Fish story

Some people have asked if we've been doing any fishing. Well, yes we have. People come here from all over the world for the fishing, and the marinas are loaded with big fishing boats. But they haven't been going out since we got here. "There's no fish here this time of year" we're told. I'm not sure what that means. We can still buy good cheap fish tacos, and the fish markets still have lots of fish for sale.
When we were in Marina San Jose (near Cabo san Lucas) at Christmas time I was talking with fishermen on vacation who were catching lots of fish. In fact, we met a particularly friendly young captain on our dock there who took an interest in us. We had been towing a "tuna rig" from a hand line on the way down with no success whatsoever. He determined that the line was too short and that our boat speed was too slow for the big plastic hoola skirt to be of any use. He checked out our saltwater rod and reel and said that this is what we should be using. He also gave us a couple of lures that would jiggle and dance even at our speed.
On our first trip out to the island a few weeks ago, I tossed the lure in behind us, let it run out for a hundred yards or so, and waited. It wasn't long before the reel went wizzzzzz which meant that a fish was taking the line. Oh Boy! I grabbed the rod, gave it a jerk and tried to feel what was going on at the other end of the line. There was definitely something there, pulling on the line with a fair amout of strength, but not jerking the line the way I remembered from using lightweight tackle in Minnesota years ago. So I started trying to wind it in. After a couple minutes, all of a sudden, there was nothing on the line anymore. Gone, just like that. I reeled in the line and found that our lure was still there, so back in it went.
About 15 minutes later, wizzzzzzz. I grabbed the pole and this time gave it a big jerk to try and set the hook and, sure enough, there was something on there again. And it was bigger than last time. I still couldn't feel tugging like when a small fish is on your line. Just this serious hard pull. This thing was taking a lot of line, so I tightened the drag as much as I thought the line could stand and then we began. I'd get to crank some line in, then it would drag some more off the reel. I'd get some in, and then lose it back. Finally, it felt like I was making more progress than I was losing. We kept looking behind the boat expecting to see this big thing leap out of the water, but no such luck. Still cranking, still loosing some. Then, after 30 minutes of fighting this thing, it was over. The fish was gone. It had gotten off the lure again. ##$@%^&&%$#**&*%.
Since then, I've caught a number of small - 6-8 inch - fish on the lightweight spinning rig which get thrown back in, and we've had the big rig in the water some more, but no more wizzzz.
We will keep trying.......... E

The Islands et al

Approaching Isla Espiritu Santo on a very calm morning. The sea is like a pond.













The Hunter 45' "Friendship" underway. What
a great boat to party on!!!













The Admiral doing a turn at the helm.













Check out the cacti growing out of this rock.










Yes, Maxine has been enjoying the Sea of Cortez
too.













Master and Commander (I'll probably
get into trouble for that one)










Sojourner at anchor.













Hanali at sunset. It was actually a lot
brighter than it looks.

