OK! Now what?

OK! Now what?

I set out to circumnavigate. That is not going to happen, so now what?

Assuming that Judy wants me to come home, there is one big problem facing me. What to do with Laelia. The obvious solution is to turn around and sail back the way I came. There is a problem with that. The trip here was mostly down wind. Although it had its rough spots, it was not a terribly difficult ocean passage. Going back, Laelia would be going upwind – not her best point of sail. At one point on the trip down here, I attempted to turn around. I spent four days bashing into oncoming wind and waves – very rough! It is the kind of sailing that causes equipment to fail and boat parts to break. On top of that, in a rough sea, the best Laelia can do is to sail about 70 degrees off the wind. If the wind is coming from the direction I want to go (which it would be most of the time), I would have to sail almost three miles for every mile that I made good toward my destination. From Cabo to San Diego is a little over 800 miles. I would be tacking back and forth for 2400 miles, getting beaten up by oncoming wind and waves. If I want to bring Laelia back to San Francisco Bay, add another 1500 miles of sailing. In my mind, this is not really an option. The cost in physical effort and broken equipment would be greater than I am willing or able to deal with.

However, there are occasions when the wind shifts and blows from the south. It happens during the Winter. The winds are light but from the right direction. It also happens in the Fall when tropical depressions and hurricanes form in the Gulf of Tehauntapec and move north. They normally turn and head off to the west into the Pacific before they get to Baja – but there have been notable exceptions. As they move, they generate some strong south to southwesterly winds. Assuming that I didn’t get unlucky and get caught up in one of these exceptions, I could ride the fringe winds northward. Of course, it is not certain that this will happen. Remember the 800+ miles to be sailed. Under the best of circumstances, it is seven or eight round-the-clock sailing days to make the trip. It is not likely that the winds from a given storm would last long enough to cover the full distance. The schedule for a trip using this strategy would be unpredictable and probably would not allow a start in the next few months - but it is possible.

That leaves “The Clipper Route.” This means sailing mostly downwind from Baja, mostly toward Hawaii until the winds curve around and allow me to sail north without the wind coming from straight ahead. It might even be best to sail to Hawaii, rest and recuperate, then sail Hawaii to San Francisco Bay. Baja to Hawaii would take about 25 days. Hawaii to San Francisco would require another 35 days. Let’s call it three months from start to finish. If I left in mid-May when my new sails are ready, I would get home mid-August. It is possible.

The fourth option would be to sell Laelia here in La Paz. I have talked to a broker about this. Obviously, he wants the business and paints a fairly rosy picture. I can’t actually sell Laelia here. The broker arranges an off-shore transaction which means that the boat is not sold In Mexico or in the USA. It means that sales taxes on either end would be avoided. Knowledgeable buyers are interested in La Paz boats because they have been sailed down here. They are out fitted with serious cruising equipment and are, on the whole, much better equipped than the average boat sold in San Francisco or San Diego. The down side is that it is not likely that the sale would happen in a short time. Buyers want to be pretty sure of what they are getting into before they spend the money to come to La Paz, look at the boat and have it surveyed. Laelia has to have a home during that time. Slip rentals are about 50% higher here for non-live aboard slips - $600 to $700 per month for a Laelia-sized boat. If it takes a year to sell (not unusual) I will have spent $7000 on slip rental. Not an attractive proposition. So far, this appears to be the best option - but I'm still looking.

There is one other option – move the boat to San Carlos (across the Sea of Cortez from here), have it put on a truck and shipped to the desired location. I’ve heard estimates of $6000 to $7000 for that. Given the state of my bank account at the moment, this is not really an options.

So, gentle reader, that’s the situation. Those are some possible answers. Perhaps you have another. Don’t be shy – email me at SailorRalph365@gmail.com. I will give serious consideration to all but the wildest ideas.

Of course, there is the possibility that Judy will decide that I have abused her love and trust beyond repair. I wouldn’t blame her. In that case, I would probably keep Laelia for now, apply for an extended Mexican visa and live aboard here in Baja for some length of time. If I were to anchor out most of the time, my expenses would be minimal – the slip is the expensive part of living here.

But it would be incredibly lonely without MiLuv.

I hope it will not come to that.

