Eye Candy - Baja Style

 

I thought it might be nice to select a number of what I'll call 'eye candy' photos of our experiences rather than "boring" you with stories of our adventures. Also, since we are heading north shortly, time is of the essence for getting all of the many tasks completed on board before hauling out on 5/20 - in a different yard this year. 

Since arriving in Mexico in early February, we've had our ups and downs as life presented itself, but truly and thankfully, mostly ups! We are so thankful for every day we have on board living this lifestyle.

Work awaits us in Portland starting in June. We hope it's a good experience this year in that sadly changed city. We are ready to fill the coffers that enable us to have more sailing time, aiming for autumn of this quickly progressing year of so much transition all around us.

Here's this year's route we were fortunate enough to explore. We covered some magical miles, with both day and night passages. Each year, we think we'll go further south at the onset when we launch. And each year, considerations of health, work opportunities and other factors change our 'plans' and that's okay for us. Our goals haven't changed, they are delayed until the time is right. 

Sunset at Santa Rosalia - we left at 6:20pm to cross
to Guaymas. Motor sailed 17.5 hours; we had
such a starry night and the waters so calm!

 I started the night shift so got the sunset and back on
shift for the sunrise as we head east toward Guaymas
after our night passage; pretty cool!

Sunrise at San Carlos, the Tetakawi landmark

Church built by Eiffel, shipped from Brussels, Belgium
to Santa Rosalia by the French mining company manager

Some of the detailed stained glass

The view toward La Ramada, walking to the ranch
for fresh veggies at Jose's farm

Desert trekking

The welcoming entry to the Guaymas harbor

Full moon at anchor, San Juanico

View from the cemetery at Santa Rosalia

I know, more dolphin pics -
they are so amazing and playful!

Splashes and shows were non-stop some days

Spring in Santa Rosalia

 

The autoparts store, I'm buying yet another alternator

The mining town at Santa Rosalia

Back in Guaymas, lots of law 

enforcement on the mainland

Walking through the barrios uphill
to the cemetery

The salsa selections always overwhelm!

Cheers to our many friends from Doney's 

original restaurant in Mulege!

Rammed by a panga!

 

Wow, there’s always a lot of stories when you’re a boat owner. This is one you hope you don’t have to experience or write about. We often wonder if this might happen, and I can assure you, there’s a big honking noise when it does.

Pura Vida anchored at the red dot

Here we were, bright sunny midday, in the absolute middle of a huge anchorage at Bahia Candeleros, south of Puerto Escondido. We anchored smack dab in the middle of this mile wide anchorage, ¼ mile from shore (we purchased a range finder to gauge distances – who knew?). On shore, a large resort with not many guests, is served by local pangas and larger lanchas, for touring, fishing, creature watching. During our couple of days there, we saw a few pangas a day, so not much traffic.

Flavio's bow pulpit is sorely worse from the crash;
you can see how clear the day is and how far from the resort on shore

A very loud crunching, scary noise startled the four of us (our Portland guests shared the experience) and we all bolted to the bow to see what the heck happened! There was a poor local, Flavio, in his white and orange panga, his stanchions broken away from the bow and a pretty shocked look on his face. He seemed okay and I asked “¿que pasó?”. While not sure exactly what he said, it was pretty much texting while driving. He hadn’t achieved enough speed as he departed from shore to be planing, but going fast enough to have the bow pointing skyward and cause some damage, mostly to his boat. 

Thankfully (she says with quotes), he hit absolutely the middle of our bow. The winds were blowing about 15 so our anchor chain was taut. That, and our bobstay was hit secondarily, so these steel beasts absorbed the brunt of the impact. We also have a pretty stout bow - one that now sports a gouge in our recently painted fiberglass. But we are safe and alive and so is Flavio. 

Flavio provided his contact information and Mike dropped the dinghy to inspect the situation. After full assessment and a lot of consternation, Mike determined our damage was minor, all things considered! A hit alongside the hull would have led to a very different story.

A reminder for us that every day is a blessing and provides us with life lessons and experiences.

Anchored quietly at Punta Colorada, Isla Carmen