Cuisine Marine

For our first week in Bahia de Los Angeles, Voyager and Firefly had the place to ourselves. In the second week a couple we have come to know down here (from WA, I think this is their 3^rd year in Mex.), who have a lovely 45-ft. trawler, joined us to hang out.

Our first anchorage when we arrived to B.L.A. was La Mona in the southeast corner of the bay, a beachside community of Americans with about 50 homes that are occupied either full-time (about three) or part-time. Many of the dwellings have full or partial carports or shed roofs where an owner parks a camper/trailer or motor home, and then perhaps there’s an additional permanent structure of some sort attached. About 25% of the dwellings are conventional houses.

It’s really roughing it up there…generators, propane cooking/heat, solar panels, water trucked in. Definitely it’s open air living ashore for most of the year. Most folks only reside there during the more temperate months in spring and fall. Lows can get down to 30s in winter so the place empties out again then. On most days we were there the highs we in the low 100s, lows in low to mid 80s. The “locals” we met said that this is the coolest summer that they can recall. I’d hate to be there in the hot season! One resident hosted a nice seafood-feast potluck dinner for about 15 (four sailing couples plus some locals) at her lovely house one evening.

This bay is near to an offshore extension of the San Andreas (earthquake) Fault, which combined with strong currents in the area offers a year-round bounty of nutrients. There’s lots of wildlife in this area including whale sharks, harmless plankton eaters who can grow to 50-60 ft. The ones we saw (while swimming at the surface) were in the 20-25 ft. range. We were told the population in this bay is pretty healthy with perhaps 18 of them around. There is a bit of eco-tourism in this area, several days a week one or two small charter boats come out to look for them.

Some early mornings, while sleeping on deck, we would hear whales breathing nearby. The species (fin whales perhaps but there are several species in the area) would barely break the surface as they emerged, so we would hear more than we saw. Most whales are hard for us to identify unless we are close and lucky enough to see one jump most of the way out of the water (rarely).

On July 19 we arrived to the Bahia de Los Angeles area located in the “middle” Sea of Cortez and on the east coast of the Baja Peninsula. This was the farthest north we have ventured within the Sea, and initially we weren’t planning to go but Firefly was headed there so we decided to tag along!

B.L.A. is about 5 miles wide (east to west) and perhaps 15 miles north to south. It’s lovely, albeit wild looking like a small Lake Tahoe surrounded by big varied-color hills (little mountains?) in mostly shades of brown. There’s a valley at the south end of the bay filled with a forest of cacti and that was the greenest it was. We spent almost a month up there rotating between three anchorages about five miles apart.

The only town of substance (and it is small!) in the area is Bahia de Los Angeles Village, population 500-700. No cellular service in the area, nearest ATM/bank is a 2 ½ hour drive away in Guerro Negro. For those who need internet, satellite service is the only option and they are paying about $120 a month to connect, with limited bandwidth. There were a couple internet café’s in the village, we did not try them.

The only way to reach town is via dinghy, there are no docks or marinas. Most times we travelled in the dinghy from another anchorage approximately five miles away (our tender runs @ 20-25 mph in smooth water – in the mornings before the wind pipes up). One day we anchored Voyager just off the town (couple hundred yards) and still had to come in via dinghy (our other options were swimming or our kayaks). There were prettier anchorages in the area to stay in so we didn’t linger at anchor off the village.

One day six of us “carpooled” together on a single (trawler) boat to go to town. We had a nice breakfast, visited the cute little cultural/natural history museum and did some grocery shopping. The stores in B.L.A. are very basic. Our main objective is typically to get fresh produce; we knew to stock up on other items in the bigger cities and we have good refrigeration/freezer and dry storage capacity. The big trick is to find out what the days stores get deliveries; otherwise fruit/veggies can be pretty worn out from the heat as most stores are not air conditioned. You learn to buy what’s good when you see it and be flexible. There are not a lot of cold items to be found in B.L.A. groceries compared to more populous areas, especially minimal frozen items (this has to be a shipping challenge in the high heat). Apparently the village just got hooked up to conventional electricity a few years ago (generator before that).

We made several trips to the village for provisions and to periodically top off our diesel tanks. We have 150 gallons of fuel storage but being away from a conventional fuel dock (and/or marina electricity) for a month or more does tax our available supply. Once reaching the village we had a roughly 3/4 mile walk each way to transport our two 5-gallon fuel jugs, some of it over dirt/sand, to the local Pemex station. We made this “fuel run” about four times while in the area, once someone loaned us their car.

