Voyage of the Sea Bear

A pod of six black dolphins swam between us and the shore this morning just after dawn. We could hear them breathing as they broke water, and it  was pretty cool. JC has seen whale sharks here, and we’ve both seen the old-timer turtle that hangs around this tiny cove. Under the boat is a school of tiny, one inch, gold and black striped fish, hanging around the rudder.

I stop each time I get ready to climb the swim ladder and watch them for a few minutes. Most just look back, but there is one, the same one
each time (I think) that swims out to the ladder and checks me out. It’s a sign of fishy curiosity, and a little bravery (stupidity?) that
impresses me. This guy swims to within an inch of my chest, hangs around for a minute or  two, then returns to the crowd back at the rudder. He’s been growing the past few days, he started well under an inch long, now he may be an inch and a half. I hope he finds a good home when we finally haul up the anchor and go back to the village.

I think I’m going to assist one of the town stores in becomming the “gringo’s friend”. I have an old marine band radio I can give the owner, and we’ve discussed a possible business model. I’m not really doing this out of charity, but more to take business away from the store across the street.

A few days ago, I talked to the taxi driver who hangs out at the restaraunt where we beach our dingy. I asked him if he could arrange to have ten of the 20 liter (5 gallon) pure water jugs delivered to the beach, so I could carry them to the boat and refill my tanks. He quoted
200 peso and we agreed to do it the next morning at 9AM. Bottled water usually sells for 12 to 15 peso a bottle, so this should net the taxi
driver 50 peso or so for his time, a fair deal all the way around.

The next morning, at 9AM the taxi driver shows up with a largish man in the front seat. We carry the bottles to my dingy and I shuttled them to the boat, and poured them into my tanks. When I returned with the empty jugs I tried to pay the taxi driver. He said to pay the big guy,  it was his water. When I tried to do so, I found the water was now 30 peso each, for a total of 300 peso. I disagreed, but paid. Then the
driver let me know that he expected 50 peso for his time, as the 300 was just for the water. Ouch!

Well, I did some asking around, and the big guy is known as “The Whale” (Ballena), and has a reputation for short changing, and over charging, us gringos.  He owns (runs?) the only hardware store in town, and sells groceries, water, and misc. hardware.

Anyway, across the street from him is this nice, family owned grocery store / Internet lounge / restaurant. I’ve been trying to talk the young man running the show, Juan, into providing services to the cruisers here. If he could partner up with a local fisherman who has a panga (one of those big fiberglass fishing boats), then he could take orders over the net, or over the radio, from us gringos and deliver goods directly to our boat. I’m sure most of us would be happy to pay a premium to have ice, water, food, INTERNET!, and possibly fuel delivered right to the boat.

As a happy side affect, this would take business away from the Whale, and reduce the chance of other cruiser being cheated as I was. Maybe this is a bit mean-spirited, but I guess I’m just pushing back a bit. I never was good at face-to-face confrontation. This is more my style. We’ll see if it works, and how it all turns out.

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Several pangas pulled into the little cove at Caleta Moreno and rafted together. Looks like I picked the “lunch spot” to rest in. After an hour, they untied from each other and went back to their fishing offshore.

By 1645 the wind and waves had calmed down some, so I (again) headed out to the Southeast. No sails this time, I had the motor running, and I stayed within a mile or two of the coastline. I really wanted to make some “forward progress”. The charts showed a nice, secure looking  bay called San Pedro at N28 02.8 W111 15.3 with good protection from both North and South winds.

I managed to pull into the bay just as darkness fell. This really was a sweet looking place. When I head back northward with JC, I’m going to try to stop here. I dropped anchor in 18ft of water, onto good holding sand.  Took a short  dip before crashing for the night. I was the only boat in here. The charts said I was only about 15 miles from San Carlos.

Somehow I had lost the steel pin connecting the lifeline to the pulpit. Those things were secured by circular cotter pins, I have no idea how it broke or worked loose. One more item to buy or have made in Guaymas. In the meantime, I’ll use a bolt and nut with nylon insert to keep it from working loose.

Peering through the dodger

Tomorrow should be a short day sailing to Guaymas. Guaymas is an industrial port, not a tourist/gringo town like San Carlos. It seems that JC and I both prefer the Mexican cities to the towns developed by/for the gringos. The channel is well marked, and large enough for those big cargo ships. I think the Mexican Navy has a base in there as well.

