The wind and swell has died a little bit and we dove an exposed pinnacle on the North West side of the Island called the “Boiler”. It is the signature dive at the islands here including a bronze plaque celebrating the creation of the marine preserve.
Sarah is really coming along having completed her 22nd dive today and is extremely comfortable in the water and is a very aware diver. That’s good as we keep an eye on the animals and each other. Unfortunately, I think she’s now ruined and will be bored seeing the pretty little fish… đ
This is truly a magical place and possibly the only time we will be here due to the remoteness of the islands and changing fees/laws for visitor. We are trying to enjoy every moment in this special place!
As always, we miss you at home and it makes us feel less isolated to read your emails, so don’t be shy!
We went back to the “Boiler” yesterday. It’s amazing what a difference a day can make. We only saw one manta swimming by in the distance, and the water clarity was much different. We also dove with a group from a dive boat, and you can see the density of divers in the picture. Maybe that has something to do with the larger life staying away… đ
It was still a wonderful dive, and we were joined by a couple on a fourth boat for our dive, so there are currently 8 of us in our cruising group. We also took advantage of a birthday last night to gather on one of the boats for cocktails and cake. So much fun!!
We plan to travel South to Isla Socorro tomorrow or the day after, and check out the dive spots there.
More later!
As always, we miss you at home and it makes us feel less isolated to read your emails, so don’t be shy!
P.S. I’m trying a new email ‘reply-to’ address as I have reports of some of you not getting our emails. If you haven’t, they are being posted to our blog at the address below.
We had our first experience of having to pull anchor in the middle of the night last night. It was a learning lesson for both of us as we made an error in judgement. But first, let me back up before we get to the juicy gossip of midnight re anchoring! When Brad and I first rolled into the San Benedicto anchorage we were quite tired and struggled to place our anchor in a spot that wasn’t caught in the rocks. The wind was blowing off of the volcano at a steady 20kts which had stirred up the visibility in the water. Finally on our fourth drop we found a place that seemed suitable. But was it really?! The next day we got in the water and dove our anchor and chain to find it mischievously wrapped around several boulders and making several 90 degree turns. It looked like a drunken sailor dropped anchor! Nevertheless, our gear was holding and we weren’t going to go anywhere with how the chain was set. In fact, it was set so well that the it snapped our “snubber” (a line connecting the chain to the boat acting as a shock-absorber) due to the chain wrapped around a rock right under the boat–See attached picture.
Yesterday the wind was low and Brad and I set about fixing our anchor situation once and for all. Brad was at the bow and I was at the helm following his instructions while we tried to get Perspective freed from the tangled mess below. We cautiously pulled forward and our attempts were met with hard yanks from below, pulling Perspective like a toy. This would require another tactic. Cue our amazing boat buddies, Bruce and Alene on Migration. They had just finished doing a dive and were suited up and offered to give us a hand. Alene kindly offered to hop in the water and provide directions to untangle our anchor chain from the surface. When she first had a look at our tangled mess, she gave a good chuckle. Not one to back away from a challenge she said we could do it! Brad and I resumed our stations and Brad followed Alene’s instructions and repeated them to me. Step by step we were able to get our chain free from the rocks below and eventually pulled up our anchor.
Now all we had to do was find a new place to drop the hook and once again Alene provided her snorkeling services. She located some sand between Paseo (another buddy boat) and the shore. We pulled into the spot, dropped the hook and sighed in relief as we knew we would be able to pull anchor in a hurry should an emergency arise. We were pretty close to Paseo, about 200ft or so but felt it was a safe enough distance to stay put. Here’s where we made our mistake. We had asked Paseo how much chain they had out, and we had about 70ft less than they did. Combine that with a change in wind direction and you end up with two boats that are very close together, ready to go bump in the night!
If it weren’t for an annoying squeak on deck that required some on deck investigation, we wouldn’t have known just how close we were to Paseo. Brad being the trooper that he is, went on deck to find the squeak and silence it, but not before calling me up there. Paseo was maybe 35 feet from Perspective! I uncovered our dodger glass, hailed Paseo on the radio to let them know that we were going to pull anchor and to stand by. It was a tense time for all of us as we placed fenders, stowed our flopper stopper and finally pulled the anchor. Once the anchor was up, Brad took the helm and we began the process of finding a new spot to anchor. The moon had yet to rise making the anchorage and the surrounding land quite dark and disorienting. We made several loops and finally it was decided we were going to anchor in another area altogether.
