March 20, 2015
Well we did end up leaving La Paz when Jon wanted to. We had dinner at Harker boards for their 2 for 1 Pizza night. We invited Daniel and Michelle from “Kaia”, Jess and Josh from “Far Niente” and Mark from Epic ship joined us while Angie stayed home suffering with a mega migraine. We all ate till we couldn’t eat any more and drank the only good craft beer any of us have found in Mexico while talking about our plans.
The next morning we had coffee on Prism, our guests tried to keep us as long as they could, as we all didn’t want to say god bye. “Kaia” is getting ready to do the puddle jump, while Jess and Josh are not sure where they are going to go for hurricane season.. yet. I have a feeling that we will be seeing them in the northern sea of cortez in a few weeks. As Jon and I were about to set sail, we remembered that we need to drop off the dog cone that Reid was borrowing from a fellow boater in La Paz.. good thing “Epic Ship” was listening to the radio and said they would come out on their dinghy to get the cone and relay it to the proper owner. Not only did Mark and Angie come out to get the cone, they also brought us some cold champagne as a fare well. We are looking forward to spending some time with them in the norther part of the sea.
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| Angie and Mark from Epic Ship |
Jon and I had a great sail out to the island, we have only explored 2 different anchorages out here, so we started with a new one: Bahia San Gabriel, which is the southern most bay on the island, and also completely open to the nightly coromuel winds. Last night they picked up and I did not sleep well. Its 100% beautiful here, although we didn’t get off the boat, we did clean her up and Jon rebuilt the water maker. He said it was pretty straight forward, the hardest part being getting the corroded bolts loose. But to replace and grease all the seals was kinda easy. I watched him work as I attempted to make sugar cookies without burning them. I am starting to notice that my oven is developing more and more hot spots. I am in the search for a baking stone.
Tomorrow if the winds are light we are going to take the SUP’s over to the Frigate rookery to check out the prehistoric birds. This bay is huge with an amazing white sand beach, there is even a trail out to anther beach on the east side of the island. I see a nice hike in our future. As long as the nightly winds play nicely, and I can get some sleep at night.
Oh and Jon and I have also decided that now Sean is not on board, we are going to cut down on our drinking. Funny we come to this agreement right after a made a huge batch of ginger beer… so maybe after that? 🙂 It is time to get into shape, we need to stop watching so many X-Files and get out, work our muscles! We also want to play more music, so I really have to work at that, I could be the next Jimmy Hindrex by the time our cruise is over.
Sunday March 22, 2015
Shannon:
Yesterday was what you can call a perfect Saturday. Jon and I woke to sunny skies, calm waters and a light breeze. We made french toast, ( although he said is wasn’t nearly as good as Josh’s) and blew up the SUPS. We paddled over to the lagoon where the frigate birds live. The babies are so cute, and the males are so impressive with their large red blown up throat things. The smell is also something you can never forget, thank god we got to stay up wind for most of the visit. We took the sups along the cliffs that line the east said of the bay, while we chatted with a couple, who are called “the does juanitas”. They have spent quite a few years cruising and filled us in on some of the must stops for our journey north.
We came back to the boat, made a drink, cut up some fresh mangos and played dominoes on the fore deck till we realized all the boats in the cove had left. SKINNY DIPPING TIME! We had another drink, took showers and realized that we had been in the sun for too long! Lets just say we are a little red. Just before we left back to the sates back in Feb, we were amazed that none of us had gotten sunburnt on the trip so far. We had to remind ourselves that it was winter, and now that spring is well on its way, we can feel the sun becoming more intense. Time to bust out the gallon of sunscreen we bought before we left.
Im not sure what we are going to do today, I know we are in no rush to leave to the next cove, now that we are not on a schedule any more… well not till July. That gives us over 4 months to go about 300 miles. I think we have the time 🙂 So today we might stay out of the sun, or we might go for that hike to the beach on the other side. Jon is doing the dishes and making coffee, while I am looking at a lot of bananas that were all green yesterday and now are yellow and brown, maybe I will make my grandma’s ( Benavides) banana nut bread this after noon. Yea I just might have to do that. … Soooo hows that diet and non drinking going for the crew aboard Prism?
