June 1st – La Paz – Jim’s Blog #48

We have been enjoying La Paz as we prepare to go north into the Sea of Cortez. This is the last major supply location for the next several weeks or months, and we want to make the most of it. Sheilagh has already replaced the water pump after we made two trips to the marine supply store, finding that the first purchase was a later model pump that didn’t fit the space we had for it. Every task seems to include additional problems that we hadn’t planned on.

We also met another couple, Chuck and Linda of ‘Jacaranda,’ and had dinner at a very elegant restaurant with them and Ed and Cornelia of ‘A Cappella’ on the night before Ed and Cornelia were departing north. Suckling pig was on the menu, but it still had a couple of hours to go in the adobe oven; so we had lamb and rib eye steak instead. The meat was the best we’ve had in Mexico so far, and we got to see the fully-cooked suckling pig when it was removed from the oven. It’s still difficult for me to look at the faces of the meat I’m eating, particularly when the meat is ripped from its mother’s teat while it’s still being nursed. It may be awhile before I even think of ordering suckling pig, and then I really won’t want to see it before it’s carved up on the plate – and I certainly won’t want to see the head.

We got back to the boat that night and smelled a strong fish-like smell in the boat that seemed to come from the galley. Sheilagh determined that it must be something in the sink drain; so we closed the through-hull and filled it with vinegar. In the morning the smell was still with us, and we weren’t sure how to get rid of it. We decided to scramble some eggs for breakfast, when Sheilagh found that the smell was coming from the eggs we had stored on a shelf. Several of the eggs had broken (apparently from the bashing we had received on Sunday), some flies had managed to lay eggs on the broken ones, and the egg carton was crawling with maggots. We decided not to pick out the good eggs from the stinky mess. Instead we stuck the whole thing in a plastic bag, and I walked it to the garbage can. Now we have to find a better way to keep the eggs from cracking in a rough sea. Apparently most of our cruising from this point forward will be relatively calm.

On Thursday we made separate shopping trips to give ourselves some time to be alone – I took back the oversized water pump, while Sheilagh did some grocery shopping. It was in La Paz in November that we were in the best shape we have ever been in because of all the walking we did. Now we are getting back into walking again, and our bodies can feel the change.

On Friday I spent most of the day catching up on the news, perfecting my Sudoku mastery, and working on my blogs – which means I did very little exercising. In fact I had noticed that the stainless steel was looking a bit rustier than usual and decided the 10+ hours it would take me to catch up with the shine was better spent supervising two local workers. It cost me $60 for the 10-hour job, which was well worth the cost – particularly in this heat. When we get up into the Sea of Cortez in some of those cozy little bays, I’ll have to make sure I take an hour or two in the cool of the morning every day or two to keep the stainless steel in good shape.

I have pulled out my list of resolutions and added some daily exercise to the list – possibly spent stretching with some yoga, swimming, fishing with spear or bow and arrow, or hiking along the shore. I also brought along a guitar to become a “world-famous” classical guitarist by the end of the trip. I figure that I will have succeeded if I can relearn the ability to play the guitar by sight-reading the music. I could do it in a limited fashion 20 years ago, but now I have so much time that I have no excuse not to get a lot better. We’ll see if I can stick to my resolutions.

As part of my personal improvement process I am also starting to study the boat systems manuals one by one to make sure I understand the full capability of all the systems. I also want to develop my skills with celestial navigation, even if GPS has eliminated the need for that competence these days. We have two separate GPS’s attached to the boat, and I have a handheld unit in an emergency. There is always the possibility that the electronics in the boat can fail for any number of reasons – not the least of which is a lightning strike, since our mast will be the highest object in the area of most thunderstorms. In the event that we should get close to a thunderstorm, the first task will be to put the handheld VHF and GPS in the oven along with our two laptops, which is supposed to protect them. The next task will be to turn off all the electronic equipment, although there is no guarantee that lightning couldn’t still take out most of it.

We saw a sister-ship in Puerto Vallarta that had been struck by lightning and had lost all its electronics. The ship itself looked fine, but the entire electronic suite had been cooked. Although insurance will help, the full outlay to purchase and install a completely new system would be several thousands of dollars including the radar, GPS’s, knot meter, wind gauge, depth gauge, and the various radios including HAM, VHF, FM, Sirius Satellite. Lightning would more than likely knock out the autopilot, and it could affect the engine as well. And the solar panels and controllers would also be likely to fail, not to mention the entire electrical panel possibly melting down. It’s not a pleasant thought, but it is a possibility; so we need to be prepared.

