Month: July 2023

Putting Solstice Tide To Bed For The Summer

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We arrived in Puerto Penasco on a Sunday afternoon, just in the nick of time for our haul out the following day.   After a brief exploration of town (documented in my last post), we managed to get the head sail down that first night.   There was still so much to do before we were to be hauled out of the water so we were up bright and early the next day.

The first order of business was to get the mainsail down and folded away, before the wind picked up for the day.   Luckily, this went without a hitch.   We also started to remove loose items from our rail – the life ring, life sling and ladder for example.   We needed to find 4 lines long enough to run from the boat up to the travel lift – luckily, we had a couple of long lengths of rope in storage and were able to use those, along with our jib sheets, to have sufficiently long lines.

We were originally supposed to be hauled out at about 2pm and were quite surprised when the yard phoned at about 9am to see if we were ready to come over.   Owen explained that we were not quite there, but could be available for about 11 and so that was the time-frame we were now working under.  

We continued to round up all of the fenders that had been languishing for months and were finally ready to go.   We were just untying the boat to head over to the travel lift when we heard another boat call in to say that they were just heading into the harbour and would come over directly to be lifted out.   We were expecting the boatyard to explain that there was a boat on the way over to be lifted but instead they told the other boat to come on over.  Okay then – we retied the boat and called in to clarify how long we should now be waiting – they suggested that it would now be another hour so we sat down to wait for the call.

Finally, they were ready for us and we made our way across the harbour and over to the terrifying cement holding space for the lift.   There was not a lot of leeway from side to side and I was so afraid of running us into one of the walls, or directly into the front!!!    Luckily, I was able to land us fairly squarely in the middle and we got all four lines tossed up to the handlers.   They pulled the front corner of the boat over to the wall to allow us to scramble up onto shore and got ready to get us lifted.   All did not go as planned – they got the straps in place and two of the yard guys were on board ready for the lift.   As they were lifting, we could see that the front was not coming up quite as quickly as the back and sure enough, just as the hull was about a foot out of the water, the back straps slipped and the boat plunged back down into the water – it was so sudden and scary!!!!     It seems the combination of the slimy coating on the hull and the slightly mismatched lifting of the straps was enough to send everything off track.   Luckily it was just a short drop and there was no damage.   They decided to opt for the safety of tying the straps together and once everything was secured, they went for round two – we both held our breath while the boat was lifted and then moved forward but everything went much smoother on the second try.   Just like that our boat (and home) was sitting on the hard in the middle of the boat yard.   Being the last boat to be lifted that day, they set a couple of stands underneath us and left us suspended in the slings for the night!!   It was a bit surreal to see the lift hovering over us when I peeked out the hatch over our bed!! 

Our dirty boat hanging in the slings

The next day, the boat was power washed and moved to our new summer home, tucked away in the yard across the street.   Now the real work could begin.

Putting the boat away for the summer is no joke – it is a lot of work.   The boatyard provides us with a manual of suggested steps to take to ensure that the boat will be sound (and hopefully critter free) when we return and this was so helpful to us newbies.  We had decided to stay on the boat – initially for the first few days before we headed home, and finally we ended up on the boat the entire time we were prepping to leave.  

Living on the hard is a bit of a challenge – it is hot – there is nearly no breeze moving through the boat.   There is a very tall set of steps to climb up to get to deck level and then you need to step over a gap (probably less than a foot but felt like 10 feet!) to step onto the boat – being terrified of heights, this was my least favorite part of yard life.   We only wanted to have to have our holding tank emptied out once so if we needed to use the washroom it was a climb down the ladder, through our yard, across the street, stop to visit the puppies, and then either up to the cruiser’s lounge or into one of the washrooms in the main yard.   At night, this was not even a possibility for me so I continued to use the head on the boat but of course had to use the shower to put water through as we could not pull water into the boat.   

Did I mention the puppies?    That was the best part of the yard – they had 2 puppies who were being trained to be the new yard dogs – Drake and Riley were the cutest things – attacking your ankles, giving licks and generally making the misery of the boat yard a little bit better.   I was sure to stop in for snuggles anytime that I was near the main yard.

Drake Chilling in the Boatyard
Riley taking a well-deserved break from puppying!

