Surviving Jimena

We had a little 'tropical storm' come through here named Jimena. It was the remains of the hurricane of the same name and the winds blew over 60 mph for 2 days and it rained over 30" at the same time. The winds did some damage to the area but the rain was devastating. The boats in the marinas, including ours, did not suffer any major damage other than rain intrusion and the subsequent damage to carpets and wood work. There were 12 anchored or moored boats that broke free and ended up on the beach but there was no injuries to people on boats. San Carlos and Guaymas lost electricity for 3 days and water for 6 and there was extensive damage to roads and buildings from the rain. In some places the rain collected in to raging rivers and washed away sections of roads and bridges and washed mud, rocks, and debris into houses.

The Mexican government and agencies deserve praise for their quick and effective response to the storm damage. They were prepared prior to the storm and as soon as it passed there were crews out everywhere starting the clean up and repair. They actually announced there would be 'no Katrina' in Mexico. It's great that the US has become an example of what not to do.

Here's some pic's from around the area.


This is one of the boats that ended up on the beach. If you look to the left above the power post you can see a white object in the water. It's the upside down hull of a sunken boat.


This is the main road into and out of San Carlos. Within a day there was a detour route created.


This is the main road from Marina Real to San Carlos, it was not passable until a day after the storm.



We tied our boat to a chain around the dock pilling because we were not sure the dock would survive. We were lucky, our dock survived but others did not.

The Plan

There is no sense in having a plan if you're not going to pretend to follow it.

We're anxious to get moving again. Sitting at a dock is not what we want to do but we don't have much choice, we need to stay out of the hurricane zone south of 27° N and with the heat we have chosen to stay at the dock so we can run the A/C. The plan now is to leave San Carlos the first week of October and visit the Bay of LA up north on the west side of the Sea of Cortes, 28°56.840'N 113°33.320'W. We've heard that B of LA is a beautiful area with lots of wildlife, like Whale Sharks, and excellent snorkeling. We're getting an diving Hookah soon and we'll be anxious to try it out. After the B of LA we'll head south and hope to be in Santa Rosalia by November 1st for the El Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, which is the largest holiday in Mexico. Santa Rosalia is a traditional Mexican town so it should be fun to spend the holiday there. Heading South from Santa Rosalia we plan on being in La Paz for Thanksgiving for 2-3 weeks and then head south and east to Mazatlan on the Mexican mainland.

Once we're on the Mexican Riviera we'll wander south stopping in San Blas, Puerto Vallarta, Iplala, Chamela, Careyes, and Mazanillo. We're not sure if we'll go further south to Acapulco, we hear that it's a huge, expensive tourist trap, so we'll just see how it goes. When we turn around and head back north we're thinking of spending next Summer, the hurricane season, in Ensenada. We spent a week in Ensenada on the way south and it's kind of a tourist town but it has a lot of services and it's close to San Diego so we can go get our car and hop over the border to get supplies and parts. After next summer maybe it's off the the South Pacific, we're thinking about it but that's a long way off and we're not to good at making, let alone keeping, long term plans so we'll see how it goes.

Link: Diving Hookah

6 Months in Mexico

We have now been in Mexico for 6 months. We were reminded of this when our tourist visas expired and we had to go to immigrations to get them renewed. The renewal process is easy and costs just $20 each. We went to immigration office at the airport in Guaymas where there was easy parking and no waiting. The immigration officer did seem a little annoyed that we were interrupting his TV shows but he processed our new visas with no fuss. We have had a wonderful time in Mexico, the people are friendly, there is plenty of stores to get almost everything you need and the weather has been beautiful except for the last 2 months here in San Carlos where it's just down right frickin' hot. The heat index is daily 110°+ with a temp in the high 90° and humidity above 80%. It's just too hot to do anything outside. Hopefully in another month it will start to cool off.

I forgot to mention that neither of us has worn long pants for over 6 months. Short and t-shirts everyday!

Tucson Road Trips

We've now made 3 road trips to Tucson and back. The car trip takes about 8 to 9 hours northbound depending on the wait at the border and 7 hours south bound. The wait at the border into the States can take 1-2 hours, southbound can be much easier depending if you stop to declare items and how long that process takes. Returning to Mexico the first time we stopped to declare a few items and they just let us go with out paying any duty. The second time we had more items to declare and they quickly processed us, we paid a small duty and in 15 minutes we were off. The last time they made us go through 'Small Imports' and while they were very friendly it took us nearly an hour and cost about $75 to bring in $400 worth of items.

The last time we also had some extra excitement when a car pulled up next to us as we were leaving the last inspection point and told us we had a flat tire. We pulled off the road and some young guys quickly ran over and offered to change the tire for us. They were very friendly and did a quick and good job and we gave them a few pesos for their work. They pointed out a small shop just a few hundred yards down the road where we could get the tire fixed, our spare is one of those mini tires and it was low on air so we slowly made our way down the road to the repair shop. The shop only repaired tires and sold used tires. The man did a good job, 3 days later it is still holding air, and only charge a few pesos.

