Tues. Dec. 6
Well, we did end up going into the marina last night, our friends decided to stay and stick it out, but by early this morning, we saw them coming. They said around 3-4 am it really started howling, and they wished they would have joined us. At any rate, we’ve all decided, that until we leave on Thursday, we’re going to be in the marina, because of the storm. The guide books we have mention not to stay at the anchorages in Cabo during Nov-Dec, especially with strong north blowing winds. It mentions that many boats end up lost at sea during these blows, and since we were in no hurry to have that happen, we definitely decided to bite the budget in the butt a bit, and get to safer ground. Also, we needed to fix our main sail today anyway, so this works out perfectly, because now we can do easier, since we’ll be nice and flat.
Bonnie and Kevin from “Kist” were so kind as to loan us their industrial sewing machine, so we could fix our sail. First, Neil removed the old, broken slugs/cars from the sail. He was fortunate enough to get some slugs from another sailboat in the marina, which is so amazing, because we’ve been unable to locate them from any of the marina stores here. Next, I had to snip the slug loops, and then run the new slugs through, and stitch them up. I thought it was going to be really hard, but believe it or not, I did it in about an hour. Yay! Then, after stitching the new slugs on, we pulled the sail out, and had to patch it. We found about a 4-5 inch tear along the top, outer part of the sail right along the clew. Luckily we had really nice and wide sail repair tape, and Kevin and Bonnie’s machine. We stitched it up, right on top of our deck, wish we had pictures to show you, but I totally forgot to have anyone take them during this process. It worked like a charm though, and yahoo…we gots a sail!!!
Now that our work was done, Neil told me I could go snorkeling with Teri and Ed over at Lover’s Beach, while he filled up the tanks with gas and water, etc. Cool! Teri, Ed, Colleen and I had a great time snorkeling, and we saw tons of fish.
Speaking of fish though, when we got back, three of the local fisherman, from the marina (they take people out for fishing trips) brought back some tuna from their day’s travels. They gave the fillets to the guy who paid them for the trip, but afterward, they gave us the belly of the fish. They cut it up for Neil and gave it to him to cook up, since he was a chef…they were so excited to see what he would do. He made the yummiest sauce with sesame oil, soy sauce, and raspberry chipotle. It was do DIE for! The fishermen loved it too, which Neil wasn’t sure they would, since it was so different from what they usually do to it…but they really did like it. Fun stuff!
Later in the day, the six of us got together and decided we’d go see a movie at the mall. We had no idea whether or not they would have them in English, but to our delight, they did. We ended up having some time before our movie was going to start, so we ended up having a little Chinese dinner at the food court. It was really delicious, actually. When we then went to get our tickets for the movie, we were shocked to see how cheap they were? It was only like $3.50 per ticket, and it was NOT a matinee. Wow! What a difference from the states huh? Even better news…the candy and goodies at the snack counter were even cheaper!!! Yep folks…a large popcorn was only 20 pesos, which is about $1.50 U.S. Tempted to move to Mexico now? Suffice it to say, we all had a great time just letting our hair down, and hanging out together. What a productive day!
Wed. Nov. 7
Preparing to leave day
Today we had a bit to do, but the first order of business was to go make some money. Yesterday we got suckered into going to a time share presentation for today. The guy just kept adding more and more incentives $$, and restaurant certificates….and pretty soon, we just couldn’t say no, but we were worried it was just going to be too good to be true…nope! We did have to endure 2 hours of time share information, we even let the salesman know, right at the start, that we had NO INTENTION of buying anything, but he just said “don’t worry, we get paid no matter what.” It ended up being a decent time, and the guy was really nice. No serious pressure, and sure enough, we got our $150 cash at the end, as well as a $200 gift certificate for a nice restaurant in town, and also a vacation for a week (when we return…lol) So, it was decided we’d take the gang out to dinner tonight!
