$100 per night does not get you a room at the Hilton in downtown Portland but it would get you a pretty nice place to stay in say, Stockton California.  $100 a night gets you parking in Cabo San Lucas for your boat.   We are documented at 43 feet long so you might be able to park your truck and a 23’ trailer for that price if you had to, got to wonder what Wal-Mart charges?

 

With the cost of berthing we checked out the price of hotel rooms and found we could have a hotel room with a double bed, air conditioning, internet, warm shower with pressure, and a continental breakfast for about $43.00 US.   One would think the marina would provide at least some of these amenities for the $100 nightly price, not.   We are staying at the IGY Marina here in Cabo San Lucas (Island Global Yachting).  According to their documentation “Your distinctive yachting lifestyle is elevated here at Marina Cabo San Lucas where every aspect of a boater’s experience is provided for. Your vessel will be moored to a modern concrete dock with 24-hour marina security provided by a combination of guards, electronic key card access, and closed circuit TV, beside internet wireless access.  Electricity is offered in either 110 (30 amps) or 220 (50 amps). Potable water is provided via a reverse osmosis system from the marina’s own 40,000-gallon-a-day desalination plant. Guests also enjoy access to cable television in-slip and wireless internet access.  Shore-side amenities at Marina Cabo San Lucas additionally include a full-service chandlery, swimming pool and recreational area.  First-class restrooms and showers, laundry facilities, storage lockers and parking are conveniently located in three complexes across the marina grounds” OK, perhaps they have some amenities here. We didn’t try the cable television, but at $38 US a case for beer we skipped over their chandlery.  The swimming pool was a nice size for a marina but the grounds could have shown a bit more care.   The lawn was a bit overgrown and the furniture could have been a little more inviting.  The most notable positive aspect was their cockroach avoidance procedures.   We stayed around the corner at the Pisces Marina last week and found cockroaches that bordered on our experience in San Felipe.  Here at the IGY we witnessed the Cockroach eradication process and were impressed.

 

To add more to the “distinctive lifestyle” provided for my $100 per night stay they do in fact have very clean restrooms.  Of course where we are staying you still have to hike about 500 yards to find a bathroom or shower, but then we eat burritos all day so the exercise is nice.  What I don’t appreciate is cold showers with no pressure, internet that does not function above that what we can steal from across the bay and prices that are way above those you will find in Los Angeles and San Francisco where dodging the barkers for Tee Shirts and fake Cuban cigars (which even if real don’t pose any threat to the cigars made in Nicaragua) is never a real problem but here in Mexico becomes a bit tiresome after your second day on the Malecon.

 

The Port Captain here in Cabo San Lucas closed the gates on the bay so we had to come in or face a fine for remaining anchored while Manuel passed us by.   This has cost us 3 days here in the marina but we guess it is the price you pay to be in Paradise.   If you read the Dudes View you might start to recognize the conspiracy theory that Bill wrote about not so many months ago.  Somebody has a Magic 8 ball here in Mexico and is watching over us to be sure they get every last peso that is coming to them, so we stayed.   Of course when the crew of Beyond Reason stays anywhere we don’t just eat and shop from the boat, we find the Magic Money Machine and spend, spend, spend.  We don’t doubt that the Mexican Parliament has written in an amendment that states that all Marina’s and cities apply the Magic 8 Ball to any chance of Beyond Reason leaving, in other word when we ask if we can leave tomorrow the probable answers is….”Your chances are highly Unlikely”….

 

We expect that we will be wrung out by Saturday and hope to leave for points North.   If IGY has cooperated with us you will see this message before the 21^st of September.  Cross your fingers and pull out your Ouija board, cheat if you have to and get the pointer set to YES.

 

 

 

Well the good news is that we are not in some remote anchorage between Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Escondido.   Unfortunately we do have some friends that may be in that situation but we have faith that they will be taking shelter soon.

Hurricane and Tropical Storm Manuel has been a tough one for forecasters.   It started early in the week and has now worked itself up the western Mexican coast and done some pretty extensive damage south of Puerto Vallarta.   The chaos should have stopped there according to the NHS (National Hurricane Service) but we knew better and decided we would stay put here in Cabo for a couple of more days.   Turns out Manuel re-appeared in Puerto Vallarta as a Tropical Depression and was forecasted to fizzle out and just bring some rain to the areas north of there.   My guess is tomorrow there will be new on Mazatlan getting hit with flash floods and other mayhem.

