Into The Sea - June and July 1998

May 26, Tuesday

It is not quite June but we arrived in Puerto Escondido yesterday and it seems like a good place to start a new page. The high smoke and clouds are finally gone and we had a very pleasant motor up from Los Gatos yesterday. There was no wind until we were making our final approach to the harbor but the sky was a beautiful blue. The harbor here is very well protected being totally surrounded by land except at the narrow entrance. It is quite large and there is plenty of room for many boats to anchor. The resort development that was started here 11 years ago is still on hold. Sidewalks with lamp posts now surround weed lots. The beginnings of a marina are all in place, even a very nice launch ramp but there are no docks. With the marinas at La Paz, Cabo and San Carlos mostly full, it is only a matter of time before someone picks this up and finishes the project. Until then we get to enjoy the relative quiet of this out of the way bay.

Bill took off this morning to Loreto to do our official paperwork with the port captain and to catch a bus back to La Paz. He hopes to return tomorrow afternoon with our car.

Friday 29 May

Bill returned late this afternoon. The car was ready when he arrived in La Paz but when he picked up the e-mail the next morning he discovered that our youngest daughter needed a phone call. That call could not be made until late in the evening so he stuck around for a second day with the intention of leaving Thursday morning. Well Thursday morning he woke up sick so the drive was put off for another day.

The weekly Hidden Harbor Yacht Club pot luck was tonight and we attended and met some of the other boaters here. We also passed on some coveted Latitude 38 magazines that we had brought down from the states with us.

Sunday 31 May

The last day of May and we were off early this morning on a hike up Trapui Canyon. It was more of a bolder scramble than a hike but the canyon was beautiful. The water has cut through the many layers of rock exposing many colored stripes and the canyon contained many palms which increased in size and number as we traveled upward. We ended up being stopped by a large bolder that blocked the channel and would require real rock climbing to get around. But here was a nice pool of water, the third that we had seen, but the first that was more than a puddle. Other people that had continued the climb said that there was running water not much further up. Looking back at the canyon from the road a very large bright green patch is visible about a quarter of the way up the canyon and the upper reaches of the canyon looked to be very steep cliffs.

We spent the afternoon relaxing and swimming, and in the evening we were again in a group of other cruisers as we enjoyed the sunset from the roof of the unfinished building here.

June 2 Tuesday

Yesterday we dingyed around the bay. It is a fairly large bay with many nooks and crannies. There are about 50 boats anchored here and about a quarter of them are unattended. It turns out that many people leave their boat anchored here for the summer while they go back to the states. We checked out both "windows" (low spots in the surrounding hills) and walked to the outside of them. There was wind somewhere in the sea as there were quite large breakers landing on the outer shores of both windows. We also discovered a path that lead from a mangrove area to the outside. This outside area was in little nook and was therefore protected and the beach area had no waves at all. We returned to the boat and retrieved our fins and masks and returned to the mangroves where we tied up the dingy. Then it was a short walk around a hill to the protected beach where we spent an hour watching the sea life as we slowly drifted in the warm water.

Today we started out in the dingy to visit some of our neighbors. At the second boat we visited (Monakewago with Ambrose and Glenna) we spent the rest of the afternoon. When we finally decided that it was time to head off to our own boat, we realized that it was after 7PM!! Instead of cooking dinner the four of us drove into Loreto and had a great dinner at a fun palapa (Chile Willie’s) right on the water. Great food and great company!!

Thursday June 4

Wednesday we drove over to Lopez Mateos to visit Alicia and Patrick from Nostalgia. We also saw our Canadian friends, Carol and Danny, who have a restaurant in Lopez Mateos. We had met them when we passed through the area last January on our way south. Carol fixed a super lunch for all of us and we enjoyed a long afternoon visit while we were eating. Lopez Mateos grew into a town about 20 years ago when a Mexican company tried to mine phosphates there. They ran into difficulty and the operation collapsed. Most of the residents left but a few stayed and the town now thrives on a fish processing plant and the 4 month tourist season when the California Gray Whales are there to calve. North of town there is a sometimes passable entrance (Boca Soledad) from the ocean into the lagoons that both the fish plant and the mining operation planned to use. The fisherman have entered that way at times but much of the time the entrance sand bar shallows up enough to keep the entrance closed and the boats have to negotiate the twisty narrow channel north from Magdalena Bay.

