Chacala

We wish all of our friends and family could enjoy this rustic little village before it becomes an overbuilt tourist attraction. It’s only about 50 miles north of bustling Puerto Vallarta making it inevitable that sooner or later big changes will come. We anchored bow and stern 250 feet off the sandy beach giving us a perfect view of the half dozen palapa restaurants tucked in under rows of palm trees. The hills around Chacala are thick with the intense green vegetation that one finds only in tropical locations. Although the water is not particularly clear it’s a pleasing green color and deliciously warm and inviting. The shore break is relatively mild and we had a good chance to practice our dinghy landings and so far nothing bad has happened, but stay tuned as we try our skills in more difficult locations. Other Ha-Ha participants have been arriving here so we’ve had a chance to renew earlier acquaintances and make some new ones. All hands agree this is a special place and we’re glad for the opportunity to spend a few days before moving on to Punta Mita where our soon to be finished condo is located. If all goes well we should be anchored in front of the condo around November 29.

Almost forgot! While enjoying an early afternoon beer in one of the Chacala palapas we noticed whales spouting not far off the anchorage so we quickly cleared up the bill and jumped into our dinghy for a closer view of these magnificent animals. (Check out the photos). What a treat…. We were cruising along no more than 125 feet away while four or maybe five humpback whales including what appeared to include juveniles cavorted with each other as they slowly made their way down the coast. Probably a once in a life time experience even for people like us who spend so much time on the water. Since we were low on fuel we could not stay as long as we wanted and headed back for Destiny otherwise you’d be reading about missing gringos out to sea in their little dinghy.

After four days we had to head to Punta Mita. Gilly had a bad infection in her elbow which needed professional treatment. Check out December 3rd's Lectronic Latitude...

To view larger pictures and captions, click on a photo... Also, check out the pictures of the whales..

Mazatlan to Chacala

Our next leg was a 140 mile overnight trip further south to a small anchorage off the village of Chacala. The weather forecast was good so we expected an uneventful trip. On the morning of November 24 we awoke to clear skies but as we were departing the marina black clouds appeared and soon the rain was coming down in buckets. As we approached the dreaded entrance to the harbor mentioned earlier, we soon saw what the guide books were talking about. Large swells coming in and breaking on the jetty but fortunately not yet across the entrance which is so narrow that turning back was not an option. John gunned the engine and Destiny bashed into the steep swells like a high performance Coast Guard vessel and we made out with our hearts pounding away like overworked jackhammers. It was sloppy in the relatively shallow water outside the harbor so we kept on heading out to sea as fast as possible. Once safely offshore we set a course straight for Chacala with Destiny rolling like crazy as we motor sailed with the large swells on our beam. The squalls let up during the day but as darkness approached they were back again with a vengeance accompanied but what appeared to be the whole Mexican shrimping fleet. We spent the night dodging the hard working fishermen and many times losing them to the rain squalls as they moved across our radar. Despite all of this we both managed to get reasonable sleep as we have confidence in each other and our equipment. At daybreak we found ourselves right on target 1.5 miles off Chacala.

Mazatlan

The El Cid marina/hotel complex is a high end facility and we had access to the pool and other hotel amenities. The docks were clean and our neighbors were friendly so our 6 day stay was most enjoyable. Our next door neighbor, Tony, had a car and graciously agreed to show us around a city that he clearly enjoys. Mazatlan is known for shrimp so he took us to street vendor where we purchased 2 kilos of big shrimp (guess you’d call them prawns) and then on to a restaurant that cooked them for free and served $1.10 Pacifico beers. We met some other cruisers there and stuffed ourselves with all the shrimp we could eat. This is the kind of thing we’d heard about in Mexico but had not yet experienced. A few days later we took the bus to the Gigante supermarket where did some provisioning mostly for beer and to restock our seriously low wine cellar. In between we had Thanksgiving dinner at an annual affair held by the local cruising community. It was not all that we expected but we still had a good time. We enjoyed our stay in Mazatlan but it was not nearly long enough to see and do all the place has to offer so we’ll be back again at some point.

