Loreto to Bahia Conception and back

Loeto and the mission bell tower

Posada Las Flores, Loreto

1 of the most beautiful Inns we have ever stayed in. Thank you, Valda

Don Pedro at Peurto Escondido. Photo courtesy of Rob.

2 Humpback whale close by on our way to San Juanico. There were 2 more on the other side of Don Pedro at the same time.

The gang at Playa Cocos, George, Martha, Butch and Diana (hiding behind the svelte Butch)

The Lindblad Explorations/National Geo. pocket cruise ship and our dinner hosts for a fabulous unexpected feast on the beach. Complete with silver dinner ware, bar wenches et all. A magical night to say the least.

Hello again from a very cold hotel room in Loreto. Yup, cold!! Well, 68 F but it feels like 50 with the 20 MPH wind. Linda and I are taking a 2 day break off the boat and Kristy flies in tomorrow from Vancouver for a 2 week visit. After talking to other cruisers, we had to keep going North to the Bahia de Conception, a sea within a sea with many beautiful anchorages and beaches about 60 miles N of Loreto. The first night we dropped the hook in a protected bay called San Juanico. The wind was howling so we decided to stay another day. Low and behold, a Lindblad Explorations/National Geographic pocket cruise ship came into OUR anchorage. Their policy is to apologise for interrupting our solitude(are you kidding, Pat and Robbie were already speculating about the female crew members) and invite us all to dinner..which they did. Within 5 ft of our hitting the beach in our tender, 2 gorgeous female crew members met us with trays full of cocktails and warm genuine welcoming words. Dinner(elegantly prepared and served on the beach..silver heating trays, seats etc.) was seared Ahi Tuna stakes and exotically Bar B Q'd chicken breasts with all the accoutrement's(is the really such a word?, who cares about the spelling!). After dessert there was astronomy 101 on the beach with the astronomer who accompanies the cruise, a bonfire, whole made SMORS and songs..no Michael row the boat ashore or Kumbaya..more like La Bamba etc. What a treat and thrill for us all!!

On to Conception Bay and beaches like Santispac, Playa Cocos, Playa Coyote etc. all lovely sandy beaches with clear blue/green water BUT CCCOOOLLLDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was OK when the sun was out but when it dropped, it got cold fast. Nevertheless, we met some great people who spend the winter there in their RV's. They had us over for appetizers and drinks and we had them on board Don Pedro for the same. There was a dance Sat, night at a local rest./bar called Ana's with great music and a bunch of loaded Gringos. We all danced, ate and drank until the place closed at 10 PM, yeh, 10 PM..Baha Midnight. It started at 5 so it was all right. A great time was had by all except Robbie(sorry, he has changed his name to Rob) who slashed his foot on some sharp object in the water. Some people will do anything to get out of dancing!!

Meeting George, Martha, Butch, Diana, Harold and Judy was the highlight. What a great bunch of people. Most of them had never been on a sailboat before so it was a treat for them. Our last night they invited us to a feast with things we hadn't had in a long time, 6 different appetizers, Pork Roast with apple sauce, Beef Roast, 2 salads, 4-5 different veggies, 2 home made pies and a FEW cocktails. Thank you all again, very, very much.

That day a unanimous decision was made, head SOUTH..NOW.It's too F_____n cold. So, after a night in San Juanico(hoping that our friends on the cruise ship would reappear) we are back in Loreto. After Kristy sees a bit of Loreto we are again heading south in search of warmer weather. Until then, we all wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Our thoughts are with you. We may be on the trip of our lives but we do miss you all and wish that we could jet home to be with you during this time. John, Linda, Pat and Rob..and the Red Bastard

Just some more photos from the voyage to Loreto

Just another Baja Sunset. We haven't seen the green flash yet but we know it's out there.

2nd row left photo is a typical bay on the backside of 1 of the islands just North of La Paz. They all have golden sand beaches at the head of the bay and blue/green crystal clear water. Thats Don Pedro in there. Most of the time we had these bays to ourselves or had to share them with 2-3 other boats. We spent the days sunning, swimming snorkeling and just being very lazy..why not, thats what this is all about. Top right lower photo is El Archo, the famous Cabo San Lucas landmark. It is the last part of the Baja Penninsula and denotes the separation point for the Pacific and the Sea of Cortes. Top center is Bahia Santa Maria with surf in background. You can double click on any photo to enlarge. Check out the bull on the hull!! Check out the Jock in the yellow kayak!!! Top right is typical movie night scene. We have approx. 200 movies on board, 5 computers, 4 DVD players-so much "stuff" for people who wanted to get away from it all. The truth is we all fell prey to the ridiculous low prices of gadgetry in S California and couldn't help ourselves.

