Posted on by Alex

Side Effects

It took us 5 days of sailing to get here. And it was well worth it. For the sailing itself, and for what we got once we arrived. The setting is beautiful, the air is warm day and night, the water isn’t cold anymore, people are very nice, and the food … OMG, the food!

But before I start posting about all that, there is a couple of things that I need to get out of my chest first.

Well, three in fact.

Change is good. Change brings new challenges, creates new opportunities, and entails the unknown.
By sailing more than 800 miles in a week, and crossing nearly 10 degrees of latitude with it, a lot has changed to us. Mostly welcome, and sought-after change. With a few exceptions.
So, here is a list of three side-effects that came along with this change.
EATEN ALIVE !
We have finally arrived to a legitimate warm place. It’s warm all day, and most of the night. Warm places usually breed mosquitoes, of the bitting type. Unused to this, we naively transited the place without taking precautions in the first days after arrival, and as a consequence we have spent the first week scratching ourselves. We now acquired mosquito-repellent ware, and the ratio of new bites/person/day has diminished to an acceptable level.
A poor crew member's leg, victimized by the mosquito attack
A poor crew member’s leg, victimized by the mosquito attack
One example of our new weaponry to evade the attackers.
One example of our new weaponry to evade the attackers.

 

A SHIPLOAD OF … SHIT 🙁

The Los Cabos area is famous for the abundant supply of deep-water fish. Fishing is a major sport here. The marina we are staying is occupied primarily by fancy sport fishing motor yachts. Fancy sport fishing motor yachts don’t have masts. Pesto does. With spreaders. This makes us standout among the boat crowd here for another flying species – birds. They flock around our mast, looking for a place to land – the spreaders and the mast top being their favorites. And once they are comfortably installed up there, they poop. The bombardment starts after sunset, and we keep hearing the splashes on the cabin top all through the night. We’ve made it a habit already to wash the deck daily from the generous deposits of birdy “stuff” (wouldn’t it be great if at least the bird poop acted as a natural repellent to mosquitoes? Well … it doesn’t).

Getting ready for another night of pooping
Getting ready for another night of pooping
The aftermath ... nothing is spared
The aftermath … nothing is spared

 

¡¿ CUANTO ?!

This place is simply beautiful. It is also close to wealthy areas in the US. Dollars have been pouring in here for quite some time. And Baja-Californians have put microeconomics to play pretty effectively. The fact is, we’ve found prices here to be high – very high. The marina we are in, for instance, has been the most expensive on a per-foot-day-basis that we have stayed so far. And the prices of marine diesel are also eye-watering – the most expensive I’ve paid on this trip yet ….. oh well. At least there are plenty of anchorages north of here, and we plan to take full advantage of that to lower our average daily costs.

An expensive place to stay. The gorgeous sunsets come free of charge though (and this one has NOT been the most beautiful we've had this week - but that is the subject of a different post)
An expensive place to stay. The gorgeous sunsets come free of charge though (and this one has NOT been the most beautiful we’ve had this week – but that is the subject of a different post)
Well that’s it.
And now that it’s out of my system, I can get back to writing about all the great, fantastic stuff surrounding us from dawn to dusk every day, which far, far, far compensate for the side-effects above.
Have a great week !

4 Replies to “Side Effects”

  1. Desculpe o Francês, mas estou cagando de rir com a foto do Pesto! Talvez um espantalho içado no tope amenize o problema.

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