Feliz Navidad!
Part of sailing is record-keeping. And during our four years living aboard the good ship Atalanta, part of our records (in addition to our ship’s logs) were the long and detailed emails that Ginny periodically sent to landlubbing friends and family to keep them up to date on this strange endeavor of ours.
Here is an excerpt from one of them, from December 2002.
Feliz Navidad from La Paz! Several packages with presents arrived here a few days before Christmas, so Vienna and Rhiannon were well supplied with presents. Thank you for the magazine subscription and the book. I'm almost done with the magazine and will pass it along to another boat when we are done. The book looks very good, as does Vienna's book, which I think I'll read as well.
Vienna and Rhiannon prepare to pull the Christmas crackers!
We are using the mail forwarding service available through Downwind Marine, a marine store in San Diego that provides lots of gear, information and services for cruisers. Pam and Roger [Michael’s parents] periodically take packages to Downwind Marine, and cruisers leaving San Diego take mail with them, by boat, airplane or car. We periodically let Downwind Marine know where we are, and it somehow seems to work out. Lots of mail goes back and forth with cruisers flying home or coming back to their boats. We're going back to San Diego (and then on to Hawaii) in February for Pam and Roger's 40th wedding anniversary celebration, so we'll take a load of mail with us then.
I think the last you heard from me, we were hoping to go see the whales in Bahia Ballena. Unfortunately that didn't work out. We knew that the "season" for whale viewing is Dec 15 - Feb 15, but were hoping that we would still see them a few days early. Michael and Chris, from Tioga, went into the village to try to arrange a visit, but it was not possible until the 15th. We were speculating that maybe people aren't allowed in earlier because the whales are still calving or the calves are too young, but we don't really know. Our Spanish is not up to the task of explaining that idea or understanding an answer. So we spent the day on the beach instead and left early the next morning (Dec 12) for Bahia Santa Maria, just north of the entrance to Magdalena Bay, again in company with Tioga. We arrived about 10 AM, and rafted to Tioga. (This means that Tioga put down an anchor, and we tied up to Tioga like tying up to a dock.)
The kids of Atalanta and Tioga: Vienna, Joel, Gerrit, and Rhiannon
We set out in the dinghies hoping to put ashore at the mangrove grove, but decided the surf was too big for a safe landing. So we returned to the boats, Rhiannon, Michael and Sheila went swimming, and the kids spent the afternoon hopping back and forth between the boats. We all had dinner together on Tioga (they have a bigger table than we do), then the kids watched a Christmas special while the adults went next door to Atalanta. Over wine and cookies, we discussed the weather and our plans. The forecasters were anticipating increasing ocean swells due to some storms farther north but not much increase in wind speed down here. We decided to head into Magdalena Bay to sit out the increased swells before heading farther south.
However, the weather forecast the next morning put the increasing swells an additional day away, so we decided to leave right away, Atalanta heading for Los Frailes, around the corner from Cabo San Lucas, and Tioga continuing on to the mainland. We left around noon and sailed together for a day and a half. Michael and Vienna were on watch together the following night when we rounded Cabo Falso and said good-bye (via radio) to Tioga as we headed northeast past Cabo San Lucas and they continued southeast to Puerto Vallarta. After 2 weeks of buddy boating, we were sorry to see them go, but we hope to see them again come spring when they come north to the Sea of Cortez.
We continued north to Los Frailes, arriving about 9:30 the next morning. What a beautiful anchorage. There seemed to be lots of activity on the beach, so we went ashore for a picnic lunch. The girls splashed around in the waves, and Michael and I lay in the sand, reading and napping, making up for sleep missed during 2 nights at sea.
When we visited Punta Alta, Michael got to try his hand at some fish-fileting
The next day (Dec 17) we went ashore again, and this time we walked down the beach to see what all the activity was about. There is a sizable community of snowbirds there in their RV's, and also a sizable camp of Mexican fishermen. We had noticed a lot of bones and whole skeletons on the beach the day before (much to the girls' delight), and now, as we watched a fisherman filet his catch and toss the carcass down on the sand, we realized why.