 

Impressions of La Paz

As I related in the previous posting, one of my very first impressions of La Paz wasn’t all that good. Being stuck on a sandbar in the harbor does not do a lot to make me feel warmly disposed. However, that has fast dispelled. I will start with the cruiser scene since that’s what I saw first.

For starters – the weather here has been wonderful. It is a bit on the warm side and getting warmer but there is lots of sun, clear, sparking water and blue sky – much like Hawaii. It calls to me to relax, be happy. Moving back from the waterfront, it rapidly gets warmer and more arid looking. This is a desert even though it is surrounded by water.

I was fortunate to have my friends on Rocket Girl here to give me a few quick clues about the way things are here. For starters, there is the big party line in the sky. Most people monitor VHF channel 22A. It is used as a calling frequency with conversations held on other channels. A typical hook up on 22A starts out with something like “Wanderer, Wanderer. Laelia.” If Wanderer is listening he/she responds “Laelia. Wanderer. 65 and up.” That means that I should shift to channel 65 and call again. If that channel is in use, got to channel 66, etc. A certain amount of eavesdropping goes on – not that anyone would be silly enough to carry on an intimate conversation – but there is a lot of interesting activity in the harbor.

Mornings, except Sunday, there is a cruiser’s net (network) that meets on 22A – probably the only exception to using the channel for hailing. The net is run by someone on one of the boats here. It starts with asking for anyone with emergency, medical or priority traffic. This is when you jump in and ask for help with your salmonella, appendicitis, etc. Following that (not in this exact order) there is mail call – the local marinas and other common mail drops announce the mail they are holding. There is a swap and trade segment. Foreigners are not allowed to sell things in Mexico but there is a suspicious amount of trading going on for “coconuts.” There is a segment for people wanting rides or going someplace and willing to take passengers – another for help wanted/help needed. Another segment is for announcements about events of interest to the cruising fleet. The net wraps up with a call for general messages – anything that didn’t get handled so far.

Preceding the net, there is a discussion group meeting on another channel to hash over current events. The moderator reads off something that he probably pulled up on Google. People may make comments. The comments range from thoughtful and intelligent to clueless. Still, it tends to be interesting. Participants may also bring up any news item that they think may be of interest.

The community here in Marina de La Paz seems divided into two fairly distinct segments. There are the active cruisers and the long-term live-aboards. The long-term live-aboards tend to be older and somewhat cliquish. The cruisers are mostly here in the marina for a month or less to make repairs and get organized to move on. The cruisers tend to be more gregarious and quick to offer help.

Overall though, the atmosphere here in the marina is relaxed and friendly. I enjoy it.

But I didn’t come all this distance to live in the marina. My first expedition out was a simple walk down the Malecon (boardwalk). La Paz is justifiably proud of its Malecon. The water is clear and inviting. The beaches are white sand. There is a wide, undulating sidewalk behind a knee high wall separating the beach and the Malecon.

There are interesting statues ranging from a very new creation of a mirrored pearl in an open shell...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...to a mermaid hanging onto a dolphin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...to a very puzzling statue of a man wearing what looks like a small boat sideways at his waist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite this being the tourist section of a town that is a tourist destination, people on the Malecon are overwhelmingly Mexican in appearance. There is a small percentage of people (like me) who are obviously tourists enjoying the sights. People look relaxed, happy and prosperous middle class in appearance.

Oddly enough, even though the traffic is fairly heavy on the street paralleling the Malecon, there are no traffic lights. Some intersections have four way stop signs – some don’t. Despite that, traffic flows smoothly. I have heard only a two horns. One appeared to be friend honking at friend – light taps on the horns. The other was someone who obviously unhappy with another driver at a four way stop. The car doing the honking was coming from the marina street so he may well have been an impatient, rude Norteamericano.

The far side of the street is lined with shops, restaurant, hotels and other small businesses. A surprising number of the hotel-like structures appear to be unused. A fair number of the small shops are empty – some boarded up. It is an odd contrast of bustle and ruin.

There are sidewalk vendors and taxi drivers hanging about looking for business but for the most part they are fairly reserved by the standards of the run of the mill USA beach front. The only time I have been approached by one of the taxi drivers was when I was walking back to the boat after shopping. I was carrying a backpack full of food and a shopping bag with some more items. A simple “No, gracias” was all it took to discourage him.

