We have arrived in Santa Rosalia!!!

First off, we entered Baja California Sur a couple of days ago, and now we are in a different state.  The time was 6:30 am on November 22!  The other big news is that we are now officially 1/2 way down the Baja coast!!!!!  This equates to paddling from Craig to Skagway so far.

We will post more tomorrow, but want everyone to know that we pulled in to Santa Rosalia this afternoon with calm seas.  We were greeted at the harbor by Kate and George, two people from Haines Junction that are down here sailing.  We met them up at San Francisquito, and they saw us paddling across the bay today, and had two cold beers waiting for us as we docked!

This leg has been a long one- 140 miles from LA Bay to here, and we put in a 30 mile day as well.  We met some interesting people, some of them Mexican Pangeros that were super nice to us along the way.  We are enjoying cold beer and are in the middle of some sort of political rally in our town.  We are continuing to enjoy our fish tacos, but along the way we have also had some scallops, oysters, and even had some ceviche and lobster with the Pangeros!

An interesting point is that we have noticed the Pangeros fishing methods have changed as we have moved on down the coast.  To start with they had piles of loose gillnet web in their boats for fishing small fish, then we saw long lines and short gillnets for squid, then we saw pot fishing for Cabrilla, then we saw some shark fishermen with bigger mesh gillnet, then we saw more longlines, and now we have seen hook and line fishing more like trolling.  What is next- a seiner?  Actually we saw a transvac pump here in Santa Rosalia today, so maybe we will see a seiner!

For those that are interested in birds, we have seen alot of them- but we agree that our favorite to watch is the Blue Footed  Boobie.  We love to watch their 200 foot dives straight down into the water to get a fish, and then pop up a few minutes later to do it all over again!  We also saw a rare red billed tropic bird- we didnt know they were rare until a lady at the museum in LA Bay told us that they were rarely seen here, so then we were impressed as well!

The water and food rations have been holding up really well, and in fact we have had people offer us water along the way, and we have turned them down because we are doing so well with what we have.  We still are burning more calories than we are eating, but thats going to be the way it is we think!  Tonight we are going out on the town and eat late and have a few drinks and probably stay up past our usual bed time of 6pm!

One more Day in LA Bay

Today is November 17th and we plan on packing up from this Oasis of a place and move 3 miles into downtown LA Bay where we will be closer to the grocery store to stock up on some supplies, and also we will be closer to the Taco Stand!  When you are travelling by kayak, stocking up means more water and tortillas- and that's about it.  We don't have room for much else, except for some onions and peppers and limes to flavor our fish tacos.

Mark caught a yellowtail a couple of days ago and we both agree that it is the best tasting fish we have had down here- it was about 7 or 8 pounds, and we both devoured the entire fish in one sitting!  So far we would have to rank the fish we have eaten with Yellowtail being first, followed by Sierra, followed by bass and rounded out with the trigger fish.  Anytime we can get a yellowtail or a sierra, it is a great day!

The Baja 1000 rumbles through town tommorrow, and we plan on being underway in the morning as we have a one week forcast of calm weather, so we better make hay while the sun shines.  We have 150 miles to go before we will be by another computer (we think), so you may not hear from us for a while.  Our next stop is Francisquito- a little nook with fresh water supposedly available about 60 miles south of us, and then big water for another 80 or 90 miles until we are in a big town, Santa Rosalia.

Today we may try to take another peak at whale sharks in the inner bay, but we really want to see what the town looks like also.  Plus- there are killer tacos in this town and they are calling our names!!!!!  The best part about the tacos is that we can get chicken or beef- a welcome change from fish tacos!

Also we are starting to put together our Thanksgiving dinner menu- one of the guys at the place we are staying gave us a can of cranberries, and we already have a bag of chicken flavored rice, so now we need to track down a chicken along the way to round out the meal.  We are hoping to just buy a chicken walking around one of the villages we pass, and then it will be a great thanksgiving dinner for all- except for the chicken!

Thanks to all of you that are following our progress, and we will try and update when we can!

Bahia de Los Angeles aka LA Bay

We pulled into LA Bay this morning, and it was a welcomed event!  We left Gonzaga Bay on Monday, November 8th after getting to paddle with not one but two whale sharks- one north of Gonzaga Bay, and the other right in front of Alfonsina's hotel and bar where we spent one night.  

We made good time paddling around Punta Final and had a nice campsite, but then it blew hard the next day before we got a reprieve and clicked off another 20 miles towards LA Bay.  We camped at a place called El Mesquite and it was  a nice place as well, but the only problem was that we were pinned down there by a ferocious Northerly for the next 3 days before we could move.  We were conserving water by staying in the shade and sipping water like a hummingbird.  Mark gave me a hard time about the fact that I went the whole day on a coke bottle full of water!  And we are talking a 16 oz bottle- not a big one!

