October to December 1997

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Nobody ever said that getting ready for cruising was easy, the closer the departure date came the more hectic it got. Especially departing with all the junk we had in our storage, deciding what to bring on board and what needed to be taken off. One of my favorite was filling up all the empty Evian bottles with cat litter which we stored in the bilge. I think there were about 80 bottles or so and lasted for years to come. In the morning of our departure everything that wasn’t stored away yet, was tossed onto a pile in the salon (which took almost two weeks to find storage for all of it while we were in Catalina). Needless to say the day of the departure we didn’t let anybody down below, in fear they would see that mess. Everybody had a chance to see the boat inside out on our Bon-Voyage party one week prior. I must add, the party was incredible, all 350 guests who attended our wedding in 90 showed up again and witnesses our renewing vows and wished us well for our adventure sailing around the world.
We told everybody that we would leave on October 25th 1997 at noon sharp and we did. But first Doug Owen who married us in 90, christened Paradise with a wonderful speech. Janet Okawa did the honor of shattering the champagne bottle over the bow. Then the hardest part leaving, having to say goodbye to all of our wonderful friends. The dock was filled with tear filled eyes, when Veltri and Al Berry cut the lines to set Paradise free. (The lines were still dangling there one month later). Everybody that had a boat or dinghy followed us out the harbor. We can’t remember how many boats and dinghy’s we counted, it sure was a huge flotilla, not to mention all the police cars along the jetty with sirens going waving us goodbye as well. As we left the harbor, we headed out to Sid’s Dad’s resting-place for the last time to say goodbye before heading towards Catalina Island. Guess we fooled our friends; they tried to tell us that we’re heading the wrong way!
Leaving wasn’t as easy as we thought, since we spent a great deal of our lives here in Los Angeles. We had mixed feelings of sadness and also of happiness but most of all a great feeling of freedom, which is indescribable. It occurred to me though that one really appreciates something when it is no longer there. In our case we’re realizing how many good friends we were leaving, we are so lucky to have them.
We spent a few very nice and quiet days, all by our self in Cherry Cove, other then Sid puncturing a hole into the dinghy while inflating it. With all the many tools he brought it wasn’t a problem to fix.
Due to Santana conditions we decided to go around to the safety of Cat Harbor and staid there for a few more beautiful days. Unfortunately, we received very sad news of Uncle Chuck’s passing and immediately headed back to Marina Del Rey to assist Aunt Alice. I spent 5 days in Bakersfield with her and helped her with funeral arrangements. In the mean time, Sid was doing some odds and ends on the boat that we still hadn't finished. Like the deck box that didn’t have a lid yet. To be honest, we were going to sneak back to the Marina to have it done, without telling anyone that we’re here, to avoid all the partying at the Yacht Club. Well, it worked out a little different and we do like to party after all. Uncle Chuck’s service was on November 10th. Two days later, we took off for our second departure to Catalina.
This time we headed to Cat Harbor since some of our Yacht Club friends the Blacks planned on spending Thanksgiving with us. Our Turkey never made it to Cat Harbor and neither did the Blacks. In fact, the Santana was blowing so hard, that only a few boats made it. Surprised we noticed a familiar boat heading into the harbor. Two of our friends, Michel and Linda on “Circe” made it to surprise us; they arrived with Turkey cooking in the oven, so we had our Thanksgiving treat after all. As I was sitting on deck, sipping on my cocktail, observing the beauty of the Island, a giant Green Sea Turtle emerged right next to the boat. Incredible what the El Ninos brought up here, there is no such thing as turtles in Catalina.
Since the Blacks didn’t make it our new computer didn’t make it either. Now this is another story. Whenever we buy something new, it is either broken or not working, which happened to our brand new laptop. So we left it behind to get fixed. The Blacks offered to bring it back to us. Well, now what? It took Sid two seconds to decide and off he was on the next boat to the mainland, renting a car and driving to PMYC to pick up the computer. The very next day Sid came back just in time before the Santana kicked up again. No joke, Sid was very lucky; the Santana was so bad that all the Catalina Expresses were canceled. One of them was already in the Avalon Harbor when they had to turn back. The Express didn’t run for four days. The Santana kicked up big time, Avalon Harbor took a beating, lost about 16 boats and we got stuck on Catalina for another two weeks! I sent a “Marooned in Catalina” Postcard to friends, but didn’t realize at the time, that the postcard was marooned as well!
