Sheilagh says it’s about time for me to start entering data on the blog; so I’ll give it a shot. After spending hours on the computer every day of my working life, I have taken a hiatus over the past three weeks and done no computing whatsoever. I may have forgotten how to do this.
After arriving in Cabo San Lucas on the 8th of November we spent a fairly pleasant stay of 6 days. I say fairly, because the place was very crowded, with at least one new cruise ship towering above us in the anchorage every day. There were some 130 sailboats vying for docks or anchoring space as a result of our Baja Ha Ha fleet. We had to choose our spot carefully to drop our anchor; because we needed to make sure we didn’t hit any other boats when the wind changed – as it typically did.
It seems as if everyone in Cabo has a boat (fishing boats, sailboats, glass-bottom boats, wave-runners, parachute-towing boats, dive boats, dinghies, etc.) and everyone uses them at the same time. It was as if flies were buzzing around a new pile of what-flies-prefer, but these “flies” left wakes that constantly bounced our boats. We were also subjected to loud and off-key renditions of Mexican songs late into the night from the hotels along the beach.
What was good about it all? We had some good times with the crew and with other friends we had met. We were anchored in our own home just off the beach, where tourists pay lots of “dinero” to have a view of the beach. The weather is always warm, with cool breezes during both the day and night to keep it warm and not hot. I really like being able to step off the boat into the water to cool off any time I get a little too warm. Then I can get back on and rinse off with hot-and-cold fresh water from a short hose we have installed for the purpose, and dry in the sun. I wear a swimming suit most of the time (along with sunscreen), and put on a T-shirt when the sun is at its highest. Sheilagh does the same, but opts for shorts and long-sleeved shirts, and is not so eager to step off the boat into the water.
We left Cabo on the 14th and took a day to get to a small bay, named Los Frailes (the friars), which is the first of three day sails to La Paz. There we took the dinghy and our snorkel gear to “one of three living hard-coral reefs in North America” where we found the reef to be a bit deeper than we thought – possibly best for scuba divers. So we retired to the edge of the bay where we saw thousands of small fingerling fish (about the size of a small finger) that moved in unison to get out of our way. There we also saw the same multi-colored fish we had seen in Hawaii – how did they make that trip? It was a beautiful experience and we decided that “tropical” fish are probably the same throughout the tropics. Cabo is south of the Tropic of Cancer (23.5 degrees North latitude) where the tropics start, which led to our conclusion.
Yesterday we fought a 16-knot wind on the nose and 4’ seas to motorsail from Los Frailes to our current location in Bahia de los Muertos (Bay of the Dead), which refers to the sinking of large anchors with buoys onto the bottom of the bay to be used as “dead-man” moorings. The developers are officially changing the name to Bahia de los Sueños (Bay of dreams) to better attract buyers as they create an 18-hole golf course and some high-end homes, apartments, and hotels here just 35 miles south of La Paz. At the moment there is a single building with a thatch roof that houses the Giggling Marlin Beach and Yacht Club, where we had great chicken fajitas last night after anchoring in the setting sun. It’s a good thing we took a flashlight with us in the dinghy to get to shore, because as soon as we sat down in the restaurant the lights went out for about 15 minutes. With the flashlight we were able to help the bartender find us two Pacifico Cervesas to wait out the time.
During our beat upwind yesterday, we left a couple of hatches slightly open to keep some air circulating, but found that even slightly open hatches can let a lot of seawater in when the waves are high. We have had to dry out one of the settees in the saloon this morning and are drying out some books that got damp. Sheilagh has finished rearranging the galley cupboards for the umpteenth time this morning. She can’t seem to relax and just sit around and read, as I am fully capable of doing. I am forcing myself not to feel the need to do anything useful just to keep up with her. I have dozens of books I have been planning to read, a guitar to re-learn, and a chance to do some writing; so I have plenty to keep me busy. Have I thought of work since retiring on the 24th of October? Only in some bad dreams where I wake up with a business challenge confronting me, which I can disregard as soon as I pinch myself! Thankfully those kinds of dreams are declining in frequency.
I am also developing a so-called “beard” as part of my retirement – so-called because it looks less like a beard and more like a skuzzy, patchwork of different colored hairs that don’t seem to want to be part of “team beard.” I also had a barber cut my hair to a short length, as she gave instructions to Sheilagh on how to do it in the future. Naturally the first thing Sheilagh did with my first haircut was to cut short the hair at the front of my scalp, because “it stuck out.” Hopefully she will get better at this. I would reciprocate by cutting her hair short, but I prefer her hair to be longer; so I would be the one forced to live with any damage I did. That’s it for this blog.
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