The next best thing about the yard is the staff – everyone who works at Cabrales boat yard is friendly and helpful.   Most speak only Spanish but with google translate and our every improving charades, you could generally get your message across.   The night guard in the main yard, Federico, took it upon himself to be sure that we were learning some new Spanish words and phrases every day (the puppies for examples are cabrones (or bastards!)).    Most nights we found ourselves standing out in the street at 10pm, on the way to or from the washrooms, having a very long Spanglish conversation with him.  

But back to the work involved in getting the boat cleaned out.   Owen started with giving our poor rusty boat a bath – the salt was so thick on her – even after having had a quick rinse in Santa Rosalita.  While he was doing that, I was taking everything out of the boat, starting at the bow, giving a good wash down and trying to get rid of items we don’t need before loading everything back in.   The suggestion was to get rid of all food on board – we had hundreds of dollars of canned food and spices and I just couldn’t bear to give that all away – I am hoping I don’t regret it, but we bought a few big bins and loaded all the non-perishable food into them.   Once we had made some progress with the cleaning process, it was time for the tinfoil.  Pretty much everything on deck that could not be removed needed to be wrapped in tinfoil and tape – winches, hatches – anything that had any plastic component.   All blocks were removed.   We went on the hunt for good nylon line to use as messenger lines so that we could take our halyards down but found that was nearly impossible to find – lots of poly line available but we had little doubt that those would just disintegrate in the sun.  In the end we managed to find 2 lengths of nylon that we hope will hold up, and two old halyards to swap out with the halyards presently in the mast.    We still have a couple of our regular halyards exposed to the sun but did the best we could do – hopefully the messenger lines all hold up and we are able to swap everything back without drama!   Owen even took the time to wrap our upper life lines in tinfoil as they were newly installed, very expensive, dyneema.   Our sail sheets and lines were crusty with salt so one by one, I took them down and soaked them in a bucket to loosen up the salt and then rinsed them with a bit of fabric softener before hanging them to dry and coiling them up.   This process took nearly the entire time we were in the yard – who knew we had so many lines!

Tarps and Tinfoil
She is so rusty!

I took all of the clothing that we were not taking home, bedding, linens, etc. out of their cupboards and put them into bags for summer storage.

In between boat jobs, and usually for the purpose of a hardware store or grocery trip, we were able to get out and explore a tiny bit of Puerto Penasco.    The area around the boat yard is a bit sketchy – the happy endings massage parlour and brothel being the 2 most notable neighbors.    A short walk from there took us out to a main drag where we could find hardware stores and quick-marts but no real grocery store.   We were of course trying to not bring more food onto the boat as we would be throwing out everything in our fridge and freezer so we were able to manage with just the items available at the quick-marts (milk, bread, tequila seltzers!)   We did come across an adorable café where we were able to sit and enjoy fraps before heading back for more work.   There were also some great roast chicken places in town – we tried one that was fantastic and were told we must check out one a bit further from the boatyard as it is even better! – we didn’t make it there this time but after hearing everyone rave about, it is on our list for when we return.   By the last few days, we were running out of food and I needed to empty and defrost the fridge and freezer so we needed to head out for all meals.   We were lucky to find a great breakfast place only a block away as well as a couple of American style restaurants where we could find decent pizza and good burgers for a reasonable price.   

On our last day, we took everything we could off of the deck, tucking it all away below – when we left, we could hardly step away from the ladder and the salon was filled with sails, bins, my stand-up paddle board, deflated and in its bag, and of course, Owen’s kayak!!   I had already filled the v-berth with lines, the life ring and sling, life jackets, and any other small items.   It will be quite the task to get everything out of there when we come back (I am actually quite concerned about getting the kayak back out – it was a bit of a tight squeeze going in! 

Chaos reigns down below!

