Our last two days at Santa Rosalia were spent doing last minute provisioning for perishables and writing and posting our blog in English and German. The text is written by one of us in our mother tongue, after which, Google Translate is used to translate to the other's language. This lightens the load for the person relaying the story in the second language. It's a very useful tool, but the results are often hilarious because the programme translates literally and doesn't perceive context or colloquialisms. For example, 'unseen' is translated as 'invisible'. Therefore, there is often quite a lot of work required to 'polish up' the post for it to make sense. There, I imagine Google Translate will have Renate out-back somewhere with a can of Turtle Wax and rag trying to improve the appearance of a fence post!
While returning to the ship with our purchases we chanced upon a shop selling clothing, foot wear and hats. All the goods were of excellent quality, at very reasonable prices, so I bought myself a pair of hand made Mexican boots for NZ$32 and a nicely ventilated Mexican hat for about NZ$10. I intend buy myself a new belt before we leave Mexico as the constant perspiration has made mine as stiff as piece of old harness.
My new boots and hat.
In the last blog we wrote about our work on the sails
(Hong Kong Parrels, Throat Hauling Parrel and split sheeting). The
combination of these three things has brought about improvement in
the set of the sails. Most of the unwanted creases in the sails are
gone and we are pretty happy with them.
Better sail shape when sailing to windward
Photos by Hazel
In the above photo the crease seen in the main sail's
upper white panel is due to me not pulling on the throat hauling
parrel sufficiently. I can say now that If I had read all of Arne
Knarveland's published files from the outset it would have saved me
much angst.
From Santa Rosalia to the north of the Sea of
Cortez, the anchorages are further apart, sometimes making an over
night passage necessary in order to avoid anchoring in the dark
amongst unseen or imagined hazards. With the exception of the Bahia
de Los Angeles, the anchoring options are no longer as numerous as
previously experienced. This means that the yachts tend to congregate
in small groups, arriving at, and leaving, anchorages within a day or
two of each other. The usual socialising, technical assistance, book
and film swapping takes place at such gatherings. Routinely,
activities are boat jobs, snorkeling, fishing and hiking. At noon,
when it is very hot and the sun is high in the sky, we get into the
water. We noticed that there is very little coral here compared to
the South Pacific, we are probably a bit spoiled, but there are
plenty of fish to observe and hunt. Some of our companions are adept
at spearing fishing.
In San Francisquito a group went out spear fishing with their dinghies and came back with a rich booty. There was enough fish for the whole fleet and so we met in that evening on the small beach where we grilled the fish and ate them with pot luck side dishes brought by each crew. The evening became really fun when we sat by the fire and played charades. How would you mime “The Spy Who Shagged Me”?
Grilled fish with cactus leaves. Actually 'Nopales' , a Mexican delicacy.
Because of the heat, hiking has to be done very early in the morning. The peninsula of Baja California is a stony mountainous desert. There is usually loose rubble underfoot that often makes one's footing doubtful on steep slopes. It is also home to rattlesnakes and very prickly cacti. That's why we're glad that we took our good, heavy hiking boots with us on our trip. We haven't seen a snake yet, but we have already removed countless spikes from the soles of our boots. The tracks, for want of a better word, are intermittently marked with stone cairns that are difficult to spot among all the other stones. We seem to always find our way and are rewarded with wonderful views from great height.
Taiko and Susimi at anchor in Animas Slot
A rare tramp on flat terrain with Hazel and Paul from Susimi
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