I Survived Cabo Marina



Elizabeth raising the Mexican Courtesy flag

11-11-12 - Cabo San Lucas. MX

I survived the Cabo San Lucas marina, just to now be trying to survive Cabo San Lucas anchorage.  I know it's a hard life but someone has to do it.  In reality there is nothing relaxing about either of these locations.  One benefit of both is that you can have your very own dance party aboard every single night as you listen to the cheesy semi-last year American Dance music blare over the marina and now the anchorage until the wee hours of the morning.  The marina has that nice stuffy hot sweaty feel like a club while the anchorage has the benefit of making you feel drunk all day as you roll back in forth in the endless swell and tourist jet-ski, panga and dance party on the water boat wakes.  (We did just witness a spontaneous fireworks display off the  beach just now, probably for holy day; Sunday)

So if you can't tell Cabo has been a crazy adjustment from 2 weeks of sailing down the coast, alone on night watch with no sounds or other people to talk to; spending a few days in remote Baja peninsula villages with dirt roads (if any)  to a crazy harbor with apparently few rules and tourists everywhere and the associated debauchery that they bring.  I can honestly say it like no other place I've been.  Hopefully I will not have to be in another place like it for a long while either. 

Cabo San Lucas Marina

I can now say I've experienced Cabo and I'd like to leave please.  Alas, we have a few days to kill while waiting for some weather to blow thru the Sea of Cortez.  So, I might as well enjoy it while I can.  A trip to Lovers Beach and the sea arch is planned, a day of watching drunken idiot tourists be, well, drunken idiot tourists will follow.  I have made up a sign I now carry that says "No Gracias" so the people selling things on the street know that I do not need any Cuban cigars, carved wooden turtles, chicklets, "almost free" silver necklaces and bracelets, blow, coke, weed or hookers.  There is some debate about the people, especially children, begging on the street.  It's certainly not pleasant to see and you can read about the intricacies and nuances of this situation if you wish.  But it doesn't seem to fit the mood of this post. 


View from the cockpit.  Not too shabby

Sunset over the anchorage

Cabo is a place of juxtapositions.  People begging next to multi million dollar sport fishing boats (all with American hailing ports) Huge fancy new hotels with much lower class living situations just out of sight and amazing green mountains in the distance.  Tourists here for a few days to party and locals doing their best to make a living off them.  Its great to have made it here and I can't wait to experience the slower less commercial side of Mexico.


Channel 69 - The Pleasure Channel

11-7-12 – Lat: 23.36 Long: 111.00

45 miles off the coast of the Baja peninsula, 80 miles to Cabo San Lucas, night watch, 8:00 PM, no wind, motoring at 5.5 knots.  80 miles to Cabo sounds  close, but if you do the math we still will not arrive until 2:00 PM tomorrow.  Yeah, we move pretty slow.  What to do for the next three hours while Elizabeth and Laura get some sleep for their watches to come?  If you can’t find things to do to entertain yourself for hours at a time,(remember TV, internet, and cell phones aren’t options) traveling on a sailboat may not be for you.  This is where I turn to Channel 69 on the VHF.  Better known as the “Pleasure” channel. 

The VHF radio is always an important part of your boat gear, but is generally thought of as a piece of safety gear.  A way to call for help in an emergency.  There are many channels designated for different purposes.  16 is for emergencies and hailing other boats only.  Don’t let the Coast Guard catch you chatting away on this one or they publicly chastise you over the radio.  Other channels are set aside to let commercial boats announce their intentions so everyone knows where they are going, others yet are for ship to ship communication etc, etc…  And then there is Channel 69 set aside for “Pleasure” or at least that’s what scrolls across the bottom of the screen on my VHF.

Channel 69 - The Pleasure Channel

For our trip from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas with the Baja Haha, they have designated channel 69 as the working channel for people to hail each other and to conduct the morning nets and inform the fleet of 115 boats about the weather and what’s happening in general.  In theory, everyone monitors this channel all the time, and one boat would hail another, pick a different channel to go to and then conduct their business on this other channel, leaving 69 free for other to hail each other.  It mostly works that way.  Some people forget what channel they are on and conduct their conversation on 69 untill someone else pleasantly, or not so pleasantly, reminds them to “take it to another channel”  The thing to remember here is that everyone can hear you.  In this day when a phone call is heard by yourself and the other person alone, it is very hard to remember that everyone who cares, or is just bored on night watch like me, can “follow” you to whatever channel you choose to go to.

