Isla Grande (Ixtapa)

[GPS: N 17° 40’ 44” W 101° 39’ 25”]
Thursday morning early we got underway towards Isla Grande (Ixtapa) as we expected a fairly long day. We made good time – again mixed motoring and sailing. Even flew the asymmetric for a couple hours. Late afternoon, we pulled into the small cove anchorage on the north side of Isla Grande (Ixtapa). We had essentially made it to our destination. We celebrated with margaritas in the cockpit:


There was a lot of activity during the day – a couple large powerboats anchored, a couple jetskis running around, pangas bringing people and taking them out, several restaurants on the beach. But people are not allowed on the island at night. So shortly after 5pm, everyone started leaving – and then the restaurant crews cleaned up a little and also left. We had the anchorage to ourselves.

Friday morning we did some snorkeling along the rocks on the west side of the cove and out to the point – where we saw a good variety of reef fish. Blackdragon, a Catalina 34 that was on the HaHa had come into the anchorage, so we swam over and talked with them for a while – Steve & Tracey and their 2 children and dog – plus another couple with 1 child who were visiting them. In the afternoon we rowed to shore in our dinghy (didn’t want to bother getting the motor down), had fajitas, tacos, y cervezas at one of the restaurants. There was a vendor selling shells on the beach – including conch shells that he pound a small hole into so you could use it as a horn… we bought one! – but still working on being able to blow it reliably. We walked to the other side of the island (about 50 yards – the restaurants had tables on beaches on both sides). The cove on the south side had a lot of people snorkeling. Boats used to anchor in the south cove – but there is coral there, and the anchors were destroying the coral, so it is no longer allowed. There were a lot of people snorkeling on that side. We will save that for a day when we come back out here with our girls who are coming down for Christmas.

Caleta de Campos

[GPS: N 18 ° 04’ 21” W 102 ° 45’ 03”]
Tuesday morning we got a leisurely start out. Our farthest possible target was about 24 hours away – if we kept good speed we would come in early in the dark, and if we were slow we would still get in during the day. We got another treat of dolphins tagging along with us – this time carrying a couple passengers - I think they are called remora fish:


We made pretty good time, mixed motoring and sailing – and came into Caleta de Campos at 8am. We anchored right around a breakwater in fairly shallow water (15' at low tide). There was a lot of activity in the water. Early in the morning pangas of fishermen went out, and older kids were fishing from the breakwater. There were families and kids on the beach. When some of the fishermen got back, there were about a dozen kids that took one of the pangas out into the cove, and were buzzing around pulling one kid on a wakeboard and another on a single ski. If someone fell, they would swim to shore – and other kids would swim out again to join the boat. They came close to us and yelled Chocolada? At first we waved them off and said no – but we did have some chocolate bars still in the freezer – so we pulled out 4 and called them over. As the panga approached, 4 or 5 of the kids dove into the water and swam towards the boat. We said – “solo cuatro” and indicated they needed to share. We signaled for the oldest kid who was driving the boat to come closer, and we gave them all to him to dole out.

Feeling rested from a morning nap, we decided to go to the beach to one of the restaurants – thinking if we stayed two nights, the next day we would walk on up into the town to go exploring. We rowed our dinghy to the corner farthest inside the breakwater to avoid any surf in our landing. The restaurants had large, fairly deserted covered areas overlooking the beach. We picked one, got our beers, and sat waiting for our food. As we looked out over our boat (picture to right), we could see how much the swell picked it up as it came to shore and broke as ca. 3 foot waves. We started feeling our boat was perhaps too close to shore. Then we saw 2 kids swim out towards our boat. They started playing with the float ball that we had attached to our anchor to indicate its location. We thought; "Please don’t fool around with that and trip the anchor.." . Then they swam over to the bow of the boat and started climbing on the chain – standing up where our snubber was attached to the anchor chain and diving off. Did we turn the breaker off for the windlass? If they climb up on the foredeck and accidentally step on those foot switches, they could screw up our anchor – what if the boat broke loose? Cathy went to the edge of the water and yelled, waving her arms. They eventually saw her, gave a friendly wave of their arms and swam away from the boat. Still sitting waiting for our food… and another couple kids swim out to the boat. They go to the stern, and start playing with our “tarzan” line that we have hanging from the arch to help us climb out of the dingy and onto the boat. Then one of them starting climbing into the cockpit. We both went to the edge of the water, yelling and waving. The people on the beach just looked at us blankly. The kids eventually started swimming away as well. We went to the kitchen and asked for our food to go!In Cathy's broken Spanish she said " Cena? No a qui....los ninos....(dinner? not here... the boys)" and then indicated with her fingers climbing. The owner and her maother had a heated discussion about los ninos, and the beautiful platters of lobster/shrimp/and fish we hjad ordered were quickly moved to styrofoam containers. It was ashame because they had taken so much time arranging the platters so creatively. After we got back to the boat, a teenage couple swam out. We invited them into the cockpit. They were just looking for a place to rest before swimming back. Curiosity?