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| Christmas tree of the Time Share Property |
Okay, after that, we went back to the boat, then headed out to the beach with the gang. We ended up at this very loud and much younger crowd kind of place and had some drinks, and watched a bunch of ridiculousness…lol. Actually though, Neil participated in the golf challenge, cause that was the only sort of civilized thing they offered…ha ha! After we got tired of that place, we walked over to a really fancy resort, and just walked through the beach entrance to their pools and swam and lounged. We were a little worried we might get asked what room we were in, but…it was worth it, and no one did. J
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| lounging by the pool we snuck into...LOL |
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| view from the pool |
After about an hour, we walked back to the marina, and cleaned up for our dinner date at La Ricazon. We decided to walk, which was fine, but we didn’t really know where we were going, but we had some help from the locals and found it. It was a cute little place, and the owner is from Tucson, AZ. The food was really good, and it was a great way to spend our last evening before splitting up with Dave and LeiAnn, as they were now going to be headed for the main land. On our way back, we walked past the fire station, and do you believe they actually had a Dalmatian dog?? They did! He was so cute too, what a kick!
It was a great last night in Cabo!
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| La Ricazon |
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| Teri & Ed from SeaMoore |
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| Dave & LeiAnn from Chrysalis...bon voyage guys...we'll miss you! |
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| Colleen from SeaMoore |
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| total nostalgia!! |
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| Cabo's lighted Christmas tree! |
Thurs Dec. 8
Headed for Los Frailes
We took off at around 7am, just behind “Sea Moore” The air was kind of cool, but not too bad, and the sun was just coming up anyway, so it looked like it was going to be a nice day. We only had about 45 miles to go today, which is nice. We will spend probably a day or two in Los Frailes before moving on to Bahia de los Muertos (Bay of the dead) Just about an hour after leaving Cabo’s sights, Neil and I were sitting out in the cock pit, enjoying the sun when off our port side, approximately 100 yards away, a giant bill fish of some kind starts jumping into the air, and doing all kinds of crazy flips and stuff! It was so cool!! I’d love to show you a picture of it, but unfortunately, by the time I realized I should grab the camera and take a video of it…he was gone. Boo! My bad!
It was a lovely day though, despite the wind coming right at us, forcing us to motor the whole way. We were at least able to have the sails up for a large portion of the morning, and that was nice.
We threw a hook out, hoping to catch dinner while we were passing Gordo’s Bank, but alas…no luck. We did finally catch a skip jack though, right before we entered Los Frailes, unfortunately not really the best tasting fish, so we threw it back. The waves did begin to increase in size by quite a bit in the late afternoon, but not too bad. Just about an hour before arriving, we saw several fish jumping off in front of us. They were jumping clean out of the water, then to the starboard bow, a huge bat ray, jumped into the air at least 8 feet, and literally was flapping it’s wings, and sailed through the air for at least 5 feet. It was awesome!
We ended arriving, safe and sound to Los Frailes around 4:30 pm. It was a great day at sea! Tomorrow will be a day of exploration, both land and sea. We can’t wait!
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| Goodbye Cabo! |
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| Los Frailes in his sights! |
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| A big one! |
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| "pre" sun set at Los Frailes |
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| Sunset in Los Frailes! |
Fri. Dec. 9
Los Frailes
We woke up kind of early, because we were so lame and went to bed at like 8 pm last night, but we got up and got ready for the day. We had plans with Teri and Ed, to do some snorkeling. Neil made breakfast, eggs and BACON! BACON!! It was so good, we never have bacon, what a treat! Once breakfast was cleaned up, we packed our gear for our snorkel trip, which would be the rocky area right in front of our boats, about 100 yards away. We got into the kayak, and headed over to Teri and Ed’s. They were going to swim to shore, so we went ahead and took off toward the beach. Once Teri and Ed made it, we all got into our wet suits (cause the water is a little chillier here than in Cabo) and jumped in. There were millions of fish! So many different varieties too, I really need to get an underwater camera, sorry about that, I’ll put that on my “to do” list when we get to La Paz. We snorkeled for about an hour and half. Afterwards, Teri was going to lay out in the sun, and Neil and I decided to take a walk, and check out the area. We walked along the beach for a bit, then headed up to where we could see those little thatched roof umbrellas, and some little shacks, and R.V.’s. There is serious poverty here, unless these little shacks are just for the fisherman? At any rate, very, very rustic. We walked further up, and saw in the distance a rock wall, and then a well, so we walked up to them. The well had water it in still, and the wall has a no trespassing sign on it, we think it was to section off the beach for private access??