So I know that s/v Perseverence has a bad rear seal in their transmission and need more 30 weight oil, but a guy who has the same transmission says you can use regular old motor oil; in fact he once ran his with sea water in it for 250 hours while on a passage and it didn’t hurt it.  I know who is picking up the teenagers from shore and taking them all back to their respective boats.  I know that someone and someone spend a lot of time talking late at night; and so does everyone else.  I know who caught a 56 inch dorado, who won the election, and when someone asks someone else about the weather they just downloaded, I follow them to another channel and then I know the weather also.  At first I felt bad about following people to other channels and ease dropping on their conversations.  That is until I went to another channel with someone to have a talk and then another person interjected their thoughts.  Unbeknownst to me we had been followed.  From what I can tell, it’s what you do.

The channel gets really interesting when we all gather in an anchorage and everyone is calling their friends to visit and socialize.  Or after the beach parties, there are endless calls for missing flip flops, I can’t find my crew member, my dinghy oars are missing, there’s a blue kayak floating out to sea and on and on.  You can sit in the cockpit and listen to the radio for hours, following the conversations that fancy you and ignoring the others.  It’s better than TV, maybe because it’s actual stuff that’s happening.
You get to know people’s voices and generate opinions of them over the radio.  On some boats it seems only one person ever talks on the radio.  Some people are very needy and have a million questions about stuff that was already talked about.  Some people are very paranoid at night and feel the need to call out the latitude and longitude of every boat they see on their radar within two miles to make sure they are aware of each other.  Some people see the need to announce every time they catch a fish, in fact they have so many fish they are releasing then if they are under 60 inches.  Somehow they think everyone in the fleet needs to know this.

Either way you look at it, the Pleasure channel is just that.  It’s where you get you news, find the weather, report your problems, hear about the beach party tonight, call your friends after  each overnight on the water and find out their position to see who snuck by who in the night and the list goes on and on.  Just remember; you never know who’s listing!

The crew in Cabo celebrating our arrival!
On our neighbors s/v Alcyone

 

Baja Haha Leg 1

11-2-12 Turtle Bay, MX

Ready to Go!

We made it to Turtle Bay.  Leg one of the Baja ha ha is in the books.  This post will probably be coming to everyone many days late as we have not yet had the time to figure out our Mexican wifi system.  Leg one from San Diego to Bahia Tortuga (Turtle Bay for gringos) was 353 nautical miles for Autumn Wind.  Not too bad considering the rhumb line was 344 NM.  We spent 76 hours making the first passage; that’s three nights and four days of sailing, sleeping and eating. 

Leaving San Diego with 115 friends

First night sunset

We departed San Diego with 115 other boats, the fire boat was present shooting water into the sky and it was quite a sight as everyone set their spinnakers in light air just out of the channel.  Soon the bigger boats; which is almost all of them; pulled away and we found ourselves in the back of the pack sailing along pleasantly.  And the rest is sort of a blur.  It’s hard to believe that in 76 hours of not leaving a 34 foot boat you can accomplish almost nothing.  We ran 3 hour watches.  So that meant you had 6 hours off between watches.  This may seem like a lot of time, but somehow the time flies by and next thing you know someone is waking you up for your next watch.  Now everyone has had 6 hours off between work days at some time.  It makes for a long next day.  That’s how we felt as we repeated the 3 on 6 off scenario for four days.  At some point all you really wanted to do was catch a couple hours of sleep no matter what time of day it was.  That may sound sort of gloomy.  In reality it was a great passage, but no one said no to an early bed time once the anchor was down.



