Beautiful Baha Bays

Concepcion Bay provided a beautiful backdrop for a few days at anchor. The bay has numerous islands in the northern part and several islands have their own sand beaches. We met Jack on Mandan, whom we had heard on the radio nets, as well as Bob, another single hander sailing on a bright yellow wooden cutter built in the 1930's. Beach fires with roast potatoes and marshmallows, snorkeling, petroglyphs, and rocks that sound like bells when struck (due to their high iron content) are highlights of our stay here. We anchored in El Burro cove where Geary broadcasts weather for this coast of Mexico from his thatched beach front Palapa. Geary also generously allows cruisers to use his satellite link for email and we were able to do this while at anchor in emerald green waters.

Petroglyphs above El Burro Cove

Ringing the Bell Rocks above El Burro. Note the beach front palapas.

These flowers grow out of the rock faces in arroyos (stream beds).

Large crickets and grasshoppers survive despite lack of grass and water.

Urchins, anemones and corals.

The terrain varies quickly from mangrove swamp, to beach, to mud pans.

We coasted south, anchoring at two remote beaches south of Punta Santa Theresa. Calm weather allowed us to explore this coast that would normally be pounded by northerly swells. The land is mostly empty with a few fishing villages and sporadic retirement homes. Beyond the pale sugary sands of beach and dune we hiked through a harsh arid land of volcanic rock, cacti, and hardy scrub bushes. Vultures rested on the vandalized and non-functional skeleton tower on the point. In stark contrast, urchins, crabs, coral, and anemones coloured the tidepools at the base of volcanic cliffs. We combed the beaches for perfect shells and skinny dipped in waters, pleasantly cool after the exertions of hiking the uneven terrain.

Chris explores a huge dune. We had these coves to ourselves.

Further south is Punta Pulpito – the pulpit. This impressive pinnacle pushes far out into the sea, looking like a reposing lion from the distance. We anchored in its lee, rowed ashore, and landed on a tiny slip of sand at the end of a mile of cobble. The cliffs here are a treasury of fossils – mainly clams and scallop shells. We found our first obsidian flakes and 'apache tears' (rounded obsidian crystals) in the sandy bluffs above these cliffs. Climbing the pulpit, we stumbled over areas strewn with these glittering jewels, collecting some for use in jewelry making. The views from the 500' pulpit are impressive and Brisa looked like a tiny jewel herself floating above the green tinted sands of the bay.

View from Pulpito Point. Brisa is far below.

Fossil cliffs packed with clam and scallop shells.

We found even better obsidian nuggets at our next stop – San Juanico bay. This unique bay has some of the most beautiful rock formations I have seen, as well as several excellent beaches and secure anchorages. A tree here is festooned with wood and stone and shell carved or decorated with ship and crew names (the so-called 'cruiser's shrine').

We shared our anchorage with a Norseman 44 foot sloop with Dennis and Lisette on board. Dennis looks a bit like Pierre Trudeau in his 60's and Lisette is from Quebec and still has an accent despite years of living abroad. I had my birthday (44) here and this charming couple invited us over for a delicious selection of appetizers and excellent wine (Dennis worked as a wine chemist and manager at the Gallo winery). We reciprocated with a curry dinner and my attempt at a cake (featuring snickers bars and oranges).

Roadrunner bird on the beach at San Juanico.

On the rocks at San Juanico.

Dennis, Lisette, and Rani at the Cruiser's Shrine in San Juanico.

Cruiser's shrine signs.

We also had Alejandro and Thomas over to Brisa for the birthday celebration. Alejandro and Thomas are caretakers at one of the 4 opulent houses that overlook our anchorage. The day before, we travelled into Loreto with them – a 50 km, 2 hour drive (the first hour is 10 kms of challenging dirt road). A 4 wheel drive is absolutely mandatory! At one point we met up with Thomas's cousin coming the other way in a pickup truck. The cousin pulled over to let us past and we had to pull them out of the soft river bed gravel with a tow rope. Even Thomas got lost once here, as the road is essentially a river bed and at times tributaries branch in several directions.

Chris, Thomas, and Alejandero in San Juanico.

