For the best reading experience, I suggest putting on some Neil Young for this post. It was the vibe going as I wrote this, LOL – “Old Man” and “Heart of Gold”.
Yes, we have arrived in La Paz. Our stay at Ensenada de Los Muertos was a nice one, about 7 days, just a few days longer then expected. The winds were blowing strong, so we were content to stay there on anchor, instead of moving on. We had a good few days spear fishing and snorkeling and I was able to shoot a nice size grouper and a few spotted sea bass. One evening we loaded up the dinghy and headed to a beach we had been visiting, our own private beach. We made a big fire with drift wood, cooked some hotdogs, and danced to some good music. It was one of our most memorable times so far. Other than that, there wasn’t much to do at Los Muertos. We spent most our time on the boat taking care of small boat projects, cooking chocolate chip cookies, and just chilling out.
On our last day there, we went to the one resort close by, Gran Sueño, and were glad we didn’t know how nice it was earlier, because we would have spent too much money there. It was super cool. When we arrived at the resort, we found the restaurant and bar and wow, pool tables, shuffle board, music. It was really nice, a place we will stop at when coming back through, for sure. Not knowing if we were welcome, not being guests of the resort, I approached the bartender (I think he was also the manager). I told him we were staying on our boat, anchored out in the bay, and wanted to know if we could come enjoy the place. He smiled and said, “Welcome home, my friend“. Wow, what a good feeling he gave us. Our stay was short, just enough time to eat and enjoy some good music, but we knew it was getting close to time for us to set sail again – we would leave that night.
During our stay at Los Muertos, we saw about eight boats come and go and we started questioning why we were still there, waiting. Should we have gone already? It seemed like we were just chicken, LOL, but we knew the next leg of our journey was no gimme. We would have to navigate two channels and we had heard two boats that had already left on the two-way radio, experiencing a hard time. One boat claimed to run into 28 knot winds and steep seas while another boat, a lot bigger than ours, was taking waves over their bow. Another boat left one morning, only to return a few hours later, because they couldn’t make it through the channel. So we waited for what we thought would be our best shot at it. We wanted to get to La Paz during the daytime, so once again, we would need to leave at night. We finally left about 8:00 PM last Friday. I had to pull up the anchor and chain by hand again, because our windless is not working. Wow, I don’t like that job. With the anchor on board and Shannon at the helm, we set out into the darkness once again.
There was a crescent moon and not much light, just enough to see our way out of the bay. I knew there were two ways of going, one through the channel and another around the island. My good friend Captain Sean Hall had advised me to go around, but if you know me at all, you know the thought of a short cut was looming strong in my mind. As we approached the channel, we went back and forth over which way we should go. We were under sail with our main up all the way again, like always, and the jib was out. It was blowing about 18 knots, coming from the channel, off my port side. I finally turned to go up the channel, but as I looked, the moon shone on the water and I could see the waves coming, one after another, out of the channel; no good. So I turned back at the last minute and went around the island, instead. It was probably a good call, but a hard one for me to make. We sailed all night around the island and when the winds died, we motored. Everything was working good; motor and transmission were doing great. As the sun came up, I thought, dang, we were getting there. Nothing had broken, no big dramas to solve. What? It was actually nice. We had one more channel still to navigate with some shoals and rocks, but it looked like it wouldn’t be too hard. I saw a boat pop up on the plotter, heading the same direction and after a closer look on my AIS, I could see it was a large cargo ship, doing about 16 knots and coming from behind me, off my starboard side. Hmmm, maybe I could follow his path through the channel. He passed us just outside the channel and it worked out perfectly. I followed his line and made it through the channel successfully and La Paz was now in sight. Woo-hoo, it was such a good feeling! It was sunny, beautiful, warm, blue sky, you name it; it was just perfect. We also got a good look Isla San Espiritu, which we will be heading to after our stay in La Paz, and it looks really beautiful. We pulled into Marina Costa Baja, checked in, topped off our tanks, and made it to our slip. With the boat tied up and the motor off, I could finally take that deep breath I was looking for. It seems I’m always holding my breath, waiting for something to break or happen on these legs.
By nightfall, I had the windless out and ready to find a way to get her working correctly. The next morning, we got on the local cruiser channel on our two-way radio, which was really helpful. All the people like us, living on their boats, share information on just about everything you can think of, related to boat life. A huge shout out to Paul on Cemetrus, for hooking us up with Victor, a mechanic who had rebuilt his windlass for him. Victor now has our windlass at his shop (no money out ahead this time, hahaha) and we hope he gets it fixed up for us. I talked to him today and it needs new gears and the motor rebuilt. Dang this boat! It’s always needing something. We were even successful today at changing our secondary fuel filter on our Perkins engine. No, it wasn’t easy; It’s the one filter where you can lose the prime in your engine and then have to bleed the whole system to get it running again. With Shannon reading all the manuals we have on the boat and me not listening to her, complaining, trying to cut corners, and jacking it all up, we almost gave up. Shannon seems to know best while I just like to charge it and yes, sometimes I go head first, over the handle bars and crash. Yes, I’m working on getting better at listening. We ended up getting on the cruiser’s net again and this time it was Michael on Monarch helping us out. With a few small tips, we tried again and the motor started up. I offered to visit him the next day to pay his kindness back with beer, but he told me “no”, he believed in paying it forward, so if we can help someone down the road, “remember today and lend a hand”.
Well, time to grill up the carne asada I’ve been marinating. Until next time, much love from the crew on SV Marissa. Be safe and love each other as best as you can. We’re all in this together.
