Sea Days, and Turtle Bay

Friday

So...Thursday was not such a fun day for me, due to the sea sick thing... but by Friday, I was golden! It was a beautiful day, we had such a nice time out at sea. The only bummer for us that day, was that we didn't get a glimpse of a single dolphin or whale. Neil says it was probably due to the fact that we were out in the middle of nowhere, and our depth was, at times, just under 8000 feet deep. At any rate, it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, and the wind picked up pretty good around noon, and we were able to sail the rest of the day, until late evening. We traveled at about 5-6 knots most of the way.

I look goofy, I know, but I hate losing my hats to the sea, AND I really hate those ties on my throat, so I wear them on my chin.

For dinner, I made those fish tacos I had mentioned before, and boy, were they good, worth the wait! We did four hour watches the whole trip over, (with the exception of that first day, when I was useless, as afore mentioned) Neil did the 8 am to noon, and the 4 pm to 8 pm, and the midnight to 4 am watches. I did the 4am to 8 am, noon to 4 pm, and then the 8 - midnight watches. If only I had a camera that took really great night photos, I would show you the BEST night of star gazing ever!

Saturday

They say, sailing is days and days of peaceful boredom, followed my moments of sheer terror!...today, would turn out to be....just one of those days! LOL

It started out with Neil waking up for his 8 am watch. Soon after he took over, after I made us breakfast, I looked out behind him, where we were towing our dinghy, and shouted "Hey, our dinghy is completely deflated!!" We couldn't believe our eyes! It was hard to see, but it looked like there might be a small hole or punture on the starboard stern pontoon. We of course had to wait until we would arrive in Turtle Bay to examine it further.

Around 4 pm, all of a sudden, I started to smell diesel off the starboard side, and just moments later, the engine stalled, then died entirely. This had happened once before on a trip with our sister and brother in law, and friends a few years back, so Neil went straight to what he thought the problem could be, the intake. Sure enough, when he looked inside, there was plenty of seaweed to make a salad, however, not enough that it was causing the engine to choke.  So, he checked the fuel filter, and though it looked fairly clean, he decided to clean it out, just in case (and since we forgot to pick up a spare, before we left) Once Neil put everything back together, he turned the engine over, and it worked!  It worked for about 30 minutes, then totally died again.  Well, this left us with no other choice but to sail in to Turtle Bay, which would normally be fine and dandy, after all, we live on a “sail” boat.  BUT…the predicament we found ourselves in, was that we still had, at that time, 15 miles to travel, and it was now 5:00 pm.  In sailing terms, that’s roughly another 3-4 hours of sailing, before we reached our destination…AND…we would have to anchor in the dark, without a motor to help set the hook. 

We had no other choice, we set sail, and thank goodness there was wind, and made our way for the bay.  Fortunately, before the engine took a dive, we could see the mouth of the bay, so we had somewhat of an idea where to enter, plus we had our trusty new GPS unit.

What felt like a very LONG almost three hours later, we arrived at the mouth of the bay.  It was a bit tricky at night, because the lights from town, and other boats, really make seeing in the dark, very difficult, and our nerves were a little on edge anyway.  We had a shoal that we knew we had to watch out for, and was marked on the GPS, but it still is pretty scary to be looking at it in person, not really knowing if you’re going to miss it or not, for the blackness of the night.  We also had the issue of needing to set an anchor, under sail/not motor, which we had never done before.  Neil decided the best thing to do, once we decided on a location to anchor, was to haul in the jib sail, then point the boat directly into the wind, drop the anchor, then immediately drop the main sail, hoping the wind and current would pull the boat back enough to set the anchor.

It worked like a charm!  My husband has always been a pretty smart fellow, but wow!  He was my HERO!  I was really terrified to do all this stuff in the dark, and he totally saved the day!



That’s it for Saturday.  After setting the anchor, we came inside, tried calling the kids on skype (to no avail L) then headed to bed.  We were both exhausted, especially since we both were feeling a little under the weather, that day (which I forgot to mention before)



Halleluiah we made it!!



Sunday

This is what we found ourselves in, when we woke up to see the daylight this morning…

  LOL  Lucky for us, our engine wouldn’t turn on anyway, so no fear of picking any up in the intake again. J  Now that we were pro’s at this thing, we just hoisted the sails once again, and headed to the actual anchorage area of the bay.  We set anchor once again, and VOILA! Here we are, safe and sound.  We then had to see, up close, what had happened to our beloved “Plan B” (our dinghy) You wouldn’t believe it, if you didn’t see it, so we included the evidence…but, lo and behold, when we hoisted that girl out of the water, sure enough, the starboard stern pontoon, had been plum eaten by a shark!!  Well, at least he/she took a nice big bite out of her! Notice the lovely triangular teeth marks in the rubber?? 

