Voyage of the Sea Bear

The tiny round anchorage at El Choyudo looks perfect. There is a beach with kids playing to the East, a high rock cliff to the South and West, and a narrow channel past a rock covered in pelicans and their droppings to the North. Snug was my first thought. I dropped anchor and put the dingy in the water. Rowing to the beach was easy, and I tied the Porta Bote to a big panga anchor that was above the water line.

The town of El Choyudo has one or two small stores, one restaurant (the Palapa), and no INTERNET access for us cruisers. A 35 ft fishing trawler was anchored off the restaurant. Most of the available beach space was covered with Panga’s (fishing boats), nets, awnings and such. The owner of the restaurant drove me in his truck back across town to my boat after I’d eaten lunch.  As I untied my dingy, I noticed that I had a crowd of boys hanging around in the cockpit of Sea Bear. The adults on the beach didn’t seem concerned, so I hid my dismay and rowed back out to my unlocked, open, home full of strangers.

There were six of them. They ranged from 13 to 17 and none claimed to speak English. Nothing appeared to be missing above decks, and after talking a bit, they asked for water. I dragged a big bottle of cold water out of the cooler, and they passed it around. Then they went forward and started diving off the bowsprit. This was when I noticed the meditation seat was missing with two screws  still poking through the steel tubing. I removed them as they looked like a safety hazard to me.

When the kids climbed back aboard, they asked for food. I said “No”, and they seemed OK with that. A little later they all lined up along one side of the boat, said “Good Bye” and dove in.  It was an interesting visit. I felt this might be a good place to spend an extra day, and to get some rest.

I turned in early, hoping to get a full nights sleep. That didn’t happen. Around 2330 the wind picked up, and the anchor alarm went off. Sure enough, the radar showed I was slowly dragging back onto the rocky isle.  Did I want to pull up the anchor while the wind was blowing? How was I going to keep the Sea Bear off the rocks, after I got the anchor up? It was dark enough that I couldn’t see the isle without the handheld spotlight, which was back by the steering wheel. I needed to be in three places at once, but the place I DIDN”T want to be was on those darned rocks. Ignoring the problem wasn’t going to help, I could see the Bear slipping closer and closer back towards the rocks. Arrrgh.

So I started the engine, hooked up the spot light and turned on the circuit breaker for the anchor windlass.  The wind was still blowing pretty good, and the bow of the boat was bouncing up and down. I raised the anchor, and sprinted back to the wheel. Putting the boat in gear, I grabbed the spotlight and looked for the rocks.

I was already past them. Due to no skill of my own, when the anchor came off the bottom, the Bear was blown around the island. I did a big circle, and chose a spot downwind of the island, off the panga covered beach. Dropping  the anchor was easier than raising it, and I let out plenty of chain. I could drag a mile or two now before I’d get close to anything.  After a while the adrenalin shakes subsided, and I went back to bed.

I still hoped to take a day off tomorrow.

By 1030 in the morning, I was bored. The weather looked calm, so I headed south.  Twenty minutes later I had 25 knot winds on the nose, and was bashing into 4-6 ft. waves. In the space of three hours I sailed (no motor) 6 miles out, and 6 miles back. Total forward progress was less than 4 miles.  I lost a wooden oar from the porta bote, and folded one of my new aluminium awning poles in half. I was thoroughly annoyed and exhausted.  There was a little bay named Caleta Moreno that offered some SE protection from the wind, so I pulled in and dropped anchor. The plan was to take a nap till things calmed down some, then instead of sailing, just motor like heck and make some forward progress.

That was the plan.

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I plan on heading out tomorrow, and might be “off the net” till the weekend. Both me and the Sea Bear are prepped and ready to sail. The forcast looks like this:

MONDAY – No wind, generally SE flow 5 – 10 in the middle, sea breezes on the
Mainland side, seas Flat

TUESDAY – No wind, generally SE flow 5 – 10 in the middle, sea breezes on
the Mainland side, seas Flat

WEDNESDAY – No change, no wind, no seas

THURSDAY – SE 10 – 15, seas SE 1 – 2 feet

FRIDAY – SE 15 – 20, seas SE 1 – 3 feet

Looks like a long, slow, quiet trip.  I’ll take pictures if I see anything.

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Well I killed my first fish using a spear gun today.
We spent the afternoon snorkeling. JC was a bit apprehensive about getting stung by jellies while swimming, but I don’t consider it any worse than dancing with all the Bees on deck (see last post on bees, and the strategies to handle them).

