Viva Loreto!

We are leaving La Paz today for a charter on the M/V Ursa Major and will be in Loreto by the end of the week. The weather looks great for work!!


Our friends Heather and Shawn on the S/V Om Shanti, and authors of Sea of Cortez - A Cruiser's Guidebook, gave us a picture of our beloved S/V Estrella under sail. We passed them on our first cruise just outside La Paz and were cruising in 15 kts of wind with all sails flying. Thanks Heather and Shawn!

La Paz from an Ultralight Aeroplane

For Josh's Feliz Navidad present this year, I gave him a half-hour ultralight plane ride over La Paz. At the time, the ultralight plane was flying over La Paz on a daily basis giving rides to tourists. Then it vanished from the skies for four weeks. Nearly on the verge of finding a replacement gift, the plane reappeared on a nearby beach yesterday. Josh and I rushed over with his camera to find the pilot and his assistant working on the engine. The plane was back in business (and in working order) so we made an appointment for Josh to take a ride an hour later.


After verifying with her lawyer that she did have rights to survivorship over the boat should I not make it back, Emily took a parting photo and waved goodbye...



I did have a little trepidation at first. To any whom have taken a ride in a mexican taxi can attest maintenance is a activity best suited for tomorrow. The ultralight had seen many an enjoyable flight leading up to my adventure. Buoyed by that fact, and that a 85 year old man whom was the previous adventurer survived I set off.





I tapped the pilot on the shoulder very gently so as not to spook him, and indicated I would like to fly over Marina Palmira. He generously obliged with a steep turn to port that brought us over Estrella. The perspective 500 ft. above the water is breathtaking. It is easy to think of La Paz as a big city. From above however she looks like a somewhat sprawling small town. No big skyscrapers here, just a rugged desert punctuated with small ranches and a blanket of modest homes that is La Paz.


I have always felt that the best photos are the ones accompanied by a long story. This flight will be remembered in the future when people ask me how my foot came to be in this shot. Composition is essential to photography, this photo may never sell but will serve to remind me of a great adventure! Thanks Emily!

Bienvenidos S/V Estrella!!!

Yesterday, we held the official "denaming" and "renaming" ceremonies for our sailboat, now S/V Estrella. We decided Valentine's Day was a better day for such events than Friday the 13th.


It should be noted that Josh and I are each holding a bottle of champagne. The first bottle, from California, was utilized in the denaming of S/V Wind Spirit as she was a California vessel when we purchased her. The second bottle, from Mexico, was for the renaming to S/V Estrella as she is currently residing in Mexico with us. Each bottle was used in the "libation" portion of each ceremony.


The reason for two separate ceremonies (and two separate bottles of champagne) is due to paying respect not only to your sailboat, but the gods of wind and sea. Our friends Heather and Shawn from S/V Om Shanti gave us a copy of How to Rename Your Boat: And 19 Other Useful Ceremonies, Superstitions, Prayers, Rituals, and Curses by John Vigor for Christmas. The first chapter of this wonderful (and very entertaining) book details fully official "denaming" and "renaming" ceremonies. While most of the specifics of each ceremony is up to the owners of the vessel, certain rules must be followed.


For the three part denaming ceremony, first all articles with the previous name on them must be removed from the vessel. This includes paperwork, charts, and logbooks. I also sanded the old name off the stern. Second, a brief speech thanking the sailboat and the gods for good luck thus far is spoken from the bow of the vessel. Third, a libation of champagne is offered and sprayed over the bow. Josh handled the champagne while I gave the speech.


We allowed a two hour break between ceremonies to give our sailboat its necessary period of "namelessness" (per the book's instructions). Not wanting to tempt fate, we spent this time drinking tequila and cold saki with old and new friends (and dog Sophie) who came by to celebrate with us. The "renaming" ceremony was two parts long and consisted of a simple blessing with the new name and a libation with a bottle of champagne on the bow. Somehow, I think Josh and I ended up wearing more champagne than S/V Estrella!

Snorkeling in the Bay of La Paz with Tiburon Ballenas (or Whale Sharks)

Following our most recent charter on the M/V Ursa Major, Josh, myself, and our chef Natalie had the opportunity to snorkel with whale sharks, or Tiburon ballenas (Spanish), or Rhincodon typus, in the Bay of La Paz. Our adventure began with the rumor on the La Paz cruiser's radio net that these creatures had returned to feed nearby. They were last seen briefly in early 2008 within the Bay of La Paz and we hoped to find them before they moved on again.


Needless to say, we found five individuals just around the corner from the marina feeding along the current line. They were following each other back and forth along the current line and were not at all afraid of our presence, (or for that matter, the presence of our outboard motor).


The large mouth, as seen in the two previous photos, takes in a certain amount of seawater at or below the surface. Once full, the whale shark will strain the seawater through its gills in an effort to extract either phytoplankton, squid, or fish for food. This also serves to oxygenate the gills and allows the whale shark to breathe. Adults are known to have over 300 rows of teeth whiles juveniles typically possess at least 100 rows.


