Cruise of the Ketch Julia

[Garret]

Re: Cruise of the Ketch Julia

Dunno how I missed this thread, but glad I found it! I just spent 45 minutes going through from the beginning & thoroughly enjoyed it. It's nice to end up in a warm sunny spot with beautiful turquoise water when I'm looking at the woodstove cranking & out the window at a bunch of fresh snow on a -3F morning.

[johngsandusky]

Re: Cruise of the Ketch Julia

Thanks for the update and the pics!
Working upwind my ketch points higher and faster when I motorsail.

[J.Madison]

Re: Cruise of the Ketch Julia

Our 200 watts of solar is very small compared to most boats we meet, but it has always been enough for us. But with the warm water and air temps, sitting for several weeks without running the engine to switch anchorages or anything, all the christmas lights and baking, etc... the solar just couldn't quite keep up. The biggest load is the fridge, which is water cooled and affected by ambient temperatures.

So I ordered another 100 watts to go on the dodger. Solar is duty free in mexico, one of the few things that can be imported directly. I used the leftover roller furling foils as support. If we were at home it would have been brass tube with some nice custom castings, but I'm cruising now.



That job done and the boat heavily loaded with food, we headed back out to the island chain to work our way north toward Loreto. This section is much easier, most days runs are about 5 miles, with the occasional 15-20 mile day. Still all upwind, but that is much easier to bite off.







Hiking trails are very rare, when the book says there is hiking they mean you can climb on the rocks without anyone trying to stop you.... We did some cliff scrambles trying to make the plauteu on top.

[J.Madison]

Re: Cruise of the Ketch Julia

We didn't quite make it, the last cliff at the rim seemed like it might do us in. The dry waterfalls in the arroyo were very cool though.









Every day or two a new anchorage.



Every night an endless sunset over the Sierra de la Giganta mountain range.

[AJZimm]

Re: Cruise of the Ketch Julia

Thanks for the update, Jon.

I'd be interested in a brief description of your system for hoisting the dinghy aboard, inverting it and securing it to the deck. It looks a little too heavy to just muscle it up.

[Hwyl]

Re: Cruise of the Ketch Julia

Thanks!

[J.Madison]

Re: Cruise of the Ketch Julia

Thanks for the update, Jon.

I'd be interested in a brief description of your system for hoisting the dinghy aboard, inverting it and securing it to the deck. It looks a little too heavy to just muscle it up.

I put a brass half round on the caprail amidships of the mothership and use it as a skid plate to drag the dinghy up out of the water and on deck. Its a two person job to roll it over and thread it between the dorades and into position on the cabin top. One at the bow and one at the stern of the dinghy. The weight isn't really bad, that's why it is skin on frame. The shape and size are too much for one person though, unless you didn't care what got dinged up. Our system is much faster than other boats I watch hoisting their outboard with a tackle and then winching the dinghy up with a halyard while trying to fend it off and not bend over any stanchions.

[AJZimm]

Re: Cruise of the Ketch Julia

I put a brass half round on the caprail amidships of the mothership and use it as a skid plate to drag the dinghy up out of the water and on deck. Its a two person job to roll it over and thread it between the dorades and into position on the cabin top. One at the bow and one at the stern of the dinghy. The weight isn't really bad, that's why it is skin on frame. The shape and size are too much for one person though, unless you didn't care what got dinged up. Our system is much faster than other boats I watch hoisting their outboard with a tackle and then winching the dinghy up with a halyard while trying to fend it off and not bend over any stanchions.

Ah, I'd missed the fact that it is skin-on-frame. Definitely make it lighter but with the weight spread out I can see it would make it a little awkward. Like my Baidarka - only about 40 lbs but over 18 feet long. Not too hard to lift but once you get it turning it's hard to stop.

[Bobcat]

Re: Cruise of the Ketch Julia

Thanks for sharing this trip with us.

[alemon]

Re: Cruise of the Ketch Julia

great stuff, thanks for sharing. your videos are also quite wonderful. enjoy every moment.

[J.Madison]

Re: Cruise of the Ketch Julia

We are way behind....

Continuing north, we stopped and swam with sea lions at an offshore rock famous for that. Pretty intimidating when the big males cruise the territory making sure you don't get too close to the females. Swimming with a 700 lb testosterone jacked herem ruler is really something, we tried to do exactly as they wanted. The females and youngsters were lots of fun. One had found a snorkel that somebody dropped, he was carrying it in his mouth and swimming around just like the people do. Apparently no pics from the waterproof camera have been downloaded yet....

15 miles north of Isla Partida is Isla San Francisco, with its picture perfect crecent bay.



There is a pretty epic hike up the ridgeline.

[johngsandusky]

Re: Cruise of the Ketch Julia

Beautiful, thanks!

[J.Madison]

Re: Cruise of the Ketch Julia

Well that was supposed to be a much longer update, but then I realized that all the photos were still on the camera. Okay, back at it....


We kept pushing north, the winds were always against us, sometimes light but usually strong. We pulled into Mangle Solo on San Jose Island to let the wind blow itself out. The anchorage is just a slight curve in the island and a sand spit, but it knocks the waves down. A pod of bottlenose dolphins had a good time playing in the anchorage.





The wind seemed to be easing so we headed back out. Its amazing how hard it is to see waves at a distance. From behind the sand spit it looked like a beautiful day with a gentle ripple on the water. Out in the channel a couple hundred yards further the famous steep short rollers were marching along, just getting going for the day. We bashed into them all day as they grew and grew.



