Category: By Voyage Blog

Dear F&F,
December 23, 2008

We took the dinghy around to the dive site called \”The Boiler\”. It was much flatter seas so a more comfortable ride than when we went out with the commercial boats. Today we had a hard time finding the shallow site to anchor on. We had tied up to the commercial boat the other day so we had a little bit of a clue on land bearings, but it is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
We used the GPS and found the coordinates that Terry had given us. We saw swirling water that we imagined was \”boiling\” but no luck. The depths were 130 feet, too deep for setting our anchor & not the right area. We were really starting to sweat in our wetsuits & getting discouraged. Then Scott remembered putting it in as a waypoint on our depth sounder when we were tied up to Nautilus Explorer. Whammo it appears from the deep: 20 feet, just as advertised.

The shallower rock & reef mounds like this are home to all kinds of sea life & called \”cleaner stations\”. The little fish clean, or pick at the bigger fish. Kind of like other animals grooming each other.

We did our backroll into the water out of the dinghy, made sure the anchor was secure & right away a manta came to check us out. I petted his belly & then thought he swam away, but he was still over my head. I accidentally collided with his wing as he started to swim, so my mask flooded a bit. No big deal, but the current was strong & I didn\’t want to get blown away from the reef. So I swam & took the video camera away from Scott & let him play with the manta while I taped it. He got to join the \”Manta Rider\” club! Very exciting.

The first ride the manta swam away from me and the reef, so Scott let go & swam back to me. The manta came swimming right behind him, \”Hey – let\’s keep playing!\” So he took another ride & this time the manta stayed more near me. Every time Scott let go & swam to me, the manta swam right up to him again. He took 4 different rides over 20 minutes total. Spectacular! They are so playful & curious. We can\’t help but compare them to playful puppies. Giant playful 1500-2000 lb. puppies!

Even when we were finally too low on air to stay down, the manta stayed right under us as we were doing our safety stop at 15 feet for 3 minutes. Beautiful. Amazing. Unbelieveable. Scott is the photographer in our family, but the video footage I took does capture the experience. Scott was so stoked. He felt very special. As he should!

We had taken 2 tanks & sandwiches hoping to get 2 dives in at the boiler. We took nearly an our surface interval but then the current shifted & we had to jump in to move our anchor so the line wouldn\’t get chafe on the coral. Some waves started breaking on top of the reef (thus the name \”The Boiler\” – the current can really swirl around & the water gets all churned up). The current was really strong & I had to do a \”combat crawl\” on the reef to move forward against it. We got the anchor re-secured to a safe location & then enjoyed watching some white tip reef sharks. But no mantas & the visibility wasn\’t that great so we only stayed half an hour. I always feel like I am in Navy Seal training when the dive conditions are strenuous. I don\’t get scared, but it does occur to me that most people would think we are nuts.

We are certainly getting way more exercise these days. It is plenty to do 2 dives a day. We don\’t want to push the nitrogen levels & we are pretty tired after #2. Schlepping all the gear in & out of the dinghy, plus the actual diving. Then rinsing & hanging the gear at the end of the day. There are always some chores to do. Today I get to do laundry later when we run the generator. The watermaker is still not 100% but we filled up our tanks enough to spare water for the wash. Yippee, clean sheets & towels! In the evening we look at the days video footage & re-live every moment.

Today is 2 years ago that Suzanne died. Scott hadn\’t mentioned it in the morning, so I did not remind him. After his special manta riding time, I asked him if he had thought about it. He had not (or at least tried not too), but gave special thanks to have such a great experience on this day. It is sobering think how the time passes & people come & go from our life. We feel so privileged to have this chance to live this life, especially at our relatively young age. There are challenges, but so many wonders under the sea.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
December 23, 2008

We took the dinghy around to the dive site called \”The Boiler\”. It was much flatter seas so a more comfortable ride than when we went out with the commercial boats. Today we had a hard time finding the shallow site to anchor on. We had tied up to the commercial boat the other day so we had a little bit of a clue on land bearings, but it is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
We used the GPS and found the coordinates that Terry had given us. We saw swirling water that we imagined was \”boiling\” but no luck. The depths were 130 feet, too deep for setting our anchor & not the right area. We were really starting to sweat in our wetsuits & getting discouraged. Then Scott remembered putting it in as a waypoint on our depth sounder when we were tied up to Nautilus Explorer. Whammo it appears from the deep: 20 feet, just as advertised.

