November 6, 2014
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| Punta Tosca |
Everyone’s phones were charging on the chart table next to
my head, so I was the only one awakened when the alarms went off at 06:00. (From here on out, I will be using a 24 hour clock per a reader's request.) The radio came to life shortly
thereafter. Boats barely had a chance to
check in before the official start of 07:00.
We lifted our anchor by 06:45 and motored out of the bay with the rest of
the fleet. Winds were light, so nearly everyone
ran their engines so as to make some progress. We
motored out of the bay and along the rocky spine of peaks between Mag Bay and
the Pacific. Almost no vegetation grew
on the mountains, but the rocks varied in color from grey to white to red. The landscape looked almost lunar except for
the very blue water. The fleet kept
closer together on this leg than previously and we had boats around us all day.
Don and Kathy saw three whales just after noon, but they had
sounded before I could get out of bed to see them. The skies were finally clear of clouds and
the weather was perfect. I rested until
early afternoon and then came up to enjoy the sunshine. The wind increased and we killed the motor
and sailed along, listening to music and enjoying the scenery. We passed the mouth of Mag Bay and gradually
made our way to Punta Tosca. From there,
the coast curved away to the east and we were out of sight of land. I came back on watch at 16:00 and really
enjoyed sailing until it was time to make dinner. Dinner was stuffed acorn squash so, once they
were assembled and popped in the oven, I was free to return to the helm until
they were done. The evening was so balmy
that I stayed up for an hour or so after my watch was done just to enjoy the
full moonlight.
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| Full Moon Rising |
Richard had informed us of the results of the election and I
found it truly depressing that the Republicans had taken control of both houses
of congress. I suppose it will now be
the Democrats’ turn to block all proposed legislation, but I fear for the
rights of women and am heartily glad that I am no longer of reproductive
age. A large part of me doesn’t want to
return to the United States, but I have yet to find a stable place to move my
assets. (Not that I don’t worry that the United States isn’t stable, any longer,
either.)
November 7, 2014
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| Sunrise on the Way to Cabo |
What little wind we had had died the previous night and we
motored most of the way to Cabo San Lucas.
The weather was finally clear and warm.
Even on my 4 am watch, I didn’t need my jacket. The sunrise was gorgeous. I stayed up after my watch to drink a cup of
coffee and then went below to read, but fell asleep and didn’t wake up until we
were rounding the corner into Cabo San Lucas.
A giant cruise ship half filled the bay.
We thought about stopping for fuel, but decided that the fuel dock would
be mobbed with arriving boats and instead headed for the anchorage.
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| Coming into Cabo San Lucas |
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| The Arch at Cabo |
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| Don's Diving Form |
The anchorage in Cabo has a fabulous view of the arches and
the sandy beach lined with hotels. We
anchored in about 25 feet of water so clear that we could see the bottom. The only downside was that the anchorage was
rather rolly. We spent the afternoon
lounging on the boat and then called a panga and headed in to shore just before
dark. We walked over to Squid Roe to
have dinner before the Ha-Ha party started.
Squid Roe hadn’t suffered from Hurricane Odile, but the club next door
had been heavily damaged and was still under construction. Hurricane damage was visible everywhere. Traffic lights hung at strange angles and
construction workers were making repairs even on a Friday night.
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| Party at Squid Roe |
Ha-Ha participants kept trickling in until, by 8:00, Squid
Roe was packed with dancing, drinking sailors.
It looked like a scene from “Seniors Gone Wild.” The Ha-Ha class of 2014-2015 hadn’t been big
partyers, but they made up for lost time.
It would have been a lot of fun to stay, but the deafening music finally
drove us out. Fortunately, we were able
to find a water taxi to take us back to our boat.