I don’t think I have ever sweat so much in my life this summer, even after living in Florida for 27 years. When we’re at anchor and it’s hot, we run our generator in the evening for 2-3 hours (important to charge our batteries in addition to the power we get from our solar panels) and we’ll also run our air conditioner/s to cool the boat down before bedtime. We could in theory run our genset all night but that eats up more fuel. A/C helps but on some nights by 2-3 am we were up sleeping on deck where it was a bit cooler with a hint of breeze.

Between Santa Rosalia and Bahia de Los Angeles we encountered and also heard accounts of several other aggressive pelicans. They are of course attracted to boats when there is fish cleaning going on, but perhaps this particular bunch just likes boats in general. We have had two different ones LAND on the boat while we are motoring along; they seem to like our stainless steel handrail to cling onto.

We have also (accidentally!) hooked pelicans twice with a fishing lure. The first time the lure broke from the line, so we were unfortunately not able to retrieve it nor detangle the pelican. The second time we were able to pull that pelican to the back of the boat and detach him/her from the lure.

Here’s a link to a short video of “hooked guy number two.” Before snaring himself on our lure he flew up right next to the boat several times and landed aboard once before going for our lure. (At the very end of the video clip the extreme close-up is when his wing is touching Julie’s forehead).

They are not at all shy, you can approach them quite closely and an excited waving of a “swim noodle” will only mildly encourage them to leave.

We have made two visits so far to Isla San Marcos, anchoring both times at the northwest end called Sweet Pea Cove. If you are a Google Earth fan, the coordinates are 27 14 08 N and 112 06 37 W.

This island is unlike most of the islands in the Sea of Cortez, in that it is inhabited year round (a small community is located a few miles south of Sweet Pea) to support a gypsum mine operation. We have not yet visited the village (near to the shipping dock so very dusty!), but friends stopped in and shopped at a small market there.

Just around the corner from Sweet Pea on the north end of the island are several coves along a rocky shoreline where we went exploring with our friends on Firefly.

There is a small cave opening along the coastline (just high enough for a dinghy to pass under at low tide) that brings one into a quiet, little enclosed lagoon.

We cruised into the lagoon one day for a snorkel trip. The water temp was very pleasant and the clear water allowed us to see a variety of fish (even a couple of lobsters!).

 

The wildlife here is diverse, interesting, and sometimes entertaining. Sometimes even a nuisance as we found while docked in Santa Rosalia. There are some overly friendly cormorants who enjoy special perches (especially atop the tallest masts in the marina).

As you can see above, the hard plastic spikes that we mounted (before we left California) at the very top of our mast have not been a deterrent at this location.

Not wanting to have our anenometer (wind instrument propeller thingy in upper right of below photo – replacement cost $900) or other devices damaged, our sister ship Firefly came up with the perfect solution – a colorful plastic rake, which when hoisted to the top of the mast, oscillates gently in the breeze and works as a perfect scarecrow.

Of course not every boat in the marina is taking these measures, so there are still some places for the cormorants to sit!

We made another trip to San Francisco in May. Other than a brief doctor check-up and a bit of socializing, most of our time was spent shopping for goodies to bring back with us, plus several hours spent to plow through about four months of (mostly) junk mail!

If you think of shopping as a “challenge,” you’d love Mexico. It’s not unusual to spend the better part of a day traveling around to find a single item; of course we have plenty of time on our hands (and rarely have a rental car). While in Puerto Vallarta this spring, we had several bus rides, considerable walking, and used up most of a day just to visit about five different shops to locate a particular computer cable. We walked to four different hardware stores in Santa Rosalia recently to find a plastic rake. (See Battle Cormorant post for the “why.”)

If you’re the type who isn’t interested in shopping at all and don’t buy anything beyond the basics in life, Mexico would keep you perfectly happy except that you would likely spend more time “hunting” than you would at home. Many popular products and brand names that we’re accustomed to in the U.S. are also available in Mexico. Beauty and cleaning products for example, are available in great variety. Mexicanos seem to eat very well (maybe a little over-carbohydrated but so are Americans), dress well, and play well.

Other things that we need and/or desire aboard Voyager – as somewhat spoiled gringos coming from the shopping heaven that is San Francisco – are simply not available here. If you’re one who knows exactly what you want, knows exactly where to go to get it, and prefers a quick in-and-out at the right store, you might be frustrated with Mexico. Not having a fixed address here, any online purchases have to be shipped home (or to a friend in S.F.) to be picked up next time we are back, or occasionally we can sweet talk a fellow cruiser into bringing things down for us. It’s those singular items that we can’t find down here, that help make our trips to S.F. worthwhile.

