Tsunami #2

March 11, 2011 was pretty interesting here in La Cruz. We normally leave the VHF on 24/7 (this is the primary source of communication in the cruising community) in case someone tries to contact us or an emergency comes up that we need to respond to but the night before I had tired of listening to a couple drunks making stupid comments on the radio and turned it down. At 8am Friday I turned the volume back up and the first thing I heard was “tsunami”. “Oh no…not again!” Last year we were in Las Hadas when the tsunami from Chile rolled through. We went to sea and that one turned out to be pretty uneventful. The predictions for this one were more severe.

We were told that all ports in Mexico were closed and boats could not enter or leave any of them. As you can well imagine, some of the folks in the marina here were in a near panic mode and a line began to form at the port captain's office to get permission to go to sea. Finally an announcement was made that the closures were for commercial traffic only (including boats used for charter) and that pleasure vessels were free to leave. Now we needed to make a decision. We listened to all the predictions and got all the information we could and then decided to stay in the marina. We are at the dock that is the farthest inside and we only draw 5'. Since we have quite a bit of water under the keel at the lowest of tides, we thought we'd be OK. About 1/2 the boats in the marina (all the marinas in the bay, actually) left and went out into deep water. The rest of us added extra lines, closed ports/hatches, tied things down, etc. Then we waited.

The prediction was that the tsunami would begin around 1:30 and we were in the palapa restaurant (on the 2nd floor) with the others who didn’t leave, watching, waiting and having lunch. Several TV's were tuned to either CNN or a Los Angeles station so we were getting all the news about what was happening in Japan & the States. At 1:30 the water began to move faster than normal but it was only rising and falling a few inches at a time so some people thought it was going to be a non-event. As the afternoon passed, the water moved in and out until the amount of change was 5 or 6 ft. Chris & I went back to Faith and read books, listened to the chatter on the radio and watched the water. Since we are way inside of the marina what we experienced was rather like extreme tidal changes that happened fast but there were no waves or big surges. By the time the water got to us it seemed to have dissipated enough that it didn't even rock the boat. Our friends, Linde & Ken on "Rosebud" are on the jetty side and Linde said when she was below she could hear the water moving past the boat so fast it sounded like they were out sailing. She also said there were eddies and whirlpools around the ends of the docks on that side.

About 4pm boats were starting to radio in that they wanted to return to the marinas. An announcement was made that the Port Captain had determined the surge at the marina entrance was too dangerous to negotiate and he was closing the port. Chris & I decided to walk out on the jetty and take a look since it was so calm on our side of the marina. It was amazing to watch. A huge amount of water would surge into the narrow marina entrance for a few minutes, there would be a very short period where the water was slack (about 30 seconds) and then it would turn around and roar back out. I am not good at judging speed but the entrance channel looked like a fast flowing river with all the rapids happening and the buoys would be tipped almost completely on their sides. One of the marina managers announced that the current was as high as 15 knots.

We took photos and videos of the water and while we were watching and filming, a big section of dock 11 buckled and twisted and broke off. Dock 11 is the first dock inside the marina entrance so it got the brunt of the surge and the 2 slips on the end of it lost big sections. The marina staff risked their lives to get those big cement chunks tied up so they wouldn't go bouncing through the rest of the marina and causing more damage.

While we were on the jetty taking pictures the Port Captain closed the entrance for the night as it was just too dangerous. That meant all the boats had to spend the night in the anchorage. Since these are cruising boats, and they are already provisioned with food, water, etc. it wasn’t a problem. Unfortunately, race 2 of the Banderas Bay Regatta had been scheduled for that day and wasn't cancelled until everyone was already out in the bay. Some of the racers left their anchors at the dock so there was apparently some scrambling about to borrow anchors and chain in order to avoid motoring or floating around all night.

All in all, the only real damage here was to the outside 2 slips on dock 11 and a couple of the channel markers went walkabout and will have to be re-set. I would guess that there are some new shoal areas in the anchorage and I heard on the radio that a new bar that has formed outside the entrance to Paradise Marina so they'll probably have to dredge that.

After watching the videos of the damage to marinas in Oregon and California it looks like we got off easy. And that is a very good thing!

Bananas to Banana Bread and Other Produce Tragedies

One of the things I love about Mexico is the produce. Almost anywhere we go there are wonderful local markets where all sorts of produce can be purchased for a fraction of the price we pay in the good ole USA. In some of the more remote areas, as well as on the Baja, the fruits and veggies can sometimes be a bit tattered but most of the time everything is fresh from the farm, beautiful to look at and wonderfully ready to eat. When I go to the market it is only with a great deal of restraint that I can keep from returning to the boat with enough vegetables to feed the 4^th infantry division. The down side (and, yes, there is one) is that all these lovely fresh things have been picked and delivered directly from the farm…and because this is a tropical climate…they must be eaten quickly or they will soon become fish fodder.