Yep, all I can say is…it’s a good thing we weren’t actually IN the dinghy!  Just kidding though, we wouldn’t really be in the dinghy in open water anyway, it’s just our little putt putt to get us around when we’re in safe harbors…well, at least is WAS. L  We took the rest of the day off, as a day of rest and recuperation, and had a very lovely time just enjoying the beautiful weather, and scenery.  Tomorrow we head into town on “Last Resort” (our kayak) to see about getting a new fuel filter, and possibly an idea about whether or not “Plan B” can even be repaired??  Wish us luck!

Dolphins playing in the bay this morning.

the bay, in it's entirety is about 9 miles in circumference.

TOTALLY RANDOM ALERT!
I planted my own herb garden. Meet Rosemary, Thyme, and Basil :)

Ensenada day 2, & On the Road Again...

 We had just a few thing to do today, before leaving for Turtle Bay (approx 275 miles) We needed to baton everything down again, then head into town for just a couple of things.  One, we wanted to try to find some sort of wifi hot spot connector, for our USB internet.  We both have a Nook, and want to be able to download books while we’re gone, so that was stop number one.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have the connecter piece, but, we did learn, however, that we can get a wifi hotspot internet thru a different company than TelCel, which is the main cellular/internet company out here.  The other company, which seems to be brand new is called Moviestar, and although they do have the hotspot device we’re looking for, and you get more G’s per month, they don’t seem to have as much coverage.  We’re going to wait until we get to La Paz, before we make the switch, to be sure, they cover that area.

TelCel, banda ancha, is what you need to get internet here in Mexico, and it runs you around $37.95 per month or per 3G, whichever comes first.  Moviestar, the other company, is 4G per month, and runs you around $39.95 per month. So, definitely worth the switch, if it works out that their coverage is as good as TelCel.  And since it’s only “pay as you go” for us gringos…lol….it doesn’t cost anything to switch.

Next, we went to the local fish market, which is always fun.  We picked up a couple filets of halibut, and tilapia, then picked up a kilo (2.5 lbs.) of jumbo shrimp…all for the lovely price of $170.00 pesos!  (that’s $13.78 in American dollars!)   Not bad for being on a tight budget huh?  So, with fish/shrimp in hand we made our way back to the docks, to get ready to get back out on the seas, and make fish tacos on the barbi! 

Unfortunately, fate had another plan for me…SEASICK, SEASICK, SEASICK!!!!  Ugh!  The worst I’ve ever had.  It started out so well too, we got underway around 12:30 in the afternoon, and we had some nice wind, which made for kind of rough seas. I was doing pretty well actually, for the first couple of hours, but then by around 3:00, I noticed I was started to get “that old familiar feeling”…lol…and next thing you know…by 3:30, I was in bed, totally USELESS to my poor husband!  He was such a sweetie though, and told me not to worry about it, that it was normal for the first time being “out there”  I pretty much stayed in bed most of the day, after that, so…NO FISH TACOS for us L  I was finally able to take a watch at 11:30 pm, and stayed up until 4 am, so Neil could sleep.  I also, was finally able to eat a little something, which seemed to help quite a bit.  The stars were soooo bright, and there were millions of them.  I couldn’t believe how clear the night was?  I saw, at least, 12 shooting stars, and 1 really cool meteor looking thing.  It was a bright orange ball, with a tail, then as it entered our atmosphere, it disintegrated.  It was really beautiful.  We also, got to see several whales yesterday, (when I was able to get up for a few minutes) they were off the bow, and the port bow side of us, maybe around 200 yards away.  They were swimming, and spouting all over the place.  I got a video, and hopefully I can figure out how to put it on here…that is my goal.  That’s pretty much it for our exciting first real “sea day.” We plan to make it to Turtle Bay around Sunday, sometime.  Have a great day everyone! 

The Journey Begins...

The Baja Ha Ha, is an annual rally for people who want to make the big jump into cruising the seas of Mexico.  Hundreds of boats take off from San Diego, and head to Cabo San Lucas, where they will then part ways according to their cruising pleasure.  This year, the 18^th annual Ha Ha, left on Monday morning about 10 am. 

It was a very foggy day.

