Cruise Log #22, Around Bahía de Los Angeles
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August 15th to September 20th
The Anniversary Edition
Updated September 20th.
Route around Bahía de Los Angeles.
SolMate has been cruising for one whole year! As we enter our second, we've been exploring the near environs of Bahía de Los Angeles, where friendly anchorages abound. There's so much to see and do that these hot summer days have been speeding by like mid-channel currents. On the spring tide, we sat in the "jacuzzi" at La Mona; we visited the village where the weekly delivery truck unloaded fresh veggies; we conquered a 1500-foot peak (well, some of us conquered); and then we picked up our new batteries, delivered to us by Nakia, out at Isla Partida.
BLA village is a sport-fisher hangout for American tourists - goods are priced
accordingly. A bunch of
grapes cost us $5US, as did a pound of butter. On the upside, the three tiendas carry
some US products not found farther south like white vinegar in gallon jugs and seven-grain
bread. The beach and the anchorage don't have much to recommend them, though, so our
provisioning stop was pretty short,
2-for-1 margaritas at Victoria's, then on to Tina's Tacostand and finally
Xitlali tienda, where we snagged fresh avacados and bananas right out of
their shipping boxes.
The veggie truck lured ten to fifteen cruising boats to the village, but most headed
out, again, right away. Our first
visit
to the village lasted a little longer - we took advantage of the internet connection at
Isla to upload another web page and to check our bank statements. Then we set off for
more exploring.
First stop, a short skip and a jump across the bay to La Mona and the "jacuzzi." The moon was full, tides were high, and the La Mona lagoon was conveniently flooded. Water only fills the lagoon when the tides are high enough to breach the sandbar. With this full moon we had eight-foot tides, plenty high for the sea to enter through the little channel. At ebb the jacuzzi action started. Playing in the channel, one can either grab onto a rock and enjoy the burbling current, or go with the flow and enjoy the ride.
The jacuzzi at La Mona with (clockwise) Earl (Dos Brisas),
Keith (PocoLocoDos),
and Mimi and Calen (Rhythmic Breeze).
Sailing up the coast into the Midrif Islands on our way to Bahía de Los Angeles,
the volcano on
Isla Coronado dominated the skyline, beckoning, asking to be climbed. Therefore, our next
stop was at its base, along with Milagro, Rhythmic Breeze and Sarana. We all tucked in,
in-between little Isla Mitlan and Isla Coronado, a great spot for chubasco protection, which
turned out to be a very good thing. It also turned out to be a great spot for whale watching.
Finbacks frequented the anchorage, some rolling past and blowing as close as forty feet
away, which isn't very far away for a 70-foot whale.
But I digress...back to conquering the mountain. Five of us set off at 7:30 AM armed with
water, hiking boots and cameras. Calen also came prepared with an altimeter on his watch, which was
accurate enough for me to claim the 900-foot mark. That's as far
as I made it, the trail was too steep, too narrow, and too loosely unstable for my liking. The last
little bit was on all fours, so I decided to sit and enjoy the view while the guys
slogged up the last 600 feet - we'd already lost Sherrell on the first grade due to kneesles.
The trail (hi-lited) up Isla Coronado's 1500-foot volcano.
Calen (Rhythmic Breeze), Eric (Sarana) and Stan at the top.
The view looking south, all of BLA. Isla Mitlan is in the foreground with
Rhythmic Breeze, Sarana, Milagro and SolMate anchored next to it. Las Rocas is
to the left of Mitlan, with Easy III, Iwa and Cambria anchored there. To the right
is the La Gringa spit with the little mound on the point. Ceilidh-ville is all
the way down the bay at the top of this picture, and the village of BLA is so small
it's unrecognizable on the right, under the cliffs south of La Gringa.
A week's worth of veggies consumed and it was back to the village for another shot at the supply truck. While there, we received an invite to join a few boats in the south bay for a couple of dart games. Of course, darts would be impossible on a boat, a miss would be the end of a set of darts, but Janice and Jay on Ceilidh (pronounced kaylee) inherited (sort of) a little palapa on the beach where they not only hung a dart board, but also stocked a refrigerator and a lending library. Trading books and playing darts wasn't all that happened in Ceilidh-ville, Gale also got in the act.
The palapa that Ceilidh inherited with (left to right) Mimi
(Rhythmic Breeze), Janice and Jay (Ceilidh), Jo (Milagro),
Calen
(Rythmic Breeze) and Lance (Milagro).
Sitting under the palapa's shade, yakking about our various animals, (Bad-Dog Buster on
Ceilidh, Guard Puppy Rocky on Milagro, and of course our own Gato Gale)
I mentioned that Gale seemed to have a
little problem with the litter box. Turned out Janice is a vet tech and she volunteered
to take a look at ole Gale's bum. She poked and prodded and decided his little anal glands
were impacted, probably from tape worms that he got with his fleas way back when. She
made one gentle attempt at purging them, but it was pretty obvious that
ole Gale was too uncomfortable for a wide-awake procedure, so we made alternate plans.
Next morning, Janice came to visit Gale armed with heavy-duty drugs. She knocked him out
cold and
was able to squeeze a big hunk of black, impacted yuck and a little white stuff from
both glands. That was the easy part. Babysitting the dopey guy while the drugs wore off
was harder...and the drugs didn't totally wear off until late the next day. Ole Gale was shakey
and groggy and couldn't stand up for hours after he woke up, needing
constant supervision so he didn't hurt himself.
Janice monitoring Gale's deep sleep, tongue hanging
out and eyes wide-open (treated with drops).
Once Gale regained his sea legs, we headed out to Isla Partida to intercept Nakia.
John and Linda generously offered to shop for us while they were in CA, so we loaded them
up with a huge list, including 350-pounds worth of batteries. Their little Hans Christian
must have gained three inches of waterline when John and Stan finished passing those
batteries over the lifelines. Stan just had enough time to install the new house bank,
a slightly more complicated process than replacing D-cells in the flashlights, before
we were bounced out of the anchorage on our ear.
Little Isla Partida makes a perfect crescent and protects from almost all quarters,
except NW. Of course, that's where the swell built up, so we packed up our other
projects and headed back to the coast for peace and quiet in Alacron...until the swell
changed back to the SE and bounced us out of there, too. That's when we drifted up into
Quemado, and even there a large swell tossed us around in the wee hours.
The swell didn't lasted more than a couple of hours, though, and it was calm enough
for a rip-roaring bonfire birthday beach party - pictures, next time.