Reef fish

As it was, I have been stung by something in the water once each day I’ve gone into the water. Not a bad price to pay.
It’s often over 95 degrees during the afternoon, and it feels awfully good to take a dip.
Today I cleaned the spear gun, sanded the rust off the spear, disassembled the handle/trigger assembly, lubed it up, and reassembled it.
Once or twice I thought I broke it for good, but each time I had the tools/skills to continue.
Once we were in the water, we headed towards the rocky shore. JC had the camera, photos will be posted with this text. I had my newly serviced spear gun and only needed a target. Several hours later, JC headed back to the boat while I continued to search.
When I finally swam back out to the boat, I passed through a school of silvery “trout-looking” fish. Since they were the only fish around, I shot at them. After 7 to 10 times, I finally got one. It wasn’t big enough to feed both of us (about 13 inches),  so I grabbed my weight belt, and headed back to shore.
  You would think I was plenty heavy already. But blubber floats. With a wet suit, I floated even more. By the time I dived deep enough to get to where the fish were, I was out of air, and all pooped out. By strapping on 18 pounds of lead, it actually made it easier to get down to the fish. It made it HARDER to swim on the surface, but I still float.
  With the weight belt, hunting along the rocks was much easier. I soon spotted a nice rock fish, and had my second kill. I took it back to the boat and gutted both. Then it was JC’s turn to fillet them, and make dinner. The second larger fish was great. The smaller guy wasn’t too bad either, very mild flavor.

None of the fish in these pictures were shot or eaten. But they did witness the violence. And most snacked on the remains that were tossed overboard.

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Bees on the screen

Bees.
In this dry climate, honey bees are always searching for water. The hive depends on it. Since we use water on the boat, we smell like water to the bees. There are four strategies I can think of that are used to deal with bees;
1) Most hostile – Kill all the scouts. Some folks say if you kill all the scouts, then the bees will eventually not
know you are there.
2) Semi-hostile – put on a leather glove and whack the bees, but don’t kill them. I’ve heard folks swear that bees are
intelligent enough to leave you alone if you keep smacking them. They don’t like it,and they pass the word along.
3) Neutral – Our tactic – keep good screens in place, and keep the bees out. Keep no fresh water on deck, and if you spill fresh water (or beer, or whatever) then wash it down right away with seawater. Eventually the bees realize there is no water here. Any motion or disturbance on deck usually generates a few bees to check things out, but overall, it seems to work.
4) Bee friendly- Put out fresh water in a bowl as far from the human-occupied areas as possible. The thought process here is that the bees will stay near the water, and leave the rest of the boat alone. It seems that the boats that do this still have bees all over, but the people are a lot more relaxed about them. Maybe this isn’t a bad idea. I’ve even seen folks make a bog “flower” to go around the water bowl, just so it’s easier to find.

There are down sides to all of these, but the one that hit us this morning was due to a “bee-friendly” boat. This boat departed around 3AM, and come sunup, their swarm of bees came down to the harbor, and when they didn’t find their usual boat, they moved into ours. They seemed quite annoyed that we didn’t have their water bowl out, and we had 4-5 times our normal bee population on deck all day. We’ll depart in the morning instead of resorting to bee-grade violence.

Good thing they go home each night.

I sure wish those “bee friendly” folks had taken their swarm with them when they left.

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Dawn at Sweet Pea cove, San Marcos Island

Ahhhh… It’s good to be out of the marina, and back “on the hook”. We moved the unneeded items into the Beach Bear (the van) but I don’t really notice any “extra space” on board the Sea Bear.

Today I cleaned most of the bottom of the boat, and hope to complete that chore tomorrow. It’s wonderful in the water, the air temperature is around 100, and the water temperature is around 84. There’s this bold silver fish, with a yellow stripe down his side, and a yellow tail, that has been watching me clean the propeller. He’s big enough for lunch, and if he’s still around tomorrow, I may dig out the spear gun and make him the guest of honor.

We flipped the solar panels up. My rough calculation shows that running the new Engel freezer, all 3 rotating fans, lights, radio, music, etc. consumes about 130 amp/hours per day. The panels generate about 90 amp/hours, and the house bank of batteries can store 420 a/h. If we only use half of the house bank capacity, we should be good for 5 or 6 days before we need to start the engine. I like those numbers!

There are half a dozen other boats here at Sweet Pea cove. Brian and Deb paddled over yesterday afternoon for a chat, seems like a friendly neighborhood. Several times a day we also get serenaded by the pelicans, and when the whales cruise by you can hear them blow half a mile away. Down below are a myriad of rays, skates, and little fishies of all kinds.

 We will probably head back to Santa Rosalia later this week to top off the water tank, buy a few bags of ice, and maybe some fresh veggies. Then we will travel northward along the east coast of Baja, stopping first at Punta Trinidad. This Punta (point) has moderate protection and is 40 miles north of Santa Rosalia, a full days travel. The second half to the trip to Bahia San Francisquito is another 40 miles. I believe there is a “Full Moon Party” scheduled for Aug 23 in the Bay of Los Angles, we JC and I are getting back into shipboard rhythm, and we both feel pretty good.