Then our luck improved, and the wind died down a little and we were able to again rack up about 17 miles and make it to an abandoned fish camp in a beautiful crescent sandy cove called Punta Meurto - I think it means something dead, so we were happy to make it through that and get out of there.  There are lots of Coyotes around and every night they cut loose with crazy howling noises!

The next morning, Nov 15th is was absolutely flat calm and we were able to travel at a pretty rapid pace.  We saw fin whales, lots of turtles, some fantastic rock structures, and Mark was able to catch about a 8 pound yellow tail tuna!  As usual, we had a couple of pods of Dolphins that we ran into along the way, and we even saw a handful of pangas- the first signs of people since Gonzaga Bay other than an occasional airplane!  We even felt so confident in the weather that we took a break 3 miles north of the dreaded Punta Remedios and went for a snorkel seeing lots of marine life and beautiful fish including the Sea of Cortez Angel.  We may- no we probably were the first people to ever snorkel that area!  We are also some of the first people not able to rotate our pictures, maybe we will get it together on the next round.

We kept on ticking off the miles and took a break right on the end of Punta Remedios and ate some lunch.  Lunch to us consists of one Clif Bar and a swallow of water!  Dinner always means the same thing- grilled fish.

We then set our sights on a point past Isla Alcatrez which would put us farther up into LA Bay, and we were beat by the time we got there.  But our reward for going in a strait line off shore to that point was a close encounter with a Fin Whale.  When we did stop for the night, it was on a spit of cobblestone with no real good tent platform, but it was good enough for us.  We ate the entire Yellow Tail, and even threw a rice dish in with it!  We also drank an incredible amount of water, making up for lost time with our hummingbird rationing!

We went to bed late last night- maybe 6 pm?  All night long we had maybe 50 or more pangas fishing right on the shore by our tent.  Most of the Pngeros ( the fishermen that fish the Pangas) were friendly and waved to us- they probably think we are nuts anyway.  We couldn't figure out if they were using nets, longlines or hooks, but we later found out today that they were fishing for Humboldt Squid!

Today we paddled the 11 miles or so into LA Bay proper.  We talked to a couple out in a Hawaiian Outrigger, and they were the first people we had talked to in 9 days, and the first kayakers we had seen.  We have also been watching out for rattlesnakes on land and haven't seen one, but as we paddled into LA Bay we passed a sea snake on the surface!  I didn't know we had to watch out for snakes on the water too!!!!!

We paddled to a place we though was our first bar, a place I thought was called Villa Bar, but instead it was a residence called Villa Bahia.  We were bummed, but then two guys that are housesitting the place- Shawn and Garrett- invited us in and gave us a cold Ballena ( Big sized Pacificos), and let us use the internet!  Thanks to Shawn and Garrett- you guys rock!!!!

If you happen to have access to a map of Baja, you will notice that this is a big milestone for us.  We have now completed 1/4 of the entire peninsula, and have now paddled over 150 miles as the crow flies.  But as Mark and Doug paddle, it was probably closer to 200 miles!!! We plan on hanging out here recuperating for a couple of days and then head south to Francisquitos. Will post more later, and we appreciate all of our followers!

Gonzaga Bay - 100 Miles South

We made it down to Gonzaga Bay this morning.  We have traveled through some rough windy weather and some very calm nice days.  We seem to prefer the 5 am departure in the dark with stars and phosphorescence.
We have met some really nice people along the way.  Thank you to Dave & Carol for the nice cold beer.  We also met a group of folks one evening who offered us dinner if Doug would fillet their fish.  We think we got the better end of the deal!  Come to find out, one of them had sport fished in Coffman Cove.

We have been making about 20 miles a day and 100 total so far.  We are 1/8th of the way and hope to be in LA Bay by the end of the next week.  Internet is scarce along the coast so our updates are few and far between at this point.

We saw a Whale Shark yesterday but didn't have a chance to swim with it though.  Maybe we can if we see another one.

We plan on leaving tomorrow on our next leg so enough for now.  Sorry no pictures at this point.  Maybe next stop.

Adios amigos!

San Felipe

We made it into San Felipe last night.  The boarder crossing was a bit interesting but we made it through with a little help from English speaking locals.  We have definately confirmed we are inadaquate in our multi-lingual skills.  Hopefully this journey will help us hone in on our spanish.

Last night was Halloween.  We rounded up some candy and passed out treats to the little ninas and ninos on the streets of San Felipe.  It was only a matter of minutes before we were swarmed and out of candy!  What a great experience - possibly the hightlight of the day other than seeing the Sea of Cortez finally.