March 26, 2015
Jon and I are currently anchored in a little cove only big enough for 2 boats called El Mezteno. When we left San Gabriel, never have done the hike to the other beach, we made our way to Puerto Ballena. This part of the island has 3 large coves, we chose to anchor in the most northern one called Ensenada de la Raza. We had what felt like the whole island to ourselfs, never really seeing any other boats. Spending most of the day nude and being annoyed to death by the little bo-bos, we only stayed there for one night. The following day we made our way to the next anchorage, Ensenada del Candelero which we have been to before, and also where Jon came with the motion crew for a shoot. When we left Raza, we came into line of site with La Paz so we had cell service for about 10 min. I sent a text to Jess and Josh to let them know where we were and too see if they were going to be coming out to the island. Sure enough they said they were and would meet us in the anchorage later in the day. When Jon and I set the hook the weather could not be more perfect. The water was crystal clear and warm, filled with turtles and dolphins. We got on our paddle boards and set off to get a closer look. As the sun started to get lower in the sky we thought that maybe Jess and Josh pulled into a different bay and would meet us in the morning. Just as the sun was about to set, we saw a boat sailing making its way towards us. Its “Far Niente”! with a very full boat, come to find out Jess and Josh had friends visiting them from Berkeley making a total of 5 people on board and the pup Ulie of corse. Jon and I rowed over bringing our ginger beer; one we let brew one day to long. It was a very fun night spent with friends. That night the nightly coromuel winds did pick up making the night very noisy, and stayed with us till about noon the following day.
Around 2 Far Niente had to start making their way back to La Paz as their guest had a flight the next day. We said our good byes and watched them sail off while we fired up the motor to move the half mile up into El Mezteno. When we got here we had the cove to our selves and jumped in for a quick snorkel. We were shocked about the dramatic thermal layer in the water here, at the surface the water is very warm, but about 3 feet down it drops no joke about 10 degrees! You can even see the shimmering layer where the 2 temperatures meet, super cool but way cold. On our way back we see a familiar boat anchoring next to us, its the Juanitas! I am looking forward to getting to know them a little better.
Jon is off looking at some kind of dead animal on the shore that the turkey vultures were going nuts for, I am having my coffee and maybe thinking about starting to make breakfast. Not sure what we will be doing today, but it is so beautiful in here I could do nothing but sit and take it all in!
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| Jon fixing the broken oar |
Friday I think, March something
So we are still in El Mezteno. This cove is so picture perfect we are having a hard time leaving. We went on the hike that leads up to an over look of caleta partida via the arroyo. The guide books call this a “hike for someone who wants to stretch their legs”, I would have to agree with that and then some. At some points we were bouldering completely… not really sure that i would recommend that hike for anyone who is not 100% ready to really climb and hike over loose rocks. The crews from the other 2 boats also were on the hike with us, and after 2 1/2 hours of felling like we were getting nowhere, we decided to head back to the beach to cool down.
I spent most of yesterday looking into our route for the northern Sea of Cortez. The rough idea route we want to take is over 650 miles, taking us as far north as Bahia Los Angeles, then back down to Guaymas on the main land by July. We relized that we needed to start moving or we might not get to stop at all the anchorages that we would like to.
The lovely ladies of “Dulce Maestra” had us over last night for beer and sunset watching. They asked Jon if he could bring some of our footage of our trip so far, so we ended up watching some of our trip, and half an episode of Motion, which is the show Jon used to shoot for before we left. We are going back over there tonight, and bringing some fresh brewed ginger beer that they have been wanting to try.
We have a couple of projects that we want to work on while there is nice weather ( no wind). We need to make an easy to put up and take down sun shade for the cockpit. PRISM came with a huge sun shade with wood battens and all, but Jon and I can not figure out where it goes or how it gets hung. We have hung it up a few times on the foredeck, but it looks very hobo-ish, so now it is acting as a cover for our SUPS till we can make real covers for them.