View from home out over San Juanico.

Loreto is a fair sized town with a lovely church and beautiful leaf bowered pedestrian area. Tourism is definitely a major player here and we saw more white skin than we had in weeks. We reprovisioned with fresh food and staples, refilled our 5 gallon water jug (10 pesos or about 90 Canadian cents), and picked up some beer for the celebrations (< $5 Canadian for 6 cold beer). We visited Thomas's family and learned about the car accident in which Thomas lost his leg 2 years ago (despite which he drove us in and was able to get himself on and off Brisa and into our dinghy!). Sadly, Thomas's younger brother suffered severe damage to his head and neck and cannot speak or function normally. Despite not being covered by insurance for this family disaster, everyone seems to take things in stride and accept that they will have to look after the unfortunate fellow for the rest of his life. The closeness and supportiveness of extended families here is in contrast to our more isolated culture up north.

From San Juanico, we had a splendid sail down to Ballandera cove on Isla Carmen, We hiked into the interior of the island across dead level planes, along stram beds, and through gorges. We marvelled at dwarf birch-like trees with bizarrely stocky trunks and a tree that looks like our silver birch only bright green ('incredible hulk'-coloured). Back in the cove, we met a couple from Vancouver Island, cruising on a steel junk. They have been in Mexico for 6 winters, working up north for 6 months each year in the summer. They knew the Coast 34 sail boat and were very encouraging of our plans to continue cruising. The next morning, the trimaran, Flying Fish, and a large and somewhat decrepit wooden schooner joined us at anchor. These boats had been with us in Juanico, too. The schooner is owned in a partnership between a woman and two men and the woman's kids are on board. The boat was given to them and clearly needs a lot of love and affection. She was leaking profusely when we first saw her, lost her steering in heavy seas a day later, and dragged her anchor and drifted quite close to us that night. I admire the owners for taking on a project of this size (apparently they user her or plan to use her to deliver school supplies to remote places in Mexico).

Fishing hut in Ballandera Bay.

Inside of fishing hut.

Shrine in a fisherman's hut.

Throw-away Thursday. We gave this box to a fisherman.

Sunset in Ballandera Bay.

Cacti and flowers in Ballandera Bay.

Miniature birch trees.

Bright green 'birches'.

We are now in Puerto Escondido anchored off a marina where we have had our first good showers since Santa Rosalia (3 weeks ago!) The anchorage is backed by towering jagged peaks and is so large that even with 20 or so boats it seems empty. We plan to hike a canyon mentioned by John Steinbeck in his Log from the Sea of Cortez tomorrow.

Sailing from Mexico to Canada via Hawaii

As I mentioned in previous posts, Ladybug is for sale in Mazatlan, Mexico (see www.mazmarine.com). If she does not sell by the end of April, I plan to sail her back to Victoria via Hawaii, departing in early May, spending a week or 2 in Hawaii and then arriving in BC in early July.

I am looking for one good person to join me for one or both legs (about one month for each leg). This would be a chance to unwind and get some great blue water sailing experience.

If you are interested in an adventure, please contact Chris at

Basking in Bahia Concepcion

Well we are finally heading south again, back toward Mazatlan and little Ladybug. We crossed the Sea of Cortez again, to Santa Rosalia, accompanied by Max Dagger (not a stage name!) , a friend we met in San Carlos. We had a good sail and used our windvane most of the way (it works like a charm!).


Max Dagger sailing on Brisa off the Tetas de Cabra, San Carlos.

In Santa Rosalia we met up with our friends from Blue Moon, Jo and Rob, whom we had last seen sailing from Bahia Magdalena to Cabo San Lucas a couple of months earlier. We toured the old French copper mining town of Santa Rosalia and enjoyed a feast of King Crab (at least I did) on board Blue Moon.


Rob with King Crab. One crab fed 3 people, just from the leg meat, with a quart freezer bag left from the body!


Panga fisherman with his sporran.


Jo, Rob, and Chris at Santa Rosalia.


Eiffel´s famous iron church at Santa Rosalia.

