Baja Coast

Heading North

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We left Bahia Falsa and headed back to the islands of Isla Espiritu Santo and Partida, still deciding where we were going to end up for the night.   There was little wind to start, with the wind and waves gradually building from dead ahead.   We were able to sneak out a headsail to give us a little more oomph to make it through the waves and continuously congratulated ourselves for getting some of the barnacles off of the prop – we were definitely moving faster!!

We finally settled for going into Caleta Partida, an anchorage that we had not yet been into but which others had raved about.  Caleta Partida is the cut between Espiritu Santo and Partida, with a broken sandbar isthmus connecting the two islands – though it is open to the East, the isthmus provides some wave protection, and there is good protection from the North.   We found a good spot, tucked in a bit from the exposed eastern side, and set the hook.   The anchorage is beautiful and apparently a diver’s dream.   I really wanted to explore the shoreline so we put the engine on the dinghy and headed out – only to realize that the water very, very quickly shallows out, making it seem impossible to get to shore.   There is very cool coral or sponge just below the surface and we didn’t want to risk any damage to that.   We putted around a little more looking for a path to the back of the bay, all the while the wind and waves were beginning to build in the anchorage, and finally opted to just head back to the boat where Owen decided to drop and change the engine oil (still no new filter sadly!). I tried to relax while contemplating how we were going to get so far north in such a short period of time! 

We were up and out fairly early the next morning, hoping the forecast southerlies arrived to help push us north to Isla San Francisco.  Sadly, the wind never did appear and we motored for five hours.  As we approached the bay, I was tempted to detour and head elsewhere – all you could see from outside was giant fiberglass power boats – not my idea of ideal anchorage neighbors!!   The bay looked fairly packed and I was loath to hang out with what I presumed were probably party boats toting jet skis and running generators.    The water lured me in though – it was so green that the water’s reflection made the big white monstrosities actually looked like they had green paint jobs!   We motored in and found a spot to tuck in behind one of the bigger boats, hoping that if nothing else it would provide a bit of wind break if the southerlies did ever appear – the anchorage is completely open to those winds.   The water was breathtaking – I watched the anchor drop all the way to the sand and bury in and then watched the chain as it lay out on the ocean floor 25 feet below me – I could have counted the links!!!    While we were setting the anchor, a huge school of rays swam right under the boat, startling me as they appeared out the starboard side!!!    As I was marveling at the crystal clear water, already with thoughts of jumping in in my head, Owen called out to ask if I had a guess on what the water temperature was.   I hoped it was not too cold and was ecstatic when he said it was 27.7 Celsius!!!   I quickly put on my swimsuit and started to climb down the ladder – realizing as my toes hit the water that the water was not that warm!!!   I told Owen that it felt a lot colder than he said, but quickly let go and fell into the very, very cold water – beautiful, clear, but oh so cold!!!   Owen finally had an epiphany as I sputtered around trying to catch my breath – he had pulled the transducer out of the hull and it was sitting inside of the bilge – so the temperature he had given me was actually from the inside of the boat!!!   I still enjoyed a short swim, finally chased into the boat by the dreaded jet skis that were weaving in and out of the boats.   We actually noticed that the kayak on one of the other boats was tied way, way behind the boat – we thought it was drifting free at first.   In fact, they had put it on a 100 foot line in an attempt to keep the jet skis from buzzing their stern!  We took the dinghy into shore and walked along the shoreline, stopping to chat with a couple of other boating couples and then called it a night.   Despite the jet skis, generators, party music and general jackasses, it was still such a stunning bay that I couldn’t regret stopping there – until about 4 am.   That is when I woke up to find that the southerlies must have indeed filled in earlier in the day, working their way up from La Paz and building fetch on the water the whole way – the anchorage was being rocked by huge waves, coming directly in the entrance and taking us right on the bow.   The boat was hobby-horsing so violently that I could barely walk around – the dinghy was seesawing back and forth against the hull (we realized in the morning that it managed to unscrew and lose the cap on the oarstand, leaving us unable to use the oars.   I spent the rest of the night watching our radar alarm to be sure that we were not moving and keeping an eye on the bigger boat immediately in front of us.    I finally got Owen up around 7am and insisted that we head out before it got any worse.     Getting the anchor up was a challenge in the conditions and getting out of the bay and clear of the bigger waves right at its entrance was pretty scary!!!   We finally managed to round the end of the Island, heading north again, and hoping that at least we would have the wind to push us along, only to have it die almost immediately!