Tomorrow, with any luck at all, I should be tied up at the Singular Marina there.

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It’s a beautiful morning in San Francisquito bay. I raised anchor at 0600 and motor sailed pas the south end of Tiburon Island to Kino Bay. The islands here are all part of a national reserve, controlled and managed by the indigenous people, the Seri.  Any time you go ashore, you need to have a local guide with you.  Sea Bear transited the Monument Pass, between Tiburon and Turner islands about 3PM. I had made good enough time to continue to Kino bay before dark.

I dropped anchor in 8ft of water, even more shallow than San Francisquito. But the threat of a Chubasco (wind storm) was real, and I wanted to tuck up as close to the cliffs as I could get.

I awoke at 0300 to 30+ kt winds gusting from the south east, and lightning flashing in the distance. The anchor seemed to be holding just fine. By 0345 the wind was over 35 knots (about 40 MPH). I checked the deck, everything looked secure. At 0415, I could feel the keel bumping in the mud. This is NOT a good feeling, and quite different than the normal rocking of the boat, and the swing around the anchor. Within a few minutes I was pretty sure we were stuck in the mud. I was concerned that a wind shift could now blow from one side, tilting the boat over, as we would no longer be swinging on the anchor, and pointing into the oncoming wind. The tide software I use said that the low tide had just passed, and high tide would arrive at 0900.

Well before 0900, the Sea Bear floated free and I yanked up the anchor and headed to deeper water. I really, really didn’t like touching bottom like that. It was rough, but at least I was sailing again. I headed South East, directly into the 25kt winds.

It was a rough passage. I lost the wood meditation seat that was part of the bowsprit, a 5 gallon plastic bucket full of fresh water that was tied to the lifeline, one oar, and down below the coffee pot shattered. It took a long time to go a few miles, but eventually I reached El Choyudo. There was this cute little cove just a few hundred meters south of the town beach, with good cliffs and protection most of the way around, and a small rocky island covered in pelicans to the north. It appeared real secure.

 Appearances can be deceiving.

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Sea Bear anchored in San Francisquito

Awake at 0530, anchor up by 0700. A short, sweet sail around the point and there is the entrance to San Francisquito! The name means “Little San Francisco” although the locals mispronounce it a little and that changes the meaning to “where Saint Francis quit”. The water inside this tiny bay is 10 to 14 feet deep, shallow for most boats, and enough to keep me on my toes as I find a  spot to drop anchor. There is already one boat here, right in the middle, but there appears to be room on either side of her. By 0815 the anchor is down, and I’m ready to explore.

Looking at SanFrancisquito from the boat

From the boat, town looks like 3 to 4 buildings. I know there is an airstrip over the hill, and a few other buildings that were visible from last nights anchorage off the beach.

Before I could get the dingy into the water, Karen and her wonder dog row over in their boat and welcome me to the bay. Karen, her husband Mike, and the terrier have been here doing “boat projects” and she says that this can be a difficult place to leave. The wind and weather are so nice that there always seems to be a reason to hang around for another day or two. Well, I know I have to be in Guaymas in time to meet JC, so that shouldn’t be an issue with me, but I am looking forward to coming back. We did make a plan to meet on the Sea Bear at sundown for a drink.

I drop the dingy into the water, and row to the beach. The plan is to hike over the hill to the resort / airstrip and maybe grab some fruits and veggies. The trip to the beach is a short one, and it appears that there is a small Mexican Army camp just outside of town. The guys play soccer in the evening when it cools off. I have no idea what they are guarding here.

The airstrip

It’s about a two mile hike to the airstrip. It overlooks the beach I was anchored off of last night, Santa Teresa. There is one small store here (I saw a stand up soda cooler with a glass front, no shelves, no goods.) The local family was friendly, and implied that later the Resaruante would have food.

I bought a water, and and an Orange Fanta soda, and hung around for an hour. In a bit, three soldiers in tan camo outfits walked in, bought a few cartons of milk, and stood around chatting.  With nothing else happening, I figured it was time to return to the boat. The temperature was climbing, and I wanted a swim.

The walk back was uneventful, and the miles quickly passed.  This was desert, dunes, sand, cactus and barbed wire fences. The water was beautiful, but I have no idea why somone would fly down here to spend a week if they didn’t have access to a boat.