We arranged to head to Phoenix by shuttle and what a trip that was.   On the day we were leaving one of our wonderful boat-yard neighbors loaded us and all of our bags into their vehicle and drove us to the shuttle.   There was a 10-person van waiting for us, and there were 13 passengers ready to go!!!   They loaded our bags onto a rack at the back of the van and sardined us all into the van – one of the guys was sitting on a stool between the 2 front seats!!!   It was a bit of an uncomfortable trip for the 40 minutes to the border, with both Owen and I perched on the edge of our seats with only one butt cheek actually on the seat – luckily, I had someone else’s bag wedged between the seat and the door so I had a bit more support.   As we approached the border, we got the first glimpse of the “wall” – what a site – miles and miles of a tall, steel fence – sort of like vertical blinds – slashed through the desert.  At the border we needed to get out of the van and carry all of our stuff (think a huge duffel bag, back pack and purse for me and a duffel bag, computer bag, breathing machine bag and back pack for Owen!) over the border.   Thankfully the process of crossing was easy.  Once we got through, we headed over to another van – this one was smaller than the last with the luggage rack on the roof and we had no idea how everyone was going to fit inside!!!  Thankfully another, smaller passenger van also pulled up and Owen and I and 2 other people jumped into that van!!   It was about a 3 hour drive up to Phoenix, passing through a beautiful national park full of rolling hills of cacti with a brief stopover at a truck stop for a quick break.   Other than the packed start, it was a great (and reasonably priced) way to get up to Phoenix.   We called an uber from the shuttle drop off location and we were at our hotel before dinner.   Next stop, Canada!!!

Continuing North…

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We departed Isla San Marcos early, ducking the three miles down below the reef that juts out from the south end of the Island and then continuing north, headed for Santa Rosalia.  We understood from the guidebooks that the holding in the port was less than perfect, and also that the marina was tiny (about 20 slips on one main dock!) so Owen called early to ensure that we could come in to the Marina.  Unfortunately, he did not get the slip assignment and as we were approaching the large man-made breakwater to the port, we were trying to hail the marina on the radio with no luck.  Owen got all fenders and lines set up on our port side, hoping that we would be able to dock in that formation (Solstice Tide’s prop walk makes a Port tie much easier) and then phoned for clarification.   We were told to come into A5 and assured that it was in fact a port tie.   A5 was a port tie – A4 was actually the slip that was open!!  We were motoring slowly alongside the dock, preparing to pull into the slip when I realized that we were set up on the wrong side – we had two options – turn around and go back out to switch over all the lines, or back in.   Please understand, Solstice Tide does not like to back in – at all!!!    Owen was far more confident that I would be able to do so and, given the fact that there was no wind, and the current seemed negligible, and there was not another dock full of boats to hit – only the ferry dock! – I decided to give it a go.  Owen said to just get the stern to the corner of the finger and then they would be able to walk us in – the problem was that the finger only came out half way down the length of the slip and the boat in the other side of the slip had a huge bow sprit.  I was terrified!!!   While Owen ran to the back to wrangle the dinghy into submission, I very slowly backed her in and managed to pull her right into the slip with no drama – and then very quickly disappeared down below to allow my knees and hands time to stop shaking!   Once I had the opportunity to settle, I popped up to take a peek around and was delighted to see Sapphire docked two slips over from us – we had met Greg and Sherri on New Years and again at Gentry’s birthday and had run into them briefly in La Cruz.   They were not on board when we first got there but I was just coming back from a walk around the property a bit later when they spotted me coming down the ramp.   I popped on board their boat for a quick visit and Owen finally found me there a not so short time later.   Both Owen and Greg were very intrigued by the mining history in the town and it was decided that we would try to go to the mining museum, before heading out to check out a well-reviewed restaurant.

We walked down to a small museum consisting of 3 “caves” that simulated the conditions of the mine, with the guide offering information about the origin and history of the mine.  He strongly recommended that we should check out the other museum, located in the original mine administration offices.  We set off in the direction that we thought the museum should be and were quickly lost – the funny thing was none of the locals seemed to know what we were looking for.   After a few wrong turns, we finally found the building, only to find it closed.   We were standing outside discussing where to go next when a security guard came around the corner and asked if we needed anything.   We confirmed with him that the museum was closed for the day and would not reopen until Monday – we sadly told him we were going to be gone before Monday and he asked us to wait a minute while he made a phone call.   A couple of minutes later, he opened up the museum and invited us in.   We got a private tour from the guard and were thrilled to discover this space that had been largely unchanged since it acted as the local headquarters for the mine.

