From the good ship "Shine" on it's way to southern parts:
The start of 2009 saw us( four Crew) leaving La Paz Mexico( Sea of Cortez) and sailing 800 miles back up to San Diego,our favorite city in America.
We had attempted to have work done in Mexico but that turned out to be a big mistakeO
We were booked into the Knight and Carver shipyard to have more remedial work done as the Builders"Aleutian Yachts" of Tacoma WA had made a pretty poor job of some parts of the build.
We had been in this yard previously with the owners last boat "Dardanella" and were generally pleased with the quality of their work. The yard gave us a great project manager Cliff Mayo who was a pleasure to work with and together we solved quite a few tricky issues.
The work went just about to plan with a few extras projects added as time went on, three months in all was spent there and we finally sailed south the end of April around 6 tonnes heavier!.
If you have never been to San Diego we all recommend it, built around one of the finest natural harbours in the world it has something to suit everyone, safe, if expensive marina's, we pay around $400 per night+ electricity, although when you see there are five people minimum aboard it's not so outrageous,,.
The world famous zoo is great and set next to Balboa Park it makes a great place to go week after week. so T and I did..Night life in the renovated "gaslamp" district has all the food and entertainment you could wish for, SDs also a great base for visiting Las Vegas, Grand Canyon,Yosemite etc..great ski resorts within a couple of hours.Whale watching is a big attraction to visitors also.
We met up with a nice couple (Jim and Stacy) who showed us around and flew us over the coast in their Cesna, Typical of most of the Americans we've met in our 14 years there,, they just want to do things for you...it's very hard to return the favours sometimes plus they left on a one month tour of Spain..
Another couple of friends Cam and Jen from "Strangelove" a 48 meter Feadship, also helped make our stay pretty good all round
San Diego enjoys beautiful weather year round with an average daily temperature of around 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 C). A feature of the climate is the wide variation in temperature within short distances due to the topography of the land. You can enjoy coastal, mountain and desert environments all in the space of one day.
Still time marched on and we (Five crew now) had to head of to Acapulco(the land of the great unwashed) to pick up the owner.
Theresa and Helen(Stewardess) had stocked the boat for a three month south Pacific cruise, ( changed at the last minute due to changed circumstances) 7000 gallons of fuel aboard at the great price of $2 a gallon in the states, we left with a good weather forecast and had winds from aft most of the trip, swells are constant in the Pacific and you just get used to them, Shine rides them very well and the trip South was great ,lovely sunsets,lots of dolphins and some whales , the sea full of phosphorescence at night.You get complacent about the Pacific sunsets!!
I use a program called "UGRIB" for our weather and so far have found it very useful, we can download a worldwide marine forecast in just a few seconds over our Satellite phone system then place it over our chart system. tech savvy or what?
We did stop and anchor one night out of the five and that was in one of our favorite bays in Mexico " Bahia Magdalen" just near the southern tip of Baha California. 30 knots of wind was forecast for that night so we though why not.., We do around 250 miles a day at our steady pace of 10 knots, fuel consumption is 25 gallons an hour as we have a generator running 24/7
We then sailed straight to Puerta Vallarta and spent a few days in a new marina " La Cruz" very nice spot with high end services.. nice restaurant with a great roof terrace for the cocktails, outside the marina was another thing... armed guards and poor people...Mexico is just that way it seems nowadays due to drugs/crime etc. and the government seems to be struggling to cope.. No sign of the dreaded flying pig flu here though.
Summer is the rainy season in these parts Click here for a Weather overview. The center of Puerto Vallarta is unique in having maintained its small village atmosphere without succumbing, too much, to the pressures of tourism. The roads here are cobblestone, not dirt.
Normally we would have stopped off in Cabo San Lucas, but even with the financial situation as it is, the marina insist on trying to get $600 a night from you, so we said stuff ya..The town had been remarkably dead when we were there at Christmas 08..High Season!!After having a small repair done here we set off South again, water temp now 27 degrees. 200 miles or so is Bahia Navidad (19degrees.12m N..x 104..42 West) and what a lovely stop this is..MY favorite in Mexico..The Bahia Grande Hotel is superb and if ever you would like to try a Mexican resort type holiday look it up. 350 a night for a family of four "off season" April / may would be great.. still not too hot. luxury, great pool with three floating bars for the odd Margarita, great service, tennis(with tennis pro) Mexico's best Golf course etc etc. We spent some time here on the last RTW trip and for me the place has improved with age.. unlike me.
A number of Canadians Brits and Americans, (the managers were Brits on our last visit),reside here and some even operate small businesses. The only exception to the small town atmosphere is the gran turismo class hotel, the Grand Bay, from time to time its 158 rooms are rented out for large gatherings like Microsoft, Transportation between the Grand Bay and Barra de Navidad is by water taxi.
We had a great meal by the water $60 for five with magaritas, and a full moon for entertainment
http://www.tomzap.com/barra.html
So after our little taste of luxury( two days) we set off again for Acapulco arriving at ..11pm and the lights of the city are like jewels in a black and blue sky, the cliff diving was just finishing and still lit up, we anchored outside the main harbor that night and watched the squid being attracted to our underwater lights.
