Sierras Baja adventure 2020

[thataway]

Brent and Dixie,
Marie and I were talking about you at dinner last night. Glad to hear that you are home safe!

I hope we hear from Micah and Dana shortly. Marie thinks that Dana's Nurse license ID card should help expedite their trip across the boarder if they have not crossed already.

My son flew back from Cabo on Thursday. There were 30 people on a 300 seat air plane--10 of those were with his group. The 30 were the only people in San Diego Customs area when they arrived.

[Micahbigsur@msn.com]

We left our last Mexican camp at Gonzaga bay this morning early. We had about a 4 hour drive to the border, the Mexicans at the diesel pumps all had masks and gloves on and offered hand sanitizer to me, at the border it was deserted, none of the agents had protective gear on, very strange! We had to go through the x-ray machine and the lady was very concerned and kept tapping an area on the side of the boat and telling the agent inside to inspect the compartment behind it. It may have looked like a nuclear device on the X-ray but it was just the watermaker! After surrendering some fruit we were on our way in record time, our passports worked fine so no hold up there, thank God for Google maps or we would have gotten lost on the Mexican side for sure, the Mexicali/Calexico East crossing is like a maze. We ended up driving the still busy LA freeways in the rain, camping at a rest stop at the top of Tejon pass off interstate 5, still raining and 40°, quite a shock to our systems after warm Mexico this morning, drove 13 hours straight today and tomorrow we should be back in our slip in Monterey harbor.
We had a few small mechanical misadventures on the drive back up Baja that I will cover later.
Thanks for all your good thoughts!

[hardee]

Brent and Dixie, and Micah and Dana, Glad to hear you are all back across the border safe. Stay safe and healthy. And keep in touch -- here, for sure.

Harvey
SleepyC

[Discovery]

Thanks, Dr. Bob and Hardee for the welcome back.

We are self quarantining for a few days until we are sure we are free of any virus. There were no evidence of any Corona Virus precautions anywhere we went in Mexico. Mexico is at least a month behind the US in Corona Virus awareness, The CBP personnel were wearing nitrile gloves, but no masks.

[Micahbigsur@msn.com]

Well, our adventure has come to the end of the road. I want to thank you all for your comments and support.

We didn't expect it to end so soon, over a month early, but we were overcome by circumstance, as has been the rest of the world. In the end we wanted to be home on the ranch where we can hopefully ride this terrible pandemic out. We went into town today, 6AM "senior" buying hours, Carmel is a ghost town, it is hard to fathom how are lives will ever be the same again.

Our last days on the road were an adventure, about 1/3 of the road is narrow 9' lanes with sharp blind corners and the occasional semi in a hurry to make life interesting, about 200 miles in all, most of the rest of the road is good if a bit rough. The scenery is of an incredibly lush desert landscape through rocky canyons, cliffs and ridges painted in every color the earth can be. As far as towing a C-dory down, even though it is a beautiful drive and the lower Sea of Cortez is an incredibly scenic place to cruise I am hesitant to recommend it without reserve. The inevitable unavoidable potholes scattered along most of the route are hard on the trailer and indirectly on the boat. In the narrow areas I had several trucks cut inside on sharp narrow corners with my outside tires on the edge of a cliff and the truck clearing by inches, one broke off the top of my PVC pipe trailer boat guide. We did fine, but the potential for disaster is there, as the many roadside memorials can attest to. A trailer with bunks would be better at keeping the boat stable than the rollers on ours did. Our load range D 14" tires did great, never a problem but we did have the rough road loosen nuts and bolts on the trailer. The locater studs on one set of disc brake calipers backed out and were lost leaving the caliper unmoored on the disc. After at first clamping the piston in I found that with the pads in, it would not extend beyond the seal so it held fluid under pressure. When I checked the rest of the caliper studs I found one more half backed out. (Tie Down Engineering) I wired the caliper to the frame and it finished the trip fine, but another reason to have a heavy duty truck with exceptional brakes. Another mishap was having the lugnuts on one wheel work loose, by the time I found a safe place to pull off the road the rim was totally destroyed. Another lesson learned about constant checks. The studs on the hub were damaged but made it back and will have to be replaced. Sierra and her Suzuki outboard did a fantastic job, and we were able to cover a lot of miles on the water in comfort and saftey.

We camped at Bahia Conception and at Bahia Gonzaga on the way back both right on the beach next to the water. With the border restricted and limited to essential traffic only we had virtually no wait time. The big drive through X-ray did detect the watermaker and caused a bit of excitement, it started to rain as we traversed the LA freeway gauntlet, heavy still with traffic. A lot of the rest stops are seemingly permanently closed in California so we ended the day camped at the top of Tejon pass on I 5 after a 13 hour day towing from Gonzaga. Unfortunately the rain was just below the snow level so it was a very cold night. The next day the weather cleared long enough to launch Sierra back into her Monterey marina slip after a half day final drive.