Day 1 pics

The weather was excellent which allowed us to eat well.  How does weather and food go together you may ask?  Well when the weather is nice you can cook, when it sucks you can’t; at least not very well.  Imagine cooking in your kitchen as it rocks back and forth.  Stuff slides off the counter, as you lean into the stove to keep you balance.  At least the stove and oven swivel, and we have little arms that hold the pots in place as the boat heels.  Still no one likes to spend lots of time down below in bad weather.  So that’s how the two go together.   We ate BBQ beef, made two loaves of fresh bread, bagel egg and ham sandwiches, homemade chili with cornbread, breakfast burritos and to top it off fresh caught yellow tail tuna and then ceviche tacos the next day.  So we didn’t lose any weight on this passage. 

Yes, that’s right we caught our first fish!  Admittedly, it was about a $200 dollar fish at this point with the license and hand lines we bought.  We had fun pulling it in, killing it and filleting it.  This was an adventure for someone who has never really been into fishing.  To make the whole thing even more fun we accomplished the entire operation with the spinnaker up. 

Laura with our fish.  How
do you filet this thing?

Speaking of the spinnaker.  It’s a good thing we have one.  It got a workout on the first leg.  One morning we set it right after the morning net at 7:00 AM and carried it all day until midnight.  Without it we would never have kept up with the pack.

There we some late night chats with other boats over the VHF, always nice to know someone else is out there.  The SSB receiver we bought actually worked, thanks to Elizabeth’s dedication to spending hours listening to static to learn how to tune it in.  We were able to listen to the morning net where everyone checked in and reported their position and they updated the weather for us.  That way we were able to keep track of our friends on other boats.

One of the many highlights of the passage may have been within the last 10 miles as the dolphins were surfacing everywhere, birds were diving for fish and two humpback whales surfaced 100 feet off the side of the boat.

Not much went wrong or broke.  One shackle on the boom preventer and one fork got thrown overboard with the dish water.  (we do our dishes in a bucket of saltwater to conserve the fresh water, it was dark and just got overlooked)  Minor issues for a 350 mile passage. 
So the first leg is history, we are in Turtle Bay for only one day and then it’s back to sailing. 

Our Baja Haha pumpkin

(not very) Relaxing Days at the Marina

10-26-12 - Cabrillo Isle Marina - San Diego, CA - Day 116

Marina living is supposed to be so much easier and more relaxing than living on the anchor or being underway.  I can firmly say that this is not what we have been experiencing here at Cabrillo Isle.  The marina is great, with many nice amenities and an incredibly accommodating staff.  Not the least important of which is the hot tub at the Sheraton Hotel next door.  Our time here has been perpetual preparation, and it seems the longer we stay the more preparation is required.  You can never be too prepared to leave it seems.  As more Haha boats arrive every day I am jealous of their lack of time.  There is only so much they can do before departure date.  It is probably simpler and easier to not spend so much time getting ready to leave.


Yea!  A Water Toy

Through all the preparations we have been trying to have some fun and relax.  One nice thing about being tied to the dock is that you can go for a run in the morning without having to dinghy into shore.  Upon arriving 2 weeks ago we searched Craigslist and finally found ourselves a toy.  Conveniently enough, two docks down a lady was selling her stand up paddle board.  So we now officially have a toy!  Elizabeth's parents came to San Diego for a visit.  We felt bad as we spent most of their visit running around San Diego in search of everything from an internal snap ring to new glasses for Elizabeth.  With any luck they had some fun as well; visiting Coronado Island and having way to much ice cream; between rebuilding our spare water pump and making runs to the grocery store. 

New bed topper - What fun!

We should get crew like this
more often!

Our crew mate Laura arrived a few days ago.  She will be helping us with the trip to Cabo, so we can all get a little more sleep on the overnight passages.  We are looking forward to having her and her knowledge with us for the trip South.  Having crew is a new experience for us but it seems to be working out.  Between waxing 1/2 the boat already and making killer tritip tacos it seems to be working out!

New lazy jacks seem to work great

As our time here is winding down our projects are finally ending.  Mostly because time is running out, not because there's not more to do.  As I said when we left Grand Marina two months ago, there will always be more to do, and that is why a departure date is so important.  You could spend another month here preparing for every eventuality that might happen. 



