Blog

January 16th
The elephant seals were so interesting to watch that we went back ashore with the better camera & video equipment. The animals were more active & Scott got some great shots. We will post them when we next get an internet connection. It was an amazing treat to watch the mothers with their pups and the big snouted males lazily watching their harems. The babies were so cute and made sounds like monkeys. The females sounded like deep resonating barking dogs and the males sounded something between
an echo in a 55 gallon drum and a jack hammer!

Our landings on the beach at Isla San Benito were done in our dinghy with its reworked stainless steel wheels. The wheel system design we got from a fellow cruising friend, Dan Melnick and as you will see when we post the photos, the wheels flip down so we can pull the dinghy ashore.

Dear F&F,
We just went really slow all night to wait for sunrise to approach this island. The 2-6 am watch went the slowest & I got frustrated with my inexperience in sail trim.

There is a small fishing village on one of this groups 3 islands called Isla San Benitos. There is a lot of kelp so we had to be careful steering around it when we motored in. While I was napping (right after we set the anchor, since I\’d been up since 2 am) a fisherman came out to say hi to Scott & his children asked if we had any candy. They knew enough English for that! Scott told them we would come to shore later. After 2 hrs of nap, I got up, showered & felt semi-functional. Was eager to get
on land to take a hike. I prepared ziploc snack bags with a combo of trail mix, soy nuts and a chocolate for the children. I\’m not exactly carrying a surplus of candy! We did stock up on a bunch of D & AA batteries which we said might be useful to trade for fish or lobster. The dinghy battery was dead, but there is a lawnmower type pull start cord, so we got it fired up. Hadn\’t used it since Newport Beach. The fisherman & his son were on the shore & helped us pull it up out of the surf. We had not
really used the drop down wheels on the big dinghy before, they worked fine. It is heavy with the engine though, so it was nice to have extra help. The 3 children didn\’t seem too disappointed with the snack I gave them. They sat right down on the rocks & ate it. We changed from our \”get to the beach\” sandals, into our tennis shoes for hiking. We went probably 2 miles including a good uphill climb to see the lighthouse (defunct) & overall view from the top. It was a nice sunny day, and the breeze
was appreciated while hiking (chilly for standing around). We also walked over where the elephant seals congregate. Lucky for us, many had pups. They vocalize a lot & sound more like screeching monkeys than what you would expect from an elephant seal. The big males look so weird. We didn\’t go too close, but hopefully got some good photos. Scott estimated the largest males were over 1000 lbs.

We were hungry so ate \”dinner\” at 3:30. I made chicken tacos, very satisfying & easy. The sun went down behind the island hill about 4:45 pm. I am glad we will both get to sleep all night. Another sailboat from Vancouver Canada, literally just dropped anchor next to us, s/v \”Bandit\” who apparently also came here directly from Ensenada. Otherwise we are the only non-fishing boat anchored here. We have received email that 2 other Ensenada boats headed south today. The next 3 or 4 planned stops will
be daytime sailing only, anchored at night. But we will probably stay here at least one more night. The anchorage here is very calm and the weather for the next several days appears to be ideal. Scott is able to receive weather faxes over our high frequency radio and we can get text weather as well. This is all part of the long distance sailors day.

It was a big milestone for me to have those 2 overnighters right off the bat. The learning curve still feels pretty steep, but Scott is very sweet & encourages me to just try things & not be afraid to make mistakes (mainly I am inexperienced in sail trim & navigation). He is amazing me with his Spanish that just comes out of him. Sometime a French word or 2 sneaks in, but he is not afraid to try & that makes people very happy that he even makes the effort.

Cindy & Scott

Dear F&F,
We realized after we altered our plan to go to Isla San Martin, that the timing was such that we had to slow way down to arrive during daylight.
We try never to enter a new place at night. We arrived in the channel between Cedros Island and Isla San Benito around 6am after basically forcing ourselves to go only 3-5 knots all night. We are anchored in 45 feet of water in a nice smooth bight just off the village.

The islands definitely have the look of \”the back of beyond\”. There are about a dozen fishing \”Pangas\” (small skiffs) with outboards and everyone seems to be home, not out fishing. The shore has a very small village and it looks like everyone is sleeping in. Where we have anchored, just outside the pangas, we can hear the Elephant Seal colony on the middle island, barking away. Snug harbor, catching up on sleep and then we will go ashore. We\’ve gotten a \”two thumbs up\” from other cruising friends
who have said the locals are friendly and the hikes are terrific. Scott has seen a few whales \”blowing\” in the distance, but Cindy thinks he\’s pulling her fins…..:)
More later,
Scott & Cindy