Bananas are a prime example. We love bananas for breakfast and they are always available and cheap. There are several different varieties to choose from, my favorite being the little ones that are just the right size for 2 good bites and are sweeter then the regular ones. Unfortunately, no matter how green they are when I purchase them, we just can’t seem to eat them fast enough and within a few days I am making banana bread…again.

Of course, not everything we are used to in American supermarkets is available here, but by the same token, many items we can easily get here are only found in high dollar boutique groceries back home. For example, one can almost always get asparagus in any local Safeway but here, not so much. If you run across it, the price is usually pretty high. On the other hand, bins and bins of beautiful tomatoes, crisp green beans and ready-to-eat avocados are everywhere. One of the things I have found here that are quite good are tiny little guavas (about the size of a key lime) called Guayaba. These are very sweet and yummy. I particularly like the Guayaba juice.

There is no real local market here in La Cruz so we do our grocery shopping at the Mega (like a Safeway), at the Costco in Puerto Vallarta (that would be the major provisioning run when you are low on everything) or, as a last resort, at the Wal Mart. Having recently been to both Mega and Costco, here are some of the produce prices I’ve encountered:

Tomatoes - 64¢ per lb – Mega

Green Beans - 7¢ per lb – Mega

White Potatoes – 48¢ per lb – Mega

Bananas – 54¢ per lb – Mega

Zucchini – 51¢ per lb – Mega

Green Bell Peppers – 15¢ per lb – Mega

Red Bell Peppers – 13¢ per lb – Mega

Green Onions – 2¢ per lb – Mega (these are much larger than the Green Onions you get in the States and are commonly grilled)

Asparagus - $3.37 per lb/Mega - $2 per lb/Costco (bought it at Costco!)

3-Pk package of Romaine lettuce - $23(pesos) or $1.92 (U.S. dollars) per pkg at Mega

I had to do a bit of math to arrive at the actual dollar amount because everything is measured in kilograms here. It takes a bit of getting used to. A kilogram is 2.2 pounds so when the price is listed as 13 pesos/kg it is actually about 5 cents per lb (at an average exchange rate of 12 pesos per dollar). This is for the benefit of my readers back home. Those of us who live here for months at a time don’t even bother with the conversion anymore. We just think in pesos.

Occasionally (actually, a bit more often than occasionally) I run across things that I have no idea what they are or what to do with them. Such was the case with Chayote. Turns out it is a type of squash that you can stir fry or add to salads, etc. It doesn’t really have much flavor so one experiment with it was enough for me. On the other hand, I had not eaten much Jicama in the states but it is everywhere here and we eat it all the time now. It is a great snack if you just cut it into chunks and sprinkle it with a little lime juice and chili powder.

So…back to the theme of this whole blog! Last week I had to throw out 3 tomatoes, 2 bell peppers, and about half the green beans in the fridge. Shoot! That meant another trip to the store and, once again, I have lots of perishables that must be eaten before they go bad. The real problem is that we have to refrain from going out for dinner. In a town with over 30 restaurants that is a real challenge!

A Political Rant...Be Prepared

I had intended to write a totally different blog entry but the things that have been happening in Wisconsin of late are so amazingly bizarre and tragic that I can’t help myself. My anger and frustration with the whole attack by the right wing on the middle class, and more specifically, the public servants in our country has boiled completely over the top and I can’t help myself. If I don’t sound off I think I will just explode.

What is it about the conservative mindset that they can’t seem to understand that government employees are no different than any other employee and that they deserve to be treated equally? Are they really that brainwashed by their talk machine that they have truly come to believe that just because someone works for the government they are stupid or lazy or getting a handout? Clearly they don’t have a grip on reality.

I worked for the State of Washington for almost 30 years and I am proud of having served the citizens of my state. Every state employee I ever met was grateful to have a steady job with a steady income and no one was ever deluded into thinking they would retire a millionaire. Contrary to what the right wing would like to believe, the pay scale is below the private sector by quite a bit. In addition, everyone pays a substantial monthly premium for their medical coverage as well as paying a mandatory contribution to their pension. And we pay the same taxes as everyone else. Working for the government is not a free ride any more than working for any other employer is.