Into Acapulco at 9am no marina space so we anchored and had a small air con repair done, then we found a space stern to a wall with electricity and water. Acapulco is not my kind of place I must say and out of season(Summer) it seemed at it's worst.. hot as hell , too much traffic and grimy . still we picked up the owner, had a couple of walks along the paseo with a pleasant meal at a beachfront restaurant.. then it was time to leave. We had seen the cliff diving on a previous visit so gave that a miss, if your planning a visit don't miss it..
Heading South in very calm weather again we had to get a move on as we are now in Hurricane season in these parts, You have to be South of here by a few hundred miles by June. We found a nice little bay for a swim the next day then went into Chahue marina.. small but nice place, met up again with two boats we had seen in Alaska the previous year, one is a 90 foot Dutch barge that they had shipped over on the "Dock Express" The other a boat similar to Shine and they were heading to Chile etc...
This is a great part of Mexico and so different.. original and not yet spoiled by tourism, We toured the area with a guide, swam in waterfalls up a mountain, visited an old German coffee plantation etc and generally ended our trip through Mexico on a very nice note..The Huatulco area would get a good recommendation from us as a family beach type vacation spot the beaches are superb with the pacific swell.
http://www.geographia.com/mexico/huatulco/index.htm
So we booked out of Mexico ( the formalities are typical third world) but polite and cheap.
I decided to go direct to El Salvador(. two days). (no real good reports on Guatemala.)
We arrived of the bay of Jiquilisco(13degrees 07 minutes N--088 . 25 West)if your Google Earthing! The Club have a place marked on the chart where a pilot meets us to guide us behind the ever moving sand bars, big breakers all around even though we are in a benign part of the season for wind and seas..The Barillas Yacht club is 9 miles up a crocodile infested river, as we enter the lagoon each side has colourful wooden shacks built on stilts, lots of people on the beaches fishing etc.. but looks very poor.
We sail up the river with mangroves lining the whole way, lots of tropical looking birds, and we see some raccoons in the mangrove roots, after an hour or so we tie to buoys at the club and we are met by Heriberto the manager and the immigration/police /customs etc. We are all asked to give a report on our health.. we are tempted to say we feel ill but don't!! the flue thing seems to have got to them ...we saw no signs of anyone with it over the next week or so but loudspeakers blasted music from vans selling cures!!
The club here is nice and very well kept, the private owner has his own very nice air strip where guests and members fly into.. heli port also.
A nice pool(too hot) small restaurant bar, lovely grounds, all well kept and lots of security! big gates open onto the real world of central America.........
Then the manager welcomed us to the club with a complimentary pina colada in the bar, the staff all speak only Spanish so I get to practice at last... moy mal!
The next morning we arrange a trip to town via mini bus and as we leave the confines of the club..through the armed guards at the gates, you immediately see a big difference, poor people living at subsidence level, their animals grazing in the sugar cane fields adobe houses set among coconut trees and a general air of poverty.
The town"Usulutan" was 12 miles away and we parked up outside "Walmarts"!! some difference to the ones in the States!! and hot as hell!! we headed off to the market which was "interesting" very big.. very dirty and humming with people, shoulder to shoulder. hustling, heads with all sorts of goods on trays, bustling but not muscling through the crowds.. trays of live crabs, prawns, and raw meat.and stuff you just don't want to see never mind put in your mouth... the stallholders wafting leaves to keep the flies at bay. every item you could imagine was on sale and all the people looked friendly with smiles a mile wide at us crazy white visitors.. I have to say this is about the most impoverished area I've seen so far.
An El Salvadorian laborer has to work around a day for a liter of milk. 10 minutes in the states..
After an hour or so at staring at little puppies in cages, parrots, PINK/GREEN/YELLOW?RED and WHITE chicks..and all the food and trinkets., we decided the heat was just too much and the chicks were an illusion!( see photo's.. no illusion!) and headed for "WENDY'S", We never use Wendy's plastic food in America but it looked like air conditioned paradise here! the place was full of well dressed schoolkids! with mobile phones!
unbelievable....We sat here for two hours in the air conditioning while we waited for the transport to take us back. If you don't like the heat stay out o the kitchen... Summer is hot
Dinner at the club that night was fine, practicing our Spanish went down like a lead Balloon.. just asking for garlic bread was quite a feat! they just don't understand Yorkshire Spanglish.
It gets dark early in these Latitudes and by 7pm its as black as an "African American" MJ excluded. If only the pool"HOT SPA"! would cool down it would have been great to swim.
later as we enjoyed our Pina Colada's etc. Heriberto came over and we arranged a tour to the volcano the following day, at least 6 surround the area and at least two are active( a major earthquake happened at two the next morning!) 30 or so dead in Honduras and a main highway bridge collapsed.
08 30 and we join the minibus, an hour or so later we are climbing the volcano and the driver turns off the air con to conserve power! we arrived at the crater and walked the lagoon, the water level was low due to it being early in the rainy season and we walked the edge looking into bubbling mud pools.
They have built a school inside the crater! the kids looked a little yellow..why don't they do this in other volcano's?