Spring is well on its way and bringing the heat with it. We were given some advice the other day, we were told that if we like this weather, we can follow it north pretty much till June, but once June is here, everything is hot! There will be no escaping it, well that is till we fly or drive back home for the hottest months here to be back in Berkeley for the coldest months, so when we come back to the sweaty hotness of Mexico after a few months of the cold Bay area we will be miserable, or in pure heaven 🙂
Tomorrow we might move up into the next bay, or the bay after that, not really sure yet. The news was that 4 days ago, Bahia Grande on Isla Partida was filled with bees and wasps, and that does not sound like any fun to me. Luckily all the anchorages up here are anywhere from 1 mile to 4 miles away from each other, so we have lots of bail out options. We also heard that a good southerly is going to blow on Sunday, I think that is the day after tomorrow. So we might head out to Isla San Francisco with that wind pushing us up.
We have eaten the last of our “Land Meat” so Jon just caught a huge trigger for us to have for dinner. The nice thing about eating fish is that the meals tend to be very simple and low in fat. Tonight it will be pan fried trigger with white rice… I might throw in some caned corn to spice things up, I mean why not! lets get crazy… we are in Mexico after all.
Jon has decided that he does not want to drink coffee anymore, that he was getting to addicted to it, and that is great news for me, cause my coffee supplies will last twice as long AND he now likes to take naps in the after noon. Have I ever mentioned how much I love afternoon naps, just sleeping in general. Its like quite hour, no projects, no cooking, we might play a card game to calm us then its nap time. We wake up then go for a swim, ITS PERFECT!
Sunday, March 29th
Well I think today is the day, we are cutting our ties to the La Paz area. There is a good south wind blowing so we should make it to Isla San Francisco in about 5 hours.
Monday March 30th
We did leave yesterday and headed for Isla San Francisco. We had the anchor up by 9, the wind was pushing us a long nicely till we got out past Espiritu Santo. By noon the winds had died and the current was dragging us back towards La Paz. We motored about about 30 mins till a nice east breeze came along. We sailed the rest of the way, moving at about 3.5 knts. Took us about 6 hours. This beautiful crescent shaped bay is filled with 15 other boats! Jon and I inflated the RED boards and made our rounds to say hello to the other boaters.
Around 1 am the nightly coromuel winds picked up, making it a little bumpy, but not to bad. When we woke this morning we were one of 3 sail boats left, along with 2 powerboats. The wind is still blowing out from the south, and only one of the sail boats that left are actually sailing. We have noticed and have heard from a lot of the older cruisers, that they would rather motor than sail. Jon and I often wonder why they even own a sail boat. If your just going to motor, a power boat is much more efficient. Weird.
Jon is defrosting the cold plate.. aka chiseling the frozen part off, he is so good at keeping everything ship shape. We are going to do the ridge line hike that over looks the island today, should make for a very cool view.
March 31st
Happy Birthday to my momma Kathy! Wishing she was around to celebrate with us.
April 1st
April fools day! Kinda hard to play a joke on a boat, to many things can go wrong and its hard to get away with something when the other person is always around. oh well maybe next year
Jon and I spent 3 days anchored at Isla San Francisco. The nightly coromuel winds picked up from the south west and made for rough sleeping. But we did go on the ridge line hike. The hike was 100% worth it and I would recommend anyone who visits this island to do the hike! Shawn and Heathers guide book shows the trail leading up from the middle of the beach, we found that if you walk out to the end of the cove towards the light tower there is a trail starting there that leads up to the top. Other cruisers told up about a more advance hike up to the top of the tallest point for a 360 degree view o the whole Canal de San Jose area.
We are now anchored in Bahia Amortahada off of Isla San Jose. There is a huge mangrove lagoon next to us, that is said be an amazing kayak or paddle board. I think we might head in there today, however we can not see the entrance to the lagoon from where we dropped the hook. There is a down side to this island, or so we have read, that the no-see-ums can be very bad, and even fly out to your boat and attack you throughout the night. We have all our bug screens up and have put deet everywhere. Lets hope it works.
April 2nd
IT DIDNT WORK! The no-see-ums made us their bitches. Well more Jon than me, he reacts to the bite like I do to a misquote bite. These little biting basters fly right though our screens and feasted. Jon has over 80 bites on his back alone. I was hit mostly on the back of my right leg, but Jon looks like a small pox victim. And nothing, absolutly nothing helps to stop the itching. I tried anti-itch cream, Cortizone, baking soda, tooth paste, anti histamines, although a cool wet rag does lessen the burning itchyness.
We should have just made that a day stop and left before dusk. Even John Steinbeck talks about the little biters!
