TimeLine
for Mazatlan. We head north about 20 miles to the island of Espiritu
Santos, and the bay of Caleta Partida. Originally one island, Espiritu Santos
was divided when the volcano erupted and Isla Partida was created. Caleta
Partida is the bay between the two islands, with just a tiny passage way
between (safe only for dinghies, pangas or Corgis). We had a late
departure from La Paz, but had wonderful wind all afternoon. We pulled
into the anchorage under a rising full moon and were immediately taken by
the serenity of the bay.
beach in the dinghy. The peacefulness is remarkable and all three
wander the beach checking out all, including the dead puffer fish
bodies that have floated onto the beach. The water is spectacular
and the shallows provide for fish viewing going to and from the
beach. We end up spending almost a week here with our only
challenge being figuring out what day it is (let's see can we count
backwards how many nights since La Paz?, who knows what the date
is?),, and what should we have for dinner. By the way, one of our
more enjoyable projects completed in La Paz was the recharging of
the engine driven fridge system! We still have ice in the freezer
after 5 days for our evening beverages !!
The vertical cliffs are rampant with caves, we know critters
must be watching us, but we never see them! Maureen spots the
end of a long snake, one she assumes is of the racer family (later
confirmed as a Cape Whip snake by big brother Brian, the
herpetologist. David, the boy friend, attempted to identify it as "a
snake"). The colors of the cliffs are spectacular, and the remnant
cone of a volcano rises above the immediate hilltops. Duke loves
his romps on the beaches and in the rocks looking for crabs (best
of all, NO LEASH)
The sign at the bottom suggested that there was
a trail. HMMM, if so we never found it. After
1/2 hour of boulder hopping Maureen and Duke
bailed on the adventure. The hardier Dodds
family continued onward and upward thru the
canyon to the top of the island. As they climbed
they were able to get picturesque shots of our
anchorage, wonderful shots of flora, evidence
of fauna, and at last -the view to the east,
looking down the cliffs on the east side of the
island. They spend a fair amount of time
crawling in caves, hopefully the young-uns will
include some detail of their adventure on their
web pages.
getting to the beach quite the ordeal. After rowing thru 6" deep water
for 100 yards, Maureen gets out to walk. Duke remains in the dinghy until
we contemplate time/tide situation and decide not to get the dinghy too
close to shore in case we have to carry it back to water later. We choose
our location & drop the dinghy anchor on the sand and proceed to walk thru
the 4" deep water towards the beach. Duke dislikes this part of the
adventure as occasionally he hits a deeper spot and gets disgruntled when
he has to swim. However he still has plenty of attitude and watches
carefully for the signal that a game of "rahr" is about to begin (this is
where the human grabs at Duke and says "rahr" while Duke plays keep
away and gets very excited). Happily for Duke, a little later on (and
unhappily for us) he finds the garbage dump for the few huts on the beach
and has a great roll. We then try to force him to have a little swim to try
to improve his aroma. Meanwhile, the kids spend hours digging for what
we think are clams (little antenna sticking up out of the sand). Even the
pelicans and gulls come to watch in case they actually catch something
edible. They pull out lots of antenna, but no clams. Finally David
successfully digs up a long worm like thing in one piece...oh well clams must
live in those other holes we see every where ...
destruction left in the
wake of clam digging
from Tenacious.
base. A bedsheet was sacrificed for the
mainsail on the kayak -surprisingly, they never
managed to sail upwind very effectively.
Partida. Well ....... but then we decide to go snorkeling out on the reef outside of Caleta
Partida. Well ... then some of our friends from the Ha-Ha, Aquarius, show up for a couple of
days. We enjoy a nice dinner together and after they depart for northern islands we finally
head out. We attempt making ourselves some fresh water as we head off to our next
anchorage. Justin decides to kayak himself to our new location while we sail. He copies the
chart of the bays and makes sure he knows which one we're headed towards. Of course he
carries his 1st aid kit, food, safety gear and everything else. Great wind lets us sail west on
a beam reach while David fires up the genset and then gets the watermaker going. About 20
minutes into the operation the genset simply shuts itself off. Checking fluids, fuel filter etc..
provides no immediate answers. A second check of the thruhull for the genset
reveals-0ooops-it was in the closed position. We try restarting genset w/thru hull in open
position, but again it soon dies. Darn ... what have we wrecked now? We head into the
anchorage in increasing winds and utilize our newly finished anchor sail! Another beautiful
anchorage, although much smaller and winds barrel down the canyon and hit us at 17-20 knots
all afternoon. For some reason that we can't understand, our anchor always holds (and it
can't be because we know how to anchor).
We carry out a more thorough inspection of the genset and find the impeller in the raw
water pump has suffered some damage. An inspection of our spares finds a new impeller
for the genset just waiting to be installed. The boat's chief engineer replaces the impeller,
drains and cleans the fuel system, installs an auxiliary fuel pump, offers a splash of Corona
to Neptune and somehow - the crew of Tenacious gets lucky. Nothing is broken, Genset
works again as does the watermaker.
kayaker, heads for
Ensenada Grande
from Caleta Partida.
OK, can you find the bat, the
breasts, the belly, and the butt?
from his dislike of the
dinghy, prepares to
launch onto the beach.