We had a great time anyhow. We even had a funny Garlic Experience. For two weeks every morning, while stepping into the bathroom, I thought, “gosh do I have bad Garlic breath” and immediately brushed my teeth. Actually this happened every time I entered the head. Until one morning, when I realized I didn’t eat any garlic the night before. Then I remembered that I had hung some garlic in there for storage. When I told Sid about it, he started laughing so hard and admitted having done it himself. My good advice: never store garlic in the bathroom, or you’ll end up brushing your teeth at least five times a day.
Finally the day arrived, we were going to leave Catalina and follow our dream. We made it to the East-End of the Island when it got so rough, that Sid with a slight Hangover decided that this wasn’t the day yet. We eventually left the next day on December 14th. Around the same area we had turned back the day before, a very surprised Sid, noticed that the boom was just hanging in midair, only being held by the main. The gooseneck broke. I guess just something else for Sid to work on in San Diego.
Since we’re on the subject of braking things, for our Bonvoyage gift some Club Members gave us a beautiful Chelsea Clock and Barometer. In the Instructions it said “tap the glass before reading the barometer”, Sid did as told and …crack……First thing in San Diego we ordered another glass. Then of course we had to order the ring as well, and had to pay extra for overnight delivery, which never made it. Even 5 days later it still didn’t get there, finally we found a Compass maker who replaced the glass for a fraction of the price Waste Marine asked for. We also purchased a new TV, AC/DC’s. Wouldn’t you know that darn thing wouldn’t work either and we had to exchange it?
We stayed at beautiful and friendly Southwestern Yacht Club, what a nice place. Even have PA systems on the docks with phones in case you get paged. Everybody here is so nice, friendly and very helpful. What a treat coming from LA. It also is a Boaters Paradise, any boat part needed, there is a store for it, in just walking distance. I found the greatest Shopping Center, just 20 minutes away. It has any store imaginable, from Cost-Co to Trader Joe’s to, Vons, Ralph’s, Eric’s, Ross, Book Stores, Movie Theaters, etc. etc. the only store I didn’t see was TJ-Max! Just change the parking spot and you're at the next store, my kind of shopping.
We spent a very quite Christmas on the boat and cooked up a storm to keep the boat toasty, then it was freezing cold. San Diego supposed to be at least 5 degrees warmer than LA, well, it was a cold 37!
Sid just loves to fiddle with things while sailing and so he bought a Backstay Adjuster just before we left San Diego. Santana winds were in the forecast for the 26th of December. Hoping to avoid them we left extra early at 2:30 AM, but not early enough. In all it was a pleasant drive till about the last two hours. The Santana started blowing, the seas were getting rougher and rougher and the gage on the brand new Backstay Adjuster started leaking oil and the Backstay loosened up (remember what I said about us purchasing new items!). We had wind gusts up to 30 mph. At least entering the Ensenada basin it calmed down, but now we had to take a slalom course around hundreds of lobster traps. We made it through OK and entered the Coral Marina. Then we were told that there wasn't a 36 ft slip available, just a 35-footer. That was OK with us, we knew we could fit. It did look smaller than 35, so Sid measured it. It was only a 30-foot slip. Well, we did fit. Now the problem was how to get that damaged Backstay Adjuster back to San Diego and how long will it take?
As we walked up the dock to get our paperwork processed, we heard a familiar voice across the other dock, Lex and Sue from PMYC! Just can’t get away from the Yacht Club! We found out, that Paul and Marie Miller where there as well. Also, that they were heading back to LA the next day and returning again on New Years Eve. That resolved our problem; they took our Backstay back to San Diego.