“We were anchored quite near San Jose Island and that night we were visited by little black beetle-like flies which bit and left a stinging, itchy burn. Covering ourselves did not help, for they crawled down inside our bedding and bit us unmercifully.”
– John Steinbeck
Its been over 70 years since the writer had his adventure in the Sea and the biting devils are still there! You would think that more people would have warned us to not stay the night. Maybe it is a hit or miss thing, or maybe is a cruel joke boaters play on each other, saying that they never got bit and bla bla bla. Well I am here to tell anyone and everyone; IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE MANGROVES AT BAHIA AMORTAHADA, DO NOT STAY THE NIGHT THERE!!!!
This morning we bailed from Amortahada around 7 am, we didn’t even bother with coffee, we just wanted to get the hell out of there. Now we are anchored in San Evaristo, and the boat is squeaky clean inside and out. We needed to do the deep clean to clean out all the lingering no-see-ums. We are still spotting them and feeling them bite, but we are on the hunt and we will leave no survivors!
The little town of San Evaristo is a small fishing community with a small store and restaurant. We only need to pick up some more eggs for our trip north. We will have to restock a little more when we get up to Loreto.
As for now, Jon and I are going to go swimming to keep our minds off from how bad we want to scratch ourselves. And maybe even get the last of the biters outside.
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| Evaristo |
April 4th 3pm
Its been 3 days now and our bites are just starting not to drive us crazy. Last night was the first night sense we left Espiritu Santo that I got a good nights sleep, Im sure the 2 Advil PM’s helped a lot with that, but I feel rested and relaxed! We left San Evaristo yesterday morning and motored our way up 7 miles to a little cove called Caleta Nopolo in search for clear water and a non crowded anchorage. While we were in Evaristo we were invited out to dinner with some fellow crusiers, but we were so itchy and uncomfortable that we respectfully declined.
Yesterday there was a good north wind blowing, and we heard that it was going to keep blowing for the next 3 days. We love this little cove so much that we don’d mind waiting here till the next southerly wind picks up. We are starting to see more greenery on land, which is a nice change of scenery compared to the desert red rock look. The only down fall so far that we can see of this anchorage is that we have not been able to catch any fish for dinner, just when we thought we were becoming unstoppable fishermen!
The winds were calm this morning so Jon and I took the Red Paddle Boards out and around the corner to check out some cool sea caves and arches. The water was darker than we are used to, as there is no sand beach here, but it was still way clear with visibility down to the bottom. Jon calls this type of darker water “sharky looking”, Ha I told them that there are aways sharks in the water, but we will be fine, and with that we swam around the boat, and took nice long salt water showers.
Not sure if we are going to leave tomorrow, depends on the wind I guess, its not like we are in a huge rush. Our next stop will be to an anchorage called Timbabiche, which looks beautiful. Well all of our stops look like they are going to be beautiful, and in a few days depending on how fast we move we will be in Bahia Agua Verde! I hope Auga Verde is as picture perfect as it looks in the books.
Side note: I have always heard about no-see-ums bites and how bad they are, anyone who has ever been bit by these things will feel our pain. 3 days later the itches is better, but now it looks like Jon and I are going through puberty again. At least with mosquito bites they go away after the 2 days of hell, the bite from the no-see-ums stay with you for abut 10 days. Jon and I cant even touch each other without making the little red bumps upset and asking to be scratched! BAH!!!!!!! Where is my self control when I need it! Jon has to keep reminding me not to itch!
April 5th 5:30 pm
Well we left Nopolo this morning around 9 and had an amazing spinnaker sail up to Bahia San Carlos. Took us abut 6 hours doing about 3 knots, but we only had about 5 knts of wind to push us along. I was sitting in the cockpit and thinking to myself that this canal is known for its abundance of wildlife, and we had not seen any marine life at all. About 3 minutes later a huge pod of dolphins comes swimming by with the little babies jumping and slashing every chance they could. Then Jon and I saw a giant manta ray do 2 backflips, yes we have seen a lot of ray jumping, but this was by far the biggest, it was like a dinner table being tossed in the water. So COOL! God I love marine life!
