LA PAZ JUNE 7, 1997

   Hi everyone! We've been safely in anchored in La Paz, Mexico since June 2. We left Ensenada May 19 en route for Turtle Bay on only 3/4 tank of diesel because a very large power boat pulled up to the fuel dock before us and bought all the diesel.

   Turtle Bay is about the only fueling stop on the pacific coast of Baja. Yachts drop an anchor and back up to a rickety old pier and tie their stern line to it. A fuel hose is handed down about 15 feet from the pier. Depth of the water gets as shallow as 5 feet and we draw 7 so we need to wait for high tide. The fuel dock is owned and operated by a Mexican named Gordo. He is actually the son of the original Gordo who started the dock. All the yachties know him and really appreciate his service. One of Gordo's workers came out to us in an outboard boat and offered to bring us the diesel in jugs so we wouldn't have to fight the pier. I asked him if he had a pump and he assured me he did. This was great! About 20 minutes later he showed up with his jugs full of diesel and proceeded to hook up his pump. His pump consisted of a six-foot length of garden hose. When he put the hose in a jug Cyndee and I looked at each other in the hope he wasn't going to do what we knew he would. A quick suck on the diesel covered hose and the siphon was going. He had to do this with several more jugs. We quickly had our tank and both 6-gallon jugs we carry on deck full. He explained that this was "bueno trabajo" (good work) and then washed his mouth out with seawater. We spent the night to rest up and left for Bahia Magdelena the next morning, the 22nd.

   Now we have wind! We have a mechanical self-steering system that requires no electricity to steer the boat. Most electric autopilots (which we also have) react too slowly to handle a sailboat this large in any swells. And we have swells. Wind vane steering is mounted on the transom of the boat. It has a vertical blade that stands above the boat. When the sails are trimmed and the boat is on the desired course, I adjust the blade (vane) so that the leading edge is directly into the wind. When the boat changes direction, the leading edge of the vane is no longer directly into the wind. With the wind a little to the side, the vane is pushed over. When the vane tips over, it moves a linkage connected to an oar submerged in the water directly behind the boat. As the boat moves through the water, the leading edge of the oar is normally facing into the water flow. The linkage rotates the oar. Now the water moving over the oar as we sail is no longer hitting directly on the leading edge. The force of the water hitting the side of the oar causes it to swing to one side (depending upon which was vane was pushed over). When the oar swings, it pulls a rope connected through blocks (pulleys) to the steering wheel. This turns the wheel and we're back on course. All of this happens very quickly so we only really vary by a few degrees each way.

   Unfortunately it doesn't work. The ropes that control the tension on the whole contraption go into little cleats with spring loaded jaws. As the rope is pulled through the jaws in one direction, it slides through. When pulled the other direction, the jaws tighten and hold the rope. In this case the rope keeps jumping out of the jaws. When the rope jumps out of the jaws, the whole rig goes slack and is turned off. I got the steering to work by pulling the tension control lines tight and tying them around a regular cleat. It turns out that the cam cleats I bought are underrated for the load the system is putting on them. I've got replacement cleats on their way from the states with another boater who is on his way to La Paz. We'll see.

   At lunchtime, the dolphins show up again. About a gazillion of them. Great company for a couple of hours. We sail on all that night on self-steering. The next day (23rd) and the wind still hold. Another beautiful day and another gazillion dolphins. The seas are starting to really build up, but the boat handles it beautifully and the self-steering is doing its job. It's still a little cool out during the day and almost cold at night.

   A port captain controls Bahia Magdelena so if we enter we have to check in. This is not supposed to be a pleasant process, so we stop about 10 miles north in Bahia Santa Maria the morning of the 24th. This is a huge bay that is protected from the pacific swell, but not the wind. We dropped the hook in about 30 feet of water and spent the day and night sleeping and resting. Its not like we did any real work the last couple of days, but we have to maintain a watch at all times, so we didn't get much sleep.

