Logbook and Photos

We crossed from Mazatlan on the Mexican mainland to the Baja Peninsula in early April and thus began our 3 month cruise of the lower and middle sections of the Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California.

After a long day working ourselves against wind and current, we finally arrived in La Paz, a popular destination for vessels cruising Mexico's Sea of Cortez.  It has a huge anchorage area and a choice of several modern marinas.  It is also great for provisions and has many attractions in its pleasant and convenient downtown.  The malecon along the waterfront shown here was a daily walk or scooter for our family.

We met up with our friends from s/v Swallow at Marina La Paz, where we ultimately ended up staying for 2 weeks.  At the local theatre, there was a performance for kids that they planned to attend.  It turns out to be really weird with a man doing contemporary ballet.  To us, it looked like he basically wrapped himself in newspaper, pretended to cry via shredded newspaper pieces to the sound of alarm clocks going off….odd. The boys laughed but also kept saying, "There must be more to come?" There wasn't! We joked the whole way back.

Arrival in La Paz also had us finally catch up to a replacement battery for our battery bank.  One of our batteries had developed a dead short necessitating a new one under warranty.  As Rolls/Surrette doesn't deliver to Mexico, friends Scott and Sonja and their kids aboard s/v Perrigrinata transported it for us all the way from San Diego and left it here in La Paz.  We got it and Chris began the task of the big switch. The batteries weigh 125 lbs. each so it's a big job to extract the old (2nd from the back) and install the new.

While marinas are relatively expensive to stay in, they do have the advantage of letting you meet a lot of great people in a compressed time.  One of the people we met was Tom, a very friendly guy who's been at Marina de La Paz for 5 years.  This morning we awoke early in order to meet Tom at 6:30am, our ride to the "feed-the-kids" program he's involved with. He has an old Dodge van and waves to people everywhere he drives. The road we are on takes us through town and past the cathedral we saw yesterday.  Tom points out the last house with electricity on the now bumpy road out of La Paz.  Beyond that lies colonia Marquez de Leon, and many more dusty, poor neighborhoods.

Another item on our La Paz to-do list was a dental checkup and cleaning for all.  We asked around and heard great reviews about a local dentista.  After a bit of a struggle finding the place, we found the husband and wife dental practice set up in the front of their home.  There was only one dental chair so we all waited our turn.  We were amazed to have all the work done by an actual dentist. It cost about a 1/3 of similar services back in Canada.

This was our favorite eatery while in La Paz.  We couldn't get enough of these masterpieces or the friendly people.  Their specialties where pastor (spit-grilled pork), aracherro (marinated beef ), and carne asada ( BBQ'd beef ) on a wheat tortilla.  We'd then garnish them with spicy salsas, pickled onions, guacamole, diced tomatoes, cabbage, and grilled peppers to name just a few.   They didn't keep beer on hand, but every time we walked in, one of the gals would run over to the store down the street and bring us back a few ice-cold cervezas!

...roast chicken with potatoes and gravy, cranberries, couscous salad and fresh bread.  One of many fine meals prepared on Tioga.  We thought this may be of interest to those of you who envision us eating canned beans every day  heated over a one burner camp stove!

We had planned to leave La Paz today, but decided to hang around one last night to watch Game 7 of the Vancouver/St Louis hockey series with some cruising friends.  Vancouver won 4-1 to the delight of our compatriots.  The boys were more interested in shooting pool and playing darts.   We left La Paz first thing the next morning heading north further into the Sea.

We celebrated Gerrit's 7th birthday on Isla San Francisco.  After serving him breakfast in bed, we went for a great hike and exploration about the island.  Prior to leaving La Paz, Sheila found ingredients for lasagna so we enjoyed Gerrit's favorite meal before sharing chocolate brownies with some friendly cruisers in the anchorage.  Notice Gerrit's birthday helicopter hovering in the background of this photo. (P.S. Chris just turned 40 the other day, too!)

Our friends on s/v Atalanta had emailed us about the wonderful time they had had at a place called Nopolo on the Baja coast. We decided to check it out for a night and anchored in the southerly of three anchorages, which provided more protection from the southerly component winds we have been enjoying, and went ashore. We came upon a young women, very pregnant, who invited us up to her house. Our Spanish was stretched to the max as we tried to talk with her and her Grandmother. Very proud of their family, the photo albums came out as did the stories.

Manual the fisherman says "¿Langosta mi amigo?" (Lobster my friend?).  Chris says "¡por supuesto! ¿Cuanto cuesta?" (Of course! How much?).  The negotiations begin and end quickly.  Chris knows the going rate and gets six for $100 pesos or about $14 CAD for all.

Grilled lobster in garlic butter, fresh salsa, cheese chili reanos, and a tasty Shiraz.

We've whizzed by some pretty awesome cruising grounds in the 8 days since we left La Paz.  Too fast for us, but we had made commitments to meet up with a number of friends in Puerto Escondido for the four-day 8th Annual Loreto Festival, which starts this evening.  But we console ourselves.  We'll be retracing our wake in November, the start of the next cruising season, so we'll get to travel slower and see all those places we've short-changed.  Was it worth it?  Come and view our MINI-TOUR of Loreto Fest 2003!