I went to the bow with a flashlight in my hand waiting on instructions to drop the anchor. I had the light shining in the water to see if I could spot rocks below, but all I could see were the curious sharks making their way around our boat. With the bright light shining on them they looked like ghosts as they swam ahead of us. I thought to myself this would not be a good time to fall in the water, and if I did, I’m pretty sure I would be running on the surface! Once Brad found a suitable spot he gave me the command to drop the anchor and let out 100ft of chain. I did exactly that and stuck my foot on the chain to feel for any skipping or dragging. The feedback I received was solid. The chain pulled taut and the boat lurched forward. I dropped more chain until we had 200ft laid out, then another 50ft to finish the job. Words cannot express how thankful I was that we did not get caught up in the rocks below (at least from what I can tell) but that will require some under water investigating later.
Feeling confident in our new spot we radioed our fleet of buddies and gave them our thanks for the offers of help and support. We definitely learned an important lesson and are so glad that we managed to avoid that imminent bump in the night!
The lesson for the day is to ensure our chain is the same length (scope) as our neighbors so that we move *together*…
We had been in the same spot at Isla San Benedicto for 10 days and wanted to get one more dive in before moving south to Isla Socorro. I am so glad we did as we experienced a first for us underwater. While we have had pretty close encounters with hammerhead sharks on this trip, it is normally one or two swimming around minding their own business. That’s good as we don’t want too close of an encounter, but it is nice to see these magnificent animals clearly.
Before we get into our sightings and pictures, I’ll talk a little about sharks here. If you are not aware, there are three variants of hammerhead sharks: The bonnethead, scalloped hammerhead and the great hammerhead. The bonnetheads are largely harmless, the scalloped not dangerous unless feeding or spearfishing, and the great hammerheads should be monitored as they *can* but rarely do get aggressive. We pretty much exclusively have the scalloped hammerheads here in the Revillagigedo islands and therefore are alert but not worried. Other sharks we see regularly are silkies, duskies, white-tipped reef sharks and silvertip sharks. The white-tipped reef shark isn’t considered dangerous and the rest are if there is spearfishing or feeding activities or a diver is trying to molest one (petting, riding, grabbing the fin/tail and other stupid activities). Again, we are alert but not concerned. The one shark we keep an close eye out for is tiger sharks. We have not seen any, but they are in the area and can be aggressive. Universally we are excited to see these magnificent creatures and surprisingly have never felt fear. I expect that’s largely because they show so little interest in us and just go about their sharky business.
Back to the dive, we had a great dive for April fool’s on what is known as the canyon. There is a fish/shark cleaning station where everyone congregates and gets ‘cleaned’ by the little fish, who then pick the parasites off the big fish. Amazingly, no one gets eaten… It’s an example of predator/prey cooperation in the wild and is fascinating to watch. While hanging out here, we saw our first school of hammerheads in the distance and it was beautiful!! A first for us and hopefully to be repeated.
Sorry for the clarity as they were right at the edge of our vision. This one is a bit better looking up from about 70 feet.
Happy April Fool’s day from Bruce!
Shifting gears, the wind was forecast to pick up, so we departed San Benedicto on April 2nd and sailed south 36nm to Isla Socorro and anchored at Punta Tosca( 18 46.894N, 111 02.722W). More about that in our next message.
We are sitting cozily in beautiful Punta Tosca, Isla Socorro. Isla Socorro is drastically different than San Benedicto in that it reminds me of California with its green, rolling hills. The island is inhabited by a Mexican Naval Base and as a side note does not allow guests on shore without special permission. I’ll admit, I didn’t always think it was beautiful here, in fact, I was quite afraid of this place as we pulled into it. As Brad mentioned in the last email we had a 36nm sail to get here and Perspective was bringing up the rear of the pack at a solid 3rd place out of 4. (Its an unstated rule that if boats are going in the same direction it’s a race). There are benefits to not being the first boat in. As boats 1 and 2 rounded the corner into the anchorage they were met with 20kts of wind with their spinnakers up! Once they got things under control they were kind enough to alert the rest of us about the high winds and to prepare ourselves accordingly. Sure enough we were hit with the same winds but had only our reefed main up as we entered.
