Depart San Evaristo headed for Puerto Escondido, Dec. 3rd, 2011.

Winter brings frequent wind storms to the Sea of Cortez. Locally called “northers”, these events can turn the sea into a dangerous place with wind gusting to 45 or 50 knots and seas building to 10 and 15 feet. Unlike sea conditions in the open ocean, storm waves in the Sea of Cortez are steeper and have a shorter wavelength. A yacht doesn’t ride slowly up and down these seas but rather bashes from one to the next. It can be a punishing ride especially if you have a long way to go. Turning around in such seas and exposing your beam to these short, steep waves can slap your yacht down on its beam ends before you realize what’s happened.

Mountains emerge from the sea

Landscape unchanged from Cortez's time

While at anchored at San Evaristo we learned that such a wind was forecast to arrive in 24 hours and it was expected to blow above 30 knots for the next 5 days. San Evaristo offered good protection from northerly winds but there wasn’t much to keep us busy in the surrounding area. We decided to make a dash up the coast to Puerto Escondido where we could tie up to a mooring buoy in a protected harbor that offered showers, toilet, laundry, market and restaurant. If we got bored while we waited out the storm, we could take a taxi from the harbor to Loreto.

Sailboat motoring south

On Dec 2^nd we cleared the decks after dinner and prepared the boat to get underway. When preparations were complete we took a short nap and awoke at midnight. At 1AM we started the motor, weighed anchor and were on our way. The cruise to Puerto Escondido took 11 hours. The wind had already shifted to the north, so we motored all the way to Escondido rather than short tack all the way up the coast.



The coastline from San Evaristo to Puerto Escondido is largely unpopulated and incredibly rough, with 3,000 foot mountains that rise directly from the sea. Little surprise that this coast is undeveloped, there’s scarcely enough level ground to put a phone boot.  A cruising sailor is struck by the fact that the landscape has changed little since Cortez saw it more than 500 years ago. As you gaze at the mountains you can imagine seeing the Guaycura Indians travelling over the rocky landscape or fishing near the shore in their canoes.

Puerto Escondido (Hidden Port)

When we arrived at Escondido we tied up to the dock and Cindy and Alex went for a walk while I took a nap. On the way back Cindy and Alex stopped at the restaurant and ordered a pizza from the restaurant to be delivered to the boat. The smell of fresh baked pizza on the boat levitated me out of my bunk quicker than the sound of running water below the cabin sole. We watched a movie on the laptop while enjoying our first pizza since leaving home.  

Puerto Escondido, view north through Los Ventanas (the windows)

San Evaristo, Dec 2 – 3, 2011

We departed Caleta Partida at 9AM for a 5 hour sail north to San Evaristo. We had planned to stop at Isla San Francisquilto but the forecast called for strong southerly winds so we decided to stop at San Evaristo instead since it afforded some protection from southerly winds.

Sierra Gigantic Range

Boat is dwarfed by the huge mountinas

Cool Breez'n motoring up the coast

San Evaristo is a quiet little cove located just across the channel from Isla San Jose. There a about a dozen small homes scattered about the hills surrounding the bay and as many palm thatched fishing camps along the shore. On the north shore of the bay is a government run desalination plant that supplies the residents and fisherman with drinking water. 

Government reverse osmosis water plant

View from south to north, San Evaristo anchorage 

Fisherman cleaning catch

We found a sheltered spot offshore of the desalination plant to anchor and quickly setup the dinghy for an exploratory trip to shore. I spotted a Pacifico beer sign on the roof of one of the fisherman’s shelters on the beach, so I made certain before leaving the boat that I had enough pesos for a couple of cold beers.