In my office, everyone worked through breaks and lunches without compensation. Everyone came into work early and went home late on a regular basis without compensation. All because there was too much work and not enough employees and the people who would suffer if it didn’t get done were the poor and the infirm. We had a slush fund that came from employee donations for use in special circumstances when clients needed help and slipped through the cracks of the “system”. We raised money…out of our own pockets…to buy school supplies for children whose families didn’t have enough income for that. We raised money…out of our own pockets…to buy medicines for elderly people who couldn’t afford that and food both. We raised money…out of our own pockets…to provide Christmas gifts for many, many needy families who wouldn’t have a Christmas without that help. We kept a cupboard in the office stocked with food items, toiletries, diapers and other necessities…with money from our own pockets…for people who were in desperate need and had no means. We contributed food to the food banks and warm clothing and blankets to the homeless shelters and people living on the streets. Most of us kept a few dollars in change in our desks for people who didn’t have bus fare to get home. In a word…we all took our “jobs” and our obligation to the needy and the underprivileged very, very seriously.

I don’t know anyone who works for the government who doesn’t work their butt off day after day for the public good. What do they get in return? If they are lucky they get a living wage (and I don’t mean six figures). In addition, they are verbally abused by the press and the private sector in this vicious “us vs them” war that is being waged. Is it any wonder that government employees are reluctant to tell people what they do for a living?

This horrendous “What’s mine is mine and to hell with the rest of you.” attitude is truly what will ruin our country faster than anything else.

Back in La Cruz

For all those inquiring minds who want to know...yep...we made it to La Cruz. Actually, after waiting 4 days in Chamela we left again and had a wonderful sail all the way here. The seas stayed 2-4 feet and the wind never got over 18 knots so we averaged over 6 knots of boat speed. After 20 hours we arrived at 5:30 am and between the overcast and the lack of a moon it was like being inside a black bag. The only safe choice was to motor out into the Bay and come back when it was light...so that is what we did.
Even in the short time we have been away from La Cruz, things have been changing. The beautiful Primavera trees are in full bloom all over town. Charlie's Place has closed down for good. The marina has many more boats in residence.
We started the procedure to renew our FM3's so we should have them in two weeks (at least that is what the guy at Immigration said). In the meantime, we have two whole weeks with NO big projects to do! Chris can rest his knee. We can socialize with friends. Linde & I can burn ourselves out on Baja Rummy. We can read, eat out, take naps and just plain be as lazy as we want. Ahhhh....
Today was market day in the park and that is always lots of fun. We began the day by having breakfast at the Huanacaxtle Bar & Grill. Breakfast is coffee, orange juice, sweet rolls, fresh fruit, eggs, beans and your choice of ham, sausage or chorizo. All that for the astounding price of 49 pesos (that would be less than $4 US). In addition, there was a great trio playing while we ate. Don't you just love Mexico?
After filling our bellies we took a tour of a house that is for sale that we have been eying for months. I was a bit disappointed at the inside (which was quite spartan) and the price was very high ($300,000 US...reduced from $500,000 US) given the fact that there will be high-rise condos built between the house and the marina in the next couple years. Still it has a great area on top of the garage that would make a wonderful palapa room.
Onward to the market which seems to grow every week and today it was more crowded than I have seen it. Here you can get everything from hot tamales to jewelry...flip flops to Huichol artwork...clothing to pottery. I made Chris wander past most of the tables but all I ended up buying was a loaf of fresh baked Italian bread and a container of home made Tzatziki. I might have purchased a new rug for the boat or some pretty earrings but there were so many people that I was feeling a little claustrophobic.
So...here we are back on the boat relaxing again. Chris is laying down, reading and staying off his knee. As soon as I finish this blog entry I plan to open a cold one and settle myself in the cockpit with my book. Tomorrow will be a big day. We are going to Puerto Vallarta to do a bit of shopping and, who knows, maybe we'll manage to get those haircuts we've been putting off. In the meantime, relaxation is the word of the day on "Faith".