As we had our paperwork finished, we were told, that they ran out of keys to the bathrooms, but that the doors would be open all night long. Sue told us, we should use the Hotels Spa, and they would even provide us with towels, cool! At 7:30 PM we decided to take a Jacuzzi and afterwards use the hotels showers and towels. By the time we left the Jacuzzi they just closed the spa and we had to use the boating facilities after all. Let’s just hope they are open! Well, the Women's was the Men’s wasn’t. Sid had no choice but to use the Women's. To make sure not to offend anyone he shut the front door. We both took a very pleasant and needed hot shower and as we tried to leave we couldn’t open the door. We were locked in! Couldn’t get out whatsoever, not even Sid’s very good Swiss Army Knife could get us out of there. It seamed that the lock was only accessible from the outside. I was laughing so hard my tummy hurt, why us and believe me it does ONLY happen to us! A few minutes later, we heard some voices and were rescued! And, we did get a key the next day.
On our second day at the Coral, a person walking by with her dog; mentioned that they used to have a boat just like ours. Sid looked at her and said: “I know you!” Mel and Rebecca Shapiro had their 36 foot Ericson “Ricka” in the same Marina as Sid then was, what a small world.
New Years Eve approached with Paul and Marie hopefully returning with our Backstay. Sid called the dealer in San Diego, to find out if they received it back. Wouldn’t you know, they were trying to trace the package. It was lost somewhere in the snowstorm back east! See what I mean with our luck! I have to say, we lucked out, and it did get here with Paul and Marie.
Sue, Meg, Mike and Alex arrived here as well and within hours we had the best culinary New Years feast together. Rack of Venison, roasted Chicken, Porcini Risotto, Asparagus, Corn, roasted Potatoes, Wine, Wine, and more Wine followed by Crepes Suzette and of course lots of the bubbly for the New Years Toast. At 2AM we hit the Jacuzzi for some more celebration. The gang sure gave us a hard time about having left SO long ago and only made it THIS far (160 miles in two months!) So they named us the "Turtle-Express", cute, I kept it for my newsletters. New Years Day Sid and Alex where sitting at breakfast with ice under their hats, they even tried to nurse the bad hangover with some Aspirin and a Bloody Mary, it worked for Alex. Poor Sid went back into his cave, while the rest of us went to explore La Bufadoro, a blowhole that only works on high tide and of course we were there at low tide. However we saw lots of Whales on the horizon. On our drive to Bufadoro we stopped at the Gee’s and their future house for a cold beer. We also walked to the close beach with the natural hot springs, which are under the sand. Dig a little in the Sand and hot water comes to the surface, so cool or should I say hot! Back again at the Coral a chipper Sid greeted us, but now we were very tired and beat. There wasn’t much partying that night. The next day we did some shopping in town and went to the St. Thomas Winery, what fun that was. If you’re ever in Ensenada, go visit the Winery and especially try the Port Wine.
I have to say over the last few years of our experiences passing through Ensenada, I always thought what a rat hole that was, I changed my mind quiet a bit. Ensenada lies in a very beautiful bay, with breath taking views.

ST. THOMAS: The gang left on January 5th and the “Turtle Express” on the 6th. What a picture perfect day, Toto Santos Island as well as the peninsula as green as can be. The visibility was incredible and no one was out there except for us. Can’t get any better, except for spouting whales all over the place. With no breath of wind the seas was flat and we had to motor to Puerto St. Thomas, which is 26 miles south of Ensenada, a little fishing village in a beautiful Cove with lots of kelp beds. You really want to pick your anchorage carefully in here, by tide change you might find yourself surrounded by a green mess of kelp.
PUNTA COLNETT, January 7th: we had an early start and headed toward Punta Colnett about 40 miles south. We still had no wind but the scenery was just incredible. I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and felt poetic (Sid had tears in his eyes, when he read it). Here it goes:

PARADISE
THE BEAUTIFUL COAST WE SEE IS NEAR
THE SKY IS BLUE, THE WATER SO CLEAR.
WE’RE SAILING SOUTH ON PARADISE
AS WE START TO REALIZE,
THAT EVERYTHING WE’VE EVER LONGED FOR
IS HERE! WE DON’T HAVE TO DREAM ANYMORE.

