Second Kirin email
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From: Barbara and Rick and Lyra.
SailKirin@aol.com SailKirin@aol.com
Sent: Monday, December 27, 1999
Well, the weather report predicted northerlies for Friday night and Saturday. When Saturday dawned still calm we decided to just go. Of course it took us a while, we didn’t get out of the mooring situation on Friday like I had hoped, and by the time we had pulled up our Fortress anchor, had led our danforth up to the bow to spin us around to face the channel, and were all ready to cast off the moorings, the wind came up. It wasn’t too bad though and we went on with our plan and in spite of some choppy seas, much like many we have already gone through, we had a good sail down to Los Muertos. We were in good company too, as Secret O’ Life was just in front of us and some other nice folks we met from Port Angeles were just behind us, along with Maluhia and several other boats most of the day. Marilyn and Greg, I don’t know their last name but firsts are Bill and Laurel. Boat name Lycka. She taught some computer classes at the library last winter. He is also in the computer biz.
We anchored after dark in the outer waters of the bay and spent a quiet wind-wise but rolly night trying to stay in our berths. This morning the wind picked up Bill on Lycka downloaded a weather fax. It didn’t look good for any of us. We re-anchored close in to shore. Eric and LeeAnn, we are right in front of the ruins ... yes that would be way close to the reef … yes I am nervous ... But the roll is MUCH less here, barely noticeable at all. We have a great view, and the wind is blowing such that we would pretty much miss the reef if we dragged all the way out to sea. Truth be told, there is probably a much smarter place to be than the lee shore we have been anchored on for the last month.
More news has come our way over the VHF. Winds are steady at 20 to 25 with higher gusts. One boat on their way here from Los Frailes reported gusts to 50 last night and waves to 25 feet. While I kind of doubt it was that bad, the Sea of Cortes and environs can really kick up a nasty swell/chop. We are glad to be snug in this beautiful little harbor with its stone ruins and fish camp. Who knows, maybe we can manage to get some fresh fish for dinner.
Monday morning. Winds lighter but reports from the Sea are still of steep choppy seas and winds clocking around to the Northeast. All boats are staying put. We have met some folks on a trimaran named Etok. They are from Olympia, West Bay and Henderson Inlet. Tom and Jane Long. Nice folks. They offered this morning to send a message to Olympia if we wanted, either directly to the e-mail address of our choice or by sending an email to one of their friends in Oly who would call someone for us. I wrote up a note for them to send to Jean so she could call Mom & Dad. Jean, they have a friend on board who used to work with Mike while we were building Kirin and remembers getting progress reports. It is a small world.
Life is pretty comfortable here so no complaints about getting "stuck" here. I just made my first attempt at baking brownies in my pressure cooker. I think they’re a little burnt on one side but it will take me a while to get the temperatures down since I don’t have any thermometer. Homemade Minestrone soup for dinner last night and French toast for breakfast. Terry came over this morning with a container of his homemade salsa so we’ll have that for lunch. Rick went for a swim this morning to free up the knot meter paddle on the bottom of the boat. It doesn’t take long in La Paz for some pretty tenacious stuff to grow. The water temperature here has dropped over ten degrees since we were here a month ago. Still, 68 degrees ain’t too bad. If Rick can stand it, it can’t be too cold! We may put the dinghy in for a trip to shore later. Terry ferried us in yesterday for a walk. It was nice to stretch our legs.
Wednesday, December 15: Dawn found us exactly halfway between Los Muertos and Isla Isabela. One hundred and fifty-seven miles from the nearest land in either direction. There are birds flying over the sea swell and I wonder at them being here, so far from land. And as I wonder about the how and why of them being here, I realize they might be wondering the same about us! The hows vary greatly from boat to boat but the whys are all much the same. Most of us have come to the sea to think and enforce a certain amount of introspection. And of course ... why did the sailboat cross the sea? To get to the other side!
