Vagari's Cruise

Beautiful San Carlos

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One click will enlarge any photo

Where We Eat

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Sunday brunch is at a hotel about a 1 1/2 mile beach walk away

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Restaurant in lobby

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Best food by far is served in Vagari’s cockpit

Lots to do before we are ready for the Sea

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Rebuilding the head pump and installing a new faucet

In Our Slip At Last

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Lots of Work Done Before We Launch Vagari

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In our slip at last

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Miguel Mendoza yard supt. and our best helper in Mexico

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Almost Done

Our painter and rudder rebuilder Arturo & his brother

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We Started Our Cruise With A Road Trip To Alamos, MX

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Wednesday March 9 was departure date from our home in SaddleBrooke. We are having work done in the marina yard so we didn’t expect her to be ready to launch. We are having the rudder rebuilt, new bottom paint, a little fiberglass work and the gray/blue strip along the sides repainted plus the normal spit and polish work to the topsides, deck and stainless steel. We have already replaced the masthead navigation and anchor light lenses and the lamps with LED’s as well as replacing the cabin lights with LED’s. The LED’s draw a little more than 10% of what they replace. This makes a huge difference in the load on the batteries when anchored. And we now turn on enough cabin lights so we can read at night without wearing “headlights”.

Sure enough the work was not completed so we spent a day or so checking out the progress and making sure everything was being done to our liking. We then took a “vacation from our vacation” and went to Alamos, Mexico, a 3 or 4-hour drive further south.

The Spanish Conquistadors first went to what is now Alamos in 1545. In 1683 extremely rich silver ore was discovered. A town that peaked out at about 30,000 inhabitants was built to support the mines. The mines lasted until the very early 1900’s. Some of the homes built by the rich mine owners survive even after two major revolutions and are lived in today. Rhea and I toured three of these home this year and three two years ago. All except one was a very old “originals” that had been restored.

The photos that follow don’t do justice to the beauty of Alamos. There is an American community of over 300 but only about 50 “summer” in Alamos. One told us that if she died in the summer and went to hell at least the temperature wouldn’t change.

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The restaurant in this courtyard served a great lunch

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The open door and gate to the courtyard says "we are home please come in" – no we didn’t.

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The church is striking from any angle day or night

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The town square gazebo has a most interesting ceiling

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This Display in the town square is made from plastic toy guns, knives soldiers etc.

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The Colors Of Mexico

Remember one click will enlarge any photo

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Elementary Schools

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Local hospital and fire station

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The inside of the church is beautiful also but a close look shows its age

EATING OUT

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Many of our friends are surprised that we don’t have more ill effects from eating out. You might be interested to see some of the restaurants we patronize. We just ask other cruisers or local North Americans for suggestions. This one is a very trendy yuppie place in Alamos. We had a great lunch with sailors we last had lunch with four years ago just north of Puerto Valarta. For the two of us a delicious lunch was just under $10US plus tip.

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One night we had dinner at a very expensive hotel in the center of town. Our table was about 100 yards from the street courtyard entrance. The walk to the table was through beautiful gardens. The rooms in season cost from $255 to $950US per night. I’m sure they are really nice but ours was $62 had a view of the square and great shower. Dinner for two was just over $30US plus trip.

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Our Table

The Oldest House On The Tour

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The original floor is probably 200 plus years old

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Atrium/Sun room with water feature. The owners said this room was what sold them on the house

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Lots of neat detail everywhere you look

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THE NEW HOUSE WE TOURED

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With only a 50-foot frontage nobody thought the single lady who built this home could have a courtyard type home. The home across the street has over 150-foot frontage. You judge how she did.

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The dinning room chairs and table support are made from rebar

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The kumquat tree grows thru the porch roof

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Only a 50' Frontage The House Accross The Street Is Over 3 Times That

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House On The Tour That's For Sale

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This the courtyard view from the entryway
She is for sale in the $400,000USD to $500,000USD range we were told. Including the courtyard its about 8,000 sq. feet. Alamos has a private airport so you could fly down today and own it tomorrow.

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Original Roof Beams
The width of every room and porch in this area and era was set by the length of a beam that could be obtained from a certain tree that is very resistant to termites. Not many original beams are left because they must be kept dry to be termite resistant. After the mines stopped producing and the revolution in 1910 most of the homes were abandoned, the roofs leaked and the beams rotted. It was not until the early 1940's that Americans started to restore these homes. The trees are now protected and cannot be cut down. Treated wood, concrete beams or steel is now used to replace the original beams.

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The owner of the home is arranging the sunflowers

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Sleeping Dog

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Beautiful Mexico (3)

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Home Under Construction (4)

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The basement of this hillside home is large enough for three good size RV’s plus a few small rooms carved into the stone hillside that could be used to store Mom’s canned goods.

Unnamed Canyon At “The End Of The Road”

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Part Of The Ruins From Filming “Catch 22”

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San Dunes At The Head of Algodones Bay

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Elementary School

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In a rural fishing village. Richard gave them a bag of crayons, paper and other supplies.

Turkey Vulture Drying Its Wings At Sunrise

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Very Old Organ Pipe Cactus

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San Carlos From A Beach East Of Town

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Pond Next To Marina Entrance Gate

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The night shift at the gate carves these out of styrofoam then paints them.

Sign At The Entrance To A Nature Preserve

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Clear Water, Sandy Beach And Cactus Meet

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My Sailing/Hiking Buddy Richard

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Plants Find A Way To Thrive Even In The Most Difficult Places

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San Carlos Bay from the North

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We went into the large city of Guaymas for lunch at a hotel that was built in 1935 and still operates today. Rhea and I have just finished a book written by an anthropologist who lived in Guaymas in 1970 with the poor and this hotel was a part of the book. The book is a novel but with an anthropology twist (The Guaymas Chronicles by David E. Stuart). It’s a good read.

