We enjoyed our short time at Puerto Escondido. Our friends came and then left again. We planed to spend this time around Isla Carmen. It’s western boarder was so close you can see the birds that reside there. We were excited to be heading back out into the wild. Hoping to see more whales and other animals. It is starting to get warmer too. The water temps are more inviting and we are wanting to try snorkeling.
We radioed into the Marina and notified them we were leaving. They are such a friendly group. With Sam’s teasing of the front desk staff we had quickly got on a first name basis. We hoped to see them again on our way back down in the fall. Little did we know we would see them sooner rather than later.
We motored out of the dog leg entrance of Puerto Escondido Marina. There was hardly a breeze and the Sea was as flat as glass. That doesn’t dash our spirits at all. It is good to be moving again. There isn’t a smell of exhaust and we happily motored on over to the south easts corner of the island to Punta Colorado. It felt good to be on the move again. Tucked in the bay it was only us and the birds. We enjoyed the solitude.
We spend the next day or two enjoying the solitude. Only a few fishing and touring pangas drove by. Mostly out on the boarder. We inflated the paddle boards and went for paddles. The sun is warm. The water is still a little chilly when it splashes up. But it’s really is getting warmer.
There are forecasted West winds and we need to move up the island. We head up the Eastern coast to Bahia Cobra. There we will find good protection. We decide to motor on up wishing for a bit of wind to fill in as it usually does in the afternoon. It wasn’t happening but a super pod of dolphin catch our attention and there seems to be a whale spout in the middle of it. We motor over for a closer look. Yes! there is a frenzy of feeding dolphin, birds, and a large whale. These encounters are a wonderous site time and time again.
After spending a long time watching them we began to head back toward our destination. As we are approaching Bahia Cobra we begin to smell exhaust. I see smoke. Oh NO!! I run down to make sure we aren’t on fire. Quickly change spaces with Sam when we notice the exhaust is getting worse but we are not on fire. On a quick inspection Sam finds that the exhaust has completely broke off right above our La Paz repair. We are chasing the demon of old equipment!!
We float around while Sam finishes his diagnosis then quickly motor into the bay and drop anchor. Lots of irritated words are said with the realization that we will have to return to Puerto Escondido, the boats broke, and we are sleeping in soot yet again. How are we going to get parts? Can they even fix anything here? We have heard that there is “nothing North of La Paz”. We are hoping that that isn’t true.
Sam spends the evening looking through the owners manual and parts list and pondering about how he is going to fix this with no communication. the sun will be setting behind the island soon. Knowing we wont be staying there long I jump on a paddle board. I cut through the calm water of the bay toward the beach. The water clears the closer I get to shallower water. I think to my self that I might would like to snorkel here. Small little fish dart out from under by board. I take in the colorful cliffs that tower above me. Try and breath and not be to sad or frustrated.
I return to the boat to find Sam in an even worse mood. “We will return to the Marina tomorrow”. Hopefully there is enough wind so we don’t have to motor much. We clean up the best we can. Try to stay positive but both of us are feeling disappointed. The sun sets and we get some sleep. The next morning the sun is shining brightly and we have a tiny bit of wind.
We raise anchor and head out. It isn’t an hour later the the wind goes away. We spend the next several hours bobbing and clanging until we can’t stand it any more.At this rate we wont make it before sunset. We fire up the soot spitting motor and continue the trip in. Both of us hanging off the cockpit in front of the dodger so we didn’t have to breath the exhaust we continue in. As we are approaching our Punta Colorado we see a fin. As we try and decipher the menacing movement it made we see two more in random areas. Realizing they were shark I was glad I hadn’t met them snorkeling. Weird there were so many so close together.
About twenty minutes later as we are staring absent mindedly out at the sea we see a magnificent seven to eight foot fish jump out of the water with a tail longer than we had ever seen before. It takes us a few seconds to realize what we just saw and had to ask each other if the other one had seen it too. We had just witnessed a Thresher Shark jumping. We both thought we had been over taken by the exhaust. This helped ease the pain of limping back to the Marina.
We entered the Marina and grab the exact same ball we had before and headed into tell them we were back. They were happy to see us but sad that we were broken. They had recommendations of a mechanic that could take a look. “He is very good” they explained. Over the next several days we talked to the Mechanic Lauro and made a plan. He was going to order the stainless steel. That would take the longest time. Wouldn’t take that much more for him to make it. His estimate was two or three weeks.
As we settled in and tried to find a rhythm with nothing to do we talked to many cruisers. Many had had Lauro do work for them and they all said the same thing. “with out a doubt he is a very good mechanic”. “If it can be fixed he will fix it”. This made us feel relieved. Yet there is always a little bit of apprehension when you are no longer in charge of your time and how you spend it.
With the parts ordered I decided to go home early. Sam decided to stay on the boat until the exhaust was fixed just in case there was any issues. 3 weeks later he was on a plane home to enjoy his visit. Knowing the exhaust was fixed we would be able to leave right when we got back. That was good news as we would be getting back to Hiraya the end of July. Just in time for hurricane season to begin. We would be making a mad dash up as soon as we got there. We made a pack that we would stop on our way back down in any of the places we missed on the way up.