Mom

Sometimes, late at night, after I have watched the sun go down in brilliant colors over the nearest set of mountains, the first star comes out. It’s dusk. Twilight. And there is the lonely, first bright star of the evening.

I look at it and ask, “Mom, where are you and what do you need to tell me?” My next thought is that I can’t believe you’re gone. I still can’t believe that you no longer live on this earth with us. And then I wait for your answer.

Sometimes I understand what I need to know next. Sometimes she just laughs at my wonderings. But she’s always there with the first star that I see. Star light, Star bright.

I’m sad that she’s not so near that I can touch her. But I know she’s always there. Just a star’s touch away. Ready to guide me and answer my questions.

Why did you have to leave now? “Why not,” she answers. “It was my time and it was good.” But what about all those you left behind? “I’m still here,” she assures us. And I believe her.

She is still in our hearts. In our souls. In our beings. She is a part of us. She lives and breathes. She is here. And she is in the stars. She’s out there. She’s in here. I know it’s hard for all of us. But I also know that we have not lost her. She is us. She is here. She is love.

Isla Coronados – (26 06.7 N, 111 17.2 W) – April 24, 2009

The Name of the Sea

The body of water we’ve been spending all this time in has many different names. As large as it is, you would think it would have just one name like The Red Sea or the Gulf of Mexico. But it goes by many names. Most Cruisers refer to it as the Sea of Cortez (referring to Cortez the Spanish explorer) because that is what our navigation and travel guides refer to it as. Or you can say simply ‘The Sea’. The Mexicans who live here laugh at the name Sea of Cortez. They refer to it as the Gulf of California or Golfo de California. For them, it has never been anything else. For my part, I like to refer to things by the name that the people use who live there. I guess they should know best. On the other hand, John Steinbeck’s preference in his famous Log Book was to refer to it as the Sea of Cortez because he thought that sounded more interesting.

There are 900 islands in The Sea. That’s why it’s possible to go only half a mile and find another island with a peaceful cove that has a white sandy beach and a volcano. That is where we are now. On the Island of Coronados. It’s part of the Parque Nacional Bahía de Loreto. So is Isla Carmen, Danzante Island and others. There are about six other sail boats here in the bay and a handful of Mexican panga boats that bring 2-6 passengers each from Loreto for a 20 minute fast boat ride to enjoy the beautiful beach for the afternoon.

There are many endemic species here in The Sea. This is also a migratory ground for humpback whales, California gray whales, Killer Whales, Manta Rays, and the world’s largest animal, the Blue Whale. There are two groups of sea animals migrating here. The first is the group that likes colder water which is this time of year. The whale sharks, California gray whales, and the yellow tail is part of this group. For them to feed on, there is a multitude of krill swimming in the water at this time of year which cuts down on our visibility for diving. The second group will make it’s appearance when the water temperature warms up substantially in June and July. Biagio is looking forward to the second group migration for warmer water and dorado fishing which will be great. So far we’ve caught skip jack tuna, sierra, cod, scallops, and lobster.

Today, April 25, the temperature of the water is a cool and comfortable 73 degrees which is nice to cool off in the water with the air temperature being about 79 degrees in the afternoon. Later on in July and August, the air temperatures will begin to soar to an average temperature in July of 88 degrees, August - 88, September - 85 and October - 80. The result is that the water temperature will be in the 80’s most of the summer. Since it’s spring time, the sea gulls are mating and looking for twigs for their nests near the beach, and the manta rays and rays are also mating doing a dance that ends in the female turning over in the water with their two undersides together. Spring is definitely in the air. And the water.

Schedules

As for us, we need to take the boat out of the water for 2 ½ -3 months because the boat has a couple of blisters on the bottom. First it needs to dry out before a new bottom paint is applied. So that has set our schedule. Staying in The Sea for the summer would be bearable if we were in the water. With the boat being out of the water for such a long period of time, we need to leave the boat or become lizards. So that is the basis for our plans. We will haul the boat out of the water in San Carlos in June or July. The boat will then be ready to bottom paint in October before heading to more southern countries. At least that’s the plan for now. You know those jello plans…before you can even let someone know what you’ve got planned, they have already changed.