We returned to Puerto Escondido and enjoyed another sunset party on top of the unfinished building nearby.

Friday June 5

Another week has passed and it is potluck night again. Yesterday we hiked up one of the high spots overlooking the bay here, got a great view of the area, and took a few photos. We spent the rest of the day relaxing. The surprising thing for me was that our climb was hindered by the dense desert vegetation. Being desert vegetation it all had thorns or stickers so we returned with legs well scratched but a swim in the bay cleared that all up.

At today’s pot luck the food spread was plentiful and good. We ate too much and then participated in the Hidden Port Yacht Club meeting. For $5.00/year we joined the Yacht Club.

Saturday June 6

We are on the move again. Actually we made a back track to Ensenada Blanco which we had by passed on our way north. We are anchored about 6 miles southeast of Puerto Escondido in a bay with southerly protection all by ourselves. We trailed a fishing line and even passed close to a few rock islands but not a bite. We spent a pleasant afternoon with cooling breezes from the SE at about 15mph.

About sunset the wind picked up and switched to the west. We spent an anxious evening as we had anchored in rather shallow water then let out lots of chain so that with the wind we swung into even shallower water. The wind seemed to die about 10:30PM but by 11 it was back up again. The wind continued this pattern the rest of the night; we slept in the calmer periods and did anchor watch when the winds picked up. The wind seemed to be localized to this area as no one nearby reported similar winds on the Sonrisa net Sunday morning.

Monday 8 June

We had wind most of the day yesterday, from the east, not very strong but enough to cool us down. We took advantage of the cooling breeze and climbed up to the caves on the east end of the bay. We continued the climb until we got up to where we had a great view out over the Candalares Islands and also a view of the bay down below. About 6 PM the wind appeared to die then it came up with vigor from the SW just like the evening before. We decided that we still had time to move on before dark. Up came the dingy, then while I cranked up the chain Bill got the swim ladder stowed and the engine on and we were off. We raised the main and motor sailed to Isla Danzante anchoring in Pyramid Cove a little over an hour later. It was calm in the Cove and only small swell rounded the point to rock us gently, what a difference.

Wednesday 10 June

Tuesday afternoon the weather turned cloudy and we even had some rain with gusty winds from various directions. Ambrose and Glenna came over on Monakewago and we had a nice beach fire at sunset and visited until well into the night watching the lightening on the hills to the west as the full moon come up in the east. Today we woke up to swells from the north and our anchor seemed to be dragging so we pulled it up and moved up to Honeymoon Cove where we dropped the hook in the rain.

Thursday 11 June

We are back in Puerto Escondido. Yesterday, after we dropped the hook in Honeymoon Cove, we picked up the Chabasco net weather and it called for unsettled weather for the next few days so we upped the anchor and moved back to Puerto Escondido to wait out the rain and wind. It poured while we dropped the hook and then, since it did not set it, we had to re-set it and it rained again when we redropped it. Upon deciding that the water was warmer than the air we went to the north window with Ambrose, Glenna (Monakewago) and Dick (Irie) and did some great snorkeling. The water was not as clear as at Isla Danzante but it was still loads of fun.

Today it was project day. Since we have had a few cloudy days we needed to run the genset to charge the batteries and it still was getting air in the fuel line. After much effort Bill tracked it down to a loose valve on the fuel filter but the track down required several bleeds of the lines. We drove into Loreto and visited the Mission and accompanying museum, walked around a while and then had dinner at Chile Willies. Great food again and too many margaritas but we had a great time.

Saturday 13 June

Summer has hit this area. We slept last night in the cockpit because it was hot and humid down below. The days are hot and when evening comes it gets very humid. Today the north winds are blowing again so we have chosen to stay here in Puerto Escondido as the nearby anchorages on Danzante and Isla Carmen are open to the north swells that this wind raises up. Last night we stocked up with fresh vegetables at the Tienda at Trapui and are ready to head out for a few days at the islands if the wind switches direction. The first named tropical storm of the season was named last night but is expected to peter out in the next day or so. We have been following it as a tropical depression for a few days and it looks like others are forming in its wake.