We motored the ten miles to San Evaristo, anchoring in front of the village.   We were very close to shore and uncomfortably close to another boat, but the anchorage is quite small, and the area with any protection is even smaller so we hoped that we had set okay.   That night, a Coromal kicked up about 10pm – these are very strong winds that funnel over the Baja from the Pacific side and come down the mountain face right into the anchorage.   We were seeing winds gusting into the high 20’s.  Owen had again set the anchor alarm and the radar alarm and had mirrored the wind instruments to his computer.   I tried to go to bed at a normal time, but ended up sitting in the salon, watching the wind instruments, hoping to see the wind finally drop below 20, and keeping an eye on our position, relative to the boat we were anchored beside.   It was a long night, with Owen snoring away in our cabin and me slowly descending into panic in the salon!   Finally, about 4 am, the wind started to settle and I was able to head to bed.    The next morning, Owen had the fun task of once again taking apart the toilet, this time actually taking hoses off and trying to knock out the disgusting calcium build up that kept plugging up the pump and hoses.   The crew of Dos Rojos came by just as he was finishing up to see if we would like to go for lunch – the promise of a fruity drink was exactly what he needed at that moment and we happily agreed to meet them on shore in a bit.   The lunch was excellent, though there was not a pina colada to be had and Owen had to settle for a coke!!   We went back to the boat and I winched Owen up the mast so that he could finally change out the two broken blocks, allowing us to once again raise the dinghy from the spinnaker halyard.   It was hot work and as soon as I had him back on deck, I was in the water cooling off.   By the time we had gotten back to the boat after lunch, a number of other boats had arrived in the already crowded anchorage, with one of them setting themselves very close to our bow.   We had a feeling it was going to be a bit of a problem in the night and sure enough, when the wind switched around, turning us all around, we could see that they had far less scope than us out and we were nearly bumping into their bow.    They let out a bit more chain, pulling a bit further from us, but then when the wind died completely in the night, their boat, being much lighter than ours, started to drift forward on their chain, while our heavy beast stayed happily where she was.   Sure enough, our radar alarm started to go off, signaling that a boat was much closer to us than we were comfortable with – when we went on deck they were nearly on top of us.   We hung out and watched as we just skirted around each other for a while and then went back to bed, hoping that there would not be an actual collision.   The other boat was long gone when we got up in the morning and it did not seem that there had been any contact.

Though we really liked San Evaristo, and would have liked to explore the tiny village a bit more, we did not have the luxury of lingering anywhere for very long – it was time to start marching north again.   We motored out of San Evaristo and then managed to sail for a few hours until the wind slowly died and we were left to motor again.   We finally managed to motor into Bahia El Toro at about 6pm and get the anchor set just as the sun was going down.   We didn’t even launch the dinghy here as there was quite a lot of swell wrapping around (from where we were not sure as there didn’t seem to be any wind all day!).   It was a bit of an uncomfortable night, with the boat constantly rolling side to side as it got turned into the waves, with no wind to pull it out of them.

