April 20, 2022-Venturing Into the Sea of Cortez

wingssail images-fredrick roswold Sailing Into Caleta Partida

 

They say that having a “schedule” is the worst thing for making sailboat trips.  Our effort to get to La Paz by early April and meet Jimmy and Robin, on their chartered boat La Marvela, proved the truth of that old saying.

That dash to get to La Paz came to a screaming halt on April 3 when we entered the Cerralvo passage at midnight and faced a black night with big waves and a cold north wind of 24 knots. There was no moon or stars, the wind was freezing cold and right on the nose, we were taking spray everywhere and we were dead tired.

 “Nope, we’re not going.” I said to Judy.  We turned Wings back toward Los Muertos, a protected bay just over 6 miles south.

Even that little trip of six miles was stressful.  It took over an hour to get there and neither the wind nor the waves gave any sign of abating. We donned life jackets and planned how we would get the sails down and secured and get the boat anchored in those conditions.

In the end it was easy; the wind did drop and the seas calmed down and by 02:00 we were safely anchored among a small group of other boats whose welcoming anchor lights guided us in. We were happy to be stopped. We had a shot of rum and crashed into our bunks and stayed in Los Muertos for two nights.

Judy and I had worked at a frantic pace after the finish of the Banderas Bay Regatta to get Wings converted from race boat to cruising boat so we could take off.  Meeting Jimmy and Robin on La Marvela in La Paz was to be the beginning of a three-month cruise in the Sea of Cortez.  Rene and Denny helped us get ready and in four days we completed what would normally take a week or more. Then we set off on the pursuit.

It was a joy to sheet in Wings’ sails, just the two of us, and head out into the Pacific Ocean, the blue Pacific. The crossing from Banderas Bay to Baja it is 340 miles, the way the crow flies. Of course we can’t often sail the way the crow flies, direct, and the wind was against us, so we began to tack, and it was shifty, so we found ourselves changing course often and sailing on which ever board was favored. But it was nice sailing and even the occasional tacks didn’t bother us. One of us on watch and lazing in the cockpit, gazing at the ocean, and the other, likely as not, napping below. When the wind changed whomever was on watch woke the other.

“It’s time to tack.”

And we threw off the sheets and turned the boat.

But shifty winds were not the only challenge Nature presented. The wind was not consistent in strength either. Sometimes it was blowing 10 knots, which was beautiful, other times 14 and we wondered if a sail change was going to be needed. Then, unsurprisingly, the wind would drop all together and we had to take down the sails and turn on the motor.

Later the wind would come back and we had to turn off the motor and put the sails back up. This cycle repeated itself and it became tiring. Pulling sails up and then down is a lot of work.

After three days we weren’t exhausted but we were tired. Then came our encounter with the Cerralvo Channel. We took a rest.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold Wings Moored in Ellipse at Puerto Escondido

After we resumed the charge we moved fast. We had three long days on the water, sometimes motoring, sometimes sailing, (and the sailing was often a heavy weather beat with lots of tacks) up the Baja coast past tall mountains and stunning scenery which we’d love to have stopped and enjoyed, but the time for which we just could not afford. We caught up with La Marvela  in Puerto Escondido. They were impressed that we overcame their three-day head start. We reached Puerto Escondido 4 hours after they did.

Sitting with Jimmy and Robin at the bar at Puerto Escondido looking down onto Wings moored peacefully in the Ellipse in I felt we’d achieved our objective and that we could finally relax. Margaritas for everybody.

Jimmy and Robin image Jimmy and Robin

Two days later we said our goodbyes and La Marvela reversed course and began its trek back south.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold Judy Handles the Halyard as Fred Works Aloft

Since then, with no schedule and no particular objective, we’ve been really cruising; going where we want, meeting new friends, finding nice anchorages, and taking long naps.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold Wings Anchored in Ballandra, Isla Carmen

The sailing has been terrific, not too much motoring, the boat maintenance projects have not been too arduous, and even the bees at Isla Carmen are not too aggravating this year.

 In a few days we’ll go into Loreto for provisions and begin planning the next leg.

