A Whale’s Tale

Hello All,

Sorry to have not written before. We buddy boated with Timo, a very capable and entertaining English / Scot. Our trip was 34 days, about double of what we planned for, but we are here in good shape. We made one stop after Turtle Bay at Bahia Santa Maria (outside Bahia Magdellina). We left there in later afternoon and two days later rounded Cabo San Lucas in the early morning hours. It got rough, but smoothed out within an hour. Suddenly I realized that I was hot and was sailing up the Sea of Cortez at 2 am in a t-shirt. The weather and the sailing are very different here than on the Pacific Coast, where we always concerned about the cold, even during the day. Then we anchored at Los Frailes. From there we went to Los Muertos bay and spent the night, moving on when the waves caused us to bounce aroung too much, both day and night. From there we headed to LaPaz arriving Monday the 14th of May.

We took care of our paperwork Tuesday the 15th and arrainged for Doc’s flight north, on
Wednesday. All this with the help of our friend Basil origionally from the anchorage in San Diego, CA. ( We saw Basil’s boat tied up just off the walkway that runs along the beach. We yelled until he rowed ashore, unable to see who was yelling at him.) Gina was worried that we might miss Robin and Kim, but when we returned they were sitting in the Marina resturant, talking with our traveling companion Timo. Note that Kim had predicted our arrival in LaPaz, within 12 hours, by watching the weather.

We sailed out of LaPaz with Robin and Kim and went to a small beautiful anchorage called Estero Balandra. We swam, kayaked (two in a one man kayak), fished and generally had a good time. Though we caught several fish, none were keepers. The wind started screaming at sunset, so we moved to Caleta Lobos. It was a short but difficult voyage to the new anchorage, due to it being dark and having never anchored there before. Everyone pitched in and we slowly and carefully manuvered around a small island and a reef using the radar, GPS and eyeballs.

Yesterday Kim caught more fish, no surprise. Gina napped, too much sun yesterday and Robin did a lot of kayaking. Today May 19, 2007 we have returned to Marina de LaPaz, let Robin and Kim get a shower and they were at the airport by noon. Wish they could have stayed longer. We will move north slowly in four days, toward Bahia de Los Angeles.

Much Love

Randy and Gina

Hello Everyone,

Here we are on the eve of our departure from Bahia Tortugas and I’m in my usual state of confusion.  Mother’s Day is today in Mexico, but NEXT Sunday in America.  Well, please consider my Happy Mother’s Day message a little early, but no less sincere.  We’re excited about leaving, the weather window appears be at least 5 days long, so we’ll probably be able to round Cabo San Lucas in that time and start toward La Paz. The weather in the Sea of Cortez is far milder and there are dozens of good anchorages to choose from.  The guys have charts spread out on a table overlooking the harbor and are planning several alternative routes.  It’s nice to see them absorbed in something besides fishing.  Randy ran into one of the two Americans who live here last week and guess what, he owns a tackle shop!  Those guys descended on the shop like a swarm of locusts, getting great buys and asking dozens of questions.  The next day Randy caught 4 barracuda right off the bat in a kelp bed at the harbor entrance.  Doc cooked them up that night and they were delicious.  They’ve also caught mackerel (and used them as bait), sheep- head, black sea bass, bonito and a spiny fish (the last two varieties they threw back into the water. )  They come back from their fishing expeditions in the dinghy wet and cold, but when I suggest taking a break, they give me a blank look and say, “We’re fishing.”  Evidently those words say it all.  Fishing seems to severely diminish the verbal capacity of these otherwise talkative men.  I guess that’s the zen of fishing.

We ran out of money a few days ago.  Bahia Tortugas has no bank to cash our travellers checks so Russ (the tackle shop owner) helped us line up a bus to Vizcaino.  Vizcaino is 100 miles away along a dirt road, has no bank either but does have an ATM.  Three times a week the bus leaves Bahia Tortuga at 3 am and comes back the next day.  We got the Thursday red eye and actually managed to fall asleep during the two and a half hour journey.  Our bus driver was an older gentleman and as Timo said, he must have had a sense of mortality, because he was a cautious driver.  He knew every pothole in that washboard road!  We got our pesos at the ATM and asked the driver if he’d bring us back the same day (Russ had said it would be $100 US to come back early.)  Well, after lots of gesturing and writing money amounts in the sand , he agreed to bring us back for $120 US.  This is typical, the amount always seems to be higher the next day.  That driver was whistling all the way home!  We stopped at his favorite place for breakfast and that made the trip worth it for me.  Rancho Santa Monica is in the middle of beautiful wild mountainous country.  The senora cooked us breakfast over a mesquite fired stove in her kitchen and let us wander in her herb garden, fragrant with roses.  She said antelope come to her door.  Like many of the casas here, she had lace curtains in her windows and wore a starched apron while cooking.

Well, I’d best get back to the guys.  This town is so safe thay let me wander by myself, but it is getting late.
With lots of love,
Gina

Hello,

It looks as if our waiting has paid off.  We should leave Turtle Bay, Bahia Tortugas BCS, Monday morning.  The weather window looks good for a week.  We will email from LaPaz or Cabo if not before.

Love and Adios

Randy and Gina