We left early the next morning for the jump to Agua Verde, motoring or motor sailing and arriving in Agua Verde about 2pm.   We had been anxious to make this bay, having heard how beautiful it was, and it did not disappoint.   There are several possible anchorages and we chose to tuck into the south side of the bay, just off one corner of the very small village.   We took the dinghy into shore and wandered around, in search of the small store that was promised to be there.   We were quite disheartened to see garbage and garbage bags just strewn all over, with piles of previously burnt garbage nearly everywhere – we realize that burning garbage may be the only option in this spot, but would it not make sense to choose one small area to do so, rather than just burning it anywhere and everywhere?   We found the very small store and grabbed a few provisions and then headed to the beach bar.   We enjoyed tacos, with very, very spicy chili paste to top them off and chatted with some of the other boaters.   There was a table beside us with 4 guys who were together for a boys’ week – the first time all four of them had been together since they worked together at Boeing 40 years ago!!!   When they went to leave, they mentioned that they were going in search of the famed goat cheese – a must find in Agua Verde – I asked them where you go for that and they told us to settle up our bill and join them so we did just that.   We walked around to the village and went to the house that was expected to have cheese – sadly they did not have any ready (though I could see that they had some set up in a press at the time).   We wandered back the way we had come and a group of people at another house asked where our cheese was – when we explained that they had not had any available, the group sent us off to yet another house.   Sure enough, there was one round left and she split it up to sell each group one half – success!!!   We made our way back to the boat and enjoyed a nice evening in the cockpit.   Owen had a group of boys approach the boat on a stand up paddle board just after we got back but he couldn’t figure out what they were looking for – the next day, we realized that they were taking garbage from the cruising boats – for a 100 pesos a bag! – that explained all the white Costco garbage bags strewn everywhere!  The next morning, we went for a boondoggle in the dinghy, stopping by to see how the boys had fared – speaking quietly was a must as they mysteriously all had headaches!    Owen decided that this was the perfect place for me to try out snorkeling, something I had not yet done on this trip.   We took the dinghy over to one of the more protected beaches and waded over to a spot that promised good snorkeling – sadly we had left it a little late in the day and the sun was already starting to be shadowed in there, meaning that the visibility was not as good as it could have been.   It was a good first run for me though, and we considered it a success.     We were just back at the beach and getting ready to dinghy back to the boat when we spotted (and heard the bells from) the goats – they were way up in the hills, presumably heading out for a few days of grazing, their little bells tinkling through the air as they went – truly a memorable experience and one of the things that Agua Verde is famous for.    We were so sorry to leave this little piece of paradise the next day but it was time to get going further north – our haul out date was looming!

The Beautiful Baja Coast

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Sorry guys, this is a long one!!!

When we arrived in Ensenada and began to plan the next leg of our trip to Cabo San Lucas, we were somewhat surprised to realize how long the Baja coast is (probably something one would have expected us to know already but honestly, to that point, we had been so focused on getting to Mexico, we hadn’t really considered what we would do when we got here!)!!!   We began to look at the stops we wanted to make and had quite a list – sadly we didn’t manage to hit every one of them but the places we did stop did not disappoint!

We left Ensenada mid-day, planning an overnight stop at Todos Santos – we knew that there was some fish farming activity – what we did not realize was that every inch of the protected side of the island is now crowded with fish farms.   Sadly, we had to give it a miss and headed out of the bay headed for San Quintin, about a 150 miles south.

We sailed out of the bay in very light wind and it did not really increase for the first day.   We had some humpback whales arrive during our first day but I think that they thought we were going too slow and didn’t hang around!   Sometime on day 2 we received a message on our zoleo from Dorothy to point out that we had made 36 miles in 26 hours – were we okay???   We knew we were going slow but that reminder was a bit of a gut-punch!!!  We finally fired up the motor for a bit to both charge the batteries and to get us a little further along the coast.   The wind did finally pick up a bit and then died again.  Luckily, our friends on Lunar Bird had messaged to assure us that the entrance into San Quintin was wide open and, as they were leaving that day, they sent us the GPS coordinates for the spot they had been anchored so that we could proceed to that spot if we came in after dark.   We finally made it to San Quintin about 11pm and very slowly motored into the bay, using the gps and radar and a spotlight to get us in and drop the hook in about 20 feet of water.   There was one other boat in the bay but we knew we were at least a half mile from them so were able to enjoy a peaceful night at anchor!

On waking up the next morning, we were able to see that we had little to worry about with this bay – it is HUGE!!!   We received an email on our blog from SV Trouble to let us know that they were the other boat anchored in the bay and to welcome us to the bay!   They also let us know that there was a restaurant at the hotel on the beach that served great tacos and deadly margaritas.  They sadly left later that afternoon before we had a chance to meet them, but another couple of boats came in during the day.   The waves break pretty hard on the beach in San Quintin and we were strongly debating whether great margaritas were worth the probable soaking.   There is a more protected inner estuary, but the entrance to it proved to also have breaking waves over it.   Abandoning a trip to the restaurant, we tried for a short beach visit in the dinghy but by the time we abandoned an attempt to get into the estuary, the waves were breaking hard on the beach that had earlier seemed to be calmer – should have gone at a higher tide I guess!!!  