WE’VE DREAMED OF THIS FOR SO MANY YEARS,
FINALLY IT’S HERE; OUR EYES FILLED WITH TEARS.
SAILING SOUTH IS ON OUR MIND
WONDERING WHAT WE WILL FIND.
SAILING SOUTH TO FAR, FAR PLACES,
TO SEE NEW THINGS AND MEET NEW FACES.

WHAT IS IT WE SEE BETWEEN THE SAILS?
WE ARE SURROUNDED BY GIANT GREY WHALES.
HOW BEAUTIFUL NATURE CAN BE
AND IT’S ALL OUT THERE FOR US TO SEE.
JUST OPEN YOUR EYES AND YOUR MIND,
YOU’LL BE SURPRISED WHAT YOU CAN FIND.

ROCKING SO GENTLY ON THE BIG SEE,
IT MAKES US FEEL SO VERY FREE.
AS GENTLE AS A DOLPHIN RIDING THE WAVE,
PARADISE WILL KEEP US FOREVER SAFE.

Anyway, Punta Colnett a distinctive landmark consists of a great flat plateau in about 300 ft. vertical cliffs. The anchorage is affected by swells and even as quiet the night was it was a bit rock’n rolly.

ISLA SAN MARTIN, January 8th: on our way to Isla San Martin we could sail for about ½ hour and the iron jib took care of the rest. As we arrived in Caleta Hassler, which is one of two possible anchorages on the island, two trawlers, we thought we saw going in just a little while ago, pulled their anchors and left. We wondered why they would leave this beautiful little harbor, since the sea was getting rougher anyway. Guess we’ll never find out, especially since this was one of the nicest anchorages we’ve been to. Caleta Hassler is a small curved sandy cove, with a fish camp and an extinct volcano in the Background. Facing away from the island there was a fairly long reef with the San Quintin Mountains in the background, a breathtaking view, especially when you see spouting Whales passing by.
As we sat in the cockpit relaxing, we watched two fishermen working on their traps, and then leave the cove. Then again later in the day when they retuned to place lobsters back into the trap and whatever else they were doing and then they headed towards us. They gladly accepted the beer Sid had offered and in return they gave us two lobsters. We couldn’t believe these guys giving us two lobsters, so we presented them with a smoked sausage. We sure had a wonderful dinner that night.
During the day we went ashore to explore the island, heard that there was a trail leading to the crater. Composed of lava the island has a thin mantle of desert vegetation. Guess what that means, everything which grows here has either horns or thorns. Since we couldn’t find the trail, we decided not to just go into the bushes. We remember to well from previous experiences. We never found the trail but did encounter a colony of harbor seals that is home in the lagoon. Overnight we had a very heavy downpour of rain, which we welcomed very much, the boat needed a wash badly. We enjoyed the island immensely and we decided to stay another day.
ISLA CEDROS, January 11th: at 8AM, we left beautiful Isla San Martin, headed for Isla Cedros, 135 miles away. We motored for a bout 4 ½ hours before hoisting the spinnaker, but the wind was to far aft to work. At about 1PM the wind picked up and shifted so that we finally could sail. As the wind blew even harder, we used the staysail and did 5-6 knots. ½ hour later the wind was building up gusting 25-30 knots. 8 - 10 feet westerly swells with north-westerly wind waves built up, a sloppy mess, we had to reef the main and take the staysail down. We had 135 miles to go in that mess, obviously a sleepless night for both of us. Leaving Isla San Martin our ETA for Cedros was at around 14:00. We arrived at 10:00, we were hauling bananas, doing 6 - 7.5 knots. Getting just within miles of the island, the sea was really confused. Even in the lee of the island it took quit a while to calm down. From the 5 or 6 available anchorages along the Eastside of the island, non of them seemed protected enough. So we went another 21 miles to Cedros Village. All together this was a long and very tiring trip but we had a great sail. We anchored just south of the breakwater. It was very rolly all night, but after this trip it seemed like nothing. It rather felt great to be in this anchorage, plus the weather was noticeably warmer as well. We cleaned up a little, but rested for the rest of the day. I always wondered why Sid forever hits his head on anything and I finally figured out why. You will never see Sid without wearing a baseball hat, well for the last few days I’ve been doing the same. Result, I hit my head pretty good. You can’t see in these darn things. Anyway, Mystery solved!
