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!