What a strange thing for us- we have never been away from our family for Christmas. It felt almost wrong – we certainly missed them!
Fynn was so excited to open the gifts she was completely over the top. It was very entertaining for us to watch – we had to slow her down a bit! I made fresh muffins for breakfast and everything felt laid back and relaxed. Fynn was spoiled by her Grandparents, but Kolby and I didn’t exchange many gifts – just a few things that were needed for the boat. That was certainly one thing that I didn’t miss, all that racing around buying things.
Christmas tea party
Kolby went with Dennis and Faye to Roca Solitaire for a snorkel while Fynn had her nap. What a concept to go snorkelling on Christmas Day! In the afternoon we had a potluck on the beach with the fellow cruisers. I made spring rolls with peanut sauce, which made nice addition to the other rice dishes that were brought. Andi from Akka brought a delicious apple pie. Most of the talk was around sailing and boats and parts- no surprise there.
Roca Solitaire at sunset
The sunset it in the most speculator sky of red and orange and purples. It light up the mountains and reflected off the clouds. It was perhaps the best Christmas gift of all.
Dec 24 – That Jimmy Buffet song comes to mind – ‘it’s Christmas in the Caribbean…’ but really this in nothing like the Caribbean. No palm trees, and the water is a bit chilly – 67 degrees F.
Trimming the tree
But it is Christmas Eve and it is sunny and lovely. We spent the morning making and decorating a paper Christmas tree, complete with paper candles and snowflake decorations. Fynn had fun and at 2 is just starting to piece together the holiday. She was busy flipping through her Christmas book and pointing out the Christmas tree and stockings hung on the the pages, just like what we had. We told her that Santa would find us here and bring her a Christmas present. I don’t think she understood that yet but she would by tomorrow
Christmas on Asunto
Mid morning we tok Otto to the southerly beach where the town is and headed to the small Tiedas. Aqua Verde has perhaps 30 families living in the valley, where they fish and tend to their goats. There is even a small scale dairy where we purchased a 1/4 kg of goat cheese for 30 pesos. The first tienda was run beside the family home, and consisted of mostly bare shelves and some produce. We purchased our goods, including fresh tortillas, from a young girl while her 4 year old sister watching wide eyed. Fynn passed out chips to the family kids, who seemed happy for the snack. We then headed to the other tienda, which had just stocked up in town, so we could fill our bags with more produce and enjoy a cold drink. How such a small town can support two stores is beyond us. Here the family was preparing for a Christmas Eve feast and the whole town would be coming over for dancing and drinking and feasting. The matron of the home invited the group of us (about 10 at this point, all anchored in the bay), to come for dinner and dancing. Dancing at 9 she said, dinner at 10. With the little asleep at home this was an impossible invitation for us, but the other headed over to soak up the local culture.
Goat pasture at Aqua Verde
Back home in Whistler, I knew my family was enjoying a German dinner of sausages and sauerkraut, so I did my best here and pulled my Oma’s recipe for potato salad. Not quite the same, but neither is Christmas in Mexico. I played Santa, leaving the toys and gifts under our tree, then snuggled into bed for the night.
Dec 20-21: We didn’t have great weather for our stay at Ilsa San Fransisco. It was chilly and damp and even rained a bit. There was a lovely looking hike up the ridge, but Kyber had torn a hunk of skin off the pad of his foot, and he could walk anywhere. Feeling sorry for him we passed on the hike.
Passing time
Kolby went spear fishing off the northern point while Fynn and I paddled around the rocks. The visibility has been poor, so we mostly watched the crabs scurry along the shore and played with a scoop and a bucket in the water. Kolby was still fishing when she got cold, so we paddled back to the boat. Of course Fynn decided she wanted to try to paddle which was ridiculous. Despite her claims of being cold, when we did finally reach the boat she jumped in and practiced her swimming (life jacket on) back and forth from the ladder to the paddle board – a distance of maybe 4 feet but she sure thought she was the bees knees.
Beachcombers paradise at Ilsa San Fransisco
We pushed off from Isla San Fransisco and it’s lovely half-moon sand bay on a sunny windy morning. After battening down the boat inside we rounded the corner in to full on gale. The winds were blowing steady at 27 knots, gusting to over 30. The seas are stacked on top of each other, easily six feet high. In short it was an uncomfortable ride. The first 20 minutes is always the worse. You leave the calm of the harbour and are affronted by the tenacity of the wind. It messy messy and uncontrollable. The motor is load, the waves are loud, the boat seems to protest. Even pulling out the sails feels messy. A shackle on the main sheet bent itself out of shape, so now I am driving the boat to keep her in irons, Kolby is replacing the shackle and Fynn is crying on the top of the stairs. Luckily she is old enough now to stay where I have asked her, but hearing her cry is distressing. I want to turn around and head back to the safety of the harbour. The whole situation feels distressing. But then the shackle is repaired and I fall off of the wind. Asunto heals over and harnesses the wind, controls it. The uncontrollable feels tamed. Over the next the hours we short tack up the channel, covering 7 nautical miles in 2 and a half hours. We drop anchor in the tiny fishing village of San Evaristo and pick up the pieces that are strewn around the cabin – a sign of hard to passage.
