here we go again: Feb 2016 Sonora trip

[payaso del mar]

Wife and I are heading out this Saturday for another foray south to San Carlos.  Taking the PayasoRoamer again since the Bandit is still Up On Jackstands.  Between Prez-Day and everything being closed Wed. due to the Pope being in town, we’re going down for almost 10 days and I’m only having to take 3 days of leave… the proverbial deal you can’t refuse!

 

Forecast is for highs in low 80s.  No fish reports in 2 weeks, though….discouraging.  I may end up bottom fishing, just to stock the freezer.  There’s a seamount about ½ mile out of the harbor known as “Social Security Reef” because you don’t spend much gas and can fill the larder for cheap.

 

All reels are prepped.  Replaced guides on two rods.  Truck is ready.  Orca Bait (the portabote) has a new transom, beefed for oversize 8hp motor.  Can’t sleep due to excitement, and checking forum twice daily for fish or anything reports.  I’ll shoot more pix this time.

 

I felt guilty posting that last trip report since we were in the Taco, but when I think about the work that went into its transition to PayasoRoamer (it dreams of being like an Earthroamer but cheaper to run and more fun…), I don’t feel so bad. 

Lots of LED lighting fore, aft, both sides, and inside, oscillating fan, 2 house batteries with isolator and redundant voltage monitors, 75W PV panel on roof, 60 liter fridge/freezer, “tent” that drapes over the shell (made from front half of an old canvas wall tent….fits perfectly and can be set up in about 2 minutes counting the framework), double layer of Reflectix insulation sheathed in cheap faux-Sunbrella  out the wazoo in the shell and bed, plywood floor with soft mat in bed, and what every camper needs, blacklight inside (works great for low intensity lighting that won’t kill your night vision, and it’s fun).  I made up side panels for the bed to serve as storage and hold all the electrics, and found some cool fish-motif Sunbrella fabric to cover em in. 

Shell can still be removed with the disconnection of 3 plugs and a ground jumper.  Still a work in progress but it will get me anywhere I have the guts or stupidity to try going, and a great solo camper.  I’ve lived out of it for a week at a time in Mexico many times.  Up to 23 honest mpg loaded for a week trip with the PB on top (if I set cruise on 63mph; more like 21mpg if I bump it up to 67-68), and will crawl goat trails along the cliffs over the water when I get there. 

So it is in fact sort of a Toyhome, just the “lite” or the “sleeping rough” version.  I won’t know what to do with myself when I have all the creature comforts of that huge, luxurious (top heavy) Bandit…….running water and a bucket john, I’ll be thinkin I’ve turned into the Donald.  Or the local cartel lawyer who (no poop…) had a gold plated toilet seat.

here's a teaser pic of the Folding Fish Weapon...what kind of idiot would go 20+ miles offshore in THAT?

[payaso del mar]

Slightly belated trip report....multiple installments due to pix

We headed south on Valentine’s Day, Saturday Feb 14. Took the bikes this time, strapped onto the rear carrier on top of the portabote seats....this turned out to be both a great and a not so great decision.

I was hoping this would be the trip where I could finally take the plunge and ditch the big ice chest in favor of the 12v fridge, but when I tested it in the driveway, the one ancient 75W panel didn’t quite make enough juice to offset the consumption of the fridge. So back to the 70 quart wheeled Coleman monster. This panel is ancient and I suspect it ain’t putting out anywhere near the rated 5+ amps. Will try it again for the May trip after I either replace the panel or add another.

Crossed at Nogales, AZ again. This time, we got 180 day tourist permits at the border.....these cost about $30 (the one-week ones are free) but I’ll get at least one more use out of it before it expires. The guy working at the INM (Mexican immigration) office was also able to change some dollars for us, altho I suspect this was not "official"....he gave us 16.5 per dollar, so someone was definitely making some $ given that the official rate was over 18:1. Still, it was worth it for the convenience.....I always like having some pesos as soon as I cross.

Trip down was wholly uneventful. We stopped in Hermosillo to get some squid for bottom fishing, which was interesting as the big Soriana grocery store is in a mall....and on a Saturday night and Valentine’s Day to boot, it was hopping.  young love at a mall, what's more romantic than that? 

