The new plan, was to drive up to Loreto to pick up the Grandmas and then to base out of La Paz and sail when the weather smiled. A late lunch with our Moms, Haley and Wyatt on the old square in Loreto was a great way to end the year. It was, as it has been, surprisingly chilly. The puffy’s have not retired yet. The bonus was a night in a hotel with a room several times bigger than our boat and a shower that seemed to have unlimited hot water. We amortized our guilty pleasure against our usual super spartan showers on board and the cold showers we’ve been finding at Baja marinas.
The 4+ hour drive north to Loreto included a nice taqueria in Constitution, which was super cheap even when you add the 200 peso bribe paid to the polizia on the way out, for missing a stop, “three stops back.” The smiling cop started at 1000, and Diana’s probably right that I could have gotten off for less than two hundred if I was a better negotiator. When I was motioned to the curb in La Paz for not “a-stopping” again, I got the policeman down to 120. He used his cell phone to find someone who could translate his extortion into English while his armor vested buddy stood by looking imposing but uncomfortable. Neither of them liked it when I raised the money visibly above the window. Both cops made sure to shake my hand and assure me that we were amigos.
The weather smiled so we sailed to Isla Espiritu Santo, to the anchorage at the southern end, Bahia San Gabriel, with a big wide beach and an old pearl farm and rookery of frigate birds. Haley climbed the mast for the first sunset, challenging a fear that seems perfectly reasonable to me (I haven’t been up there yet). Camille did it the next night, whooping and hollering the whole way up (so that’s where Diana gets it) and then Haley did it a second time, determined to get a better shot. She’s been photographing the whole time she’s been with us with projects in mind for her program at ICP. We had some trouble with the windlass picking up the anchor in the morning, and had to figure out how to use the manual adapter to crank the last 25 feet in by hand, but otherwise it was exactly the kind of trip we were hoping for with our mother’s. We used the last bit of wind to haul up our spinnaker to dry it out and were cruising along so nicely it was very hard to turn around, but we were headed exactly the wrong direction. We dried out our code zero next going only marginally closer to a course toward La Paz. The electronic chartplotter predicted an arrival at our destination in about a week and a half at that VMG (velocity made good). It was a pretty view of the island, and seemed like the perfect conditions to spot a whale, but no luck. So we motored and dozed our way back to our slip at Marina Cortez. The next day Haley left from Cabo for San Francisco.
One of the silver linings of Namo’s wandering was that German gave us the info for finding the whale sharks that cruise the shallow end of Bahia La Paz gulping down whatever it is they gulp. Namo bravely carried the five of us out, those at the bow learning the advantages of dinghy driving as compared to being a passenger. Hint: it’s even drier with a few bodies ahead of you to absorb the spray. Swimming with these huge fish (technically neither whales nor sharks) was as inspiring as it sounds. Wyatt and Diana got whacked by a tail more than once. I guess if you are that big and live on food that small, you don’t have time to worry about the strange creatures swimming alongside. The view from the dinghy was thrilling, too, as the giant sharks slipped by underneath us, three times our length.
Our last trip with the Grandmas was to Balandra, a beautiful little anchorage on the channel out of Bahia de la Paz. Officially, Diana’s first captaining of Namo, which went well, except for some extra rowing at the end. The shore party arrived certain they deserved margaritas. We had marlin for dinner and went to sleep as the wind began picking up from the southwest (instead of the forecast NNW). By midnight, Allora was beginning to hobby horse in the steep chop, and the first our our neighbors peeled off. The anchor looked good, so I reset the anchor alarm and we slept for another hour or so. Then it was time to start tightening things down. I was happy we had Namo up on the davits, but we’d left the outboard on so she was heavy. We went around tying stuff down as two more neighbors in the anchorage headed out. We decided to give it another hour. Diana could no longer sleep, nor Wyatt. I tried in the forward cabin, but got a little seasick for the first time ever. We decided to leave. It took a while to get everything put together, and not much fun as Allora was really hopping now. Diana put in the lee cloth for Camille’s settee so she wouldn’t be tossed out of bed. Another boat left, and one followed us out at 3:30 leaving only one boat still braving the tumultuos little bay. We motored back to La Paz, and the waves diminished a little, though it was still rough, even in the harbor. My stomach and the strong current made for a very messy docking, and I was glad there were few witnesses.
Wyatt’s edit of our whale shark swim:
