After a couple nights at Coronados, we motored south on a perfectly calm sea to Puerto Escondido, the only fuel dock between Santa Rosalia and La Paz. We fueled up and left as soon as we could, as we wanted to take advantage of the perfect weather. As we headed toward the Candeleros, the wind piped up and we raised the sails. However, the wind constantly changed direction, due to the high mountains nearby. We found ourselves running downwind at one time, and beating to windward a minute later. It was quite a workout to keep trimming the sails in response to the fickle breezes!
We decided to revisit one of our favorite anchorages from last season, Yellowstone Beach on Isla Monserrat. This anchorage is only tenable in calm conditions. There were no other boats at the island, and we enjoyed walking on an untracked beach. The stars burned brightly that night, undimmed by any city lights.
The next morning the wind came up early, out of the south, and we found ourselves beating to windward to reach our next destination, Agua Verde. As we closed the shoreline, the winds eased, and a large pod of dolphins came by to swim along with us for a mile or two.
We discovered a week later that this was the exact hour at which my mother passed away, several hundreds of miles to the north. However, being unaware of this at the time, we enjoyed a very nice stay at Agua Verde, with far fewer boats than during previous visits.
We snorkeled off Roca Solitaria, and later saw a pair of spotted eagle rays and a swirling "baitball" of barracuda right next to the boat.
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