Waiting

Ten remain here now. When first we arrived there were five (including us) but there have been as many as fifteen. Hunkered down. Waiting. Making our way through the food and water we carry. Attempting to stay busy with entertainments even though most of our conscious thought is preoccupied with the weather. Some lower their dinghies and venture to shore but most don’t. Most are staying enclosed. Finishing up little projects. Doing the day-to-day chores. Reading books. Playing games. Watching movies. Putting a reef in the main. Getting everything ready and leaving only the smallest jobs to be done at the last minute…once the weather window opens. There is little radio contact between the boats. Mostly it is just comparing weather information. What they heard on the morning or evening net. How this one or that interpreted the grib files or weather websites. We all know first hand how nasty this leg can be. We all want to be safe. Have a comfortable passage. For me, the anxiety is raw as an open wound. Our previous attempt, four days ago, was wisely aborted. Uncomfortable and at times frightening. After that you tend to be more nervous about leaving a safe anchorage. Several have gone south (with the weather). Only three others have attempted the northbound challenge. One returned the next day. One had a very hard time and spent two days instead of one reaching his goal. The third…a macho uber-racer…must have made it as well but I’m sure the trip wasn’t much fun. Another opportunity seems to be presenting itself so all are preparing. Some will be leaving this afternoon. Others in the middle of the night. We have decided to wait for morning. Just to give the seas a few more hours to calm down. Hopefully it will be enough.

Chillin' in Chamela

Okay…I think I am finally “over” beating myself up for being a wussie-pants and turning back last night. Chris has told me that it was the “right” decision and he is glad I made it.

We arrived in Chamela Saturday afternoon after a nice, day sail from Barra de Navidad. We had been watching the GRIBS (official weather documents that we get via the internet) and listening to weather reports and it appeared that Monday would be the best day to scoot around the infamous Cabo Corrientes and into La Cruz. In the meantime, we had a little time to enjoy this pretty little palm fringed bay and relax. Our friend, Dan, was already here and waiting for the same weather window. He planned to leave on Sunday so we had him over for dinner Saturday night to catch up.

Sunday Chris & I were having our morning coffee when we heard “Faith! Faith!” and came up into the cockpit as Steve on “Nautilus” circled us on his way in. He and two other boats had come down from La Cruz that night and were ready for a little socializing followed by a good night’s sleep. We all got together on “Cloud IX” for drinks and a wonderful dinner of Chili Rellenos, beans and rice prepared by Marta. As is always the case with cruisers, it didn’t take long for the conversation to turn to weather and their trip south. Mike, the local weather guru in Banderas Bay said if you were going south, Sunday was the only day to go as there is a big norther building up that will be here starting Monday. Then they told us that they’d had 30 knot winds coming around the Cape and were going very, very fast under reefed sails. OK…second thoughts about leaving on Monday!

Monday morning we pulled the GRIBS again and it looked do-able. The official prediction was for NW winds of 10-11 knots and seas of 3-4 feet at 15 second intervals. It would be uncomfortable but nothing we haven’t done before…and…it was supposed to calm down after dark. Cabo Corrientes is well known for nasty weather (as are most capes) so most people go around it sometime between 10pm and 10 am under the theory that that is when it is the calmest. We discussed the options and what we wanted to do (see friends who are in La Cruz…get started on renewing our FM3’s…get to Mazatlan to get Chris’ knee looked at…etc) and decided to go for it. Again…IF the weather had been as predicted it wouldn’t have been any worse than last year’s trip north.

We left Chamela at noon yesterday and had fairly benign conditions with wind about 10 knots (smack dab on the nose, of course…which means you can’t sail into it) and seas about 2 feet. We motored happily north looking for whales and other sea life. About 5:00 I made dinner before taking my 6pm watch. While I was cooking it was clear that things had really started picking up. The seas came up to 4 ft or so and were very confused (from more than one direction) and the wind was gradually building. By the time sunset rolled around at 7:00 we were into winds that were 25 knots and higher (still directly on the nose) and breaking seas that had built to 5-6 feet and were very close together. The boat would climb up to the top of one of these big waves and crash down into the trough, drenching the entire boat in saltwater. Clearly, conditions were worsening by the minute. This was VERY uncomfortable! My mind was churning. I kept reminding myself that “the boats can take it…it is just the people who are uncomfortable” and thinking about being tied up to a slip the next day. As we climbed to the top of another big one and slammed down on the other side our boat speed went down to 2 knots. At that point I decided that the experience was no longer meeting our #1 criteria…it was no longer fun! I knew that at that speed it would take 10 more hours of pounding just to get to the Cape and then we had another 6-8 hours to cross Banderas Bay. I broached the subject of turning back and Chris said he was fine with whatever we did but that it was my decision. Oh…the “joys” of being the “La Capitana”! After a few more minutes of bashing, as the last of the light was leaving the sky, I decided I just, plain didn’t feel like doing this all night long and around we went.

Once we turned south again the whole motion of the boat calmed right down. Poor Abby had been below…terrified…through all that bucking and pounding. We’d been down several times to pet her and talk to her but she was not happy with the situation and we couldn’t really do a lot to ease her stress with all that was going on and our own elevated stress levels. At any rate, once we turned around things changed dramatically. We were now going w-i-t-h the wind and the seas and even though the waves were still big and still breaking, we were surfing down the front instead of trying to go over the top. We averaged 7 knots on the return trip and by 1:30 am we were back in the anchorage with the hook down & set and ready for a good night’s sleep.