Photos: The white sandy beach bay on Isla Coronados near Loreto. It’s spring time in the desert so at a glance, it appears that not much is happening. But if you look closer, you see a profusion of very tiny flowers on most of the plants and cactus.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

 The Flowering Desert

Fish, Birthday and Shells – April, 2009

Cruising

I thought this definition of ‘cruising’ is very appropriate:

Cruising – A lifestyle that involves living for an extended period of time on a boat while traveling from place to place for pleasure. Cruising generally refers to a trip of a few days or more, and can extend to round-the-world voyages. Wikipedia 2008

Biagio’s monster sierra fish, Jill’s birthday, and shells that are so beautiful you just have to do something with them so I take photographs.

My Car On The Beach

Puerto Escondido, Baja, Mex – (25 49.2 N, 111 19.0 W) – April 8, 2009 – closest marina to Loreto

From Biagio…Puerto Escondido is one of the few hurricane holes in the Sea of Cortez which will protect boats when hurricanes or tropical storms come along. Boats return here year after year to this sheltered anchorage.

Majestic mountains surprisingly tower over us in a desert! While sitting in the cockpit, we can watch the beautiful mountains reflected in the water. This place has drawn me back for it’s great beauty and great memories.

There is another reason boaters come here. The end of the Sea of Cortez boating season will have a big party here for all the cruisers making their way back up the coast returning to the US. It’s called Loreto Fest at the beginning of May. So we’ll be off for a few weeks exploring up north and then return back here for the party.

Honeymoon Cove is just across the way. Only a 15 minute crossing with a beautiful bay that can hold only about 4 boats at a time each one nesting in one of its fingers. It’s not surprising that my crusing friends Terry and Lynn on Starform had talked about this anchorage many times. I missed this on my last trip here. On a typical sunny morning I climbed to the top of one of the hills to take in the beauty of the area.

Look at the photos below to get an idea of the surrounding views.

The Beautiful Surroundings

Why Go to Baja Mexico in the First Place?

Well, Biagio wanted to go here. That’s the main reason. He was here about 10 years ago and it was one of his favorite places that he had cruised in. ‘Why?’, I asked? All he could tell me was there was good diving there. Fine, I like to dive. But the diving has actually been disappointing. The whale sharks were very, very cool. That’s true. But as far as the beautiful reefs and fishes that I have seen in Belize and Cancun, well that just doesn’t exist here. The fish population has severely decreased in the last ten years in large part due to over fishing. And reefs all over the world are decreasing because of the warmer climate. So now that I’ve been here for about five months, would I come back? Absolutely!

The best part of this area of the world is the awesome scenery that we are living in. For me, it’s like someone took the Grand Canyon, filled it up with water and left the mountain ranges visible. Some seem to be painted orange, some red, some the color of gray rocks, and others have bold white bands of striations in them. Each one seems unique. How beautiful they are!!! Every day the beautiful surroundings amazes us. It is awesome!!!

There are four mountain ranges that cover the peninsula with the highest peak being 10,154 feet high. The length of San Diego to the tip of the Baja is twice the length of Florida or 100 miles longer than Italy. Its widest area is 120 miles wide. 65% of the land is desert. It has dozens of bays, lagoons, coves and inlets. This is what attracts the boaters. That plus the air is dry and pleasant like that of San Diego.

With 120 species of cactus to marvel at, the cardón cactus towers above all the other cactus and can grow an incredible height of 60 feet, has a root system of up to 150 feet wide and lives over 400 years old. In the States we have a much smaller cousin of the cardón cactus which is the saguaro cactus.

Here are some of my favorite images that I’ve collected along the way from LaPaz and on up the East coast of the Baja Peninsula which would be the distance of about 60 miles.

Evaristo Bay, Baja, Mex – (24 55.2 N, 110 43.4 W) – April 2, 2009

We made a quick trip to LaPaz for some fresh supplies and from there, it took about 5 hrs. to meet up with Michael & Liz again and some more new friends. When we got close enough to call using the VHF radio, they told us they were all in Evaristo Bay. So that is where we went. It’s a short walk from either side of the anchorages to a very, very small pueblo that has a small grocery store. There we found some hot dogs for the beach party later that night.

