April 24th - La Paz to Caleta Partida

Leaving for the islands today. Windy this morning. Beseme Mucho's flag was whipping.

First of all, a big shout out for Dave Alexander for running with the ball and finding out about Daedalus. The yacht is owned by Boeing. While we were fueling up to leave Costabaja, the Captain of Daedalus radio'd the office to say they were headed out with six passengers and would be back Saturday. The office asked how many crew? Eight! Wow, nice!

San Lorenzo Channel

While we were trolling across the San Lorenzo channel we caught a nice big skipjack. Released him. Ran into Jerome and Karen aboard M/Y Daybreak. We came down with them on the Fubar. We had planned to spend our first night in Bahia San Gabriel but it's the first bay and too close. Looked at the three fingers at puerto Ballena. Ensenada la Gallina, el Gallo and de la Raza. Pulled our fishing lines and went into de la Raza for a closer look.

Pulling into de la Raza for a closer look.

Closer

Closer yet, wow! Little bobo's were thick here, like fruit flies and so annoying. No wind to blow them away so let's get out of here!

Decided to stay in Caleta Partida, located between the islands of Espiritos Santos and Partida. It's actually a crater of an extinct volcano.

We anchored in about 22 feet of crystal clear turquoise water. Nice breeze blowing to keep the bugs away.

That's the opening to our bay

Looks like a crater was once here.

The other side actually has a small channel where at high tide, panga's go through.

Looking out towards the sunset.

Had a great steak dinner. Watched the sunset, millions of stars and the cool fish that were lighting up the water with their phosphorescence.

 

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April 23rd - La Paz

Caught the 10:00 shuttle and went to Mega. Picked up some fresh vegetables and fruit to stock up as we plan to leave for the islands tomorrow. Went to Telcel and loaded David's Mexican phone with 3G of internet and more talk time.

Back to the boat, unloaded and put groceries away and getting ready for lunch, (leftover Big Joe's ribs), David hears someone hollering his name. It's Poncho! Our guy that helped us get the boat painted and took care of our boat when we were here the first time. He was on a boat at the gas dock. He had helped bring it up from Cabo. Poncho and Troy the Captain of the Bertram they were on, came over and visited for a while. They are heading up into the Sea as well but not until the weekend.

The yellow hulled Bertram is the boat Poncho and Troy are on. The owners are coming on Friday.

Happy birthday to Nicole! This picture is from December in PV, the last time we saw Nicole. Nicole and Mark are scheduled to deliver their second baby son on April 30th. Looking forward to meeting Ryder when we get back!

Went to dinner at La Barcaccia, an Italian restaurant here at Costabaja. Joel and Jacob off of S/V Companera were there so we joined them. Had a fun evening visiting with them. Jacob flies out tomorrow. Joel's boat is on the hard here, he hit a rock up in the sea and limped in the same day we arrived. We know his pain!

We will be leaving this paradise tomorrow, the 24th. Not sure we will have internet availability in the islands so posting the blog may be limited over the next 2-3 weeks. Adios!

 

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April 22nd - La Paz

We called the office that gets the permits for anchoring around the islands this morning. They said they were picking them up and we could get them after 1:00 today. We took the noon shuttle to Marina de La Paz and had lunch at the cafe. Went to the office to get our permits and were told, no, they don't have the permits, they can have them tomorrow. Mañana, remember it doesn't mean tomorrow, just means not today. They promised to deliver them at 1:00 to our marina office tomorrow.

View from the cafe at Marina de La Paz

Hopped in the dinghy to fill it up and fill the 5 gallon can and go see the girls in our marina office to give them money for the permits being delivered tomorrow, Found out they could have handled the whole thing of getting our permits.

Went for a little ride but headed north instead of towards La Paz. Here comes the Ferry. The Ferry goes between La Paz and Mazatlan.

What a beautiful little bay!

Beautiful.

Went to La Paz for dinner. Big Joe's BBQ. A black guy from the states. He knows his BBQ, but not how to spell sauce.

Look at these meaty mothers! So good. Great place. Big Joe even drove us back to Costabaja instead of calling us a cab. Now that's customer service!

 

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April 21st - La Paz

Puttered around the boat this morning. Went up to sit on the bridge to finish my book and got pooped on by a bird. Crap! Cleaned up, had lunch and then took the shuttle to the La Paz town square where the Cathedral is. Allende book store is a block away and we need to pick up a book.

Sea of Cortez, A Cruiser's Guidebook. This will help us in selecting places we want to visit and anchor at. After the book store, we walked to Marina de La Paz to purchase permits for anchoring around any of the Islands in the Sea of Cortez.

Brent! Look who we ran into?

The office that can issue the permits are out of the card material to make the permits so we have to try to get them mañana. Had a couple of beers at the Marina, then took a hot, windy cab ride back to Marina Costabaja. Boy, do I miss not having an air conditioned car of our own! Stayed home and watched Public Enemies with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, it was pretty good.

