ashore for the holidays

Upon our return to La Paz, we booked a month's stay at Marina Palmira in anticipation of some land-based travel and visits from friends. Its a pleasant home base. Here we are with neighbors Paul and Judy from Grace.

This poor old Turkish-built schooner has been abandoned since the death of her owners several years ago, and at this point it looks unlikely that she will be successfully raised.

back to La Paz

After the norther died, we enjoyed several days of re-visiting a few of our favorite anchorages, and exploring one new one. First stop was Amortajada, where we enjoyed dinghying through the mangrove lagoon with its rich bird life.


Unfortunately, we decided to spend the night here, which was a mistake, and one that we should have known about. Anytime you have mangroves and no wind, you will find jejenes (no-see-ums), especially at night. We awoke to a familiar itch, and were soon moving along to nearby Isla San Francisco. Here it was calm enough to go up the mast for some minor repairs.

After that we hiked up the south ridge,

and collected sea salt with our friend George from s/v Susie.

Our last stop was El Cardonal on Isla Espiritu Santo. We saw a number of sea turtles in the bay

and enjoyed a short hike with the crews of Susie and Ladybug.

Isla San Jose

We had a great sail south, intending to wait out the next norther in San Evaristo. However, we noticed a beautiful and sheltered bight along the northern half of Isla San Jose, and we enjoyed 2 days here by ourselves, with miles of deserted beaches, beautiful sunsets, and good protection from the norther.

Old places, new faces

The winds piped up from the south during the night, putting us on a lee shore, so we pulled anchor before dawn, and enjoyed a brisk sail back to mainland Baja. The most sheltered anchorage in a southerly is Agua Verde, which we knew well from previous visits. This time around, we met some new boating friends, fellow Oregonians Hugh and Victoria on a unique motor vessel named Kaizen.

The next morning the winds had veered to the west, so we sailed around the corner and down the coast to another familiar anchorage, Los Gatos. Here we met a local fisherman, and an Alaskan on a small "trailer-sailer".

The next morning brought a colorful sunrise and a forecast of strong northerlies, so we reluctantly said goodbye Los Gatos.

Isla Catalina

Leaving Ballena, the seas and winds had finally calmed, so we decided to head out to Isla Catalina.

This remote island is noted for its "rattle-less" rattlesnakes, and for its lack of secure anchorages. We gingerly felt our way into a small cove, moving dead slow, and still nearly clipped a rock with our keel.

We knew we might have to leave in a hurry, and that's just what happened, when fresh winds and waves piped up from the south during the night. However, we first enjoyed a snorkel around "Elephant Rock"


and a dinghy ride out to the SE point, where dolphins cruised along close to shore.

Monserrate and Ballenas

We left Salinas the next morning, intending to sail out to Isla Catalina, one of the most remote islands in the southern Sea. However, the sea was still rough from the norther, and there wasn't enough wind to keep us from rolling in the troughs, so we altered course for Isla Monserrate, where we found good shelter in the SW bight.

There was also some nice snorkeling and a good canyon hike here, which made for an enjoyable stay. The rocks along the beach were embedded with seashells, and their fossil imprints.


The next day we continued a short ways south to Bahia Ballenas. We anchored in the lee of an enormous cliff

and to the south we could see an unbroken line of mountains.

Here we explored a sea cave by dinghy,

and had another excellent beach and canyon hike.

Bahia Salinas

The norther finally stopped blowing on December 8th, and we quickly finished our business in Puerto Escondido and headed for the islands. Our goal for this trip was to visit some places we had not yet seen, so we took advantage of some nice winds and headed for Bahia Salinas on Isla Carmen. When we got there, the only other boat was mv Kodiak.

After a nice beachwalk


and exploring the ruins left behind by an old sea salt operation,

Ron and Carol kindly invited us over for drinks and fish dinner. Turns out he and I had worked for the same aerospace corporation several decades ago.