We then found a pretty decent dirt road off to our right, just past all the R.V.’s, so we decided to walk some more, and find out what’s up there. We found a slew of high end, very mansion like homes, hidden from the beach view. We also found this really great piece of property, that said “Hotel Bahia de Los Frailes” although it looked to us, like it hadn’t been operational for years? It was beautiful though. The view to the boats was gorgeous from here too!
After walking back to the beach, we loaded up onto the kayak, and headed back to the boat for lunch, and a nap….well, Neil had a nap…lol. I’m writing the blog, and getting work done. Later in the day, we’re expecting to see David and LeiAnn come into the bay. They are stopping here on their way to Mazatlan. We’ll see if they try to tough it out, it’s pretty windy out in the open today again, pretty rough going for anyone, let alone for LeiAnn, who still suffers from seasickness something awful!
We might get together with Teri and Ed later, not sure yet what the plans are? I think today the only REAL plan we have, is to have NO plan!
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| just a couple of pics of our Christmas decor on the boat :) |
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| Los Frailes in the morning light |
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| Awwww...ain't that cute?...by the way, we had no idea our feet prints were going to be in the photo?? |
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| Ed & Teri swimming to shore |
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| they have landed |
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| hermit crab...and he was in there too! |
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| the shacks |
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| Their prayer alter |
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| fishing shacks?? |
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| The old closed down, hotel |
Sat. Dec 10th
Today we woke up slowly, then just sort of sat around on the boat for a bit, did some preparing to get ready to leave early tomorrow. Other than that, we really just laid around, reading and relaxing, and doing absolutely NOTHING! Instead of getting together with Teri and Ed last night, we all decided to do that tonight. We were going to get together on their boat for dinner. I made some masa to make flour tortillas. I never did have the chance to take my “final exam” for tortilla making in Turtle Bay, so here was my chance.
Just before we were planning to go over to Teri and Ed’s for dinner, Neil and I were sitting out on our deck, and all of a sudden the manta rays/Bat rays starting jumping and flying LIKE CRAZY!! It was amazing! I hurried down to grab the camera, hoping, that this time…I would be able to catch them in the act…and YIPPEE!! I did! We couldn’t believe how many rays were jumping? We watched them for over 30 minutes. It was incredible! We didn’t even know rays did that sort of thing??
At Teri and Ed’s, I got right to work on my final exam…lol, and I wouldn’t say I passed with an A, but more likely a C…the tortillas, although delicious, they weren’t perfectly round. I’d say they looked more like the states of the U.S. I had Texas, Utah, Oklahoma, and Neil was pretty sure I had a Florida in there somewhere too, arghh! I tried J
Teri had ground beef, and beans, and I brought the veggies to season the beef with, and to make pico de gallo, and guacamole. We also made rice. It was a good meal, and we had fun sharing the videos and photos of the rays jumping, as well.
We plan to leave early, early in the morning for Bahia de Los Muertos, so off to bed we go!
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| masa de arrina (flour masa) |
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| okay, not only did they look like some of the states of the U.S., but I overcooked them a little bit too...oops! |
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| Bat rays/Manta rays...not birds...we promise. Crazy huh?! |
Sun. Dec. 11th
We left, as scheduled at 4 am this morning. We were just behind “SeaMoore,” Teri and Ed’s boat. We planned to make it into Bahia de Los Muertos around 1-2 pm today, we’ll see how the wind and waves are.