This morning we heard that Manuel would be a Tropical Storm for a while but would again dibble down to a depression by Thursday, wrong again, Manuel is now a hurricane (catagory 1) and looks to be heading straight up the Baja with a bend toward the Mexican mainland.   In my estimation it still looks like it is going home to La Paz.   Being in Cabo we are told to just expect rain.   Cabo is the tip of the Baja for our friends in Winters.  You can see for yourself what is happening and it would not surprise me to see our friend Manuel arrive with gusto here or at Squid Roe up the street.

Currently we have winds that are just topping 15 MPH, so nothing really to write home about, Manuel has winds gusting over 75 MPH now and we will see how he does as he warms up to the sea.   Water temps down here are near 90 degree’s so that should provide a bit of steam for him as he makes his way.

We are still hoping to jump into the Pacific on Sunday but if you watch the NHS page you will notice we have another potential hurricane coming up in the next 5 days.  We will wait and watch, then if the window is right, dash for the boarder.   We love a fast commute, by the way, how was yours?

 

We have been talking a lot about weather.   Here is a dramatic example of what we have to look at each day and decide what to choose from.  For those who are not use to looking at the charts just take a look at the first or top numbers listed under Thursday.  It really is a hope and guess situation.  If you have not done it before, double click the picture for a full view.  Bill has to do this all the time because his vision is really not what it use to be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the way if you are looking for a little bit of a read, check the Dudes view for updates.

 

We keep promising to post pictures and I guess that time has come.  We spent a day in Cabo on Thursday and were just enjoying some of the sights when we finally found a company that wanted to help out the folks at Segway.   There wasn’t a bandito in sight so I guess this type of transport and enforcement must work.

Later in the day we went after some of the best burgers in town at a place called either Burgasism or  Burgorismo which is perhaps 5 blocks into town off the main drag and on the street adjacent to Puerto Parisio.  We failed to take pictures of the 1/2 lbs. burger that Bill had but we think this picture does a bit of justice to how good they were. 

When we finished the burgers then we headed home for five solid hours of sleep before our departure up the coast.

Our morning was a bit harried though we don’t really know why.   We checked all the local and internet broadcast for weather and all of them said that Friday the 13 was a good day to go but that Monday morning might actually be better.  We decided to take the chance and peeked our head out of the bay to see what things looked like.   We hadn’t even bothered to make coffee so that might have been mistake number one.

Cabo Falso is known for turning people back due to rough and heavy weather even when the rest of the coast is peaceful, so we decided to bash into the 20 plus knots of wind and hope that some 20 miles later it would abate as Predictwind,Sailflow and Passage weather said.   As the day wound into about 10 AM the winds did relax to about 15 knots but the waves were still not the predicted 6′ at 11 seconds. We have been sailing for a while now and any time the wave height is less than half the period (11 seconds) you can consider the seas flat and friendly for our boat so we figured we would solder on as even
Gary the local weatherman said the winds would start to lay down.

About noon we were seeing 20 knots constant again, then by 3 PM we had 26 knots with gusts higher.  The waves were 6′ every eleven seconds but nobody told us about the 10
footers that were spaced between those 11 seconds.

50 miles into the trip we checked all the wind services (we have pretty consistent cell service along this coast and surprisingly they all changed their forcast…imagine 8′ at 9
seconds..hmm, must be the wind waves on top of those that they missed.  Just so you are not confused, 8′ at 9 seconds mean our 40,000 lbs bundle of joy is virtually leaping off the waves do to how steep they are, crashing to the bottom of the trough and coming to a complete stop before the wave just behind that one comes crashing on top of the boat, lot’s of fun, but then this did start as an adventure right.

After a bit of a conversation we finally decided that the weather was not going to improve, well it wasn’t going to get worse either, but we were headed into darkness and Bill being afraid of the dark wanted to go home so we turned the barge around and headed 9 hours back to where we started.

This morning we are listening to jet ski’s, powerboats, fishing pangas and parachute pulling jet boats.  The waves they create and the cacophony of sound generated is very close to yesterday so at least we won’t lose our sea legs by Monday when we give it another try.

Our friend Diane mentioned that we were to enjoy our commute yesterday.   We can say it was better than sitting in stop and go, so all in all we have to say the day trip from here to there and back was enjoyable.   Thanks for the well wishes.  We did want to leave you

with a bit of something before leaving the land of internet.   Check out the Silver Surfer, this is how Bill wants to commute to work, just need a Jet Ski and somebody to tag along beside him as he surfs to work.