After the tour we wound our way through town to Tonka – a wonderful restaurant fairly close to the marina.   We enjoyed delicious Pina Coladas and huge burgers and, more importantly, great company.   We all headed back to our boats, thankful to have made it back before the wedding reception that had been set up right at the top of the ramp started.  It would have felt pretty awkward walking right through the wedding!!!    The wedding proved to be a very loud affair that just got louder as the night wore on, with the music going long past 3am!!

The next day we wandered around the town, checking out some of old mining and railway relics that were set up all over town.   We were able to check out the Eiffel Church – designed by Eiffel (as in the tower) in France. When the French company was moving their families over Mexico to over-see the mine, the wives insisted that there had to be a church. The mine owner approached Eiffel to purchase his church and the entire thing was disassembled, shipped to Santa Rosalita and reassembled on site. We found an amazing bakery and sat on the sidewalk eating ginormous donuts before going to grab a few groceries.   We walked back along the waterfront, taking us past the site of the old smelter.   The ruins of the smelter have been established into a bit of a plaza and museum – it is odd to be walking around a site that in Canada would have been fenced off for safety or, worse, stripped of all of its metal by thieves!!    We ended up heading back to Tonka with Greg and Sherri for another round of drinks, and then a stop for ice cream on the way back to the boats.   This time there was a small pub at the building at the top of the ramp – we had not even noticed it before – it had not been open the night before and at first we thought it was just open to service the bus depot that was also on site.  It was not – instead we listened to rather bad music – that included an accordian! – until the very early hours of the morning.  

Our last morning in Santa Rosalita was spent picking up jugs of water to replenish our tanks.   We then went in search of a restaurant recommended by Greg and Sherri to grab a roasted chicken and sides to have for dinner that night.   We were headed out for another overnight and this would mean I did not have to cook!   We made a fuel stop and then headed out of the harbour around noon.   We motored or motor-sailed much of the evening – we knew that there was expected to be a Coromal coming across the peninsula from Santa Maria on the outside – the forecast had it coming in at about 2am and at the pace we were going, we would have been well north of the area it was expected before that time.  Instead, it very suddenly hit at about 9pm – I went from motoring to 20 knots inside of 5 minutes.  Owen was down sleeping and I suddenly found myself unable to leave the wheel but desperately needing to reef the headsail.  I finally had to call him up and he helped to get the headsail in, leaving us a bit more balanced.  By this time, we were seeing steady 25 knots, gusting to 28 – it was a bit of a wet ride – Owen actually got completely doused coming up the companionway and I was soaked!!!   I told Owen to just stay down trying to sleep as I knew I would never be able to sleep and I drove until about 12:30 am when the wind finally backed and then died completely.   We finally made it into Bahia San Francisquito at about 10am – the water was crystal clear (but oh so cold!) and there was georgous rock formations everywhere.  Unfortunately, we were both too exhausted to even consider putting the dinghy in the water to explore.   We will definitely stop there on our way back down!! 

Leaving Santa Rosalita
Bahia San Fransiquito

We left San Francisquito the next morning at about 6am and headed north into some pretty strong current.   We only managed to sail for an hour or so and were moving very slowly!!   We were actually hailed by a boat that had left the anchorage about 2 hours after us – as they were passing us, they wanted to be sure that nothing was wrong aboard  – they just couldn’t understand why we were going so slow!!!  We finally arrived at Bahia Animas about 3pm and anchored beside the boat that hailed us, and one other boat.    The anchorage shallowed quickly and there was not a lot of protection from any wind or swell that might come in from the east so we were happy to have a nice settled evening.

The next day we were up early and headed out of Animas – almost immediately we were faced with 20 knots on the nose and huge seas.  We battled into it for an hour or so, making barely a knot of headway and then decided neither us nor the boat needed to be this beat up – we turned around and headed back to the anchorage.   It was still calm in the anchorage but the swell soon reached us and it was a bit of an unsettled afternoon.   We consoled ourselves with a movie day and tried not to think too much about how far we still had to go and how few days there were left to get there!!!