We dropped the hook in Timbabiche, as I was up on the bow sprit setting the bridle I told Jon he was good to back her down… I hear a SNAP! Down I went, the snubber line snapped and whipped the back of my leg. I’ll live, but it hurt like a bitch.. it did take my mind off from the bug bites for about 5 min, so that was a plus. Jon was so sweet, he went and got me a cold press and some advil right after it happened, then finished setting the anchor while I cried like a little girl. Its been about an hour sense that happened, and all I have to show is a little red welt, looks like nothing bad happened. I swear it felt like my leg had been shot off. Im such a pansy.
Well this anchorage has the background that looks like a backdrop from a western movie. Its unreal, and I cant wait to see what the mountains look like during sunset, and even better tomorrow morning with the sunrise hits the red rock. I think I might have to get out of bed with Jon tomorrow to witness the colors.
We have been spoiled for the last 3 days, once we killed all the remaining noseeums, we hadn’t seen any bugs! And here today at this anchorage… bo-bos. I mean they don’t bite or anything, but they always land on your face! Why just the face, I wish I could speak bug so I could ask, and then tell them if they want to live, to land on anything but my face.
There is a little village here, and an old Casa Grande from the 1920’s that has been rotting for the last 80 years. Jon and I are going to check it out tomorrow, along with the large white sand dune beach, sounds pretty perfect to me. Now its time to make some fresh home made chicken pot pie.
April 9, 2015
So the pot pie did not come out as good as my last one, but it was still good. Jon and I hiked out to see casa grande across the black sand beach that burt our toes as we made our way to the trail. We saw cows, rabbits, lizards and all kinds of birds on the trail that led us back to the large old house, well more like the frame of an old house. It was worth the burning of the toes to check it out.
When we went back to the boat we decided to sail the 3 miles up to Puerto Los Gatos, which we read has better snorkeling. The sail was slowing going, as we just kinda drifted along watching the dolphins and mata-rays all around us. At one point we were going backwards so we had to turn on the engine to get into the reef guarded cove before dark. On our way into the cove we were greeted by a large zodiac speeding our way, it was the crew from the large National Geographic cruise boat inviting us to join them for their beach BBQ and bonfire. We anchored in the south lobe of the cove that we thought would offer better fishing and snorkeling as it was next to the large reef. Shortly after getting everything put away we were approached by a ponga fisherman like we used to on the pacific baja side, he was looking to trade some fish for a rapalla lure. Jon looked through our fishing tackle for a spare to give to Manuel, while he gave us a fresh wahoo, a hand knitted thing from his wife and the promise to bring more fish in the morning Considering we were having no luck with our fishing in the last few days we thought it was an even trade. After cooking and eating the amazing wahoo we paddled over to the BBQ, which we were a little late for so we missed out on the food and booze ( we lost track of time) but got to enjoy the bon fire and taking with the captain and members of the crew including the ships doctor Ramon who gladly offered a free medical consult for us. Jon and I are both pretty healthy, with the only major problem being my back when it acts up. He gave it a look and came to the same conclusion that I have an upset SI joint, he gave me some great work outs and moves to help strengthen the little muscle that can cause so much pain. I have been listening to what he said and I am doing the work outs every morning, along with the stand up paddle boarding I have been seeing a difference and been having less pain. Thanks Ramon, we hope to see you out on the water again some day!
The next morning Manuel was at our boat bright and early with enough fish to feed 15 families, he wanted to give us most of them, we told him we only wanted 2. He left us to go fishing again with the comment that if he gets any lobsters he would bring us some. Later we went to check out the cool red rock formations on the beach and look for shells, when we noticed 5 other boats making a mad dash for the north lobe of the anchorage. When we got back to the boat, we paddled over to say hello and if they had heard the weather lately (cause we still don’t have our SSB working right). All the boats told us that there was a northerly coming the following day, about 20 knts from the north for about 24 hours. Jon and I looked at where we were anchored, completely open to the north which would make for a very bumpy ride. Seeing that the north lobe was full, we deiced we would head out the next morning before the blow to the next anchorage about 1.5 miles north that has a little more protection than what we were in.
While we were in Los Gatos Jon developed a small rash on his face, neck and arms. We think it is from the water there. I never got in the water, it was brownish looking and it had been overcast so I didn’t want to jump in. We have been eating the same thing, use the same soap, yet he has a rash and I don’t, thats why we think it was from the water. Maybe it was an algae bloom or something. He took a really good all fresh water shower and we put some cortizone cream on, now 3 days later it is almost gone.
