Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Sharing Scenes of La Paz

La Paz is a lovely, welcoming city with unique and changing sites around every corner.  We have settled into a winter routine here:  listen to the morning net, dinghy ride ashore to have coffee at the cruisers club, run a few errands and fill the day with projects.

The sailboat Orion has a boat T-shirt that is shared with guests.  (See photos of Cathy and Mike below.)  The poem on the back about sums up how many cruisers feel about La Paz:

ORION of the Sea of Cortez
ORION
Tease me
Pinch me
Squeeze me
Hug me
Please me
Kiss me
La Paz me

Enjoy our daily view:

View from anchorage #1.  We moved after first major wind event!  Too many boats, too close!

Street musician we found on a walk through a neighborhood.

Sunset view from anchorage #2.  Boats better spaced; magote sand spit to the right and town to left.

The circus is in town -- so drive around with a tiger to promote the Big Top!

The Big Party is fast approaching -- the banners are going up & the malecon is being fixed up.

Easy bird watching on the low tides

Looking out to the magote from ashore.  We are anchored out there somewhere!

Sharing sundowners with the local dolphin pod!  We can hear them through the hulls at night.

Cathy -- our host from Orion during sail boat race on Sunday.  Bring on the sunscreen!

Captain Mike -- Let's Have Fun!

Approaching the start of the race -- almost 20 boats participated in light winds and flat seas.

Strutting with Colors Flying

Good Karma Flag 

Friday, January 18, 2013

Sunny, Winter Weather in La Paz

Thankfully, the norther winds have died and the sun peeked out from behind those gray clouds!
Today we did not turn on the heater when we turned off the anchor light.  Better yet -- we did not get a salt water bath coming back to Magic in the dinghy.

I am sure the winter winds will howl again before too long...but for today...we'll enjoy the sunny, warm afternoon in La Paz.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Waltzing in La Paz


Unique to LaPaz is the large, shallow bay that empties through a narrow channel creating ripping tides – anywhere from 3-6 knots depending on the phase of the moon.  Toss in the occasional “strong wind event” (that is always COLD and AT NIGHT) and you set up The Waltz. 

On a good day, boats are well behaved.  Everyone allows a bit extra anchoring distance between boats (so dancing boats have a lot of space); the wind versus tide impact is minimal; and one is lucky to be surrounded by boats with knowledgeable on-board skippers.

And on a bad day?  Well, that would be today.

We awoke to really strong winds (20+ knots), white caps in the anchorage, and a ripping flood tide.  Mariah, the boat normally ahead of us, had dragged through the night and was now on our stern.  Satori, typically astern of us (and on a fixed mooring) was 15 boat lengths closer to the Navy base.  We watched North Air bang first one boat and then another as it did a 180 maneuver.  Across the channel a few unattended boats were drifting along to their own tunes, some playing tag with the channel buoys.

And about Sea Star.  We can’t imagine how they got this far – 2 young men who are (in kindest terms) new to boating.   We listened and watched.  Last Friday, they tried to anchor next to us – we would have none of that because the space was too small and we dance a flamboyant waltz given our windage and minimal underbody.  They insisted on dropping their hook—but after watching for an hour they opted to re-anchor further from us.  Wise move.  Today, they too dragged.  But away from us – sort of.

In all these situations, there are many cruisers who jump in and help out in any conditions.  Our dinghy was secured & not easy to deploy; plus we had to watch the dancing neighborhood.  Anchors were borrowed; boats secured; owners were called to hustle aboard from warm, dry homes.  All is good but Sea Star was re-anchored way to close to us with woefully undersized equipment.

And, despite liking our spot (close into the dinghy dock for easier and drier rides ashore), we finally said, at 3 p m,  ENOUGH.  I like to WALTZ – I don’t like the tango, or the foxtrot, or the hip hop.  Too Much Drama! We picked up the hook and headed out to a far corner of the anchorage.  Where we can relax and just listen to the mayhem on the radio…and smile.

And yes, today we finally turned on the heater!

Thursday, January 3, 2013

A New View!

Finally, we left Marina Palmira for the La Paz anchorage this morning.  We thought we were going out yesterday -- but it seems we had paid for 1 more night:  so why not stay?

We left early under gray drippy skies but ahead of the forecast afternoon winds.

And true enough, anchoring is like riding a bike -- you don't really forget how to do it.  I only had one brain freeze and could not remember how to STOP the chain from rumbling out.  But a few seconds of panic and that old "righty tidy" rhyme popped into my head.

We picked a spot down near the Navy base -- a nice hole left by a boat headed into the yard.

A new view for the next weeks.