Isla San Francisco

From Bonanza, we explored the eastern side of Isla Espiritu Santo, helped along by a rare south wind.

We sailed most of the 25 mile passage north to Isla San Francisco, where we spent the next two days. SF is a small island, but with a very nice sheltered anchorage. Even though it blew about 20 knots most of the time we were there, the anchorage remained calm. We enjoyed hiking several trails, and snorkeling the northern edge of the anchorage.

Bonanza

I'm catching up on the past week's sailing adventures with friends David and Karen aboard, as we had no Internet connection while we were out.

Our first stop was at Playa Bonanza, on the southeast side of Isla Espiritu Santo. We selected this anchorage as it is one of the few to offer some shelter from nighttime coromuel winds (more on that later).

After setting the anchor, we snorkeled around a nearby reef, where we saw all the usual suspects, plus a generous helping of large leopard groupers.

Later in the day, we hiked inland to a ridge separating our cove from Bahia San Gabriel on the west side of the island.




And yes, the coromuel winds did blow during the night, establishing a pattern of nighttime winds that lasted all week.

La Paz

This was a full day! We went ashore right after breakfast, and walked downtown to see a children's parade. This was a typically Mexican feel-good family event. The kids were dressed in elaborate costumes and face paint, and for the most part seemed to enjoy the parade almost as much as the adult onlookers!












After the parade we had some excellent shrimp tacos from a stall near the dinghy dock. At 15 pesos these were quite the tasty bargain, compared to the 30 peso hot dogs we had yesterday.

Once back on the boat, we decided to explore the peninsula (El Mogote) which shelters the La Paz anchorage.

We dinghied out to it and took a short walk along the beach.

Then we decided to head out into the bay beyond to see if there were any whales nearby. Sure enough, we soon spotted a pair of gray whales (well, what we spotted were the whale-watch boats following behind the whales).

You're not allowed to swim with whales in Mexico, but we had heard you can swim with whale sharks. So when we spotted a guy in a wetsuit getting ready to dive over the side of his boat, we asked him how to spot whale sharks. With his advice, we had soon spotted two whale sharks. Unfortunately, when I got into the water and tried to swim with them, it turned out that they were swimming too fast to catch up to. But it was cool to see them, a first for both of us!

As if we hadn't had enough excitement for one day, we are headed into town this evening to catch a Edith Piaf cabaret at a small French restaurant called "La Boheme." The cost for the dinner and the show combined are less than we would pay for appetizers at the French cafe back home!

Muertos to La Paz

We had another layover day in Muertos, waiting for the strong NW wind to abate (it seems that the winds are always the strongest from the direction in which we intend to travel). So we walked over to the Gran Sueño luxury hotel, strolled around the grounds, and had lunch.

The restaurant is famous for its enormous collection of train sets, and the waiter happily agreed to run them for us.

Wednesday morning, the wind had dropped, and five boats all left at first light. Our intended destination was Playa Bonanza on Isla Espiritu Santo, about 35 miles to the north. We had a nice sail the first part of the way, tacking across the Cerralvo Channel, and getting a slight boost from the flood tide.

Wind abated later in the morning, and we started motorsailing to clear Punta Coyote. Nearing San Lorenzo Channel, seas and winds increased. About half way across the channel, our engine suddenly rumbled to a stop. Being heeled over in rough seas, with very little fuel left in the tank, is a perfect recipe for any dirt in the fuel tank to clog the fuel filter and kill the engine. We had plenty of spare filters, but trying to change them in rough conditions was too difficult. We knew we could probably sail on into the anchorage, but with the wind forecast to go light the next day, and a date to make in La Paz, we decided to change course and head on into La Paz. We let our buddy boats know what was happening, and Murray Grey recommended the fuel dock at Costa Baja as the easiest to approach without power, so that is where we went. After filling the tank and changing the fuel filters, the engine still wouldn't start. I headed up to the marina office to see about getting towed over to a slip for the night. When they told me it would cost $89 per night, I just about had a heart attack. We've never spent more than $38 per night at a marina since leaving Ensenada. The marina manager heard the shock in my voice, and came out of his office to tell the receptionist to give me a free night's berth on an end tie, in consideration of our emergency. Meanwhile, a mechanic who happened to be in the office said he would come down and take a look. After about a half hour of bleeding the fuel lines, he finally got it to start. With enough light to reach the downtown anchorage, we cast off and headed back out of the most expensive marina in La Paz. We put the hook down right next to our friend Geoff on Verdia. We'll be here for the next few days, with friends flying in to join us for a week of sailing around the islands.