BAHIA TORTUGAS, January 13th: left Cedros for the 36 mile trip to Bahia Tortugas, Port San Bartolome or just simply Turtle Bay; this is the best all weather Harbor in this part of the coast. We had an awesome sail and did up to 8 knots. Whales all around us, as every day, a beautiful Whales tail disappeared just next to the boat, amazing. In Turtle Bay George a local pangadero greeted us and offered to bring fuel, cervezas, groceries just about anything we needed. Within ½ hour he was back with our order. He charges the store prices and makes his money with the tips he gets. We also gave him some make-up stuff for his wife and some candy for his kids. A few minutes later as we saw him scooting around in his panga, he was sucking on one of the lollipops, guess his kids won’t see any. We also bought ½ kilo of fresh shrimp for dinner for just 5 bucks. Although we learned that they salt the shrimp down and before cooking one should soak the shrimp in some water, then when I was done cooking dinner, it was way too salty, which took a while to figure it out.
During the day we watched several boats entering and anchoring in the harbor. One of them, “Ocean Quest” anchored almost too close to us. He just dropped the hook, went down below, a few minutes later his wife appeared, hanging some cloths up and went back down below again. They didn’t seem to care if they were hooked, so we kept a good eye on the boat. We thought that they were dragging, but because of swinging around so much we couldn’t quite tell but we still kept an eye on them. Sure enough at 9PM it started moving faster and faster. We tried to contact them on the radio, without any success. Since our dinghy was deflated, we had no way to get to his boat to wake him up. So we tried to get somebody’s attention via the VHF. Ocean Quest’s buddy boat now answered the call, but first he had to lower his dinghy in the water, mounting the engine, before he could get out there and stop him. In the meantime we got hold of Argonauta, Ocean Quest was heading for. With air horn and bright light from Argonauta and ourselves, we desperately tried to get his attention. Within just a few feet of Argonauta his buddy finally showed up and woke him. After all this, we sat outside until 11PM and watched him attempt to anchor over and over again. It took him five times before he finally hooked. That was close. Guess he didn’t get a good night sleep after sailing straight from Ensenada to here. The next day again he was dragging twice, before he finally managed to get hooked for good.
The wind was still howling and the ocean still very rough and every day we watched several boats attempt to leave, but within a few hours returning again. One boat even was towed back in. The anchorage itself was very calm and well protected. We found out that it was carnival time in Mexico. That meant for the next seven weeks there was going to be a lot of fundraising for the local churches, schools and hospitals. The person that brings in the most money will be crowned with Queen or King, Princess or Prince or third place, Duchess and Duke Title. One family’s fundraising was by cooking food and selling it every day and hoping that their daughter Gina will get the Queen title. I tell you it was wonderful and tasty and it even was delivered to the boat. We couldn’t turn this down, could we!

BAHIA ASUNCION, January 19th: The weather finally laid and we sailed all the way to Bahia Asuncion, 53 miles, spent a nice and peaceful night in the lonely anchorage end left the next day for San Hipolito just 21 miles south. It was a very slow but very relaxing sail. In Hipolito we were again the only boat at anchor, which we don’t mind a bit. Not even there for twenty minutes, a panga with two fishermen approached, offering us cabrilla. We took two and it took us quite a while to figure out what they wanted in return. It wasn’t money they wanted but candy. We exchanged a handful of candy for two good-sized cabrillas, unbelievable. The next morning early, they came back with a big Lobster and a smile on their faces. They wanted more candy and their faces lit up like Christmas trees as we gave each a Big Hunk and also two cigars. We still can’t believe that we traded candy for lobster and fish!