The shallower rock & reef mounds like this are home to all kinds of sea life & called \”cleaner stations\”. The little fish clean, or pick at the bigger fish. Kind of like other animals grooming each other.

We did our backroll into the water out of the dinghy, made sure the anchor was secure & right away a manta came to check us out. I petted his belly & then thought he swam away, but he was still over my head. I accidentally collided with his wing as he started to swim, so my mask flooded a bit. No big deal, but the current was strong & I didn\’t want to get blown away from the reef. So I swam & took the video camera away from Scott & let him play with the manta while I taped it. He got to join the \”Manta Rider\” club! Very exciting.

The first ride the manta swam away from me and the reef, so Scott let go & swam back to me. The manta came swimming right behind him, \”Hey – let\’s keep playing!\” So he took another ride & this time the manta stayed more near me. Every time Scott let go & swam to me, the manta swam right up to him again. He took 4 different rides over 20 minutes total. Spectacular! They are so playful & curious. We can\’t help but compare them to playful puppies. Giant playful 1500-2000 lb. puppies!

Even when we were finally too low on air to stay down, the manta stayed right under us as we were doing our safety stop at 15 feet for 3 minutes. Beautiful. Amazing. Unbelieveable. Scott is the photographer in our family, but the video footage I took does capture the experience. Scott was so stoked. He felt very special. As he should!

We had taken 2 tanks & sandwiches hoping to get 2 dives in at the boiler. We took nearly an our surface interval but then the current shifted & we had to jump in to move our anchor so the line wouldn\’t get chafe on the coral. Some waves started breaking on top of the reef (thus the name \”The Boiler\” – the current can really swirl around & the water gets all churned up). The current was really strong & I had to do a \”combat crawl\” on the reef to move forward against it. We got the anchor re-secured to a safe location & then enjoyed watching some white tip reef sharks. But no mantas & the visibility wasn\’t that great so we only stayed half an hour. I always feel like I am in Navy Seal training when the dive conditions are strenuous. I don\’t get scared, but it does occur to me that most people would think we are nuts.

We are certainly getting way more exercise these days. It is plenty to do 2 dives a day. We don\’t want to push the nitrogen levels & we are pretty tired after #2. Schlepping all the gear in & out of the dinghy, plus the actual diving. Then rinsing & hanging the gear at the end of the day. There are always some chores to do. Today I get to do laundry later when we run the generator. The watermaker is still not 100% but we filled up our tanks enough to spare water for the wash. Yippee, clean sheets & towels! In the evening we look at the days video footage & re-live every moment.

Today is 2 years ago that Suzanne died. Scott hadn\’t mentioned it in the morning, so I did not remind him. After his special manta riding time, I asked him if he had thought about it. He had not (or at least tried not too), but gave special thanks to have such a great experience on this day. It is sobering think how the time passes & people come & go from our life. We feel so privileged to have this chance to live this life, especially at our relatively young age. There are challenges, but so many wonders under the sea.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
December 20-22, 2008

I have to limit my computer time because I can very suddenly get a headache & nauseous if the weather gets a bit bumpy here at the anchorage. I thought I\’d be over that by now, but the motion sickness still jumps up & bites me sometimes. Almost every other activity (cooking, cleaning, filling tanks, rinsing gear, loading dinghy etc) I am fine with – just reading & writing are a problem.
The ham email connections are not possible early morning or evening. So we are trying to make sure to connect between the morning & midday dives.