The next 4 days call for thunderstorms in the Loreto area..lets hope lightening will strike elsewhere. That all for now, the next posting will probably be in about 10 days. Hello to all from all of us. Just realized that if I label where the photos are placed(eg. top left photo etc.), they don't relate to that positioning when I publish the posting to the blog so ignore the descriptions as to where the photos are placed. Most of them are self explanatery. John

Catching Up

We finally discovered the Red Bastard. He was stuffed amoungst the plumbing in the forward head in 2 of those Irish hats in the photo. From here on in he is one of the illustrious crew. We kept getting emails from him saying,"Let me out, I just wanna have a Margarita and enjoy the sailing life". So he goes everywhere with us.

Laundry man. You didn't know he had this in him, right. Yes ladies, he can do it himself. We bought a little portable hand crank washing mashine that uses little water and takes 2 minutes tumbling to wash and 1 minute to rinse..hang to dry.

Isla Espiritu Santu just north of La Paz

Our buddy from Catalina Island

Wolleyball anyone. Yup the RB goes with us to all sporting events.

Robbie, Aqua Man Come on, Robbie, we are almost there.

Anchored beyond the surf break at Bahia Santa Maria about 400 miles south of San Diego. We had to dingy in through the surf break..sometimes not too successfully. Just ask Linda









Arriving San Francisco

The motly crew as we prepare for departure from Deep Cove

Sorry about getting this up and running so late. Here is a fast catch up. 6 of us departed Deep Cove marina near Sidney on Sept. 5th. Me(John), daughter(Erin), her friend Jillian, Pat(nephew), Nelson and Robbie(good friends), after a great, raucious farewell party thrown by our great friends, Jim and Helen Dunlop. We arrived at the Inner Harbor of Victoria 5 hrs. later and proceeded to have another 35-40 friends stop by to wish us their best, cry, tell us to "get out of town" and party with us. Early on the morning of the 6th we were on our way on a beautiful day heading up the Strait of Juan de Fuca towards the great equalizer, the Pacific Ocean and it's west coast.

We soon started feeling the growing swells and after all the excitment, it was starting to take it's toll on a few crew so we pulled behind Tatoosh Island near Neah Bay, Washington at the entrance to the Striats. The pacific would have to wait until tomorrow to get it's chance at us.

The next day came with grey mist, fog and sloppy seas. After motoring for about 6 hrs., the sun broke out, the wind came up of the NW and we raised the sails. It blew about 17-20 knots from that direction for 4 days, the sailing(night and day) was great and we were heading SOUTH!!!!

The crew were great, 1 case of minor sea sickness that lasted only a few hours.

We finally lost the wind and not having enough fuel to get to San Francisco, we headed for Eureka Ca. Hell of a town, Eureka!! Laid back ex timber town that has fallen on hard times. Friendly folk and a great marina. I must say that marinas in California are mostly run by the municipalities and they are great, cheap and secure. We paid an average of $23.50/night and that included power and all the water you could use. It would be a minimum of double plus power in Canada. But I digress, fueled up in Eureka, reprovisioned and headed off to San Fran.

It was a light wind, 24 hr. trip that had us passing under the Golden Gate bridge in the beautiful fading light of the late afternoon. We started celebrating 10 miles out and were "very happy" by the time we managed to find a spot. Had a great but short time in San Fran. except I was pickpoceted, losing all credit cards, ID and quite a whack of ca$h. Amy, my friend and long time right hand uber person at Harlequin came to my rescue. I called her collect and she had everything cancelled within 25-30 minutes. She wasn't at the office, however, over the years she had all my credit card #'s committed to memory so she could do what she did so fast. Amy, again, thank you so very much!!
-On to Santa Cruz and Monteray about 80-90 miles S of San Fran. After a couple of days in those ports, having fun, keeping the boys..and girls out of trouble, we wanted WARM weather. After all, thats what this trip is all about!! We headed out for a 2 night-3 day leg to Santa Barbara. The winds were great most of the way and we pulled into a fabulous municipal marina for a week of sun, sand, volleyball, bicycling and enjoying this wonderful town( 1 of the best California has to offer-I could live there..never know, just might some day!

Here, Linda joined us and Erin and Jillian departed for a new life in Montreal. They thought that the trip would be what they wanted but as we all did when we finally got free from all those years in school, all we wanted was total freedom with NO parental control. I just couldn't let go yet. I backed Erin in her decision although I miss her and wanted to spend more time with her than I got. She is doing great after a hard start(she was robbed in LA and lost all her hard earned cash she had saved for the trip. She has a full time job and she and Jillian share a new appartment in a nice suburb about 15 minutes from downtown. We both learned a lot about each other from that experience and look forward to being together again sometime in the near future.