Anyway, we decided we would not be leaving the boat there the next day to go more into town, so we may as well enjoy our dinner in the cockpit and plan to head on out in the morning.

Punta Mita to Barra de Navidad

[GPS (Punta Ipala): N 20° 14' 13" W 105° 34' 21"]
[GPS (Chamela): N 19° 35' 00" W 105° 07' 42"]
[GPS (Tenacatita): N 19° 17' 47" W 104° 50' 10"]
[GPS (Melaque): N 19° 13' 08" W 104° 42' 41"]

Friday morning we started the long trek southeast towards Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo. There were mixed reports about how much the winds would have calmed down around Cabo Corrientes, so we thought we would leave early. When we got up at 6am, it was still dark. A boat had pulled in and anchored next to us, and during the night the wind had shifted and the boats had swung to where we were concerned that he was close to sitting on top of our anchor. So we decided to wait until light, so that we could see better in case we had to get too close to him as we pulled our anchor up. Turned out to be no problemo. As we passed the cape, the winds were only about 15 kts and only 3-4 foot seas, and we sailed by the cape making a little over 8 knots SOG (speed over ground) over a 2 hour period. Cabo Corrientes = Cape of Currents! – this time in our favor.

We went about 15 miles further down the coast to the first decent anchorage – Punta Ipala. It’s a narrow little cove with rocks on the left and right and a submerged one to avoid near the middle, a beach in front, with a little village on the left end of the beach with about 10 pangas scattered just out into the cove, and some moored net thing in the middle of the cove that we had to dodge. We were the only sailboat there, and plunked down in the middle of the clearest ? spot, to the amusement of some old people sitting on a breezy balcony on the shore. Then another boat came in about an hour after us.

Saturday we motored (no wind!) from Punta Ipala to Bahia de Chamela. We put a hand line out with a bright “Mexico” lure, and within an hour caught a little 19” Mexican bonito. And a little later we caught these dolphins on video:


It was a short day Sunday from Chamela to Tenacatita, so on the way we took detours to check out possible anchorages for the way back up.

The first, Paraiso, was instructive about the use of charts and cruising guides. First of all, the only paper charts are of such large scale (approx. 1:700,000) that they are not very useful for navigating close to shore into these small anchorages. And the electronic charts (except in city/harbor areas) are of such low resolution – and usually are about a mile off (we look to be further north or east than we really are) so it looks like we are anchoring on well inland. So we mostly rely on cruising guides. These are written by cruisers - we have Charlie’s Charts, Pat & John Rains’ Mexico Boating Guide, and Sean & Heather's book that just covers the Sea of Cortez. These books are great for the sketches of anchorages, including the approaches and rocks to watch out for, but are all “not for navigation”. Sometimes Charlie’s and Rains’ don’t really agree. Paraiso was a case in point, where Charlie’s makes it look like a nice, >1/4 mile across anchorage. There’s a plantation estate home there, that one of the books says has armed guards so don’t go ashore – wonder what they are growing :-). What Charlie’s doesn’t have is the huge rock that Rains’ has drawn in the middle of the anchorage. The rock IS there – and is huge! Like 100' tall and 100' in diameter. So the anchorage is MUCH more cozy than imagined. Rains had the rock, but the rocks in the entrance were much better represented by Charlie. When we’ve thought of it, we have captured images from Google Earth to help us – think we will try to be more diligent about doing that. It’s generally not a good idea to go into these unknown anchorages at night!

