Logs & Stories - May 2002

May 9th - La Paz

(Email from Bill via Internet Cafe)

We're still in La Paz anchored off the "virtual marina", where 31 pesos (~ $3.50)/day buys you the right to anchor close to the beach, garbage service, showers, access to a dinghy dock with water available, help from a very supportive office staff fluent in both English and Spanish, and, best of all, a pristine pool unused except for us and our friends. Very nice.

We're in a state of transition. While we've decided to stay in the Sea of Cortez, most of the details are pretty unknown. The boat is still leaking, but more slowly. When I bailed yesterday, I discovered only a half-cup of water had seeped in over a three-day period, so I'm not inclined to panic. In fact, quite the opposite. I've found the majority of the haulouts in the last decade to be pretty stressful, and I'm not inclined to blow up our wonderful state of bliss unless I have to. And it looks like I won't. It appears that the best place to haul is San Carlos, about 250 miles north of La Paz, far enough north that the probability of a hurricane hit is significantly lower. We're likely to spend the summer relatively close by, so my current thinking is to delay hauling out until the problem gets worse or the fall, whichever comes first.

Even without hauling, we still have quite a bit of work to do to get Seafire ready for the summer heat. We're currently focused on building a canvas boat cover to keep the boat cooler. We just built the prototype, and will likely have much of the work done over the next ten days. We're thinking a cockpit awning and covers over the netting between the bows are essential for comfort in the heat. We're also pondering painting the decks white after discovering how hot the light gray we currently have gets. Mom has been collecting a bundle of items for us in Bellingham (including six 12-volt Hella fans for strategically placing within Seafire's interior), and getting this bundle may require a bus trip to San Diego (about a five day trip, up and back). Even with all this work to do, we've been able to maintain our sense of perspective. We generally rise with the sun at about 7am, but don't start in earnest until about 10am, then quit by about three or four in the afternoon when the heat pushes us into the pool. During the evenings we generally seem to connect with friends and end up eating and socializing together until about midnight.

We're still spending quite a bit of time with Nick from Wanderlust, a 22-year old we met last month in Agua Verde. At that time he was with Maggie, but she's now back in the U.S. We've gotten to know Max and Stephanie, the local sailmakers originally from Seattle, also in their mid-20's, and have had dinner with them most nights this week. We've also been making the daily pool trek with Patty, Barney and five-year-old daughter Stevie, also from Seattle, and in fact will be helping to celebrate her birthday this Saturday by the pool.

Most of the cruisers here are about retirement age and have large boats with all the trinkets. Nick, Max and Stephanie are on more of a budget program, and have been having a great time with a minimal investment in their boats (Nick told me spent about $6000 on his boat, an Albin Vega), and low operating expenses (Nick probably spends $200/month, mostly by staying off docks and doing without gear others might think is necessary).

With all the attention given to figuring out how to weasel out of hauling the boat and maintain the flow of our lifestyle, we haven't spent any time figuring how quickly we can leave if we don't go to the boatyard. Fortunately we're having a good time, so we don't really care too much. A likely scenario is that we'll be here for another month, when Mom will fly in and we'll start working our way northward up to (okay, grab your maps now) Bahia Concepcion, then over to San Carlos to check the place out (it's likely we'll "park" Seafire there if the summer heat is unbearable for us), and finally up to Bahia Los Angeles and its dozens of anchorages during the most hurricane-prone months of August and September. We anticipate having as wonderful a time as we did on our three-week cruise to Agua Verde and back, with the added strangeness of the unrelenting sun. I am continually mindful of the irony that the sun here is as oppressive as its absence is in the Pacific Northwest.

We're still all getting along marvelously and are having a ball. Karryn and I are both in better shape than we've been in years; it's a bit like that cliché about having the mind of a 40 year old and the body of a 20 year old, except that the body looks more like 33 and has a terrific tan.

We've been wondering who reads this stuff - if you feel inclined, send us an email.

We've been discussing the notion that it would be nice to have friends visit during our extended stay in the Sea of Cortez, but we're concerned that most people other than us aren't crazy enough to jump into the heat (the heat is supposed to be fairly intense and many people find it unbearable in August and September). Send us an email if you'd like to visit and aren't heat-adverse.

Bill