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.