Not much was happening on the beach. A few burros grazed near a fence just behind the beach. Four fisherman had just returned from a day of fishing and were busy cleaning their catch, while a flock of pelicans supervised the operation. An ex-pat retiree was climbing aboard his small sailboat and two Americas were sitting in the shade at the shelter that adverstised Pacifico beer. A number of women and a child were busy cleaning fish in the shade of the same shelter. We walked up to the Pacifico shelter and asked if we could buy a few cold beers. The two Americans who were already drinking beer got up to serve us and invited us to sit down and join them. Despite their efforts trying to clean the beer cans they still smelled of dead fish. I remember thinking, “ I should drink enough beer to kill any of the germs that I might swallow from the fish drippings on the can.

Burrows on beach

Pacifico beer anyone?

We stayed just one night at San Evaristo but it was a snug anchorage with good holding ground and we were happy that we decided to drop in.   

Anchored in Caleta Partida, between Isla Partida and Isla Espiritu Santo (Nov. 29 - Dec 2)

We left La Paz after staying longer than we planned …having just wrote that I think it’s funny. If I had a penny for every time I heard someone tell me that, I’d be able to pay the boat off.

Anchorage as seen from the entrance.

Caleta Partida is a beautiful anchorage that was formed thousands of years ago when a volcano erupted and then collapsed, leaving behind a crater that was quickly filled by the advancing sea. The crater now separates the islands of Partida and Espiratu Santo and a sand spit has almost filled in the gap between the two islands on the east side. The only thing that separates the islands is a tidal creek that ebbs and floods according to the tide. Caleta in Spanish means “creek”, a so it seems the anchorage was named for the tidal creek it contains.

Alex exploring Caleta Partida by dinghy

Cormorants drying their feathers

Pelican watch

Shoals at head of bay

This time of year strong northerly winds can blow with great frequency throughout the Sea of Cortez. During these “northers” gusts of 30 to 40 knots are common and steep, choppy seas can develop very quickly. We’ve heard reports of sail boats being blown over by these winds and crews turning around to head back to a sheltered harbor after being hit by an unexpected norther. In fact it was a norther that kept us at the dock in La Paz for a few extra days and a norther that made up our mind to anchor in Caleta Partida as it was the only anchorage nearby that offered any protection from north winds.

Alex and Cindy

Alex and Craig

Leaving nothing but footprints

One reward for anchoring in Caleta Partida is the breathtaking beauty of the view from the deck of your boat. Another reward is the bright blue needle fish that swim to the surface of the water at night around your boat. Fine white sand beaches surround the pale blue and green waters of Caleta Partida and tall Saguaro cactus, white barked shrubs with willow like leaves and ground clinging succulents take root behind the beaches and up the steep slopes beyond.  Caves dot the landscape and are home to cormorants, pelicans and the rare blue footed boobies.

Fisherman's camp

During our stay at this anchorage we enjoyed several walks along the beach, explored the tidal creek in our dinghy, snorkeled along the sand flats and rocky point; and one evening we were invited to dinner aboard the motor yacht Serenity with Earl and Louis a friendly retired couple from Alaska and their dog Daisey.     

Snake skeleton

La Paz (Nov. 18-29, 2011)

This entry is way overdue, please be patient with us as we are trying to catch –up our blog writing so that our life and blog are more in sync. As always we value your comments so feel free to leave them!



Rocks at mouth of Bahia Balandra

 

Bahia Balanbra




Mexican Navy Patroling Coast near La Paz



Our next stop after Muertos was La Paz. We hadn’t made a reservation at any marinas in the area so we scanned the shoreline for a cell phone tower to call ahead for a reservation.  Not far away we saw a small bay (Bahia Balandra) with a cell phone tower up in the hills behind it. We dropped anchor and called Marina De La Paz to find out if they had space for us. The marina told us they could squeeze us in on their outer dock next to two very large motor yachts. We motored into the marina and passed the space we were assigned and had to make a tight U-turn in the crowded fairway. As we turned into the dock our friends Aaron and Nichole from S/V Bella Star were there to catch our dock lines. They heard us talking to the marina on the VHF radio and hurried over to help us dock. We were surprised and delighted to see them since the last time we crossed their wake was in San Francisco. After we were tied-up securely to the dock we chatted with Aaron and Nichole briefly and arranged to meet later for dinner or drinks. A quick scan of masts in the marina revealed many “Baja Ha-Ha 2011” pennants; our fleet was well represented in La Paz. Among them were the sailboats: Diamond Girl, Pearl, Pure Vita and many others. We were planning to stay here for a while so we’d have time to visit everyone before leaving to explore the coast north to Loreto.