It’s amazing the things one learns from other cruisers – things that are considered essential for safety from their point of view – that become essential items for the rest of us. For instance we learned that several of the cruisers had purchased full Lycra body suits for sun protection and jellyfish resistance while snorkeling. My concept of Lycra is that it is for small, stretchy bikinis worn by super models who have the body for them. When I heard about the body suit, I immediately looked down at my less-than-ripped abs and decided that I really didn’t need to accentuate the folds to be found in that location. Nevertheless, I could see the value of the protection from sun and jellyfish; so Sheilagh and I have both ordered one ($40 apiece). We may or may not model them in a photograph in the blog – it depends on how badly we look in them. That’s another reason for my resolution to get more exercise that I mentioned earlier. Hopefully the Lycra bodysuit will be hanging like loose skin from my marvelously ripped body in a few months – I can always hope.

We put off a Saturday departure until today, Sunday, because we hadn’t accomplished all the provisioning we will need. Yesterday we walked a couple of miles to the main CCC store (a combination food market, drug store and clothing emporium) in a very hot sun with very little shade in order to get our exercise. We gasped in relief at the coolness of the store and quickly realized why it was so full of shoppers – everyone was getting in out of the heat. It also appeared that the entire high school was employed as sample distributors, handing out samples of yogurt, various juice drinks, various cheeses, crackers, and even raisin bran (dry with no milk). We piled a food basket high with essentials at the slow pace of the rest of the crowd pushing baskets through the store, swerving constantly to avoid employees attempting to stock the shelves before each item ran out. We had so much to carry that we grabbed a cab and made it back in fine style, glad of the chance to rest our weary bodies.

We unloaded the groceries, put them away and grabbed naps before our last night out on the town. At about 8PM it was cool enough to venture forth; so we joined Chuck and Linda of ‘Jacaranda’ for a walk down the malecon (the street and sidewalk bordering the harbor). [In most cities in the U.S. large hotels have been built next to the main beach and block off the beach access, but not in the larger Mexican cities we have visited. It seems that the weekend was devoted to “Armed Forces Appreciation,” and we encountered static displays of aircraft and boats on a large square on the malecon, along with a band, food booths, and military men in uniform walking around answering questions. In the U.S. we would have had protesters calling for the elimination of the military, but here it was a celebration.

All along the malecon were cars loaded with people of all ages cruising back and forth along the main drive, checking out everything and everyone. At one point we heard a lot of horns honking and looked up to see a string of cars leading a flatbed truck where a large metal robot about 10’ tall was being kept from falling off the truck by a couple of men. The robot was moving its arms and proclaiming some message on the display screen embedded in its chest. What was interesting was that the honking continued all along the route, and then it was repeated in the opposite direction.

By 10PM we were ready to call it a night – heck, we stayed up an hour beyond the time when cruisers typically hit the rack. We were asleep in short order, ready to depart today.

We aren’t sure about internet connections from here on going north. We’ve been told that such opportunities are few and far between. So we’re not sure when we’ll be able to update this blog or get in touch with any of you. Please don’t worry if we should be “off the internet” for awhile. We are entering fairly calm waters going north and should have no difficulty. There are two “hurricane holes” north of us where we should be able to ride out any hurricane-like weather, if it comes this far north. Both of those locations have internet connections; so we’ll let you know if we are battening down the hatches to avoid a storm. Hurricane holes are places with strong moorings and plenty of land protection all around, where cruisers put out extra lines and anchors, remove all sails and anything that could blow off the boat, and hunker down. Both of these hurricane holes have never had a direct hit by a hurricane, because hurricanes seldom come this far north. Those boats that have caught the edge of a hurricane in these holes have done fine.

We’ll be sending out occasional messages to family using our HAM radio to send short emails. If you send us an email and don’t hear from us in awhile, please have patience and we will get back to you when we get to an internet location. We hope you all have as nice a summer as we expect to have. Good-by for now. More later . . .