January 1, 1999 to February 1, 1999

Happy New Years!

It's hard to believe it is 1999, just a year to go till the year 2000! We remember thinking about the year 2000 long ago....it seem so distant, so futuristic, space people and "Jetson" type of stuff. Well the future is almost here! Don't blink!

We spent New Years on Isla Espiritu Santo (about 30 miles north of La Paz). It is a beautiful Island, steep colorful cliffs, huge cactus, white sand beaches. The island reminds us of something you would see at Disney Land...Wild West Frontier Land...the cliffs are full of caves and strange rock formations. They are bright orange with streaks of red and pink. Every little crack in the cliff has cactus growing out of it. It was so picturesque, everything so perfectly placed that it doesn't seem possible that it was nature's creation. Very pretty.

We went scuba diving on New Years Eve day. Nice dive...tons and tons of fish. Huge Cortez and King Angels over a foot long, schools of Sergeants Majors, Pompano and parrot fish...lots of very different kinds of star fish.

New Years Eve we had a big fire on the beach with about 20 other cruisers we had met on Christmas. Just like Christmas we had another big pot luck....Cooked up some fish and shrimp, played volley ball. It was a full moon so it was really beautiful and bright on the white sand beach. Everybody screamed and yelled at midnight. It was a nice way to bring in the New Year.

After New Years we continued north to Isla San Francisco. Isla San Francisco has a great half moon anchorage that is very well protected from the northerly’s wind, which we have had plenty of! We hiked to the top of the surrounding mountain tops for a look! What a look we got. The visibility was great, we could almost see La Paz some 60 miles away. Tomorrow we head to Isla San Jose and the to Puerto Los Gatos..... This sure doesn't look like California, but the names sure remind us of home!

We headed out from Isla San Francisco for a brisk, wet and windy sail. Going north again in 20 to 25 knots of wind on the nose. We passed several roca's (rocks), across the island channel to Punta San Evaristo. The best part of this wet, sog to weather was Sharon caught another Mai Mai, they call them Dorado here, great dinner for several nights. We anchored next to a 100 foot converted Tug Boat, not your average Tug. The dining on the aft deck looked like it sat at least 10 comfortably. Beautiful ocean going boat, with a crew of 5 Kiwi's and an Italian owner. They were on an world cruise heading to the America's Cup. They carried 15,000 gallons of diesel, they will do just fine!

The wind continued to blow even harder, so we decided to stay in San Evaristo for a couple days..till it lighten up just a wee bit. We took a walk into the nearby village. Classic little village with a tidy little one room schoolhouse, a water well in the middle of the town center, and donkeys and cattle rooming freely down the town center streets. It was interesting...technology has even hit this sleepy little village as each of the about 20 homes had a solar panel on its roof.

We started our 35 mile beat to weather as a lovely sail out of San Evaristo to Puerto Los Gatos in 10 to 12 knot winds. We passed islands San Jose, San Diego and Santa Cruz...such familiar names yet very different surroundings. Puerto Los Gatos....what can you say about the best anchorage yet!!! Absolutely gorgeous back drop...red, red rock cliffs, beautiful white sand beach, crystal clear water. Behind the red cliffs were beautiful jagged mountains striped in reds, oranges and yellows. Huge (25 foot) saguaro cactus filled a little valley, their arms reaching toward the sky creating a wonderful silhouette. We started this journey with no appreciation for the dessert, we have been amazed at it's beautiful. What made this anchorage even more special, we had it all to ourselves for the first night! Not another boat or person in sight for miles and miles. We enjoyed both a beautiful sunset and sunrise, definitely a little bit of paradise. We stayed for several days. There were a couple great reefs we swam to from the boat. We did Scuba diving on both reefs and again tons of colorful fish. We did some fishing and caught several Cabrillo (like a rock cod) for dinner. We went for a hike up the desert valley. We were joined by several other boats on the second day ...so we had to share paradise.

Then unfortunately we got some bad news about Vaughn's Dad's health. We needed to immediately head back to La Paz where we could get to a phone and an airport...for we may need to return home for a bit.