Later a second boat dropped anchor and we met up with them at the little restaurant just off the beach. They had bashed into the wind, running their engine and making only 3 knots of headway. The same trip had taken them three hours. Two other boats had turned back into Isla San Fransisco- the conditions being too much. But as Kolby and I later reflected – you really just have to get through those first 20 minutes of discomfort- pull out the sails and let the boat do her job.
We went even sure that our depth sounder was working – we hadn’t got a depth reading in ages.
The guide book (Sea of Cortez by Shawn and Heather) marked the coordinated of the seamounts 2 miles for the location on the chart. Who do we trust? The chart or the written coordinates? Where would you go first?
It was getting late and the wind was picking up.
We really didn’t think this dive, known for attracting hammerhead sharks and giant mantas, was going to happen.
We headed for the mounts as marked on the chart first – nothing. No depth reading at all. Happily for us the reader pinged 30 feet, a random read that let us know it was working, but didn’t indicated real depth.
So we headed for the coordinates marked in the book. At this point we were certain that we wouldn’t find the seamounts. Suddenly as we approached the coordinates, Kolby started getting depth readings – 300 feet, 200 hundred feet, 100 feet, 50 feet. We quickly dropped the anchor on the 50 foot mark and Kolby got ready to jump in. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere -land visible, but mostly a haze on the horizon.
The current was strong- Kolby needed a line tied to the bow to get from the midship to the anchor chain. He planned to go down the anchor chain and only let go at the bottom if the current eased. The surface current was so strong that Asunto remained at 90 degrees despite the 13 knots winds.
Up top, Fynn and I passed the time. I clean up and we jammed to some music. I distracted myself from thinking of all the things that could go wrong. I did horizon checks to make sure he hadn’t come up of the anchor. When I head Kolby’s bubbles bouncing off the hull I new he was ascending and started to get ready – Floating line off the stern incase he missed the boat in the current, paddle board in the water so that he could climb on it then onto the deck, halyard ready to hoist the rig onto the deck.
Down below the current was a strong as at the surface. Kolby followed the chain to the anchor and was pleased to find it tucked into the rocks behind a wall. He was able to swim in the lee of the current back and forth along the wall. Not surprisingly the biggest thing he saw was a fish. Likely the current was too strong for much else.
We hauled anchor from our sea mounts just before 5 pm and headed for Isla San Fransisco in the dusk, Christmas lights on and Christmas tunes on the stereo.
The day started out in the Bahia Grande on Isle Partida. Fynn woke up at 6 am and I was amazed to hear… nothing. For the first time in the last 5 day the winds, which had been blowing steady at 20 knots, had shut off. I was so happy to hear this silence that I didn’t mind that I was sleepy from Fynn’s 2am party, so when she curled back in bed with Kolby for a sleep-in I took my coffee outside and did my morning yoga on deck. Bliss.
We then headed to shore to check out the ‘maintained’ trail to the other side of the island. The trail follows a natural ravine and is well marked with signposts, instructing the hiker to continue straight, or bear left or right. The scenery is deceptive. On first glance you see red rock and big boulders that have tumbled free from their beds over the millennia. The scale of things is tricky – small things may appear bigger than they are and a rock that appeared small from a distance towers over you as you approach. But then as you settle into the scene the color shifts from red to green, and suddenly the desert started to look more green then red, then like a mirage it shifts back to red. Is the scene red or green? Like one of those mind tricks the question is impossible to answer. Look at it one way and it’s green, shift your gaze and it’s red.
While the birds circled overhead we made our way up the ravine, scampering over rocks and boulders, enjoying the coolness of the shady slopes. Kyber would race up the embankments, chasing after a hare that was gone long before he even saw it. We made it about 1.8 km before Fynn was done being carried in the backpack and ready to do some walking of her own. So we turned around and she climbed, walked and was carried back to the beach.
Climbing with Daddy
Family photo attempt
The sun was shining so we jumped into the water from the transom. Fynn has started to like swimming with her lifejacket by herself and was paddling around with me. Kolby went off in search for the fillet knife that was dropped overboard last night, which he could quickly find in the calm waters. After cleaning the barnacles that had grown along the hull from our week in La Paz, we were off to visit the sea lions on Los Islotes.
