Sailing against the wind is stupid! It seams to me at first that pushing on a rope, trying to swim up river, and most things that defy common since or the laws of physics would be natural to follow. However, spending time away from society and in nature is starting to show me just how often I have tried to brake laws of physics, simply because they are not convienient for me! We spent a good week or more beating our heads against a brick wall sailing up wind trying to make as much distance north and reach Santa Rosalia. All because I want to go there! When in reality it's much easier to simply wait, or go the other direction! Perhaps someday I'll learn?
We were trying to catch up to our friends on Moonhunter, Bill and Miriam, which I'm glad to say we have. Although, we never did reach Santa Rosalia. Early November we made radio contact with Moonhunter Near Mulije toward the mouth of the Bay of Conseption. Summer in Baja ended and the North winds had started racing down Baja. Which means we will have several days of good weather with several days of winds up to 35 knots blowing from the cold north. The frustrating part of this is that it forces the water temperature to change quickly and also makes a short, sharp wave that literally stops the boat when trying to head into it! When the winds here kick up there is nothing to do but go with it. We turned into Conseption and spent a few days waiting to the Norther to die. The water was a beautiful turquoise, however no fish.
Over the past month we have been living off the ocean spending good chunks of time in areas which are havens for seafood. We spent about a week anchored of Punto Pulpito where we lived on Yellow tail, snaper, Cabrilla and Ruster fish. So far my ruster is the biggest fish that I have shot. It's funny how a 30lb fish can drag a 160lb man through the water....skipping!
Vianne, and us all, have been enjoying Bill and Miriam, and has taken to calling to Aunty Mirium and uncle Bill. She got pretty excited when she recognized Moonhunter for the first time,and who was on board.
The water is getting colder so swimming has become more infrequent. However Vianne, Mandy and I have all jumped in. Vianne is getting better with her water wings and I'm hopping that when we get to warmer water we can persue swimming more actively. In the mean while we have been taking few shore excersions and exploring beaches and some local trails. While anchored in Juanico we hiked over to the next bay to the north. Vianne thought the small caves were neat and expressed that she could live here. Mandy made a contribution to the local sailing schrine and we tried to find the rock, which Moonhunter placed there eight years ago, no luck.
Running low on supplies we decided to make our way to Coronados and wait till the weather was calm in order to sail to Loreto for supplies. The water turned to absolute crystal clear blue. While snorkeling on the east side, there were times when the visibilaty was about 100ft. Our last day at Coronados we took Boreas around to the north east point, and we all took turns snorkeling and exploring the reefs. Bill and I were able to swim out to two ridges which were about 80ft deep and at the bottom, huge grouper and snaper would swim with in 10 ft. On one of my dives a grouper that was as big as big as I swam up, almost with in arms length. It is an unforgettable experience being in absolute quiet holding your breath at 80ft while a monster fish is looking at you, hovering. The only thing I could think of was. "Is he wondering if he can eat me or not?" At any rate a beautiful place. We restocked in Loreto by anchoring and dinging ashore, returned to Coronados for a couple more days and then made our way back to Puerto Escondito for fuel, water and e-mail.
Each day is the same, yet completely different at the same time. With out the ability to spend money, value changes and the realization that so many things are not needed. I think I'm learning to value my family more. At least I'm trying to. Some days I think I'm more trying then others.
We are continuing to get Boreas more and more ready to cross the Pacific. I have just about finished all the little projects that I wanted to get done while in the sea. However, when we return to LaPaz I have a whole new list ,which will take me several weeks to get done. Included as, adjusting the windvaine/autopilot (I want to build a longer rudder for better leverage), I want to build lockers in the laz for better storage and I'm going to have the high pressure fuel pump on the main re-built. I've been able to trouble shoot some problems and have determined that it needs to be fixed, I was hoping it was just filters. Plus there are a number of other small projects.
I think right now one thing that amazes me more then anything is how much work it is just to live! It takes so much energy now just to eat, clean play. There is no room for anything else!
After I clean the bottom of the boat, we will start making our way slowly toward LaPaz. We will try and spend some time on Monserrat Island and checkout the hot springs near Agua Verde.
Unfortunatly it's amazing how quickly time rolls by. We will be back in LaPaz before the 19th as Mandy's mom is joining us for Christmas. We are also looking forward to that.