Living in chaos

We have been working morning to night since arriving Tuesday. The goal is to take everything off the boat that would not be sold with it. This means cleaning out every nook and cranny, and we have lots. We rented a 5x5 storage unit and, as we continue to fill it, are considering an even larger unit. We have taken so much off the boat as of today that our water line has raised six inches – and we still have more to go.
It’s challenging to cook in these conditions. Last night, I had to go dig out a slotted spoon I had packed away the day before. Found it. Also, we are cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer and eating whatever we have. Last night’s salad was the last of the lettuce, half a tomato left from lunch and the last of the Kalamata olives. We had fried fish and mashed cauliflower on the side. Tonight we’ll eat the last of the chicken breasts from the freezer with leftover cauliflower. Then tomorrow I get to defrost the freezer and clean the fridge. Oh joy.

We are finding all sorts of stuff. For example, we have six rope lights, red, white and blue; more than 20 decks of cards; two sets of Mexican train dominoes (double 9s and 15s), Scrabble, cribbage; six shoe horns and books and books, some duplicates; way too many socks and stuff.

We are so grateful to Sal Mate to have rented their slip to us so that we can more easily get all this work done. It would have been near impossible on a mooring or an anchorage. Available slips are scarce here, and we are taking full advantage of having water, electricity, garbage cans (which we have filled quite a few). We have also been able to donate clothes and food.

Life is good.

Final journey (we think)

Our last leg of our journey to San Carlos began beautifully with a full moon and calm seas at 0400. The winds gently increased from the SE which was fine as we were headed NE. Seas were a little rolly with gentle swells, but the trip was mostly uneventful.

I say "mostly" because we did have one encounter at 0530: we noticed a panga (an open Mexican boat used mostly by the fishermen) with a very bright light. It charged toward us and Ron quickly realized why: there was a long-line net marked only with white milk cartons, which we could not have seen in the dark. The fishermen shined the light on the bottles and Ron was able to do a 90-degree turn away from them with only a few feet to spare. It would not have been pretty to hit the line. While we do have a line cutter installed in front of the propeller, it may or may not have cut the line and if not, the line might have wrapped around our folding prop, which likely would have put us dead in the water. Anyway, disaster was averted and the fisherman escorted us several hundreds of feet to the end of the line and we continued on our way.

The trip was almost 14-hours long and around 73 miles. We pulled into slip B-14 at Marina San Carlos a little before 1800. We will be here working away, preparing to leave LCII for the summer, until Monday when she'll be hauled out and placed on stands.

Summer in the Sea

Summer came quickly. It was just two weeks ago that we were covering ourselves with the down comforter in the middle of the night, and the mornings were crisp enough for a light sweater. Last night it was well after midnight before the sheet covered us, and at 0800 the temperature is 77 degrees with a forecasted high of 95 in El Burro Cove. We spent much of the last two afternoons in the water, cleaning the bottom of the boat and then just relaxing or floating around.

Our time in Concepcion and in the Sea is coming to an end for us and many cruisers as the heat and the pending hurricane season push us north. We've made the most of each day here:

Monday: we replenished my treasure trove of jingles, the transluscent white, yellow and orange shells. For a while, I put up my beach umbrella and folding chair, sat in the shade with my feet in the warm sand and finished James Patterson's "Cross." Ron was on the boat deep into Jack Dubrul's "River of Ruin." AirOps came into he anchorage later, and we had dinner followed by another great game of hand-and-foot. (The gals creamed the guys again!)

Tuesday: In the morning, we dinghied over to the small fish camp at the north tip of Santo Domingo anchorage and picked through four-foot high stacks of discarded colorful scallop and spiny, black-and-white murex shells. In the afternoon, both boats moved 7 miles south to Posada Concepcion where we found a spot off the beach of a gringo community. (Most homes were already closed for the summer.)

Wednesday: Butter-clam hunting day on Isla Pitahaya followed that evening with a steam clam and creamy pasta dinner.

Thursday: We moved 2 more miles south to El Burro Cove. We bought some produce from a small tienda across the highway. (Highway 1 skirts this part of the Sea.) I cleaned the water line of the boat. Ron worked on engine problems. It was dinner for 15 that night at Bertha's Restaurant on the beach.

Friday: Six women and two pre-teen girls sat at AirOps table and learned the basics of making jewelry with shells under the guidance of Merry. I made a pair of earrings and a pendant from jingle shells and fresh-water coin pearls that Merry had. Ron cleaned the bottom of the boat and I hung around on my swim noodle and swam back and forth between our boat and AirOps. I gave Merry a swim noodle. We floated and drank beers.

Saturday: For tonight and tomorrow night, we will be in Santa Barbara, a quiet cove and known place for butter and chocolate clams.

On Monday, we will move to Punta Chivata, our last and the best shelling beach of all. Then around 0400 Tuesday, we will start the 70+ mile trip to San Carlos on the mainland where we have a slip for a week. LCII will be hauled out and tucked away safely for the hurricane season on Monday, May 26.

Our future with LCII is undetermined after that. If she sells this summer, our cruising days are done. If not, who knows what we'll do. We don't.

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Santo Domingo Revisted

We spent about eight and a half hours today trekking through calm waters and less than 8-knot winds to go from San Juanico to Santa Domingo, which is located on the northwest tip of the peninsula that forms the eastern side of Bahia Concepcion. The bay runs about 22 miles from north to south alongside the arid, hilly peninsula. At 2434 feet, the largest of the hills (or mountains?) is Cerro Las Omillas. We see her and her sisters from our anchorage this evening.

