Monthly Archives: May 2016

La Paz

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This post was delayed due to lack of Internet, YAY! 

A few weeks back, May 11-15:

We had a fantastic sail off the hook in Puerto Ballandra and a downwind run under jib alone in to La Paz on the Morning of the 11th. We anchored just west of Marina de La Paz. First thing we did, of course, walked the Malicon to find the ice cream shop. 

Over the next few days we walked around town a lot. We discovered that the bus and taxi system here is nowhere near like it is on the mainland. The streets were busy with people in their privately owned cars, and the buses were few and far between. The benefit to that was getting some mileage under our feet.  We also discovered that food was about twice as expensive as it was in Barra de Navidad. Thankfully our first dinner out was “Dia de los Madres”. (Mother’s day), so we didn’t feel as bad for spending the money on a special occasion. But over the next few days, we found ourselves wanting to leave before we spent more money. Even reprovisioning at the Chidraui (a govt subsidized store) was more expensive than any other town we’ve been to. 

We stayed through till Monday, knowing that we had a few cruising friends coming in and wanting to celebrate my Birthday on the 15th with other cruising boats. So we made the best of our time, as always. We walked the town, did the historical sites walk and played with other kid boats. Overall, we were not too impressed with La Paz as a town, but the company of cruisers was nice. And it was sure nice to celebrate my birthday with awesome people and have a good potluck.  I even had a surprise breakfast delivered via dinghy by SV Spanish Stroll for my birthday! 

We highly recommend the Museo de Ballena (whale museum). It is very well presented and the staff is very knowledgeable. They even changed some of the screens to English for us. Worth every peso!

Here are some picture:


ship shape # 7

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Hi all my ship shapers,
We’ve been keeping up with our ship shape but not with posting about it. Urg. We’ve been in the Sea Of Cortez enjoying lots of free diving, snorkeling, fishing, and hiking. We have also enjoyed the lack of Internet.

Here’s a few pictures from our satphone (low quality) with a few exercises to do on the boat underway.

Exercise #1 pull ups from the back stay. Not only does this strengthen arms and shoulders, but also gives your hands a good workout.

Exercise #2 chin ups from the Rat lines

Exercise #3 Toes-to-nose using whatever place (back stay for Christian, the dodger for Taj, I like to use the Companion way)

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Toes to nose and chin ups

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Backstay pull-ups

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this amazing small world

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Today we sailed up from La Paz to Caleta Partida, an anchorages toward the north end of Isla Espiritu Santo. The wind was fairly strong from the South East, so it was a nice downwind run for us under jib alone. We considered sailing through to Isla San San Francisco due to the exposed anchorage, but chose to head in and anchor anyway.

There was only three other boat there, so we had plenty room. We recognized all three boats from previous ports, but had only met the couple on SV Nimue. Nimue had been sailing with one of the other boats for many years, SV Tango as well as the other boat, SV Shadowfax. We happen to be ease dropping on one of the conversations between Shadowfax and Tango when Christian put two and two together. He heard the names Vicki and Steve and he remembered Nimue talking about them being a fantastic boat builder from Florida. Christian’s memory took him to 1990.

Christian’s face lit up so bright, he hailed Tango over the radio and asked, “Did you by chance own a Bristol Channel Cutter?” “Why, yes we did,” was Tango’s response. Then Christian asked, “Do you remember a boat called The Walkabout?” “Why yes we do!”, Tango replied. Christian then came forth with, “Gene is my Dad!”. Tango was so excited, as was the whole Shawnigan crew. What are the chances of meeting a boat you sailed with from Cabo, through the Panama Canal here in Baja!? Christian was friends with their kid, Kane, at the time and they inspired the Lauducci crew on Walkabout to go through the canal and up to Florida.

We immediately hopped in our dinghy and went over for a visit. They had so many stories to tell about their buddy boating days with Christian as a 13 year old. What a fantastic evening. Thanks Tango!

Josie 5/16/16