   We left Santa Maria the next morning and headed for Cabo San Lucas (land's end). Cabo san Lucas marks the point where we leave the Pacific Ocean and enter the Sea of Cortez. The wind in Santa Maria has been blowing about 20 knots continuously, but as soon as we leave it dies. About an hour later the wind begins to return, but much lighter. That night the wind really kicked up and the seas built to about 8 feet. We kept the main sail reefed to the second reef point (we have four heights to which we can raise the sail. Normally it is up all the way, but when the wind gets too strong we have to lower it a little to present less surface area to the wind. Each section to which we can lower the main sail is called a reef point.) and roll up the headsail a little to make the boat more comfortable and easier to control. Another beautiful full moon night. As I stood watch I occasionally thought I heard something breathing next to the boat. I'd look over the side, but there was nothing. Then again. Nothing. Finally I caught it. A porpoise was swimming next to me and would come up to breathe. I'm convinced he was teasing me deliberately because after I saw him, he left.

   We arrived in Cabo san Lucas at 2:30pm May 26th. It's finally hot. Really hot. As we approached the harbor, sweatshirts and long pants started coming off. Eventually we were down to just swimsuits. Entering Cabo marina is amazing. There were million dollar boats and pongas and jet skis everywhere. It looked like thousands of them. We had to change course to avoid a princess lines cruise ship clearing the harbor. We wanted to take a slip in the marina for a couple of days to do some maintenance on the boat, take on water and clean up. I called the marina on the vhf radio and finally got a response. The security guard who answered explained that nobody was in the office and they'd be back at 3:00. We floated around outside the harbor until 3 and called again. A new security guard explained that it would not be until 3:30. We were already used to this. In Mexico, manana does not mean tomorrow, it just means "not today."

   About 3:30 we raised the marina and got a slip assignment. We cleaned up the boat and took showers. We stayed here for 3 nights and that was about 4 nights too many. Cabo is expensive, dirty, loud and rude. Especially to sail boaters. The marina is filled with million dollar powerboats and just a handful of cruising sailboats. They don't even like to sell diesel to us because we ask how they can get 7 gallons in our 6-gallon jerry jug. The captain hired to skipper the million-dollar powerboat never asks how they fit 700 gallons in his 600-gallon tank. We'd sailed the whole way, so we didn't need any fuel.

   The port captain office was closed for the day so I had to check in the following morning. The means a visit first to Migracion (immigration) to get my check out papers from Ensenada stamped (3 copies left from Ensenada). Migracion takes one copy. Then a visit to the port captain to get the remaining copies stamped. Port Captain keeps a copy. Then a visit to the harbor fees office to pay harbor fees. They take my last copy. The problem with this is it's 100 degrees out and the Migracion office is two miles down the road. There are no street signs so I have to use the crude map provided by the marina office and count streets. Of course the map is wrong so Chaz and I wander back and forth an extra mile until we stumble upon an old house that has been converted to the Migracion office. After a few minutes here we walk to the port captain office. It's on the opposite edge of Cabo, up a dirt ally. On the way, Chaz and I stopped at a little hole in the wall haircut shop. We got to sit down and have cool water sprayed on our head. Our hair is really short, but the girl work for about 40 minutes on each of us, finishing up by using a small straight razor on our necks. Total cost: $3. On to the Port Captain office.

   Here they ask about the boat and take a copy of my coast guard documentation. After they get all their questions answered, they stamp my papers and send me off to pay the fees. In order to leave Cabo, I have to come back and show the receipt. The office to pay the fees is at the farthest outer edge of the harbor. There is no indication that it is even an official building. I walked in and asked the chatting girls about port fees. One nodded yes and took me through a maze of run down meeting rooms to a tiny back office. The man inside motioned for me to sit and indicated that he just had to finish a little typing. Of course this was typing on a manual typewriter with just his forefingers. 40 minutes later he was done and it was my turn. He took my last copy of my crew list from Ensenada and a copy of my coast guard documentation. He stood up, extended his hand and very formally said, "Welcome to Cabo San Lucas." We shook hands, I thanked him for his hospitality and assured him it was a pleasure to be here. That completed, he proceeded to spend the next 30 minutes preparing my receipt. Total charge for port fees at the end of all this labor: $1. Tomorrow, it's time to check out.

   I prepared a new crew list with information regarding captain, crew, ages, boat specifications, destination and intermediate stops. I printed 5 copies and began the process. First to Migracion. They stamp all 5 copies, keep one and send me off to the port captain. He stamps 4 copies, keeps one, takes a copy of my receipt for port fees and takes another copy of my coast guard documentation. I'm free to leave Cabo in the next 48 hours. Keep in mind that all copies are provided my me. None of these offices have a copy machine. Welcome to the Baja Cha Cha.

