkelling with the fish. We are below the headland of the southern entrance to Agua Verde, and the headland has crumbled into the sea making for a dangerous reef that extends 100 metres or more into the sea, often just a few feet below the surface. Again the dive is stunning and the little blue fish are glowing so brightly, its like they have built in LEDs.
Later in the day huge cumulus clouds arrived and a few mini squalls passed through the bay. I took this as my cue to prepare for departure, so we loaded the dinghy onto the foredeck and made the boat ship shape, ready for an early departure in the morning when we head to the Marina at Puerto Escondido, or to make a dash for cover later should the weather turn bad here. We are very exposed to the east in the bay.
Every day a huge motor yacht or two arrives and a canopy is setup on the beach by the yachts crew, so the guests can sun themselves and order more Campari over ch16 from their mothership. I find it very funny, the younger adults usually spend an hour or so screaming around the bay in a Jet Ski, I really can’t see the point. I have never seen any of them put a snorkel mask on yet, the underwater world here is by far the most interesting thing. At least they are quiet once the sun goes down and we are left to enjoy a stunning sky full of stars, every night the Milky Way has stood out very brightly, and I have been able to show Arturo how to find the North Star, Polaris, using Ursa Minor. I pointed out Ursa Major last night, as apparently he is guardian of that constellation. I didn’t ask fore details.
Tuesday 11th
We weigh anchor late in the morning and catch the end of the dying morning winds to sail for a few hours towards Puerto Escondido. This is a fairly modern marina inside a natural lagoon protected by Mountains and hills for 360 degrees around, except for a narrow channel in, just wide enough for a couple of boats to pass side by side. It’s hot here, and the water is not cooling at all. We pick up a mooring buoy, it will cost us about £70 for a week here, but we get all the marina facilities included, including showers, wifi, laundry etc. The marina has a decent mini supermarket and a great restaurant. Later that night I have Pizza and Arturo goes for a classic mexican fish dish called Chipotle.
On the dinghy ride back to the boat we are amazed as the water is alive with needle fish, about 6 inches long, diving out of the water in every direction. It’s a ten minute ride to the boat and they are flying through the air all around us. Eventually one lands in the dinghy and arturo has to rescue it and returns it to the sea.
I tried to upload a video, but so far the internet connection here is not up for it. I will try to get it ready for my next post.
Paul Collister.