As Good as it gets

It’s Friday AM, somewhere between 9:00 and 11:00. Sojourner is southbound having just left a magnificent anchorage where we spent last night with friends on two other boats. Sal & Gloria on the floating suburban home “Friendship”, and Mitch & Laura from “Hanali”, a boat very much like our own Bristol 32. The sea is flat, as blue as the sky, and there’s just enough wind to keep our sails full and to move us gently along our way at 3 knots – about the speed of a brisk walk – with about 15 miles to go to our marina. The windvane is steering so there’s nothing we have to do, Caudia is getting her dose of sun, I’m reclined at the helm in the shade of the sails just looking at the beautiful day and listening to the clear water gurgle by as I write. Life is good. This must be what we came here for; the same vision that likely prompted the many folks who “wished we could do that!” when told of our plan to make this trip. Wow! I just got a flash of how Jimmy Buffet might feel. You know people actually pay him to do things like this. To do things that they can’t, and go places that they can’t, and it helps them to imagine that they are there, doing them in some vicarious sort of way. Food for thought. For some reason, I’m just reminded of something that has needed to be said for some time. A very large thank you to those readers who have made comments to this blog. It is so helpful to get ideas of what you like to read about. Really, the writing is fairly easy. It’s figuring out what to write about that’s difficult. So please, just click on the word comments after any post and say a few words. Aside from the weather, which turns out to be almost perfect, we came here to the Sea of Cortez for what we hoped would be excellent sailing. And, we have recently experienced some of that as described above. About 12 – 15 miles up the coast from our marina are Isla Espiritu Santo and Isla Partida two islands that together offer about a dozen good/safe anchorages in their many inlets and small bays. We have made two three day trips up there recently and been largely rewarded for it. The sailing is like being on a large lake. No swells and no huge waves. We’ve had dead calm to motor in, an amazing afternoon doing 6 knots with wind on the beam, and everything in between. What a joy!! I’ll include here some pics from the islands, but again I apologize for my inability to get more into the lens. They are desert, volcanic, and richly colored. Also check out the many cacti, something we’re getting used to seeing but that still seems totally foreign. There are also many smaller islands and rocks and reefs in the area. We have been able to float the dinghy near and over reefs and see the fishes as in an aquarium. Really neat! And as always, the birds – pelicans especially – provide unlimited entertainment. I’ve tried and tried to get a couple pics of these ungainly creatures, and one day I’ll get one worthy of posting.
Some folks have asked us for what we plan this spring et al. So here it is. We will stay here in Marina Palmira , La Paz through February – carnival is the 19th thru 24th here. Then we plan to sail North into the Sea from one anchorage to another to visit some places we’ve heard about, taking our time to reach Guaymas and San Carlos by mid April where we’ll explore a bit before having Sojourner hauled out of the water and put up on land for the summer. We think we’ll take a bus from there to somewhere in Arizona where we’ll rent a car and make our way home to Grants Pass sometime mid May. E

La Paz pics

We arrived in La Paz hoping to find a slip in Marina de La Paz but that was not to be. Instead we found an opening in Marina Palmira. There are four marinas here but it is crowded! Our marina is beautiful & has all of the services you need. We are about 2-3 miles from the town of La Paz & take a shuttle when we need to. The first pic is Lucy the goose. She patrols the docks & waterways, a survivor of the 2003 hurricane. She lives in the marina & is fed by about everyone (even me). She talks to you & will come to you when you call her name (but you better have vegetables or bread in hand). We have met many new friends, some of which we sail to the island with (more on that later). It is beautiful here, some hot days, some windy days & some in between. We have been "getting the lay of the land" (that would be finding the grocery stores, best restaurants & bars & just checking things out) for the past few weeks. La Paz is the capitol of the Baja California Sur with over 190,000 in population. It is translated as "The Peace". C

Pics from rounding Cabo San Lucas

These are pics from the morning of December 23th as we came around Cabo San Lucas. We had left Santa Maria on December 21st & knew we were in for our last two overnights on the ocean. Since our last overnight was spent in nasty seas I had some trepidation about this trip but was much happier to be getting closer to our destination. When my last night watch was over on the 24th I went down below to sleep & awoke to the sun & San Lucas cape. These are pics of the eastern side of the cape with all of the hotels & homes. We had decided not to enter Cabo because of the extremely high cost (over $100.00 a night to use a mooring ball for one night) & head to Puerto Los Cabos instead. Many of the hotels/homes on the shore were painted bright colors like lime, yellow & rose. We did see quite a few buildings that appeared abandoned, some with sand washed into the first floor, probably the result of the 2003 hurricane. We also commented to each other that there weren't any people on the beaches of the hotels. Hard to tell if they were closed or people were not vacationing because of the economy. We arrived in Puerto Los Cabos (about 20 miles north of Cabo San Lucas) at about 10 am on the 23rd of December expecting to stay through Christmas but that was not to be. Once we finally were able to get on line we found that the weather was not going to cooperate & we had to leave Puerto Los Cabos ahead of big winds to get to La Paz or spend the next week in Puerto Los Cabos marina. The marina is man made & is quite large catering to very expensive yachts. It is not complete yet (the hand drawings of the completed project look pretty classy) with temporary buildings for just about everything. They did have their landscaping almost complete & I have never seen so many varieties of cacti. If they ever complete the project it will be a $200.00 per night marina. So, we left Puerto Los Cabos on December 25th at 5 am & were on our way to La Paz, finally!