On the other side of the bone-ridden fish camp is a beautiful white sand beach. We were enjoying a quiet walk around the bay when a woman zipped up on an ATV and asked if we wanted to pet a baby sea turtle! Sure enough, she had one in her hand! She had been walking on the beach that morning when she saw a nest full of baby turtles hatching and heading for the water. Since she had spent some time volunteering with a turtle recovery program, she knew a bit about sea turtles. She watched them for a while, even helping (throwing!) some into the water who were headed in the wrong direction. She had taken this one back to the house she was renting to look up what kind of turtle this was (a loggerback, she thought) and was now returning it to the beach. It was very dark grey in color, and looked just like a tiny sea turtle.
We then started looking for turtles ourselves. We saw lots of turtle tracks on the sand, and found what we think was the nest, but didn't find any turtles ourselves. A man we met farther along the beach had found a turtle, so he let Vienna and Rhiannon hold it for a few minutes and then set it free. Vienna put it down right at the edge of the water but it kept getting washed back ashore by the waves. In the end Michael threw it out past the surf line. We like to think that our turtle is now swimming happily somewhere, but in truth very few babies from a nest survive to adulthood.
Thank you Rhiannon for this baby turtle photo, 2024
We stayed at Los Frailes a few days longer than intended because of strong winds from the north, but we did go snorkeling on the coral reef and saw our first tropical fish. As the days passed, more and more boats kept arriving at this sheltered anchorage. Finally, on Dec 20, we thought the winds were moderating a bit, and another sailboat pulled out heading north. We gave them a bit of a head start, then hailed them on the VHF to see how they were doing. Another boat in the anchorage also chimed in on this radio conversation.
We decided to just bite the bullet and head upwind for a bit, or we could be there another 4 days waiting for the wind to die down. So we set off, and it was bumpy but not unmanageable. We ended up motoring most of the way as we were headed directly upwind. As we went farther north, the chop died down, and eventually the wind died down as well. By 10:30 the following morning, we were anchored in La Paz!
We stayed in the anchorage for a couple days and then moved over to Marina La Paz. We are enjoying walking up the docks rather than facing a wet dinghy ride whenever we want to go somewhere. We did many loads of laundry and have taken hot showers. Ahh...
Making pie is an essential part of the Christmas prep!
We celebrated Christmas just the 4 of us. We opened stockings and some presents in the morning, then went to the Club Cruceros Christmas tree downtown. Club Cruceros is a volunteer organization of cruisers in La Paz that provides services to cruisers in the area but also sponsors a children's Christmas tree every year and takes donations to a local orphanage.
The Christmas tree was in a plaza near the wharf. There was a large tent set up with all the toys to be given out, as well as oranges, cans of soda and chocolate lollipops. There were so many people there, it was overwhelming. One of the organizers told me they were expecting over 2000 children. The previous week, several of the organizers had gone out to the surrounding poorer neighborhoods to tell parents about the Christmas tree and give out tickets for the children. So people had to have a ticket to get in line to go through the tent to get a toy. Vienna and I helped with the distribution for a while, but Rhiannon was overwhelmed by the whole scene and just wanted to go home.
Vienna goes for the stocking!
I thought a lot about this as Vienna and I walked back to the boat later. I want my kids to realize how lucky we are as Americans, and to want to help people who have less than we do, but how is the question. One way, of course, is giving money to charities like Habitat for Humanity or Heifer Project International, that help people help themselves. That's not very easy to understand for a 6 year old though. But the wealthy gringos can't just show up and pass out toys and money. That's not the answer either.
Somewhere in here is a search for a purpose to this trip. I think my Protestant work ethic is rearing its head here, but there needs to be some purpose to prevent a descent into mere self-indulgence. I'm sure this topic will continue to come up over the next many months, so I'll let you know if I get it figured out.
Happy holidays from all the Harveys! Wherever you are, whoever you’re with, and whatever you’re celebrating, we hope you have a lovely time.
And as always, thanks for coming on this voyage with us!