Topolabumpo to San Blas MX

"Field trip", Leo and the Python Snake that resides on Stone Island near Pizza Benji's.....

Topolabumpo to Mazatlan via San Blas, January 2011

Kathy and Aquadesiac's French crewman, Leo making bread in the Blue Dolphin Galley! Awesome bread, a real treat while crusing.
Nils, Caro and Leo on the windward side of Stone Island. A hard hike from Pizza Benji's.

Pizza Benji's on Stone Island. Just a short Panga ferry ride from the old harbor....and a short walk. A large group of us from the Blue Dolphin, Seabear and Ron and Heather fron Sundancer. Many Ballenas of Pacifico were drank as well as at least 6 large pizzas of all sort of ingrediants.
Pizza Benji's HOME.

San Blas. Famous church which inspired the poem, "Bells of San Blas" by Longfellow. Intersting town, up a river. We decided to anchor in the Bay around the point to get as far away as possible from the "no seeums".....tiny bugs that make you itch a lot. San Blas is a short taxi ride from the anchorage. We were able to get fresh spring water at the nearby palapa bar.

San Blas Plaza.

Trying to get the text near the photos but this blogspot program isn't very user friendly........

Sailing Season Two

After a very busy summer visiting 7 states, the Grand Canyon, Roslin NM, Carlsbad Caverns, Kathy’s children in TX, sister in Cal and picking up parts in San Diego, we made our way back to the Blue Dolphin in San Carlos MX. Upon arrival we had a lot of work to do to “re-commission” the boat as we had prepared it for the hurricane season by removing everything on deck and “plugging” as many holes as we could. Unfortunately I forgot and missed closing all the holes on the main mast and when we arrived discovered we had a bee’s nest inside the mast. We tried to politely remove them or have the bees removed “professionally” but to no avail and we had to resort to “mass-annihilation” using a Honda generator exhaust.

It took 4 days and 2 bee stings before we were 90% rid of them.

After a week or so in San Carlos we picked up our friends and crew for this season, Nils and Carolyn, a German couple that we had met in La Paz the previous season while they were on a extended cycling trip that would have taken them from Alaska to Argentina.

After 2 weeks or so we were “on the road” again, so to speak and along with our “ buddy boats, Aquadesiac and Perigrine, we made our way to Topolabumpo, a commercial port half way between San Carlos and Mazatlan, 225 miles.

FAMILY REUNION OREGON 2010

My brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews met in Oregon at Detroit Lake for a campout. What fun!!! I have a pretty crazy family--a real group of mixed nuts!! I got to see the newest addition to the family, Wyatt, 4 months old. What a doll.

Summer Fun

We are enjoying the rest of the summer at our friend's home on the Napa River. They are in San Carlos on their sailboat Aquadesiac enduring the scorching heat this summer while we are drinking wine from their deck right on the river in Napa.

Texas Visit

Tubing with the grandkids! What a blast!

The view from my front porch in Texas is awesome. Lots of wildlife and so much fun with the family waterskiing, wake boarding, tubing, bbqing and enjoying the morning with a cup of coffee, watching gorgeous sunsets and beautiful moon rises. It is a magical place.

The Summer of 2010

We left San Carlos mid June traveling first to San Diego then to Texas to my house on the lake. We spent about 4 weeks working on the house and playing with my grandkids. They have all grown so big!! I have 5 of the most adorable grandkids a nana could wish for :)

We visited Carlsbad Caverns, the Grand Canyon, Roswell, New Mexico, Tucson, AZ, New Braunfels, Tx where we stayed in a haunted old hotel, the Alamo in San Antonio and stayed with good friends Teri and Tim Burrows.

San Carlos/Guaymas

We left Santa Rosalia at 10 pm and sailed all night arriving in San Carlos at the Marina Real where we have a slip rented for the summer. We had an uneventful, mostly motoring night but had some beautiful starlit skys. We had an extra passenger, Ted. He was going to take the ferry back to San Carlos but heard we were headed that way and asked for a ride. It was nice to have another sailor onboard to help with the watches and sails. He was a great help.

Another rough passage!

Our favorite hangout

Santa Rosalia

We anchored in Santa Rosalia harbor for 3 days. It is an old copper mining town with lots of dust, dirt and not a lot of charm. The best part was the hot dogs wrapped in bacon and deep fried--an artery clogger for sure. Robert spent a lot of time working on the alternator, our main head is not pumping out and all of a sudden we are having some electrical problems. Ah the crusing life. We were ready to leave this anchorage asap!

