On Deck With SV Liahona: April 22, Puerto Balandra

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

April 22, Puerto Balandra

This morning was my first day as "net controller" for the Sonrisa net which is the ham radio net that I check into daily and get my weather forecasts. They asked me a few weeks ago if I would fill in on Wed. mornings starting today and I told them that I would but that I was a total ham nube and would probably make a fool of myself. ha. The net went pretty well although La Paz is a known "noisy" spot with awful reception to the other parts of the Sea of Cortez and the rest of Mexico. I did have difficulty hearing a few of the check-ins but with a couple of helpful relays things went off pretty well.

After the ham net I turned on the VHF radio to listen in on the VHF net for the local cruisers in La Paz. At the end of the net I put a call out to anyone that might know an old friend named Dario that we met and buddy boated with here in the Sea of Cortez and all the way through the Panama Canal and into the Caribbean way back in 1980 on my dad's boat the original Liahona. Someone responded to me and told me he was chatting with someone else on channel 17 so I popped over to that channel and he was there. I put a call out to him and he was shocked to hear "little Bret's" voice over the radio right here in La Paz after 35 years. We were heading into the fuel dock to refuel and Dario met us there, came aboard for an awesome little reunion after so many years. It was so good to talk to him. He sold his original boat Altair some 30 years ago, bought another boat called Ballena and after 30 years aboard he just, this last week or so, sold the Ballena and is moving on land here in La Paz. He was blown away that I have followed my pops and headed out to sea and even better that it isn't just a vacation for me. Pretty awesome visit.

After the 1980 sailor's reunion we headed north toward Isla Espiritu Santo but got detoured to Puerto Balandra before even getting to the island. Balandra is a beautiful bay about 10 miles north of La Paz with gorgeous white sand beaches that are broken up by large volcanic rock formations. Balandra is also home to the famous Mushroom Rock, a volcanic formation about 20 feet tall that is 90% erroded away at the base with to top large and rounded.

My back spasms seem to be a bit better today but after two days of taking pain meds I felt like crap most of the day, my version of a pain med hangover. Not bueno. So I have spent most of the day in my bunk trying to sleep off this nauseated headache while the boat guests have enjoyed the anchorage. I am hoping that tomorrow will find me with a less sore lower back and zero headache. Cross your fingers.

That's is for now kids. Ciao for now.