Balandra – Paradise

I want to start by apologizing to those of you who work every day and look forward to those weekends and vacations. The following photos can be a little depressing as you look out of your windows at work but it should give you more reasons to call me and ask if you can join me, if only for a few days. There is no-one in these photos, so it should be easy to insert yourself.

For the first time since I arrived, I went sailing out of La Paz. The location is about two hours from here and is named Balandra. It is not an island but part of the Baja peninsula near the bottom tip of the state of Baja California Sur on the Sea of Cortez.

These two photos, above, were taken as we sailed (motored) out to Balandra. Notice how blue and clear the water is in the photo looking down into the water.

We were greeted by these friendly pelicans when we arrived. Dolce Vita is at anchor as we motor towards the first location to explore. The third photo shows the topography of the area.

The photos below is of a area where there is a small cave to explore or to just sit back in the shade to relax and read a good book.

After relaxing for a while, we headed back to the boat to get a photo of Mushroom Rock which is a well known landmark in this area.

We have landed on the beach and claimed it as our own. Notice the huge crowds. Mushroom Rock is off in the distance.

Now this is the photo where you can use Photo Shop to insert yourself and your friends. What better place than this to have a picnic. Dolce Vita is also relaxing and waits for use to return.

This area is only a small piece of what the Sea of Cortez offers in beauty. The beautiful scenery is not the end. The Sea also offers many species of fish and mammals that can only be found here or at far reaches around the world.

That is all for now. Stay tuned for more over the next few weeks.

Stay safe out there.

Misc Stuff from around La Paz and Costa Baja Marina

First I want to say I am sorry that the following blog is not full of my latest adventures or photos of me catching a 450 pound Marlin on a 20 pound test line. That last statement on test line will be understood my long time fishermen or should I say fisherpersons.

I have been stripping varnish and sanding the teak on the outside of the boat. This is something I should have done while in the cool temps of the Bay area,,,,, but no!; I wait until I am in Mexico where and when the temperatures are 115 degrees. I drink about 5 gallons of water a day but I haven't pissed in two weeks. Instead I walk around looking like a man that has just stepped out of the swimming pool

I have taken some photos to share with you from around La Paz and the Marina were I and my boat stay. Mexico celebrated their Independence Day on September 16th having the usual speeches and parades. I also thought I would take some photos of one of the two cemeteries in town given that another celebration is approaching on November 2nd. That day all Mexicans celebrate the Day of the Dead.

Let me begin by letting you see what I see everyday around the marina where I now live.







The marina is surrounded on three sides my restaurant, shops, condo's and a small hotel. The boat shown is Dolce Vita. She is at rest for a couple of months waiting for the hurricane season to end. The landscape is a photo showing that Baja is mostly desert. This is on the remaining side of the marina. It does now look somewhat green because of recent rains.

Mexico's Indepenance Day, September 16th.

I was disappointed in the parade having expected more costumes and colors. There were no bands, although all of the schools had students in the parade and of course let us not forget the military. Those of us that grew up in the Midwest would also be disappointed in that there were no tractors in the parade and they didn't throw candy towards the small children.

The next photos are taken at one of the two cemeteries in town. We all recognize how many of the cemeteries are laid out within the U.S. , and it does not at all resemble what these photo's show. Many, but not all of the grave sites are made up of what could only be described as a very small and colorful homes. I think it is beautiful and many of the sites are kept up very well with fresh paint and flowers. During the Day of the Dead, family members come down to the grave sites bringing items that the dead enjoyed as they sit around the eating food and playing games as they celebrate the life of the one they now visit.

In a couple of weeks, the weather will begin to cool and normal life here will return. I will be going north in a couple of weeks spending 10 days with friends on their boat as we sail south from Santa Rosalita to La Paz. In early November another friend is coming down and sailing with me across the Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan on the mainland of Mexico.

That is all until next time when I chronicle my sail south with my friends Bill and Jean.

Until then, be safe out there.

Tropical Storm Overhead and THEN>>>>

It was early Thursday evening. Tropical storm Lowell is off the west coast of Baja and headed our way to La Paz. The center of the storm was expected to hit us around midnight. Floods and winds were predicted. The winds were only going to reach 40 mph. Hopefully nothing more that a Minnesota thunderstorm.

I had cleared the decks of the boat to prevent anything from blowing away or breaking, closed all of the hatches, ate a sandwich for dinner and settled down to read a book about a ship wreck in the early 1800's off the coast of Africa. The title is "Skeletons of the Sahara". The book is an enjoyable read and I was getting into it when it happen...............

Smash!!!! Bang!!!! Knock Knock!!!! Crash. What the hell had just happened I thought? The sound was coming from the cockpit at the back of the boat. Again, Smash, bang, crash. I opened the hatch a small crack to see if I could see what this monster was. I couldn't see anything in the dark. All I could sense was the smell of death. What could it be?

I wasn't about to walk out there to get a closer look fearing it was waiting for me so it could strike. I locked the cockpit back up a used my light to see if anything appeared in the dark. Rain was coming down hard now and the winds were picking up. Again and again, the boat shook and rocked as the noise continued. Not as often as before but as load. I thought I heard, from the corner of the cockpit, a sound only a wild animal could make as it stocked its' kill.