Next place we scoped out was Careyes, small 3-lobed anchorage in a gorgeous setting with cliffs around, luxurious private homes on the cliffs, and on the 3 beaches condos, club med, hotels, and restaurants. As we rounded Punta Farallon, there was an odd hemispherical building on the point (see right). And then it was on to Tenacatita, a large bay with several anchoring locations, a couple snorkeling spots, and a jungle river that you can do by dinghy. We’ll definitely spend time at these on the way back up.

For the next legs, we originally expected to do 3 or 4 day hops to Caleta de Campos, but instead decided to do a very short day on Monday to go into Barra de Navidad for fuel, and then do an overnight to Campos. We went through the channel on the eastern end of Bahia de Navidad, past the marina, and pulled into the fuel dock. There was another sailboat on the other side of the dock – and then we noticed the fuel pump was taken apart – at least there were a couple guys there working on it. The other boat (which was a delivery from Miami to Newport via the canal), said they had been waiting a couple hours, and it wasn’t clear when it would be fixed. We only needed about 30 gallons, so we decided to use our two 5-gallon jerry jugs and carted diesel in from the Pemex station up on the road near the fuel dock. Of course, just as we got back with the last jug, they got the pump working again! At least we saved the 13% mark-up for fuel dock services – since Pemex is nationalized, the government sets the price of gas, but marina fuel docks can add a service charge.

Most cruisers anchor in a large, shallow lagoon further on east from the fuel dock, but we decided to go out to the NW corner of Bahia de Navidad and anchored off Melaque. The beach had many fairly rundown looking restaurants and hotels, and a huge cell tower – so we figured we would get good internet connection there – but the 3G service kept dropping our connection…

Paradise Village (Nuevo Vallarta) and back to Punta Mita

[GPS: N 20° 41' 53" W 105° 17' 40"]
Monday morning we made the trip across Banderas Bay to Paradise Village at Nuevo Vallarta in intermittent drizzle and showers. As we passed La Cruz we notice a rainbow remarkable in that it was so low that you could see where both ends touched the ground. It was the first time either of us had seen that.


We had been to P.V. before - 5 years ago with Bruce & Bobbie when we crewed for them aboard Music (IP40) on the 2004 Baja HaHa. As this was not an originally scheduled stop over and we didn’t have a reservation, we called the marina and crossed our fingers. Dick Markie came through and assigned us a slip and then sent out a panga to lead us to it... ALL the way down the river, just before a bridge. We passed 3 Island Packets on the way – Lyon Around (a 38), Armagh (a 40), and Crème Brulee (a 380 – Bill & Cynthia that we know from the Bay Area – but they were not there), and then pulled in next to another – Gratitude, a 370 with Frank, Nancy and son Nick aboard.

Doug walked back to the office to check in. When he did, he asked Dick Markie, the harbormaster, if he had a recommendation for someone to work on Raymarine electronics. He said Jorge – his shop is right in Paradise Village. And what about windlass. Again, Jorge. And he speaks English well. So Doug walked right back to the boat. As he approached, he saw someone in the cockpit with Cathy, working on the chartplotter. Jorge! What service. Dick must have called him, gave him our slip number, and he came right over and jumped on it. Before the end of the afternoon, the chartplotter was working (but we will probably send it to factory in February for some overhaul) and the windlass serviced and working well. But with high winds and square seas predicted around Cabo Corrientes (the cape heading south out of Bandaras Bay), we decided to just stay put for a few days.

Walking back along the docks, Armagh (the IP40) looked strangely familiar… red canvas… two Bruce anchors?? It had to be Music! The owners were not around. But then it turned out they stopped by later to see our arch. Sure enough, Armagh is the former Music that we had crewed on from San Diego to Nuevo Vallarta. They are the second owners since Bruce & Bobbie – it was Fire Escape in between.