Elizabeth, Laura and me.

We have spare pumps and hoses, we can suck fresh water from our tanks without power, we have paper charts of Mexico (even if they were last updated in 1869.  That's not an exaggeration) we have at least 5 different devices that tell us our location and at least three that send out an emergency signal if needed.  We can invert power, make cookies underway, listen in on the SSB nets, get weather fax downloaded to the Ipad (we think), there are pesos in our pockets, fuel in the tanks, solar panels are sucking up power, and there's two buck chuck in every corner of the boat.  It's time to leave, stop preparing and start doing.  Let's just hope that left handed screw shaft zinc invert-a-thingy doesn't break.  We didn't get a spare of that.






View from the cockpit at Cabrillo Isle Marina

 

Hola San Diego

10-11-12 - San Diego, CA - Cabrillo Isle Marina - Harbor Island - Day 101

Pt. Loma and San Diego in the background

We have officially made it to San Diego and are currently sitting comfy in a slip at Cabrillo Isle Marina on Harbor Island.  It doesn't seem that long ago that we were somewhere between Reno, Ohio, and San Francisco; telling people that we would see how it was going when we got to San Diego and then maybe we would head to Mexico.  Now I can't imagine not carrying on.  We have a list a mile long of things that we would like to do, buy, fix and complete before we leave.  Autumn Wind is officially NOT in sailing mode and we have been loving the ability to leave all the lights we want on, the use of hot water and the endless water supply. Our trip so far has been excellent.  There has obviously been some broken stuff and some tough times.  But overall I feel we have escaped some of the notorious weather the West coast is known for and have enjoyed many new places and met many new friends along the way. 

We left our slip in Alameda, CA on July 27th to begin our trip. 
We have lived on the boat for 101 days to date. 
We have been "slipless" (ie. in transit, or homeless) for 77 days.
We have traveled a total of 1,087.8 miles, including our time in the Delta and our trip up and down the coast
We have anchored 37 nights.
We have run the engine 151.8 hours since leaving Alameda.
Autumn Wind has consumed 70.3 gallons of diesel.
We have used approximately 3 gallons of propane for all of our cooking needs.  (hard to believe I know!)
Between our dink, Papa Kilo, and the generator we have used 5.8 gallons of gasoline.

We have consumed approximately 38 bottles of 2 buck chuck.
I have run 147.5 miles since moving aboard
Favorite anchorage so far was Port San Luis.
Least favorite place was Bodega Bay.
Highest wind speed has been a surprisingly low 28 knots around Santa Barbara Island

Unknown to us - big wind was hiding around the corner

Broken stuff has included:  Engine oil pressure switch and glow plug solenoid, seacock ball valve on head, Main sail tack to slide on boom (twice).  Keep your fingers crossed we seem to be doing good so far.
Suckiest anchorage: Richardson Bay one night when the swell was rocking the boat so bad you had to hold onto your drink or it would tip over.  Since that standard has been set, every anchorage has been good in comparison.
Dolphins/porpoises are cool to see and watch play in the bow wake.


"watch out!"  They seem to have fun with us


Whales are still a little scary to see.
I picture the boat as a small child.  Sometimes you are glad to get off of it and leave it behind for an afternoon, but every time you return and are just about to round the last corner before you see it, you get worried about it.  It is hard to get it out of your  mind.  It doesn't sound like this really ever changes.

Observations on Autumn Wind:
You could spend a lot more, you could spend a lot less.  You will see the same stuff from your cockpit.
It's hard to keep your boat envy in check when having sundowners on other peoples boat. 
Big anchors and big chain are awesome.  The bigger the better, but make sure you can pick it up off the bottom without killing yourself.  Lets just say I don't need a gym membership anymore.
A windless and bow roller that could accommodate our chain would make raising the anchor grand.  Right now it is a little bit of a fight due to smooth drum windless, big chain, big shackles and little bow roller.
Can you sense the trend.  If you could spend big money on one thing, it would be ground tackle, windless (manual or electric) and bow rollers, chain locker setup. 
You can't see past the dink on the deck.  Not sure what to do about it.  Love the dink when at anchor, don't want spend an hour putting it together every time.  It's a compromise.