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Hallway

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That is larges ficus tree I have ever seen.

If you look closely you can find me under the tree.

Courtyard Which Looks Out On The Sea

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Dinning Room

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Our morning walk on Monday took up the west side of Tetas de Cabra. It was a short but steep hike. We left at 7 AM and got back at 11:30 AM.

The Only Way To The Top Is Thru This Opening

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San Carlos

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Looking Down The Coast

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Do You See The Cross On The Left Side

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I photographed that cross when we climbed the other side of this mountain.

See My Red Truck?

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Looking Up The Coast

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The most distant point (looks like a big rock) is the north side of San Pedro Bay.

A Tree That’s Led A Hard Life & White Flower

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Semana Santa Beaches The Morning After The Holiday

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Our Marina Opens Into Algodones (Cotton Ball) Bay

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That’s San Pedro Island beyond the bay.

Where wooden boats go to die

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Semana Santa Holiday (Holy Week) beaches (2)

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Local Ranchers well and pump

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Say what you will, it’s worked for years because it’s not new.

Tetas de Cabra From 5 or 10 Miles Out

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Look closely and you can see our buddy boat La Brisa.

Our Buddy Boat Stowing Their Staysail

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Part of San Pedro Bay

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Autopilots Are Great

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Wing and Wing Sail Configuration

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On the way to San Pedro Bay. The dark curved line on the big sail is a batten which helps the sail keep its shape but is up against one of the wires that supports the mast therefore the curve. Note the three dark areas next to the mast on the big sail. These are places (reef points) where can pull the sail down when it’s too windy. This sail has three reef points. The same type of dark areas on the outside of the sail are where the back of the sail is reefed down. The third area is above the two you can see. We used two reefs on our attempted crossing.

Hike To The End Of The Road

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My hiking friend picked a lot of latitude and longitude waypoints from Google Earth to get us to the end of the road. They were dead on so we ended up as far north on the coast as this road went. Very Cool For Sailors.

We Climbed Down This Cliff

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Rain Water Means Flowers In The Desert

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Clear Water

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Looking Towards Our Marina

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Turkey Vultures Looking At Us

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Beautiful View

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Santa Rosalia—Not

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All the weather forecasters predicted an easy crossing on Thursday April 1st with light and variable wind until noon; then 5 to 15 kts from the southeast possibly building to 19 in the late afternoon.
So we left from San Pedro Bay at 1 AM with no wind and calm seas and an almost full moon shinning thru thin high clouds. About 15 miles into the trip the wind came from the northwest quickly increasing to 26 kts. Vagari was handling it well with one reef in the mainsail and no headsail but the crew was just hanging on. After a conference with Rhea and our buddy boat we decided to turn around and head for the marina. We would reach the marina at 10 AM vs. 4 PM for arriving in Santa Rosalia. We do this for pleasure and sailing wasn’t fun in those conditions. Our buddy boat had a minor equipment breakdown, which could be fixed in those conditions but would be an easy fix in port.

We were sailing almost into the wind going out but coming back the wind was nearly behind us. With large waves also behind us we had an exhilarating up and down ride. When daylight came we could see the waves approaching from behind. We had to look up to see their tops but before they got to us the stern would rise and we would slide downhill on the wave. When an unusually large one came toward us I ask Rhea to look at it. Se informed me that she was not looking behind us, period.

We arrived at 10 AM to find a sailboat aground in the entrance channel. They went aground at 3 AM but were pulled off on the rising tide shortly after we arrived. It was a nice day in San Carlos. I’m not sure everybody believed it was really blowing out in the center of the Sea.

This week is a very big Mexican holiday, “Semana Santa” or Holy Week. The beach towns fill up with kids and families camping on the beaches Thursday to Sunday when they all go home. The main street becomes impassable in the afternoon and evenings. I took photos of the local beach and will post it soon.

At Anchor

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We left Marina Real in San Carlos after lunch Tuesday. The plan was to sail to a bay 11 miles up the coast and cross to Santa Rosalia on the Baja side of the sea Wednesday. The sail up was a gentle slow sail barely doing two knots per hour at times. The PM weather forecast changed our plans. It called for wind up to 35 mph in the center of the crossing. We are buddy boating with La Brisa. Both of us decided to wait a day to cross. In the night the wind and waves increased. We had a rock and roll night and most of the next day. Its almost five PM now and a little calmer. After the weather at six we will take another look at crossing.

More later,
Stan

Posted via ham radio from San Pedro Bay

Morning Fitness Walks

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I have been taking two hour or longer hikes with my friend Richard Taylor every morning. Lately we have been driving “to the end of the road” north of our marina then hiking. But every day we find another road. Richard has now checked out the roads on Google Earth. So tomorrow we are going to really find the “end of the road”.

We Drove Near This Canyon

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The palm trees at the head of the canyon indicate year around water. This is an attractive hacienda off to the right.

View Of The Bay North Of Manga

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Summer Homes In The Cove North Of Manga

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There must be 50 of these places along this cove; all vacant. I assume they are used in the summer, which is very hot and humid, especially in the nearby large city of Guaymas.

The Manga Kindergarten

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Fishermen from Manga

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I was told that there are no squid this winter so the fishermen had a bad year.

Hector

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The sign says something like:

Hector
God Bless You
You Now Live In The Presence Of God
Your Family

I assume Hector was a local fisherman who was lost at sea.

"Scottish Mist" Nears The Marina

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After A Night Crossing From The Baja. She is a Westsail 42. The Same couple has owned her for 25 years

Yet Another Marina Home

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Small Plant Big Flower

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Cliff On Punta San Antonio

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