We got scolded by the sailmail administrators for using too many minutes. Fortunately we have the Iridium satellite phone. The pre-paid minutes cost about $1.50 each but it only takes about 2-3 minutes to send & receive several emails. The ham radio connections are often very slow out here as we are behind a 1200 foot volcano cone. Sometimes it takes us 10-15 minutes to get in 1 email. Frustrating, but the price of being off the grid and out here on the wild side. We have had a series emails with our CPA working on end of the year stuff. We hope next year will be simpler & we can anticipate things better.

We have continued to enjoy diving, seeing mantas on most of our dives. We haven\’t had as close an encounter as that first Manta Magic but it is still lovely to be here. Often in the early mornings there are mantas feeding at the surface very near our boat. We have gone in on scuba with then, but they seem busy & not that interested in us at that time of day.

The Clarion angelfish is native to this archipelago. About 6-12 inches long, it is mostly orange with some green on its face.

We\’ve seen wahoo swimming near the surface. They are nearly 2 feet long, shiny silver & known to be delicious raw with wasabi. We have heard you can ask for permission to fish for your own use, but since this is a marine preserve, we are not fishing. Just taking photos & admiring all the critters we see.

We see a lot of green moray eels swimming out in the open here. In the Sea of Cortez they were mostly tucked in a rocky corner. Maybe they know it\’s a marine preserve here and feel safe to swim openly. Also seen but less common, are the black with white striped zebra eels. Both types have these funny \”nose horns\” that give their faces a comic \”Puff the Magic Dragon\” look.

We always enjoy seeing octopi & had a nice time with one large one fairly out in the open. They will explore your bare finger with the suction cups on their many legs. They are not interested if we have gloves on, so we remove them. Sometimes they tug on your finger pretty strong, wanting to bring a potential tasty morsel near their beak. I get a bit timid then & let Scott play. We would never eat an octopus, they are thought to be as smart as dogs.

We had two dives with parading hammerheads at \”The Canyon\” area. There were at least 30 to 50 sharks swimming at 100 feet deep. We have been wearing our shark shields but not turning them on. We have not really had a \”live test\” of the units. But today when one hammerhead seemed to be swimming closer & closer to Scott\’s video camera I turned mine on & swam near to protect Scott in case the shark got a little too interested. Fortunately we got some great footage with no danger at all. It is very exciting to swim with sharks in the wild.
Scott & Terry Kennedy have nightly chat dates on the ham radio. Terry is so jazzed that we are here & trying to give us all kinds of detailed information on where to go. One spot of water looks kind of the same as another from the surface. We are enjoying doing our own exploring & have found one particular \”cleaner station\” that is a pinnacle 25 feet underwater at its top and about 60 feet at its base.

The only repair we\’ve needed to do so far is on our main watermaker. One part started to leak. Fortunately we had a spare & Scott installed it with minor assistance from me fetching tools. It is not a 100% success yet because our output is lower than it should be. He called the company via the satellite phone & got some suggestions on how to troubleshoot it. I hope we get it fixed soon because I need to do some laundry & would love to change our sheets & towels. We use a lot of fresh water rinsing off after every dive. We don\’t like feeling all salty or sitting on the interior furniture with salty bodies. We also rinse all our dive gear every day because the salt water is so corrosive.

Another couple, Chuck and Linda on s/v \”Jacaranda\” are drifting along on their way towards here. They don\’t carry much fuel so are trying to sail & not motor & they are not having enough wind. The commercial dive boats won\’t be back until Dec 27. I really treasure the peace & quiet, both above & below water. But it will be fun to have company.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
December 19, 2008

Today is Friday. We arrived at San Benedicto Island 2 days ago. On our 2nd dive today all our dreams came true.

Jeronimo Jara drives the panga for the \”live aboard\” dive boat, \”Solmar V\”. He came over this morning to introduce himself & offer information about the dive sites here. He helped us to identify land references to locate a site called \”The Canyon\” and the underwater pinnacles that we could anchor our dinghy on. We had already been invited by \”Nautilus Explorer\’s\” dive master, Sten to join their group at 7:45 am; they too were very helpful with local knowledge and had taken us to a site yesterday called \”The Boiler\”. We had some concerns about how the commercial dive operators would feel about us, but have found both boats to be very kind & willing to share information freely.