A few glimpses

Here are a couple of street scenes from Turtle Bay or Bahia Tortuga. A very friendly and dusty little town where we spent two days resting on the way down the Baja coast.

This little palapa with the "Good Eats" was great. They did have good eats, and friendly owners. The day in this pic, we went there to get out of the light rain shower that was beginning, and we ended up staying for several hours. First coffee, then breakfast, then a couple beers, all the while getting a Spanish lesson from Carlo the owner. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you'll find Claudia and Maxine enjoying the view.

This is the view from Good Eats. It was really special, though not possible for this mere mortal to get into the camera.

Here's a shot of us underway somewhere between Turtle bay and Santa Maria. It was a fine sailing day following a dreadful night of laying hove to. Note Maxine enjoying the sun finally.

Here's a shot of us on a little hike at Santa Maria. It was taken by Gary from sv Dash, which stands for the dash between the dates on a tombstone. We travelled with this very interesting man and great travelling companion from Turtle Bay to Cabo San Lucas. Hopefully, by now he is at Matzatlan or further south. I'm sorry I don't have a decent pic of him to offer.

Well, that's about it for now. We're getting settled into La Paz and will get some pics and stories for you soon. E

A day in the life

My watch said 0430. A pair of roosters were doing their morning wake up call, which probably explains why I’m aware of the time. In my mind, the last two weeks are a blur, but I know that this day before Christmas is going to be a great one. I laid back down, secure in knowing that we were tied to a dock – the first one since Ensenada, what, two weeks ago? This Marina, Puerto San Jose, about 20 miles from Cabo San Lucas is grossly overpriced, but the shower last night – also the first since Ensenada – was almost worth it.
The first order of business today is to get online, Skype (phone) our daughters and write something interesting for this blog and check the weather. Then, we’ll take a taxi to town for groceries and find a nice place for dinner – I promised.
At 0900 I’ve been trying to get online for three hours, but nothing I do is working. (we found out later that we had been given a wrong password) Now I pack the laptop up to the Marina office, about a 15 minute fast walk, to see if they can help . They let me plug in to their modem, and joy to the world, the thing is working! I called the girls and left messages on both their phones, wrote a quick update to the blog so you folks wouldn’t worry, and handled our e-mail. On to the weather site. Uh Oh. “Honey, look at this. Unless we want to stay here for three or four more days, we’ll have to sail for La Paz tonight or early tomorrow in order to avoid a storm on Saturday.”
It’s now 1630 Christmas day, about 80 degrees, the sea is pretty calm, we’re motorsailing at about 5 knots with about 85 miles left to go. We sailed out of the marina at 0500 this AM and will reach La Paz sometime tomorrow, God willing. I ended up grilling hamburgers last night and Claudia is now making us some fine spaghetti with the extra ground beef. And so it goes. It just doesn’t get any better than this.
In the middle of dinner, the radar decides to stop working. Not good, as on this moonless night we will be threading our way between rugged coastline and volcanic islands with far reaching and shallow reefs. Oh Boy! As the charts, and therefore the GPS maps, date back to the 1800’s, this is a bit scary. Well, it was a night to forget. And so we will.
It is now late afternoon Friday the 26th. We’re tied up at Marina Palmira in La Paz with internet on board. Woo Hoo. Time to relax and get some rhythm back to our lives.