Maybe not perfect, but she's ours

We need more toys.  We don't have many and have realized that there's a lot of time to kill when at anchor.  SUPs, kayaks, snorkel stuff are all good diversions.
Learning to live without the Internet/cell phones is difficult.  We knew this would happen but didn't know how much time we really spent on it until it has been gone for 5 days at a time.
No matter what you do your life will revolve around the consumption of resources and how to reduce it.  Electricity & water primarily, but fuel (diesel, gas and propane) are a close second.
By far the best thing we did was install solar panels.  This can be observed by how little gasoline we have used.  The more solar the better.
The battery monitor is almost as entertaining as TV.  We watch it religiously.
Having ceramic dishes and mugs vs. plastic WM crap that will never break is very nice and makes you feel like you actually live on the boat.  It may break some day.  We'll buy more.

The reality is that the list is endless.  There are so many great upgrades and cool gadgets that would make life "easier".  You must make a call at some point and do what you can and forget the rest.  Be safe, be prepared, remember that this is probably more of an adventure than endless fun so treat setbacks with that attitude.  Remember that some people are going to work each day, so always be thankful for the choices you have allowed yourself to make.   

Miss Manners on Proper Sundowner Etiquette

10-8-12 – Leaving Avalon Harbor, Catalina Island – Day 98

The fun in the sun of the Channel Islands has unfortunately come to an end.  We are heading back to the mainland to begin our harbor hopping down to San Diego.  The islands have been a great experience and I’m happy we made the decision to visit them.  Santa Cruz Island with its many anchorages and rugged trails, Santa Barbara Island with its mean wind where we unfortunately didn’t make it ashore and Santa Catalina Island.  Catalina Harbor with its peaceful laid back feeling until Buccaneer days came along with a more “bustier” and crazy party feeling.  Avalon Harbor with its beautiful houses and nicely laid out, though very different to those new to the area, mooring field.  Not only are we leaving behind the beautiful islands but all of the new friends (hopefully only temporarily) we have met and re-met in these anchorages.  That leads us to the question: what is the etiquette for the ever present and always appreciated “Sundowners”

Leftover boatmade cake for
Ellie's Birthday

Inviting people over for Sundowners is almost required protocol when meeting new people or reacquainting yourself with old friends.  It doesn’t necessarily mean you know these people very well.  As was the case when we invited two couple over to share in Elizabeth’s birthday cake.  We had met both of them less than 24 hours earlier, but everyone had the commonality of simply being in the same anchorage. 

 That and being on a sailboat and heading south, which does count for a lot.  We had a great time sharing our boatmade birthday cake and a couple of two dollar bottles of wine.  But what is the protocol of Sundowners?  What time does this ritual take place at?  Do you bring something with you?  Are you obliged to reciprocate the offer?  How long do you stay?  Is a two dollar bottle of wine ok, or do you need to break out the good rum?  Shoes on or off?  Tie up your own dink or let the host tie it up where they see fit?

Our experience has been quite varied but there do seem to be some themes emerging.  (this is just my experience and I could be way off base, so let me know if I’m wrong)  There has been the Sundowner that lasts until well past moonrise where the bilges seem to be full of rum and next thing you know you’re smoking cigars and having dinner (Annie).  There are Sundowners that start at 3:30 and end at, you guessed it, sundown; with a glass of wine and good conversation.  So this ritual seems like it can take on a life of its own depending who you are with.  Including our get together we have shared Sundowners with six different boats in the last nine days.  That’s a fair number of people to hang out with that you didn’t really know all that well.  It’s sort of like arriving at a hotel and then knocking on the door next to yours to see if they want to come over for a drink and some conversation. 