Tuesday 16 June

The last few days have been filled with reading, swimming and snorkeling. Yesterday we went into Loreto to get 3 rolls of film developed so that we have photos available for the web page. We get to return today to pick up the pictures form the second two rolls. While we were in town yesterday we sat at Chile Willies drinking cervesa and watching the rescue of a turned-turtle Boston Whaler. Two boats overloaded with camping gear and people left Loreto yesterday. With the evening swells, one swamped and flipped, the other just swamped. All the people decided to swim for shore where they were they were stranded on Isla Coronado until they were rescued by the Port Captain about 1 in the morning. The rescue proceeded with radio relay help of a sail boat at Isla Coronado. The boat that had not flipped blew into the rocks and was holed; the other was towed about 15 miles upside down to Loreto where we saw it. A bunch of sailors from the Navy base helped the owner get the boat right side up again.

Sunday 21 June

The longest day of the year and here in Puerto Escondido we experienced the highest sun of the year at 13:31:38MDT but none of our clocks were accurate enough to actually note its passing. Bill’s brother Rick arrived on the Friday plane from LA and we have been spending our time with him teaching him the finer points of snorkeling in warm water and watching fish swim. Actually he has not done much swimming in the past, so he is just enjoying the discovery of floating around lazily and looking. Saturday we stayed in Puerto Escondido and practiced the snorkeling in calm water. Now we are anchored out at Danzante Island. First we anchored in the north bite of Honeymoon Cove and snorkeled around its edges exploring even the sand at its head where there were bright red starfish. Currently we are anchored back at Pyramid Cove ready to snorkel around here in the morning. A nice breeze is falling off the island and keeping things comfortably cool here.

Wednesday 24 June

Rick flew back to Southern California yesterday and we did our check-out with immigration and the Loreto port captain. We then enjoyed our last ice cream for awhile, picked up a few items at the grocery store and headed back to Lanikai. Today we will get laundry done and generally get things ready to head up to Santa Rosalia. We have two weeks to get there before Loretta and PJ arrive from Capistrano Beach, CA, to spend some time cruising with us and there are a few anchorages that we plan to visit on the way.

We spent much of the morning on "Rendezvous" providing bow weight for the installation of their new rudder. Their old one had gotten damaged while fishing just a little too close to a reef.

Thursday June 25

Up early and underway by 7:30, we are heading off to Isla Coronado and if the weather is good on to San Juanico. Little wind or even breeze this morning and the humidity is way up thanks to hurricane Blas.

We got treated to several pods of feeding dolphins on our way north . Many of them were jumping quite high out of the water and providing quite a show. One group, that we passed through the middle of, provided some extra fun for us when a mother, calf and another very large dolphin rode our bow wave for a time.

We picked up south easterly winds after we passed the lee of Isla Carmen. The waves that they produced rolled right into San Juanico so we continued on around the point and dropped the hook in La Ramada where we only had light swells that reflected around the easterly point. With the east wind the humidity rose and with the temperature above 100F we were all dripping wet but a dip in the pond cooled us down nicely.

Sunday 28 June

We spent two nights in La Ramada and enjoyed our time there greatly. Lots of time was spent in the water and we found a nice rock reef in the next nook north to explore. Lots of fish and a few new varieties. Saturday morning when the north winds appeared to be picking up we pulled the hook and moved the short distance back to San Juanico. The bay already held the boats wit some of our north-bound friends that had left Puerto Escondido just before Bill’s brother arrived. They had made it just this far and their anchors seemed to sprout roots. After two days here we can understand why. The reefs to snorkel on our plentiful and varied. They are teaming with sea life. One of the reefs is a jumble of large rocks that form many nooks and crannies for the fish to live in. Bill found one of the larger rocks to contain little caves of its own and in the caves lived tiny iridescent blue and orange fish that were loads of fun to watch as they cautiously poked out and ran back into hiding if they noticed any movement. The nearest reef to where Lanikai is anchored was rather shallow and contained many pastel corals. The shore here is also interesting. There are sand beaches and rocky cliffs as well as a lagoon hiding behind one of the beaches. Below one of the cliffs is the "boaters shrine" where all who pass place something of significance to commemorate their passing. Bill worked up a plaque with our boat name and a drawing for our contribution. Some of the other boaters have left elaborate mementos but then many just scratched their boat names in a chunk of sandstone.