It was at least cool.. and a bar may have been better than a school!!
We then headed off to a small village called Alegria, pretty little place but we noticed it had no sewers, then a guy got out of a car and went into the chemist shop. he had an armed guard who got out of the car covering him, the shop had a full cage in front of the counter....?
Lunchtime and we head to restaurant Cartegena, what a place.. looking out over the valley's of the other volcano's and a garden full of fantastic tropical flowers, raccoons going bonkers in tiny cages, amazonian Parrots, dozens of fighting cocks, again in tiny cages, geese, turkeys, rabbits, pheasants all just for the tourists to Lear at! but a beautiful spot, cool and a great terrace where we had a decent lunch and a local "golden" beer or two.
The electricity for the area is produced from the gas's turned into steam, that run in tube like tunnels between the volcano's
Then it was back into the torture wagon ( shock absorbers are expensive here) back on board at around three..and an afternoon ziz in the cool..
While we stay here I am trying to get the two new motor bikes registered, we have the papers coming down (OVERNIGHT) at big expense.from the exited states... they now tell us they will possibly arrive next week!! Just added:Monday, four days later and we may get them overnight tonight! bloody DH HELL
Went on a boat tour in the tender yesterday took our masks etc, problem was most of the waters here are cloudy from the big river system, we had a wild ocean beach walk instead.. lots of wild plastic cartons etc.. The plastic really shows it's ugly head around here.. No rich councils like Calvia in Mallorca to pick up the crap! The plastic rubbish ashore is also some of the worst we have seen. The (adopt a highway) in the States works well in clearing all the plastic also
TODAY..30th May : Got sunburn yesterday at the bitch( reflection from the coke bottles?) so decided to miss out on the Mayan ruins trip hence writing this lot..
Actually really enjoying the peace and quiet, ,nice coffee "cortado" on the go and not a lot of boat work outstanding so all in all a happy little bunny today..., I'll take a break now(12 noon) and add the crews reports on the ruins later.
A while later: some stuff about life aboard the old tramp steamer.
We now have a network system set up on board, Thanks to Robin our engineer, to all cabins, we have a couple of trigabite (is there such a beast?) hard drives with around 500 hours of British TV to watch , from four feather falls in the 50's, to; only fools and horses etc., and the Grand prix every two weeks! then films on DVD and over 20.000 songs...thanks to lime wire etc etc..
We get these TV files from a program called "the box.bz" then download them via "utorrent.com" pretty cool eh? we do need a fast connection though.
For the last week or so we have been watching the last five years of Panorama... Ye gads the worlds in a state eh? But at least the Brits are leading the F1 instead of the ice dancing!
We have 36"flat screen tvs in most cabins, 10 computers,(What the hell did we do before?) lots of gadgets including all the latest "Ipod" stuff and enough cameras to put NAT Geo to shame..simple cruising is the way to go..
For outside entertainment we have two tenders, one 17 foot with a 115 hp outboard and another,12 foot with a 30 hp, then a double sea Kayak and a single, and two 200 Yamaha four stroke trail bikes. dive equipment is a "Hooker" system that pumps air for three divers down to 100 feet. a brace or two of Knee boards ,surf board and breadboards.
plenty of fishing gear and the fishing is GOOD.. Marlin, Dorado,Tuna, etc etc..and we still have prawns ,Salmon,Halibut and "Tracy Arm "Glacier ice in the freezer.. from Alaska...
So the Gang arrived back from the Mayan tour and they were pleased with what they saw, apparently San Salvador is a thriving place and the excavation were vast though held back with lack of funds, They had a knowledgeable guide and we will ask her if she would like to help us in Nicaragua next week.
.. A 7-8 foot croc just swam by the boat.. so no swimming tonight..
Thats all for now ,But here is a link to an interesting site, I've just finished reading chapter 12 and you may want to check it out.
http://www.conspiracyoftherich.com/
Here is the link to some photos around El Salvador
http://picasaweb.google.com/
Banana Bay Marina , Costa Rica July 2009.
The text colour represents the current climate!
Well since the last blog entry we have been in Nicaragua ..yeaks.. land of the san janistra rebels and all that... whats a boy from Yorkshire hanging in places like this?
Actually: we approached the entry to the Marina "Puesta Del Sol with a pretty open mind, as from what I'd read up on the country was slowly clawing its way back into the friendly places to visit zone.
Nicaragua takes it's name from a chief of a tribe living around "lake Nicaragua" our first impressions were good and the Marina superb.
This Marina was built by a Nicaraguan who had lived most his life in the US, on his return after sailing his 46 foot boat down here, he built this very elegant marina..
Once we were tied up to a berth the harbour master called the customs/immigration etc and they arrive a couple of hours later, after traveling 6 miles from their office in a commercial port to the South, they arrived ,mostly in camouflage so it was difficult to see them at first but the lady from customs would catch anyones attention! She just seemed interested in seeing the boat and drinking our stores...
++ a link to our house for sale in British Columbia
www.siliconink.com/feature.phtml?id=46420
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Ian Foster
El Salvador
Spain +34-971697131
skype :ianhfoster
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