La Paz

Friday December 15, 2005 LOCATION: en route to La Paz
GOOGLE EARTH COORDINATES: 24 18.118N,110 09.761W

It took us a week to make it around the horn and we are now under way to La Paz. After leaving Cabo San Lucas last Saturday we snuck around the corner and anchored for a night in Las Palmillas. It was terribly windy but still less rolly than Cabo was. The next day we motored against some stiff wind and beat our way up to Los Frailes. There we were greeted by about 18 other cruisers who had done the same thing and were now holed up there to wait for a better time to head north to La Paz or south to the mainland. Tucked in this bay the winds don't bother you as much, so for the next four days we enjoyed our stay with all this company. Alcyone, the 60 ft. schooner at waterline 80 ft. stem to stern, from Port Townsend with two families aboard provided most of the toys. We played volleyball a lot. A few local young men from town came by to challenge our rag tag team and though we didn't actually win any matches against them, I can say we defended USA well in our matches against Mexico. It was always a close game. Bruce even got to try his hand again at some wind surfing. Alcyone also had some of that gear to share. There was no surfing here but we did have a great day of snorkeling with the boys. The water was a bit more murky than Cabo but we were still able to see a ton of wild life swimming around. It is amazing to realize that just under the surface and no farther than a few feet from shore the adventure begins. Some of our favorites are the unmistakable Guinea fowl Puffer and various Wrasse's with their colorful heads. You can feel the water beginning to cool again as we head further north. We got spoiled with 77 degrees in Cabo and 74 here with a bit of wind chilled us quickly. There is also the fun and fascinating pastime of watching little sting rays come leaping out of the water, flapping their wings as though they could actually take flight.
We spent a nice dinner with Alcyone aboard their boat one night, while another cruiser graciously offered their boat as Christmas movie night complete with popcorn, brownies and soda for all the children in the anchorage. Everyone had a great time. A second night we joined a couple other boats for a walk into town to have dinner at a restaurant they had found. How they found it I will never know. We walked maybe a mile inland and followed a dirt road past a small hotel, turn right at the cow, follow the dirt road past tall shrubs, past a few more cows only to have Pablo, the cook, drive past us going in the opposite direction yet promising to return. When he did return, it was with his newly bandaged thumb held high. It was from an earlier ice chopping accident. Bandaged but cheerful, he did cook us a wonderful dinner and then loaded all 11 of us up in the back of his pickup and insisted he drive us back to the beach so that we didn't have to walk past any scorpions or rattle snakes. It was a fun adventure to say the least. We are certainly not doing without where food is concerned. The local produce truck came by as scheduled on Tuesday and set up camp at the base of a campground full of trailers and motor homes. What a spread. You could find everything you needed including fresh homemade tamales which we enjoyed for lunch. We missed the bread truck that comes on Wednesdays. We hear he provides yummy apple turnovers, not that we needed any more goodies.
As life goes on the boat, all is well. There are still the occasional maintenance and repair issues to attend to. Some poor critter made it's way up the intake valve of the aft head and smells as though it has long since decayed. We have found some new canvas repairs that need to be attended to on the biminy. Without the nearby hardware stores the priorities or abilities to fix things change. As the term learning curve implies, there never is an end to the discoveries we make on Ohana Kai. We have finally discovered that the way the boat was wired, if the refrigerator is cycling it can interfere with your ability to talk on the VHF radio. Likewise, if the freezer is cycling, your transmissions will be hampered on the single side band. Just now we discovered that the autopilot provides this infernal screeching sound in the Ham radio as well. We have this whole new system of which buttons to push and un-push in order to listen or speak to anyone. Best of all, we are finally able to make contact with our friends on Lawur as they are making their way down Baja in hopes to begin their own journeys and catch up with us in La Paz for Christmas.
Yesterday it looked as though the reported lessening winds were true so we made a break around the bend and spent the night in Muertos. Up early this morning and we are on our way to La Paz. We will look to get a slip and maybe give this baby a much needed bath on the dock. That is one routine that goes right out the window when you are off the dock. We occasionally give the boat a salt water bath to knock off the larger layers of salt that stack up when we do passages.
until next time,
love lisa and the boys