We expect to spend about a week visiting various anchorages in the bay and then we'll work our way over to San Carlos on May 20, weather permitting. We were able to rent a slip from fellow cruisers Mark and Wendy of Sol Mate in preparation for hauling out on May 26. We expect to be back in the states the first week of June and start using up all those thousands of roll-over cell phone minutes!

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Apache Tears

For a guy who would not put shell and rock-hunting on the top of his list of favorite things, Ron is a really good sport. He actually says he's okay with it as long as he knows what he's looking for. So at each beach, I show him what we searching for. We've looked for agates on Agate Beach on Isla San Francisco. We've looked for star fish and augers everywhere. We've looked for broken white shells that have been polished smooth to the touch. We've looked for the "buttons" that create the trap door of the kind of a turban shell. (I'll look up the name later when I can find my shell book.) Anyway, you get the idea.

Our most recent search in San Juanico was for Apache Tears, smooth, black glossy stone or natural volcanic glass, also known as obsidian. Obsidian can be chipped into amazing sharpness and was once widely used for arrowheads and blades but in our more benign times, they are more likely to be seen in jewelry.

According to our "Sea of Cortez" guidebook, the legend of the Apache Tears began back in the 1870s when the US cavalry fought against Apache warriors in Arizona. With defeat near, the Apaches refused to be held captive and leapt to their deaths from atop a cliff. The warriors' families wept greatly for their loss and each tear shed turned to stone upon hitting the earth. It is believed that anyone who carries an Apache Tear will never have to weep again for the families of those Apache warriors have wept in place of our sorrow.

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San Juanico

We motored through calm silvery seas this morning on our 20-mile ride north to Caleta San Juanico, a popular collection of anchorages. We've been here before and seeing the familiar rock formations was like seeing old friends. This is a very pretty place with beaches and interesting rock formations, good hiking and snorkeling. The water is still a little on the cool side (low 70s) so we have not gone in yet. The air temperature has not been particularly warm (low 80s) the past few days either so I doubt we'll go into the water here.

On the north shore is a cruisers' shrine where creative cruisers have left mementos for years. Every few years a hurricane comes by and cleans it out but it continues. We left a shell with a picture of LCII shellacked with clear fingernail polish two years ago. We'll check to see if it's still there.

We have not seen much sea life on this trip, mostly just white, circular moon jellies up to more than a foot wide.

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Islas Coronados

The islands off Loreto give cruisers the ability to make easy day trips from one anchorage to another. Each is different. Each has its own special feel.

We just spent two calm nights off the southern tip of larger of the Islas Coronados. During the day we could see the white caps off to the east and west of us but were protected from them. We took a day hike across the southern spit of this volcanic remnant. The trail was well-marked and even had a few wooden signs with names of various plants. As we walked over the rise, we came upon what I think is the prettiest anchorage we've seen yet. The cove on the southwest side of the island has turquoise waters and white beaches lined with black volcanic rocks. We walked north as far as we could before being chased away by sea gulls protecting their nest.

By the way, sea gulls are surprisingly strong and aggressive when it comes to protecting their young. While sitting at Punto Perico a few days ago, Ron saw a Planet Earth event: two sea gulls fought a large hawk and won. The unfortunate hawk had obviously gone too close to the sea gulls' nest when Ron saw one of the gulls knock the hawk into the water. The gulls continue to circle him, taking turns to sit in the water nearby to make sure the hawk did not take off again. Hawks are not water birds. When their large wings get wet, they cannot take flight. Ron watched until the hawk and his wardens drifted out of sight, and he's quite sure the hawk eventually drowned.

Needless to say, we gave the sea gulls lots of space when we got near their nests.

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Loreto Fest was a kick

The 12th annual Loreto Fest was fun and more fun. Ron, Dave of AirOps and Ron of Shea La Vie won their Over the Line tournament. Dave came up with their team name, the Nads (say "Go Nads, Go Nads, Go Nads" :-) Merry, Susie of Lorien and I played but got eliminated in the first round :-( But Merry went on to win in horse shoes. I played Scrabble (I won), Baja Rummy (I lost) and Mexican train dominoes (I lost). In between, we ate pot luck meals and hot dogs, drank Diet Cokes, Coronas and Margueritas, listened to music, danced a little, sold tickets and tee shirts and just visited. About 140 boats and over 200 people attended throughout the May 1-4 event.

Boats started leaving the harbor Sunday and by Monday morning, many of the moorings were empty again. We left and took a 5.5 mile motor-ride over to Bahia Marquer, an anchorage on the southwest side of Isla Carmen. SE winds were forecast for the day, and this anchorage is perfect for that. We arrived and anchored in about 18 feet of crystal clear water, and are the only ones here tonight. After all that playing, we made this a recovery day and just relaxed after a stroll on the beach.

As the weather warms, the waters become clearer as the seaweed starts to die. When we left La Paz, the waters of the anchorages were mostly a hazy green with lots of loose seaweed floating around. Water temperature is still in the low 70s and is very slowly warming up.

We plan to only stay here one night as northerly winds are expected tomorrow night. We will leave here early to anchor off the town of Loreto for the day to do provisioning, after which we'll head north to anchor on the the south end of Isla Coronado.

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