The weather has been perfect. We set sail shortly after leaving the anchorage at Los Muertos and have only motored for a short period this morning, and that only to get out of the way of a freighter coming our way. Other than that it has been a beam reach, we finally found that beam reach, Eric, pretty much since yesterday morning. Isla Isabella is now about 86 miles ahead and we expect to see it first thing tomorrow morning. If that anchorage is too crowded, which we expect it will be, we will sail on another 40 miles to San Blas, arriving there shortly after sunset tomorrow night.
Even with the perfect weather, being at sea is not my favorite thing. Every move requires hanging on, bracing yourself. Cooking is difficult even on a gimbaled stove with holders for the pots. Last night a rogue wave tossed the boat and my spaghetti sauce while I was holding onto the pot of boiling water and spaghetti. Most of it landed on surfaces I can clean up and the boiling water didn’t land on me so all’s well that ends well. We ate spaghetti, but I was pretty tired after that!
Thursday, December 16th, I think? Anyway, Rick says it’s Thursday so I’ll go with that. Dawn this morning found us approaching Isla Isabella, the bird sanctuary island off the coast between Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. The wonderful wind gave out last night and we had been motoring since about 2230 that evening. The sunrise was beautiful but we had pretty much decided not to stop there but to go on to San Blas for a couple of days. A report from our friends on Lycka that the anchorage was crowded and that the bottom was not good for holding an anchor cinched our decision. We motored on the additional 40 miles to the quiet bay of Metanchen near the small town of San Blas. This is another place I stopped at last year and one which Rick and I drove to when we were in Mazatlan last year. It is odd to leave a place where the land is desert and the air is cool and dry one day, and to land a few days later in such green surroundings. The water and air are both much warmer here than they have been lately in La Paz. I took a shower on the foredeck today by scooping up buckets of seawater and dumping them over my head. It was quite warm. Rick dove in for a quick clean up after we dropped the hook here. This is one of the things I like best about warm weather cruising ... diving overboard into beautiful warm water. Our friend Terry commented that the sun today was about as high as it ever gets in Washington. And this is winter here. The sun is certainly much more intense than it has been on the Baja. I put on extra sunscreen today and had to put on a shirt and shorts just to keep the sun off.
I am still having a hard time remembering with all this sun and fun that this is Christmastime. Last night, as we motored along and Rick was taking his turn below getting some sleep, I looked up at all the stars and sang all the Christmas songs I could remember, just me and the stars. We came across another interesting Christmas reminder the other day in La Paz, too. One of the hotels had a big nativity scene set up complete with fishermen offering their catch to the holy family. The only thing missing was the baby Jesus. I thought this was kind of odd so I asked one of the workers where the baby was. Oh, I was told, he hasn’t been born yet. Not until the 24th. Well, of course ... I am looking forward to being home for Christmas. I wish there were more time between Christmas and New Years but such is life.
December 18th, again, I think! We have been anchored in Metanchen Bay for two nights and will leave tomorrow for Chacala, only 20 miles south of here. Our days here have been spent in company of our friends off the two other boats we’ve been traveling with, Lycka and Secret O’ Life. Friday we all had to go in to town to the Port Captain’s office to check in as foreign residents. As we are all planning to leave soon, we all checked out as well, meaning we plan to leave within approximately 48 hours. Then we explored the town.
A trip to town from the boat anchorage means a mile long dinghy ride to the beach, where the custom is to leave your boats in the "care" of Ismael, who owns the palapa restaurant with the green poles. Now there are about a dozen of these palapa restaurants along the beach but only one Ismael. Through him it is possible to order ice, leave garbage, and have your dinghy "watched" while you are in town, and all for the price of having a couple of beers before returning to your boat that afternoon. Having your dinghy "watched" only means it will most likely still be there when you return. It does not mean no small children will borrow it for a hiding place for hide and seek, or as a shelter in a sand fight, or that there won’t be someone’s shoes and towels draped over it when you get ready to leave. But this is Mexico and "es no problema..." And the beers are cold and he makes a mean pitcher of lemonade. And there is nothing like relaxing in a patio chair under the thatched roof shade of his palapa in the sand of the beach, looking out over the boats and the palm lined curving shoreline after a hard day’s work of hitching a ride into town and hunting down the right shrimp vendor.