Next we headed south to Punta Chivato, stopping en route to do some shell collecting at Isla San Marcos. Jo makes lovely jewelry from shells and stones and Rani is inspired to try her hand at this, too. We had a splendid sail from Isla San Marcos to Punta Chivato and after a couple of days beach combing here, we headed south again for Concepcion Bay where we are anchored off Playa Santispac. We enjoyed a beach fire with some fellow cruisers and look forward to a dip in some hot springs tonight. We are currently in Mulege, a date palm oasis in the desert, with an historic mission and an equally famous prison. We plan to spend a week or so exploring Concepcion Bay´s many anchorages before continuing toward La Paz.



Rani paddling into a sea cave on Isla San Marcos.


Wild flowers, Isla San Marcos

Rani´s shell collection part 1.

An eel skeleton.

Anchorage at Santispac Beach in Bahia Concepcion.

Fisherman´s hut at Punta Chivato.

The best shell beach in the Baja, south of Punta Chivato.

Sunset at Santa Innes, south of Punta Chivato.

Chris at Punta Chivato


Sunset at Punta Chivato

Lanchas at Santa Rosalia

Farewell to San Carlos

We leave San Carlos tomorrow to sail across the Sea of Cortez for Santa Rosalia (about 1/2 way up the inside of the Baja peninsula). Our time here has been divided between boat projects and a some hiking, partying, and sailing.

We attended the local Carnival parade last week. Floats and dancers of all ages. Lots of Tecate beer but very few staggering drunks - more of a family affair. See pictures below:


Rani, Cheryl, and Frank enjoying the Carnival parade. Cheryl and Frank have been great friends here in San Carlos, sharing their floating home (Serendipity - a Hans Christian 38) with us and going out on hikes and sails, too.


Carnival dancers.


Pirates were popular this year.


Carnival Queens and dancers


Japanese dragon float.


Chris and Frank enjoy some 8 peso (70 cent) Tecate beer.

Last week we went for a hike to nearby Nacapule canyon, which is located in the desert, yet filled with palm trees and pools of water from underground streams. This hike was one of the most interesting I have ever done because of the stark contrasts between desert and oasis. We saw a number of lizards and insects that we have not seen before as well as the palms (which are not native to the area and must have been brought in) and a tree that looks like a paper birch. We hiked the length of the 'official' canyon trail and met a Dutch fellow who told us that we could hike around some obstructions and continue to a ridge overlooking a ranch. We managed to squeeze our way through some pretty tight places and found the ridge with some spectacular views out over the ocean and San Carlos. We returned via the ranch under a blazing sun, climbing a couple of fences and disturbing herds of goats and Brahma cows.


Chris and Rani in the canyon.


A lizard in the canyon.

We went sailing last week as well, taking out our friend Hans Backer and Cheryl and Frank. This was a shakedown sail to help us get a hang of the boat. We found that the boom vang control is very necessary with the Garhaur vang because this solid vang is spring loaded and must be held down in order to get a good mainsail shape. It is a puzzle as to why the previous owners did not complete the vang installation. We also found that the boat has plenty of canvas with its new tall rig. We are looking forward to seeing how she sails across the sea tomorrow...


Hans Backer with his stylish garbage bag vest to keep him dry during a rough dinghy ride to the shore.


Cheryl and Rani cruising near San Carlos.

We have finished most of our boat task list: the outboard motor works well now, we have changed engine oil and installed a newly fabricated stainless exhaust elbow (Hernandez brothers in Guaymas made this for us in an evening for a very fair price). We need to rig up a boom vang cleat, install a new bow light, and set up the wind vane before we leave.

We have heard from some other cruising friends who are on the Baja side and hope to run into them after we cross the sea. It may be a while before we post again...

San Carlos Highlights

First a couple of pics from Mazatlan and a road trip we did with Paul and Sue to a nearby village.


This little boy was offering donkey rides to tourists

Some of the crypts have sliding patio doors for easy access.


Sue, Paul, and Rani walking the beach near Mazatlan.