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Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Sea of Cortez

June 13, 2018-In Puerto Escondido to Avoid Hurricane "Bud"

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Bar in Puerto Escondido

There is this bar at the marina in Puerto Escondido. It’s upstairs, totally open air, and here, as I sip my huge Pina Colada, I have a good view of Wings floating nearby and an astonishing view of the harbor and surrounding Baja scenery. The breeze is cool. The other patrons at the bar are mostly cruisers, many of whom we know, and are laughing and chatting quietly A couple of friendly bartenders are waiting on me. The fantastic Sierra Grande Mountains behind Puerto Escondido are slowly spreading their shade over us as the afternoon turns to evening.

I think this is paradise.

I could stay here forever except I couldn’t afford it. The reason we are here is because of Hurricane “Bud” which is coming this way. Puerto Escondido is one of the few hurricane holes on the Sea of Cortez. If it wasn’t for “Bud” coming we would be headed south towards La Paz, but the stretch of coastline between here and there is pretty open and none of the harbors offer good protection. It’s not that Hurricane Bud is so very scary, it’s rather a mild hurricane as hurricanes go (or will be as it hits the cooler water this far north), but “Bud” could fool us and turn violent. We’d rather be tucked inside Puerto Escondido than anchored in an unprotected place.

That’s why we’re hanging out here. And, since we’re here, might as well enjoy it. Hence the Pina Colada at the open air bar.

Humm, I wonder what this place will be like when the hurricane hits? My guess is that they will close it up and take everything inside. Drink on, closing time is coming soon.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Puerto Escondido Marina

We’ve been here before. Twenty years ago, when it was an unfinished development with roads and little else (except clean, sweet, free, mountain water, which is why we came) and again two years ago when Fonatur had built a marina and finished some of the other infrastructure (and the water was still free). And we spent three days here last week. The place is pretty fantastic. There is a new owner and they’ve been on a serious upgrading binge. The facilities ashore are totally refurbished, everything clean, everything works, and there is a very complete and modern store and several shops. (And yes, the water is still sweet, cool, and free). The overall area is landscaped to perfection. It is all beautiful, very beautiful. And then there is the surrounding Baja scenery which is simply stunning. We love this place.

After our visit last week the threat of Hurricane “Bud” has kept us in a holding pattern at anchorages within a few miles radius of here and finally, today, we came back in just to be safe and, since several other boats are headed this way, to get a good mooring spot. Maybe the thought of a few more Pina Coladas had something to do with the decision.


Steinbeck Canyon Hike

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Rock Climbing

Since we first heard about Steinbeck Canyon, named for John Steinbeck who visited the Sea of Cortez in the 40’s, we wanted to hike it. Steinbeck Canyon is in the Sierra Gigante Mountains right behind the marina and the canyon goes straight up into those towering rock cliffs. We thought it would be beautiful to walk up a trail into the mountains so one morning we got an early start and headed west. A taxi took us back across the desert floor to the trail head. But it didn’t look too far, so we sent him back after he dropped us off, saying we’d walk back. Looks can be deceiving. What appeared to be a short distance from the marina to the edge of the mountains was actually a fair distance. Later, after our hike, when we walked back, it took over an hour.
It also turns out that the hike is really a climb. It goes straight up a boulder strewn gully.

After paying off the taxi driver, we started up. There was no easy going. It was climb up a boulder then down the other side, one after another. People who have gone the whole way said it took them 4 hours up and back. That’s two hours each way. Going that far rewarded those hikers with some beautiful pools of cool clear water way back up in the canyon. We didn’t make it that far. An hour into it we ran into a vertical head wall that looked passable but dangerous and besides, we were thinking, what about the abuse we were giving our aging bodies? An hour of vertical rock climbing was a lot for us and going down would be just as tough, so we turned back.

We got down okay and then managed another hour walk back to the marina. All in all a three hour hike in desert conditions was quite enough. Surprisingly we had no injuries or aches and pains. We did stop at the bar that afternoon.

It will take a couple of weeks to get to La Paz, assuming we can leave after Hurricane Bud clears out this weekend, and then we head back across to La Cruz.

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Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Puerto Escondido

Dec. 21, 2014- Highway 200

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Family at the Parade in Melaque
The Pan American Highway, also known as Highway 200 in Mexico, is the road which runs up the coast from Guatemala, through all the coastal towns including Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta and then continues north from there. In some places it is the main road between towns, in others is it definitely a back road, the major routes being those which radiate to and from Mexico city.