Cabo San Lucas to Los Frailes (The Friars) and Mazatlan

Before departing Cabo we needed to top off with diesel and water so we pulled up anchor and made our way into what must be the busiest Pemex fuel dock in all of Mexico. We managed to time our arrival with the return of sport fishing fleet from their daily expeditions out into the Pacific loaded with gringo fisherman. We found ourselves fighting for dock space during the local rush hour but somehow it all worked out and we got away without a scratch and ended up paying only $2.50 per gallon compared to the $4.25 we paid in San Diego for diesel. While heading back to the anchorage for one more night we realized that in all the commotion at the fuel dock we forgot to take on water. Neither one of us wanted to go through all of that again so we fired up the watermaker and made 44 gallons.

The next day was November 14 (our departure delayed due to Customs losing our paperwork) and so after 6 days we were happy to leave the hustle and bustle of Cabo with jet skis, speeding pangas and other craft creating constant noise and making Destiny into roller coaster. We motored about ¾ of the time in fine weather on our relatively short trip to Los Frailes. We arrived to find 10 other boats in a pristine and calm anchorage. We quickly sat back enjoyed the scenery and went into full “Cruiser Mode”. We would have stayed longer but we had a hard to get reservation for a slip at El Cid in Mazatlan so after only 2 days in Los Frailes we headed off on the 162 mile jaunt across the Sea of Cortez. We thoroughly enjoyed what was probably the best sail we’ve had since leaving San Francisco. We had 16-20 knots of wind on the beam all through the day and night and actually had to slow down the last few hours so that we would not arrive at Mazatlan before day break. Both our guide books told us there was a potentially dangerous entrance into the harbor that constantly silts up so we did not want to take any chances arriving in the dark with a large swell. Fortunately it calmed down just as we were arriving so our grand entrance was without any fanfare.

Baja Ha Ha - San Diego to Cabo San Lucas

Sorry for the long delay in posting anything to our blog. Through a combination of limited internet access and being busy doing whatever retired people do it just didn’t get done. We departed San Diego way back on October 28 in the company of 156 other boats on the first leg of the “Baja Ha-Ha” race/rally to Cabo San Lucas located at the tip of Baja California. Our first scheduled stop was Turtle Bay some 360 nautical miles from San Diego. The wind was almost non-existent until about 5 minutes before the 11:00 start and then filled nicely so we took off like a shot near the front of the fleet. Was a real thrill for us to look back on the fleet with Point Loma in the background. We were fortunate to have good winds all along the course enabling us to sail all the way for just over 2 days while most boats resorted to using their engines at some point.

With our hand trolling lines we caught two very nice yellow fin tuna (maguro for you sushi fans). Rod and John wrestled to subdue the fish and then Gilly did a great job of filleting them. Sashimi was soon the order of the day. We arrived at the small village of Turtle Bay after dark at 8:00 PM on October 31 and had to feel our way in using radar and some assistance from our fellow boats. The very important auto pilot died during our last night at sea, but fear not as “Mr. Fix Anything”, Rod Kidd, was able to trouble shoot the problem in Turtle Bay (broken magnet in the drive motor) and repair it while John stared on in amazement. Although it worked fine on the next two legs we decided to replace the whole unit so as to avoid any future problems. While this was going on Gilly was ashore passing out candy to the very cute village kids. These people have very little but could not have been more friendly and helpful to the 500+ gringos invading their village for 2 days. On the second day in Turtle Bay we were part of a large pot luck beach party for all the Ha Ha-ers, which was totally fun. Gave us a chance to talk to our new friends and catch up with people from the 4 other Encinal Yacht Club boats in the rally.

We departed Turtle Bay at 9:00 AM on November 3 for the 240 mile leg Bahia Santa Maria. We again had good wind which unfortunately didn’t last long enough and we ended up motoring for a total of 13 of the 37 hour leg but still had a another night arrival. We had a successful day fishing and this time it was 2 big yellow tail tuna (hamachi) which made up for the lack of wind and by now our catching and filleting skills were much improved when dealing with these great eating fish. Bahia Santa Maria is huge with an easy entrance so coming in at night was not much of a problem for us. The area is uninhabited save for a few small structures which we understand house some transient fishermen. Despite the remote location someone not associated with the Ha-Ha drives for many miles over dusty roads to put on a dinner for the fleet accompanied by a small rock band. Because of huge swells coming through the bay making beach landings difficult we decided to stay on the boat. Probably turned out to be a good decision as more than 70 people we unable to get off the beach before dark and were forced to spend the night ashore. We enjoyed a good night’s sleep and departed the next morning for the last 180 mile leg to Cabo San Lucas. By this time the weather had turned much warmer so our last night at sea was spent in shorts and t-shirts while moving down the course under a beautiful star filled sky with a good breeze directly behind us.
Unfortunately the wind starting dying around 3:00 AM and by 8:30 it was down to almost nothing so we started up the engine for the last 4 ½ hours to Cabo and arrived in the early afternoon to a beautiful setting. Because of movie filming, starring Adam Sandler, in a location where they didn’t want to see any boats we were forced to anchor in close proximity to other boats with jet skies, pangas, and para sailing boats speeding all around us. An unbelievable scene….. Despite all of the commotion and confusion around, we’ve enjoyed our stay in Cabo.

