La Paz Mexico

It’s been a while since my last post. I was in La Paz Mexico on a 7 day trip. 5 days of the trip was devoted to Fly Fishing. The photo to the right was taken at Sunrise aboard our Panga. Although the trip was dedicated to fishing, I wished I were staying on a Cat. I imagined what it would be like. Someday I plan to turn imagination into reality. You can read more about my trip to La Paz on my Adventure Blog here. Since it is not related to Catamarans and Sailing I keep a separate blog.

I wished I had brought snorkeling gear on this trip. Although we stayed in La Paz, we fished an hour from the hotel in an area I believe they called Las Arenas. While fishing was slow one day we searched for a spot to fish and the captain of the Panga we were on drove right by a rocky point that was loaded with what seemed like an unlimited variety of fish. The water was as clear as day. It was so clear I felt like the prop was going to drag the rocks below. I am sure it was plenty deep. My only concern however is that I know there are Hammer Head and possible Mako’s that cruise the area, so I don’t know how safe it would be to dive there. The Mant Rays were plentiful as well and were taking flight all over the place. Although it is rare, they can be deadly as well. I recommend asking some of the locals if it is safe.

The local fisherman apparently do a good job of thinning the shark population. They have Shark buoys all over the place. The shark buoys’ are anchored to the ground. They will tie large hooks with Bonita or whatever bait they have to these shark buoy’s and then come back the next day to see if they caught anything. Not very sporting and I bet there is little to no regulations on how many they can harvest. We saw the fisherman go from buoy to buoy checking the lines. I didn’t see a whole lot of shark caught each day, so I guess that means sharks are not thick in the area. From what I have heard the future of fishing in this and other area’s of Baja doesn’t look good. I guess there are big boats netting up all the fish. At least us fly fisherman released the majority of our catch.

From what I have heard, La Paz is a popular sailing destination. I know I plan to sail there someday. I did see a nice Catamaran cruise by our hotel as well as several other sailboats and watercraft. We stayed at the La Concha Beach Resort in La Paz. The hotel is in-between two of the Marina’s. The Marina de La Paz and the Marina Costa Baja. I watched several sailboats cruise by the hotel through the channel. The Marina Costa Baja is home to one of the Moorings Charter locations. Here is a map of downtown La Paz which shows the location of Marina de La Paz , Immigration, Port Authority and more. I ran across a story by Mitch Mandell who tells of his time sailing a catamaran in La Paz here if you are interested.

Please feel free to reply to any of these posts or send me an email with any catamaran related news or general Sailing information. I am always looking for new information. My last post on May 20th I wrote about the Admiral Yachts Catamaran. I was unable to find the stats for the cat. I guess Alan Geeling read my post and was nice enough to give me the missing stats. I have updated the Catamaran statistics and performance potential rankings table if you are interested. Check them out here. Thanks for the info Alan.

Sailing Trip Planned and Fishing in the Ca Delta

I have been invited to help crew on a day trip on a 40 foot Cheoy Lee yawl. Yeah, I know, it is not a catamaran, but based on the complexity of the sail plan the experience will be rewarding. The captain also has 18 years of experience as a sailing instructor. All he asks is that I am enthusiastic, and can help crew and bring food for potluck lunch. Sounds like a plan. I am eagerly awaiting his sailing schedule in hopes that I will be able to join him.

I did some fishing this weekend on my SeaRay 180 Dual Console with my dad. It didn't start out well though. It was the 1st time in the water for my boat since last year. The batteries appeared to have a good charge the night before, but when I cranked her over she sounded week and failed to start even after using battery cables to connect both batteries. Although the motor would barely turn over my dad suspected a fuel problem. He has a Mercury 150 Optimax on his boat. Mine is a 130 Optimax, so he has experience. He also recalls that I have been plagued in the past with fuel delivery problems. There is a Squeeze bulb that SeaRay mounted horizontally so that if needed the fuel can be pumped to the engine. In some trips in the past I was forced to squeeze the bulb to prevent the engine from stalling. It was usually no big deal. My dad was advised by a mercury engine mechanic, that the bulb should be mounted vertically so the ball inside can do it's work. SeaRay should have known better. I had two batteries. One for the engine and one for the trolling motor. I ended up swapping batteries for a couple reasons. One is that it made it easier to remove the screws that held the Fuel line bulb horizontally, and the other is because I still suspected there were battery issues. Once the batteries were switched and the fuel line was prepositioned so that when squeezing the bulb, it could do it's job, the motor started up 1st time without issues and ran perfectly all day. Additionally both batteries worked perfectly all day, so it must have been a fuel issue.