We were thrilled to see our first hammerhead sharks on the early dive. They swam fairly deep along a ridge. Not close enough for Scott to get any good video footage. But we saw 5 or 6 and were really jazzed. Still waiting for a manta ray!

After a snack, filling tanks & checking email we went out for our 2nd dive of the day. Jeronimo guided us to anchor in a good place along the ridge. We swam out watching for hammerheads swimming in the canyon as we had in the morning. We saw a few in the distance. It was overcast & they blend in with the blue/grey water in the distance. You really have to keep a sharp lookout. We had been down to 80 feet deep for about 20 minutes and decided it was time to start swimming back to our anchor. That\’s when I saw it: our very first manta ray. Scott quickly focused his video camera as the animal swam toward us. I was so thrilled just to be seeing one, I held very still as not to scare it away. It swam right to me, looking at me. We had learned that they do not let everyone approach them. They must choose you; like what they see in your eyes. I smiled. My eyes wide open.

Then everything we learned from Terry Kennedy this past summer came to me: Approach from below, pet the belly. (Feels like sandpaper!) Slowly swim on top up from behind. Cup your hands gently & hold on for the ride of your life. I did it! It let me! It seemed to like it! I felt like I was in one of Terry\’s videos. Actually I was in Scott\’s video! He caught the entire encounter on tape beautifully.

The manta could have spun out from under me, swam deep or gotten rid of me in any number of ways. But it actually seemed quite happy to let me hang on. Like another remora. (Remora fish attach themselves to mantas & sharks. Getting a free ride & food remnants. This one had 2 which is classic.) I was mesmerized. I didn\’t know or care where it flew me. I was riding a manta ray! And before I knew it, we were right by our dinghy\’s anchor again. Terry had told us that they are very smart & will not take a diver too deep and will return you to where you got on. All true. It would have carried me longer & further, but alas, I was running low on air & thought it wise to dismount after my 5 minute ride. I patted it with gratitude and blew kisses as it swam away. And then it turned back as if wondering why I got off.  It swam near us as we raised our anchor & swam to our dinghy.

Amazing. Wondrous. Words cannot do it justice. This is the moment that we have dreamt about. We are still pinching ourselves & in awe that we had this experience. Scott\’s 10 minute video needs little editing. I am sorry you will have to wait until we get internet access to view it. But it is spectacular.

WE WILL POST THIS VIDEO AS SOON AS WE GET BACK TO THE MAINLAND OF MEXICO IN FEBRAURY.

And we have only just begun� Was this a one time event? Will this manta be our new best friend? Will we see more? We are so happy for this day. This one experience makes our whole year in Mexico worthwhile. And if we had not met Terry in the Sea of Cortez this summer, we would not have decided to come here. It was his stories & his videos that inspired us to venture to these off the beaten path islands. We have him to thank for teaching us about \”adventure diving\”. We got all the right gear & took to heart everything he taught us. Thank you Terry for this gift, for sharing your knowledge and your mantas with us.

We understand & respect that the commercial dive operators discourage their divers from approaching the animals. They hare 20 people & it would be overwhelming. We are 2. \”Our manta\” approached us. This is why we got our own boat to do our own program. The commercial boats go to 3 islands in a week. We will stay right here 2 weeks or more and then visit Soccoro which is known for spectacular sharks and manta encounters as well. Stay tuned for more exciting tales from s/v \”Beach House\” in the coming month.

Scott & Cindy
(aka Manta Rider)

Dear F&F,
December 18, 2008

It is difficult without exact GPS waypoints to know where a good dive spot is versus a nothing spot. The commercial dive boat, \”Nautilus Explorer\” had showed up in the evening & we dinghied over to say hi & get some local knowledge. Owner of Reefseekers Dive Company (Ken Kurtis), in Los Angeles, had taken a group with this boat last April. We introduced ourselves knew some crews names & could relay his greetings. Everyone working on Nautilus Explorer was very friendly & invited us to follow them to their next dive site. So we did. It was a rough 30 minute ride (due to 3-4 foot swells) in our dinghy to a site called \”The Boiler\”. It was worth it to tag along with this boat that knows the area so well. We tied our dinghy off to their big boat & dove in.