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It’s 2AM, and 82 degrees Farenheit. We’ve been back aboard for almost a day and a half. My to-do list is almost a full page long. It’s hard work, and hot.  I love it.

Yesterday I got the new anchor rode (chain) moved from the van to the boat. I’ve also hauled about half of the cans of food, most of the spare parts, and the computers aboard. I hope to get the porta-bote, outboard engine, and the rest of the parts moved today.

The new speakers were a tight fit, but now we have good music up in the cockpit. Or we did, until I killed the old stereo while trying to remove it. It looks like someone jammed 2 or more music CD’s in at the same time, nothing is ejected when I press the button, but something is blocking new CD’s from being inserted.  Good thing I brought a new car stereo down with me.

I love the new laptop. But I worry that this huge display is going to hit the deck and crack. Ah well, time will tell.

The main salon is a mess, parts, books, clothes scattered all over. The V-berth is still full of stuff we pulled off of the main deck before we left. I’ve hauled the old 130% jib to the van until JC gets a chance to do some repairs. The inflatable dingy is back up on deck, I’ve yet to move the dingy wheels or seats.

Here’s the current version of the to-do list, Ver. 3.0, July 6, 2010:

• Repair old outboard motor. we bought this in La Paz, and despite assurances otherwise, its in pretty bad shape.
• Finish scrubbing the deck. We’ve cleaned up the worst of the bird droppings, but I want to go over it all one more time.
• Repair the 130% jib. The marina is expecting an inspection from HQ – Mexico City this week, but said we could take over the cruisers lounge next week to do the sail work. It’s big, flat, and air conditioned.
• Replace the jib and spinnaker halyards with the new spares from Cajun. The new lines are smaller than the old ones, but I don’t expect that to be a problem, We’ll keep the originals if they’re in good enough shape.
• Dig out the never-used 100% jib and raise it on the roller furling.
• Hang the smaller storm anchor on the pulpit rail, using the new bracket [DONE]
• See if we can find someone who can fabricate a SS plate to cover the damage on the stern. Long ago someone let the outboard swing on the davit and hit the stern of the boat. It’s not structural damage, but the gelcoat and underlying fiberglass is starred.
• Move the diesel jugs back on deck. [DONE]
• Add the new anchor chain to our existing rode. In May we dragged anchor,  this will increase our anchor chain from 75  feet to 160 feet. Plus 150 ft of nylon line. I hope it’s enough.
• Move inflatable dingy (Zodiak) back onto deck. [HALF DONE]
• Move unused books, tapes, CD’s clothes into the van for storage.
• Empty the rest of the van stuff, haul it to the boat
• Print another batch of boat cards.
• Update the web page. I need to add a section on the Sea Bear, with better pictures and technical data.
• Install new fishing rod holder on stern rail
• Install new stereo speakers in cockpit [DONE]
• Figure out why the Garmin quit displaying data from the nautical charts. I really hopped this would make a good backup mini-chart plotter, but right now it’s disappointing. The Long/Lat isn’t visible on the main page, where the chart is displayed. I’ve got a support ticket open.
• Install new CD player
• Find a replacement hatch handle. I really thought I had on lined up in Oregon, but it turned out to be a different hatch, with no handle at all. The old one was cast aluminium, and snapped in the middle. I need to measure the deck flange to order a replacement.
• Fix the galley faucet. It leaks now whenever the water is turned on. While I’ve got it pulled out, I purchased a secondary water filter I want to install in-line.
• Install replacement salt water foot pump.
• Get diesel, propane, cash anad water for trip northward to the islands.

I expect to complete 90% of the above in a week. It’s too hot to work much after 1PM, so the earlier I get started the more I’ll get done.  It’s almost 4AM now, so I guess I’ll see if I can grab a few more hours of sleep before I get started. This is the most fun I’ve ever had.

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Well, we drove all day, and found a nice (huge) hotel in Guerra Negra called the Desert Inn (28.00.02N, 114.00.51,  http://desertinnguerronegro.com) The guy in the parking lot turned out to be a manager(?), and he’s showing us around. When we mentioned that we hav a FM3 visa, he commented that if we show it when we check in it’s usually good for a 40% discount. Whoppee!! Less than $50 a night including WiFi.

I was really worried about clearing customs. At 7am in San Diego the inspector didn’t want to discuss the options available to FM3 holders, or what we could take in to the country as repair parts. So he just told us to forget it all, and proceed through. I didn’t need to be told twice. But after preparing all the paperwork, it was anti-climactic.