We thought about staying in Hermo since it was getting late but both wanted to get to San Carlos that night so we pushed on for the last hour and a half. When we got there, it was midnight and we were both bushed. Didn’t feel like trolling for a decent motel so we stayed at one on the main drag although we knew it would be pricey and iffy. It didn’t disappoint on either count: $83, the most we’ve ever paid anywhere in Mexico, and it was a major dump even by Mexico standards. Light bulbs in less than half the fixtures, almost nothing worked, bed was crappy, you needed to take the "flushing assistance stick" to the john with you if you were planning on #2, and the housekeeping was, ah, diffident, to be charitable.....the hot water did work, though. The next night we moved back to the condo we’ve stayed at before, $10/night......total lodgings for the rest of the trip cost us less than we spent the first night on the Hell Motel. 

 

first pic is ready to head out, 2d is swapping light bulbs at Hell Motel as we went from room to room....

 

[payaso del mar]

The guys with the 70' boats with the $40K suite of lectronix were no doubt quaking when they saw the portabote being unfolded....the fishing tournaments down there are sometimes worth $50K and are a big deal. I did a bunch of fishing and found that trolling results were as bad as I’d expected: three scrawny barracudas that I didn’t even realize had latched on; I thought they were wads of seaweed and pulled in lures to clear em. Kept em anyway, as I’d promised my wife that The Great Hunter and Provider would bring home fish tacos. Ever tried to filet a pencil? The next two days, I shifted to deep jigging: drop a 5 oz lure down 250' and yank it up as fast as you can. Never tried this before, don’t know what I’m doing, but the fish seemed to like what I was doing: got a 12-15 lb yellowtail one day and one closer to 20# the next. The adrenaline rush when you feel that locomotive pull of a yellowtail and the line starts screaming off the reel is so addicting......how am I supposed to go back to fishing for 10" trout in NM?

One bit of sadness: we dropped in on some of my old friends, a family of commercial fishermen (known as pangueros, after the open skiffs called pangas they use) who befriended me when I was on some of my first trips and helped me learn what I was doing, and used to let me launch and beach my boat at their place. Now I slip my boat at the marina due to all-tides access, but I always try to bring them some food goodies and some small useful stuff (flashlights/batteries, big bottle of ibuprofen, some tools, used bikes I’ve fixed up for the kids, etc). They literally live in a tar paper shack with no running water, and the little girls had never tasted strawberries until I brought them some. This trip, we didn’t see the family matriarch, Mercedes, and learned that she’d had a leg amputated due to diabetes and was living with relatives in Guaymas; from the pics we saw, it looked like she’s not too long for this world. I’d guess she’s maybe 50 or so.........talk about a tough life.

 

[payaso del mar]

We biked all over town, and my wife was able to explore the area when I was out fishing. Bikes are great transpo in a town that’s maybe 3 miles from end to end and basically flat with a speed limit of 40 kph (bout 25 mph). Stupid Boy here hasn’t been on a 2 wheeler much lately; I let the tags on my XR650 lapse and I haven’t been on a dirt bike in over a year. So when i tried to just ride over that curb on our daily ceviche run one day, I didn’t hit it at a sufficient angle and went over the bars, hard. Road rash all the way from toes to hip and on both hands. I can attest that Dos Equis makes good anaesthetic..... (Ai yi yi yi.....cantar no yores.....) But don’t expect to actually find, you know, bandages and adhesive tape at a Mexican farmacia...we used up all I had in the first aid kit (also learned the bottles of xylocaine had broken and contents gone....glad I found that out before needing to suture up self or wife....)

All in all, it was even more paradise for us than on last trip. Coming back always leaves much to be desired, but it’s worse when you get the 3d degree from the govt (US or Mexican). At the big Mexican army checkpoint on MX15, we had to pull the bikes off and dig out our suitcases so they could pore through them. The soldiers were sniffing my wife’s spirulina (green algae powder, nutritional supplement), poking through her lingerie, and were very curious about the magnifying glass in the glove compartment (for reading small print on maps). After about 20 minutes of this, they let us go. Weird, because I’ve never before had more than a few Qs or at most a cursory look there previously. We got a motel in Magdalena for the night (too late to go see Padre Kino’s bones or the Colosio mausoleum) so we could hit the border before the line got bad the next morning. That part worked, but the Customs folks sent us to secondary and made us pull the bikes off and stuff out of the back AGAIN; they went through our coolers and threatened to fine us for the two apples in the cooler (we’d forgotten) as well as the apple cores in our trash (we’d sliced and ate what we thought was the last one as we approached border).

Trip from there on out was painless....weather was nice and truck got about 21 mpg for entire trip. Dogs were glad to see us and the cat came out after only 5-6 hours (this indicates she’s not TOO mad at us....). I’m going back in May and spent next week or 2 prepping stuff for that trip, while the "issues" from last one are still fresh in my mind.