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Monday, November 09, 2009

Back in La Paz

With the approach of Hurricane Rick, which early on was being forecast as a very severe hurricane destined for La Paz, Shawn flew down early to sit with Om Shanti through the winds. Luckily the storm weakened and veered to the east, and the worst Shawn saw was heavy rains and flooded streets. I flew down a week and a half later after a nice visit with my family in Yakima, WA, and was pleasantly surprised by a very clean boat, completely put back together. After seven years of dirty boat yards and never ending projects, I was definitely given the princess treatment this year. We are currently in Marina Palmira enjoying life back in La Paz and soaking up the sunshine. We recently returned from a two day road trip to Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo for the awards ceremony of the 2009 Baja HaHa group. Our publishing company was a sponsor this year so we traveled down with Dennis and Susan of Ross Marine Services and welcomed this year's group of HaHa'ers. Our future plans remain open ended, but there's no better place to contemplate the future than peaceful La Paz!

La Paz Entrance Buoy Update

We heard over the morning net today from Tom of Baja Insider that the entrance buoys to La Paz might have moved around a bit after last week's high tides and the norther that blew through. We were curious so we took the dinghy, GPS and handheld depth sounder to check things out. Nothing too dramatic, just FYI.

La Paz Entrance Buoys
A direct line between the first red buoy (unmarked) and red buoy #2 takes you very close to the bar. The shallowest we saw was 5.8 feet at zero tide. My advice would be to steer clear of the red buoys and favor the first green buoy (unmarked) and green buoy #1. (These are the buoys in front of the Bercovich Boat Yard and Costa Baja Marina.) The unmarked red buoy and red buoy #1 have always been close to the bar so I don't know if they have moved or not. Red buoy #6 has actually broken away and is now sitting on the sand bar between red buoy #8 and red buoy #10. Looking down the channel you can see a long stretch with no red buoy (where #6 should be). Red buoy #6 is currently at 24 11.7N, 110 18.339W, but the next high tide might change that. Needless to say, don't steer towards red buoy #6. Red buoy #10 seems to have gotten a fresh coat of paint, however no one has bothered to repaint "#10" on the buoy - it's faint under the new coat of paint. Finally, red buoy #12 looks to be stretched to the end of its tether at high tide and is a little lower in the water than the rest, but seems to be in a good spot, although probably a new spot judging by its tether.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

New 2nd Edition Coming Soon!


We are extremely excited to announce the 2nd edition to the Sea of Cortez guide will be coming very soon. We spent the majority of the summer with our noses behind the computer screens updating and including many new additions to the guide. We have just received word from our printer that we can expect to have the book in October. We have added a few sample pages and additional information to our website from the new edition - www.exploringcortez.com/ec_about_2nd.html

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Cruising the Sea


Our home for 3 weeks on m/v Ursa Major














Heather whale watching




















Captain Josh and Shawn on a high speed dinghy trip














Kayaking in the mangroves of Amortajada












Old salt evaporation ponds























A blue whale spotted














A pod of pilot whales














Manta rays cruising just under the surface

















Curious, juvenile sea lions

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Cooling Down With Our New Best Friend

At the end of January, Shawn and I flew back home to try our luck at selling a few sun-filled inspirational guides on the Sea of Cortez to the winter bound Pacific Northwesterners at the Seattle Boat Show. While we always look forward to our trips back to Washington, our 4 ½ hour flight delay, which was due to thick fog throughout the state, did not encourage us to leave the warmth of the San Jose del Cabo airport and turn our icy Pacifico beers in for scalding cups of Starbucks coffee. The show was a success, while not as large or as well attended as the previous year, we still managed to talk a few cruisers into escaping the cold, dark northern winters and heading for the land of eternal sunshine and warm Decembers – no foul weather gear necessary.

After the long nonstop 10-day show, Shawn and I took a break for a day and sat in luxurious silence before heading east of the mountains for a visit with my family. While in Yakima, I was lucky enough to live my cowgirl dreams, chasing cows and riding through the sagebrush with my mom and her 2 beautiful horses. And what trip to
Washington in February is complete without a play day in the snow? Armed with snowshoes and a thermos of coffee, we joined my parents and headed into the mountains to visit my grandfather’s cabin. On the way up, we stopped at both the elk and the mountain sheep feeding stations to view the well-feed, pampered wildlife. We spent the afternoon plodding through a brilliant sunlit


prairie, backed by snow-covered mountains, and hot coffee back in the heated comfort of the cabin.

Anxious for our 3,000-mile road trip back to La Paz, we loaded the truck down with an amazing assortment of boat goodies including a fuel tank, water tank, canvas material, and the life-altering refrigeration, before hitting the highway once again. Shawn was visibly excited at the thought of so many big projects, which would surely require the use of every single tool, gadget and screw on our boat to complete all the necessary repairs and installations. I on the other hand, was a bit apprehensive for all the exact same reasons. I most definitely appreciate a difficult, but fulfilling project. However, the thought of living once again in a tool-filled war zone with approximately 4 cubic feet of uncluttered, non-oily living space is not

necessarily my “happy place” like it is for my other half who seems to relish in the beauty of being surrounded by saws, grinders, dirt, and thirty some odd different kinds of wrenches. It is worth any amount of chaos and project frustration however, for the chance to convert our wet and funky icebox into the miracle of refrigeration.

Our trip southbound was pleasantly uneventful and quick. We crossed the border this time at Tecate, which to our surprise was a very nice experience – friendly and hospitable locals, quick customs and immigration, and a very clean town. A far cry from the chiclet-insanity of Tijuana. We spent our first night back in Baja, which also coincided with Valentine’s Day, camped at our favorite spot in Catavina. In honor of Valentine’s Day, we celebrated in style sipping cold beer and eating bacon-wrapped hot dogs under the stars while sitting on the tailgate of the truck in front of the mini super convenience store. Romance is all in the eye of the beholder I suppose, because we loved every minute of it!


We hit La Paz just in time to celebrate the start of Carnival. The majority of the downtown waterfront was taken over by rides, games, food stalls, beer tents and the infamous blanket vendors who hawk their wares over a blaring microphone at sonic speeds. During the last 3 nights of the celebration, the parade is held with colorful floats adorned with even more colorfully dressed dancers. Carnival in La Paz is a very wholesome and family oriented event, with the closest thing to a beaded necklace being thrown is a confetti-filled, hollowed Easter egg. And the closest thing to “chichis” being flashed is watching the Tecate (a local beer) Girls bounce around to music in their bikinis.


Carnival was definitely a welcome distraction from nonstop projects, but an even more welcome distraction has been Dishes (named for doing the dishes). Dishes visits numerous times a day without any prompting to jump onboard and ironically lingers in the companion way after dinner. But, after nearly 2 weeks of projecting, we now have a new water tank, fuel tank, cushion covers, bilge pump, reinsulated icebox, and we are moments away from refrigeration. If all goes well, tonight we will be listening to the comforting sound of a compressor working to chill our beer and freeze our ice. Keep your fingers crossed!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Wonder Twins Reunite