We spent the next day trying to get some rust spots on our hull touched up and primed but the sea state was pretty high and we were only able to hit those spots that were further out of the water (and I am pretty sure that even a couple of those got a bit of a dousing!!!)   It is a bit disheartening to see so much rust on the hull that was so nicely freshly painted this summer (that haul out story is a blog post I still plan to do – just haven’t quite recovered from the trauma!).

After a couple of peaceful days in San Quintin, we left to head to Bahia Tortugas (Turtle Bay), about 300 miles further south.   Tortugas is considered to be one of the only truly protected harbours on the Baja Coast and we were looking forward to exploring the town.  We motored out of San Quintin, putting the sails up immediately but ran the engine a bit to charge batteries.   We had great wind and sailed at an average of 4-5 knots – except for a torturous 3 hour shift for Owen, where he made only 3 knots to the good in the middle of the night!   We did over 100 knots in the first 24 hours which was a bit of a record for us!!!  Wind continued all through the second day – the sea state was a bit rolly and it was hard to move around below deck, but it was beautiful sailing and we were gratefully enjoying it!!  We woke up the second morning to a message from Lunar Bird that they had found a bunch of dead squid on their deck and sure enough, we discovered 5 or 6 on our deck as well.   We would later hear that nearly everyone passing near Cedros Island had squid on deck – we would be really curious to discover why!!! 

We sailed into Turtle Bay around 3:30 pm (actually 4:30 as we were now in a new time zone!), setting the hook in about 30 feet of water and enjoyed a relaxing, still, evening on the boat!

The next morning, we headed into shore to explore – we beached the dinghy and wandered around (after being assured by the local who was working just above the beach where we had landed that the dinghy would be safe).    We had tacos at one of the local restaurants where we visited with the owner (both of us using translation apps on our phone to make it easier!) and Owen was befriended by her little chihuahua Bridgit – who would smile/growl at her mamma when it was suggested that Owen might not actually want her in his lap!!!  It was hilarious.

We managed to grab a few groceries and then headed back to the dinghy to go back to the boat – let’s say the dinghy launch did not go smoothly!!!  We loaded everything into the dinghy and pushed it out a bit, and jumped in – before Owen had a chance to drop the motor, a wave came pushing us back to the beach, followed quickly by a wave that, on hitting our now stationary dinghy crashed over the back drenching us, the groceries and my purse!!!  I jumped out for a second try – I had hoped that by pushing the boat out a bit further, we might have better luck – Owen ended up in a bit of a trough putting the water to mid-thigh and when he jumped back, another wave came in, pushing the dinghy over me – I ended up on my butt with the dinghy on top of me – thoroughly soaked to mid chest and covered in sand!!!  We finally managed to get ourselves in the dinghy and the dinghy off the beach and made it back to the boat – where I very elegantly hung from the ladder trying to get at least some of the sand from my clothes!!! 

We decided that putting the dinghy wheels on the transom would be a good priority the next morning and finally had that long-delayed job completed.   We once again headed into shore, this time landing at a different beach where a local, Pedro, requested (demanded) money to watch our dinghy.   We couldn’t quite figure out how much he was looking for and as he just kept saying more, more, more I got a bit frustrated and left Owen to deal with it.   That finally being dealt with, we wandered around town a bit more – sadly we had managed to hit town at siesta time and most of what is actually there was closed!    We had much more successful dinghy launch (those wheels are awesome!).

We had been told we should check out Rojalio’s little beach bar so the next day we again went into the same beach (and again dealt with Pedro).  Rojalio and his family own several properties right at the beach and he has turned one of them into a little beach bar / cruiser’s gathering spot.  One of the other boats was making good use of his kindness, having set up a table inside and storing her sewing machine at the bar so that she could work on a dinghy chap project without having to drag her machine in every day.   We were able to visit with a few of the other cruisers and had a lovely conversation with Rojalio.  He told us he had spent time in Mexico City but after Covid, he decided to move home – he loves to tell visitors about his town and is working to ensure the beaches and the town are kept clean – it was so nice to speak with someone so obviously proud of his home and to be the benefit of his hospitality. 

