Ansa and Echo

The No Tell Motel Red and I left the ferry at 12:30 and set off south and east on highway 15. I had printed out Google maps directions complete with the photos of the intersections, but quickly found out that the aren't very helpful in Mexico. There are two problems. The first is that street signs are mostly non-existent in Mexico. The second is that the pictures Google supplies rarely helped me to identify an intersection. Trying to look back and forth at the picture and the view out the windshield was very difficult to do because of the speed you are traveling and the need to watch the traffic like a hawk. Mexican drivers do not use turn signals and generally ignore traffic signs of any kind. There are basically three kinds of vehicles on ... read more

Hello all you friends and BBYC'ers, I decided to put up a new blog entry even though I haven't really been doing anything really interesting. I went North this summer because I just couldn't stand the thought of another Mexican summer. I just don't do well in excessively hot weather. I wouldn't have made this entry except that some BBYC'ers (like Linda Fenn) said it would be good anyway. Brian, aka Michael, stayed in La Paz and toughed out the summer and watched over our boats. I left La Paz in early June and flew to Reno, Nevada where my best buddy, Larry picked me up at the airport, which is a two hour drive from his house. I stayed at Larry and Janet's house in Nevada for almost six weeks. That's a long time for ... read more

Leaving La Paz May 28, 2011 (In the map shown in this blog, click on "satellite" to see the bay. The map doesn't show reality. The little box in the picture is where we are anchored right now.) Greetings from sunny Mexico. Brian and I are finally leaving La Paz. Brian is crewing with me on Ansa and ECHO is remaining in La Paz. This is a tough place to leave, but it is getting hotter and hotter, so now is a good time to get on the road. Right now, it is 7 pm and we are anchored in Ballandra Bay for the night. The temperature is 90 or so. We have a long six weeks to two months ahead of us to get back to San Francisco. We'll update the blog every so often ... read more

Greetings from La Paz. (If you click on any picture it takes you to a large size filmstrip of all the pictures for better viewing) Brian (aka Mike) and I have been here in Marina de La Paz for almost two months. It's a much more convenient marina than Marina Palmira, which we stayed in last time we were in La Paz, because it is more centrally located and is the home of Club Cruceros, the closest thing to a yacht club in Baja. We have been putzing around with boat projects. I have installed a new solar panel controller and it is a big improvement over my old one because the old one created horrible interference on the VHF radio. I also had Ansa's sole refinished. ECHO is getting some work done here in Mexico ... read more

Hola, We've made it another 100 miles. From Isla Coronados to Santa Rosalia with stops in between. We left Isla Coronados and it was choppy with an East swell. We pulled in to Caleta San Juanico at the southern end hoping to get out of the swell. No Luck. This is a beautiful bay and normally a must stop if cruising the islands. So the next day we went around the point to a small cove called La Ramada that faced North west and we were out of the swell. It was so nice we stayed a couple of days. The Trimaran that drifted away was here too. After talking to them I found that their mainsail had come unglued. I offered them a small main I found in a dumpster in Alameda. I don't think ... read more