November 8, 2014
We wanted to get our grocery shopping done before the beach
party started at noon. The swells in the
anchorage were quite large, making the transfer from the boat to the panga
challenging. Fortunately, it wasn’t a
long walk from the dinghy dock to the grocery store. The store had only a limited amount of fresh
meat and produce. Chicken was the only
available meat and we were only able to obtain a couple of tomatoes and some
bananas. They did have a large selection
of junk food, which made Kathy happy.
She was able to stock up on Cheetos, cinnamon rolls and sodas.
After shopping, we headed back to the
boat. Getting back on was even more
challenging with several bags of groceries.
At one point, the nose of the panga slammed down onto our deck and left
behind a big chunk of fiberglass. We had
to be quick to avoid getting body parts trapped between the boats.
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| Cabo Anchorage |
It took us half an hour or so to stow our purchases and get
ready to go to the beach party. Don
decided to stay with the boat. By the
time Kathy and I were ready to go, we couldn’t find a water taxi anywhere. After at least a half an hour of fruitless
waving at every passing panga, the driver of a glass bottomed boat took pity on
us and picked us up. His other
passengers were entertained as we leaped down onto the deck of the furiously
heaving panga and then tumbled out onto the beach in front of the restaurant
where the party was being held. The
Ha-Ha usually holds their Cabo beach parties at the Baja Cantina on the beach
but, because we had been delayed by the weather, they couldn’t accommodate us because
they had a wedding reception happening.
The party was moved next door to the Mango Deck, which turned out to be
very loud. They were running a competing
program of entertainment that Richard said made one want to swear off sex and
drinking for at least a month. We
couldn’t hear what prizes were being awarded, but had a good time talking with
crew from a couple of other boats and eating a tasty lunch. We stayed until it started to get dark and
then grabbed a water taxi back to the boat before we got stranded again, once
again making a death-defying leap from the bucking panga to Comet’s deck.
The boat rocked and rolled all night. None of us slept well but, fortunately, none
of us got sick, either. I gave up on
sleeping and read from two to four in the morning and Don was up, also.
November 9, 2014
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| Comet in Cabo Marina |
We got up, ready to take off for Puerto Vallarta and get out
of that rocking anchorage. Before we
were even completely awake, Richard came on the radio to tell everyone that a
tropical storm was headed straight for Puerto Vallarta and that we shouldn’t
leave for at least two days. This was
disappointing, although I was secretly glad to have another couple of days in
Cabo because I wanted to see Carlos, our crew member from the previous year, who lived in town. We had had it
with being stuck in the boat, rolling constantly and having to pay $5 each way
every time we wanted to go to shore. We
decided to try to move into the marina.
We called the marina office, but they said they were closed on Sunday and
couldn’t help us. We knew boats were
leaving, so decided to head in, buy fuel, and try to talk to security about
finding a slip. The security guard said
we could come in if we could find someone willing to let us raft to them. Kathy tried hard to find us a spot, without
success. Someone told us that the office
had decided to open because of all the Ha-Ha boats trying to check in and out,
so Kathy called again and was told to call back at noon. Since it was only 11 am, we decided to putt
around the harbor for a bit. When we
reached the end of the marina where the office was located, they saw us coming
and sent a boat out to direct us to a slip.
We tied up at 11:20 and our escort even hauled away our accumulated
garbage. We were very happy.
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| Hurricane Damage in Cabo |
Kathy was tired and wanted to catch up on sleep, but Don and
I headed out to locate the Telcel store so that I could get a Mexican cellphone
and he could get a SIM card for his tablet.
After walking for several blocks, we finally located the main Telcel
branch for Cabo San Lucas. Cabo was
eerily devoid of tourists and the neighborhood seemed deserted on a Sunday
afternoon, but the Telcel store was crowded.
We waited in line for over an hour, but I finally managed to purchase a
basic cellphone for about $25. For
another 200 pesos, I got 200 minutes. I
could also call the U.S. for 2 pesos (about 15 cents) per minute. Don got a SIM card for about $6 and then got
3 gigabytes of data for 399 pesos. We
left, feeling very satisfied with ourselves, and repaired to a local taqueria
where we each got two tacos and a couple of draft beers for a whopping total of
$14, which is about what one lunch entrée cost at the Mango Deck. It really pays to walk a couple of blocks
inland to find a restaurant if you want to save money.