134 boats in the distance, headed for Turtle Bay

We were scheduled to leave the same day, but due to just a couple of electrical issues, were delayed by a day.  Not such a bad thing though, we wanted to be able to take our time, and go at our own pace.  So, as planned, we left early Tuesday morning, about 4:00 am and headed for Ensenada, which would be our first stop. We arrived in Ensenada around 4:30 pm Tuesday, so we made pretty good time, traveling about an average of 6-7 knots the whole way.  We decided to try another marina, one closer to town, as we usually stay at the Hotel Coral, which is about 6 miles (by land) north of town.  This was a great idea!  We were able to get to the things we needed much easier, since we had no vehicle. 

The first stop we made, was to the marina office, where we met the most amazing, cruiser/passenger liaisons, for the marina.  His name was Jonathan, and he was awesome!  He took us to the Mexican Immigration and Customs office, personally, to help us check in to the country.  Because Jonathan was with us, they really hurried us right along.   We were able to get our visa’s, and boat paperwork done all in about 2 hours, (which, I’ve heard, is usually an all day process) The cost for checking in, (all total) was exactly $110.00 (American money) Not as bad as we thought it was going to be.  Of course, it depends on the size boat you have as well.  Ours is a 36 ft. sailboat, about 11 tons, this will give you at least some kind of gauge as to what you can expect, if you too, are planning to make a trip south.  

Once the paperwork was finished, Jonathan even taxi’d us around (no charge) to get some other things done, like getting internet!  This was Mui importante!!!!  We aren’t going to make it out here if we can’t keep in touch with our families! We also, needed to get diesel for the boat, which, by the way, was only about $3.29 per gallon, in Ensenada, vs. $5.69 in San Diego!  So, if you can wait to fill up in Mexico, I would highly recommend it!  We then had some lunch at one of our favorite taco stands, YUMMY!

That night we had dinner at this great little Italian pizza joint (thanks to some fellow cruisers, for the recommendation) It was called Alfonzo’s Pizza, and believe it or not….it was REALLY GOOD! 

After that, we went back to the boat, so we could Skype with our family. I can’t think of a better way to end the day!

chillin' while underway

                                      

the open water

 

This was the view from the Cruisport Marina, in downtown

This little inlet, would completely empty out, when the tide went out! Totally dry land...crazy!

Lots To Do

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to write, we’ve had so much going on that it made it near impossible to find time.  This post will be in attempt to catch you up.  So, as promised, I was going to show you some photos of the boat being put back together, I’m still going to do that, but I thought you might like to take a look at what it was like during this past two weeks being in utter chaos!  LOL

John, from Murphy's Canvas, starting to work on putting up the dodger

Our Mechanic, Mike from Southern Cross Marine, looking peeved, (but really not) at getting his photo taken

Marshall, the owner of Murphy's Canvas, looking fly!

Marshall, measuring canvas for the Main sail cover

The "sweat shop" where the magic happens

                                     

Neil, getting down and dirty...for real...in the lazarette (locker) where our holding tank is located.  We had a nasty leak...and that aint no lie! Poor Neil, it was a dirty job!  Mike Rowe, from Dirty Jobs would'a even HATED this one!

Found the culprit to the holding tank drama. A great big hole!!

Not that you really wanted to see it in detail, but here's a closer look....YUCK!

All better!!  Brand new tank, and my hubby did this all by himself!

Dodger being unveiled!

All finished!!  The guys at Murphy's Canvas totally outdid themselves, they did an outstanding job! Totally went ABOVE AND BEYOND!  We highly recommend them if you're ever in need of canvas work...Thanks guys!!

                              

Now that the Liahona is once again, in ship shape, we can finally be ready to be on our way. 

We had two more very important things to do before we left, and that was to drive to Victorville (in a car we had to rent, because our vehicles sold much quicker than we realized they would) and attend our grandson Alex’s 5^th birthday party!!....and our “Bon Voyage” party, our wonderful children planned for us.  It was so nice, Alex’s birthday party was a hit, and our party was super fun too.  So many of you came to our going away party, and we’d like to publicly thank each of you, for taking the time to come out and say good-bye. Especially to our cousin’s Marcia and JoAnne for coming all the way from Utah to spend just a little more time with us, we love you all!!  Here are some pictures of the party.

Once all the parties were done, it was time to leave. L and say goodbye to our kids, and the grandbabies.  This was hard to do, leaving behind the ones we love so much is so hard!  Thank heavens for the internet, and SKYPE!!!  LOL 

It had been a crazy, chaotic, and emotional couple of weeks, but now our journey BEGINS!