We got up at 6:30, and underway by about 7:15 or so. I saw the dead whale that was floating in the middle of the bay (we had heard about it last night at happy hour and other times during the day). About half of the whale was out of the water, which is way more than we have seen when they were swimming. This one was about a mile south of us, and I had no desire to get any closer. We had breakfast and did our devotions underway, virtually no wind today, and clear sky’s. When we were in the sun it was pretty hot, when not sitting where the sun was shining, it was extremely cold.
Renee’ fished most of the way, but only caught a couple of hunks of sea weed. In any case we arrived at Santa Rosalia about 3:30, and had a slip waiting. Plenty of room for us, and a pretty reasonable rate, 8 pesos per foot, ($18.44 per day for the boat). We have 50 amps of shore power, and water if want to wash the boat. We have talked about it and we are not planning to wash the boat until we cross over to Quaymas, as we will get salt spray on the boat again anyway.
Well, we are going to watch a movie and call it a day. One thing about thing about this marina, everytime a panga goes in or out of this this harbor, we are the first to know, as we rock and roll with their wake!
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We got up around 7 am, had breakfast, checked the weather and did our devotions. It was a bit warmer and calmer this morning than it has been. We saw two kayakers come by and they told us there was a dead whale out in the bay, and they were hoping it would not beach itself on this beach.
We got the dinghy down and went ashore, we talked to a few locals who told us that the nearest petroglyphs were about 10 kilometers to the north, and that there is no trail here into the mountains. I don’t know maybe we are not communicating very well, or they don’t like having a trail in the mountains here, or what. We have a book that describe this specific beach and that the trail starts on the other side of the highway from the restaurant Bertha. “The Sea of Cortez a cruisers guide book”. It has a picture of a petroglyph found on this trail. Also, we can see the trail from the boat. I am pretty confused about this. Oh well.
We got back to our dinghy and headed out to the boat. In the intervening 2 or 3 hours since we left the boat, we have walked about 2 miles, along highway 1, found a tienda (small market) a few restaurants, (mostly closed at this time of day or on Tuesdays), and watched the wind come back up.
We also got one of the wheels for the dinghy stuck in the down position. These wheels make it easier to pull the dinghy up on the beach, they also protect the lower end of the outboard. Unfortunately, we have managed to bend one of the bars associated with the wheel, and what should be an easy process to pull the wheel down and out to remove it from the dinghy required a hammer to convince it to move. So, I got it out and will try mounting it the other way the next time, so that instead of bending it further in that direction it will bend it the other way.
It was clearer and calmer this morning, now it is overcast, cool and windy. Not horrible. It is just that in the dinghy going 2 or 3 miles to the other side of the cove to go to the restaurant that has live music at 4 pm tonight would be a wet prospect and that means cold. Perhaps we will move the boat over there and the dinghy ride will only be a quarter of a mile instead of 2 or 3 miles.
Ok, we moved to Santispac, closer to 5 miles than 2, we saw gusts to 32 knots on the way over and small waves with white caps. When we got anchored in about 25 feet of water, with wind down to about 10 knots (thanks for the mountains around here!). When we pulled in, Renee’ spotted S/V Karma not far away, and she called them on the radio and we spoke a bit. All in all this appears to have been a good move. It is now about 1:30, and happy hour is supposed to be at 4 pm, complete with live music (maybe?).
So, the happy hour was a bunch of cruisers hanging out at the bar, no WiFi, and cheap beer. 25 pesos for two beers. (About $1.25 US). We spent the hour or so hanging out with the crew of Karma, Reina and Clint. Then back to the boat, put the dinghy away and prepped for getting underway first thing in the morning. Clint and Reina Brought by some of her sourdough starter (40 years old, been in the family for ever).
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We woke up at 7am, so much for sleeping in. Actually Renee’ got up and I slept in until about 7:30. It was pretty calm most of the night, and Renee’ said it was a fantastic sunrise, lot’s of red in it. (Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning). In any case we had breakfast in stages, we had oatmeal, did our devotions, and then a half hour or so later the fresh banana bread.