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| George, the Resident Sea Lion |
Kathy was still sleeping when we returned to the boat. I read and Don played with his tablet until
Kathy woke up and we went up to the Baja Cantina for dinner. We hoped to meet other Ha-Ha participants
there, but it was late for dinner and very quiet. We did have a lovely dinner. The evening was balmy and perfect for a
stroll around the marina. The vendors
along the marina walkway had been hit hard by the hurricane and few were
operating. There was almost no one
out. I remembered the previous year when
the area was thronged with tourists.
Large sections of dock had been destroyed. Some of the Ha-Ha boats were moored to
pilings without docks and had to use their dinghies to get to shore. We were very content to be safely inside a
still marina, even if our dock was inhabited by a large sea lion named George,
who often waddled around the dock and barked at passers by.
November 10, 2014
Having decided to remain in Cabo for another couple of days,
we could no longer avoid checking in there.
Don and I got up and, after stopping at the marina office to get the
weather forecast (a firm “wait and see”), we headed off to Immigration. The crews of several other boats were there
before us and we all chatted amiably while we filled out forms and went back and
forth with the officials until everyone’s paperwork was in order. Fortunately, we had plenty of copies of
everything we needed and the Immigration office was kind enough to supply us
with a crew list form and then to make a couple of copies so that we would have
three copies for the Port Captain.
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| Port Captain's Office Was a Bit Worse for Wear |
Scott and I had had a devil of a time locating the Port
Captain’s office the previous year, but Don and I managed to walk straight
there from Immigration. The Port
Captain’s office was a bit worse for wear after the hurricane and most of the
houses along the way looked pretty down at heels. Fences and gates leaned at crazy angles and
vegetation looked ragged. We filled out
our forms and then had to make a four block detour to a bank to pay our port
tax before returning to the Port Captain’s office to complete our check-in
process. We also checked out at the same
time. The Port Captain was not issuing
zarpes (exit documents.) For the
duration of the Ha-Ha, he just had a log book where we entered our boat information
and check-out date. We managed to
complete the entire process in about three hours.
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| Kathy Working on the Dodger |
Our next mission for the day was to complete the dodger that
we had been working on since before we left Marina del Rey. We took it off the frame. Don produced a hot knife and Kathy held the
seams taut while I melted the edge of the fabric to prevent them from
raveling. There were several layers of
fabric in many seams and none of them seemed to be the same length, so we had
to go over each seam multiple times. It
took us a couple of hours to complete the task and we melted the duct tape
holding the battered hot knife together before we were done. Next, we dragged Don away from his tablet and
installed the remaining snaps on the dodger.
We finished just before Carlos arrived to meet us for dinner.
We all piled into Carlos’ SUV dubbed “the Zombie” because it
had been killed several times (was struck by lightning), but kept coming back
to life. He drove us to a local taco
joint where we had delicious tacos with all the fixings. Carlos and I got a chance to catch up on all
that we had done in the past year and he regaled us all with stories of the
hurricane and its aftermath. Carlos, who
normally works in tourism, was temporarily working in construction, helping to
rebuild homes after the hurricane. It
was great to see him again and he promised to visit me again in La Cruz, as he
was headed there to visit his other Ha-Ha friends later in the season.
Back at the boat, a downpour sent us scrambling to determine
the source of the leaks that sent water dripping onto the head of my bunk. When we removed the dodger, we had left screw
holes in the fiberglass that allowed water in between the deck and the head
liner, which then ran along until it dripped out through holes in the headliner
where a traveler had once been installed.
We eventually solved the problem by covering the holes with a tarp. I went to bed feeling quite satisfied that we
had made good use of our extra time in Cabo.
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