Logs & Stories - August 2002

August 23 - Los Pilares

Bill here.

I just drank a 100-degree cup of coffee. I know this because Karryn made the coffee about two hours ago and it's had time to cool to room temperature And the thermometer on the bulkhead says the room is now 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The good news is that the humidity is now down to about 40%, much better than this morning, when it was 80% with a temperature of 85 degrees Strangely enough, it seems cooler now, probably because the sweat on our bodies has half a chance of evaporating and cooling us off.

We've been in Los Pilares five days now and are making final preparations to depart for San Carlos on the mainland side of the Sea of Cortez, a seventy-five mile trip. If we motored all the way it would take us 12 hours, too long to comfortably make the trip during daylight hours, so we've decided to take advantage of this evening's full moon and make a night passage, hopefully being able to sail and make landfall sometime tomorrow morning before the San Carlos' thermal winds start to build. I've read that these winds can reach 30 knots in the afternoon, an unpleasant breeze for maneuvering in the close quarters in the marina there.

We've done a bit of traveling since our last entry on August 8. Since then, we've been to two anchorages on Isla Carmen (Puerto Ballandra, then La Lancha, an absolutely stunning and remote spot on the north end of the island), then Loreto for provisioning and checking out, Isla Coronado, La Ramada (just north of San Juanico), and finally arriving here last weekend. Fiona, a 90-year-old gaff-rigged sloop whose crew now includes Nick of Wanderlust, joined us in all the anchorages except La Lancha.

As part of our adjustment to the heat, we've taken to a lifestyle of nakedness, often wearing only sunglasses for days on end. During our stays in Ballandra and La Lancha we were able to share the anchorages with two other boats of similar persuasion, in one case even doing social events together (diving and dinners) without a stitch of clothing on. Quite a change from Seattle.

We still have our bulldog friend Toro aboard, and he's been a delight. In Loreto we bought him a Frisbee, and he's added to his toy collection by claiming a tennis ball and a three-foot section of ½ inch line. When he gets bored he approaches you with one of these to play either fetch or tug-of-war. His behavior has been so good that we now let him into the cabin during the evenings. Nick's current plan is to take Toro to Tucson with him in October. Toro has been so charming to have along that we're investigating finding a dog for longer-term cruising.

When we left Loreto, our plans were somewhat ambiguous. We'd wanted to meet Yulan in San Carlos at the end of August for the dual purpose of being near five-year old Stevie during Naomi's birthday party and to check into the haulout facilities. We'd been pondering trips to both Bahia Concepcion and Santa Rosalia, but got waylaid by Los Pilares. This place is wonderful. The point provides great protection from the southerly winds, which at times have blown at about 20 knots, and the shallow sandy bottom makes the anchorage look like a giant swimming pool. There is a gravel road, damaged by numerous hurricanes, leading to an old mine that appears to have been closed before WWII. We've walked to the site three times, one time for a full-morning field trip to investigate the place thoroughly.

Karryn here.

Toro has adapted well to life on Seafire, with a couple of exceptions. First of all, Nick trained him to use the bow as the canine head area, and I think Seafire's three bows and two ama sterns that also look like bows confuse Toro. He is also a bit overeager when it comes to marine life and his instinct to chase it down and kill it. Well, at least the chase-it-down part; since Toro lacks gills, wings or the ability to tolerate being underwater because his ears get wet, I don't think he'll ever get close to anything, let alone kill it. However, twice he has jumped into the water and gone off chasing pods of dolphins, fortunately both times when we were at anchor. The first time, the dolphins were just passing by and he swam off after them, with Bill swimming after him to bring him back. We were in La Lancha the second time, and the dolphins were actually feeding and not just passing by. Toro would swim after them, they would disappear underwater, he would continue swimming in the same direction until they surfaced and he heard them blow, he would change direction, etc. ad nauseum. Bill rowed a dinghy out this time, and made Toro swim back to the boat. I was a tad concerned that dolphins might like the taste of dog meat, but Toro returned unharmed, although definitely in the doghouse.