We left Los Gatos in the early morning when it was dead calm ( the calm before the storm) heading for Punta San Telmo. This little point has enough room for 1 boat to hide from the north weather. Thank goodness there was not another boat here. We tucked in behind the large point as close as we could as it shallows and there are a lot of rocks around. Just as we got the hook set the wind started. The first thing Jon did when we got here was start to fish. Little did he know that on his first cast he would hook a good sized dorado. This would have been great news if he had been using a reel that had more than 12lbs test on it. Jon yelled at me to get into the dingy, gaff the large fish so we could eat like kings for the next 3 days. Jon had to make sure that the fish did not swim under the boat as the weak line would snap under that kind of pressure. The dinghy and everything needed to use the dingy were all spread around the boat, so it took me a while, and as I was making my way to the fish, it made a dash around the anchor chain and SNAP. All I heard was “NOOOOOO! THAT WAS MY GOOD LURE!!” Dorado 1: Prism 0
Not wanting to spend the day on a rocking boat we headed to shore. We hiked to the top-ish of the point to get a view of the large beach on the other side. The wind at this point was blowing about 20 knts which mad the sea and surf angry looking and we were glad we were not out in it. Before we came into the anchorage we played with the idea to keep sailing north another 16ish miles to Auga verde, but then we would have to bypass 3 different anchorages that look very cool, and we would have been beating into what were were looking at now. Eww.
The tide was going out while we were on our walk so we got to check out the exposed reef which made for some cool hermit crab filled tide pools. I never saw myself as a shell collector, but there are so many cool shells that you just don’t get to see back in California. I am finding myself collecting all different kinds, with no idea what to do with them but I have to have them. Ha!
It is over cast today, I jumped in first thing this morning happy that the cold north wind is done. And that is about it so far, and we watched some Weeds while we ate breakfast. Not sure what we are going to do today, now that the wind had calmed down we might head out to the next anchorage 10 miles to the north that has some really cool sea caves. Or we might just sit, read, drink hot coffee, eat cookies.
April 10th
We are still anchored in San Telmo, its over cast again today. Yesterday we cleaned the boat, inside and out. There was so much crap outside on deck that you couldn’t even see the cabin top anymore. I also braided a floor mat out of an old cotton line that we were never going to use, and I think I am going to make some more out of other old line, like the one that snapped and left me with a great looking blood red welt (which is almost gone). Jon and I did our work out this morning and went for a paddle to check out the other beaches in this anchorage.
Jon wants to wait for some southern weather to help us sail up to the next anchorage to leave, so hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow, cause there looks to be very good snorkeling here, but its been a little chilly to just jump in and spend a few hours.
We are completely out of all fresh stuff, minus one more onion. Lucky Jon’s fishing luck is back and we have been eating fresh fish every night. No there has not been another dorado, we are having wishful thoughts about it though.
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| look at what i made! |
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| I love baby animals! |
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| over looking Agua Verde |
April 16th
We made it to Puerto Escondido. We ended up staying at San Telmo for a few days, had the whole tiny place to our selves. We wanted to wait for wind but it never came, so in a calm we motored up to Bahia Santa Marta. Being that it was very calm weather and the anchorage is a fair weather anchorage only, we anchored right off the beach in front of a cool little rancho.
We paddle boarded over to the near by reefs and checked out the cool rock formations on shore. Later that day Jon and I went back to the reef so we could catch some dinner. I speared a huge trigger fish and some kind of grouper, we ate like kings and found that 2 fish is just a little to much for only the 2 of us.
We went to bed with extremely calm weather, till we were woken by rude rolling swell, rain, thunder and lighting that lit up the whole sky. Where the heck did this come from?! Jon had spent some time working on the SSB, and we are able to hear some of the morning nets and weather, but we didn’t hear anything about this! We did not get any sleep, and left as soon as dawn started to show its face. We made our way up to Bahia Santa Marte, bypassing a stop i was looking forward to at Ensenada la Ballena to check out a huge sea cave. The north wind was dying, but the swell was hanging around for the after party and we needed to get away from it. We pulled into this little cove with just enough room for 1 maybe 2 boats. There is a large reef that lines the point and was breaking up 90% of the swell. This amazing little cove is so pretty and you can anchor nice and close to shore. We made our own hiking trial up to the bluff that over looks the bay, revealing the almost tropical feel of this area. We fell in love with this little cove, but once again the need for some fresh food had us pressing on.