The water temp was 80 & very clear. There is an underwater pinnacle & very interesting terrain of stacked rocks that is home to many fish. We saw our first Mexican sharks! Three white tipped reef sharks. We did not try to scare them away with our shark shields (worn, but turned off) as these are not a dangerous type. Two were resting side by side on the bottom & 1 swimming slowly along the rock. It was so great to be in the water again. The charter boat has about 20 divers onboard. They gave us bread & fruit in the morning & cookies in the afternoon. Very kind & much appreciated. A good first outing.

There are 2 commercial boats that bring new batches of divers to 3 islands of the Revillagegidos every 8 days. They spend 2 days here at San Benedicto, 2 days at Socorro (where we\’ll head in a few weeks) and 2 days at Roca Partida which we will not go to with our boat. It does not have an area we would feel safe to anchor our boat while diving. Although we understand it has a great variety of sharks, whales, and mantas, so a favorite with the commercial boat customers.

This is the first day I\’ve felt like I could read & write & even now it is a bit challenging because the boat is moving a lot. I didn\’t sleep too well again. I have to get used to the motion at anchor again.

Scott will take the video underwater tomorrow. We will go with the other boat to a site just a 5 minute dinghy ride from where \”Beach House\” is anchored called, \”The Canyon\”. They said they saw 2 manta rays there this morning. We are very excited to see the mantas. You have no way of knowing from the surface of the water what is underneath. Last night we turned on our stern (back of boat) underwater lights to see what fish would be attracted – quite a few mid size fish, but no sharks or mantas.

I made banana muffins because all my bananas got ripe at once. I think I could have left the onions & potatoes out of the fridge & should have put in the mangos & tomatoes; still learning. There is another private sailboat planning to come here, but they will not arrive for a week.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
December 15-17, 2008

The distance to our destination was such that no matter how we calculated our possible speed & distance we would be underway 2 days & 2 nights in order to time a daylight arrival. Going to an island unknown to us, it is only prudent seamanship. Before exiting the marina, we took the time to calibrate our autopilot & main navigation system compasses to be more synchronized & accurate.
There was only 5 knots of wind but we knew as soon as we were abeam of Cabo Falso off Cabo San Lucas, we would get more breeze & pick up speed. It tried our patience some to slog along so slowly under sail. We have been used to motoring a lot in Mexico since there is frequently not enough wind to sail. Or it is strong & coming from the wrong direction. Anyway, we were motivated to conserve our fuel so we sailed at an embarrassingly slow 3-4 knots for about 3 hours. Then we decided to just get going & motored on 1 engine for 2 hours. Then a beautiful breeze came up off our starboard beam and we really got going.

We did 4 hour watches timed to have Scott awake during the radio nets. The first night he talked to two ships on VHF radio that we saw crossing RIGHT in front of us. We really like the AIS (automatic identification system) that shows us these ships on our navigation screen long before they can be viewed by eye.

Despite my scopolamine patch I, became motion sick if I tried to read or write. Sea legs: no problem. Sea head & stomach: not so good. So I just enjoyed the sky, ocean & Sirius radio. I drank hot tea, cocoa & thought of fun snacks I could eat to reward myself for the passing of an hour. Scott has only rare seasickness in very boisterous seas. So he occupied himself with reading & writing emails, both personal & for requested weather reports.

The 2nd night we deliberately slowed down, sailing with the main up only, to insure a daylight arrival.
Overall we had fine conditions and a very comfortable trip. The only incident was a loud thumping noise on the starboard side as if something was hitting the boat. We weren\’t sure if we had hit something or if our newly rebuilt starboard transmission was having some sort of problem. We did several \”back downs\” to see if we could shake whatever we might have caught on our sail drive or dagger board. Eventually all seemed well. We ran the motor for an hour just to make sure.

