THE FIRST BIG NORTHER

Mirador sailed out of Bahia de los Angeles on Saturday, October 20 in a brisk NNE wind which was gusting over 25 knots. We traveled only 12 miles to Ensenada el Alacran (Scorpion Bay) which provides very good protection in any wind from the SW to NE. My friends on Lady Galadrial, Ryokosha, Tackless II, and Iwa were all in Alacran waiting for me.

Four Drascome Longboats from the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) sailed into Alacran the 2nd day I was there. These boats are replicas of the boat sailed by Shackleford during his escape from Anarctica. Each boat is manned by one instructor and three or four students.

These students participate in almost three months of outdoor activities will enrolled at NOLS. They spend three weeks in the longboats, three weeks in kyaks, and three weeks hiking in the Baja islands.

During each phase the students or their boats carry all the supplies for the entire three weeks. These students had spent Hurricane Marty trapped under tarps in the mountains on one of the Sea of Cortez mountains.

 

 

We offered them water and supplies but that was not allowed. Most of the students are 19 to 23 years old. They can receive college credits for the program thru the University of Utah.

Here are some of the students making chocolate pancakes for breakfast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see in the background one of the tarps that the students and instructors sleep under. Starting from the left, that is Paul (Ryokosha) looking at the camera and Dennis (Lady Galadrial) with his arms crossed. The five right most young people facing the camera are all instructors. Lisa (Lady G) has her back to us and Gwen (Tackless II) is talking to Lisa with her arms crossed, wearing the yellow tanktop.

NOLS has schools all over the world but this group is based in Bahia Concepcion.

 

 

 

 

The snorkleing was spectacular on the rock-reefs around the bay. Visibility was 40+ feet and there were a lot of very interesting fish to watch and eat. However, the water is really cooling off - I measured 74°. That meant I had to wear a shorty wetsuit under my spandex suit that protects me from jellyfish and other stinging sea critters.

During one of the dives I was swimming between a series of rocks that were just below the surface, about a 1/2 mile offshore. As I came to one end of the rocks I stopped and peeked over the rock with my face just below the surface. On the other side of the rock was an almost completlely enclosed pool of water, about 20 feet around and 10 feet deep. In the pool were two huge groupers and an enormous fish that I wasn't able to identify. I was carrying my speargun and was looking for dinner.

The problem was that the fish saw me as soon as I saw them. They did not dash off through either of the small entrances to the pool but did keep a wary eye on me. Everytime I tried to get the speargun up and over the rock ledge that separated me from the fish they would start to backup and head for the exit. When I lowered the speargun they would swim back to the middle of the pool. This went on for 15 minutes until I realized they had much more patience than did I. I just bolted over the ledge but I knew they'd be gone before I could get the gun into a firing position... and I was right.

I did shoot three good sized groupers, i.e. five pounds or more, but wasn't able to land any of them. It appears that my spear goes right through the fish but then the hinged barbs that are supposed to deploy outward to prevent the spear from pulling off do not deploy. All three times when I started to pull the fish in the spear would pull out and the fish would swim away. I would try to chase them but the spear seemed to have no effect on their swimming. I did find one of the wounded fish a while later but he was still very frisky and swam away as soon as he saw me.

We took our dinghies out to a very small island about 2 miles from shore where all the sealions hangout. Six of us than swam with the sealions for an hour or so. They were very curious about us and would swim up to look in our facemasks from about an arms length away. Groups of three or five would follow a diver around, staying about 10 feet behind or beside us. The sealions are incredibly graceful and agile while swimming. Their motion is more like a bird in flight since you can hardly see them move their tail or fins. They have huge brown eyes that stare at you no matter where there head is pointed. It was a fascinating experience and I never felt any sign of danger. Until, the bull lion who had been on the beach mostly asleep started barking at us. We were about 50 yards from him when he started toward the water, headed directly towards us. We didn't know what he was thinking so all of us quickly climbed back into the dinghies.

The other astounding part of the sealion trip was the leopard groupers that live with the sealions. Normally a leopard grouper is the most wary of all the fish. All you have to do is stare at one or even point a gun a one and it will flit away. However, in the area around the sealion beach we saw dozens, probably hundreds of grouper in the eight to ten pound range who showed no fear whatsoever. I could swim right up to one and almost touch it before it would slowly swim away.