 

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April 20th - Easter La Paz

Happy Easter everybody! Had an awesome breakfast, bacon and eggs. Got busy and cleaned the inside of the boat, vacuumed, wiped down walls, washed windows and floors, polished chrome. David used rubbing compound on the outside of the windows to get rid of water spots, then washed and squeegee'd them. Changed lights that were burnt out, tried to fix a fan, it's toast, got the dinghy down and I think that's it. Had lunch.

Went for a ride in the dinghy after lunch. Look at this stealth looking monster. Very weird looking!

We love this yacht! Daedalus from Seattle. Just pulled in today. Can't find out anything about it when I google it?

What a difference from La Cruz. Now we're in the desert. No lush palms and plants.

But it is beautiful!

Turquoise water is just gorgeous!

Cruised around in Marina Palmira, where you see the yellow building. Mystique, a 90 foot Cheoy Lee that was next to us in Marina Salpare in Portland is here. We don't know if the same owner has it still, no one was on board.

Clear as a bell, sunset tonight.

Look who just arrived! It's Blau, they were in the La Cruz Shipyard with us. We went out to dinner at Steinbecks. It's a nice steakhouse. My NY was great. David had the ribeye and it was like a breakfast steak.

 

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April 19th - Los Muertos to La Paz

Left the anchorage at 6:45 this morning. The wind is pretty strong but our ride is much better than yesterday. As we headed north, the wind picked up and we are getting a major salt bath! It was about a six hour cruise to get to Marina Costa Baja.

We came across Gale and Mary on Worknot. They are heading up into the Sea of Cortez. Chatted with them on the radio awhile. We hope to catch up with them.

Love the water here!

Janabanana is all tied up and checked in. Geronimo and Israel are busy washing all the salt off off the boat, we decided to take a walk.

Let's go over to the beach club and have a couple of beers!

No need to enhance this photo.

Arriving at the beach club

So beautiful. A lot of families are here at the resort to celebrate the Easter weekend.

Nice and cool under the palapa in the bar.

Salud amigo!

 

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April 17th/18th - Punta de Mita crossing to Los Muertos

Left the anchorage at about 7:45. We had a rolly and hot night.

We picked a good time to go, the ocean is flat as a fritter.

Not long into our trip, we had a visitor.

Playful guy, just kept slapping and splashing

Bye bye! Later, a couple of different times in the afternoon and early evening, we were greeted by a ton of happy dolphins. We saw a lot of sea turtles by the Maria's Islands. Almost every one had a bird sitting on it's back.

Had dinner at 6:30. We had a nice green salad and then we microwaved one of the prepared meals that we bought at the Sunday market. Shepherds Pie, it was delicious and so easy, no mess! David headed down to bed at about 7:45. I'm on first watch.

Still flat at sunset. So fortunate that the seas and wind is so calm for our crossing.

David got up at about 9:15. He slept a little but woke up and laid in bed for a half hour awake. So now I'll try to get some sleep. David got a shot of the full moon, also nice for night time traveling. I got up at 1:30, now it's David's turn to get some rest.

This is the view from the pilothouse at night. I can actually see out at the horizon because of the full moon. I have all the instruments to monitor.

This is our Flir night vision camera, a security blanket, makes it so I can actually see in the dark.

Radar screen, nobody but us out here. We've been traveling at about 10-1/2 knots all the way, 1300 RPM

AIS chart, that's us, the green arrow and nobody else. 3:00 and here comes David back up. He's going to be tired tomorrow. I went back to bed until 5:30. About an hour ago it starting getting quite a bit rougher. The south wind is blowing pretty hard so were rocking side to side. David went to bed. Very uncomfortable ride, good I can't see or I'd probably be freaking out. David is back up at 7:30.

Wind finally settled down around 9:30 as we were blocked from the Baja.

Pulling in to the Los Muertos anchorage in 30 hours. 1:00 Baja time. 321 n.m. Plenty salty and crusty. Ready for relaxing!

Love the crystal clear turquoise blue water here. That's why we wanted to get back here and explore the Sea of Cortez. It's Easter weekend, Good Friday actually. Look at all the campers on the beach!

Amazing that we just came from 321 nm's back there!

More campers. Hmmm, I need to get my super duper binoculars and see what they are all up to?

This right here is why I wanted to go on this Fubar trip in the very beginning. David showed me a picture of a sunrise or sunset in a Sea Magazine that I tore out and put on the wall at the desk in our kitchen where I could look at it everyday for two years before we left. Tonight's sunset is even more spectacular than any picture can do justice. We are sooooo blessed!

I can't decide which is the best?

What do you think?

Golden to orange to purple to red. Amazing.

 

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