This morning Chris checked the GRIBS again and we’ll be listening to the nets regularly to get the very latest but at this point it looks like we will be here for at least a week. Oh well. I am willing to wait for a MUCH calmer passage! We loaded up on food, water and wine before we left Barra. We have movies (and a few more episodes of Boston Legal) to watch, games to play, internet access and tons of great reading material. The wind is up again but we are securely anchored in a beautiful spot. I’m happy. Chris is happy. Abby is happy. And this is a nice opportunity for Chris & I to just enjoy being “alone together” for a while. Life is good!

Position changes!

Excitement abounds in the Barra de Navidad Lagoon today. A little land breeze came up this morning and the boats were off and running. The usual is for mornings to be quite calm and sometime in the afternoon the wind comes up from the west or northwest. It tends to funnel down the channel and it’s not unusual to see fairly high gusts between 2 and about 5. Then, after sunset, everything quiets back down again and we can get a good night’s sleep.

This morning when I woke up and looked out the ports to make sure we were in the same place, I noticed that a new boat had anchored slightly to port of us. It was a MacGregor 26 with no mast and looked vaguely familiar. Last year a similar boat had dragged around the anchorage (and was rescued) numerous times. Turns out it is the same boat and not much has changed.

We were busy today as Chris was running the morning net and we had ordered 100 gallons of water to be delivered at 10:00. Chris finished the net and Maria arrived right on time followed shortly by the French Baker with our morning croissants. We had just finished filling the water tanks and were sitting in the cockpit enjoying our pastries and the last cups of lukewarm coffee when I looked to port and realized the little MacGregor wasn’t in the same place. I asked Chris if I was imagining things (when it comes to dragging boats I tend to do that) but he confirmed that the boat was definitely on the move. Clearly, no one was aboard so Chris put out a call to the fleet and he and several others jumped in their dinghies and went to the rescue to secure the boat before it ran aground or hit someone else.

While all this excitement was going on, another, larger, boat to starboard of our starboard neighbor was also in the process of drifting. I could see the owner and our neighbor having a rather long discussion and finally the dragging boat pulled up his anchor and moved to a new (presumably more secure) spot.

Once the errant MacGregor was re-anchored, Chris was back and just finishing up his breakfast when another call came over the radio. This one was a larger boat with a deep (bulb) keel that the owner had just realized was aground. We have an exceptionally low tide today. There was much advice given over the radio, all to no avail, so Chris dinghied over to help the owner put out a second anchor abeam to, hopefully, keep the boat from tipping completely over. He was considering having a panga pull him out but the fleet advised strongly against this tack because of the possibility of damaging his rudder. As I write this, I can see the boat canted at an unnatural slant. I do hope the owners have decided to just relax and have a glass of wine while they wait for the tide to change.

While Chris was off helping the grounded boat, the radio came alive again. A large trawler was now dragging down on a 50’ sailboat and no one was aboard. Off went the dinghies once again! A couple people got aboard to see if they could start the engine (nope) or raise the anchor (fortunately there was very little chain out and they were able to raise it by hand). Meanwhile, the little inflatables worked like a group of tugboats moving the trawler to a better place in the anchorage. They then re-anchored the boat with much more chain out so he wouldn’t drag again.

This anchorage is well known for it's slippery-slidey bottom so those of us who have been here before know to follow a few simple procedures. 1) Always put out 100’ of chain…even though you are only in 10’ of water. 2) Always leave your key in the ignition and your windlass controls fully accessible. 3) Don’t leave your boat until you are absolutely sure your anchor is holding. 4) Take a VHF when you do leave and turn it on!

Even when you do everything just right, sometimes things just happen. Someone new may come in and drop his anchor on top of yours, unseating it. The wind may pipe up substantially from a new direction and swing the boat around so the anchor comes “un-stuck”. Those are only two of the myriad possibilities. Who knows…your boat might just decide it wants a change of scenery and it is time to go walkabout. Still…even though this anchorage is known as a place where anchors drag, it is a lovely spot to visit.

Fortunately, the world of cruisers is full of good Samaritans and you can always count on help when you need it. We are all in need of all the Kharma we can build up.

Dragging anchor seems to follow the same maxim “the boys” used to tell me about running aground on the Columbia River, “Its not IF you run aground…its WHEN.”