La Paz

We made it to La Paz late Tuesday and are currently tucked into a slip at Marina Palmira where we plan to stay until after the Thanksgiving holiday. This is the first time in many months that we have been at a slip and it felt great to be able to wash Chrokeva down with fresh water. I was so excited to see the boat clean again I even decided to post a few photos on the blog although it would have been much more impressive if I had before/after photos :)

The crossing from Muertos to La Paz was one of the roughest I can remember as the seas were still very confused and steep due to the norther that was passing through. The boat did great but the crew of Chrokeva (including Jasmine and Dancer) were pretty shaken up by the end of the day. Mark hand steered almost the entire day to try to keep us from getting too beat up. Needless to say we all slept very well Tuesday evening.

The boating community is very active here and everyone is extremely helpful. There seems to be alot of boats that end up staying for many years after arriving in La Paz but we have alot of world we want to see so that will not be us. Right now we plan to leave the La Paz area heading for Mazatlan around the next full moon (December 2nd).

Los Muertos (part two)

We are waiting for our first norther here in the Sea of Cortez in Los Muertos. It seems whenever Southern California gets a Santa Ana condition the Sea of Cortez gets a norther. The last weather report said it should be coming in by tomorrow and lasting through Monday so we are planning right now to leave Muertos for La Paz on Tuesday (two days before Thanksgiving). We are expecting 40+ knots of winds and it seems our new anchor will get to start paying for itself finally.
We hope to be settled in in La Paz by Thanksgiving as we here there is a hugh pot luck with the cruisers there. I provisioned the boat with a large turkey breast before leaving the states so we should be set no matter what.
In the mean time we really are enjoying this little cove. Yesterday we walked down the beach and came across this beautiful resort (Gran Suenos). Amazing is the only word that can describe this resort. Everyone was so friendly and invited all the cruisers over to use the pool and restaurant facilities and enjoy this beautiful resort.

Muertos (by Mark)

We Leaving Frailes we headed east out of the anchorage. Then heading north we passed Punta Arena and got our bearing for Muertos. Once in the shadow of Cerralvo Island and the point of land that makes Bahia de los Muertos the wind pretty much disapeared along with the sea state. We dropped anchor at about noon and were pleased to find the most relaxed little anchorage we've seen so far, along with clear water just the right temp for swimming and nobody in a real big hurry. To top that off they have a small beach club restaurant with just the right amount of shade and cold refreshments to be had. Jackie and Amanda are having fun along with me getting acclimated to the warmer temp here. We should be staying through till Saturday morning then pulling out for La Paz hoping to find little treasures like this further on in our adventure.

Baja Ha-Ha 2009 (by Amanda)

LOS FRAILES (The Friars)

We left Cabo San Lucas on November 9th heading to Los Frailes which is our first stop on our way to La Paz. This really was the first day of our cruising life since up until now we were still on a schedule and in the company of what seemed like a whole city of boats and people all with the same goal of making it to Cabo San Lucas. It seemed strange to be without our crew (Marcus and Stan) and to have left the HaHa fleet but Mark reminded me that we have been on our own and dealing with all the challenges of living onboard and moving the boat for many years and of course he was right. As soon as we pulled anchor and put up the sails it felt great to be out on our own again and have the freedom to go wherever whenever we felt like it.

The seas out here seem very flat in comparision to the pacific side of baja but the wind which built to 18 knots in the afternoon and blew right on the nose reminded us that this still is the ocean and the challenges still exist. Once behind the headlands and protected from the strong north winds Frailes was a welcome stop for us.

Sitting on the beach here seemed almost like a dream especially after spending several days in the mega tourist area of Cabo. We plan to spend at least one full day exploring this are before heading to Ensenada De Los Muertos on Wednesday.

AND WE'RE OFF.......

We started off our cruising life on October 25th 2009. We had originally planned to leave with the Baja HaHa on the 26th but due to the prediction of large swells (15-20 foot) we made the decision to leave on the evening of the 25th before the rest of the fleet. The first leg (San Diego to Turtle Bay) was very quick as we were trying to out run the weather coming from the north. The next two legs (Turtle Bay to Santa Maria and Santa Maria to Cabo San Lucas) were much slower and winds were very light. We ended up doing 750 miles in 11 days due to the schedule that the Baja HaHa sets. Although most would think this was a very slow pace the truth is this many miles in a week and a half on a sailboat really is quite fast and it felt more like the rat race we are trying to get away from rather than the cruising life we have been looking forward to. Now that we are in Cabo the HaHa fleet will disperse in different directions and everyone will set there own pace. Our pace will be much slower from here on out.

Right now we are sitting in Cabo San Lucas on anchor and since we have a pretty good internet signal I thought it would be a good time to post a few photos of our trip down. We plan on leaving Cabo on Monday and head around the cape to Los Frailes. After that we have decided to beat our way up to La Paz and spend a little time in the sea of cortez before heading over to mainland Mexico.