Cruise Log #23, Around Bahía de Los Angeles
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September 20th to October 15th
Summer's End
Updated October 15th.
September and October around Bahía de Los Angeles.
Stymied by bugs and weather, we missed our chance of exploring
Refugio on the upper reaches of Isla Angel de la Guardia this summer.
Oh, well, there's always next year.... Instead of trekking up the island, we enjoyed quite
a few of the anchorages around the bay, despite the 6-legged creatures, and we
met a bunch of great people.
All-in-all, our summer in the Sea was a blast (how soon we forget temps in the 90s,
humidity in the 80s, and a heat
index topping out at 120°).
Plagued by bees and no-see-ums,
the twenty to thirty cruisers summering around Bahía de Los Angeles
bunched up in the few buggy-free spots ... Alacran, Quemado, Pescador, Don Juan, La Mona,
El Gecko, Isla Mitlan, Las Rocas, La Gringa, Isla Ventana and BLA village. Where a bunch of
cruisers congregate, there's
always a potluck. The following pictures are from one such gathering, which was also Jo's
(Milagro) birthday. Six boats were in the anchorage
on the appointed day,
way too many to squash onto one boat, so...we hit the beach.
Potlucking in the sand calls for specialty equipment, which takes up lots of storage space in already over-stuffed lockers, but which is absolutely essential. Packing beach gear into a bucking dinghy ain't the same as stuffing a picnic basket into the family stationwagon. Stan and I are still accumulating, but our present kit consists of a folding plastic box/table, folding beach chairs, and insulated bags to carry food, drinks and ice. Additions (someday) to the kit will include large, deep serving dishes with lids that appetizers and unstackable food can be transported from the mothership to the dinghy to the beach in, without spilling or squashing, over wicked waves and breaking beach surf.
Gathering for birthday potluck and bonfire; clockwise from the left,
Janice (Ceilidh),
Bob (Nuestra Isla),
Ed (Easy III), Jo and Lance
(Milagro), at their dinghy Darryl and Rita
(Overheated), John (Nakia)
and Jennifer (Nuestra Isla).
Loading up on gifts ahead of time for impromptu parties was brilliant (if I do say so, myself....), but after a year of cruising, SolMate's gift locker is just about bare. For Jo, we managed to find a very nice micro-fiber bath towel, still in the original wrapping. Some other gifts that party-goers had on hand were DVDs, candy (M&Ms, Sees, Tootsie Pops, Junior Mints), and water toys.
Jo on her birthday, with partner, Lance.
Stan and MJ at the beach party with beach chairs
and insulated cooler bag; also
critical, insulated cups
with lids to keep the sand out and the ice in.
Water and air were cooling and the threat of hurricanes diminishing, so why, exactly, did we hang around the northern Sea so long? ...for the whale shark experience. SolMate and a couple of other boats lingered in BLA in hopes that the monsters would show their ugly, gape-mouthed faces. According to officianados, whale shark food (krill, small crustaceans) was plentiful down south up until the first week of October; therefore, the greedy guys didn't leave the La Paz area for their northern feeding grounds until late. While we waited for them to swim the 400 miles to BLA, we scoped out the village museum, enjoyed numerous forced marches into the mesquite-covered hills and held highly competetive dart tournaments at Ceilidh-ville.