So far the wind and waves were fine. No problems. We put out our fishing pole, with a cedar plug as bait, and waited. Around 11:30 am we got our first hit. Just and Neil grabbed the pole, the darn thing, whatever it was, was gone, dang it! Oh well, we waited some more, and around noon or so, I just decided to pull in the rig to see if maybe the previous hit, took our plug, but nope! Now when I was putting the bait back into the water, literally I had put out maybe 30 feet of line, when all of a sudden the line just started going! I couldn’t believe it? So, I reeled it in, and it was only a darn little skip jack tuna, which really aren’t the best eating, and he was pretty small. I threw him back, and we waited some more….around 12:30 a BIG HIT! Wow! Our line started going out, and out, and out! I hurried and grabbed the pole, and I could barely even begin to reel. Whatever it was, was really strong. Just then, Neil hollered out “Wow!, I just saw whatever it was jump out of the water!” It was too far away now though, to be able to tell what it was. So Neil told me just to slow down, and stop trying to reel him in, to just take it really slow, and tire him out. I did that, and after about 10 minutes or so, my arm was getting really, really tired. So Neil took over for me. I got a few shots. It took us nearly 25 minutes to get him reeled in close enough, to get prepared to haul him out. I had the gaff in hand, ready to go. Closer, closer, closer…the closer to the boat he got though, the deeper he would try to dive, but we were getting there. Then, I guess as soon as he could see a bit of daylight…that darn fish jumped right up in the air, not more than 30 feet away now. It was a BEAUTIFUL Dorado (Mahi Mahi) All his brightly colored yellow and blue self, jumped high in the air, and did a flip, he was MASSIVE! Then…dun, dun dunnnnn!...as he hit the water, that dang thing got himself free of the lure!!! Knocked himself right off of it! We stood there, totally stunned into silence for a second, we were dumbfounded!? We finally just looked at one another, then started laughing!! Wow!, that was a BIG FISH!! I actually don’t even know what we would have done, if we reeled him in? He might have been too big for us to handle trying to butcher right here on the boat?? I guess we’ll never know….BIG BUMMER!! Well, at least he didn’t break the line…we still had our lure, so back out it went!
Around 2 pm we arrived into Muertos, (never caught another fish, either L) The bay was filled with many other boats, as well, but there was still plenty of room for the two of ours. We anchored ours just right after SeaMoore, and right next to them, we actually ended up having to move our anchor a little, because we were just a little too close to them. Neil would never have slept LOL.
Once here, we just decided to sit tight for a bit, because we were planning on going over to the restaurant they have here, and having dinner with SeaMoore, and several other cruisers.
The restaurant was nice, very clean, and spacious. There were several of us cruisers there, and service was a little slow, and actually…truth be told…none of us really enjoyed the food much either…but, it was a nice place to sit and listen to other’s cruising stories.
After getting back to the boat, we thought we would try getting online, which didn’t work out too well…bummer. Then we just headed for bed. Tomorrow is a day of snorkeling, and exploration, then we head out (even earlier) around 2 am on Tuesday morning, for La Paz. We’re expecting it to take right around 14 hours or so, to get there. LA PAZ OR BUST!!
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| our Liahona, in all her glory. |
Mon. Dec. 12
Today we woke up and got started on our day, by sitting around and lounging. After doing about as much of that as we could stand, we went onto shore with the gang from Sea Moore, and decided to check out the giant, beautiful hotel tucked away in the west side of the bay. We actually asked permission to be there this time...tee hee! The manager of the hotel, showed us where the restaurant/swimming area was, for travelers such as ourselves, and we headed over, but not before taking notice of how absolutely beautiful the grounds were. The manger of the hotel was super sweet to let us ogle, and take photos. When we got to the restaurant/bar called Los Trenes (I think I spelled it right, it means trains) we were shocked at how HUGE it was, and just as beautiful. Also, living up to it's name, there were at least a dozen trains that lined the walls of the building, and many, many more, upstairs. It was completely open to the wonderful scenery, outside, as well. Just beautiful! We quickly ordered our little appetizers, and drinks, and got right to playing pool, and shuffleboard, and enjoying the facilities. The pool was just a bit too cool to get into, but wow, was it nice! We had a great time!!
We've decided to wait until 5 am to leave tomorrow, because we don't want to pass the island of Cerralvo in the dark. There are too many rocky shoals, and so forth, to try and maneuver as it is, let alone do it in the black of night. As for tonight though, we plan to BBQ the fish Ed and Teri were fortunate enough to actually LAND yesterday, on their boat...and just hang out for our last evening here in Muertos. Peace out!
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