June 1 to June 17
Our stay at Island Danzel was very nice. We went snorkeling just off
the island at submarine rock. Beautiful, lots of fish and rock
scallops. The water visibility is finally getting to be very good 40 to
50 ft.
We took a couple days and continued to sail south to Bahia Los Gatos. Los Gatos is one of our favorite little bays. Beautiful white sand beaches surrounded by rocky cliffs in every color you can imagine. Huge catus fill a little valley their arms stretching skyward. It's picture perfect gorgeous dessert. We celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary here. It was a perfect day of walking on the beach, collecting shells, snorkeling. Ended with a wonderful lobster dinner and a good bottle of wine. It just doesn't get any better!
Actually all of our Anniversaries have been pretty special...we always have tried to spend our day somewhere special. Our first we were sailing (a Charter Boat) in the Caribbean, our second was sailing to Drakes Bay, our third was in Florida Keys Scuba diving, our forth was in Cozemel Scuba diving. All wonderful. It's a tradition we will have to keep up!
Leaving Los Gatos we motored to Island San Jose for a couple days. Just off San Jose there are some small rock islands call Coyote Island. We spent the day snorkeling Coyote it was one of the best snorkels of the trip. Huge reefs of coral...there has been very little coral in Baja..but here it was everywhere. Tons of fish...both the beautiful colorful reef fish and the type that interests Vaughn most...tons of huge "eating" fish, groupers, snappers, triggers...you name it. We had a feast for dinner. There were whole schools of huge parrot fish all irradesent blue. One of the most amazing sights is a golden grouper. Our fish book says 1% of the Leapord Groupers for some reason turn all bright golden yellow. Seeing a 25 pound fish that looks so pretty it should be in a gold fish bowl or something is kind of strange.
Next we sailed south back to Island Partita and stayed at El Embudo anchorage. We had a great couple days. We went out to the small rock island called Los Islotes. It's a Sea Lion Colony. We had been there in April snorkeling with the Sea Lions...this time we went Scuba diving. What a blast! It's was one of those dives you see avertised all over on the streets of La Paz. It say "come dive with the seals". They will pull on your fins, nibble on your hoses and blow bubbles in your face..... The advertisement was exactly correct. We had two great dives. We got some great picture of a seal pulling on Sharon's fins. They are like big playful "water dogs". They would swim right up to us...zoom around us 2 or 3 times then race off. Like they were playing tag. Then they would swim like up to our faces get inches from our mask look us right in the eye and blow bubbles in our face. They have the biggest brown eyes...steal your heart away. It was great.
As we were getting out of the water from our dive a local Mexican mega yatch 100ft power boat invited us to join them for beers. How could we say "NO". So we enjoyed a lovely lunch with them, quite the spread. I didn't even know you could get exotic pate's in Mexico. The owner of the boat owns a whole chain of nice classy department stores in Mexico. He had as guest on the boat a couple from France and a couple from Maraco. All very, very rich. They were all going to start a new business venture making ecological engine that runs on "air". It was fun rubbing elbows with them for a couple hours.
We went from rubbing elbows with the Mexico's elite....to spending the evening with a group of local fisherman. Vaughn went out fishing with them. Helped them set their nets and run a big long line of hooks. Then they went night snorkeling to spear fish. All in a nights work. Vaughn had fun trying to talk with them. He enjoyed seeing how they fish.
Their pointer must have helped. Cause a couple days later Vaughn caught a "real fish"....... A 25 pound Blue SHARK!!! You should have seen what he did to the lure, teeth marks everywhere. UCK!! He had a set of pearly whites that you would not want to get close too...we threw him back quick (just as soon as we got a picture, of course). Vaughn now hold the record for the biggest fish cought on the boat!
We went into La Paz and spent several days on day projects and stocking the boat up for the crossing back to Puerto Vallarta.
Yesterday we finnally left the Sea of Cortez and are currently in route to Puerta Vallarta. We are about 75 miles southeast of Cabo San Lucas and have about 250 more miles to go. Sailboats are slow but boy they are quite and relaxing. We will take about two more days to get to PV but what the heck! We will leave the boat in PV again for a couple months a head home for a visit. We will be home in the Bay Area from July 7 and then we return to "Reality" on September 13.
