Bjorklund Log: We are in La Paz!

We made it to La Paz yesterday. How great it is to be here! We have the anticipation of a much hoped for visit from Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Ralph in a couple of days (at dinner tonight Odin was trying to pin me down on exactly how many days we had left to wait for Grandma and Grandpa to get here, in true Odin style...much precision was needed!). We also have new friends to play with, the members of the gang of boats we travelled down the coast with from Ensenada, Anjuli and Konami (and hopefully soon Hoku Pa'a), as well as a kid boat Rikki Tikki Tavi we met in Magdelena Bay. Then there are the routine things we've missed while traveling down the very remote west coast of Baja, fresh food, showers, internet access and laundry machines. All in all we are glad to be tied up at a dock for a couple of weeks here in La Paz.

We had a terrific time in the west coast of Baja. It's a beautiful place and we got to share picture perfect anchorages with our new gang of friends on Anjuli, Konami and Hoku Pa'a with whom much socializing and meal sharing was done. We also got to eat terrific seafood: fish from sailing friends who have fishing licenses and are fishing, as well as shrimp and lobster from Mexican fishermen. We didn't have much for produce, but we did like royalty!

It wasn't all fun though, we got spanked on the passage from Bahia Tortugas to Bahia Santa Maria (just north of Magdalena Bay). It was a long passage, 3 days and 2 nights that all started off very nicely. A lovely sail south in the company of Konami, Anjuli and Hoku Pa'a. The sun set on the first night and I got the boys to bed and got a little sleep myself, when I got up at 10:15 pm to take my watch, we got a radio call from Konami who were ahead of us that the wind had really picked up out of nowhere and they suggested we shorten sail. We immediately dropped the main and were sailing under mizzen and jib alone, and when we got to the wind, even that was too much sail. But along with the wind came really nasty swell, 6 foot square waves on our beam, so we were rolling and pitching like crazy. We both had a big job on our hands to get the jib down and the staysail up. While securing the jib on the bowsprit Tor got dunked up to his waist. By this point he was getting seasick and I didn't recognize it at the time, but for Tor, with seasickness comes apathy. He knew he wasn't going to get any sleep, so he suggested I go down and try and sleep so someone could function the next day (our youngest crew members generally sleep through the night and need at least one semi-functioning parent by day), I suggested he change out of the wet clothes, but he assured me he was okay, in hindsight it was the apathy of seasickness talking. So I went below to get some sleep...with the motion of the boat, that wasn't going to happen, so I lay there. Unbeknownst to me, Tor was getting colder and more seasick, so by the time he called for me to come up on deck, he was a total wreck. Neither of us got any sleep that night. But it was a comfort to be in radio contact with the other boats and know that we were all having a miserable time, misery loves company right? The next day was slightly better, but Tor was still sick and the day went by in a blur of sleep depravation and hunger for real food. The boys spent the whole time laying in our berth and we survived on crackers, granola bars, and beef jerky. I allowed cracker eating in our bed, that's how bad it was. By the time dinner came around, Odin was really fed up and throwing a fit about wanting real food for supper, "I want pasta al tonno! I want ginger ale! I want pasta al tonno! I want ginger ale!" I eventually resorted to bribery. I told him he could have a full can of ginger ale (a big deal!) when things settled down, if and only if, he didn't mention it again. Thankfully it worked, I didn't have any reserves to handle the situation. The next night was much better, but the nasty seas continued. The wind was very steady, so being in watch was really easy, just a matter of holding on, but no work sailing was needed. Thankfully. Tor and I were both able to get some sleep, but every time he went below, Tor's seasickness got bad. What a mess. We were never so happy to get to an anchorage, and Bahia Santa Maria was gorgeous, and most important, calm! Sodas all around in the cockpit to celebrate being done with that awful passage tasted amazing, and it was terrific to finally be able to make good on my part of Odin's bribe.

We spent 4 nights in Magdalena bay doing little more than swimming, school work and sharing meals with our friends on Hoku Pa'a, Konami and Anjuli. It was the true cruising experience. Amazing time. From Magdalena bay it was another overnight passage to Cabo San Lucas, because there aren't any anchorages for the 150 miles between them. Needless to say we were a little gun shy, but the passage was relatively non eventful. A long slog mostly motoring.

We had been watching the weather closely and wanted to ensure we weren't bashing into northerly winds once we turned the corner at Cabo and into the Sea of Cortez. After anchoring just overnight at Cabo, it looked like the weather was calm and ready for us to go, so we up anchored and motored towards Los Frailes. Turns out we probably should have waited a bit. For the last 15-20 miles, we motored into 20, maybe 25 kt winds that were opposing the current which made for very steep, choppy seas. We were scooping water with our bulwarks, and Tor counted 5 times that our propeller was out of the water. Icky awful ride. And our boat speed went down to a very slow 3 kts or so, we were spending so much time climbing up waves and then crashing down them that we just couldn't make much speed over ground. Yuck, yuck and more yuck. That night we slept like babies in a calm Los Frailes anchorage.

Two more days of motoring, first to Ensenada de los Muertos, then to Puerto Balandra. Uneventful and boring, good. At Puerto Balandra we found a lovely anchorage that we couldn't help but explore by swimming and paddle boarding to shore. What a magical place with fine white sand, warm clear water and amazingly eroded and sculpted rock. We had a wonderful time, then at 4:00 pm the wind picked up, and though we were anchored safely and securely, we had a miserable night of hobby horsing at anchor all night. Our anchor snubber even popped off our anchor chain. That was fun to re-attach in the middle of the night! At one point all four of us ended up in our double sized berth. It was tight. At first light we got the heck out of there to motor the 12 miles to La Paz. Like I said before, we are very glad to be here, and not just for the niceties that come with being in a city, it certainly feels hard won!

Cuteness from the Bahia Tortugas to Bahia Santa Maria
passage, before it got ugly.

Day 2 of the Bahia Tortugas to Bahia Santa Maria passage.
After the first ugly night. This is what being on watch for a
seasick miserable Tor looked like. At least we have
Merlin the self steering magician, it's really a third crewmember.

What it looked like below. Our book storage wasn't up to the task,
and there wasn't any point trying to get it all back together.
It let go during the middle of the night and was a thunderous
sound. The sound woke the boys and they are fond of saying
"the thunder on the boat was the books," it clearly made an
impression. At least it wasn't an escaped avocado
like on board Konami, they had guacamole everywhere!
Anjuli, veterans of a 2 year Pacific loop had things flying
out of places that have never in all their sailing before come
out. It made us feel a little better.