The next morning we were up at 5:30 for another try – we almost immediately saw a north wind in the low teens and I was concerned that the seas were building again, but we decided to push on.   The wind gradually died as the day went on and we motored into LA Bay by 11am.  LA Bay is definitely another spot we want to explore – there are a bunch of islands in the bay with anchorages protected from various different wind directions.   This visit was to be short and sweet however – we anchored right in front of the town and dinghied into the beach.  There was a bit of swell on the beach but luckily there is an old breakwater from an unused boat ramp so we were able to tuck in and land the dinghy with no drama.   We had brought our trusty cart and jerry cans, intending to make 2 runs for diesel.   We started to head through town to the gas station – only to be told at the first station that there was no diesel available and we would have to go to the next station, which was a bit further out towards the highway.   It was quickly decided that, after the long walk to get the first load, we would just cross our fingers for enough wind to sail and not go for a second diesel run.   We were honestly a little disappointed by the town – the people seemed downright surly – though that may have something to do with the fact that they seem to be overrun with Americans – mostly from California – parking their boat trailers all over town.  We did do a quick stop for some last provisions and then hit a restaurant near where we were anchored to have a very expensive lunch and pina coladas (and get some wifi!).  

We headed back to the boat and motored (with one brief spell of lazy sailing) through the bay to an anchorage between Isla Coronado (a volcano!) and Isla Mitlan.   It was a perfectly protected spot, right at the foot of the extinct volcano.   We jumped into the dinghy eager to explore and headed first to the south end of the anchorage – we just drifting into the shore when we noticed what looked terrifyingly like 100’s of cockroaches crawling all over the shore (probably some sort of water beetle?) – we quickly backed out of there and tried to head over to the base of the volcano – only to find the same horrifying sight!!!  We gave up on the idea of land exploration and headed back to the boat.

We were once again up and about early the next morning, and went to head north between Coronado and the mainland, only to realize that the water depth was only about 4 feet in the pass – we were so disappointed – the cruising guide clearly showed this as an exit out of the Bay, but apparently that is for kayaks!!!   We had to motor about four miles south down around the bottom end of the Island and then back up – it was already going to be a long day so adding 8 miles did not make me a happy girl.   We motored until we were at the top end of Coronado and then finally had about 15 knots of wind on our beam, allowing us to sail for about 5 miles.   We were just firing up the engine again when a pod of Orcas approached the boat, we killed the engine and drifted while they played around and under our boat.   They finally got bored and continued south, while we motored the rest of the way up the side of Isla Angel de la Guardia, headed for Puerto Refugio.  We arrived in the Isla Mejia anchorage about 5pm and got the anchor set.   This was again a beautiful spot that would warrant more exploration – add it to our return list!!! 

We had a bit of lazy morning and then headed out about noon the next day – we knew we were again in for an overnight for this last sail before Puerto Penasco – we had about 107 miles to cover – it was now Saturday and we were being hauled out on Monday so we were confident we should be able to make it!!   We first motored around to take a peek into the primary Refugio anchorage – it is georgous – how will we will fit in all these spots on the way back?  We were just motoring away from the top end of the island when we saw a disturbance on the water.    The water looked like it was boiling and we quickly realized it was hundreds of dolphins feeding – to add to the chaos, there were hundreds of pelicans and other birds diving down amongst the pod!!!   We watched the show for quite a long time before they finally cleared behind us.  The wind conditions were perfect to try the spinnaker, a sail that had seen almost no fly time our entire trip – Owen got everything rigged up and we launched it about noon.   We sailed at between 5 and 7 knots until the wind finally started to die out and we doused the sail around 5:30.   We decided to motor for a couple of hours while I got dinner made and then Owen asked if we could turn it off while he listened to the radio check ins on the SSB.   While he was doing that, the wind gradually started to build – by the time he was done we were comfortably travelling at about 4 knots.   We were now facing the possibility that we were going to get to Puerto Penasco before daybreak so we were happy to sail along through the night.   By early morning the seas were building from the south and the wind was dying – we finally fired up the engine for the final hour or so, mostly to stop the rolling in the waves!!   We had been told by the boatyard that marinas are first come first serve in Penasco and we should take the first dock we saw.   We had also read that the shrimp boats had a bit of a habit of running into the Fonatur dock – the instructions were definitely to take the more westerly dock to keep away from the shrimpers.   When we pulled in, we could see that the entire end dock at the Fonatur marina was thankfully empty – we pulled up to it, actually having to take a second run as the current was completely messing with my docking – Owen jumped off only to realize there were no cleats on the westerly dock – very strange!!!  No worries – we just took our lines across the dock to the other side and got settled in.   A security guard came down to let us know that the office was closed and we would have to check in the next morning.   That unfortunately meant no access to their showers (for some reason our hot water heater was not working again and Owen had not yet had the chance to trouble shoot it).  I ended up having a horribly cold shower and then we headed out to explore Puerto Penasco a bit.

