Author Archives: Christi

Ballandra Cove on Isla Carmen to Santa Rosalia

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One of the big plusses of being in a marina is being able to run the air conditioning 24/7. One of the big negatives of leaving a marina after running A/C 24/7 is that it is hard to adjust back to the heat. Most days have been in the 90s and humid, with the “feels like” temperature close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat makes us all lethargic. It is hard to sleep, so we’re also tired and a little grumpy. 

On Sunday (August 14), Eric broke down and ran the generator all day so we could be comfortable. Eric did go for a swim at one point, but we pretty much holed ourselves up in the boat all day. The cool air gave Christi a burst of energy, and she did chores. She tried out her solar oven again, this time with roasted broccoli, and was successful. Woo hoo! 

Temptress pulled out early in the morning, but later in the day the other neighbors that we had gotten to know in the marina, on a boat named Namaste, pulled in. 

Nick and Veronica made an awesome dinner for us. They brought the food to us at Kosmos to enjoy the A/C. Later in the evening, the Namaste crew also came over. The adults had a great time, but Keith was bored with the adults’ boat talk. 

Here are a couple of shots of the sunrise. The second one is facing Loreto and the moon.

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Puerto Escondido to Ballandra Cove on Isla Carmen

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Q: What kind of food do you cook onboard? 

A: Currently, Keith’s favorite meal is chicken tacos, so we make that frequently. Keith also loves homemade chicken noodle soup, so Christi makes soup out of the bones every time she makes chicken for the tacos. Other foods Christi has made recently include: Ground Beef and Rice Florentine, Cabbage and Asparagus Salad with Tahini Dressing, Roasted Broccoli with Tomato Vinaigrette, Lemon-Asparagus Risotto, Coconut-Lime Rice, and Carrot-Cabbage-Potato Soup.

Thursday (August 11) was a chores day. Eric equalized had batteries and changed the watermaker filter. He also went over to Sprezzatura to help the other Eric with a repair. 

In the evening, we had dinner with Sprezzatura Eric at the marina restaurant. We also visited with Nick (from the volcano hike) and his girlfriend, Veronica, who had also recently come into Puerto Escondido.   

On Friday, we got the boat ready to go first thing in the morning. We left the marina at 1000, and arrived at Ballandra Cove on Isla Carmen at around 1300. The seas were smooth. We were the only boat there. The first photo is looking at the mouth of the bay, with Baja and Loreto in the distance. The second two are what it looks like in the anchorage.

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Dive Compressor, San Javier, and Loreto

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Sunrise on Monday, August 8

Eric spent the morning working on the dive compressor. The first order of business was standard servicing: changing the oil, filters, and hose. The hose completely disintegrated, so it is probably safe to say it was time to change it.

As he started up the compressor, air was not coming out of the final hose. He spent some time trying to troubleshoot the source of the problem, but at noon, he had to put the project aside. It was time to pick up our rental car and play tourists! 

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Isla Coronados Days 2 – 3

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On Wednesday morning, Eric was woken up at 0400 by some noise. He went up to check to see if all was okay, and found that we were in the middle of a quite a bit of wind and the boat had moved a lot. There was also an occasional bolt of lightning, but no thunder. In the summer, it is not uncommon for windstorms to hit the Sea of Cortez between 0300 and 0500.

On the wind gauge you can see the wind picked up speed from almost zero knots to over 20 knots in 45 minutes. Christi and Keith awoke not long after Eric did. On VHF radio Eric heard a call out to boats in the anchorage saying that it looked like one of the sailboats was dragging. Eric responded, but the sailboat that was possibly dragging did not. Eric blew a portable air horn 5 times towards the sailboats, but the other sailboat boat nearby said the wind was too loud and could not hear it. Eric turned on the radar and monitored not only our boat, but all the boats in the anchorage for dragging. Fortunately after the initial movement from the wind, no one dragged. This picture is blurry, but it shows how much and how fast we moved when the wind kicked in. Usually it is small movements around a spot after we anchor, this was a big continuous move as the wind really picked up.

The winds calmed down at dawn, but the swell caused by the winds persisted for most of the day. The swells were exacerbated by the pangas (little fishing boats) speeding past us with the tourists. We met the person on the boat who Eric talked to. He was glad we were able to monitor the boats with our radar. His name was Nick, and we decided the next day we would go do the hike up the volcano together.

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