After leaving our dinghy on Ismael’s beach, we walk up the cobble road to the village of Metanchen Bay. This is mostly a small cobble road lined with ramshackle buildings where families bake banana, pineapple, and coconut breads and cakes. Near the end of the village is a small estuary where several panga boats are parked waiting to take people on tours through the mangrove swamps to the natural springs near the foothills. We did this today, getting up early and dinghying in to the beach in the early morning mist. It was so misty that we missed Ismael’s by a few hundred yards and had to hang a left until we found his green poles. We caught the first boat into the "jungle" and had a great trip. Our guide slowed down and pointed out various types of birds and giant bee’s nests. One time he nudged the boat up under a tree and pointed up at the crook a few feet above our heads. We saw a beautiful bird and took a few photos before we saw what he was really trying to show us...a huge boa constrictor lazing in the sun! The trip in took about an hour and wound through deep mangroves and open "meadows" filled with twelve foot tall grasses and huge ferns and something that looked like cattails. At the very end we saw a crocodile. He lurks in the waters just next to the swimming hole at the springs ... of course! Our guide said he is a nice crocodile and that it is "no problema." In fact, they feed him by hand. At least we think that might be what he said. It might have been "we feed him hands ..." However, Laurel, Rick, and I went swimming and are happy to report that we came away with "all hands" ... sorry, that was bad!
Going to "town" usually means actually going in to the town of San Blas, which is about 3 miles from Metanchen Bay. One can either walk it, remember it’s 90 degrees and 90% humidity folks, catch the bus, what?! Eight pesos?, or hitch a ride with some nice local folks. We have used the hitching method for all four of our trips up and down this road. Anybody with room in their truck stops for you so it doesn’t take long to get a ride.
Today, coming back I was watching up ahead of our truck and wondering how it was going to work when the truck coming toward us, more or less in the opposite lane, but now veering to pass three cyclists on the road, there is NO shoulder, and our truck met. It looked to me as though we would all be at the same spot at about the same time. Just as I decided it was going to be close, a big old suburban passed us from behind and REALLY complicated the whole picture. Somehow, we all missed each other and not a horn was honked, nor fists raised in rage. Why should there be? This is ordinary driving in Mexico.
The first day in town we picked up some vegetables at the market and a small bag of shrimp. The shrimp are sold by street vendors from dishpans full of water in which a few ice cubes float. I was pretty sure we’d get sick, but since this seems to be the way shrimp are sold all over I wanted to try it. They were good and we were all fine; Lycka tried some, too. On one of our trips back to Metanchen bay from San Blas, we were picked up by a guy from Texas whose father is Mexican. His family has feed lots in San Antonio and has gotten into the business of supplying the shrimp farmers here with shrimp larvae. We asked about the shrimp we bought and he said that probably came from the ocean because the farmed shrimp is usually exported. This happens with all the best produce in Mexico. They grow it here but can always get a better price for the quality stuff from a foreign market. Anyway, Raul must do well with the shrimp business because he picked us up in a nice, new white suburban and the next day we saw him driving around in a red one!
December 20, Chacala.
Chacala was my favorite place of all last year so it was with happy anticipation that we made the four-hour trip from San Blas yesterday morning. We were lucky in making our way out of San Blas through the gill nets set out by the fishermen in their pangas. They do a pretty good job of covering the entrance. We motored the whole way as there was almost no breeze but it was a nice trip anyway. A large pod of dolphins were playing in the waters far out in front of us but as soon as they heard or saw us they all turned to come and play in our bow wave. Six or eight of them swooped and swished through the water inches from our bow for several minutes while the rest swam around the boat and jumped off in the distance. Then they were off again and leaping in the sun. There is no doubt they love to play around the boats. We also saw a stingray leaping and flipping out of the water. This is quite a sight. The whole fish, with their eight to twelve foot wingspan leaps up into the air. Some other boaters saw whole schools of them that day but we were happy to have seen the one.