All that I could hope for was that this unknown creature would soon die. The cockpit was filled with blood making it look like a fresh murder seen. I went back to my book and gave it another 30 minutes to see if the noise stopped. It did. I then sat up from my couch, laid the book down and started for the hatch to unlock it.

I stepped outside and carefully and slowly moved towards the corner where the sound had come from. There it was in a pool of blood, dead. It was clear that it had been chased my something further up the food chain from itself and seeing my boat jumped in to take refuge. The name of the boat is Dolce Vita. Sweet Life in english. Not a very fitting ending for the creature that you can now view below.

La Paz and Todos Santos

It is another great morning in La Paz so I thought I would put together another blog so you can see some of the views I have here each day.

It gets warm here, or should I say HOT. However, the winds cool everything down to the high 60's in the late afternoon through the evening so sleeping is great. I wish I could say this will continue but the locals say next month it will remain hot all day and evening. That is why I am coming back to San Francisco so I can complain about the cold fog.

Those of you that I get to visit when I return will have to tell me if I have lost wieght. I think I have. I walk around town every day in the hot sun which can be as much as a mile or two and that will take the pounds off of anyone.

The boat is finally clean top to bottom. I oiled all of the wood down below given the extreme temperatures it will be going through while down here in Mexico. I am having someone check my cooling system tomorrow to hopefully give it a good bill of health. I also changed the oil the other day while it was cool, so the boat is ready to sail off again as soon as I return from California.
The beach front along the center of town has some wonderful sculptures which I have taken photos of to just prove to everyone that I am cultured after all. Even if I hang out in dive bars. To show everyone that I have not lost my sense of reality I thought I would share the first one that I could really get my arms around.

Some of you will notice that many of my photos do not have images of people in them. One of my friends got very mad at me once when I took her photo while at her cabin in the mountains, telling me I should ask first before taking photo and that it was very rude not to. So I have become very sensitive to this every since and I take care not to take photos of strangers that I can not first ask. Who said I can not become politically correct?

Here are some of the other sculptures along the water front.

The harbor I am in is towards the left side in the back of the photo that shows a woman holding a sea shell.

As a change in pace and scenery, I took a bus ride yesterday to a town across from here on the Pacific side of Baja. Todos Santos is a small town where an artist colony is growing. Many artists from outside Mexico are moving there and opening shops. One day it may be compared to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I think the most interesting was the bus ride and the country side that I viewed traveling down the road. All desert, skinny cows and small shacks where people lived and survive some how.

Here are some photos that I took to share with you all.

Hot Pepers!!!

Well that is all for now. This is getting too much like work and the reports that Randy asked me to do while at CSAA.

I will see you all when I get back to California.

Denny

We Made It---La Paz

The killer fish I caught

Made foe speed. I was going a a speed of 8MPH when I caught him. Tasted GREAT

Look at the blue waters.


Like many of the small villages we anchored near

Like many of the cafes we eat at.

Casing off of small shrimp on shore

We made a new friend

Cabo San Lucas at the Marina. Several places to spend your money

Another small village

A beach anchorage

Does anyone recognize this?

Very small cafe.

WOW! Has it been one month since I posted the last Blog? I guess so. There has been a lot of water that has passed under Dolce Vita since then and a continuation of the adventure. If you have watched our progress on the Locator web site that I gave you, I am not going to bore you about each location other than to add some photos that may highlight some of the spots.

We had only two problems after leaving San Diego and we solved both of them as we have become pros at fixing stuff without the advantage of going to a hardware store or calling a mechanic.

We continued to enjoy the many people we met and the food we ate along the way. I can't say what my favorite spot was because each one was so different.

We had to do more than expected number of 24 hour sails but other than finding ourselves tired after those legs, they were uneventful while in Mexican waters.

My sailing partner, Bob, went back to California yesterday after spending a day and a half in La Paz. He is retired and has been for some time, but he had to get back to his part time job before he got fired. Not the kind of retirement I want to spend.

Bob and I were together in a very small spot for 2 months and through that time and all that happened, we got along just fine. Each of us were a little cranky in the mornings, especially Bob when I said we were pulling anchor at 6 in the morning :). I found out during this trip that he enjoys sleeping until 10:00 am every morning. Since I enjoy rising at 6:00 am, I was not his best friend in the mornings.

Bob joined me in Monterey as a good sailor and left the boat in La Paz as a great sailor. I will always be very grateful to him for joining me on this trip and making it possible.

I am now sitting in the Marina de La Paz with a number of other cruisers and enjoying the town, the food and again the people. My Spanish is also improving at a fast pace.

I am going to stay here until July 1st when I fly back to Minnesota for Mom's memorial and then onto California to visit my family and friends our there. I am not sure how I am going to survive the cooler weather back home but I don’t think I will be sitting in the back yard in my shorts without a shirt. I will be in California for 2 months and I promise I will make an effort to see everyone.