We waited as boats 1 and 2 got themselves anchored and then we made our approach. Here arose a missed training opportunity in my arsenal of skills. In these windy conditions its best to use the windlass free fall function via a clutch and rod. That’s something I’ve never done before and we decided not to practice it here. This meant that while I dropped the anchor, Brad would have to do some heavy duty piloting to keep us from blowing back from our anchor too quickly as it had a long way to drop before it hit the sea floor below. I let out 150ft of chain as quickly as the windlass would release it, then another 50 and we let the boat pull back on it. Then we let out another 50ft. We sat there and watched to see if the boat would drag backwards or stay put. Once we confirmed that we weren’t going anywhere, I went to the anchor locker with Brad and untwisted the rest of our chain so it could come out of the windlass. He went back on deck and slowly released the rest of our chain, link by link. Eventually all four boats were settled into the anchorage, all appropriately spaced with dragging alarms set. Just before bedtime a whale and her calf visited the anchorage and got pretty close to our neighboring boat. What a treat for us all!
Accompanying the wind we had large southern swells rolling into the anchorage, hitting us stern first. As these swells roared into shore you could see their true power as they pounded into land, spraying water high into the sky. I spent a lot of time on deck observing the power of mother nature as it was the only place I could handle being without feeling seasick. The waves were bouncing off shore creating a washing machine type of sea state. Even with our flopper stopper deployed Perspective was rocking in every direction. Even the multi hulls were getting bounced around quite a bit, albeit their motion was arguably worse as it was a quick and harsh jostling back and forth. We all rode it out knowing the conditions would soften up. And sure enough things did improve as the day went on yesterday. Bringing us to today, Easter Sunday!
You may be wondering why we left our last anchorage and headed to this one? We would have received the same high winds and swells in San Benedicto but with the unwanted bonus of volcanic ash and grit landing everywhere on our boats. No thank you! We are very excited to explore the new dive sites around this anchorage and will keep you posted on what we see.
We hope that each of you are having a wonderful holiday weekend, spending it with those that you love! We thank you for the email responses back, they’ve been quite entertaining and great for crew morale. If you’re reading this message on our blog we can be reached via email at crew@svperspective.com.
Hola Amigos! Perspective is on her way back to the Sea of Cortez for the summer and we are about 1/2 of the way across the sea, coming from Puerto Vallarta and inbound to La Paz.
We left on Weds, 5/13 at about 10 am knowing that the forecast for wind was low and was forecast to continue being low for at least a week. While we would normally wait this out, we are subject to the bane of every sailor… A SCHEDULE! I know, that sounds terrible but I’m sure we will suffer through and survive… We have just been motoring all but 45 minutes across the sea and expect that to continue. At least motoring makes for good fishing…
We are super excited to be on the move again as we have lots of fun plans for the summer with family, friends, wildlife and nature. Speaking of wildlife, we just caught this little beauty. He’s a juvenile yellow fin tuna which will provide 4-5 meals for Sarah and I (maybe some for Sydney too). It’s only the second yellow fin we’ve caught during our cruising time down in Mexico, the last in October of 2017. Can’t wait to sear a bit on the BBQ tonight!
Best wishes to all, hug your loved ones tightly, and be kind to each other.
In case we aren’t connected on Instagram or Facebook, I wanted to let you know that we’ve created an online photo gallery to share with all of you! I am able to upload full resolution photos and you’re able to download your favorites in full resolution- for free. How cool is that?! If you’ve been following this blog you know I’m a photo geek and this gallery allows me to display the photos in an easy to share/beautiful way.
There are printing options if you find something you can’t live without. The cost of printing is set by the photo labs so if it’s not in your ball park you can always download the image and print where it suits you best. Downloading the image is simple- just look to the left of your screen and click the icon.
If you’re looking to print on Canvas I’d recommend getting yourself a deal on https://www.canvasondemand.com/products/canvas-prints/ and printing through their website. I’ve used them a couple of times and have been very happy with their finished product.
If you’re a photography geek like me, you’ll be excited to see that theres an option to view the camera settings I used to get the shot.
I’ll be adding photos to the gallery as we have access to the internet, so be sure to stay tuned! If you do end up printing any of the photos I’d love to hear about it and see the finished product. Take a look around and let me know which is your favorite gallery.
In other news, Perspective is about to set sail from La Paz and head north to Loreto. Brad has been busy adding a life changing/powerful upgrade to our boat and with any luck he will be sharing with you soon. Until then…Stay safe out there and be kind to one another! Cheers!