We arrived in Chacala a little after noon and anchored bow and stern alongside the five or six other boats in the anchorage. I was surprised and disappointed at how different the village seemed this time. What I remembered as a sleepy little village with crystal clear water was rocking with loud music coming from a couple of new restaurants along the beach. The beach itself was swarming with families playing in the water and lounging in the palapa restaurants I remembered having almost to ourselves. Even the water was different. Instead of the clear turquoise that I remembered, this was cloudy with stirred up sand. I went for a swim anyway but it was cooler than I remembered, too.
Oh well, it was still 80 degrees and sunny and the palm trees were still green and the bouganvillia and hibiscus were still beautiful. We rowed the dinghy to shore and had lunch. This food was also disappointing, but we wandered around town a little and saw some areas I hadn’t seen before which were wonderful, and just then our friends on Lycka came into the harbor so we went to invite them to join us for dinner later. Their enthusiasm at seeing Chacala for the first time helped to bring me out of my slump of disappointment. We also walked around town a bit and ran across a church, an open warehouse type building with four large brick, arched doorways, two on either side, a few rough hewn log pews, and a very colorful alter area. The best part of the whole building was the ceiling, which was also brick. It curved upward into two domes with the brick pattern following the contours of the curves. Fantastic. They had their Christmas banners up and everything looked festive. Outside in the churchyard was a huge tree with a large bell tied to a branch. A little Mexican boy, about eight or nine years old was grinning at us and threw his weight onto the pull rope a couple of times to ring the bell for us. Dinner that night was OK, but made much better by Bill and Laurel’s obvious delight in the little town I had remembered so fondly. We watched the sunset and remembered that life doesn’t get much better than this.
This morning the four of us picked up Claudia off Maluhia and rowed ashore to hike up the mountain behind the town. I had done this last year and remembered the fantastic view of the bay and the coastline north and south. Laurel’s had lived in Honduras for a year so was enchanted by the hike up through the palm forest. She said it brought back great memories of her childhood as the terrain was so similar. On our way back to the boats for a short siesta, we first ran into a vendor with a tiny cart selling ice cream cones on the beach. Of course we had to have some.
Then we wandered through town and stopped at a small cafe near the dinghy beach for a cool drink. This is also a new place since I was last here, and is run by a young Mexican man and his gringo wife who is from northern California. They make good coffee and I had a nice iced latte; Uncle Dave, want to do an article on the lattes of Mexico? They actually are running a small inn, it turns out, with rooms with private baths and patios. Their house has a nice view of the bay and the path up from the dinghy beach goes right by there. Their rooms rent for $25 to $35 per night. I didn’t get a look at the rooms but Laurel said she would check them out for me tomorrow. The house looked nice enough in a rustic Mexican way and the proprietors, Margaret and Jorge are very nice and have a couple of very cute kids.
After our siesta, Laurel, Bill, Rick and I headed over the hill to the north to the next beach. This is a fairly little known beach and is sort of private property as some developers are planning to build a hotel there. Right now there is nothing there but palm trees, sand, bouganvillia, and wonderful water under blue skies. We swam and walked the beach for a while and then, after Claudia and Eric off Maluhia joined us by motoring around, we got up a short game of Frisbee soccer. Since we are all out of shape and over forty it was a very short game, but fun anyway. It was a great day, topped off by a better dinner than our other meals and yet another beautiful sunset.
I hate to leave, but want to be home for Christmas so I have a plane to catch. Early tomorrow we will head for the marina at Paradise Village, about nine miles south of Puerto Vallarta in Banderas Bay. This is a ritzy marina and a little pricey but a nice place for Rick to be "stuck" for Christmas by himself. There will undoubtedly be other cruisers around and many of our friends will be looking for him to take care of him. Paradise Village is a mega resort hotel with pools, great restaurants, bars, beaches with waiters, a pool with dolphins where you can also swim ... all in all not a bad spot.
There are so many things we want to do and not enough time for it all. We have been reading great things about the small town of Tepic, just inland from here a few miles. We would like to rent a car and drive in to check out the ruins there but not sure when we will be able to work it out. Rick may do this while I am up north.
Well, the music from the beach is wistful and Mexican. The surf on the beach reminds me of a summer night on the Oregon coast. All together with a great day. I am getting sleepy. Best get some sleep before our trip tomorrow which will take most of eight to ten hours.
See you soon.