We arrived in San Carlos, Sonora, 2 weeks ago to survey Brisa, a Coast 34 designed by Graham Shannon and built in Vancouver, and were pleased enough with the results to close the offer. The trip on the overnight bus from Maztlan was comfortable but we were responsible for delays due to 2 military checkpoints at which our extensive baggage (2 full rubbermaid totes) containing tools, charts and kitchen stuff was searched.The USA is funding the checkpoints to reduce drug traffic and there were many young soldiers prodding and stabbing the trucks passing through, so we were relatively lucky that no body searches ensued!

As for the boat survey, Joe Schmick turned out to be a really good choice for a surveyor. He did a very thorough job on the survey, taking a full day and part of the next for the out of the water survey. We ended up with an extensive list of small things to correct and a relatively clean bill of health for Brisa/Ladybug.


Joe surveying the keel.

We made a decision to get in the water quickly, so we did a lot of work in a few days to get the bottom prepared (fixed some delamination in the rudder and then painted) as well as getting the engine in good shape.



Leaving the dry storage yard bound for the launch ramp. The trailer uses hydraulic pads to support the boat.

Launch day had the usual last minute panic with Chris running down to a welding shop early in the morning and waking up the owner's sister to retrieve a missing part for the engine exhaust mixing elbow and reassembling the engine at the dock. Fortunately Brisa/Ladybug floated on her lines and the engine started and ran well.


Launching Brisa/Ladybug


Jay Leno showed up to help out.


Brisa/Ladybug after the launch

The sails were in great shape, hardly used, and Brisa moved well in the water even in the light breeze on the morning of the test sail. Once in the water we decided to stay out in the bay, out of the dust and not having to climb up the ladder to get into the boat.


Under sail during the test sail. Charlie Bloomer is the yacht broker.

Out at anchor here, it can be tricky to get back and forth to shore due to high afternoon winds. We have been working hard to get our inflatable and its outboard motor working properly, as rowing the inflatable with its tiny oars is a bit of a joke (picture a chicken flapping its wings and you get the idea). The motor starts now after stripping down the carburetor, but it will not idle, so we tend to move at very high speeds between point A and B, followed by an abrupt halt and a little rowing – all quite entertaining for the dockside watchers.

We have made a list of problems which need to be fixed before we can sail out of here and hope to be enjoying our new yacht within 10 to 14 days. Using a bucket for a toilet is not the ideal so Chris is busy on the deck rebuilding the head today while I take care of the laundry and shopping - a good trade :) We also need to get another exhaust elbow welded for the engine and buy lots of spare parts in Guaymas later this week.


Trying out the new facilities - actually the head does not work yet, so a bucket will have to do...

New friends have been very helpful and we had a nice tour of the area on board our friend Hans Backer's luxury van yesterday. He also encouraged my ice-cream tooth by providing us with a huge serving of butter pecan brought all the way from Arizona.

A 2 boat family

Greetings from San Carlos, Guaymas. Things have been hectic here with boat buying, getting ready to launch, a survey, and a test sail. We are currently at anchor, living on our new boat and out of wifi range, hence the delay in updating the blog.

We now own 2 boats (or will when the money filters through to the seller). The Coast 34 is a big boat and the list of things we need to do is a bit intimidating but the basics are good - the engine checked out ok with good compression (but needing a valve adjustment). The sails, mast, and all rigging are virtually new. One of the sails needs recutting because it was built a bit to large for the roller fuller head stay. The head needs some work and the radar is not talking to its scanner... the list goes on. I just got the outboard motor sort of working (does not idle yet) after cleaning the plugs and removing and soaking the carburetor. This has allowed us to come into town to update the blog.

The weather here is quite a bit cooler than Mazatlan and we need two blankets at night. A wind gets up every afternoon and blows quite hard in the anchorage, so rowing an inflatable (our new dinghy) is not an option. The other day we stayed over at a friend's boat for 5 hours waiting for the wind to die before we could get back to our boat.

Ladybug is now for sale at Mazatlan Yachts (http://www.mazmarine.com/). We will miss her greatly and have decided to register our new boat as "Ladybug" also (we can do this because our Cal-29 Ladybug is not registered, but only licensed).

More news in the next few days when we have some time.