6/23/05

We left Bahia Concepcion, hitting a maximum temperature of 124.9 F, for the cooler open anchorage of Santa Domingo. After spending about 3 nights there, unmelting, if that is possible in 100F heat, we set off for Isla San Marcos. The trip was nice, about 30 miles and we sailed about 2/3rds of it. It is much cooler here, the water is refreshing in the 70�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s and the cabin temperature stayed below 90, most of the time.

Anyway, this brings me to Beatrice. The summer weather means summer storms down here. We had our first hurricane about 700 miles south of us a month ago. Now we have Tropical Strom Beatrice. This one is much closer, about 450 miles away and inside the boarders of Mexico. We�?¢â�??¬â�??¢re not too worried about this one, as it is loosing its punch fast. Hopefully by tomorrow it will be down graded to a depression and then fizzle out.

Nonetheless, it is a very real reminder about the East Pacific hurricanes and we�?¢â�??¬â�??¢re going to have to stay on our toes.

6/21/05

We were down in �?¢â�??¬�?�??Bahia Concepcion�?¢â�??¬ as the heat wave started. In the sun, the temperature climbed well over 100F and the water is in the 89-90 F range. So we left the bay. Now we�?¢â�??¬â�??¢re up in Santa Domingo which is at the enterance to the bay. The water here is about 5-10 degrees cooler, the humidity is down to about 50%, and the temperature is about 5-8 degrees cooler too.

Well, we got a small taste of what awaits us in the summer! Yikes. We�?¢â�??¬â�??¢re going to have to work on making better sun shades for the deck and the aft part of the cockpit, and I�?¢â�??¬â�??¢m going to have to finish my thermoelectric cooler to see if I can extend the life of our ice!

6/19/05

Summer heat is different. It heats your clothes, your skin, but somehow you feel the heat is still external, escapable, like opening the oven door, it washes over you then fades. The desert heat on the ocean isn�?¢â�??¬â�??¢t searing. Desert heat creeps up on you. It has stamina. You wake up in the morning feeling warm, not really aware that it coming for you, a cool complacency. Slowing the burning pierces the sky, obliterates any traces of clouds. The atomic fire lights up the burnt landscape where only the cactus seems oblivious to the slow siege. It stalks you slowly, warming the soil, the deck of the boat, the water around you. Then before you know it, the air takes sides with the sky fire and wraps around you like a hot damp towel, basting you, melting you. The sadistic watch the temperature gauge as it climbs past the 100 degree mark in the sun. The desperate seek relief in the water, only to find they�?¢â�??¬â�??¢ve been tricked into jumping into a hot salty bath. The desert heat is different. It has been here since time started, burning, burning, tearing apart molecules breaking down all bonds leaving nothing.

6/19/05

Reasonable rates! Guaranteed to make your pet�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s hair shorter!

6/17/05

We took a tour from Bahia Concepcion to Mulege with two other boats, Loon III and Icarian. Our guide picked us up from the beach and took us on a fantastic tour of the desert and ancient Indian paintings. He told us the secrets to finding water in the desert, how to make jam from a cactus, which plants were poisonous and even a special cactus flower that�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s an aphrodisiac when smoked. He also pointed out the medicinal plants and how to use them. We should be set for the summer, if we can only bare the HEAT!

Since we�?¢â�??¬â�??¢re unable to access the internet for now, these logs will all get updated at once. If everything goes well, there should be some new pictures posted in the photo gallery. You�?¢â�??¬â�??¢ll see attacking fish, a 500 year old cactus, 4000 year old carvings, and 5000 year old paintings. Don�?¢â�??¬â�??¢t miss it.

6/17/05

If there�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s a splash on the water keep your eyes on the deep, because these guys rise from the shadows to see what landed in the water. It doesn�?¢â�??¬â�??¢t matter if it�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s me diving in, or a tomato, these fish rise up and come in close to see if it�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s eatable. The attacked a tomato, drug it down to the bottom, fought over it, and it was never seen again. I call them �?¢â�??¬�?�??Sherrell�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s Monsters�?¢â�??¬ because they like to come in close when you�?¢â�??¬â�??¢re swimming to see if you�?¢â�??¬â�??¢d make a good snack, and it freaks Sherrell out. She prefers to watch the monsters from the boat.

6/16/2005

We�?¢â�??¬â�??¢re slowing baking in the heat. It got up to 94F inside the boat and the water temperature is 89F. Jezebel was so hot, that we decided to pull out the clippers and give her a buzz cut. We removed her fur in handfuls for almost 30 minutes. By the time we were done, our cat lost half her size and most of her hair. There�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s nothing professional about this hair-cut, that�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s for sure. It looks like she got in between two lawnmowers fighting over a psychotic weed eater. Well, I guess we can cut �?¢â�??¬�?�??professional pet grooming�?¢â�??¬ of the list of possible future jobs.

At least she seems to like having a lot less fur, it�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s 8:30 am and 83.3F this morning and she�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s curled up instead of spread out on the floor. That�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s an improvement, but once it gets up in the 90�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s I don�?¢â�??¬â�??¢t think there�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s any way to still feel cool. It will be an interesting summer!

Bay of Conception is a cool spot that is well protected from all wind directions.  The coolest part is there are several little islands and lots of beaches to check out.  The water is an amazing 82 degrees and there’s lots of fish life in the water.  There aren’t many boats here now, but we’ve heard that a large crowd of boats (20 to 30) gather here for 4^th of July.

From our informal count of boats heading to Bay of Los Angeles for the summer we estimate about 20 boats will be spending the summer up there.  A little bigger crowd than we had hoped for, but the place is big and I’m sure we’ll find lots of places to ourselves.

We made some tortillas yesterday and today we are going to check out Coyote Island and Santa Barbara Beach before heading to another little anchorage here.  This place is so compact that in a good hour you can do a full tour.  It’s pretty cool to be in such a large bay, but full of things to see.

Well, some kind sole here in Bahia Concepcion is allowing public wireless access to their satellite uplink for 1 hour a day.  So through this link (there’s no phones here) I’m able to update some of our website.  Check out the 6 new photos in the Photo Gallery of Baja Mexico!