Monday 29 June

Back in La Ramada this afternoon as the winds picked up from the SE this morning and brought with them great rollers into San Juanico. We still have the wind (very pleasant) here in La Ramada but the water is only slightly lumpy with just a little wind chop. Yesterday afternoon was the beginning of the SE winds but the winds were lighter than today and with sunset the winds died, so the swells never got too large in the anchorage. We rolled in the troughs for the first half of the night until the late night westerly winds picked up about midnight.

Thursday 02 July

Two days ago, Tuesday, we moved further north and are now anchored at the north end of Bahia Conception in Bahia Santo Domingo. Our trip was in light winds from all directions. We pulled the jib up with the main and sailed for about 15 minutes before we gave up and dropped the jib and motor sailed with the main the rest of the way. I caught my first Baha fish south of Punta Conception, a nice skipjack just the right size to feed the two of us. Soon thereafter we encountered our third pod of dolphins for the day and these were in a playful mood. About a dozen dolphins played off our bow for about 20 minutes. I sat on the bow to enjoy the show and several times one would poke his head up to look at me.

Wednesday was proclaimed a project day by Bill and he got the watermaker outlet hose plumbed into the main water tank, with a valve so that we can still fill our drinking jug. He first did some re-routing of the salt water lines into that area of the boat. The head where all this plumbing is has been decommissioned and is no longer a head but a nice wet locker and watermaker area, a place to store things like flippers, masks and no longer needed wetsuits.

Today we tried snorkeling on the nearby reefs but they were quite dull compared to others that we have checked out recently. The water is very warm here so being in the water was real pleasant. Our hike along the beach produced many more shells for Emily’s collection. There were lots of signs of winter RV camping along the shore here.

Saturday 04 July

We enjoyed a wonderful sail from Bahia Conception to Isla San Marcos yesterday. The batteries were down so we had the engine running for the first three hours of the trip but then we enjoyed a nice peaceful last three hours and sailed into the anchorage. We dropped the sails at the last minute so that we could motor around and explore the area before dropping the hook in about 50 feet of water off cliffs and an interesting looking canyon. There are about 9 other boats anchored along the cliffs here. Off the south end of the island we had a large fish run off with the tackle when he snapped the 60 pound test line. Probably big enough that we did not really want him on board anyhow!

The wind picked up from the southeast about sunset and continued on to morning keeping us comfortable all night. We also picked up a light fog that dampened everything.

Our day started with a dingy attack on Barnacle from London, the one British sailboat anchored here. They tossed a symbolic tea bag over board and we all had a great time. Tonight is a potluck on a nearby boat, Tatanka. It was initially planned to be an on the beach affair but no one could decide on which beach.

Sunday 05 July

Hiking up a nearby canyon and exploring this end of the island filled our morning. There seem to be lots of interesting reefs to explore at the north end of the island. The water here is about 74F, much cooler than the 90F of Bahia Conception. We also found out, from some other cruisers, that the company town here on the island is a very interesting place to visit and has a small grocery store as well as a place to dump off trash. We are now meeting up with many cruisers that have been in the sea here for several years and they have lots of local knowledge to pass on.

Tuesday 06 July

We are in Santa Rosalia tied up to a dock with electricity too!! When we arrived the ten slips in the marina were filled but by mid afternoon one of the boats left and we filled in the hole. We know most of the boaters on the dock having met them somewhere along our way here. We have finally run into Judith and Wayne on "Savili" again, one of the boats that we traveled with down the coast last winter.

Yesterday we snorkeled on the western most reef at the north end of Isla San Marcos. It was lovely!!! Lots of plant and animal growth, and many fish too. There was a good current between some of the rocks and schools of fish were there swimming in the current.

Friday 10 July

We spent some time in the morning exploring the town here. It is a very interesting place as the buildings are constructed of wood in a turn of the century style that would seem more in place in Europe than in Baja. The town was originally a French mining company town and they imported all the building supplies from Europe. The mining company even built the breakwaters here to form the harbor. They used sludge blocks from the copper mill and old photos of the town show many square riggers parked in the harbor.