Los Islotes is a slab of rock off the top of Isla Partida which is home to a sea lion rookery. Visitors have been coming here for ages to swim with the curious pups and snorkel along the reef. The rock is almost completely white from too much bird shit and too little rain, so you can imagine the smell. Anyway. luckily you get used to this as the sea lion pups were incredible. Fynn and I headed over on the paddle board, and the pups certainly found this interesting, as they were more accustomed to seeing swimmers. Right away we had 10 pups poking their hears out to take a look, and diving under the board to investigate. Some of the braver ones chomped on the paddle, just so check it out. The pups were about 4 feet long, so biggish, but not scary like the bulls. When the 2,000 lb daddy gets in the water, then you want to give it a wide berth. In the water the pups would show off to you, diving under and spinning all around you, sometime leaping clear out of the water. They clearly enjoyed the human intrusion to their underwater world. Eventually the pups tired of us and headed out for a shore break and Kolby headed out to snorkel the reef. Fynn and I paddled around for a bit when I had the idea that the pups might like to play with the line tied to the paddle board, so I dumped it into the water. But how to get them into the water again? By chance we ended up drifting quite close to shore and boy did that do the trick. Suddenly the sea was full of pups and it didn’t take them long before they found the rope. Next thing I new I was getting towed around the bay by a team of sea lions! Not that we made excellent progress as they didn’t always agree on the direction of travel, but when they did we would whizz across the water. It was fantastically fun and the highlight of my time with the pups. Fynn’s favourite though was when one bold little guy came right up to us. First he nuzzled my leg and foot, and finding this to his liking, he chomped a bit on the paddle board. Also approving of this, he lept out of the water and landed on the board right in front of Fynn! He paused just a moment before plunging into the sea. Fynn thought this was just the greatest and wanted more pups to join her on the board, but none did. Shivering but happy we headed home.
Our destination for the night was Isla San Fransisco, and between here and there was El Bajo, 3 sea mounds where divers can see hammerhead sharks and giant manta. Well write that down and there is no way Kolby will pass that up. But this post is getting long and it is well past cruisers midnight, so that adventure will have to wait to be recorded another day.
Picked these up during our stay in La Paz- pretty but time for them to go!
Our first trip to Isla Santa Espirita Santos was before I flew back to Vancouver. We had about 4 days to spend before I had to be back in La Paz to catch a bus to Cabo. Well those 4 days corresponded to to 4 days of pretty intense northers (averaging 20 knots), Fynn having a fever, and Kolby starting to get sick. We tried to go the the beach, but Fynn kept asking to go home. The wind would increase at night and we hardly slept. Obviously it was stellar and we loved it… Not so much. Instead I think we both kept asking ourselves – we sailed all this way, for this? Not that we admitted it to each other yet but we felt like a bunch of whiners.
Hiking across Ilsa Espiritu
Actually we finally admitted it when I came back after a week in La Paz. We started to say how this whole cruising thing wasn’t so fun, and maybe we had made a mistake taking Fynn so young, as everything we were trying to do took so much time and effort.
Well, isn’t just that the way of life, you finally admit that there is a problem and you start to find solutions. We ended up having a few great days in La Paz, picking up parts and groceries and finding a balance between the To Dos and the playgrounds.
Pretty good playground at La Paz
The generator was repaired and the water maker worked again. Then we headed back out to Isla Espirita and anchored in Bahia Chandelera. We pumped up the paddle board and went for a family swim and snorkel, Fynn alternating between swimming on Kolby’s back or riding on the paddle board. Of course our wacko dog didn’t want to be left out so all 60 lbs of him was on the board too. We actually did tip it for the first time (Fynn was trying to pee off the edge of the board and capoosh- we all ended up in the water.) Poor dog- he started making a beeline for shore but the line for the paddle board was caught around him, so he was towing that behind him as well. And this guy swims like a half drowned ferret so he wasn’t to thrilled about the whole situation. He climbed out on a rock and stood there staring at me like – what the hell just happened? The two year old found it funny and it didn’t take much to get everyone settled on the board again.
Family swim
As the sun set we turned on the Christmas lights and listened to Cartwrights Christmas Album. Then it was dark and the stars came out- millions of them both above and below. We played in the biolumences, watched rays leap out of the water and then collapsed, happily, in bed.
Yep, this other side of Cortez is pretty stellar. I hope we get to see more of it!