   We did meet another family on a cruising sailboat. They were from the Anaheim area in California and had 4 kids on board. Two girls ages 16 and 12 and two boys ages 7 and 4. They were doing home schooling for the oldest three. The 12-year old girl and 7 year old boy were both using the Calvert School like we are. They we in Cabo replacing their engine. Apparently they hit a gray whale in Bahia Magdelena. I'm not quite sure how this affected their engine, but they were removing it. Fortunately they had already been cruising Mexico for about 9 months so they weren't out of business right from the start.

   May 29th we left Cabo and started working our way up toward La Paz. We decided to day sail and anchor in little coves at night all the way up. We did stay an extra day in a cove called Los Frailes so the kids could play on the beach. We launched the tender and mounted the outboard motor. We've got to find a better way to handle that motor. I think it weighs about 7000lbs and the Larry Moe and Curly routine Cyndee and I performed in getting the tender in the water and the motor mounted was not as funny as it may have looked. It turns out that landing a small boat on the beach through the surf is something that will take a little practice. We made it only after a wave broke over us from astern. Of course it filled the clean dry tender with water and sand...we were going to go in the water anyway. We had seen a bull freely wandering the beach earlier, but he never did show himself while we where there. That evening we pushed the tender through the surf without incident (the surf had died, we hadn't improved our skills yet.) Another performance bringing the tender back on board. It's still very hot out so we jumped back in the water with some soap and shampoo to have an ocean bath. It was great. We just had to dry off really well so we didn't have that sticky salt feeling.

   Now we discovered our first crisis. The fresh water pump didn't sound right. Christie asked why the floor was wet. I opened up the settee to look at the pump and found that the filter was leaking. The bilge was full of water. I shut of the water valve to keep any water left in the tank from leaking out and took off the filter. The plastic housing had cracked, but I had a spare and replaced it. The big worry was how much fresh water had we lost. We carry 105 gallons in the tank connected to a hot and cold pressure water system and had filled it just before we left Cabo. We have a special faucet in the sink connected to a foot pump that pumps in seawater. We use seawater to wash dishes and then rinse of the salt water with fresh from the tank. We had been very careful with our fresh water consumption and had not used the show since Cabo. It looked like there was only about 10 gallons in the bilge, so there was not an issue, right? Maybe? Better really be careful just in case. You kids are thirsty? Not until your lips are chapped!

   June 1 is the official start of hurricane season in Mexico. We're still too far south. We headed for the next anchorage up the coast and say an unbelievable variety of sea life. Something looked like it was blowing water a mile or so in front of us. Then several of them. I couldn't really tell even through the binoculars until finally I saw one surface. It was big. Really big. Although I couldn't see it that clearly it looked like a submarine blasting to the surface. They finally got close and then a baby blue whale swam right under the boat! Cyndee was just jumping up and down. That wasn't all. All afternoon we saw flying fish, needlefish (they look like big arrows wiggling through the air at 100mph) and Dorado just jumping out of the water. A Broadbilled Swordfish swam right by us (close) and we sail by a couple of blue marlin just 2 feet away.

   We spent that night in Bahia de Los Muertos (Bay of the Dead). The swell was horrible all night. We hauled up the anchor at 7:00am the next morning and got out of there. We approached La Paz in the afternoon and were safely anchored by 5 PM. Before we put the hook down, we found friends of ours aboard Lachesa tied to the end tie at the marina. We had met them at the boatyard in Ensenada several weeks before. They left Ensenada 20 days before we did. After we were anchored and ship shape, we launched the tender (gotta find a better way) and headed for Lachesa. They had cold beers and sodas waiting for us as well as a key for the marina showers. In the 95-degree heat this was heaven!

   The next day I had to check in. Of course Migracion, port captain and port fees offices are scattered all over the town. The day after that I took the tender to the marina and filled the water jugs. After our water crisis, we only took 20 gallons to fill the tank! That's after a loss of about 10 gallons. Does the name Bligh ring a bell?

   Well, that's about it. We're going to spend a couple of weeks in La Paz and have some fun before we head on up the sea. I don't know how often I can send email, but I'll try.

Jim, Cyndee, Christina and Chaz Crosby

END OF TRAVELS OF TOUCAN PART 1