We had not taken any spearguns with us to the sealion island so planned to come back the next day for a trip to the fish market.

But, the weather did not cooperate. On the morning of the 24th the forecast was for building SE wind and swells that would last for two days. By noon on the 24th the anchorage, which is wide open to the SE, was getting rolly and uncomfortable with SE 10 knots of wind. There is nothing to the SE of Alacran except open Sea for 700 miles down to the Mexican Mainland so the waves have a lot of room to build.

We all hauled anchor and sailed down to the South Las Animas anchorage, just seven miles across the mouth of Bahia Las Animas, except Iwa who went back to Bahia de los Angeles. Jack and Herme had guests aboard who had driven from San Diego down to BLA.

The next day the concern was that we promptly get to an anchorage which would be secure in a north wind because a strong norther was forecast to hit in two days. So on the 25th we took off early to make the 38 mile trip to Bahia San Francisquito. Unfortunately the wind was just a light SE to South all day with a 1.5 to 2 knot current coming directly from San Francisquito. That meant we motored all the way.

During the trip I caught three big Black Skipjack (barrilete negro) but released them all. Their meat is very dark and doesn't have much flavor. They do put up a great fight and will keep me busy for five to ten minutes while I try to land them.

Arrival in beautiful San Francisquito was uneventful. I decided to anchor as far to the Southeast as possible Inside the inner anchorage because the forecast for the 26th was 35 knot NNE winds with gusts to 45 knots.

The inner anchorage opens to the NW so I wanted as much protection from the NE as possible. At about 3 PM I dropped the big spade in 12 feet of water and let out 150 feet of chain which placed the stern in 10 feet of water.

The picture above is looking toward the NNE point that protects us from the wind.

To see an ariel picture of the inner anchorage at San Francisquito take a look at Getting close to BLA about one screen down from the top.

Once again, I mis-judged the tide levels and timings. I played cards and had dinner on Lady Galadrial but when I returned to Mirador at 8 PM the depth sounder alarm was beeping and I saw 6' on the guage. Mirador draws 5' 3" so she wasn't quite aground but low tide the next night was going to be 6" lower so that meant Mirador needed to be moved to deeper water before 24 hours passed.

The north wind started blowing about 3 AM and by noon the next day was steady in the low 30 knot range with gusts to the low 40s. The nice thing about a north wind in October is that the air is warm and the cooling effect of the wind is appreciated. The wind chop in the bay never got above two feet since the wind was blowing from the NE and the windwaves, which looked to be six feet outside the inner harbor, had a hard time bending around the sharp point to our NNW.

But, I still had to move Mirador at least 100 yards to windward to get into deeper water. I recruited Dennis and Lisa from Lady G, Cathi from Ryokosha, and Gwen from Tackless II to help. I really only needed two people but we've been cruising together for so long now that it is really a "one for all - all for one" spirit. We did get Mirador moved after some difficulties. The wind was in the mid-30 knot range from dead ahead and there was only about 40 yards of water behind Mirador so the helmsperson had to be quick while keeping the bow into the wind after the anchor came off the bottom.

Here is a picture of Don, Cathi, and Gwen (in the purple tee shirt), trying to let out more chain on Tackless II during the 35 knot winds.

The wind blew itself out by 2 AM the next day but the weather stayed just perfect. Not a cloud in the sky, 40% humidity, 84 degrees and just a light NE breeze. That inspired me to take the mountain bike ashore and go for a two hour, 12 mile ride on the rough dirt road that leads out to the main highway, 45 miles to the SW. I followed a nice river bottom about 2 miles up a canyon. I carried the bike up out of the canyon but at the top of that climb I found loose sand and lots of mosquitos so I jumped on the bike and pedaled like crazy to get away from the bugs.

There is a lot of Dengue fever in the Baja south of here. A month ago there were over 1000 cases reported with a number of deaths. My understanding is that only the daytime mosquitos carry the virus. As soon as I see a daytime mosquito - I'm gone.!

I followed the single lane dirt, washboard, rocky, sandy,...miserable road to the low pass that separates the coastal plain from the inland valley. All I could see was more mountains and valleys. I turned around and followed an even worse trail back to the beach where I had left the dinghy.

I can't post this message until I get to Mulege because Judi, my sister and WEBmaster, just moved into a new house and does not have internet access yet.