We headed out the next day, after having installed a cleat for our furling line (always happy to have knocked one of the many items off the still very long to-do list!).  We had a lovely overnight sail, downwind in about 15 knots.   The winds were a bit fluky early in the morning but we made Bahia Asuncion by about 8:30 in the morning.  We fired up the engine to enter the bay and set the anchor and again had “tiny bubbles” causing the motor to suddenly die just as we were heading in to anchor – I did another loop away from the anchored boats while Owen bled the air out of the system and then tried again – and again we were hit by tiny bubbles!!!   The third time was lucky and we finally got set!

The water in Asuncion was crystal clear – we could see our anchor in 30 feet of water!!!    After nice hot showers, we launched the dinghy and headed into town.   Town was pretty quiet but Sunset Mary’s was open and we headed up there for delicious hand-pressed burgers.   We had been invited to Trouble for a visit – having finally ended up in the same bay for a bit, and enjoyed a nice visit in their cockpit.   Rebekah and Madison had told us about the playful junior sea-lions and we got a first hand experience of just how playful they were as they chased us back to our boat, coming up the side of the dinghy, jumping along-side – we were alternately terrified they were going to jump right in to the dinghy and laughing our asses off at their antics!!   Owen was even awoken by tapping on the hull in the middle of the night –  apparently, they figured it was time to play!

The next morning, we walked out to the Bufadora Hotel, a lovely little spot owned by an ex-pat Canadian.  We had been told that Sherri was the person to talk to to find out about the town – I asked about where we could do laundry and she invited us to come to do laundry at the hotel!!!    After gratefully arranging to do so the next morning, we headed off through a bit more residential area to get back to town – we ran into a bunch of dogs, all of whom seemed friendly enough so we just calmly moved through them and continued on – suddenly we realized that we had actually picked up a 3 dog entourage – we tried to largely ignore them and figured they would get bored and head back “home” – instead, they followed us all through town – waiting while we went into stores, taking off for a little run down the beach but catching up with us again shortly thereafter – they literally followed us from one end of town to the other – I am sure we were a bit of a sight – the 2 pasty gringos with their little trail of dogs!!!   We finally went to launch off the beach and one of them actually swam out after us – it was heartbreaking – especially as she was clearly not a stray dog (we later heard that locals figure she may have been left behind by a camper or a cruiser) and I would have happily taken her home if we actually had room for a pup on board!!!

We took advantage of Sherri’s kindness and spent the next morning doing laundry at the hotel, hanging it to dry on her lines.   We were also able to log into her wi-fi and enjoyed visits with some of the hotel guests.    After dropping the laundry at the boat, we went back to shore intending to go to a palapa restaurant that a couple of the boaters had told us about but found the restaurant closed – we wandered around and found what appeared to be a little sit-down restaurant – only to discover that we were actually having dinner at a hot dog stand – pretty gourmet by our standards, but a hot dog stand all the same!!!   I had a chilihate – I thought it was a chili stuffed with cheese and found it a bit strange when she put it on a hot dog bun, but understood pretty quickly when I bit into it – it was stuffed with a hot-dog!!!   Owen just had a couple of hot dogs – but those were wrapped in bacon so pretty good!!!

The next day one of the other boaters called to suggest going back to Sunset Mary’s for lunch – by the time we hit the beach, nearly every boat in the anchorage joined us!!!  We had a fantastic lunch and an even better visit with the other boaters!

As much as we were enjoying Asuncion, it finally felt like it was probably time to move along.   The next morning, we made quick trips around to tour Cosmic Debris and Tardis, and then headed to town to pick up the eggs that we had not been able to grab the day before because we had forgotten our egg crates (eggs are never refrigerated here and are often just set out in 36 egg crates flats – you need to bring your own crate if you want less than 3 dozen eggs!  Luckily we have a couple of the camping types and try to remember to bring them when shopping at smaller stores.)   We were ready to head out by early afternoon but when Owen went to raise the anchor, the fob would not work – we changed the battery and again couldn’t raise the anchor.   When the anchor windlass was installed, we had not put the foot switches in on the deck because we didn’t want more holes in the deck – we had instead installed a remote system and use a fob to raise the anchor.   After Owen pulled apart the main part of the unit, finding no issues with the system but still not able to raise the anchor, we decided it was finally time to install the back up switch for the windlass (we intend to put it on the binnacle if that project ever happens but put it in a temporary spot inside for now).   By the time that was done it was already 3:30 so we decided to hold off on leaving for one more night.   The crew of Cosmic Debris ended up coming by for a reciprocal boat tour at about 5:30 and before we knew it, it was 10:30 at night – what a great visit!!!    The next morning, Owen realized that the red light was not coming on on the windlass fob – he changed the batteries again and suddenly the fob worked – it would seem the “new” battery that we put in the day before was not actually new!!!   

