Category Archives: General

We sailed into La Paz on a windy afternoon. The harbor in La Paz is a bit tricky for a couple of reasons. The first one is that after four plus miles of channel you have to cross over a sand bar to get to the main anchorage called the Mogote. The first trick turned out to be no problem. Our guide-book was a few years old, so maybe things have gotten better, but it wasn’t as tricky as the guide-book made it out to be. We quickly dinghied to shore to get back in touch with the world electronically. Soon thereafter it was down the malecon to enjoy some of the sights. La Paz has many sculptures along the waterfront. One of the most famous is this mermaid chasing the dolphin.

A less famous one, but still just as fascinating, is the Anna stuck in the knees of the fisherman.

On the second day we were blessed with a very special treat. Spotting two dolphins heading towards Stray Catz is exciting by itself, but this time they were after some fish that were hanging out under the boat. These two cetaceans spent about ten minutes chasing the fish under and around us. Anna and I were running inside and out trying to watch the dolphins chasing the fish. Inside of Stray Catz are two escape hatches for the unlikely event of a capsize. I quickly opened these to see if I could get a better picture of this Animal Planet event. Unfortunately this is the best I could come up with.

While we were in La Paz it was Denise, from Sea Fern’s birthday. Anna got to take advantage of the overpriced cookware we had bought years ago and cooked stove top, a delicious dobash cake. The cake was so good it alone almost made the cookware worth it.

We spent only a few days in La Paz getting caught up and restocking the shelves. Long enough to experience the infamous La Paz waltz. The other tricky part of La Paz harbor. This local phenomenon happens where currents through a harbor are stronger than the winds blowing a from different direction. Here it causes boats at anchor to swing all different directions. One boat might be pushed forward on its anchor by the current right behind another boat being pushed backwards by the wind.

Normally boats at anchor will all be facing the same direction depending on the direction of either the wind or the current. In La Paz however you can not count on this. The currents in the harbor are strong enough to, depending on hull shape and tonnage, send boats sideways, or even opposite direction to the wind. But to top it off, its a constant battle between the two forces, so boats continue to dance around in all different directions. If you’ve made the mistake of anchoring too close to another vessel, you may very well bump it. Even though we came close to two other boats, we didn’t have to move to avoid a collision.

The Mexican people are very resourceful. This young man had a flat tire, so he started cooking food on his engine to help pay for the repairs.

 Not really.

Our roller-furler still needs repaired, but sometimes it’s very easy to get distracted. It will have to wait, because after our re-provisioning was done, we were off to check out the islands north of La Paz for a more secluded cruising lifestyle.

We stopped at a spot called Aqua Verde because it was the right distance to avoid an overnight sail and we had read about the goat farmers in the area. Aqua Verde has a small bay that is protected from the prevailing north winds. When we arrived, there were already four boats there. Adding two more, Sea Fern and us, was a bit tricky, but we squeezed in. The next day three of them left. Was it something I said?

There is a small village that includes a tienda, restaurant, goat farms and a fish camp. Having heard about the goat farmers we were intrigued to try the goat cheese. There is also an established hike over the hill to a cemetery and to another beach on the north side of the point.

We hiked the next morning to the cemetery and saw some beautiful views of the bay and surrounding mountains.

Our plan was to enjoy dinner at the local restaurant, but since it is such a small village, we didn’t realize you had to make reservations or they don’t open. I guess when there is so few people around it’s not good business to open up and hope. The next morning we were leaving early, so even though we had seen a herd of goats, we never found anywhere to acquire goat cheese.

After leaving Aqua Verde, we spent two more nights at beautiful anchorages, Honeymoon Cove and Bahia San Francisco on our way to La Paz. We had been out of touch electronically for a while, so we didn’t take the time to enjoy them. I really wanted internet, but as it turned out I didn’t miss much.

Anyone who has done SCUBA or snorkeling knows what an exciting world it is under the sea. I love to see and be amazed by all the creatures and colors and scenes that you don’t see above the water. On any dive or snorkel I may see something I’ve never seen or even heard of before. So while off on another hunting trip hoping to find fresh fish for dinner I experienced something I have never experienced before. The visibility on this particular day was not the greatest. The water was murky so I could only see about 15 feet, but anything past 6 or 7 got blurry. Rocks and fish were shadows and hard to differentiate.

On one of my descents to find fish, a four foot long moray eel swam from between some rocks on the ocean floor. He didn’t swim towards me, but to see something that large and close caught me off guard and startled me. I’m always a little nervous when I’m hunting because I know the blood and sounds an injured fish make can attract a larger predator. Especially one larger than me.

Anyone who has seen a moray eel knows how ferocious they look. Snake like body, large jaws and visible teeth. It can be intimidating. Call me a wimp if you like, but I’m still intimidated.

I have seen many moray on dives and snorkels and marveled at their size and graceful movement. I’ve even followed them around and watched their behavior as they interact with their environment.

I watched this eel continue to swim away as long as I could as I floated back to the surface for another breath. Thinking that would be the last I would see of him, I was glad to have the opportunity to enjoy him, even if it did startle me.

Meanwhile I had spotted a small alcove with an overhang in the rocks along the wall. Fish tend to hang out in these little alcoves, so it definitely required further investigation. I dove down again and came up slowly on the spot. As I was focused intently on whether there were any hunt-able fish in there, this eel popped up in front of me and swam across my field of vision. It startled me again, so I yelled at the eel and told him to leave me alone. He swam off unfazed by my gesture.

On my next descent I was again approaching the alcove focused on possible dinner when I felt something bump the back of my arm. Irritated by the distraction, I turned face to face with that same eel swimming around me and checking me out. Okay I admit it, I screamed like a child, swam backwards and towards the surface and poked my spear gun at the eel to scare him away. Which it did. He swam away in a hurry, but not before he had convinced me that I need to leave the area.

I swam around the corner to a spot about thirty yards away and continued to hunt for fish. The visibility was still lousy, so I still needed to dive down to get any kind of look at the wildlife below. As I did one descent, I was swimming along the bottom and spotted a shadow up ahead. At this point I couldn’t tell if it was a rock or a fish, so I watched it as I swam closer. When I got close enough to see it clearly, well you guessed it, the eel. This curious creature had followed me. I yelled at it again and swam to the surface and straight back to the dinghy where I loaded up and left the area.

I dinghy to the other side of the bay, about a mile away, dive down, and within 3 minutes, guess what? an eel swims towards me. Luckily this was not the same one, and was not so curious. After I yelled at it and shook my spear gun at it, it left and that was the last I saw of it. I continued on and successfully brought home dinner.