Enjoying Bahia Magdalena

We're still anchored in Mag Bay, and are now in the company of several other boats, most of whom we've seen in previous ports/anchorages.

This morning, Bob on s/v Mojombo was kind enough to spend a few hours with us and give us a crash course on celestial navigation. We were finally able to put our theory to use, and take a sight with our sextant and work out our Line of Position. Again...just like those early explorers. Now...we need to practice!

We also had an interesting conversation with a fish wholesaler here. His view of the resource was very different than the girls we talked with yesterday, so it was great to be able to hear two sides of the story. If only our Spanish was better, and we could chat with the fishermen themselves!

We're now getting the boat ready to head towards Cabo San Lucas - the southern most tip of Baja.

Bahia Tortuga to Bahia Magdelenia

Well...another passage of two days and two nights. And it rained (well, showers). Shocking, but true. I know that everyone at home has absolutely no sympathy for us. But we've come to enjoy this dry climate. In fact, it was our fifth day of rain since leaving home in August. Rain has become a major inconvenience although at some point the rain will become critical for replenishing our limited fresh water capacity.

John reminds me that Tillman (some ancient mariner and mountaineer) would travel 6000 miles with 5 crew and 200 gallons of water. Obviously, Tillman would have me walking the plank. I appreciate washing dishes after each meal, and the occasional shower. Just call me wasteful.

Our passage from Turtle Bay to Mag Bay (gringo-speak) was good, we had some of the most fabulous sailing of our entire trip so far. We had to motor for about 11 hours (we have learned that we have little tolerance for flogging sails and low boat speed), when the wind disappeared, but arrived in Mag Bay during daylight, which is a huge bonus. We are now anchored in Man of War Cove, in the community of Puerto Magdelena. It is a very small communtiy of less than 200 people, and has been hit hard by the recent hurricane in August. We found ourselves woefully ill-equiped to provide any treats for the communty. We ransacked the boat, and came up with some supplies to donate to the school and the children. And we're determined to purchase more supplies for schools once we arrive in Cabo San Lucas, in the event that we come across communitites in similar situations.

Bahia Magdelana is huge. One book suggests it is the same size as San Francisco Bay, although to me, it seems even larger. We had a nice walk across the peninsula, to the Pacific and Bahia Santa Maria beaches today:
There were a couple of women here today from an NGO in Mexico City doing interviews with the locals to document their history and relationship with the Bay. We had a fabulous conversation with them and it seems that the community here is quite poor and the fishermen all belong to a cooperative that is attempting to encourage them to convert to 4 stroke outboards, and to help them to sell their product at market, but they make very little for their efforts. Very hard to encourage conservation of fishery resources for future generations when they are struggling to provide for the needs of their families today.

We have a friend, Eduardo, whose family is from this community, we think. But we haven't found them yet. We'll keep looking!

There are three other cruising boats here. One is Mojombo, from Comox...small world. We met them in San Diego, and had a nice evening with them tonight. Doin' It from Hawaii left today for Cabo, and Gert on Tate arrived today.

Bahia Tortugas

A couple pics from Bahia Tortugas...

John dives on our zinc...to find it missing...again. I end up fitting a replacement prop nut and zinc, in many, many 10 second increments of breath holding. fun.

Fishermen are scooping up the sardines from the bottom of their boat into crates, which they then pass along the line into the waiting truck. Of course, the odd sardine makes a dash for his freedom...and the waiting gulls are gleefully waiting...

Ensenada to Turtle Bay - Major Milestones

[UPDATED Dec 10 and 11, 2009]

We've just arrived in Turtle Bay / Bahia Tortugas / Port San Bartolome after a 50 hour passage from Ensenada. It was a great passage, unlike the other multi-day trips that we did along the Washington and Oregon coast. By contrast, this passage had moderate winds and sea swell and we were both able to get decent sleep inbetween our watches, and the watches went by fairly quickly. Dolphins visited us regularly, as did a variety of birds, yet we saw very few other boats. Enjoying this passage was a major milestone for us, and gave us the needed confidence boost that we could do other similar passages for even longer periods of time.

Flying downwind with two headsails - wing on wing:

And the other major milestone... (drum roll please)... "WE GOT A FISH" was John's cry from the battlezone (aka the cockpit), less than an hour after we had set the sails and the fishing gear outside of Ensenada Harbour. I had only just fallen asleep, but quickly scrambled up to the cockpit to reel in our prize. We reeled in a fairly small tuna...not yet sure if it is a skipjack, or perhaps even a bonito...we have a fish book, but with few pictures. When we find the internet, we'll have to do some more detailed investigation. [Update: turns out that this beauty is a bonito...not the most prized of all game fish...but who are we to complain? Fish tacos, anyone?]