We bid farewell to our able crew of Rod and Peggy on November 11 and plan to leave here on November 13 for an anchorage called Los Frailes which is about 40 miles away. From there we will go to Mazatlan where we’ve arranged welcome space in a marina for 6 days and will spend Thanksgiving there before heading down to Puerto Vallarta.

To see larger photos and captions, click on one of the photos...


_________

Dana Point to San Diego

We departed from Dana Point at 5:45 AM under clear skies and calm winds. As we headed out of the harbor we could see a large very dark cloud of smoke on the horizon. It took us about 2 hours to reach this cloud and once under it we could not see the sun and were constantly bombarded by ash and soot. Destiny’s light gray decks were soon layered with black. It took several hours for us to transit through this into something that was smoky but not quite so bad. While we were about 7 miles offshore, we picked up a passenger, a baby Warbler according to our Bird book. We think he was probably blown out to sea by the strong easterly winds and may not have made it were it not for our being there. He stayed with us for 2 to 3 hours and once the air cleared a little and we were closer to shore he was gone.

We were able to secure dock space at the very primo San Diego Yacht Club where we’ll stay until we depart for Mexico on Monday, October 29. We’ve already heard about SDYC members who lost their homes and everything in them to the devastating fires now happening in this area. We can wash the soot off the boat but their lives have been turned upside down for quite a while. Rod and Peggy Kidd will join us Friday and night and will be our welcome crew until we reach Cabo San Lucas. The four us have been talking about doing the Baja Ha-Ha rally/cruise for at least the last 5 years so it’s very exciting to know that we’ll actually be doing it. The next time your hear from us we should be somewhere in Mexico.

Catalina to Dana Point

We departed Cherry Cove on October 16 for the 12 mile trip along the beautiful Catalina coastline to Avalon. Our trolling lines were out but no luck catching anything from the sea, but we did see 3 magnificent bald eagles soaring above the steep cliffs. We understand they were reintroduced to Catalina 10 years ago and the population is now growing. Despite the town being overrun by 2,000 people off a cruise ship anchored just off the harbor, we had a delightful time in Avalon and departed the next morning for Newport Beach. Although small craft warnings were in effect when we cast off we never saw more than 20 knots of wind which died out to nothing about halfway through our trip. After motoring for an hour the wind came up again allowing us an easy sail for the last 6 miles. The harbor department in Newport has moorings available for $5.00 a night so we soon had our humble Destiny comfortably tied up while we gawked at the gorgeous multimillion dollar homes along the shoreline. The next evening we had dinner with Leslie and Dennis Power former northern California residents and Encinal YC members who, two years ago, made the move to southern California which has all of sudden made a lot of sense to us. Our friends David and Anneke Dury were visiting Newport and kindly made berthing arrangements for us. After one night on a mooring we had a much sought after slip right in the heart of Newport. We enjoyed a lovely dinner with them and the next day they joined us for the short 12 mile trip to the spectacular Dana Point Marina with little wind to push us along but made up for by good company and beautiful scenery. John’s college friend Doug McAdam and his wife Diana joined us Sunday afternoon in beautiful weather which turned ugly later that night with strong Santa Ana (offshore) winds. Large areas of southern California are now engulfed in flames and Destiny is completely covered in dirt (inside and out) but so far no ash. We plan to make the 53 mile trip to San Diego on October 23 and according to news reports the area is covered in smoke from the terrible fires. Stay tuned for the next episode and we’ll let you know how it goes.

To view larger photos and captions, click on photos.