We are now trying to finalize our car storage option here in town so we can feel safe leaving our mechanized transportation behind.  A very new experience is about to transpire.  No more car, restaurants, showers, power plugs for electronic devices, etc.  It seems a bit wierd but we are looking forward to the change.

We had another interesting experience today looking for "Blanco Gasolina" for our stoves- it isn't that common, and when we did find it, it comes in glass 20 oz bottles!  Mark walked out of the tire shop feeling like he was holding some kind of bomb!  The best part of the day was running into a guy from Canada and another guy from Mexico that helped us find stuff and talk to us in great English- and he knew the guy we are supposed to leave the car with.  Anyway, it has been a great experience so far, but we are definately ready to get on the water, as we need to get away from all of the hustle.  A girl at lunch here asked where we were paddling to, and we said Cabo- she said "holy shit that's a long way".  It might be, but we hopefully will start it soon!

Traveling Through California

Our Pacific Northwest tour ended a few days ago.  We have been traveling in California for two days now.  Just past the Oregon / California border we visited Doug's old stomping grounds of Hilt, CA.  Things have changed a bit since last living here.  The logging community is now gone and there may only be 10 residents left but there still is the  gas station, liquor store, burger dive- all in a wooden shack with the wood stove going full blast!

We pulled in and checked out the big city of Hornbrook where Doug's family once lived.  It isn't doing much better than Hilt, but at least it still is a town, and then hit the road again heading south.  We could see Mt. Shasta as we drove by, but it was a little cloudy so you couldn't see the summit.

Then it was on south to Redding and Red Bluff where we cut off on some other road to get off of I-5 and headed over to Chico and down to Sacramento.  We stopped in Chico to find the Sierra Nevada Brewery and asked a UPS guy for directions.  We stopped and had some beer and fish tacos and then headed on to Sacramento.  Along the way we pulled over and grabbed some walnuts that were dropped off of the trees, and they were pretty good!  

We were looking for an REI to pick up some more water bags, and found that there are some in Roseville, so that is where we headed.  However, once in Sacramento and Roseville, we got so messed up that we couldn't get out of there fast enough.  It turns out that the REI only had one of the bags that we needed and we had to spend the night and find the bags at another store in Folsom the next morning- so we grabbed a hotel and spent the night.

This morning I called a friend, Keith Powers, that lived in the area and he drove us to REI to get our bags and to have breakfast.  Note to self.... order everything on line from here on out!  We saw more turkeys and deer with Keith then we saw in 2000 miles so far!  Also we saw a dead raccoon in front of a vet clinic which we though was pretty ironic, until we saw something even more ironic.... a taxidermy shop next to the vet clinic!  We also saw Folsom Prison, and then hit the road south.

We passed fruit trees of every sort and then vegetable crops as we moved through Lodi, Stockton, and on down to Bakersfield.  Out of Bakersfield on our way to Palm Springs we were surprised to see all of the wind turbines there.  We thought that there were a lot of them from Ellensburg to the Columbia River, but this put that to shame!  There must be thousands of them out here, and they go all the way on in to San Bernidino.

We drove by the Edwards Airforce base where not only has Chuck Yeager flown many test flights but also where the Space Shuttle has landed many a time.  To bad we couldn't see the launch that is suppose to happen in the next fews days.  Guess we won't be able to check that one off the list.  Just past the airforce base was the Borax refinery where 20/20 Mule Team is made (we think).

We are here in Indio for the night where Mark's mom lived for a while as a kid.

Tomorrow we are going to do our final inventory check on supplies and cross the boarder probably around noon.  Looking forward to the paddle!  Stay tuned....

Back in America and Mexico Bound!

It was a whirlwind trip through Canada as we drove from Prince Rupert to Cache Creek the first day, and then on the second day we drove from Cache Creek all the way on in to Hood River, Oregon.  We kept our eyes peeled for animals in Canada, but we probably saw more decoys in yards than actual animals!

We stopped off yesterday and saw Mark's brother Dave at a hatchery along the Columbia River by Wenatchee and got to tag a few steelhead- it was essentially the same job Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs did with him last year, so we are almost movie stars.

We motored in to Oregon late around 10 pm crossing the Columbia River again, and spent the night at Mark's parents house, visiting with them for a while.  Today we spent time getting some more of our equipment together and visiting more of Mark's relatives before motoring out of Hood River and down to Portland- then back over the river to Washington to see Mark's sister and family- then back over the river and on down to Wilsonville, Oregon for the evening.  Tomorrow we will head on down to California and be one step closer to Mexico.

The car is working well even though we lost a windshield wiper this afternoon while getting on to I-5- I was able to grab it and duct tape it on the fly.  It is raining pretty good today- so much that we will probably have to pump out the kayaks tomorrow- and they haven't gotten off the roof yet!  None of the water in the boat is actually from the Multnomah Falls that you see in the picture!