The larger cities are great with Home Depots, Office Depots, and large groceries that also have a reasonable variety of general merchandise. What we probably miss the most is West Marine (most boat parts suppliers here are definitely a mixed bag and on average quite a bit more expensive than U.S.), Target, Trader Joes and Bed, Bath, & Beyond (all of which would do really well down here). WalMart and Sam’s Club are here in populous areas, but they are not our favorite places to go.

Fortunately we love Mexican food, and enjoy plenty of it. One food category that we find sorely neglected here, near and dear to our hearts, are deli meats (this is cuisine marine after all). Being either Italian or around Italian can sure give you a taste for great dry salami, mortadella, cappicola, etc. Predominant in Mexico is sliced ham (all of which seems to be the boiled variety), baloney, and occasionally some bland, watery turkey. Sandwiches are (obviously) not so popular for lunches here like the ubiquitous taco (which we enjoy plenty of). Sometimes we’ll see some small packages of imported prosciutto or Serrano ham, but at exorbitant prices and not those items are not our favorites anyways. Once in a while we luck out and a major chain grocery (or Costco – the only two that we have been near to so far were in the large cities of Puerto Vallarta and Cabo) will stock some “imported” AND reasonably priced goodies like Columbus (S.F. brand) deli meats, but this is the exception.

If you’re not thinking of going cruising, not into shopping, or not nosey about Voyager’s quirky consumer habits, you can stop reading here. Linked here is a list of some of the items we brought back with us in May (about 300 pounds total, five checked bags, and four carry-ons).

As of June 18 we have been in Santa Rosalia since the 9th. We will probably push off from here on Monday or so and head back south about 50 miles to spend some time in Bahia Concepcion.

We had a relatively quick and very easy run of eight days to make a 224 nautical mile trip from La Paz to Santa Rosalia, where we have met up with our friends Ted & Brenda on Firefly (we last saw them in Mazatlan in mid-April) and several other boat people we have met on the Baja Haha.

We spent two nights in the coastal bay of San Juanico (about 150 miles north of La Paz) with about ten other boats. We had a nice shell-picking walk and met several cruisers we knew at an impromptu beach party and bonfire one evening.

The two cruising kids who were in this anchorage did a great job of gathering firewood and roasting marshmallows. This is a nice pretty and quiet spot. so we’ll go back to for some future loafing.

San Evaristo is an interesting little bay on the baja coast about 50 miles north of La Paz. The guide book says that about 20 families live here year-round. There are cattle here (free range?), we walked along with a bunch of them from the village over a small hill to the nearby salt ponds where they have a watering station and lots of room to lay about. There are goats and chickens and burros.

The main activity in the village is the water desalination plant and ice house, which supplies fishermen and also communities nearby.

While at anchor one afternoon we observed two pangas (the locals’ popular watercraft) coming into the bay with unusual cargo. The boats approached the shore and about nine burros were offloaded and placed in a pen on the beach. (Sorry the photos are so weak, my lens is just not long enough.) Over the next day or two a truck came into the village and carted them off. We heard from some other boaters who watched Mexican cowboys round up the burros at the next port to the north, Nopolo. They were branded, roped/hobbled, loaded onto the boats, and delivered to San Evaristo (where there is a road for the truck to collect them.)

There is one very modest market that had some decent fresh produce (no refrigeration, no cold products of any kind), and a small palapa on the beach where we joined Don and Kathy from Wild Rose for dinner. We were the only customers that night (the chef/proprietor is a mother of four whose priority was getting dinner together for her kids first). We were served a lovely feast of lightly battered jurel (yellowtail) that was more than we could finish, a nice green salad, beautiful fresh salsa, beans, rice, and tortillas. We brought our own wine and our check was a whopping 320 pesos (about $6.50 a person!) for our peaceful, private dining on the bay. A couple of the kids (including a young pet goat) visited with us as we were finishing our meal.

The sun really beats things up, especially here where it is extra warm. Even if we didn’t want to block the sun, we are always in favor of keeping bugs out of the cabin. What we didn’t have covers for while in California, Bill has been fabricating over the past few months (usually while we are securely tied to a dock, but not always).

Projects have included: sun screens for the cockpit, companionway screen, cover for the kayaks, covers for the spare fuel jugs, sun shade for the foredeck (we had the main sunshade that was too big to sew aboard – made by a wonderful craftsman Hector – during our last stay in La Paz), modify the front dodger cover so that we can open the center window with the rest of the cover in place, new throw pillows for the salon, sun screens for the cabintop ports (windows), hatch covers, fitted tablecloth for the salon, and a clothespin bag.

Julie can help occasionally by holding something during these projects but this is definitely Bill’s area of expertise – he could always pick up a new career as a (boat) tailor! Next project is a fitted cover for the dinghy’s vinyl helm seat.

just some random shots of some of the great creatures we are seeing here