Visiting family was great. But as JC and I were discussing the visit, we realized that all you folks are over-stimulated. Everybody has so many irons in the fire that it’s HARD to focus on anything that doesn’t immediately effect you.  It will  be good to slow down again, listen to the waves and the wind, and once again relax. Eventually we’ll have to go back and a get a real job. But till then this is our “once in a lifetime” chance to take a true “vacation”.

Need to eat.. Little shrimpies calling my name (don’t know how they discovered that). That was a fine Margarita.

More later, from the boat.

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Well, it’s still raining here in middle-Oregon. We’re assembling our pile of supplies/parts to take back to the Sea Bear. Later today we’ll look at a couple of possible vehicles to transport this stuff southward. The 12′ Port-a-bote is the defining piece of cargo, anything we chose will have to be capable of transporting it. So, I bought a tape measure, and now I’ll go van shopping.

Having a van available in Mexico gives us several new options.  Inland trips,  taxi-less shopping trips, and jaunts from the boat to other cities all become possible. And when we’re not driving it around, we can store items in it that would otherwise be in the way aboard the Sea Bear. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea.

Next week we’ll head south to the Rogue Valley. There we will visit with more family, check on the rental property, and participate in the National Rooster Crowing contest. Afterwards we’ll pack all our stuff into the van, and head to the SF Bay area for a few days. Then it’s back to the boat, where warmer weather awaits us.

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Our 12ft Port-a-bote Tender

I guess I’ll start looking for a replacement for the “Bear Cub”. It’s been three days now and we’ve found nothing. I’ve notified the Capitan del Puerto, and he’s had aircraft looking for her. I’ve talked to the local Mexican Navy base, and although they didn’t speak much English, I gave them a picture and got the feeling that they would keep their eyes open.  For three days I’ve been making announcements on the “Cruisers Net”. I’ve taken a boat out and check both sides of the inner bay.

  I would rather think that someone has her, and will be using her, than she sunk. The Port-a-bote floats even completely full of water, but I’ve never tested that with the outboard engine mounted on the stern. The tidal currents are so strong here that I’m sure searching the bottom near the area we last saw her would be a futile exercise.  Dad’s big blue wooden oars would have floated, as would have the Uniden hand-held radio, and red gas can. None have been seen.

The third possibility is that she’s headed North ahead of us. We’ll be taking off Wednesday (I hope) after we are finally issued our FM3 papers. These papers are like the Tourists Visas we were given when we entered the country, but only require renewal on a yearly basis, and grant us additional rights. It would be neat if we pull into some deserted cove on our way to San Felipe and the Bear Cub is there waiting for us. I guess it’s possible.

In the meantime, I will head into town today and see what the local cost of a 8HP 2-stroke outboard  is. We already have the inflatable dingy,  so the only other required purchase would be a hand held marine band radio. Both items will probably cost me twice wha they would in the US. Ahh well, that’s a price I am willing to pay to live aboard the Sea Bear in this tropical paradise. Overall, I would do it again, as the Chat de Mer has had her anchor windlass repaired, and suffered no additional damage. Nobody was injured. The Bear Cub can be replaced.

But I will miss her.

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Last night we got a distress call on the radio. A friend’s boat had dragged it’s anchor and the single crew on board needed assistance getting the big catamaran into the marina. JC and I were watching a movie when we got the call, but I got a warm shirt on, and we put the outboard on the dingy, grabbed a hand-held radio, and off I raced, into the darkness.

When I got to the other boat, I tied my dingy off on the back of one of the hulls, and climbed aboard. It seems the anchor was fouled, the winch didn’t want to pull it up, and the cat was drifting towards other boats. While the owner (Leo) manned the engines, I went forward to get the anchor up.

Fighting with the windlass, I finally got the anchor far enough out of the water to see the chain was wrapped around the flukes. After 10 minutes or so, I managed to get it untangled, but I also managed to release the anchor chain as well. <doh> Since the windlass wasn’t working, I finally set my feet and pulled the anchor up, hand-over-hand. <whew>

The Chat de Mer has two engines. One stalled while I was working with the anchor, but after several attempts, it restarted. With both engines working, and the anchor up, it was a routine (in the dark, with high wind) matter to get her into the marina, and tied to a slip. When I went back to get into my dingy, to go home, it was gone.

Half of the painter was still tied off. The severed end was all twisted up, so I’m guessing that we backed over it, and it got caught in  the prop. That would explain the stalled engine as well. So we lowered Leo’s dingy and went looking.

Cold, dark, and darned windy. After an hour of searching, we called it quits, to await morning light. 

It’s now the next morning, and I am awaiting the morning radio net, to announce my missing boat. I hope seh’ll be found and returned, as we really have no other way to get ashore from the anchorage.

I’ll keep you posted…..

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