PUNTA ABREOJOS, January 21st: we had 43 miles to go to Punta Abreojos and again a beautiful sailing day. The weather was sunny to overcast, winds 8 - 20 knots and seas 5 to 7 ft., our boat speed between 4.5 to 7.2 and Visibility one billion miles. Even though the Visibility was great, we chose to take the long route around the nasty Roca Ballena (Whale Rock) and other offshore reefs. I tell you they do look nasty. From far away they appear like a bunch of spouting whales. Guess they deserve the name Whale Rock. Closing in to that area, it looks more like a giant boiling pot of water, scary! The water now had a beautiful aqua green color, it was quite shallow (100 ft.) for still being 2 or 3 miles away from the coast. Another one of those dangerous Rocas is inside the Bay, Bajo Knepper. We also made a very big curve around this one. At least the Roca Ballena area visible, but this one’s hiding. The Spanish word “abre ojos” means "open the eyes” and this meaningful label should be taken seriously for this is an area with significant dangers. We chose to take the anchorage about 7miles past Abreojos, which is a beautiful and isolated beach. Again it was just us anchored in this beautiful setting. Since we had plenty of food from the fishermen that will last for several days Sid suggested that we should stay here a few extra days. So we did. What a beautiful and mysterious place. We were greeted by an Osprey, which tried to land on top of our mast. The next day he came back again circling our boat, and we watched him catch fish. Close by we enjoyed the beautiful Scenery of the water splashing and crashing over the reef. Sunset we were serenaded by Coyotes and during the day a family of Dolphins was leisurely playing around the boat. The beach is beautiful with lots of shells and sand dollars and Sid even dug up a Pismo Clam, which we enjoyed with our Lobster and cabrilla dinner. If this isn’t Paradise, I don’t know what else it is! The next day the Federales boarded us. They were very friendly and within just a few minutes they were on their way again. All they wanted to see was our paperwork, didn’t even look around, except they banged their panga hard against the hull of the boat, leaving nasty blue marks and a terrible scratch! As they were leaving, I stopped them and handed out suckers. It made quite a sight, two pangas full of feds in black uniforms, machine guns hanging form their shoulders and a sucker in their mouths, smiling and waving good-by. Where’s the camera when you need it!
BAHIA SAN JUANICO, January 24th: we had a great sail for the whole 67 miles to Bahia San Juanico. As Sid said, “She was sailing with a bone in her teeth.” We sailed a steady 5-7 knots with some occasional swells and Sid was in heaven. Since Assuncion we only put 3 hours on the motor, for anchoring and making water.
For about two weeks Sid was talking about watching Super Bowl Sunday in Cabo. The way we travel, (remember we’re the Turtle Express), we’d never make it. Who would have known, that we would pull in to an isolated anchorage, in the middle of nowhere, the day before Super Bowl Sunday, to find a Gringo Bar, with Satellite Dish!!! Sid was a very happy camp…… ah Sailor, he was able to watch his football game after all. Just imagine sitting under palm leaf roofed palapa, your feet digging through the sand and an ice cold beer in your hand, probably the best Super Bowl Sunday I could imagine. We enjoyed the game and met a lot of fun people. I tell you how small the world is. One guy we met has gone to school with some of Sid’s working buddies. Sid noticed the Church Mouse T-shirts and Hats on some other guys, that and of course they knew the Butte’s, Al Berry and some other of our Club Members, they had been in the tournament for years. We became friends with Joe, his son Toni and friends Mike and Mark on “Reel Lady”. The next day, we took Joe to the beach for some claming, but we never found any. That evening he invited us for dinner on his Yacht and also for a fishing trip the next day. While we were at the beach, Sid’s Tennis shoes got stolen out of the dinghy. I decided to stay behind and keep an eye on Paradise while the guys went fishing. They went 60 Miles out to some banks locals revealed. I didn’t feel safe leaving the boat for such a long period of time, especially for us to be that far away. Besides, there was a lot of cleaning to do. As we came back from dinner, pitch dark of course, we noticed that the windows on the dodger had been covered with a snow-white ugly mess. Also the cats acted very excited and tried to tell us something with their chattering meows. A #@&*%^# Frigate Bird was balancing himself on top of the Windex. We tried everything from shouting, whistling, jumping, shaking the rigging wildly, but the stupid bird wouldn’t leave. This meant war! Sid took the sling shot out and started shooting little steel balls at the bird. Well, I guess it is a little different to shoot with a slingshot compared to a gun, because Sid kept missing. The worst of all, every shot Sid sent up, the bird shot back, well you know with what. Now it got really messy. Sid, in the meantime running out of the steel balls, started using green paint balls. I can’t tell you what was messier, the green or the white balls. He hit the bird several times, but he would not move. I think it took about 25 minutes or so to finally get him off and 10 minutes later he tried to land again. It took me about 2 hours to clean up that white and green mess. I’m glad the guys had fun catching big yellow fin tunas and skipjacks, while I was scrubbing the deck!