In the morning we finally get some wind (5 knots) to sail Dead Down Wind. Reality doesn't do that good in that light of winds.... Where's the big Blooper Sail! We drift/sail for another 50 miles. Stuff continues to go wrong with the boat...it's like she is going on strike. First the engine...then the alternator and tacometer....no big deal we figure we can use the Generator to keep the batteries charged for our navigational instruments. But the the Generator breaks a mounting bracket....so now we have no generator or motor. We carefully listen to all the nets and the US Coast Guard High Sea weather reports and Adrena is now about 300 miles from us. Winds 95 knots Sea 12 feet. Radius of the storm is 150 miles from center. Well the story ends well..... Winds picked up to a fantastic 15 to 17 knots on the beam and Reality sails the next 100 miles at 7 knots in small seas....... it was a wonderful sail all the way into Puerto Vallarta Bay...this is what we came for! We finally dropped anchor at 2:00 am just inside the bay at Punta Mita while lighting and thunder crackled all around us. The lighting strikes were so often it helps light our way into the bay...Definitely a strange way to end a strange crossing.
The next day we start to work at fixing the boat back up. We were just about to go to town and get some supplies...when Vaughn noticed a honey bee inside the boat. We start to try and swish it out...and looked out and saw hundreds of bees swarming the boat. We quickly put our screens over all our windows and hatches....we looked out again and within 30 seconds over 10 thousand bees had collected on our rear awning. The bees formed a solid mass ball the size of a basket ball. The Queen Bee and her hive were and on the move...and it appeared they were planning to make our boat their next home! We waited for a half hour...trapped inside our boat...while thousands of Bees swarmed outside...hoping they would move on....but they appeared to be getting awfully comfortable. So Vaughn went on the war path...to get them OFF the boat. First he tried hitting them from inside the boat with the tip of a fishing pole. It just caused them to buzz wildly. But every time he hit them off...within seconds they had reformed their massive ball of thousands of bees...it didn't seem to be discouraging them at all. So he had to get really serious. He put on boots and a full rubber suit of foul weather gear, gloves and a hat with mosquito net...covered completely from head to toe...he went out for some hand to bee combat. The bees were still going wild. Vaughn hooked up our salt water deck hose and started to spray the bees with salt water. At first this didn't seem to phase them either....but slowly they seemed to be getting the picture....this wasn't a good new home for them...and they began to disperse. Vaughn...won the battle....what a hero!
The following afternoon we got a nice breeze so we figured we better make the run and sail for Puerto Vallarta. Besides we didn't really want to see if the bees were going to make a return visit. The Marina we planned to leave the boat....didn't have a slip available for a couple day....so we sailed into Puerto Vallarta's main harbor to anchor for couple days until we could get into the marina. The harbor had a very well marked channel....except for the fact that within the channel marks...we went from 30 feet of water....to a dead stop...hard aground in a sand bar! The engine of course is still only barely working at an idle...as it sprays salt water everywhere...anything more that an idle the broken hose would give out completely. So things definitely are not improving!. A local fisherman in a Pango...came over and informed us in broken english that there was no water depth where we were. We agree and told him we were stuck on the sand bar! We threw him a line and for a couple beers we were pulled off and floating again! Only to start into the next challenge...the anchor area...required us to "med tie"...which means you need to drop your bow anchor and then take a line off your stern and tie to shore. The boat with the engine working in perfect order...is a challenge to maneuver backwards and in small spaces....with the engine only at an idle this looked to be close to impossible. Well our fisher men buddies saved us again....they came back and help pull the boat around and take a line to shore and tied us up. Finally the end to an interesting Sea of Cortez crossing!
The Going aground in Puerto Valllarta....help form Ponga...then the fun of "Med Tie" for the first time.
First rain in 8 months....Boy can it rain! Clothng optional....It's Hot!!!
Work...Work....work....to put Reality to bed for the summer.....end of
Cruising Season...Numero Uno