Hola amigo’s! I thought we would quickly check in. We spent just finished spending a little over a week in La Paz which was primarily focused on work. Our batteries were getting tired, so we swapped out our AGM batteries for Lithium Ion Phosphate (LifePo4) batteries on the boat. What a huge difference this makes!!
From my perspective, the primary problem any lead acid battery has for a cruising boat is that they want to be fully charged and the battery charging slows WAY down when they are over 85% full. No problem in a car where you run the alternator for hours. On a boat, where we run things like refrigeration all day and night and sometimes have cloudy days. This means the batteries don’t always get charged which shortens their life. The beauty of lithium batteries is that they don’t care, and as a matter of fact prefer not to be fully charged. This means we can basically live off solar except while on anchor and not have to worry about power. We even have enough to run the watermaker (36 gal/hr) off solar as long as we plan it appropriately. It’s a big difference! If you’re worrying about safety, there are multiple lithium technologies, and LifePo4 is safe. I could actually put a bullet through the pack and it wouldn’t catch fire.
We are currently making our way north. As always, the Sea of Cortez is known for motoring from windy anchorage to windy anchorage…
Guest Log SVPERSPECTIVE by Bob Harley and edited by Karen Treat
I will start this log with a little background. While I have been a stinkpot boater on a houseboat in the San Francisco Delta for 40 years, I was amazed when my son, Brad, said that he was buying a cruising sailboat and taking off with Sarah. But, after over three years, I wanted to join the two of them along with Karen. She was the gutsy one, having never really âroughed itâ on the water, and had to avoid golf for the time period, most of the time with no internet! But, in addition to the swimming and snorkeling, she found the Kindle along with Danielle Steele, and now we canât get her away from that reading!
But I digress. The beauty of the Sea of Cortez is amazing. We moved several times into different bays and they all had special things to offer. But Sarah and Brad talk about that in their blog, so I am not going to repeat it.
What I saw was a full life on a sailboat, and the significant skills and teamwork that it takes to live and breathe in this gorgeous environment. I always thought that the real experience was in being able to âsailâ. But I quickly learned from Brad and Sarah that it takes navigation expertise, electrical engineering, software and hardware capability, seamstress effort, teamwork, and constant chores in fixing and cleaning the boat. But most importantly, the choreography that Brad and Sarah have in all aspects of the voyage. It looks like a dance as they haul the dingy on board, raise and lower the anchor, and tend to the sails. And, of course, the boat is completely self-sufficient with salt to fresh water making, pumps, and what seemed like an endless supply of food!
We saw the generosity of the sailing community. Brad provided fresh water to another boat whose water maker malfunctioned, and even loaned a tank of air so they could dive. And when a small Bayliner was having difficulty anchoring in one of the bays, he even loaned the Fortress anchor to them for the day. They not only returned it, but invited us all to dinner in Loreto!
The life and love Brad and Sarah share on the boat will always be wonderful memories. And the time with Karen amazing. She took to the water like a fish and we both wanted to be part of the crew. It was the best Fatherâs Day vacation and present that I can imagine. BOB
I echo all that Bob has shared. I want to thank Brad and Sarah for hosting us and flat out spoiling us with love and homecooked meals. Brad speared us fresh fish almost daily and prepared it so many ways on the grill. We met some of their friends and went to dinner at a beautiful hotel and also had them for dinner too on the boat. We all slept a lot too with naps here and there. We all loved the water daily many times in and out. With water temp over 80 degrees it was easy. I would be remiss not to give honorable mention to Sarah and Bradâs brown labradoodle, Sydney. She is a love and a great boat mate too. The beauty of this region was a surprise and living the life of a boat cruiser was definitely a top 10 of all my trips. We would do it again. Loreto Bay and the surrounding areas that we experienced were unforgettable. The water and scenery is very healing. Our time together was special to say the very least. I am grateful. KAREN
We arrived in the area a few days ago and have enjoyed the cooler weather, water and a bit of fishing. After hearing of whale sharks outside âtownâ, we sailed into small bay in front of Bahia de Los Ăngeles and dropped anchor. We were greeted by three young whale sharks that repeatedly came within 50 feet of the boat. We are looking forward to swimming with the beautiful giants over the next few days. Below is one I caught this morning in calm wind with the drone about a half mile east of where we are anchored. Apologies for the photo quality as it’s coming over our very slow satellite connection. Wishing everyone well!