ST. MARIA, January 28th: again a great sail for the whole 97 miles to St. Maria. We left at 12:30 and at 06:00 we were in and anchored and sailed between 5 to 8.2 knots. It did get pretty sloppy towards St. Maria. Underway, we stayed in touch with “Reel Lady” and after one of the calls a very familiar voice was calling us. Really, can’t get away from the Yacht Club! It was Al Berry, delivering “Gallatea” to LA, he recognized Sid’s voice on the VHF. He was about 40 miles from us. We thought we went cruising to meet new people, just the same, it was a welcomed voice to here and we had a pinkie (he used to bring the juiciest pink grapefruits to the club, which we used for greyhounds) in his honor.
Anchored at 06:00 and very tired, I made us a hot Toddy and we stayed up for a beautiful sunrise and a wonderful bacon and egg breakfast. We also watched “Ocean Quest” and “Liberte” leave. Since Turtle Bay we either caught up with them or them with us and we’ve been staying in radio contact as well. Years ago we did some claming on this beach and planned on doing the same this time. The wind was blowing hard all day long and it seemed that there was no way to get onto the beach. Big rolling waves were crashing ashore, so we decided to go around to Magdalena Bay the next day.
When we entered this Bay we encountered some engine problems. Sid detected that the fuel filter was in the red again, even though he had it changed not long ago. He also found a leak in the water pump and needed a new one. We lucked out on that one, Toni was flying back to LA for one week and offered to bring us one down to Cabo, which was very nice. We spent one night in this lonely and beautiful anchorage. As every night we get up now and then to check on our anchoring position. This time I almost had a heart attack, we had dragged and were drifting into the village as I saw many lights. But when we anchored there wasn’t a village here “SIIIIIIIIIID!” As Sid scrambled on deck he couldn’t believe it either. Had we really dragged, but there was no wind. After the adrenalin shock wore off, we realized that the many lights were not the lights of a village, but the lights of many fishing boats. The next morning we counted 85 of them and much later in our cruising experience we learned that when they pop up in an anchorage, stay put, because bad weather is approaching.
MAGDALENA BAY, January 29th: we wanted to get into Magbay and do some claming. We still had a fuel problem, the filter now was clogged so bad the engine would quit. It wasn’t a problem not having the engine, since it was a perfect sailing day. Until!!! While approaching the narrow entrance to this huge bay, Sid realized that the tide was on its peak and just as we were entering the tide changed. What happened then was, we sailed 6 knots but only moved with 2.5 over ground. At one point we were even sailing with 7 knots, but didn’t move an inch. It took forever to finally pass the entrance and being in the bay. Then of course the wind came right out of the direction our destination was. So our 29 mile trip turned into 43 miles. In any case, it was an incredible beautiful day of sailing.
The next evening we finally got to meet Liberte and Ocean Quest, so far we’ve only had radio contact with them. We had a wonderful potluck dinner on Ocean Quest.