It was Highway 200 on which we drove to bring the car to Vallarta. We could have gone inland and hit the freeways but we wanted to see the coastal towns, and we did.

For a Mexican back road it is pretty good but it demands the full attention of the driver; there are countless obstacles including topes (speed bumps), potholes, sudden surface changes, road work, and curves, to say nothing about a lot of crazy drivers.

The topes are everywhere. Some have warning signs but many others are not even painted and those become visible only just in front of you and hard braking is all there is between launching off into the sky with a broken suspension instead of just a simple bounce and bump. We hit one at speed, a little one, fortunately, and don't want to do it again. Often the topes seem to be placed in the shadows of trees, making seeing them even harder. After a while you learn to anticipate the topes; when you see a clearing ahead and a house or two, you can guess there will be speed bumps, and you begin to slow down. Then one appears and you brake like hell. There are plenty of skid marks going right up to the topes but the skid marks disappear at the apex of the tope where the wheels of the car which made them ostensibly left the road. They are scary.

Then there are the sudden changes in the road surface where the good black top suddenly becomes a potholed dirt and gravel one-laned mess. You slow for these too, as you do for the road work projects, amazing road work projects, which are also encountered virtually anywhere, with diversions and mystifying lane manipulations, none of which you want to come upon at speed, and finally curves, endless curves.

Tight curves.

We passed through forests and jungles as well as valleys and plains. We zoomed around headlands far above the ocean where the road clung to the cliffs and which provided spectacular views. Before we reached Vallarta we got high up into the mountains among pine tree forests, which surprised us, before dropping down to sea level again at Banderas Bay. It was all hard driving.

To cover ground you have to drive fast when you can. So you drive 60, maybe 70 MPH to keep the average up, and then when you encounter an obstacle, hit the brakes hard, drive at 10 mph for a while, get through the tough spot, then you go again. Sometimes there is traffic, other times none. For two hours north of Lazarus Cardero we saw not a single car going nor coming. It was like there was a road block at either end and we were the only car allowed to go through. But it was a curvy section, and we were constantly turning, barely able to go 30 or 40 MPH. It was hard driving and we were glad to have the road to ourselves although in the back of our minds were the warnings we'd heard about driving on lonely Mexican roads. But we saw no banditos.

One other thing we didn't see much of on this trip were the macho Mexican daredevil drivers we've encountered on other stretches of Mexican highways.
Those crazy guys in sedans, large or small, and particularly in pickup trucks, who appear in your rearview mirrors and stay glued to your bumper no matter hard how you yourself drive, then pass you, grinning, at the first opportunity, or maybe not even an opportunity, and simply disappear around the next curve never to be seen again. We saw those on the freeways south of Mexico City and on the twisting roads south of Oaxaca, also on the road to Huatulco, and we gained a huge respect for the capabilities, or at least the cojones, of these drivers and their vehicles, but on this trip, we saw not many. Maybe they were sticking to the main roads.

But traffic or not, obstacles or not, we drove, and we drove hard, and the rewards were the miles covered.

More than that we were rewarded by the stops we made in the fishing towns along the way: Puerto Escondido, Zihuatenejo, and Melaque.

These towns were the reason we came this way. They are not big tourist towns. They don't have the high rise hotels and big airports. They have those funky beach hotels and little bars that we all dream of when we think of Mexico, "Night of the Iguana" and all of that.

We found them, found them all. We found small bars at night with good music and cheap tequila, and in the day we found fishermen on the beaches, working on their boats, getting ready to go to sea, and working their trade. We found the fishermen to be hardworking but relaxed as they went about their shoreside tasks, quick with a smile and a joke.

In the towns we found little stores and shops and quiet streets and we ran across celebrations, street fairs, parades and minor festivals with kids and moms and fireworks and costumes. But all very low key and charming, giving a happy view of Mexican family life.
We passed through these towns and chose them in which to stay the nights.

And in the end we found Puerto Vallarta where we've decided to stop for a while.

So now we are in Marina La Cruz, at this moment in the act of starting a new life. One without travel.

We'll see how it goes; we've been sort of addicted to movement but perhaps we can change.

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Fred & Judy, SV Wings, La Cruz Huancaxtle