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, I went grocery shopping for the first time. I decided to walk some of the streets a few blocks back from the Malecon. The first thing I noticed was that the city of La Paz seems to have put street signs at a low priority. Only about one out of four intersections have any sort of sign proclaiming the names of the streets.

 

 

 

I would have to say that sidewalks very much appear to be an afterthought. For the most part, they exist but they range from unpaved paths to narrow concrete slabs to elegant, wide, tile paved spaces.

The commercial and residential district are not rigidly separated in this section of town. A car repair shop stands on a corner flanked by residences. There are numerous vacant structures – maybe one out of five. Some appear to have been unused for quite some time. The structures are mostly concrete slab so they are not tumble-down – just unpainted and dilapidated looking.

When I reached one of the busier streets, the buildings were mostly shops with apartments and offices on the upper floors. Again, there were a surprising number of unoccupied shops and some entire buildings.

All along my walk I met people who smiled and greeted me. In front of many of the shops, a portion of the staff were standing and conversing with other shop keepers, by passers and friends. The overall impression was still one of friendly, happy people in no hurry.

The Super Mercado (super market) resembled the small grocery stores of the 50’s. It was not large – perhaps a quarter of the size of the average Safeway. The aisles were narrow. There was a surprisingly good selection of vegetables and fruits. Canned and bottled goods were similar to the ones we find in supermarkets but only one or two different brands of each item. The staff was friendly and tolerated my attempts at Spanish with smiles. It all worked out.

On my way home from the Super Mercado, I picked up a small, free English language newspaper that appears to be sponsored mostly by the local realtors who are selling to the gringo market. There was a long column bemoaning the fact that the big box stores are pushing out the smaller, family owned stores. Just off-hand, I know that Sam’s Club, WalMart and Costco are here along with Sears and Home Depot. An old, small store might have a limited selection of goods, but there were a lot of stores and a buyer could eventually find the desired item. This is being replaced by the big stores that have wide selections, well organized displays and fast service. Sounds a lot like small-town USA from the 70’s to now.

Overall, I would have to say that I like La Paz a lot. I might not want to be here later in the summer, but for now, the weather is wonderful. People are friendly, they smile a lot, they don’t appear to be in a big hurry. La Paz has the reputation of being the second safest city in the Americas. No drug wars are going on here. It is a tourist destination but not intensely so. When I got a few blocks back from the beach area, people appeared to be almost entirely Mexican. The stores looked like they catered to locals – not tourists.

I wonder what it would be like to live here a year – see the city through the seasons, improve my Spanish, get to know more of the residents. Who knows – it might be hard to return north after that.

Cabo to La Paz

I left Marina del Puerto Cabo feeling down and depressed. The forecast was for little or no wind for the next few days. I don’t have an autopilot so that means steering by hand all the time under power.

Despite that, my spirits rose once clear of the marina and out onto the Sea of Cortez. I was moving again, the air was warm and the scenery was quite arresting. Blue sky, blue water – CLEAR blue water. Looking over the rail, it felt like I could see down forever into the deep blue waters.

 

As I moved offshore, I watched the coastline drift by. There is a lot of development going on in the vicinity of San Jose del Cabo as you can see from the picture at the right. From the marina entrance until I rounded the first cape about 10 miles north, there was a steady procession of what appears to be new construction. I hope the Sea of Cortez can withstand the encroachment!

Once past the first cape, there were no other boats within 10 miles or so. I was a good five miles offshore. There were no more buildings lining the beach. Hmmm. Good time to work on my all-over tan. In short order I was motoring along dressed in just hat and sailing shoes. But only for about an hour. The Baja sun is pretty intense – especially on white, gringo skin that rarely sees the light of day. But what a freeing feeling it was for that hour.

The rest of the day was hot and uncomfortable. I was motoring at 5.5 knots and the wind was mostly from behind at about the same speed. That meant that much of the time I was feeling no breezes across the deck. The boredom was relieved briefly in the morning when I spotted what look like waves breaking against a rock directly ahead of me. I altered course to miss that spot – just in case. I was supposed to be in over 400’ of water. I soon realized that what I had seen was a whale surfacing just long enough to breathe and then diving. He/she did it again much closer to the boat. It was done all in one smooth motion – a bit of the head appeared and went back under followed by a LOT of back and finally his flukes came out of the water and disappeared again. He went by maybe 20 feet to port, well submerged. Comparing his length to the boat’s length, I would guess that he was over 20’ long. I saw him repeat the breathing process at about one minute intervals until he disappeared.