Well that's the story of Sierra's Baja adventure, it was mostly great fun, somewhat difficult to achieve and in one of the most beautiful cruising places on earth.

[journey on]

It's wonderful that they put hwy 5 in. When I went down to Puerecitos in the 70s it was dry sand all the way down and back. Got stuck with the boat on the way back, dug it out. The town had a lot of people though.

Boris

[hardee]

Micah, thank you so much for keeping us included in your travels. Sounds like you handled even the rough patches with aplomb. There are advantages to knowing what you are doing, preparing well, and being competent and accomplished in what you are doing.

Glad you and Dana are back on the ranch. Stay safe, and enjoy . . . every day.

Harvey
SleepyC

[Micahbigsur@msn.com]

Harvey, thank you, it is a pain when you have problems, but if you have a solution, then it is "all is well that ends well" I was glad to have 2 mounted spare tires as not having the 2nd would have been stressful after the one was toast.

Boris, I also traveled the road down past Puertocitos in the 70's and got stuck a few times. Now the new highway 5 down to lake Chapala is the best widest road it Baja and a relief to turn into after the old narrow highway 1.

All in all it was a great trip!

Thanks, Micah

[Micahbigsur@msn.com]

Dana thinks my last long final post might have been a little discouraging about the drive down especially on highway 1. Let me say it is very doable, IF you are good and confident in your driving abilities towing your boat, you have more than 1 mounted spare and your truck and trailer are in very good shape. You are handy with tools and can solve unexpected fixit problems ( almost all of you C-brats seem to fit into this category). Mexicans are always extremely helpful so you will always have help if you need it.

Cruising the Sea of Cortez:
About 2/3s of the time the weather is great especially in late winter and spring. When the wind does come up the Sea can develop a short nasty chop that even large boats avoid so a way to receive either satellite or SSB forecasts, most areas don't have cell service. With a forecast there are plenty of safe anchorages available nearby. Almost all the anchorages have good holding over a sand bottom (an anchoring system at least 1 level above what the factory sells will give you better nights sleep, ours is sized for a an average 35 footer, 12 kilo Rocna Vulcan, 5/16 hi-tensile chain, 9/16 braided nylon) Tides are not really a factor in the southern sea.
Increased water storage.
Extra fuel cans for some areas. (Mexican gas is great, no ethanol at this time, outboards love it)
A dinghy or other way to get to shore, there are cliffs and long distance shallow sandy beaches, sting rays can be a problem also.
Trolling and reef fishing gear, fishing is best in the summer but can be OK in other seasons. Have a rail mounted BBQ with a 20 lb. propane tank.
Have a spare prop.
Have a good first aid kit.
Pack for 50° nights and 85° days, temps get into the nineties and above in May.
Hiking shoes, a good sun hat.
Food is available as in the states but both food and restaurants are generally cheaper than in the states, we always wash fruits and vegetables in soapy water with a few drops of bleach in it and have never had a problem, we also eat out a lot, many of the restaurants are great.
Optional, but we love having a head sink and saltwater foot pumps to extend our fresh water.
One thing we could have done better is put the boat on a diet of unused extras for better fuel mileage, let past experience be your guide. (leave the cute brass bell behind)
We don't cruise at night anymore so we never needed our radar.
Puerto Escondido is a 3 day drive below the border, has a great marina, launch ramp, safe truck and trailer storage, wi-fi, cell service, a gas dock, cruisers lounge, restaurant with a brick oven pizza and the beautiful town of Loreto is nearby. There are a great many beautiful anchorages nearby and La Paz is just over 100 miles south.
Our C-brat friend Alain alternatively does the one day 4 lane drive down from Arizona to San Carlos which has great boating infrastructure, then with a good weather window does the 80 mile Sea of Cortez crossing to Santa Rosalia then down to the same area we were in in Baja. He has done this many times.
I think any C-brats that have extensive cruising experience would do fine and have a fantastic experience!

Be well all, Micah

[Peter & Judy]

Thanks for the great information on cruising Baja. It is definitely on our to do list some time in the future. This thread will be helpful to us and other C-Brats in the future.

Glad to hear you are home safe and sound.

Stay Healthy

[hardee]

Micah, thanks again for the great summary. It sounds like a dream trip and sorry you had to bail so early. NO one could have expected that. Better to be safe though, and looks like it's a good thing you did not take my advice to stay and enjoy much longer.

Harvey
SleepyC