We were finally able to get away about 10:30 am – we motor-sailed for a couple of hours until the wind filled in and then had a great sail throughout the afternoon and into the evening.   The wind did lighten a few times through the night but we kept moving along, slower than we liked a few times – but moving.   We finally came into Bahia Santa Maria on a screaming reach late morning.   The wind was howling through the anchorage so we delayed putting the dinghy in the water.  Santa Maria is truly just a small fishing village with a few shacks on the shore but we were eager to get ashore to explore!    Unfortunately, the wind kept up all through the next day – even the fishermen had anchored in the bay (and their chatter on the radio was pretty entertaining!).   I managed to get my first load of “bucket” laundry done, doing a few towels that I had not done at Sherri’s, and then spent the afternoon resecuring clothespins to ensure they stayed on the lifelines in the 20 knots of wind blowing through the anchorage!!! 

We had really hoped to pop into Magdalena Bay as we had heard that the humpback whales had already arrived, but there was a favorable forecast for the push to Cabo, with a really light forecast following immediately thereafter.  Not wanting to motor all the way to Cabo, we decided head out – along with Turtle and Lillypad.   We motored for the first couple of hours to recharge and then sailed wing on wing for a bit – Owen set up the pole and put a preventer on the main (none of which were accessible from the cockpit) and then headed off to sleep – unfortunately the wind chose that time to completely change direction and we spent the next 3 hours driving out to sea!!!!   When Owen finally came on deck we got the sail reset and headed back on track.  I woke up the next morning to find us hard on the wind, and we stayed that way for about 40 miles!!!!   This was not the wind direction advertised in the brochure!!!   The wind finally started to back late afternoon, getting very light in the process.   Just as the sun was going down, a family of brown footed boobies came to visit, 6 of them setting themselves on our pulpit and not at all interested in my suggestions that they should move along!!!   They stayed there all night, tucking their beaks under their wing and holding on – didn’t move when we furled or tacked.   We finally approached Cabo san Lucas as the sun was rising, dodging the outgoing fishing fleet and an incoming cruise ship and dropped anchor in front of the Riu Santa Fe.  Owen needed to dislodge the boobies from the pulpit and they were none too impressed to be awakened so early!!! 

After a couple of hours sleep and quick showers, the crew of Trouble contacted us to ask if we wanted to go to town to do some exploring – we had planned a day of errands but of course that sounded more fun!!!  After a heart stopping trip through the anchorage with pangas and jet skis flying by, we managed to make our way into the dinghy dock without getting run down.  We found a great little restaurant a few blocks away from the very commercial marina area and had a wonderful lunch.   The four of us then wandered off to the Port Captain office to check in – being about 3:30 on a Friday, the process was quick and painless (pretty sure he locked the door behind us!).  We set out in different directions at that point and Owen and I made what I consider to be an obligatory visit to the Cabo Wabo Cantina for waboritas. 

We were lucky enough to connect with Gary and Nicki, C dock neighbors who live in Cabo half of the year, the next day and met up with them, as well as Warren and Nancy (other C dockers), back at the marina area.  We had a great lunch and an even better visit!!!   After a bit more of a wander around Cabo and quick stop for groceries, we headed back to the boat, intending to head out for La Paz the next morning to hopefully beat the next set of northers.   We were treated to the Christmas boat parade – though there was some decidedly un-Christmas like music coming from some of the party boats!! 

I have to say, I love Cabo as a place to hang out at an all-inclusive, go to town to hit some clubs and get away from winter weather, but after a couple of weeks of sleepy fishing villages, it was a bit much!!!

Time to head a bit further up the inside of the Baja coast (going North again?!) – next stop La Paz!