It is currently 0730 AM Sept 12, 2013. We have Cabo San Lucas, Lands End in sight. Should arrive in the next 2 hours. Had a great trip down from Muertos without any issue, nice weather and lots of speed. Looking forward to our last hamburger in the Sea of Cortez later today, some sleep and perhaps a departure tomorrow AM for the USA. Will update with some pictures later today.

We did the final diagnostics on the alternator yesterday and discovered that we had fried the bearings. Being in the remote anchorage of Muertos we had to rely on some friends to help us contact Victor the “Magician” to help us with our electrical woes. Victor who is located in La Paz agreed to help us and by about 1 PM arrived with parts to rebuild our alternator and a second alternator for a spare. We were amazed that this guy and his son could rebuild our broken parts in our cockpit and have us rolling down the sea towards Cabo San Lucas by 5 PM. It is amazing what a couple of hundred dollars and produce.

We finally got out of the marina today (September 10th) around 10 AM. We had to go find fuel so we didn’t leave the La Paz area till noon. By the time I sent this we will have made about 45 miles and at that rate should be home in 20 days. Our progress should be slightly better but we ran into a problem with the alternator not charging. We shut down the engine because we also heard a strange noise and the wind was favorable. Sailed the last 20 miles in. Checked the charging and it was due to a detached wire. We will diagnose the noise later today to decide if it is associated with the alternator or something more sinister. Could be in Muertos for a couple of days if so. More updates as we find the time.

We finally got out of the marina today around 10 AM. We had to go find fuel so we didn’t leave the La Paz area till noon. By the time I sent this we will have made about 45 miles and at that rate should be home in 20 days. Our progress should be slightly better but we ran into a problem with the alternator not charging. We shut down the engine because we also heard a strange noise and the wind was favorable. Sailed the last 20 miles in. Checked the charging and it was due to a detached wire. We will diagnose the noise later today to decide if it is associated with the alternator or something more sinister. Could be in Meurtos for a couple of days if so. More updates as we find the time.

It has been a tough week for the crew.   Tropical Storm Lorena passed us about 2 days ago and we are really anxious to get moving north before the next storm arrives.   Currently there are none on the horizon, but the tropical waves keep belching out of Africa and any one of them could be our next nemesis.   The engine work is completed that we wanted done and now we have more horns and ways to shut the engine down than we know what to do with.  Our new favorite mechanic Victor has blessed the engine for the move north and being the new President of the Mormon fellowship in La Paz we feel honored to have his blessing.

 

To celebrate we have done a bit of inland travel which the Chick has elaborated on in her site.   Our only troubles have been with the checkout process in Mexico.   Bill has been a bit side lined over the last day or two.   Checkout was going pretty good till we discovered that La Paz was perhaps the only city in all of Mexico that requires a Health Certificate for your boat.   After visiting 4 offices this morning to get checked out, pay a fee or be advised that we were in the wrong location we visited the Secrateria de Salud, the main health office in La Paz.   It was there that things came to a screeching halt and our weather window began to disappear.  It if was not obvious we have a limited weather window between now and when ever the next hurricane shows up.   Typically we will have about 5 days of advanced notice.  Since Lorena has passed we have eaten up 3 days which we could have made passage.   No one really knows when the next storm is coming but one thing is sure, it is now 3 days closer than it was and today clicks off another day.

 

The Office of Health not only told us that they would not come out to the boat till after the Port Captain closed (the final authority for checking out), but that they would charge us about $130.00 U.S. to come to our boat.   Now we don’t know what it costs in the U.S. to check in or out, but in Mexico it is normally about $20.   We have never heard of a Health Certificate for the boat, but in La Paz they apparently want their little bit of American/Canadian and other cruisers money so this new rule has been enacted or is being acted on where others just ignore it.

The time was the big factor for us, but after Bill complained about the cost and Lisa fumed, we finally gave in to waiting, cocktail in hand, for the health inspector.   To his credit he showed up right on time (30 minutes after the Port Captains closing), and promptly sat down at our table and began to fill in information about the boat.   During our conversation we asked what he was looking for and then when he looked a bit impish we supplied him with Spanish words like, Insecta, plegueus, ratons, cockaroaches.   To each he said yes but we really we’re not convinced.  To us we figured he was just looking for $130 dollars.

