GLORIOUS BAJA CALIFORNIA

Mirador and Jerry are back on the Baja side of the Sea of Cortez in what we think is some of the nicest cruising in the world.  I didn't realize how much I missed the beautiful desert scenery and quiet anchorages until I arrived back here on Thursday afternoon.  Once I dropped the anchor in 11 feet of crystal clear water at the foot of a 4000 foot mountain I let out a mighty, and relaxing sigh and literally said out loud, "Ah, I'm home."

I am currently anchored in the east bight of the Agua Verde anchorage.  The top right-hand picture on our WEB home page is the west bight in this anchorage.  I can't include any pictures or even write much in this update because my HAM radio is still not working properly.  It stops transmitting after it has been used a while, then it will start again, and then stop, etc.  I am pretty sure the problem is caused by the cooling fan not running and thus the transmitter overheats and goes thru a thermal shutdown until it cools off.  I am pretty sure I can fix the problem with an auxillary fan but until then my e-mails have to be short.  I send this WEB page, in HTML format, as an attachment to an e-mail to my sister who then updates the WEB page using FTP on an internet connection.

I left the Mazatlan breakwater at 12 noon on Tuesday, June 17 and dropped the anchor here at 1 PM on Thursday - a distance of 291 nautical miles. I sailed all the way in company with Finisterre, a Morgan 46. They were always within 3 miles of me. They kept an eye out for me so I could sleep for two or three hours at a time. I sailed almost all the way with almost perfect wind all the time; 10 to 14 knots on a nice easy reach. No heeling, no waves, nice cool breeze and a hot sun. It was about the nicest sailing I've done - except the trip on my brothers Tartan 42 from Cabo San Lucas to Puerto Vallarta.

 I only took one solid wave over the bow while crossing the Mazatlan bar. But, I did have running water all the way back to the dodger. AND, I saw 5.2 feet on the depth sounder for 10 seconds. I was following another boat with a 6' draft so I wasn't too concerned but it did wake me up.

At 8 AM on the morning I was planning to leave Mazatlan, Don, the Western Mexico weather guru, started talking about Tropical Storm Amelia that was causing trouble down around Manzanillo, 400 miles SE of Mazatlan.  I was concerned because Don was predicting Amelia might head North towards my sailing route and might be close enough on Thursday morning to send hazardous seas across my path. I talked with him on the radio and he was sure I could get across the Sea before Amelia with her 60 knot winds and 20'+ seas got far enough north to affect the crossing from Mazatlan. He also thought it possible the storm might head West instead of North. I was a little nervous about leaving but Don is conservative and seldom wrong.

So I left Mazatlan knowing there was a nasty storm that might chase me across the Sea.  Amelia did go west instead of North but it helped generate some nice South winds that really gave me a great sailing trip to Agua Verde.

My Spectra watermaker just split the membrane end cap so tomorrow I will sail 25 miles North to Isla Coronado to pick up new end caps from the local Spectra rep.  The Spectra's sold in 2000 and 2001 came with a pickling solution, used to prevent biological growth in the membrane when the water maker is not used for more than 10 days, that weakens the end caps over time.  Well mine has been pickled three times and now sprays water everywhere instead of into the tank.  I really hope that Spectra will treat this as a warranty item since I have used the watermaker for less than 400 hours.

The weather is perfect, mid 90°s during the day, mid-70°s at night, always a nice cooling breeze, and never a cloud in the sky.  The water temp is about 77° and the visibility is about 20 feet.  I love it here!

I hope to do longer updates with pictures when I get my radio working again.