We did some claming in this area a few years back and decided to go back to the same spot again to gather clams for our dinner. We guessed that it was about 5 miles from our anchorage. We must have walked at least 6 miles and still didn't recognize our claming spot but in the far distance we kind of recognized it, but that would have been several more miles to hike. By now we were a bit tired and decided to head back. Just a few minutes later we found an area with clams, hurray! The tide now was receding and we could easily pick them. Sid had seen a Stingray earlier, so we did the Stingray shuffle to avoid getting stung. How does it really work: you shuffle to get cut by a pin oyster, or you walk to get stung by a Stingray! Either way it would have probably gotten me. I cut my food on a pin oyster. The cut was pretty deep and needed stitches. What now, we had no band aids and still another 6 miles to walk. Well, I washed my foot off, placed some paper towel onto the wound, place a zip lock (from snack we took along) over the foot, pulled my sock over that and another zip lock over that and tide my hair band over that one. Now at least the sand wouldn’t get into the wound. While hobbling slowly back, Sid took off, got the dinghy and met me halve way and took me back to the boat. Through his job, Sid learned how to deal with injuries and butter flied the wound shut. Then Dr. Sidley ordered me to stay off the foot for several days, while he did the shopping, cooking and spoiled me rotten. I didn’t mind not being able to do anything or go anywhere, the weather turned bad. For two days we had some rain and wind gusts up to 45 miles. (Later we found out that on the other side of the peninsula in Puerto Escondido, the wind blew over 70 and boats were blown onto the rocks).
It is amazing how fast you forget about date day and time while you cruise! Just glad Sid’s watch had a date on it, so we could keep track. As we finally left, we realized that we had spent a total of eight days in Magbay, amazing.

CABO SAN LUCAS TRIP, February 7th: The trip from Man of War to Cabo San Lucas was quite exciting. In short form: had to drive a slalom course around shrimping boats, almost got sunk by two breaching gray whales, got broached, did an accidental jibe and a huge pipeline type wave crashed over us into the cockpit and we didn’t have our surfboards with us, plus our water maker broke (later in Cabo we found the problem, the 10 amp switch that melted, should have been a 25 amp switch). It was a very long and miserable night!!!!! Yes, these things only happen at night!!!!

Wind: N to NNW 15 - gusty 42 knots.
Swells: 10 - 12, occasional 15 ft.
Speed: up to 11 knots, with only double reefed main

When we finally were able to relax after driving a slalom course around hundreds of lobster traps, we had a real scare headed towards us. Two grey whales were leaping out of the water and headed towards us. Seeing these two giant mammals jumping out of the water, turning their bodies in midair and splashing back into the water was incredible. But they headed straight for us and didn’t change course. It gave us the willies after several jumps them still heading straight for us. Sid took the helm and steered away from them, but they changes course towards us. Sid changed again, but the whales still headed for us. It was a pretty scary moment to see the large bodies of these majestic animals leap out of the water just about a boat length next to us. As scary as this was it also was amazingly spectacular, we could see all the barnacles on them, little fish were clinging to them, the ones that clean the whales and most impressive how huge they were, bigger then our boat. Obviously they just wanted to check us out and did one more of their amazing stunts just behind our boat and disappeared in the deep blue water. This was one of the most incredible, spectacular and beautiful play of nature I’ve ever witnessed. I don’t think we’ll be ever so lucky again to see this and I will never forget the gentle eyes looking at us.
I don’t even want to talk about the broach; lots of frothy water, an incredible noise of rushing water. Very scary, especially when Sid lost his footage and the boat was being pushed sideways! Much later, Sid still on the helm when I watched this huge wave behind us approach, it got taller and then a pipeline type wave crested over the cockpit. Before the water hit us, it hit the cockpit floor in front of us, at that moment we were inside the pipeline for split seconds before we got drenched. The whole entire trip not one drop of water entered the cockpit, now buckets full and of course the little port hole in the cockpit was open. We took quit a bit of water to the aft cabin and onto the bed. Including mattress all my cloths got soaked as well. (It took me 2 days and 14 loads of laundry.) After that wave, not another drop entered the cockpit. As we sailed into the harbor I caught Crystal our cat happily munching on a flying fish that had landed on board sometime during the night. The sail into Cabo San Lucas was wonderful and magical. How often had we told each other, that one day we'll be sailing around the arch of Cabo. That day finally arrived and we did sail all the way into the harbor entrance. It sure felt great to be there and it really dawned on us that we are cruising !!!
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