Ensenada de los Muertos

We had a safe and pleasant overnight passage from Mazatlán to get to this anchorage on the Baja Peninsula. After a very windy week, there were a number of boats waiting to cross, and after getting a favorable weather forecast, 4 boats left the El Cid marina at around the same time: Murray Grey (the only boat we know named after a cow), Windward, and Victoria Dos. Our friend Geoff on Verdia also left the old port at about the same time; and Summer Wind overtook us along the way.

Although we were traversing a large and seemingly empty patch of water, we had surprisingly close encounters with a drift net and three ships. Using VHF radio, we helped each other navigate safely around the net; radar and AIS protected us from the ships. Prevailing winds are out of the northwest, and our track to Muertos was west-northwest, so we were glad to not have very much wind against us. On the other hand, we ran the engine for the entire 33 hours, the longest continuous time we have ever had to motor.

Its hard to imagine the contrast between Mazatlán, a bustling tropical city of half a million, and Muertos, a lonely isolated outpost in the desert. While we will miss the friendly people, fresh shrimp and other cheap eats in Mazatlán, it is refreshing to be floating in crystal-clear water at the edge of a serene and mostly unpopulated mountain landscape.

Although things are changing here, as everywhere. For our first walk today, we were drawn over the hill to an opulent personal palace being constructed by a Texas tycoon. There were literally a hundred laborers and artisans at work on this single home. Although I was put off by the extravagance, it was hard not to admire some of the construction details, drawing strongly on Mexico's architectural heritage. And at least it is providing much-needed work in a down economy.

El Quelite

We've been back in Mazatlán for several days now. Today we drove with two other couples to El Quelite, a small pueble 35km from town. We had lunch at a very picturesque and unique restaurant called El Mesón de los Laureanos, which serves up traditional regional dishes accompanied by a lot of history, in the form of photos, antiques, and traditions. For instance, every week, people in this town play a pre-Hispanic Aztec game called Ulama.

After lunch, we wandered around town, enjoying the brightly-colored houses and general tranquility.

return to Isabela

It was only a few extra miles out of our way to stop at Isabela, so with favorable weather, we started the 40-mile passage from Matanchen Bay at dawn and anchored just after lunchtime. It had been 2 months since our last visit, and we were curious to see what had become of all the nesting boobies and frigatebirds. It turned out that most if not all of the booby chicks had fledged, while the frigatebird chicks were still mostly covered in down.

One of the hardest things a frigatebird chick has to learn is what to do with those long wings.

The adults don't seem to have all the answers.

After our shoreside safari, we went snorkeling. Although the visibility was not great (~15 feet), we saw several new species of fish, a big moray eel, and a school of large skipjacks (a type of tuna). The coolest thing was hearing the pods of humpback whales calling to each other under water. It sounded like a mix of cattle and sea monsters. We wished we could see the whales while we were swimming. A few hours later we got underway with a favorable breeze to carry us the 80 miles to Mazatlan. A half hour after setting sail, we got much a much closer view of whales than we wanted. Two of them surfaced a few boat lengths ahead of us and we had to quickly decide whether to turn or hold our course. As the whales dove, we could actually see one of them passing under the boat!

It was a beautiful moonlit sail to Mazatlan, although the wind veered and we had to motor a good part of the night. Calm waters and scattered clouds reflecting the moonlight overhead - an inspiring time to be out alone on the sea. Night passages such as this are one of the greatest rewards of sailing.