We spent almost two weeks in La Paz ... getting news on how Vaughn's Dad was doing. His Dad was in good spirits. His Doctors were running all kinds of test, they say for his age he is doing well. They scheduled him for surgery the first part of Feburary. We will go home for several weeks in Feburary to be with him and help him out after the surgery. We found Marina space in Puerto Vallarta to leave the boat for our trip home. With these plans all set we picked up our friend Don in La Paz. He will join us for several weeks vacation and the journey to Puerto Vallarta.
We enjoyed our time in La Paz. We were able to get a bunch of boat projects done. We scrubbed and cleaned the boat from one end to the other... after weeks at sea it really needed it. We checked out the local fish market, veggie market and meat market ... nothing like seeing whole cows and pigs being cut up ... everything was put to use... just the heads remained. We enjoyed several restaurants we found off the beaten path that were great. Just the local folks and us. We got great meals of Camarones (shrimp), Pescada (fish) for next to nothing.
We headed back to Isla Espirtu Santo and Partita for several days to give our buddy Don a feel for the Islands. Heading out of La Paz we saw our first Whales! Several Grey Whales. Three or Four of them right next to the boat. Wonderful! An hour later we were joined by a huge pod of Dolphins. They swam with us for miles, leaping out of the water and racing the boat. We all loved it. Don was amazed. We anchored in a tiny single boat cove with a beautiful white sand beach. There was absolutely no wind so the water in the cove was a beautiful glassy aqua blue. As we enjoyed the evening watching the setting sun we were entertained by jumping Manta Rays. Thats right ... they were young, small rays ... and they were circling round the cove, every couple minutes they would jump several feet out of the water... then splash back in, slapping the water. It was great. The evening was beautifully warm. The moon was just a sliver, so the stars were brilliant. The neon phosphoresces in the water were thick ... we laughed and took a stick a drew circles in the water... leaving a neon glowing trail everywhere we disturbed the water. It was like a light show... great!

We woke from the calm night to the wind blowing 25 knots again. We moved down the island to a better all weather anchorage. We went for a hike in the afternoon enjoying the huge cactus. We climbed up the mountain and got a beautiful view back out across the bay. We stopped at a shrimp boat and bought 9 lbs of shrimp for $20 bucks. We had a shrimp feast and just put a dent in the pile of it, freezing the rest for another day.

The next day we started out for Puerto Vallarta. The wind was still blowing... so we had a fast sail 50 miles to Bahia Muretos. We got Muretos in time to enjoy a long walk on the beach... in search on sea shells, while we watched the sunset.
We pushed off from Muretos before daybreak for the crossing of Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan on the mainland. The crossing started absolutely no wind, so we motored for hours. It seems like the wind either blows like crazy here or not at all! We enjoyed seeing a large pod of gray whales. One of them gave us a great full body surface with a great fluke tail wave. We saw a bunch of dolphin. We even saw a turtle! We are currently in literally in the middle of the Sea of Cortez ... 95 miles for land in any direction.

Sharon writing her web update up on deck!
We ended up having to motor all the way across the Sea of Cortez, no wind. We spent a couple days in Mazatlan. The "Old Town" part of Mazatlan was great. Charming town. The central Market was wonderful. We could purchase anything from sides of beef, whole fish, tons of veggies and fruit, cheeses, taco stands, even T-Shirts...anything. The town was bustling with local folks. Everybody was extremely friendly. You could get a beer for 60 cents. We took a hike up to the top of the worlds second highest lighthouse (el Faro)....from the top you could see for miles...both old and new Mazatlan the beaches and bay, everything!
We headed out of Mazatlan for Isla Isabela. It is about 30 miles off the coast. It is a very rugged island and said to be an "anchor eater" but it's worth the risk. The island is a BIG bird sanctuary. There are many thousand (yes, that's right thousands) of Frigates and Boobies nesting on the island...you can walk as close as you like to them. The Frigates nest in small trees. Every tree an the island had several nests in it. Every limb strong enough to hold a Frigate, had a Frigate on it...and hunderds in the air at all times. It was amazing. The Boobies nested in the rocks along the cliff. They let us sit down right next to them, they didn't even seem to care. There are also BIG iguanas on the island. We almost stepped on a 6 footer weighting about 50 pounds. He then ran off into the brush. You could see whales breaching right from the anchorage. This place is a nature lovers paradise. We loved it!

Frigates on the left Boobies on the right
Next we achored near San Blas for the night, in a large pretty bay with miles of beach. We just spent the evening, so never went into the town of San Blas, we will catch that on our return north.
Daily now we are seeing Ballena (Whales....we are trying to learning a little Spanish). Today we saw three different pods one crossed right in front of the boat. Yesterday was really spectacular. We saw a pair of Grey Whale jumping out of the water...breaching. We circled over to them and watch them jump for over a half hour...we must have seen them come out of the water 40 times...just several hundred yards away. We took some pictures and sure hope they come out. It was wonderful.
We continue to see lots of dolphin and jumping rays...it's great.
Currently we are about 120 miles south of Mazatlan. Right now we have a school of Bonita (5 to 15 lbs fish, part of the Tuna family) swimming right along side the boat. They have been swimming with us for over an hour...we have covered about 10 miles together! There are probably a 100 fish in the school they are racing along inches from the boat...it's wild. Vaughn enjoyed catching one on light tackle. Now were just enjoying watching them swim. More fish than we could possible eat.

Proof that Don caught a fish
Our buddy Don is still with us. He is really enjoying the sun, beautiful weather and wild life. He says he is having the "Trip of a life time"...the 60 cent beers I am sure don't hurt.

We will head out tomorrow for La Cruz then Puerto Vallarta.

January 1, 1999 to February 1, 1999

Happy New Years!

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