We walked along to the Malecon and were immediately assaulted by the music and hawkers, everyone trying to get us to go to their restaurant – it felt like Cabo!!!   I had not known it until just before we headed there, but Puerto Penasco serves as a beach getaway for people in Arizona and has a big party vibe.   We managed to make our way off the Malecon and found a great little restaurant set over a couple of floors, with a fun “beer garden” on the first floor and a wine bar on the second.   The view of the sunset was fantastic and dinner was wonderful.   We headed back to the boat and used the evening lack of wind to get our headsail down and furled before calling it a night – the next day was going to be a long one as we will still had a few things to do before we could get hauled out!

Still Marching North

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We only very grudgingly got the anchor up and headed out of Agua Verde.  We once again had a long day of motoring or motor sailing as we headed for Puerto Escondido.  We did manage to sail for one short stretch, crossing our fingers that the wind would hold, but of course, as the day went on, the wind lightened and then died altogether.   Puerto Escondido is an amazingly protected series of three bays, each more protected than the last, that has been almost entirely swallowed up by the marina – they have put mooring balls throughout the two inner-most bays and you are not permitted to anchor anywhere in those bays – the most outer of the bays does appear to allow anchoring, but if you want to use the dinghy dock at Puerto Escondido, they will charge you the same fee as if you are using a mooring ball so we grudgingly took a mooring ball – hoping that the tackle was sound!!  We dinghied over to the marina to pay up and to get laundry done.   The facilities at the marina are top notch, and very, very expensive.   We had our most expensive pina coladas here, along with a very expensive dinner.   Laundry was do-it-yourself, and the most expensive I had seen – 100 pesos per wash and 100 pesos per dry (keeping in mind that I was paying 70 pesos per load, washed, dried, folded and returned to me in La Paz!).   There is a little store on site that is very well stocked, and very expensive (there is definitely at theme here!).   We ended up staying two nights there, to allow sufficient time to get all of our laundry caught up – I had thought we might hang out by the pool on day 2 but by the time we got the laundry done and back to the boat, neither of us could be bothered to go back to shore!!     We had considered taking a taxi from Puerto Escondido to Loreto to do a good grocery shop, knowing that the anchorage off Loreto is at best an open roadstead, but given that the taxi would be about a $70 usd round trip, we decided that we would chance stopping at Loreto and if the conditions were too bad, we had the option to run over to one of the Islands just off the town and anchor there.

After two nights at Puerto Escondido we were ready to head out, stopping first to fuel up at the fuel dock (again – so expensive!) and made the small hop up to Loreto where we anchored just off the breakwater.   We dinghied into shore and visited the API to pay our anchoring and landing fees and then wandered off into one of our very favorite little cities.   We have previously done two fly-in trips to Loreto and loved our time there – it was one of the places I was so excited to get to on this trip.  We walked along the Malecon and then headed to the town square where we stopped for some very deserved Pina Coladas before heading to the grocery store to stock up.   Our plan had been to get groceries, run them out to the boat and then come back in for dinner at one of our very favorite restaurants.  Unfortunately, by the time we were heading back out to the boat, a wind had picked up, building a pretty good fetch between the breakwater and our boat – we were soaked by the time we reached the boat and not excited about going back to shore and then having to head back to the boat in those conditions, in the dark.   We decided to forego dinner in Loreto, sadly, and got the dinghy up in its bridle.   I was popping up and down from the cockpit, cleaning the veggies and fruit we had bought, and noticed a tandem kayak heading into the wind and waves, trying to get back to shore.   I pointed them out to Owen and commented that they had some work to get back in.   A few minutes later, he looked over and realized that they were no longer in the kayak!!!   He quickly launched the dinghy and motored over to where he had spotted them.   Luckily, another boat had also seen that they were in distress and he had motored over to them as well.   Our fellow cruiser was in a rather tippy, small tender – he had managed to get one of them into his tender, but the other person was being dragged behind, holding onto the overturned kayak.   Owen got there just as they finally made it back to the other cruiser’s boat and helped to get the kayak up and drained out and then offered to take one of them into shore, while the other cruiser took the other person and towed the kayak.   The kayakers were very grateful to accept that offer, being a little shaken from their experience and not wanting to try to paddle into the sea state at that time!   Luckily the sea state settled a bit overnight and we had a pleasant night at anchor.