The first night we were in Los Pilares, though, he really scared us. We arrived in mid-afternoon, rowed to the beach to check it out and then returned to the boat. Toro had raced around like a crazy dog on the beach and sacked out as soon as he was back onboard. However, an hour or two later, just as dusk was deepening into twilight, I suddenly realized that I hadn't seen Toro for a while. We looked all over the boat, yelling his name and panicking as we realized he wasn't there. Bill launched a dinghy just as we realized that a dark shape in the water was Toro's head. He was making his way back from the beach where he had gone AWOL. Unapproved shore leave put him seriously in the doghouse, and got him tied up for the next couple of nights. I wasn't looking forward to telling Nick we had lost his dog…

August 7 - Bahia Marquer, Isla Carmen

(Email via Maritime Mobile Radio Service)

After Yulan left Isla Coronados for points north and east, we stayed for a few more days to finish installing the spare alternator and getting the awning to a point where we could use it. We had originally planned on exploring at least one new anchorage and doing the work, but we decided the odds of finishing the work would be greatly decreased if we went someplace new. One of the realities of boat life is that more work gets done when we're completely bored with our surroundings.

We left for Loreto on Monday morning (July 29th), with plans to get more water, groceries and some dive equipment as well as visit an Internet café. The prime reason, though, was to find a place to repair the alternator. We succeeded in most everything except fixing the alternator, although theoretically we now know what the problem is - bad positive diode(s) - and we also know that it's likely the repair will have to wait until Guaymas. However, the spare is working so we have some time, and we have a tip on another place to try when we return to Loreto to check out. Even better, the Web Guy made yet more phone calls and found us the part numbers of the potentially defunct parts.

We headed for Puerto Ballandra on Isla Carmen again, hoping to find Nick on Wanderlust. Nick had decided that a return to the U.S. is in the cards for him, and we wanted to share the last bit of his first cruise to Mexico. After a couple of days in Ballandra, we headed for Puerto Escondido; we needed to get more water and Nick needed to see about mooring his boat until he is able to return.

Our stay in Escondido was productive - laundry done, provisions purchased, the boat's water supply topped off, the water-maker functional and a bunch of stuff put away. (It's amazing when staying in a calm anchorage how things migrate from their normal storage places to the general living areas…) We also enjoyed a couple of days with ice cubes - anything aboard that a human can drink had ice in it. We got in lots and lots of swimming, and met yet more people, most of whom I had already heard on the Amigo SSB net. It was my favorite kind of time in port - lots of work done but with enough time to play, relax and socialize.

While we were there, we finally met the crew of Fiona, a 90-year-old gaff-rigged sloop; with an LOA of 55 feet, she is the smallest of the tall ships. Hailing from San Francisco Bay, Don and Stevie are slowly making their way to Fiona's birthplace in England so they can be there for her 100th birthday. They had been in Escondido the first time we visited, but we never managed to take them up on their offer of a boat tour. This time we made up for that, and Nick ended up agreeing to crew on the boat for the trip to San Carlos, where they will be hauling her for some work. So he spent several days getting Wanderlust ready for his absence, and then on Tuesday, August 7th, both boats sailed to Bahia Marquer, where we are currently anchored.

The big news, however, is that we've agreed to be foster parents for a cute but rambunctious and occasionally out-of-control two-year-old. That's right; Toro is now aboard Seafire, which definitely contradicts my oft-repeated statement to Naomi that her wish to have a dog would not be granted until we were land-based again. How did we end up with a half-Pit Bull, half Bulldog canine? Well, basically because we're softhearted wimps. Nick wasn't going to be able to take Toro back on the bus and, with his change of plans to sail on Fiona, had no time to try and find Toro another home. Now that he's onboard, we've had to change roles and become much stricter with him, just like grandparents that suddenly found themselves living with the child they were spoiling. It's unknown how long Toro will be with us - anywhere from weeks to months, depending on our destinations and Nick's life plans. I think Toro's move is harder on Nick than on Toro. As for the two kids on this boat, they're having a great time with the first dog ever to share living quarters with us.

We plan on heading north and east along with Fiona, hopefully catching up with Yulan along the way. We want to check out San Carlos as a possible place to haul Seafire out next fall or winter, and Naomi wants to have her birthday party with the crew of Yulan before they return north. Of course, all this is subject to change due to boat maintenance requirements (read: if something breaks), weather and the whims of the crew.