Tuesday was mostly a relaxing day. In the morning we put up our Shadetree shades – they help keep the sun off the boat, but let the breeze blow under them. We got them years ago (off Craigs list?), but had never really set them up – so we spent a good bit of time just futzing with how to best deploy them. (I forgot to take any pictures, so will try to do so for a future posting). The afternoon included a swim in the pool at the resort (marina guests have resort privileges!) and that evening we had an excellent shrimp dinner at the resort in the restaurant on the beach during another beautiful sunset.

Wednesday morning was laundry, Pilates class for Cathy, and visit to the Port Captain for Doug (to check in and out – managed both with one visit since you can check in up to 48 hours after arrival and check out up to 24 hours before departure). Wednesday afternoon we took a bus into Puerto Vallarta, where we walked around the old town, including going by the places where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton stayed when filming Night of the Iguana in PV. Note bridge connecting the 2 houses... Then we walked down the Malecon, including going through a naval museum and admiring the sculptures on the beach. We ended up with an early dinner and 2-for-1 margaritas at a restaurant on the Malecon before catching the buses back to our boat.



Thursday we headed back to Punta Mita. It was a short trip, we had all day, it was a nice day, and there was 10 knots of wind. So even though the wind was on our nose, we sailed all the way out – tacking back and forth. The furling gear seemed to work smoother after the rain, maybe washing away some dirt and salt crystals from places we can’t reach with the hose. We put our anchor down very close to where we had been on Sunday night, watched some surfers riding the waves into the beach while we played another round of Mille Bornes in the cockpit, and then went to bed for another rolly night.

Mazatlan to Punta Mita

[GPS: N 20° 45' 50" W 105 ° 31' 16"]
We left Mazatlan at 11am Friday, just after the high tide – expecting about 28-30 hours to Punta Mita, just inside the NW corner of Banderas Bay. There was no wind for the first 11 hours, so we had to motor. We noticed our alternator was not charging the batteries! Belts turning… stop engine… belts tight enough… made sure connections to regulator were tight… restarted engine… thankfully working ok! Then just after dark (following a spectacular sunset!), the chartplotter shut down, and still had power, but would not restart with the charts. We would use the handheld GPS, and plot our position on paper chart every hour through the night. We had to pull out the GPS manual to figure out how to manage waypoints and routes. Finally at 10pm the wind came up enough to sail – and at 11pm it started it drizzle, so we put the transition up (between the dodger and bimini) to try to keep the cockpit dry. We decided to skip Isla Isabela (and expect to stop there on the way back north) – besides the trouble with the chartplotter, and the rain, we would be getting there about 2am. We alternated between sailing and motoring until 4am, and then were able to sail the rest of the way to Punta Mita. It continued to rain off and on, which was really rather nice, as our sails and rigging could use the cleaning.

As we turned east into Banderas Bay, we could see some large splashes in the water miles ahead. After watching for water breaking over exposed rocks coming around Punta Mita the first thing Cathy thought of was “give me the binoculars” and “are we going that far in tonight?” But wait a minute ...” I see a big black stick come up and then a huge splash... oh my gosh I think it’s WHALES!” We were too far away to really enjoy the show or get pictures, but the boats anchored out in La Cruz must have had a front row seat. The activity lasted about 30 mins.

We turned north and anchored in the lee of a resort and golf course. The largest islet off Punta Mita is part of the exclusive Four Season’s golf course and is the site of a 196 yard par 3 hole (#3) that is the only true island green in North America. When the tide is in #3A is played from its location on shore.

As we put the anchor down – another small problem – our windlass clutch was slipping a little. We checked various connections on the chartplotter hoping for another easy fix, but could not get it working again. So, we decided rather than going on south, we would take a detour into Paradise Village at Nuevo Vallarta and get someone to help us with these little issues. And enjoy the pool, local yacht club and food.

After a vodka and grapefruit juice, and a game of Mille Bornes, it was off to bed in the rolly anchorage.

