S/V Loomba-Loomba

La Paz: We spent a week in La Paz. We were able to get two more batteries that match the ones we bought in Loreto and they actually delivered them right to the boat at Marina Palmira. We LOVE La Paz.   You can get almost anything you need here. Boat services and supplies are readily available, there are big supermarkets and good produce stands, good dentists and doctors, really nice restaurants, great little inexpensive taco stands, and everything in between. It’s also possible to ride bikes almost anywhere you need to go, or you can walk, and taxis are abundant and inexpensive. We LOVE La Paz. There is a very large boating community here so there are always people we know and someone always can tell you where to find something you need.   We LOVE La Paz. It’s within hours or a day or two away from lots of little islands and good anchorages. There are several large marinas here so it’s a good place to leave your boat while you fly/drive home – which is what we are doing now.

Once again our plans changed. We had the best crossing of the Sea of Cortez that we've ever had. Perfect sailing conditions.  Except for motoring out of the marina and starting the engine to anchor we sailed the entire 22 hour passage. All was great on Loomba-Loomba. Sunrise during the crossing of the Sea of Cortez from San Carlos on the mainland to Isla Coronados on Baja However, when we woke up the next morning anchored at Isla Coronados the house batteries were dead and weren't taking a charge when we ran the engine. With the help of a couple of other cruisers it was determined that the electronic read out for the charging system was not reading correctly and the batteries were toast.  Thank goodness we have a brand new starter battery! We decided to head into Puerto Escondito, rent a car,  and drive to Loreto to get new batteries. Heading into Puerto Escondido we couldn't believe how  green everything was. They had a lot more rain this summer than they hav

It's been a hectic two weeks. Six days were spent driving up to Palm Springs, and back and forth twice to San Pedro/LA, back to Palm Springs and then back to San Carlos. We'll be glad not to be in the car for awhile, although the Mexico part of the trip is always more interesting than the U.S. part. There's always stuff for sale along the road: It's chile season..... And there are shrines where people have died in accidents: The border crossing wasn't bad for a Saturday and the border patrol guy we got knew what a life raft was so we didn't have a problem getting through without opening it. (Thank Goodness) There was a gorgeous sunset in Tucson that night: The next day (Monday) we got to Palm Springs in time for a dip in the pool. In the morning we were heading to the freeway to San Pedro and our power steering pump went out and was spewing power steering fluid all over. We called AAA and a tow tru

Well, we are splashing tomorrow! After a quick trip down to Mexico with a packed car and a dinghy on the roof we checked into the condo that we rented in San Carlos last year only to find that they had no wifi anymore and the price had almost doubled. After three days of being told that the tech guy would come at 4:30 we packed up at 5:00 on day three and found a new place: Los Jitos Hotel.   I don’t know how many rooms there are, but it is BIG. Our room has a kitchen, AC, hot water, wifi and room cleaning with fresh linens every day. It’s also only five minutes from the boat yard where we go every day from 8 to 5 to work on Loomba-Loomba. All for $175/week US$! We haven’t tried to find out its history yet, but it appears that it must have been pretty fancy in its day and is now suffering from deferred maintenance.   There is now a Best Western and a big, fancy hotel down by Marina San Carlos – both newer than Los Jitos.   The first couple of nights we were the only g