Almost forgot to write about the third major milestone in this passage. JOHN PLAYED YAHTZEE WITH ME!! Wow. Unfortunately, I felt queazy after only a few rolls (all that concentration and addition, I guess), and we haven't yet finished our game, but I consider this to be HUGE progress.

Ensenada

We didn't linger in Ensenada, but we did spend one more morning seeking out the grocery store. Along the way we found the fish market...where we bought a gorgeous hunk of smoked marlin for about $3. Hmmm. Mark and Vicki tell us that we should have tried out the fish tacos - the best they have found to date. And they should know...they are on a serious mission to find the best fish tacos in all the land! They also had this display of prawns unlike any that I'd ever seen.

A cruise ship had arrived in town today, so we saw a very different town than yesterday. On every corner, we were offered a cornucopia of assorted wares and services.

Ola Mexico!

After a few errands with the rental car, and a nice lunch with Denis and Holly (Tango), we left San Diego late on Monday afternoon, and after a short trip, we arrived in Ensenada Mexico at 4:00 on Tuesday morning. It was a lovely overnight passage with a full moon and calm seas. We both managed to sleep for a few hours. We had originally planned on a slow sail and tacking in front of the harbour until sunrise, but we arrived early and when we saw how well lit the harbour entrance was, we decided to enter. We didn't have any problems and were able to tie up at Cruiseport Marina without incident. In fact, a staff person was on hand to welcome us and check us in!

After a couple hours of rest, we began the process of getting assigned a slip in the marina for the night, and then checking in with all the various authorities - Immagracion (3x); Bancocito (4x); Customs; Pesces (fisheries -2x); Port Capitan...etc. We started at 8am, and we finished in time for lunch at 12:30. Whew. Luckily...the kind folks at the marina prepared our paperwork for us (at no additional fee, although the moorage wasn't inexpensive), and were super helpful in making the process go smoothly. We did all of this in the company of Mark and Vicki on s/v Southern Cross, so the line ups weren't a problem, as we had people to chat with, and a spanish speaker to ask for directions!

We also spent some time at the TellCell store, in hopes of setting ourselves up with a new cell phone. It didn't work out to be as easy as we hoped, so we aren't going to have a new cell until La Paz.

Lions and Tigers and Beasts...oh my!

Denis and Holly on s/v Tango invited us to join with them and Judy and Jordan (Sea Turtle), for a trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. We hadn't planned on doing any sightseeing in San Diego, so we decided it would be fun to go along. It was Sunday of the Thansgiving weekend, so we thought it may be busy, but the overcast skies worked in our favour and the crowds didn't appear. We saw all sorts of creatures and critters, including lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, antelope, wildebeest, springboks, and tons of birds - pelicans, flamingos, condors, ducks and more. Overall, it was a fun day! And a great opportunity to get to know the camera a little better. As usual, more pics will be posted on flickr, when a lightning fast internet connection makes itself available.

Leaving America

We're about to release the dock lines, and head off in the afternoon breeze towards Mexico. It is a short trip and we should be in Ensenada by tomorrow morning.

I'll try to sort out our photos from yesterday's adventure, stay tuned! Hopefully, we'll find an internet connection!!

San Diego Wild Animal Park

We spent the day at the San Diego Wild Animal Park with Tango and Sea Turtle. What a day...we took a TON of pictures. When I sort them out I'll add a few here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great thanksgiving with Denis and Holly (Tango) and Ben and Marion on Guinevere (from Alberta!), complete with turkey and all the delightful fixings that accompany a proper feast!! I was expecting that we'd have to sacrifice some traditions for boat living...but this is not one of them!

Our next few days were spent enjoying the hot tub at the San Diego Yacht Club, doing odd jobs around the boat, shopping, and enjoying the company of the cruisers around us. Amazing how many Canadians are here. Jordan and Judy (Sea Turtle) are from Victoria, and Tenacious Grace, an Alberta boat, who we met previously in Santa Barbara, have just pulled in beside us. And many, many more.

Today we joined forces with Tango and Sea Turtle and headed into town with the intention of visiting the Maritime Museum and perhaps the Aircraft Carrier. Well...we only saw the Aircraft Carrier. It was my first time on such a ship, and it was pretty interesting....but imagine John's delight! Needless to say...between the two pilots and John, we spent most of the afternoon wandering around, glued to our headsets. Tomorrow...we continue our touristing...and then back to this cruising business...

Other blog-able news....I just bought a super-duper-wifi-antenna-gizmo. And now I can poach wi-fi signals from even further away! Yippee!!! Yahooo!! So once again, I have internet on the boat. Just before we leave.