Our second day and night were very slow, but by design we covered the last 1/3rd of the trip (total 249 miles. We could see Isla San Benedicto in the dark 20 miles away. It was Land Ho! Isla San Benedicto is a dormant volcano which last erupted in 1952. The most recent eruption created about an additional 20% of the islands land mass and looks just like the Hawaiian lava fields. This island chain is on the \”Rim of Fire\” which goes around the entire Pacific Ocean. The island looks like the moon – volcanic, no vegetation. There are quite a few booby birds which look cartoonish. The weather is ideal: mid 80s day & mid 70s night. The water is 80 degrees!

After a 2 hour nap we did an under the boat dive to check what our anchor was set in and see what we could see. It was just sand, 45 feet deep, we didn\’t see much, a few boring fish. We took it easy, just settling in. My brain & body decided I should still keep watch, so I was awake most of midnight to 3 am. Scott snored away peacefully. It takes me a while to get over these passages. We are eager to discover all the wonders that are in store for us here. Late that night, the commercial live aboard dive boat, \”Nautilus Explorer\” arrived outside the anchorage. We had spoken with them on the radio two days before and they told us they would be back here soon. We were anxious to find the manta rays and hammerhead sharks!

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
December 12-13, 2008

We were happy that the windlass worked flawlessly as we upped the anchor at 6 am. It was still dark, with dawn coming about 40 minutes later. We took 3 hour shifts being on watch, although we were both awake most of the day. The 175 mile trip took us about 24 hours, timed for a daylight arrival.

We stayed, in this two year old marina, 2 nights in February so were familiar with the entry. They now had power at most docks & now sell diesel. We puttered around until the fuel station opened then tanked up. We hold 115 gallons in each tank, one port one starboard. We also filled all 8 of our 5 gallon jugs. For scuba diving, we use our compressor to fill tanks. We have to run the generator to use the compressor, desalinate water & charge our batteries for lights, laptops & general household usage. The generator takes diesel. Since we hope to stay out at the Revillagegidos a month or longer, and there are no facilities there, we want to be topped off.

When the office opened we radioed to get our slip assignment. Since we stayed here last, they installed power supply to most docks, which is nice. A WiFi connection is available on the boat. All the luxuries of a full service marina. And for the price of $100 per night you expect that.

We had been in email contact with Ken Williams of m/v \”Sans Souci\” & knew he lives part time in a house in this area. We enjoyed his visit onboard \”Beach House\”, meeting him in person for the first time. He recommended a restaurant in town so we treated ourselves to dinner out. I have found dining out at \”nice\” restaurants to be overpriced & disappointing 80% of the time. Unfortunately this was one of those ventures that was just ok. Local, simple food is generally a better choice. I did enjoy strolling around town seeing the Christmas lights & ornaments. Being the week before most people\’s Christmas vacation, the street & shops were very quiet. A sign of the North American economic slow down.

Food shopping is a 3 part event.

Part 1 Gathering:
The next day we taxied to my favorite Mexican grocery store, \”Mega\”. We had done a pretty major shopping for staples 2 weeks prior in Mazatlan, but spent another $500 here. Now I was stocking up on produce, bread, tortillas, and other perishables.

Part 2 Get it Onboard
It takes several trips to transfer the many, many bags of food from the taxi, to dock carts, carefully go down the ramp, happy for a rising tide (low tide = steep downhill ramp). Push the carts way down to the end where we are tied (always at an end because catamarans are so wide). Then schlep it all onboard, taking care to throw out in the dock trash cans all cardboard packaging (with potential cockroach eggs hidden in the seams).

Part 3 Processing & Stowing
This to me is the most exhausting part. Probably because I am already exhausted from Parts 1 & 2.. Meats: I want to vacuum bag & freeze. This requires de-boning and creating the proper portion size. Cans: marked so the content is easily viewed from the top & the bought date. All older cans have to be taken out & the new ones stowed deepest so my supply is rotated. I am always so proud & amazed at how much my pantry will hold. We definitely will not starve.

Finally ready to set sail for the Revillagigedos!….

Scott & Cindy