We will have at least three more trips to Tucson before we leave San Carlos in October. We are planning to buy 2 new heads for the boat, that will take one trip, and a Hookah diving system which will take another trip. Then there will be the last trip to put the car back in storage and take the bus back to San Carlos.

New Look & New Blog

As you can see, we've changed the look of the blog. The old format looked rather dark for our travels in the tropics so we changed the format and the banner picture.

We also have started a new partner blog, M/V Discovery Tech Notes, that will focus on technical issue and projects on the boat. Look to 'Other Links' on the right to get to the new Blog. This Blog will remain our travel log.

Date: 6/28/2009

Location: Marina Real - San Carlos Sonora Mexico

Weather: Hot, 90+ ° and 70% humidity

We had all the varnish stripped off the boat this week. It was not a job I wanted to do in this heat. We hired a local worker that had approached us when we first arrived about doing work on the boat. I asked around the other boaters and he seemed to have a good reputation so I asked him to give me a quote on stripping the varnish. He told me a price but then came back after the first day with a higher price and said I must have misunderstood him the first time. I would have fired him on the spot but I had already given him half the price as an advance and didn't want to lose that so I gave in. Lesson learned, always get the price in writing so there can be no misunderstanding.

We're not going to varnish or otherwise finish the teak, just let it go natural and turn a nice gray. We've seen other boats and some Nordhavns with gray teak and think it looks nice and in this heat varnish is too difficult to keep up. The key to good looking teak, decks or cap rails, is to keep it clean by washing it with a gentle soap like Joy using a soft brush and then rinse with salt water.

We got our car from Tucson and had no trouble getting through the Mexican customs at the boarder despite the fact that we had the back of the Jeep stuffed with things. We showed them some receipts and asked how much we needed to pay but they just waved us through. The Sonora area down to Guaymas is a 'no hassle zone' for bringing a car in so we didn't need any import documents to drive down here, if we go further south then we'll need a temporary import permit for the car. We drove up to Hermosillo this week and went to Costco. It looks just like the stores in the states. Hermosillo in just over an hours drive from San Carlos and we wanted to buy some cheese and lunch meat so we bought a small cheap styrofoam chest and a bag of ice to carry the items back. Even with the A/C in the car it was a little too warm and too long of a trip to carry meat that long in the car. Hermosillo is a large town and has a Costco, WalMart, Home Depot, and lots of large Mexican stores so we'll be able to get everything we need, or want.

We're having fun here although it's getting hotter every day. Weather Underground said it was 106° yesterday although we only showed 91° at the boat. The humidity outside is above 70% but with the A/C on the boat we keep the inside temp below 80° and the humidity below 60% so it's comfortable. It's just when you have to go outside and when you first get into the car that's been parked in the sun that's a killer.

We have lots of projects to keep us busy for the summer. We should be going back to Tucson in a week to pick up some more boat stuff, this time new VHF and SSB antennas, so that will be fun.

Mainland Mexico

Date: 6/14/2009

Location: Marina Real, San Carlos, Sonora

Lat/Lon: 27 56.73 N 111 05.54 W

Weather: Warm and sunny, 85°. Lite afternoon breeze

We're on the mainland of Mexico in Marina Real, 5 miles north of San Carlos in the Sonora region of Mexico. We arrived here 30 days after leaving La Paz, for the second time.

We first left La Paz on April 29th but after a week anchored in some beautiful bays it became apparent that the Generator was not well. The smoking was getting worse, it was running 10 to 15 ° hot, not overheating but not right, and there was not the normal high volume of water gushing out the exhaust. There was something wrong with the water cooling system, perhaps a blocked thru hull or hose. At anchor I had checked the water pump impeller and discovered it only had 3 of it's 5 blades. I was sure that this was the problem and was disappointed after I replaced it to find no difference in how it ran. So it seemed wise to return to La Paz and find the problem before getting further from stores and services. We went back to Marina de la Paz and with the help of Bill on M/V Ocean Quest I finally found some barnacles growing in the sea water intake hose, some 2 feet from the thru hull. Once those were removed the Gen ran great with mucho volume of water coming out the exhaust. While in the engine room I decided to fix a small water leak at a hose fitting on the water maker membrane only to discover that the leak was caused by a cracked end cap on the membrane tube. Fortunately, Bill the 'Water maker guy' had an end cap and I replaced both end caps on the one membrane and bought a spare for 'just in case'. We had the membranes replaced by Village Marine in Seattle 2 years ago and it looked like they over tightened the hose fittings and cracked the nylon caps. The new caps are made from a different material and shouldn't crack. When we took the membranes apart we discovered that our 40" membranes tubes only had 38" membranes in them with a 2" extension fit to take up the missing length. Nice work Village Marine. That's the last time I do biz with them. You can buy the membranes straight from a 3M distributor and save 25%. If and when we need new membranes that's the way we're going.