We planned to go ashore and take a hike, we are planning to be here three days so, we will have to do something. The next thing we had to think about was how to get ashore to do the hike. First thought was the kayak, it is a beach landing and the kayak is easier ashore. BUT, we get wet in the kayak and this morning is cold, probably 65 or so. It is overcast and there is no wind. So, we decided that we would take the dinghy, that sounded good until we were actually in the process of getting the dinghy down and decided it was too cold for that as well, (when we get ashore with the dinghy, we have to get out in the water) so, we decided that today would be a stay on the boat sort of day. Reading and relaxing, some days are like that.
Renee’ talked to her mother for a bit on the satellite phone, and we are reading and lazing about.
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We got up at about 6:45, and underway by 7:30. Breakfast and devotions underway. We had about 20 knots of wind from the east as we were headed north, so great sailing weather! We got as high as 7.5 knots boat speed! It helps that we just had the bottom cleaned. We sailed for about 5 hours most of the time above 6 knots. Finally the wind was coming from the wrong direction and then it went away, so we motored for a quite a bit. Total travel distance today about 65 miles. This makes for a very long day. We anchored in Bahia el Burro in Bahia Concepcion. This is the furthest north we have anchored in the Sea of Cortez.
Along the way, we saw a bunch of birds, and a whale or two not too far off. We also found out that this part of the Sea has been called the Vermillion Sea, this is due to the reddish slick on the water from the stuff growing. One book “ Charlies Charts” referred to as an “burst of life of millions of tiny sea organisms which seem to tint the water during certain periods”.
When we finally arrive at this anchorage, at about 6 pm, we managed to find the end of the 20 foot depth, it went from 60 to 30 like normal (gradually getting shallower) then from 30 to 20 was about the same, and from 20 it went to 5 feet. We stopped at 4.4 feet. The problem with that, is that we draft 5 feet. So, I put the engine in reverse and put the rudder in the middle and locked it, then brought the engine RPM to 2500 and left it there. I used the bow thruster to move the boat to the left (it seemed like the right direction to go) and we sat there for a minute or two, eventually we backed out into deeper water. When we got to about 25 feet we stopped the boat and dropped our anchor. We know have a “First” that is the first time we have run ”this boat” aground. Thankfully it was soft mud, and not too sticky. We did not even feel it, but we definitely were aground. We were moving from 7:30 am to 6:30 pm. That makes 11 hours to cover about 65 miles, average speed about 6 knots! Like I said a great day!
We had dinner, took showers and then went to bed. It was a long day.
If you want to know where we are, click this link:
https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking
Sunrise, looking at another Island PacketSame sunrise, looking the other wayThis is the red stuff that causes the sea to be named “Vermillion”More of the stuffJust another sunset
We got up at 6 am, saw a beautiful sunrise, had breakfast, did our devotions, and then got to work. We put the dinghy away, had to clean up some bird dropping on the deck (huge!), and got underway at 8 am. We had almost no wind the whole way, and motored and ran the water make for about 5 hours. We had decided that since we lost a day screwing around with the oil change to bypass Balandra (on Isla Carmen) and go on to San Juanico, which is about halfway between Puerto Escondido and Mulegé. A pretty uneventful trip, Renee’ fished (did not catch anything) and I watched the way we were going. We anchored about 2:30, in 12 – 15 feet of water. I took a nap and Renee’ read for awhile. We plan to get an early start in the morning to get up to Mulegé and Bahia Concepion. We plan a day or two there and then onto Santa Rosalia , and there we will stay a day to rest up and then go across to Guaymas on the mainland.
Tonight we opened a jar of jalapeño’s that were canned by Warren & Katrina Hay. If you are reading this Thank you very much! Very tasty! Renee’ made homemade refried beans and burritos.
We have no cell service here, it was spotty in the marina for the last week, so basically no internet stuff unless we were ashore at the Captain’s lounge and on the way up here it was also in and mostly out.But with the Iridium GO!, (satellite communicator) we can send and receive texts and email, with limits, like virtually no pictures (file size is limited to 5k for the file with the picture and text). It takes about 5 minutes to download the low res weather files. In any case, I sent Warren a text thanking him for the peppers.
This anchorage is one of the best we have been in for being calm, at least tonight. We will see how it is by morning.
If you want to know where we are, click this link:
https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking
At the wheel, it was cool this morningThe narrows leaving Puerto EscondidoLast view of the marina officesIf you look close, there is a boat at anchor in the lower right portion of the pictureSome of the rocks we saw on the wayThe end of another day