One of the toys we brought back from Oregon was a Hummingbird depth finder. I rigged the transducer to a pole, and dug out a few 6 volt sealed batteries to use as “portable power”. I hope to be able to use it on the Sea Bear, and from the  dingy, if I have to scout out an unknown anchorage. The batteries were old, and I’ve been charging / discharging them via the 12 vold plug in the main companionway. When I hooked up the wires this afternoon, I must of reversed them, because in a minute or so, I had major smoke, and the hot wire had melted several holes in the mosquito screen that was draped across the hatch. I yanked the socket out, and the smoke had just cleared when my guests arrived.  Good timing, but I’d have to check things out later on to see if there was any other damage.

Signs, signs, everywhere signs.

 We chatted. I agreed to take the Amature Radio Examiners (VE) test when I returned in a few weeks. That way, I could help proctor tests for other cruisers who wanted to upgrade their “ticket”.  Mike and Karen are both active in the radio nets here in the north end of the Sea, and it sounds like it will be fun to help out. There will be a “Full Moon Party” on the 21st, and I hope to be back up this way by then. Overall we had a wonderful chat.

Afterwards, I went below to see if there was any other damage done by my “stupid battery trick”. I noticed one of the breakers had tripped, and when I tried to reset it, it kept re-tripping. Darn! My guess was that the hot wires had melted their insulation, and shorted together. I pulled the electrical panel off, and after three hours, discovered that the problem was a bad 12v plug, on a different circuit. The two items (smoke test and breaker tripping) were not related. What are the odds of that?

Well, it was after 10PM now, and I hope to depart early in the morning for the mainland, or at least for the south end of Tiburon Island. So I put the tools away, tucked the wires back into their cubbys, bolted the panels back in place and went to bed.

Another exciting day in paradise.

Hooks to hang your fish on

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Up at daylight. Almost. Well anchor was up by 7AM, so it was close.  I wished I had more sleep, but what the heck. The seas were flat, but once I got around the cape (Cabo) the wind picked up 8 to 10 kts. I sailed at 3.5 kts, and then fired up the motor, and motor-sailed over 5 kts. I was making pretty good time, but burning up a little fuel. I was actually going to pass my planned overnight spot, so I decided to head as far as I could before darkness forced me to halt. I REALLY don’t like pulling into a new anchorage when it’s dark, my vision isn’t good enough to check out a new place if the lighting is poor.

   I wasn’t going to make it all the way to San Francisquito, but just south of there was a beach (Santa Teresa) that should offer good protection from the prevailing North and West winds. And if the anchor dragged, I would be moving away from the beach, not towards it.

Just as the sun was setting, I approached the beach. It looked pretty good. The bottom looked like sand, and was 20 ft down, what I consider the perfect depth. I’d anchored in as little as 12 ft, but that made me nervous. The boat needed 6 ft to float in, and the tides at this end of the Sea could be as much as 22 feet at the northern tip of the Sea of Cortez. I had no idea what they were locally, but 20 feet sounded pretty good to me. And it was just fine. Dropping the anchor at 19:20 was cutting it pretty close. But I dove in, checked to make sure it looked like the anchor was set, and had a beer. Next item on the agenda was to watch the sun set.

Well, I could get used to this. It’s lonely by my self, but I do get lots of time to think.

And I got to sleep the whole night through.

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I’m too cheap to pay for more slip time here at Santa Rosalia. With JC in Michigan, and her not planning to return for two or more weeks,  I’ve decided to head out alone. The Sea Bear and I know each other pretty well, and I don’t think I’ll have to do any “overnighters”. The first stop is only a few miles up the coast, and if something weird happens, I can always sail back here.

Wally, off the Stella Blue, loaned me a thermometer for the new Engle. It seems to take a long time to freeze bottles of water, especially it it really is 0 degrees F. inside. An overnight test shows 28 degrees F. as the coolest it is getting. One more thing to add to my “to-do” list. What is the coldest this box should get, and what do I do if it’s not performing up to par?

12:30PM – Cast off and head out.  The wind is almost non-existent, seas flat, water temp about 85 degrees F. and air temp 94 degrees. Hot and boring.  Good for a first solo trip.