So once we got ourselves and boat all straighten out, off North we went, again. We tried Los Gatos for a night but with the easterly winds we rocked and rolled all night and slept little. It's a beautiful place but we need our sleep and one of the cats got sea sick while at anchor. Next day it was off to Aqua Verde, green water. When you see a photo of boats in a beautiful bay in Baja anchored in crystal clear, green, emerald water, this is the place it was taken. For some reason when we were there the water was not so emerald in color but it is a beautiful, well protected place. We spent 4 days there playing around in the dink and swimming every afternoon.

The next stop was Honeymoon Bay for one night on Isla Densante before heading into Puerto Escondido. Puerto Escondido has 2 large bays, the outer bay, 'the waiting room', holding 30+ boats on anchor and the inner bay has a 100 mooring buoys and room for another 50+ boats at anchor. There is also a Marina Singlar there with 8-10 slips and a small store and restaurant. You have to pay no matter how you stay, anchor or mooring. We anchored because there were no open buoys large enough for us close to the marina and dinghy dock and there was lots of room to anchor. US$ 15 per day, anchor or mooring. There's nothing much else there but it's only 10 miles from Loretto, a very quaint touristy town. We were told by the Singlar staff that the taxi fare to Loretto was 700 pesos round trip while you could rent a car for 500 pesons a day, US$ 40, so rental car it was. We drove into Loretto and spent an afternoon looking around, shopping, and having lunch. It's a nice town and worth the stop.

From there it was off to another large bay, San Juanico, but again the prevailing winds kept us rolling all night so we moved north just 2 miles to Caleta Ramada which was more protected from the waves. We had the small bay to ourselves and spent 2 days swimming and exploring the beach.

Bahia Concepcion is a large bay inside a peninsula that reaches out into the Sea. It's known as being one of the hottest location in the Sea because the water heats up and it's surrounded by hills. People have warned us about going there and we hoped that we were early enough in the summer to avoid the high heat. There are numerous bays to anchor in and we spent 8 days moving from one location to another. The heat was not too bad and there was always an afternoon wind that helped cool things down. In el Burro cove we met Geary who gives the weather on Sonrista net. Our outboard motor started to act up again, choking and dying whenever we used it and this less than 2 months after a tune up in La Paz. It is truly a POS and with it's streamlined cowling it is very hard to work on. Out of frustration we finally lifted the dink up onto the top deck and I removed and disassembled the carborater, soaking all the parts in carb cleaner. When we put her back in the water, she ran great! Better than after the tune up in LP. I think the problem was some gunk in the fuel line found it's way into the jets and we may just have to do this every few months. I wish we could get a simple 2 stroke, our Yamaha 2 stroke on our Defever was bullet proof, so we're going to start looking around for one. Maintenance on a boat is like 'Whack a Mole'. Get one thing fixed and another pops up.

After a week in Concepcion we moved north to Punta Chivato, a point that sticks out and give fairly good protection. We only spent one night there before continuing on to Santa Rosalia.

Santa Rosalia is an unusual town because the French operated a large copper mine here for the first half of the 1900's and the town has a different look and feel than other typical Mexican towns. The most striking difference is the French liked wood framed buildings rather than adobe so all of the building look like transplants from the Northwest. In fact they use to ship the copper from the mines to the copper smelter in Tacoma, WA and return with ships full of Northwest cedar and fir timber that they used to build the town. The other difference is that few tourists & gringos come here so it doesn't have the tourist shops. The downside is that the grocery stores don't have much selection and the meat departments look rather primitive so staying here any length of time would be difficult. We stayed in the Singlar marina here, weekly rate of 40 pesos per foot, which is a fairly new marina with nice docks and facilities. The bay is protected by a large breakwater that the French built and there is a large panga fleet that are fishing for Humbolt squid this time of year. There is a lingering smell of rotting fish over most of the harbor area, not too bad but it's always there. We spent a week here exploring the town and restaurants.

Now we're in Marina Real just north of San Carlos. This is a well protected marina that's in good shape but there are no shops or services within walking distance. The marina is surrounded by very nice, $1+ million homes and resorts but no stores and only one high end restaurant. You really need a car if you are going to stay here so we are going to catch the bus up to Tucson and bring back our car. With a car you are only a few minutes from San Carlos with stores and restaurants and Guaymas, a town of 200,000, is only 30 minutes away. With a car this will be a great place to spend a few months and wait out the hurricane season. It will get hot here but we have A/C on the boat so we'll be all right.