The length of whale sharks varies from two to three feet at birth to over seventy feet as adults. The average size is approximately forty feet and thirteen tons. They have two dorsal fins, (as seen in the above photo), and tend to swim in schools in near coastal waters.


Mostly harmless, (except in a few recorded instances of whale sharks ramming fishing boats in the Indian Ocean), whale sharks are typically found in tropical waters but are described as "uncommon" in the Sea of Cortez. And the females lay eggs the size of footballs.


For Natalie and I in the water snorkeling, it was hard to imagine something the size of these whale sharks emerging from an egg the size of a football. The whale sharks we saw ranged from eighteen feet to forty feet and were covered in some variety of large sucker fish. The clarity of the water was poor and we had to swim within two feet of the whale shark to see it. None of the whale sharks we encountered in the water were aggressive and allowed us to get closer than we ever thought possible.

All photos courtesy of Josh Haury.

Sources for whale shark background information:

Eschmeyer, W.N., E.S. Herald. and H. Hammann. 1983. Pacific Coast Fishes. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, New York. 336 p.

Gotshall, D.W. 1998. Sea of Cortez Marine Animals: A Guide to Common Fishes and Invertebrates Baja California to Panama. Sea Challengers, Monterey, California. 110 p.

Good Friends and Tacos de Pescado

The story of our third journey on the S/V Estrella began with picking up our good friends Sheila and Teal at the Cabo San Lucas airport. Having spent the winter thus far in Olympia, Washington, they were anxious to work on their tans, swim in water above 55F, and consume many beers and fish tacos. We made sure to find them a quiet beach for swimming in the Sea of Cortez approximately one hour after their plane touched down.


After two days of acclimating to the Mexican winter sunshine and exploring La Paz and it's drivable beaches, we headed to sea with Sheila and Teal on the S/V Estrella. Our three night trip began with a sail in light winds to Bahia San Gabriel on Isla Espiritu Sanctu. Sheila and Teal are both experienced hands at sailing and were soon right at home tending lines and sails.


We relaxed our first night at sea in Bahia San Gabriel as Sheila and Teal cooked homemade soft pretzels and hot buttered rum for dinner. Sheila went for a night swim around the boat and with the phosphorescence in the water and lack of moon, she looked like an aquatic angel of sorts.

The following morning we embarked on a four mile hike across Isla Espiritu Sanctu to Playa Bonanza. This was a new hike for everyone and we were looking forward to the adventure of making our own trail across the island. Part of an established trail existed but the pieces we found were not interconnected in any fashion.


As we headed across the island, the S/V Estrella grew further and further away amongst the cacti.


Facing away from Bahia San Gabriel, one would think we were heading into the Arizona desert as Playa Bonanza was not visible for another three miles into the hike.


We found many living cacti intertwined with dead cactus wood.


The terrain elevated slightly during the hike and the flora changed toward underbrush and agave-dominate. The seed pods in the photo above are from an agave plant with a ten foot tall seed stalk. The plant put out the stalk and seed pods before dying.


We reached Playa Bonanza at last after a mild hike through the underbrush and cacti of Isla Espiritu Sanctu. The most rewarding aspect was the swim at the end at Playa Bonanza!

After our hike and swim, we turned around and headed back to Bahia San Gabriel for lunch and beers on S/V Estrella. We pulled up the anchor after lunch and headed north along Islas Espiritu Sanctu and Partida. There was no wind to speak of and we motored up to our next anchorage, Ensenada Grande. The anchorage was virtually empty except for a few sailboats and we spent the remainder of the day relaxing and playing endless cribbage.

From Ensenada Grande, we were perfectly staged to visit the California sea lion colony at Los Islotes. This rookery is an old stomping ground for Josh and I but for Sheila and Teal, it was a brand new experience. The wind was blowing hard from the south (strange for winter in the Sea of Cortez) so we dropped Sheila and Teal on the north side of the island for their snorkel with the sea lions. They were two of many snorkelers in the water but enjoyed their time with the sea lions and the abundant fish and coral on the north side of Los Islotes.

We next sailed down the east side of the islands to our last anchorage, Playa Bonanza. The wind switched around briefly to allow us to put up all our sails. The marine life was spectacular from the sailboat as bottlenose dolphins followed us for almost two hours. We also saw manta rays jumping and a green sea turtle just outside Playa Bonanza. Sheila caught a Pacific bonita on our brand new fishing rod just before we dropped the anchor.


We were concerned that her fish wouldn't be enough to feed the four of us sufficiently. So following an afternoon at snorkeling at Playa Bonanza, we cooked up her fish in conjunction with a giant bowl of garlic mashed potatoes. The fish was surprisingly tasty and each of us were able to enjoy a minor fillet with our potato dinner.

Note: Sheila is approximately six feet in height so the fish is larger than in appears.

The wind kicked at sunset from the north so our sail in the following day was a downwind leg in modest swells. We made marvelous time as we headed back into La Paz and didn't turn the motor on until we were physically inside the marina. We had good reason to celebrate our fabulous trip with a delicious lunch of tacos de pescado, buckets of beer, and mariachi music.

What a way to end our third trip!