Two Harbors - Friday before Buccaneer Days

The common theme seems to be: start around 4:00 to 5:00, spend about two hours and then be on your way.  As the invitee it doesn’t seem to be required to bring anything with you.  This is a change as in the normal world you almost always take something with you when invited over to a friends.   Light snacks and wine are pretty common.  The brand of wine doesn’t seem to really matter and isn’t why you’re getting together anyway.  Follow the hosts lead on quantity and pace and understand that every beer you drink they probably had to haul back to their boat in a backpack from the grocery store two miles away.  So in many ways offering you beverages and snacks is quite generous, so don’t abuse it.  If there are enough days before one or the other departs, reciprocity is good form.  You are basically hanging out in someone else’s home so be respectful of their stuff and realize that their dirty underwear might be laying on their bed so you better not blush easily.  Everyone’s boat has that thing you probably shouldn’t grab onto or shouldn’t step on, so tread lightly it’s different for each boat.  When talking avoid things  like religion, anchor choices or what you used to do; since we are all cruisers now and that’s what counts.  Finally, remember that the people you are spending time with very well may be the same people you are calling in an emergency out on the ocean one day; and you hope to leave a good enough impression that they will come to your aid.

Avalon Harbor - Nice place for a Sundowner

That’s my impressions of Sundowners at this time.  It’s a custom more people should propagate in the “real” world.  The number of people you cross paths with over and over again is incredible.   You never know who you’ll run into next, who they know and where you’ll meet again.  Then the next day one or the other of you depart and someone new drops their anchor next to you, and it starts all over again.

 

That's Buffalo S%*T

10-5-12 - Catalina Island, Catalina Harbor - Day 95

We came to Catalina Island with grand anticipations of experiencing many things, not the least of which was the buffalo experience.  Apparently there is a herd of buffalo on the island that are frequently viewed.  Additionally, in a little tourist guide to Two Harbors, the harbor we are currently floating around in, they talk about the delicious buffalo milk.  Now this got Elizabeth excited.  As a milk professional the chance to taste genuine buffalo  milk sounded quite unique. 

That's Buffalo S%*T

After our first day here we decided it was time to venture into the wilderness and search for these elusive buffalo, maybe milk one and try some of that buffalo milk.  Ok so we had no intention of milking the buffalo, if we found them.  We did take a nice long hike that took us to one of the many mountain tops of the island where we could look all around and see the Pacific on both sides of the island.  We looked and looked but never got a glimpse of the buffalo.  We have encountered many piles of poop that look suspiciously like they came from a buffalo.  Not being a buffalo expert I'm not exactly sure what they eat, and not being particularly interested in "investigating" their poop I'm just going to go with my theory and assume it's correct.

  They claim that the buffalo were brought to the island many years ago for the filming of a movie.  I'm pretty sure they also brought a bunch of fake buffalo poop and scattered it around the island on the trails and such so that there would be good story to tell tourists.  What a great way to get tourists to the island.  Who wants to go all the way to Yellowstone and be cold when you could just power over to Catalina Island and check out the buffalo in your flip flops? 

On to the buffalo milk.  After trying the little grocery store where they looked at us like we were crazy, and not being able to wrangle up a wild buffalo for the milking, we settled on trying some at dinner during our "nice night out" excursion.  The "nice night out" idea could be a whole paragraph in its own.  Needless to say for us to take a shower (by shower I mean hot water out of a bag in the coach roof with the outlet dangled thru the bathroom hatch) put on fancy clothes (meaning one of the two button down shirts I have, Elizabeth actually brought some nice sun dresses)  and dinghy into shore (I even gave Elizabeth a towel to sit on for the ride) then walk half a mile down a dirt road for a sit down dinner, that's what I mean when I say "nice night out"  Elizabeth ordered her buffalo milk and come to find out it was a total sham.  I was a foofoo drink of blended stuff with coconut and various liquors designed for underage girls.  It was delicious, but probably not from the elusive buffalo.  If it was; I will be buying a buffalo upon my return. 

Buffalo Milk...very suspicious.

We looked far and wide for them.
Catalina Harbor from our hike

So the verdict so far is that there are no buffalo on the island and this whole thing was just a scam to get tourists to the island.  We have been greatly disappointed so far but will keep looking for the elusive buffalo for the remainder of our stay.


Two Harbors (pre Buccaneer days)

I promise more pics...internet is veeeeery slllllllooooow right now.


In case you were wondering:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalina_Island_bison_herd