The winds can change rapidly here so you want to carefully pick which side of the very large, round rock you anchor on. When we arrived there was a south wind so we anchored on the north side protected by the rock. During the night of the second day, the wind changed to come from the north. When we got up the next morning, everyone had already left because of the uncomfortable swells causing ‘rocking and rolling’. So we headed across to a nearby island where we would have a north wind shelter. It was about a 2 hr. motor.

The following morning after that, it was off to El Gato which was a 3 hour motor. El Gato has a beautiful little bay with red sand stone hills. There was also an opportunity to take a long walk in the desert among the beautiful cactus and plants.

Agua Verde was next. To get there, it was a very beautiful motor with unbelievable grand canyon-like scenery. Very large rocks protruded from the sea along the way. At Agua Verde we were able to kayak and meet up with some friends from California. Interestingly enough, we were at their bon voyage party when we came down the coast and now we were with them again in this little bay.

Photos: Beautiful red sand stone hills surround one side of the anchorage, Church in Agua Verde, views along the way, a hot dog get together on the beach complete with sa’mores, walking into town, the grocery store, losing some more fishing lures

Isla San Francisco, Baja, Mex – (24 51.9 N, 110 34.0 W) - March 19, 2009

From Biagio…I finally harvested seafood and it wasn’t from the fish market. San Jose and San Francisco are two small, almost connected islands. It’s rare to find an estuary in the Sea of Cortez where there’s abundant clams that have a symbiotic relationship with lobsters. Between Isla San Jose and Isla San Francisco I found just that. I’m not sure how lobster eggs get into the clams, but when you open up the clams, you sometimes find a miniature lobster living inside. Gathering clams and finding lobsters in San Jose was very easy. It took only an afternoon to get enough clams and lobster for a delicious meal of lobster and ceviche.

Also interesting in San Jose are the salt flats. There are long sandy flats just behind the beach where salt is harvested. There is old rusted machinery and abandoned houses here so it has an eerie charm to it. On other islands the salt flats are still in use and harvested. But for some reason, these flats seem to have been abandoned.

Photos: Isla San Carlos and area. Fish lips is the skeleton of the eternally smiling puffer fish.

Partida Cove again & Los Islotes - March 16, 2009

From Biagio…After Partida Cove, we decided to anchor the boat a little further north to be closer to a dive site called ‘the Rookery’. The dive site consists of two large rocks located just out from Isla Partida called Sea Island Rock and Los Islotes.

The waves were calm and the wind had died down in the new anchorage. We raced off in the dinghy to do our second dive of the cruising trip. Our dive equipment was fine, water waves not too rough in the dinghy to get there, calm wind…everything OK.

Our diving adventure was anything but boring. Not because of the aggressive seals that come right up to you and at the last second spin away. Nor from the way the seals nip at your flippers. The adventure came from forgetting to use our better safety judgment.

Once in the water, we descended to about 20 ft. Visibility was not the best. We were searching for the underwater arch that would take us closer to where the seals are. After following the curvature of the rock for a few minutes, I noticed the scenery was going by too quickly. This meant that we were speeding along much faster than we were swimming. In our hurry to get out to the dive site, we forgot to check the tides. We were slowly being swept away from the rock and out to the sea. The surge in the Sea can be very, very strong at most times of the day so it’s important to see when the tides are the strongest before you even think of diving. Especially when you’re going around a very large rock with only sea on the other side. I gave the signal to Jill to surface and my concern was confirmed when we saw how far away the dinghy was. It was very important for us not to panic. I knew we were in a dangerous situation. Staying calm and swimming back to the dinghy was our only hope. So we swam, and swam, and swam, both staying calm while we casually pedaled backwards, both of us acting as if nothing was wrong. Jill later told me she was staying calm to put the idea of floating out to sea out of her mind. We made it back to the dinghy safe and sound. But it sure taught me a lesson. Now I will always check the tides before diving.

Photos: The Rookery where we dove with the seals, It’ll be sushi tonight! Biagio caught 3 tuna and kept the biggest one, about 5 pounds, which was enough for 3 sushi meals.

Maps

A Few More Photos of our Time In LaPaz

The Bike Friday group in front of our favorite hamburger hangout a block from the marina, game night on Gem, Marina de La Paz, a little alter across from the Marina on the Magote sand strip, peeling cactus, making sushi (ok, ok, we bought the fish), leaves at the Walmart grocery store