final preparation

The seven day positioning trip from Alameda to La Paz was very uneventful. Perfectly calm seas, clear sunny days, and ridiculously illuminated nights from the moon. The only wildlife to be seen was our daily visit from a couple of pacific white side dolphins and a few spouting whales in the distance. Unfortunately I was asleep for a two minute viewing of a westbound school of 80-100 of the mentioned dolphins. Chief Mate Shawn Nettles saw a couple of marlin skimming the waters edge about 100 miles north of Cabo. Monday the 7^th of December around 4pm we got the first view of the 100’s of mansions littering the Cabo cliffs. Luckily we were ahead of schedule so captain allowed us to go for our first swim out in front of lovers beach and the Cabo arch. The water was warm and salty and it was a great welcome to Baja! That evening the moon was waning which displayed more stars than I ever remember seeing. There was no light pollution whatsoever besides the dim running lights of the Sea Bird enabling us to clearly see all the basic constellations and if I knew more…I’m sure they were clearly visible as well.

The minute we arrived at the fuel docks, customs officials and health inspectors bombarded us. Due to ever growing concern of swine flu, Mexican law has gotten far more strict than the past year adventures. We, as in fellow deckhand Ian, had to dig through all the trash with a Tyvek suit and respirator, separating all the meat and fruits from the rest of the trash. It was a task so foul that I would for sure have vomited. Once separated it had to be sprayed down the following morning with some sort of chemical before it could be off loaded. The ironic / humorous part of this rancid and time-consuming project was that once we were given the approval to offload, it all went in the same garbage truck! After translating for a couple of mechanics and government officials I was dubbed the official translator. It was nice to see that all my Spanish has paid off, but also a hassle while constantly delaying my daily projects.

We spent 4 days in La Paz docked right in the center of the marina paralleling the main drag. All that separated us from the music blaring street cruising Mexican rigs, was 150 ft concrete walkway and a security gate. It was great having town so accessible as well as having the ability to people watch from the decks. For the duration of our stay in La Paz, three local workers came aboard; Javier, Martin, and Gilberto. For the past 10 years 2 of the 3 had been helping out with painting and cleaning tasks whenever the Sea Bird came into port. The were hilarious and proved to be hard workers once I got on them a little! The amount of work we accomplished in those 4 days really impressed me. The boat was such a mess from shipyard and positioning that I was concerned we wouldn’t be ready in time for the first group of Baja guests.