Mazatlan

[GPS: N 23° 16' 16" W 106° 27' 15"]
We ended up spending 4 days and 4 nights in Marina Mazatlan. Not sure where all the time went – it seems like mostly chores! Let’s see, of course there was washing the boat down and vacuuming inside. And laundry! Cathy defrosted the frig (see picture to right) and we reprovisioned at the Mega (kind of like a super Walmart). That was a bus ride towards downtown. We got on the wrong bus coming back, and it turned around about a mile short of the marina so we just walked the rest of the way, dragging a cart and carrying 2 other bags full of groceries. Doug changed the engine oil/filter and fuel filter (for the first time completely on his own). We decided to fill our fuel tank by carting jerry jugs from the Pemex station across the road instead of stopping at a fuel dock. We needed about 40 gallons – which with our two 5-gallon jugs meant 4 trips. We can only manage 2 jugs on our handcart anyway. The overall process took about 4 hours. Doug went to Telcel to figure out how to pay for the next month of 3G data card service.

We also finished up some books. We both read Gringos in Paradise (which we had borrowed from Laurie – and she hadn’t even read it yet so we needed to return it before we left), a story about an American couple that moved to Sayulita (just north of Puerto Vallarta) and their adventures in building and furnishing a house there. Over the last couple weeks we also both read “The Collector” by Baldacci and “The Associate” by Grisham. After so many spy/detective novels, we wonder if the cruising folks we meet might really be in a witness protection program!

We did manage to have a little fun too.

Doug went to a baseball game. Patty on Pacific Voyager organized it. There was a group of 12 that went – there and back by pick-up truck “taxis” – the bed had seats along both sides and a cover over the top. The transportation safety board in the US would freak out, but it seemed natural here. The local team, the Mazatlan Vedanos (deer) was apparently champions last year, and won the first half of this season. It was a pretty good game, with the Vedanos losing to the Hermosillo “Orangemen “ 4 to 1. Level of play was about equivalent to US triple-A ball. Pacifico was the sponsor of Mazatlan, and Tecate the sponsor of Hermosillo – all the jerseys had big beer logos on the back. Doug had the requisite hot dog and beer (a Pacifico vendor was camped out right next to the section we were sitting in), as well as a fruit cup – freshly prepared at the seat with a sprinkling of pepper spices and fresh squeezed lime juice.


Patty took Marcia, Roz, Laurie and Cathy to old town Mazatlan including the Mercado downtown, for open art studios Friday. The old town Mercado reminded Cathy of the old French Market in New Orleans where she grew up. She has fond memories of shopping there with her parents when she was a young girl.



Please note: baby not for sale...

Even the central square with its Basilica de la Immaculada Concepcion looks like Jackson Square. To celebrate the Christmas season the locals erected a tree on one side of the square made from plastic bottles filled with different colored water.


And then of course there were meals and margaritas. We finally learned the secret of the best Margarita. Hugo and Jena, we use the lime squeezer a lot now. On Friday morning we said goodbye to Russ & Roz, whom we might see again in February in PV before they take off for the South Pacific, and to Michael & Laurie, whom we will probably see next along the “Gold Coast” between PV and Z-town after the new year, as we head north and they head south.

Southern Crossing to Mazatlan

The weather for the next 2 days looked pretty good – mostly 15 kts – not too much and good for sailing. With 240 nm across the Sea of Cortez, we expected two overnights – 48 hours at 5 kts / 40 hours at 6 kts. So we got away about 9am Sunday. We came around Isla San Francisco to rendezvous with Laura on the east side to buddy-boat on the crossing. We had to motor until about noon before the wind picked up enough to sail – dead downwind of course. When going dead downwind, especially with lumpy seas, you have to be careful not to jibe the main – and the jib has a tendency to collapse. We have a boom brake to help control any accidental jibe of the main, and we poled out our jib on the opposite side for wing-and –wing. At other times we would just head off about 20-30 degrees to keep the sails full and stable, and then jibe back to the other tack when we were too far off the course. We motored for a few hours in the evening when the wind was light – but started sailing again at midnight and on through to the second evening. Then the second night was off and on motoring vs. sailing.