La Paz was great for stocking up on groceries. We stayed at the Marina Fonature, which was very cheap (8 pesos/foot) as well as anchored out in the harbour and used the dinghy dock at Marina De La Paz for 1.50 pesos / day. Both options worked well – Marina Fonature is in easy walking distance of Walmat, Sams Club and Soriana’s, as well as a Home Depot, but we also found it easy enough to take the bus from Marina de La Paz to the Mega. It really is the best place to stock up for the Sea of Cortez- so STOCK UP!
Stacking it up
Fynn meets a friend at Marina Fonature
At anchor in La Paz
Well we survived. No, not another storm or anything so exciting. Fynn and I survived both the 19 hour day to flight to Vancouver and the 12 hour day to get back. It was pretty intense…
Back in October I had to decide if I would be flying home for my 20 week ultrasound or have it done in Mexico. I felt like I wasn’t sure how to make that decision as I didn’t have a good idea of what cruising in Mexico would be like, or how accessible the health care system would be on the Baja. So I decided to fly home for the appointment and visit my midwifes as well. Of course I had to bring Fynn with me so that she could see her grandparents, which was lovely all around. However, if I were to make the choice again I would have saved my money and had the ultrasound here, in La Paz. Regardless it was nice to see family and pick up some boat parts. Hopefully now we will be able to run the generator, make water and pump the shit out of the holding tank. Glory days!
Anyways, as I was saying,visiting home was nice and we did some family traditional Christmas things that made we start to think I might miss Christmas after all, as we had no plans to celebrate the holiday on the boat. In fact I was almost sad that I had to leave the wintery scene.
Winter in Whistler
But then we landed in lovely sunny Mexico, where is it most defiantly not raining, and most definitely not Christmas-y. So I was pretty excited to see Christmas lights on Asunto when Kolby dinghied us back home. That was perfect. Now that I am back I truly feel that my home will be where ever Asunto is.
Christmas lights on Asunto
Cabo was lovely when we woke up, the arches were glowing in the sunrise and the beaches and hotels were quiet. This quickly deteriorated into more and more chaos. Out came the jetskis and the pangas loaded with tourists, then the party cruises ad the music blaring from the beachfront restaurants. The Bay turned into a mess of waves and chop, and by the time the cruiseship had dropped anchor beside us Cabo and turned into a weird mix of college frat party and luxury goods.
Mmmm pizza
That night the tropical depression off the southern coast of Mexico officially became Hurricane Sandra, the lastest hurricane on record since 1949. It’s projected path had it heading north, brushing the tip of the Baja and turning inland. We were anchored on the tip of the Baja… and had 4 days before Sandra was due to arrive.
Ominous sunset
This was all new to us. We had never been in a situation where we had to make these kinds of decisions before. Where should be go? Where would be feel safest if Sandra hit as predicted, which was winds 39-70knots on the southern tip of Baja and 10-30 further north by La Paz. Our first decision was to head the 15nm to San Jose de Cabo where Dennis was on Ultregra. Dennis is also from our marina in Vancouver and we had travelled much of the Baja more or less together. This reunion in the overpriced marina at San Jose de Cabo proved very helpful. It was great to discuss options and pros and cons with someone else. We also found it interesting that other boaters in the marina were completely unconcerned with the weather forecast. However they were all experienced hurricane boats and this wasn’t their first rodeo. Regardless, you can only ever make the best decision for yourself and your situation. We decided to make the 130nm trek to Marina Fortune in La Paz. This would put us out of the high wind zone while still being were we want to be.
In the end Hurricane Sandra dissipated over sea and we never had so much as a wisp of wind. It was good practice though for us to go through the motions and make the decisions.
Some facts on Hurricane Sandra
- On Thursday morning, Nov. 26, Sandra became the latest Category 4 hurricane of record in either the eastern Pacific or Atlantic basins.
- The previous latest Category 4+ tropical cyclone in either the eastern Pacific or Atlantic basins was Hurricane Kenneth on Nov. 22, 2011.
- Sandra also became the strongest hurricane so late in the season.
- Only three other eastern Pacific storms have formed later in the calendar than Sandra in records dating to 1949.
- Hurricane Sandra became the second-latest-forming hurricane on record, behind Hurricane Winnie in 1983.
- Sandra failed to break the record for latest landfalling Eastern Pacific tropical cyclone on record. According to hurricane specialist Michael Lowry, the latest eastern Pacific landfall on record was (and remains) Tara on Nov. 12, 1961.
- The previous latest major hurricane in either the central-eastern Pacific or Atlantic was an unnamed storm in 1934 that remained a major hurricane into Nov. 23.
- Sandra became the 30th Category 3+ tropical cyclone of 2015 in the Northern Hemisphere, far exceeding the previous record of 23 such storms in 1997 and 2004.
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