As the northerlies built in the Sea of Cortez, we decided that hanging out in the anchorage, doing the La Paz waltz and getting soaked going back and forth in the dingy was not going to be a lot of fun. So, on Saturday, we got a slip at Marina Palmira which is farther west and a little farther from town but it was available. We have not stayed at the marina before so it is a new experience for us. It is larger than Marina de La Paz and there are a lot more mega-yachts but the facilities include a hotel with a swimming pool, which is available for the yachties to use if they buy a drink at the bar, 2 restaurants, a small store/chandlery, a laundry that uses American quarters (6 for wash, 6 for dry) and a free shuttle that goes into town 3 times a day.
Sunday before the winds picked up Rich went up the mast to check the rigging. He wears a climbing harness that we attach to two halyards. I ran one of the halyards to a powered winch in the cockpit and the other to a self-tailing winch on the mast. We use the powered winch to pull him up with the other as backup. It is a lot easier than my grinding him up by hand! Everything looks good. All of the rigging pins are in place with split pins. There are two loose rivets on the mast conduit between the first and second spreader, but not coincident. The port site primary shroud below the first spreader has a deep scratch in the staylock cylinder. We are not sure what caused this but we will keep an eye on it. We may want to order a replacement. In the afternoon I cleaned the cockpit and washed the cushions. I found lots of granola bar crumbs! With the northeries, the temperature has gone down to the low 70s during the day and in the 50’s at night so I put on jeans for the first time since leaving San Diego.
In the evening we went out for dinner with Adam and Cindy of SV Bravo. They were on E-dock with us when we were at Shilshole Bay Marina. They spent the past summer in the Sea of Cortez which we plan to do this coming summer so we want to get some of their ideas. We walked down to the “Smiling Dorado” and enjoyed fish and shrimp soup. We had a great time talking. We were the only patrons and of course we closed the place as well.
This morning Rich and I caught the shuttle and met Reg and Phoebe for breakfast at the Dock Café at Marina de La Paz. I just finished the Game of Thrones series by George R. R. Martin so I am loaning them the series to read. I finished the last book, “A Feast for Crows”, only to find out that he did not finish the series in the last book and has written a fifth book, “A Dance with Dragons”, which I will have to find somewhere. After breakfast, Rich, Phoebe and I went into town to look for an electronics store and then to the grocery store to do some provisioning. Along the way we passed through a small street market.
We also stopped by the main cathedral in La Paz. A mission was first established at the site of La Paz in 1535 by Herman Cortes and he called it Holy Cross Harbor. In 1683 the Jesuits rediscovered this port and named it Our Lady of Peace, but later it was abandon. In 1720 more Jesuits founded a permanent mission of La Paz.
We continued our walk, stopping at an Ace Hardware store and then at the Tiendas Chedraui and did our provisioning. We got a taxi back to Marina de La Paz to drop off Phoebe and then back to Marina Palmira.
Tomorrow we hope to get a diver to check the zincs and replace if necessary.
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