Besides keeping in contact with Laura, we saw another boat as we came out from Isla San Francisco apparently on the same heading – turned out to be Juniata with Dave & Marcia aboard. So the three of us kept in VHF radio contact as we headed across.
This was actually the first overnight sail that we have ever done with just the two of us aboard. It went pretty well. We decided to stick with 4 hours on / 4 hours off with the same shifts that we did on the Baja HaHa when we also had David and Dick as a second person on watch. We were a little loose with the handoff times – but it really went pretty smoothly. If we had any sail change or significant issue (like a large fishing boat looking like he was crossing our path) we would get each other up – so it was fairly rare to have an uninterrupted 4 hours of sleep. Meals were mostly easier things – bowl of cereal or bagel for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, soup or beef stew for dinner.

As we approached Mazatlan, we were running a little ahead of schedule. Rather than come in at dark, we held back – sailing with just a reefed main and making about 3 Kts. As dawn broke (see picture below) and we got close to shore, we hailed Marina Mazatlan on the VHF. It was only 7am, so the office wasn’t open – but Pacific Voyager (another cruising boat berthed in the marina) picked up our call, said it looked like there was plenty of room, went to get security and got slips assigned for us, Laura, and Juniata. Turns out we are all next to each other, and across from Worrall Wind – Russ & Roz – who had arrived on Sunday. Then it turns out Juniata is really good friends of Russ & Roz. More small world!

Isla San Francisco - Thanksgiving Day and more

[GPS: N 24° 49' 17" W 110° 34' 20"]
Thursday morning we moved on to Isla San Francisco. We sailed most of the 20 miles there alongside Laura, beating against the northern wind. About halfway there, Reel Summertime came motoring past us. We anchored in “the hook” at the SW end of island. There were at least a dozen boats in the anchorage – half of them powerboats, including a huge (170’?) “Time for Us” that we had seen in La Paz.

We had Thanksgiving dinner aboard Laura with Michael & Laurie. What a feast! Michael cooked a whole chicken, with fresh green beans, and potatoes au gratin. Cathy cooked dressing (with sausage, celery, onion, apple, etc) and a cranberry jello. Laurie baked an apple pie (and we found one last small container of ice cream deep in our freezer to put on it). Doug brought some Chardonnay and his appetite.


Friday we walked across a salt pond to the “agate beach” on the east side of the island, where we just walked along the beach looking for interesting stones, and Michael did some snorkeling.


Cathy went back to the boat and Michael, Laurie, and Doug did a hike up to and along the ridge on the SE corner of the island, overlooking our anchorage and the agate beach.


Saturday we took our dinghies for a ride for about 2 miles along the western edge of the island to a small island, Isla Coyote, just north of Isla San Francisco – between it and Isla San Jose. There is a small fishing village on the island. We pulled our Porta-Bote dinghy up onto the rocky shore next to the fishing pangas, while Michael and Laurie anchored their inflatable dinghy just off the beach. We watched some of the fisherman filet their catch on wooden tables on the rocky beach. The blood dripped off the tables onto the rocks, and when the fishermen had finished excising their filets, the carcasses where thrown into a pile by the edge of the water. They mostly had large sting rays and manta rays, but also some hammerhead sharks. They excise the barbs from the sting rays and take them way out to sea to dispose of them since they have children on the island and don’t want to take any chances on them getting hurt. They also had some beautiful chocolate-colored clams that we watched them shuck. We walked up the hill to the covered porch of their dwellings, where a lady was selling shell earrings, necklaces, etc. and made a few purchases. At the top of the hill was a small chapel building, but some of the ceiling had collapsed and there was debris all over the floor. We also bought some tortillas from the lady in the cook shed.




We got back to our dinghies and motored over to a beach on the north side of Isla San Francisco that was advertised as the shell beach. Our beachcombing turned up a few specimens, but nothing much more than what we had seen on the beach where we had anchored. Cathy found some interesting crabs.


