The Palapa of Knowledge

We are in Santa Rosalia at the Marina for a while. We are having some issues with the batteries and are getting replacements from the states. We are enjoying the town and the company of the other cruisers.  The marina is very informal and is pretty much run by the cruisers, the beer, ice, laundry etc.. is all done on the honor system. Each boat has a sheet on which to mark down the services you use, and then you settle up before you leave. The building tends to be the afternoon hangout, where everyone sits around and drinks a beer. The opinions and advice apparently prompted someone to christen it “The Palapa of Knowledge”.

I will add more details about Santa Rosalia later. As it is a interesting town.

4th of July, Mexico style

Masquerade is now in Conception Bay, at the anchorage of Santa Domingo. We arrived in Bahia Concepcion on the 2nd and traveled down to Burro Cove for the 4th of July Party. Every year Geary puts on a event for the locals and the cruisers. He provides the palapa, the hotdogs and fireworks, and arranges for a beer truck, everyone else brings a potluck item. Geary lives here year round and also provides weather information on one of the HAM radio nets, so knows lots of the cruisers. This year there
were 16 boats in the cove, and a few other people came in my car from nearby anchorages. The food and company was good. One boat has a karaoke machine and this was brought ashore, Some people were pretty good, some not so good, and some where extremely entertaining (Travis, a 40ish guy did an amazing version of Madonna's "Like a Virgin".) After dark we had a firework show, before everyone headed back to their boats. A good time was had by all.

The temperature changes drastically when entering Bahia Concepcion, the air went up to 100, and the water went up to 90 degrees in the cove. We were introduced to the "Noodle Party", where everyone uses a float so that they can stay in the water using as little energy as possible till they completely prune up! Getting in the water is the only way to cool off, but with the water up to 90, it does not help much. Out of Burro Cove the water was a bit cooler and felt much better. The bio-luminescence
is very active here, we went swimming after dark and the water glowed around us from our movements. Someone said it is like making snow angels in the water. An interesting experience.

We spent a few nights in various anchorages in the Bay, swimming and doing some exploring. We were told of a beach that had scallops, so I went snorkling to have a look. I was able to find some of the free swimming type and started collecting some. These were pretty small, so the batch (14) that I grabbed barely made an appetizer for us! Since they proved to be tasty and not too much trouble to clean, we will have to find some more later.

Heading further north, next stop will be Santa Rosalia.

Staying at the Ramada

We are now anchored in La Ramada, a nice anchorage about 25 miles north of Loreto. The water was amazingly clear this morning and we could easily see the sandy bottom 25 feet down. We have had a few busy days recently. We have been traveling a little faster to get to Bahia Conception for the $th of July party.
We met up with Flying Cloud in Agua Verde, they brought me some diodes from La Paz so that I could repair one of my solar panels. A great big Thank You to Jamie and Eileen. We later had a fun day of skurfing and Bocci Ball. Skurfing is pulling a surfboard behind a dinghy (water skiing + surfing = skurfing). Jamie organized this by volunteering our dinghy, a surfboard from La Solana, and Southern Belle (a large catamaran) as a base of operations. This was a lot of fun and Cindy and I both managed
to get to our feet for a while. Later in the afternoon we played Bocci Ball on the beach. We like this kind of cruising.
We left Agua Verde and sailed to Isla Monserrate, and anchored off Yellowstone beach. The beach was appropriately named and we had a nice walk as we watched the sunset.
The next day we set off for Juancalito in Bahia Chenque. We skipped Escondido, because it is being developed and now they charge for mooring and anchoring. We had the bay to ourselves which was surprising since earlier in the week there were 16 boats here. The next day we went up to Loreto to provision and get an internet connection (see the new photos). After a very expensive taxi ride (Greg from Festima Lente and I need to work on our negotiating skills), we found that the Propane store was closed.
We decided to stay the night and do another propane run and hit the Saturday farmers market. Luckily the weather was nice so we could stay, in bad weather you can not stay at Loreto. The next day the girls went to the market and the guys went to get propane. This time the taxi cost half the price!
In the Loreto anchorage we ran into RyoKosha (sp?), a sistership to our previous boat (a Mariner 31). We had corresponded via email years ago and had sold them one of our sails. It was fun to finally meet them in person. Paul and Kathy told us that the dinghy dock had "boat boys", young kids who would help carry items and watch the dinghy for a few pesos. They are numerous in the Caribbean and other cruising area, but rare in Mexico. However we found that the boys were busy swimming and usually arrived
to late to be any real help, and often just got in the way. They wanted to carry our groceries the last 30 feet to the dinghy after we had carted them 3/4 of a mile from downtown! So when they helped they did get a few pesos.
After all was done we headed north to La Ramada and arrived early in the evening. We have been doing a good bit of sailing recently. There is usually a nice southerly that starts up mid day and blows all afternoon. Great to actually sail to get to where we are going!