As the crow flies it's only about 2 miles north from El Mezteño to the anchorage at El Cardonal. For us, however, it was about 5-1/4 miles offshore and back in, because we needed to run the engine to recharge our batteries. Sailing is like that sometimes. And so it was on January 12, 2017.…
The New Year of 2017 took off in fine form, with us still enjoying all that La Paz had to offer. Unfortunately, the relatively cool and humid winter weather soon caught up with GB and gave him a cold that quickly developed into a lingering case of bronchitis. We both made sure he stayed medicated…
I recommend a visit to La Paz to anyone. La Paz is a nice city for cruisers and landlubbers alike. Many charterers provide boat excursions to the nearby islands for snorkeling, scuba and kayaking trips. During the winter when the whale sharks gather in the bay, you may be able to sign aboard a boat…
It has become clear to me that I have somehow lost most of several months' worth of cruising photos. Oh, I very carefully organized them and stored them in not one but two locations. Flash drive plus external hard drive. Because I believe in backup, you betcha. Now I can't find them anywhere. On any…
The 10 miles from Caleta Lobos into Marina CostaBaja in La Paz was a hazy but uneventful little pre-Christmas jaunt on December 22, 2016. The Fox has always been partial to Marina CostaBaja because of its super-handy fuel dock (horizontal black line in the upper left corner of CostaBaja's map on the right), its docks…
[Photo of north lobe, Ensenada Grande, via.] Weather forecasts can change suddenly and often, especially these days as our planet's climate changes in sometimes squirrely ways. I had gotten into the habit years earlier of using The Fox's satellite email to download text-only spot forecasts from NOAA's National Weather Service to supplement the daily forecasts…
December 17, 2016: the conditions remained calm in San Evaristo's north lobe but GB got skunked again with dinghy fishing all the way around the rocky point and back again. He reported that out in the channel the winds were blowing from the SW to S to SE in the mid-teens, much like they had…
December 14, 2016, was breezy and whitecappy but we had ourselves a short and easy downwind trip of 7 miles from Punta Salinas on Isla San Jose, south to Isla San Francisco's most popular and sheltered anchorage, The Hook. As is typical at The Hook when the breeze is in the low 20s, about 9…
The December 13, 2016, forecast gently suggested that we had two days to find some shelter from some southwesterly winds. Cazadero is totally exposed to any westerly or southerly breeze, so it was prudent to move on. We were close to a couple of suitable anchorages, so in the meantime we decided to move slowly…
[Photo by Darlene Topilko.] Kia Ora arrived at the Cazadero anchorage on December 11, 2016, ahead of a third boat unknown to either of us. The next morning the crews of The Fox and Kia Ora hiked up the arroyo that spills into the sea a short distance to the east of the anchorage. The…