Gypsum mine at Caleta Santa Maria

The destination for my first night is the industrial harbor located at the Caleta Santa Maria Gypsum mine. If the mining operations are not running, it should be quiet and secure. If they are running, it will be dusty and noisy.

Looks quiet.  At 15:25 the anchor went down and I have the little harbor to myself. After a swim and a beer, I fixed a little dinner and went to sleep. I hope to take off early in the morning and see how far I can make it towards San Francisquito bay.

23:45 – The anchor alarm went off. The wind is blowing 12 to 15 knots. The anchor is slowly dragging through the sandy bottom. I stay up until 2AM, then the wind calms down. It takes a bit longer for me to calm down, but eventually I get back to sleep. Why does this seem more stressful when I’m alone? I’m sure JC would be an asset, but she’d also be at least as nervous as I am. Ah well, in the end it was only the loss of a few hours of sleep.  And surely this kind of thing only happens once in a great while, right?

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Whew. It’s about a hundred degrees outside, and it won’t start cooling off for another few hours. I’m sitting here in Santa Rosalia. JC flew back to Michigan on a family matter, and I am wrapping up the  last of my boat chores before taking the Sea Bear north by my self. The electronic toys we purchased in Oregon (fans, computer, new depth sounder, cd player, etc) have all been installed. I’m still not  ready to take a saw to the old cooler so the Engle cooler is sitting here in the main salon. Most of the other tasks have been completed.

I’m finding it hard to keep motivated. I never really enjoyed spending a lot of time by myself. But these next few weeks will give me a chance to test myself, to see if I have the skills and attitude to be 100% self reliant. The heat makes me sluggish, and the pool here is warm, shallow, and a bit, green.

RotKat just pulled in here. Arjan stopped by to say “Hi” and we’ll probably go out for a drink or something later on. That big cat does 7 1/2 knots easy, so it’s only 10 or 11 hours for him to cross to San Carlos / Guaymas. Still, I prefer the Sea bear. My trip will be longer, time and distance-wise.

From here (Santa Rosalia), it’s about 41 NM northward to Punta Trinidad. Trinidad isn’t big enough to have a town or anything, but it does offer a small amount of protection to anchor in.  A second day of sailing will take me into Bahia San Francisquito. This is a REMOTE  resort, catering to the occasional aviator and cruiser who wanders by. Food and supplies are supposed to be expensive, so I’ll stock up before heading up there.

From SF, I can either head north to the Bay of LA, or take 2-3  little 4 hour day trips across to the mainland. Then its 80 miles back south to San Carlos.  I will probably overnight in Bahia Kino, Las Cocinas,  San Pedro, and then San Carlos.  Once JC  is back aboard, we’ll turn around and retrace my steps, or just cross back to Santa Rosalia and do it all again.

I guess I should go see if they have put the Beach Bear (our white chevy van) back together again. Several of the guys want to make a “heavy goods / booze” run, and there is no reason to hire a taxi when I have the Beach Bear here. This morning they had the radiator out, and the “dog house” opened to do the plugs/filters/distributor/ oil change.  I may take it for a spin to see if she runs any better.

I may buddy boat with Simple Pleasures, if they are ready to go Monday. If not, I may head out on my own and let them catch up.  It’s silly for me to keep paying marina slip fees to stay in a comfortable place. I’m down here to adventure, it’s time to untie the Bear and start out.

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I had forgotten how much it rains here. JC and I are really looking forward to returning to the warmer Sea of Cortez climate. But the welcome we’ve received from the family has been very warm, and overall we’re having a good time.

  I just purchased a Garmin car/boat GPS navigator thingy (Garmin Nuvi 550, with Blue Charts) and will post a review here after we’ve tried it out. We’ve also purchased an Engle cooler, Acer Netbook for JC, a Chevy 1992 van, and an ever growing pile of other stuff. Getting all this across the Mexican border is one of the last major chores I have left. I’m hoping the FM3 will ease the customs folks some.