PJ and Loretta arrived yesterday about 5PM. It was like Christmas with all the goodies that they had picked up and brought down for us. We all then went out to the hot dog stand for dinner. These hot dogs are not your run of the mill dogs but something much more wonderful. The rolls are specially baked at the French bakery here and the dog is just the beginning of the ingredients that are placed inside the roll.

We are at a dock so I finally could use a real telephone to make a few stateside calls. It is great to hear voices of family. The ham radio, which usually allows contact with my dad has been doing a poor job recently as the summer band doldrums have set in and propagation to Montana has not been good, at least not at the times that we have been trying.

Today was hot but not so muggy so we did spend some time exploring the town after we did the check-out paperwork. We had dinner at the air conditioned chicken restaurant not far from the marina.

Sunday 12 July

Back out to Isla San Marcos where there is at least a breeze over the bow and the humidity is not quite so bad. We woke up yesterday to a very muggy Santa Rosalia so we got going as fast as reasonable on finishing up getting ready to leave the docks. We finally got underway about 2:30 PM and had the anchor down at Isla San Marcos about 5PM. A quick swim cooled us all off and made us all feel better.

Today I, finally, had great radio contact with both Craig in The Dalles and my dad. We talked for about 45 minutes before signals to The Dalles faded but dad was still coming in clear.

Monday 13 July

Off early to Bahia Conception we had very little wind but SE swells due to SE wind yesterday and during the night. Siesta and then shelling on the beach occupied the time between anchor-down in Bahia Santo Domingo and dark. It was very hot and humid so we did not go all the way into Santispac as we had planned, as it is reported to be even more muggy in there. Tomorrow we will head out to San Juanico and more snorkeling.

We had a nice sail for about 3 hours when the wind picked up but accomplished the passage through the shallows at the south end of Isla San Marcos and around Punta Santa Inez in the calm of the morning. Off the islands at Santa Inez we helped a man in a dingy that had motored offshore to fish and had his engine die, about 5 miles off. He had no freshwater with him and had not charged the batteries of his radio so he was very very glad to see us. We took him onboard and towed his dingy to the beach before pulling the jib and mizzen up and continuing on South under wind power.

Wednesday 15 July

Back in San Juanico the water here is clear, warm, and the snorkeling beautiful. We motorboated to here yesterday on flat oily-calm seas. It was very hot so as soon as we had the hook down we took out the fins and masks and took off swimming. The water is even clearer on the reef around the rocks than a few weeks ago. We are the only boat in here and it is just beautiful.

Today PJ, Loretta and I dingyed to shore to check out the Cruisers Shrine tree, climb the cliff above it to get an aerial type view of the anchorage and then played in the water off the beach for several hours to keep cool. We finally returned to the boat when we all got hungry.

Thursday 16 July

We had our first Chubasco wind storm move through last night. There were actually 3 storm cells that passed over us. We got a few drops of rain and some strong wind but all the lightening stayed in the distance.

The SE wind continued strong all morning so we moved to La Ramada with better protection from that direction. We continued to have light SE wind with strong (20mph) gusts the rest of the day, but the wave action in the anchorage was slight and we spend the afternoon catching up on sleep lost the previous night.

Sunday 19 July

Friday we moved to Isla Coronado where we spent two relaxing days reading and enjoying the SE breeze that a tropical depression off of Cabo brought our way. It also brought some cooling!! Today we are on the last leg of our journey, with Loretta and PJ, as we are almost to Puerto Escondido. Tomorrow we will go through the check in procedures with the Port of Loreto and then head back to Santa Rosalia in the car. There our friends will pick up their car to head north back to the work world and we will return to Puerto Escondido and continue enjoying the cruising life.

Our plans for the next few weeks are to stick around Puerto Escondido to participate in the Crab Races on Isla Monserrat about August 5 and then make tracks further north into the sea. We will stop in Santa Rosalia again on our way past for a few days "at docks" and store replenishment before continuing north to explore the Bahia De Los Angeles area and the Midriff Islands.