We got away again and headed for 1 of the channel islands off of Santa Barbara. After a couple of days of gunkholing we came back to the mainland and continued harbor hopping until Long Beach where we fell in love with a little marina called Alamitos Bay. We arrived in the middle of a TV show being shot in the marina. Jimmy Smits is starring in a new series called Cane and there were camers, lights and security everywhere. No one wnated to discover us and sign us to a contract so wee took off to Santa Catalina Island in time to partake in their annual Buccaneers Days festival. 3 days of wenches, grog and wannabe pirates. As you can imagine, there were cannons going off all the time. Back to Newport Beach where we picked up a mooring bouy for $5./night-thats right, $5/night. We stayed a week and split for San Diego where we were given recipricol priveledges by the San Diego Yacht Club..hoity toity!!! However, San Diego was on fire at the time so every morning the boat was covered in ash. We did, however, have a great time and drop about $5,000. more on boat stuff we needed. We didn't know we needed this stuff until we saw it and everybody else said, "Hey, Canuuck, you need this stuff" OK, I'll buy it!!

Finally, 8 days later we headed for the boarder without Nelson as he went home for personal reasons. 24 hrs. later we entered Ensenada harbor in fog so thick that we didn't see the marina until we were 50 ft. from the dock. A big shrimpboat leaving the harbor without his radar on almost ended the trip for us. He turned at the last moment.whoeeeee! DICKHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3 days later after clearing with the officials, bailing Pat and Robbie out of trouble..those boys, we took off for Bahia Tortuga, the armpit of the Baja. We needed fuel and a reality check, we got both. After a 2 day rest it was off to Bahia Santa Maria which is a big, beautiful, almost desrted bay with a 20 mile sandy beach, surf and warm clear water. After 5 hrs. in the water, Robbie had grown gills behind his ears and Pat had started a merman tail. We frolicked in the surf(ask Linda about her delightful dingy dunking), drank cold beers, ate fresh fish and said"Cabo, here we come".

Cabo San Lucas, palm trees, crystal clear warm water, action for the boys(they were getting a little crazy) and a needed rest after 9days on the go from San Diego. From here on we don't have to"get there" because we"are there"! Were cruising from here on. As this is the most expensive marina on the west coast of the world, $4./ft. or $168. US/night, we spent 1 very looonngg 24 hrs. washing, refueling, taking on water, provisioning and fixing whatever needed to be fixed then split for the anchorage, "the office"(a great bar/restaurant right on the beach with music, tequila, babes and everyone trying to sell you STUFF. We had fun for a couple of days, Pat and Robbie "did" Cabo Wabo and Cabo Wabo did Pat-yup, a header off the dock and into the water. He still claims it was a banana peel but we know it was the tequila two step.

We had had enough after 2 days of constant party party party, OK everbody, dreeenking contest, very LOUD music etc. so we headed up the east coast of the Baja-What are we doing going NORTH again? This whole trip is about going south. The Sea of Cortes lay before us..to the north so off we went. After 2 days(all glorious weather by now and if it wasn't do you think I'd say otherwise?) we arrived at Los Frailles where friends, Chistine and Terry are building a house on a magnificant hilltop lot. We joined them for drinks, dinner and more drinks before being pointed in the direction of Don Pedro, anchored off their beach. 2 days later we arrived in La Paz, the centre of the boating world for the Sea of Cotres. Nelson rejoined us here and we hung out at a great marina for a week doing what was necessary to prepare for 8-9 days cruising some of the most azure blue/green clear warm wonderful wwwwwwaters there are, anywhere. There are 2 islands about 15 milea N of La Paz, Isla Espiritu Santu and Isla Partida. Combined they have almost 20 bays, all with golden sand and green/blue waters. Snorkeling, swimming, sunning..everything beginning with a S is swonderful there. During the last 3 weeks we have been enjoying this cruising ground however the weather the last week has been grey, a little cooler, it actually rained for about 8 hrs. and very windy. A very large low pressure area off of the Baja has disturbed the weather pattern for about a week and yesterday(Dec.4th) it finally moved on and things are back to normal.

We are now in Loreto, the original capital of Spanish Mexico where the Jesuits started their string of Missions. Its a charming town of about 10,000 people, very friendly and not a lot of gringos. Linda and I are off the boat for 2 days and the boys have Don Pedro to themselves anchered off of Isla Coronado about 6 miles from here. They get shore leave in 2 days so they can do some howling and let off some steam etc.We are now up to date. I'll try to edit this posting in the near future so the photos match the text but right now, THATS ALL FOLKS.