Jon and I left this little cove of heaven and made our way to the very popular anchorage of Agua Verde. The passage to get to agua verde is filled with reefs and wild life, and we had a nice breeze to get us there. We dropped the hook in the southern lobe tucked in nice and close to the beach. we jumped in to enjoy the warm clear waters and then make it all murky by cleaning the bottom of our boat. 🙂 Once everything was sparkly clean we made our way to check out the little village and to see what the little market had to offer.
We were greeted by goats, and I mean a lot of goats! Then there were chickens, turkeys, dogs, roosters and baby everything! We laughed as we thought we were in a petting zoo. The small market didn’t have any fresh food, nor eggs, so we went in search of Mary who we read makes and sells fresh goat cheese. FRESH GOAT CHEESE! I was already thinking of my lunch of caramelized onions and goat cheese grilled sandwich. When we found Mary’s she said she didn’t have any, but maybe in 2 days some would be ready, then she asked if we wanted to take a puppy. Jon and I looked around and surrounding us was a litter of maybe 3-4 month old pitbull pups! I was so temped! Jon had to remind me how much work dogs are on boats and this and that, but they were sooooo cute, and I am more of a cat person.
Because the little village did not have the food we needed, we stayed one night and made our way to Escondido. We had a great sail coming up here, sailing around Los Candeleros, jibing though the pass as we dodged reefs and small islands was very exciting with the wind coming right behind us. Really kept us on our toes. We had some big bottle nose dolphins keep us company, and they showed off as they were catching fish as our hand line with the rapalla lure was fooling no one.
We are anchored in the Ellipse, which is a man made almost full circle break water thing that you can anchor in. The guides say that this is owned by API and you pay $1 a day to anchor, but the word is that the Ellipse is kinda a limbo area, a no mans land, that is was sold to a marina who never did anything with it. Sometimes API will collect from you if go and ask them, its $1- no receipt, or $2 with a receipt, but they do not come out to your boat cause they don’t have any boats to use. we went up to the small market here at the marina building area, met some of the local full time cruisers, and had great hamburgers and beer for an amazing buy!
The plan is to get to Loreto today, some other cruisers we met yesterday have a car and said they would give us a ride to get our shopping done. So we will have to see how that goes.
Jon has found that he misses and still loves to take black and white photos on his Nikon D7000, so here are a few of his snap shots…. oh and one of mine
We need help from our readers!
We are thinking abut our cruising route for the future. We are looking into going to Central America, going through the canal then up to the caribbean. We would love any input from anyone who has done this, or has looked into doing it. They hows, whys, why nots.. you know any and all information, we want to soak it all in like sponges.
4 thoughts on “The Sea of Cortez: North Bound”
I HATE no-see-ums! I get festering, infected sores and welts from them. They are one reason we never moved to Florida. When I go to Alaska I pray for rain, cause no rain means no–see-ums will have you. I know EXACTLY how you and Jon feel. Avoid mangroves!
Loved reading of your adventures north. It looks like you have a great pace and are enjoying the journey. We leave La Paz next Saturday and will begin our wander North. We will definitely not spend the night next to that lagoon. No see-ems are not welcome on Epic Ship. I really like that Carribean idea. We have some freinds on an Island Packet that have been cruising the Caribbean and east coast for a couple of years and really seem to love it. They blog their adventures quite well (http://svmoosetracks.blogspot.com) but their photography is nowhere near your league. When we catch up with you I want to find out your secret for such great photos. Have fun in Puerto Escondito, definitely try some canyon hikes, they are big fun and a short walk from Puerto Escondito. See you sometime next month.
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Hey Mark and Angie! We are going to have to wait till fall to catch up! hopefully when we get back, you guys will still be in the northern sea and we can do some exploring together. Not sure when we are going to be back yet, most likely then end of Oct and early Nov. We hope you guys have a great summer and find as much shade as possible!