After he filled in his papers he asked us if we had any of the above infestations to which we replied no.  He filled in his papers.  Just prior to leaving he made a display of looking and addressing each of our rooms; toilet, kitchen, food locker room, etc.   He never checked anything, just said it all looked good.   And then he left.  Bill was on edge and Lisa had to continually check him to keep him from going too far with little remarks about charges, self preservation and the likes, but the man left happy and apologized then snickered as he left.

We can’t wait to depart tomorrow.   Anchors aweigh around 9 AM if the Port Captain comes in on time.  Next stop, Cabo San Lucas.

So it is not easy to leave the Baja.  We came into Marina Cortez last week thinking we had to Change Fuel Filters, install a couple of engine alarms, talk to the Port Captain and check out of the country.   Not so simple.  The fuel filters went OK, the engine alarms took a bit more time than we had hoped but since the mechanic did them it was just a matter of money and we all know that the crew of Beyond Reason just goes to the ATM when ever money is needed, it’s magic and nobody knows how it happens but money just spits out from the machine when ever we type in the magic code so the engine work just happened like clock work.  The big problem was that the transmission oil cooler was found to have sprung a leak and mostly the transmission was filled with cool, clean saltwater and a Pepto Bismol looking froth on top.  The froth is really just the transmission oil that had been mixed with salt water and although it looks tasty is it really “no bueno” for the transmission, so our simple day turned into a flush, fill, flush fill, flush fill, and then the following day a couple of more flush fills.   The really good news was that we had a spare oil cooler for the transmission so it was just a matter of minutes to replace the main issue.  It was a couple of hours/days later that we completed the flushes…

 

Our next issue in leaving was the fuel.  According to Nigel Calder (the Guru of all things marine diesel) we should have purged, scrubbed and filtered our fuel tanks every 2 years.  Apparently there are little organisms that actually live in diesel, and if you don’t poison them or purge them, eventually they will clog up you fuel lines.  Wellllllllll.   OK, we have not purged for twelve years.   Occasionally we have clogged fuel filters, but usually a change of the fuel filters fixes all the issues.  After trying to do an extra good job at filtering the fuel with our own special filters we realized that the job would require opening the tank to take out all the “coffee grinds” that we were finding.   That job should take place tomorrow and if the “magic card” works again we should be about ready to take off.

 

In the mean time, Lisa has been creating “space” to have the tanks examined, probed and scrubbed.  This really involves the entire interior of the boat, as every usable space is filled with all the crap that we carry in the aft cabins normally.   On 43’ worth of boat we currently have a 6’ seating space and half a “V” berth to sleep in.   The aft cabin is completely cleared out though so Victor (our mechanic, ie  fuel scrubber) should be able to filter to his hearts content when he arrives tomorrow.

 

Bill has been scrubbing the exterior in 100 degrees of shade- less sun.   We thought he would pass out from heat exposure today and turn our return trip into an estate sale but apparently he is tougher than we thought and the boat was shinned up and a couple of cold beers and a shower later he popped up ready for his sundowners.  Tough guy.

 

On the entertainment side we have been making a lot of friends here at Cortez Marina.   We can’t walk down the docks anymore with out a hundred Hola’s or Hello’s being said.  We did figured out what makes the dock so friendly and it turns out it is that everyone backs their boats into the slips.  In the U.S. it is rare to find boats backed in.  For most boats it is just much more easy to drive the boat directly forward into the slip.  The problem is that makes the cockpit of the boat face away from the walkway of the dock which does not promote conversation.   Here in Marina Cortez almost everyone takes the time to back their boats into the slip leaving the cockpits of their boats right next to the walkway.  If you had enough imagination your might think the white sides and railing of their cockpits were picket fences surrounding their porches with the golden Cerveza’s in their glasses looking just like lemonade.  Very southern and friendly.  We could all take lessons from the folks at Marina Cortez.

 

We don’t believe that we said it before but we finally got hit with a hurricane this week.   Just after we pulled into the marina and following a brief squall from Tropical Storm Kiko, both Lisa and Bill were hit with the reality of leaving the Baja and running up the notorious coast against the up coming winter storms and finishing Tropical Storms and Hurricanes.   It took a couple of days of tense conversations and bitter feelings before we finally came to our senses and realized that our boat is better prepared and more seaworthy than most and the trip is just another grouping of 150 mile passages.   We believe we are set.  Lisa has precooked a couple of meals, and Bill has over analyzed just about everything.   We don’t have a departure date, but that is coming soon.

 

Save room on the freeway for us.