Family are all doing well. My daughter gave me a beautiful grand daughter but missed my birthday by 36 minutes. I’ll forgive her this time. <big grin> Son is doing well, as are the rest of the family.  It’s nice to have so little drama going on. <another, really big grin>

Our current plan is as follows:

• Depart Corvallis June 24
• Depart Rogue Valley for SF Bay area June 28
• June 30 – Meet/greet at BBYC (Alameda Yacht Club)
• Visit folks in Sunnyvale July 1/2
• Palm Springs area July 3
• Phoenix AZ July 4
• Take Guaymas Ferry to Santa Rosalia July 5
• Arrive back on the Sea Bear 7/6
• Prepare Sea bear for trip across Sea of Cortez, departing 7/8
• Cruise islands…..

Somewhere near the end of July we’ll have to take a week off to return our youngest crew member to her mother. Then we’ll continue our exploration of the northern end of the Sea.

It’s going to be a great summer…

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We tucked Sea Bear in, cleared her decks, put everything loose down below, and packed a bag each. This is the first time we’ve been away from her in over a year.

The Mexican bus line “ABC” is quite modern. For about $100 each, we rode from Santa Rosalia to Tijuana in 15 hours. It should have taken less, but these things happen. The bus was comfortable, had video’s running on the monitors most of the time (English with Spanish sub-titles), and had a bathroom similar to any jet plane. There were 5 military-style check points,  where the baggage was inspected, and the passengers, too. 

Crossing the US border took a few hours, but will be quicker next time. JC and I now have FM3 visas, and we were told to get them stamped when we leave and re-enter Mexico. After waiting to enter US customs, we were told that they DON’T stamp Mexican visas, Mexican Immigration does that. So we went back through the line, across the freeway, and located the tiny office that handles that task.  The folks inside had to read the FM3, as it appears that they have never seen one before. I though I had just read that they were going to be replaced by a plastic ID card in a month or so. So perhaps few Americans  will ever have the joy of running that particular gauntlet. Once we had our precious stamp, we got to do the American customs line again, dropping us into San Diego about 3 hours late.

Friends picked us up, fed us a wonderful dinner, and took us to the Amtrak station at 05:45 after a good nights sleep. This was the first train ride I’ve taken in a looong time. This technology has changed little. The conductors were quite vocal about the government’s lack of support, but there was a full load of passengers, the equipment was old, and in good shape. Meals were a bit pricey, plan on $10 for breakfast and $20 for lunch and dinner each. The seats were fairly comfortable, twice the room of a typical jet. The view was great, and the other passengers friendly. 25 hours is a long time to be sitting down, but there was plenty of room to walk around, and you could jump off the train for a few minutes at most stops. Most of the smokers did. I was quite disappointed that the train we were on had no Wi-Fi access, despite signs in the station to the contrary.

We arrived in Albany about 2 hours late, and were greeted by my little brothers smiling face. He shuttled us to his wonderful home, and we’ll spend a week here sifting through our backlog of paperwork, taxes, bills, and such.

Everything here is so green. And wet.  And cool. I’m glad I packed long pants, and some fleece.  The smells are wonderful. I do miss Oregon a bit.

 We also have a pile of our stuff here that we’ll sift through for things that might be useful on board. Our used Engles freezer is here, and looks to be in good shape. We’ve had parts shipped here too. Now I have to figure how to haul all of these items back to Mexico. I may need a wheelbarrow.

We’ll spend a week here, then a week in the Rogue Valley. Then we’ll come back up here to be with my daughter while she gives birth.  Afterwards,  I’d like to attend the National Rooster Crow in Rogue River, on the last Saturday of June.  Then back to the San Francisco bay area, to visit friends, and onward to San Diego and finally to return to the Sea Bear in Santa Rosalia.

At least that’s the plan as of this morning. It’s all subject to change.  But life always does.

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8 to 12 inches long. White. Living in about 15 ft. deep sandy bottom.

OK, all you researchers  and amatuer marine biologists, here’s a question for you. What is this life form? I saw it in about 15 feet of water, growing out of the sandy bottom where I dropped anchor. The anchor missed it by about a foot.

JC sleeps better if I go down and check the anchor each time I set it. While checking the anchor in San Juanico, I spotted this guy. At first I thought it was a white feather, just stuck in the ocean floor. But after a bit, I don’t think so. I didn’t pull it up to see what was buried under the sand, but I did manage to get this one picture of it.

Any ideas of what this is?

Post a comment with your educated (or not) guesses. Links to other photos would also be appreciated.

BEST ANSWER SO FAR – Sea Pen – See Janet’s comments and link below…

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