It was a welcome change to anchor in the bay at Los Frailes (the friars – priests, that is) and have the full five knot wind coming over the bow as Laelia’s anchor took hold in the sand bottom. Anchored in almost 30 feet of water, I could see the anchor on most of its trip to the bottom. Looking around, I was surrounded by sparkling waves, white sand beach and arid desert landscape. Gorgeous!

Los Frailes appears to be mostly deserted. There were a few houses, widely scattered, and a collection of campers who appeared to be fishermen of the tourist variety. One hailed me as I anchored and wanted to know if I had caught any fish. I’m guessing he hadn’t and was hoping to buy dinner.

After dark, it was dark – really dark. The moon did not rise until much later in the evening. With no man-made lights to compete, the stars put on a spectacular show. I could easily find my old friends – Ursa Major (big bear aka the big dipper), Polaris (the north star), Ursa Minor (little bear/dipper), Orion, Sirius – stealing the show by out shining all others, Betelgeuse and uncountable other. I woke up a few hours before dawn to find Venus low in the eastern sky looking as bright as an oncoming airliner.

After a relaxed breakfast, I got under way - 8:30ish. The leg from Los Frailes to Bahia de Los Muertos (Bay of the Dead) was a full eight hours of motoring with the wind dead behind me at boat speed all day. I put in another hour on my all-over tan in the morning before the sun got too intense, then cooked the rest of the day.

I say another whale – too far off for details and too quickly to get any pictures. Judging by how long it took from the time his head appeared until his flukes waved goodbye, he was a monster.

By the time I reached Bahia de Los Muertos, I was pretty miserable. I couldn’t stand the smell when I got downwind from myself. The logical thing to do was to jump overboard to cool off. Unfortunately, I don’t have a way to get back aboard the boat. The deck is a full three feet above the water and I have no boarding ladder. The next most logical solution was to empty out all the stuff I had been storing in the shower and actually take a shower. Radical concept! But I was desperate enough that it took only about five minutes to prepare the shower. It had been long enough since I used the shower that I forgot which knob was hot water and nearly scalded myself with water that was heated by the engine to just below boiling. Once I got that all straightened out, the shower – complete with shampooing my hair – was an unqualified blessing. The breeze that had been following me at 5 knots all day had risen to closer to 10 knots. Since I was securely anchored, I got the full benefit of all 10 knots.

I seized the opportunity to cut my hair. The 10 knot breeze meant that I could stand at the aft end of the cockpit cutting hair and it all blew overboard. No muss, no fuss. That added to my feeling of having shed a heavy mantle when I showered.

There were several homes and a restaurant on shore as well as a collection of fishermen similar to what I had seen in Los Frailes. There were five other boats anchored nearby. Judging by the total lack of activity on any of them, they must have been ashore – probably enjoying the restaurant. I was too tired to launch the dinghy and row in so, once again, I fixed dinner of canned stuff and crashed shortly after dark.

For the next day, I had the option of 10.5 hours of motoring and getting into La Paz as dusk was falling or settling for a mere 8 hours and anchoring at Puerto Ballandras abou 15 miles short of La Paz. I opted for the latter. Sailing into a strange port with darkness falling is not my idea of fun!

The days’ motoring was tolerable. There was a light breeze from abeam most of the day, moving around toward the bow as the day wore on. If I hadn’t had such a tight schedule and I could afford to sail into the night, I could have sailed for the last few hours.

Puerto Ballandras (at right) is a dent on the western side near the tip of the peninsula containing La Paz. It gave good shelter from the NW wind but there was enough swell that Laelia had fits of violent rolling durng the night. Looking out the next morning, I could see that the other boats were doing the same thing. I felt better. Misery loves company!

It is a curious thing – this phenomena of intermittent violent rolling. I could stand on deck and see no change in the wave pattern but every now and then, Laelia would start a slow oscillation from side to side that got bigger and bigger over a 5 – 10 second interval. The oscillation would build to a climax and then suddenly stop. No tapering off – it just stopped. The boats in the anchorage seemed to take turns doing this. I suspect that the rolling is influenced by boat hull shape, weight and rigging configuration.