We got back in our dinghies to head back around to the anchorage. As we passed the NW point of the island and turned south, we were hit with 12-15 kts of a SW wind in our faces and a building chop. As we pushed the dinghies through the chop, we realized this direction would be going right into our anchorage. We saw several boats fleeing out of the anchorage, and listening in on our handheld VHF found they were all going over to the mainland to seek shelter at San Evaristo about 9 miles away. We contacted them to make sure our boats were still securely anchored. We finally made it back to our boats. Michael & Laurie decided to move around to the east side of the island (anchor off the agate beach). We decided to just stay put – we felt better when we saw a yellow-hulled boat come in that we had seen in Caleta Partida and had been sailing the Sea of Cortez for over 25 years – local knowledge is a comforting thing.


We had been expecting to wait until Monday to leave for Mazatlan rather than Sunday because our grib files had been showing a weak low spinning across the south end of the sea. But now our gribs were showing that the low had weakened and pretty much dissipated – and that these westerlies that we were getting were not just coromuels – that they would continue through Sunday. So we decided to check the weather again Sunday morning – and probably leave for Mazatlan.

Ensenada Grande (Isla Partida)

[GPS: N 24° 33' 37" W 110° 23' 57"]
After a breakfast of scones and fresh fruit, we decided to move north to the southern lobe of the 3-lobed anchorage at Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida. It took us longer to secure the kayak and pull up the anchor than the journey to that anchorage. The winds were 15-18kts on the nose for the short motor north. They quickly dropped as we got further into the anchorage into shallow aqua water behind the high red sandstone cliffs. We anchored close to some carved sandstone cliffs on the northern side:



The winds broke our string for the burgees – between the Mexican flag (which ended up stuck by the spreader) and our BYC and HaHa burgees, which we saved just before they went into the water. Once we got anchored, Cathy stood up on the boom to try to get the flag down – and succeeded, but managed to strain her left shoulder in the effort. Get out the Motrin and ice! … and rum!

Tuesday afternoon, we dinghied over to the white sandy beach at the eastern end of the cove and set up our beach tent. We spent the afternoon just hanging out and reading. Our cruising guide indicated there was a trail up the arroyo from this beach, so Doug set off on a hike. After a hundred yards, there was no discernable trail – and was just scrambling over the rocks. When he came down over a ledge and saw a couple dried up snake skins, he decided this maybe wasn’t the greatest thing to do alone and headed back down to the beach. Here is our boat taken from under our beach tent, and a picture of the anchorage from Doug’s hike:


Wednesday morning Michael & Laurie came on up from Caleta Partida and anchored nearby. We went to the more pebbly beach on the southern side of the cove. Michael, Laurie, and Doug took a hike up this arroyo – this time with companions Doug made it farther. We went up to the top of a ridge between the two beaches. The only fauna we saw were lizards and small chipmunks – though we did see some fairly fresh scat from what must have been a larger mammal. The flora is fairly abundant this year – they had more rain than usual this summer with the tropical storms that came over this area.



While on this beach, we met two families – one from Journey (a HaHa boat) with Craig & Melanie and their 2 young sons; and another from Reel Summertime (powerboat) with Kip & Kit, their son, 4 daughters, and exchange student from Italy. Kip and Kit invited us over for drinks later, and Cathy suggested we all meet back on the beach for a bonfire and marshmallows that evening. We stopped by Reel Summertime for a glass of Merlot – it’s a beautiful 80’ powerboat – large living room, kitchen (not a galley) with side-by-side refrig/freezer, etc. Very nice family from Utah down for Thanksgiving week on vacation – they keep the boat in La Paz.

Once it was dark, we headed over to the beach to start a fire. Michael did the boy scout job, including propping his dinghy up with a paddle as a windbreak. We cooked sausages in the fire, and Cathy pulled out marshmallows and Hershey bars for everyone (we didn’t have any graham crackers to complete the smores). After the marshmallows, Cathy introduced the kids to a game of flashlight tag on the beach. This was one of our most enjoyable evenings so far in our journey.