Sadly, not really feeling like we had spent enough time in Loreto, the next morning it was again time to continue north.  We mostly motored, with a few minutes of sailing mixed in, to San Juanico – by the time we arrived in the anchorage, the wind that we had waited all day for was finally beginning to build and the conditions in the anchorage were very rolly.  We pulled the dinghy up right away and spent a fairly uncomfortable night at anchor.   Perhaps we will have the chance to check this spot out on our way back down!

We were up at 5:30 the next day, with the anchor up by 6 am – we had a long way to go!!!  The wind was very strong from the Northwest when we first left the anchorage so we sailed into lumpy seas for a while before the wind died completely again.   We were motoring along when the wind suddenly built to over 20 knots on the beam – we were thankful to throw the sails out and enjoy some rollicking sailing before the wind again started to die.   As we did have a lot of miles to cover on this day, sailing slowly was not an option and we once again had to fire up the engine.   We had originally considered taking anchorage right at the mouth of Bahia Conception, in what was really just an open roadstead, but knew that the wind was scheduled to pick up overnight and we wanted a more protected anchorage.   Keeping that in mind, we motor sailed the 7 miles down Bahia Conception to Playa Santispac – going through a swarm of no-see-ums just as we were coming into the anchorage – they were everywhere!!!   We finally got the anchor set and disappeared below, closing all of the hatches behind us!!!   We spent the next day dinghying around and exploring the various anchorages around Playa Santispac (being chased away from one of them by the no-see-ums again) and then beached the dinghy at Playa Coyote to enjoy a quick lunch at the beach bar.   There are a couple of islands around the Santispac area that are covered in literal forests of saguaro cacti – it was so cool to see!  This beach appears to be a good stop for campers as there were a number of motorhomes of all sizes parked along the beach – the driveway down from the highway must have been challenging for the bigger rigs though – it looked awfully steep and narrow!  The anchorage got a bit lumpy in the evening but was not terribly uncomfortable. 

We were up early the next day and motoring back out Bahia Conception – almost immediately the wind was building, causing a terrible sea state – by 1pm the wind was at 15 knots on our nose and the waves were huge – we were hardly making any headway and still had another 7 miles or so before we would be able to turn off the wind a bit (which would have put us broadside to the big waves anyway!).   We finally opted to bail out to the last anchorage at the northern mouth of Bahia Conception, Punta Chivalo.  The anchorage was beautifully protected with flat calm seas and I was so happy to get the hook down in the crystal-clear water.   There were a number of very nice private homes on the beach, along with an abandoned hotel and the map showed that there was an airstrip just off the beach.   The area felt almost entirely deserted however – likely snowbird homes – perhaps people had already headed home for the season.  We hung out there and watched a movie – I had pretty well decided that we were there for the night but as the wind started to die down late afternoon, Owen figured we should make the final jump to Isla San Marcos so that our day would be shorter the next day.  We quickly realized once we were out of our protected anchorage that although the wind had died down, unfortunately, the seas had not settled yet so we had a rolly, slow motor the final 10 miles or so – finally putting the hook down in the south end of Isla San Marcos, in a desolate bay, at about 7pm.   Isla San Marcos has a large gypsum mine, and the area surrounding the bay looked like the surface of the moon, but it was perfectly protected from any north wind.  For no apparent reason, we both found the area a bit creepy and I was on high alert, not even sure what I was worried about – there were no houses around – though we had been spotted as we anchored – there were a few people out on a lookout around the corner when we were coming in and I did notice them notice us.    We actually locked the boat right down that night but had a peaceful sleep.    We would later discuss how weird the bay had felt with another couple and it turns out they had been in there the night previous to us and had felt the same way!!

It was time to move along further north – next stop the mining town of Santa Rosalia.