I got under way a little before 9 AM, hoping to be tied up in the marina by noon. Fate decreed otherwise. The day did not go well after I cleared the bay. I had plotted out a course using software on my laptop. I downloaded the information to my hand-held GPS receiver. At the second waypoint after leaving Puerto Ballandras, my GPS device was telling me to steer a course that would shortly have me on the beach. Much head scratching and muttered cursing ensued. What I could see trumped what the otherwise infallible electronic device was telling me. After consulting my paper chart, I steered a course to stay a mile or so off the beach. The waypoint that was supposed to put me at the entrance to the channel leading into La Paz harbor appeared to be correct. I steered Laelia to that waypoint and looked for channel markers. Nothing! I kept motoring in what appeared to be the right direction and in short order I was aground. The good news was that the bottom was sand and mud – not rocks. Also, the wind had picked up and was creating little waves that would pick Laelia up far enough that she would move a few inches or a few feet.

Just after I hit bottom, I spotted a channel marker about ½ mile to port. I got Laelia pointed in that direction and kept the engine running at just short of normal cruise power. Over the next two hours, the channel marker drew closer at an excruciatingly slow pace. Finally, some compassionate soul in the marina on the other side of the channel came out in his dinghy to help me get free. I tied one of my jib sheets to my main halyard and he took that long line and motored out directly abeam to starboard and pulled as hard as he could. That made Laelia heel (tip) so her keel was not pointed straight down and she drew less water. After another five minutes of bumping along over the bottom, Laelia was floating free in the vicinity of the channel buoy. My Good Samaritan returned my line, waved goodbye and roared off toward his marina.

It took about 10 minutes to get to the vicinity of Marina de La Paz, My friends Dan and Dee Kent of Rocket Girl were at the marina and had told the marina that I would be there that day and wanted a slip. I motored into what appeared to be the entrance to the marina expecting to see a fuel dock or guest dock where I could tie up and go to the office to register. No such luck! The space inside was cramped and there was no obvious place for a guest to tie up. I backed up frantically until I was in position to go into an unoccupied slip. Several people appeared to help me tie up and informed me that the slip was taken and the owner was expected back soon. I gathered up my paperwork and trotted up to the office hoping to register.

Once in the office, a rather snippy young woman told me in no uncertain terms that I was NOT to do what I had done. I needed to get my boat out of there, anchor outside the marina and come back in my dinghy when they called me on the radio.

I did as I was commanded and anchored across the channel just outside the marina office. I untied the dinghy to be ready to launch when I was summoned, then collapsed into my bunk. It was only a little after noon and I was bushed!

A short time later, I got a call on the radio from Dan Kent. He had been to the office and talked to a different person than I had. She told him that I had been assigned to slip 217 and I could come bring Laelia in. Dan gave careful directions to come through the marina entrance and pass astern of the really good looking boat that was end tied just inside. Unfortunately, he had a different beautiful boat in mind than the one I looked at. I ended up entering a fairway that had a seawall on one side and boats side tied to the dock on the other. It looked doubtful that there was going to be enough room to turn around and because of the wind I couldn’t back up. I would have been pushed against the seawall in short order. Several concerned boat owners appeared on the dock wanting to protect their boats and, incidentally, to help me get turned around and out of there. There was one vacant tiedown. I put Laelia’s bow up against the dock in that tiedown and while the concerned boat owners held onto the bow, Laelia pivoted around her bow  with the wind pushing her stern on around with only inches to spare. The windvane lightly scraped against one of the pilings on the seawall but no damage was apparent.

Once turned around, it was a straight forward exercise to get the hell out of there. I motored past the beautiful boat I had spotted and saw another that I was pretty sure was the one Dan meant. It was. Getting into my slip and tied up was easy – once again aided by helpful, concerned boat owners. In the picture to the right, Laelia is the one with the American flag flying high. Just another marina, but also the end of a hard won leg of this adventure.

It took about half an hour to get registered. Dan and Dee (on the right in the photo) invited me to come on over to Rocket Girl when I was ready. I was presented with a welcoming handshake from Dan, a hug from Dee and a cold beer. Daniel and Heather (on the left in the picture) from Stormy Dawn – new acquaintances of Dan and Dee’s – joined us shortly. We laughed, drank more beer and ate Dee’s delicious chili as darkness fell. Shortly after darkness fell, so did I – right into my bunk. It had been a trying day but one that ended well. I was in La Paz at last.