I have learned some lessons. I need better tools on the boat. I should start the boat up at home after it has been sitting for so long to make sure all is well.

We were on our way after an hour delay. We fished the south delta for Stripers and did about as good as can be expected. It is a little early for peak Striper season, but I just had to get out. It was a little windy, but we survived. It was good practice for our upcoming trip to La Paz. We will be fly fishing, so I need all the practice I can get. I was looking like a rookie at 1^st, but by the end of the day I was much improved. Trouble is I have a weak back and fly fishing took a lot out of me. I hope I can survive 5 days in a row of fly fishing for big game in la paz. I will manage I am sure. :)

My dad got lucky and picked up an 8lb striper on a fly early during our trip. It was his biggest striper on a fly. I had one fish try to hit a topwater bomber. He made a few passes, but missed everytime. The water temp was only 56, so it is a bit cold still. I suspect I will have had better luck in the coming months as things warm up. I did pick up a 3 or 4lb bass trolling with a Yo-Zuri shallow diving rebel with a small grub trailer. We both caught several smaller Stripers and released all but the 8lber. We cooked the striper up tempura style with French fries and coleslaw. Mmmmmmm. Good stuff. Nothing beats fresh caught fish especially when you are the one that caught it.

We almost were run over by the biggest idiot on the water. We were trolling at 2.5 mph near the left side of the slue near the levy. To the right of us there was 150 yards of wide open space between us and the other side of the channel. I saw him in the distance moving fast towards us. I made sure he knew where I was going by turning closer towards the embankment signaling my intended path. Seconds later a fish grabbed on to my dads line on the left side of the boat. My dad had a fish on and picked up his rod and began to attempt to reel in. As we were both distracted by the fish hitting his line, we had no time to react as the idiot went flying by on our left side between us and the rocks. He was flying full speed on a 21 foot runabout with a full load of small kids and family members. I believe some of the spray from his boat hit us. He was that close. By the time I saw him all I could do is stand up with my arms outstretched as if to say what the F@ck are you doing? The driver was looking right at me as he passed by. I estimate he was moving 45 mph. He had to turn to his left as he passed to avoid hitting the rocks. As he did that he crossed behind us and sliced my dads line with the fish attached and in an instant the line from his real was gone as well as his $7.00 lure and fish that was attached to it.

I can only imagine how fearful the family must be and what they must be thinking. I know I wanted to rip his head off. My dad and I both yelled out and I expressed my opinion with my two middle fingers. I wanted to chase him down but my line was still in the water. At his speed it would have taken me a while to catch him. My 18 foot sea ray will go 48phm (Speed confirmed by GPS earlier that day) wide open which is pretty fast on the water. My dad and I are pretty easy going and a have calm personalities but we were both angry.

This was not the 1^st idiot I have seen on the delta. There are many. You have to watch out. Many have died, mostly alcohol related. This was definitely my closest call with death on the water. Part of me wished he would have hit the rocks; however I wouldn’t wish that on his poor family. I thought if I were paying attention I would throw something at him as he went by. I thought if I could catch him I could call in his Cf #’s. I also thought about jumping into his boat and taking him out along with his keys. I do hope that the line he now has wrapped around his prop will somehow do some damage, or at the very lease be an indication to him that he F’d up when he pulls the boat out of the water. To bad it wasn’t braided line instead of monofilament.