Sail Further

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - Robert A. Heinlein

What could be worse than sailing your half-million-plus-dollar J/160 yacht into a reef?! Probably having Latitude38 tell all their readers in great sordid detail that you did it... Blast Wrap-Up December 5, 2011 – Banderas Bay One thing everyone learned from this Blast is that you can't mess with the offshore reefs as much as three miles to the east of Punta Mita. The reefs are great for creating waves to surf, but bad for bouncing off of with boats. Sailmaker Mike Danielson guided the J/160 Blue at the very edge of one of the reefs in search of a smidgen more wind. They gybed just short of the reef, but fouled a spinnaker line in the bowsprit, fell off, and slammed into the reef. They struck so abruptly that the bowman flew right off the front of the boat, looking just like Superman in the old television show. We saw it with our own eyes. It took about 15 minutes of banging before Blue was able to get free of what will surely become known at Mike's Recife Azul, and...

For fellow cruisers who plan on putting in at Marina El Cid: if they assign you to slip A15 you might want to check if they've dredged it lately. My draft is 6' 3" and at low tide I was careened. As you can see wxtide said that the lower, low tide was -0.8ft on Nov. 23.

The gentleman on my left is Miguel Hernandez, proprietor of Electricidad Delta. He helped me troubleshoot my engine's tachometer. Afterwards, he invited me over to his brother's home where they have their weekly fish fry. Delicious. Miguel does excellent work, is punctual, and is nearly fluent in english. I definitely got the impression that he takes pride in his work. His contact information:

It looks like Barra de Navidad took a direct hit from cyclone Jova. Sad to see the destruction since it seems like just yesterday that I passed through there. The charming restaurants and hotels that line their beachfront are devastated.

To: southbound_group@yahoogroups.com Sun Jun 5, 2011 2:52 pm (PDT) I wasn't able to find much information on Marina Fonatur La Paz in Rains' Mexico Boating Guide or the Noonsite website so here's a summary of what I learned: They monitor VHF 74. Hail them as Marina Fonatur or Marina Singlar (even though their website says they're called Marina La Paz or Marina Turistica La Paz). I was able to contact them once on VHF 16 but VHF 74 is a better bet. The "Geographic Location" waypoint they give on their website is NOT where the marina is located. It's about 2.2nm NE of the marina. It's the waiting area where a pilot boat will come and lead you in.

I plan on laying my boat up "on-the-hard" in La Paz, Baja California Sur, for hurricane season. To hedge the peso-denominated expenses I went long the Mexican peso exchange-traded-fund: FXM. Deutsche Bank recently published a study of assets that currently have the most speculative interest. I was surprised to see that the Peso is the most "crowded-trade" in their study (MXN ... you can click on the image to embiggen): I don't think this bodes well for the Peso in late-June when US dollar weakness is expected to reverse with the end of the Federal Reserve's "quantitative easing" program. To cover or not to cover US dollar shorts??? (and of course what to do with the lateral play: commodities).

I posted this message to the Yahoo southbound cruisers group. It got rejected because I didn't delete the original e-mail I was replying to (sailors using HF for e-mail are pretty bandwidth starved). The topic was really old so I thought the original e-mail would be useful for context. I'll post it here instead. I would still recommend visiting the Grand Bay Marina as long as you're forewarned about the expense. The amenities at the resort are pretty amazing. There's an ATM that dispenses US dollars at the Paradise Village Resort Mall in Puerto Vallarta so it's possible to load up on dollars before heading to the Marina in Navidad. > From: "southbound_group-owner@yahoogroups.com" > Subject: Message not approved: Grand Bay Marina -- Barra de Navidad > I have an update on prices at Grand Bay Marina. > If you're a cruiser on a budget I'd give the Marina a wide > berth. Charlie's Charts (12th Ed., c. 2009) quotes a daily rate > of...

And now for something completely different: San Jose, CA 1997 This is the "bringup" team at Exponential Technology, Inc. We are popping champagne corks to celebrate booting MacOS on our x704 microprocessor first silicon. This was Jim Blomgren's startup before founding Intrinsity . Intrinisity designed the A4 microprocessor powering the iPhone 4 and got bought by Apple last year. I guess I should be kicking myself for not going to work there in 1998 when they asked me to...but twelve years until cash out, who has the patience??? (this moment in computer history brought to you by the Telcel Banda Ancha 3G cellular modem. The modem is made by ZTE, a mainland China company. With all the recent talk about "back doors" and "kill switches" it kinda makes you wonder...)

Punta Galera is described in Rains' guide as a "marginal anchorage"; I didn't find it any less sheltered or more rolly than Puerto Escondido or Puerto Angel. It also has a nice point break easily accessible from your anchorage. If finding surf breaks is your priority rather than shoreside services I'd recommend skipping the other two and spending your time anchored here. As magicseaweed.com would describe it: "a less demanding point break" rather than one of the " Thundering beach breaks with board and back-snapping brutality such as Puerto Escondido"

I have a new algorithm for beating the heat while cruising Mexico. Written here in C++ pseudocode for your edification:

This is Jorge Martinez the proprietor of Tour In El Salvador (www.tourinelsavador.com) with my new long board. He leads excellent tours and caters to cruisers (post-tour shopping trips, etc.). Jorge took me to a surf shop in San Salvador after I struck out in the surf towns of La Libertad and Playa El Tunco. He even negotiated a reduced price for me. Whatta guy.

S/V Further crossing the bar. Bahia del Sol is the hotel and resort that hosts the Annual Cruiser's Rally to El Salvador. I signed up for the rally 'cuz: 1). It's free 2). There are only two marinas to choose from in El Salvador and it's on the way North from Panama 3). I thought I'd probably at least get a t-shirt out of the deal. The downside is the notorious sand bar that has to be crossed at the entrance. The bar shifts so often one of the hotel's pilot boats has to guide you across. Also, you can only cross at slack high tide to safely draw enough water. Surfing the waves into the estuary turned out to be pretty tame (although watching the depth sounder tick down to 3-feet of water under the keel is pretty stressful). Breaking the waves leaving was a pretty wild ride. You have to try and time the waves to balance possibly getting swamped versus launching off the back of the wave. Also, I suppose if you got turned sideways and you got hit with a big wave you...

Sailor's artwork from the upstairs lounge at Tierra Mar. A great hangout. Thanks to Ron, the resident marine engine expert, for helping me get my Yanmar engine running smoothly again. An honest mechanic is a great thing to find, I highly recommend his services. The fickle winds of Central America are hard to get used to after sailing the steady trade winds of the Caribbean. It's a lot like the Med: either too much (the Papagayo, Tehuantepec) or too little wind.