Los Gatos was the next anchorage on the mainland, in a norther there is just the tinyest nook you can barely hang on with your fingernails, but its the best option for many miles. (Actually it wouldn't have been so bad but other boats had taken the best spots by the time we arrived...) We came roaring in at very high speed, having cracked off onto a beam reach after rounding the barrier reef. Beam on to the waves right at their daily peak as the evening winds pushed for a grand finale, it seemed we were about to run up the beach at full speed and still we had not gotten out of the swell. At the last second I clawed the mainsail down and we rounded up with just a few feet of water under the keel and let the hook go. When its blowing like stink, there is really no way to keep the bow from falling off as chain is payed out, then it snatches back up when it runs out of leash. We settled in for a rolly night, but slept well anyway.

The next morning the wind was much calmer. We carried on northwards. At this point we'd gotten a burr under the saddle and needed to get to civilization for reasons that will become clear shortly.



Around the pinnacle and into Agua Verde.

[J.Madison]

Re: Cruise of the Ketch Julia

From Agua Verde its about 20 miles more to the hurricane hole of Puerto Escondido. This is an amazing anchorage, with natural protection in 360 degrees. Unfortunately the government tourism agency Fonatur has built a marina and installed moorings. I anchored off to the side of the mooring field where I had a nice short row to the dinghy dock and even picked up some wifi. They were horrified that I had anchored and promptly sent me off to a very distant mooring of unknown quality. The lady in the office had never been out to the moorings, but she was pretty sure it was easy to come and go, people do it all the time. So I had to row what seemed like a mile out against the 25 kt evening winds at the end of each day.... The facilities were very nice, best I have seen in Mexico, and the scenery was stunning.



Mexico is an affordable country. You can live very well on a little pile of saved money, with the massive exception of anything built specifically for tourists. So the mooring ball was expensive, the taxi to town also very costly, the restaurant at the marina that serves only the small group of foreigners coming from the yachts tried to sell me a $15 margarita. I was agast, that's seattle prices. A high end margarita in La Paz, big enough to drown in, is about $6. I bought a cerveza from the mini mart downstairs and drank it out on the patio instead.



That's Peurto Escondido just peeking through the window on the right, with Isla Danzante and Isla Carmen in the background.

When we left Seattle we truly had no plan other than try to get south. The Sea of Cortez was the ultimate stretch goal, with no idea what to do after. For the two weeks leading up to arriving in Peurtio Escondido we had been mulling over the idea of setting off to the south pacific. We didn't think it could be done, scheduling and covid closures, etc... but after meeting another Seattle boat that was going to make it happen we started to get very interested. They had us over for dinner and we got all the details, agent names, etc... We went on again, off again about it, as it adds a huge amount of mileage and schedule pressure to our made up plans- but we finally decided to do it.

French Polynesia is still closed, but with prior approval and a visa they will let you in. You've got to have your shots to apply for the visa, okay no problem. We got an agent and started the process. But, if we are going to do that, we need to haul out first for a bottom job and some little drivetrain upgrades, that means we need bottom paint and supplies, its much cheaper to import them rather than buy locally so on and on and on.....

We spent a couple days online like little office workers, making spreadsheets and plans and calling boatyards all up and down the coast of mexico. We pretty much had everything lined up and convinced ourselves that it was going to happen when the hammer dropped. Our visa was denied, we needed 3 shots and that was not available to us when we left the states. In Mexico it is still not possible for people our age to get a 3rd shot. Stalemate.

I went to sleep thinking the whole plan was off and woke up thinking we better just fly back to the states. We booked the cheapest possible flight to anywhere in the US for the next day, spent one day in the wastelands of LAX and got our jabs at a pharmacy near the airport. The pharmacists told us we were the only shots he'd given that day, and we'd flown in just for them.

We packed our bags with as much trader joes specialties as we could carry and headed back. The customs lady asked what we were importing. "snacks"

Thanks for allowing the digression, back on track.

A friend flew in to Loreto the day after we did and we all headed out to do some more cruising. The beautiful anchorage of honeymoon cove on Isla Danzante is only a few miles out from the harbor. The new camera that Peter brought down for us is such an upgrade!



Hiking in Mexico usually consists of scrambling around wondering where the trail is supposed to be and eventually getting stuck due to dense cacti or impassable cliffs. Beautiful though.





What more could you want?

[J.Madison]

Re: Cruise of the Ketch Julia

The bird life in the Gulf of California is spectacular. Blue footed boobies, giant pelicans, frigate birds, and a couple others I don't know where all having a frenzy around the anchored boat. The boobies in particular fold up like a missle from 50 ft up and hit the water at astonishing speeds. From the cliff tops you could watch how deep they went after impact, they must never dive in shallow water!



We ducked around the bottom of Isla Carmen, and beat up into it some more.





Winds again increased until it was blowing at least 25 steady and progress dead upwind was grinding to a halt against the rollers. We needed power to punch into it and I carried as much sail as I dared, I've never seen the side decks that far under water. Eventually it was decided enough was enough, so we anchored halfway to the destination. When the sea is more white than blue, and an anchorage is right there, no sense trying to go upwind. The next day we made it to the one settment on Isla Carmen, an abandoned salt pond operation that now has a hunting lodge that also seemed abandoned except for the generator running out back.



The chapel has been maintained as the rest of the place falls to ruin.



There were lots of piles of machinery that have become one with the ground. Its the kind of place where you feel yourself start to rust.