Punta Chivato

On our way to Santa Rosalia we stopped at Punta Chivato. We were surprized to find a large community there, mostly ex-pats with house that lined a dirt airfield. Evidently they fly down in the Winter and sometimes for a long weekend. Right next to this anchorage was this beautiful resort, Bahia de la Flores. We went ashore several times for cocktails and on A Sat. night we stayed in one of their beautiful rooms.......a nice break from the boat as we approaching almost a month on this part of the trip from Puerto Escandido to San Carlos. We met a couple from Palo Alto that we shared some pool time with...have met and made some great friends during this trip.

We stayed there in Punta Chivato for several days, I did some kyacking and Kathy went snorking and "shelling"! This beach had more shells then we had seen anywhere else. The weather here was great and it was a pleasant anchorage to spend some time in.

Robert training for the Furnace Creek 508 bicycle race in October. I wonder how many other cruisers have a bicycle trainer onboard? What dedication!

A Video Clip of El Burro beach

Baking cinnamon rolls

Amazing what you can cook up in a itty bitty kitchen and an itty bitty oven! I made homemade bread also as we haven't been near a store in a couple of weeks and ran out of bread.

Lazy days at Conception Bay

Our friend from SV Aquadesiac enjoying life at Geary's unofficial yacht club on El Burro beach.

The rays love to play

Lazy day at Isla Coronados

View from our boat this morning. It was a truly magical morning with the rays jumping out of the water and doing belly flops with loud splashes just in front of the boat. Large bait balls of fish went by the boat. A floating armada of tiny fish. A mother whale and juvenile gave us a show with tails slapping the water, fins splashing the water and water spouts!!! The north wind came in strong and it is too rough to really leave the boat so this was a day of reading, internet (only 7 miles from Loreto), eating and sleeping--another rough day. If anyone wants to see where we are on google earth we are at Lat 26 degrees 06 minutes and 41.50 seconds, Long 111 degrees, 17 min, 02.23 seconds.

Another beautiful sunset.

Dolphins visiting us

Loretofest and Puerto Escandido May 1st

Kathy and her new "bottom fishing rig"...caught 5 small fish yesterday.
Some friend came to visit....Larry, Arlean and Steve,,,,aboard the Perigrine, one of our buddy boats. We always have at lleast one get-together once we arrive at a new anchorage. This is in Puerto Escandido.
During our visit to the Loretofest we took a taxi into Loreto and spent one night in a bed that didn't move. Great treat. this is one of the town squares in the historic part of the City. Found a good coffee place....of course.
Some kaycking was done......
So here is the "Dolphin" in calm waters off of Puerto Escandido during Loretofest....a 3 day "cruise-in" with 124 boats from all over the Sea of Cortez and the Mexican Mainland. Spent a week there enjoying the festivities. Kathy went to a few fishing lectures, me, I played bocce ball and cam in third with my friend steve from UBUNTU, one of our "buddy boats.

Sailing the Sea of Cortez

The shark got most of the fish! Oscar and Erica worked hard to get this fish aboard. He was big! We think it is a Bonita. No fish tonight

We look like true cruisers with stuff stacked everywhere on the boat. The beaches are beautiful, the water warm, the snorkeling and diving fun. We are buddy boating with 3 other boats--Ubuntu with Steve and Arleen, Perigrin with Mugs and Larry, and Aquadesiac with Doug and Linda.

Erica and Oscar were our crew for our trip to Loreto Fest. They are originally from Columbia, moved to Alaska and are currently on a bicycle trip that originated in Port Townsend, Washington. We met them in La Paz and they stayed on our roof top along with 3 other bicyclists for a couple of weeks.

They are brother and sister and we really enjoyed their company, enthusiasm and all the help they gave us sailing from La Paz to Loreto. They enjoyed the adventure of learning to sail and all the work it entails. We will miss them tremendously. I feel so lucky to meet them and hope we get to see them again some day.

Back in the water at last

After 2 months the boat bottom is complete with 12 coats of assorted epoxies, primer a

nd bottom paint. We flew to San Diego and brought special paint and expoxies back with us across the Mexico border and down to La Paz taking 6 days and having lots of fun visiting the coastal towns along the way. It was a beautiful drive with no problems or hassels along the way. I really don't know why people are so reluctant to drive here in Mexico. It isn't the US for sure but overall the roads weren't that bad and we never drove at night so we wouldn't hit a cow in the road. The hotels averaged $25 a night and dinners $10 for the both of us. There are some gorgeous bays along the way we hope to visit with the boat.