Marina De La Paz is the hub of cruiser society in La Paz and the greater Sea of Cortez, partly because of its proximity to the well-known cruiser’s club “Club Cruserous”. Club Cruserous is a place where cruisers meet every morning for coffee and gossip after the morning VHF net.  It’s located close to the marina office and restaurant.

Dinghy dock at La Paz Marina

Marina Office

Sooner or later most cruising sailors in the Sea of Cortez visit La Paz, and many make it their home. The reason is simple La Paz has just about everything a cruising sailor needs. There are a least 5 marinas in La Paz complete with boat yards and travel lifts. There are supermarkets, hardware stores, marine chandleries, automotive supply stores, machine shops, government offices, hotels, and restaurants. Skilled fabricators can be found that can build of fix just about anything out of fiberglass, stainless steel or wood. Divers, diesel mechanics and boat management companies are readily available making it easy to leave your boat in La Paz for a week or a year. In fact, we will leave our boat here when we fly back home for Christmas.

Every morning in La Paz we started our day by listening to the Cruisers Net on VHF radio. The Cruisers Net is run by Club Cruseros, it reports weather, news and club activities and gives cruisers a chance to ask for assistance and let friends know of their cruising plans. After the net, Club Cruseros sponsors a coffee hour at their clubhouse, where you can meet other cruisers, get help, exchange books or borrow videos. The community of cruisers in La Paz is something we haven’t seen anywhere else and it is a great resource for cruisers. As soon as we arrived in La Paz we signed up for the Thanks Giving Turkey Dinner organized by Club Cruseros. Even though we were far from home we didn’t want to miss turkey dinner with all the trimmings!

After the Cruisers Net and breakfast we busied ourselves by working on the boat, sightseeing, and provisioning for the next voyage. One morning on the cruisers net I asked for help finding a technician that could repair our Auto Pilot and was given the name of “Victor the electrician” and his number. He could fix anything they said. I was desperate and so I called Victor who showed up promptly the next morning. He said he could fix it and pulled the drive unit out of the boat and disappeared. Six hours and $180 later he returned with the repaired AutoPilot. He installed it and it actually worked! Later I discovered that it still leaked so the only progress we made was to lighten our purse by $180. We decided to give up on the autopilot and concentrate on cleaning up the teak on deck. So we hired a guy to sand off the remaining varnish from our exterior teak and apply a coat of teak oil. This work went better than the AutoPilot repair and now our bright work looks better than it did before we left Seattle.  

While I was busy with boat repairs, Alex met the cook on the large motor yacht (m/v Tully) that shared our dock. The cook asked Alex if he’d like to earn a few pesos cleaning the galley on Tully. Alex agreed and showed up the next day for work. He earned a few hundred pesos ($20 USD) working the whole day and really enjoyed it. Later, he was invited to play poker with the crew. Alex cleaned up at the table as well as he cleaned the galley and left the game a few hundred pesos ahead. He was invited back for a second and third game. After losing 100 pesos in the second game he was the big winner in the third game coming back with 500 pesos. It didn't take Alex long on the internet to discover that Tully and the other mega yacht docked next to it (m/v OSTAR) were both owned by the richest man in the world, who owns the Mexican cell phone company (TelCel) and many other businesses.     

m/v Tully

After completing all our chores we were ready to stretch our legs and explore La Paz. We visited the old Spanish Mission and Museum, then the Catholic Cathedral and old town square and the downtown shopping area crowded with colorful shops, markets, restaurants and bars.




Funny butcher

Produce Market

Colorful Pinatas For Sale

Cultural Center and Museum

Catholic Cathedral

Shop Selling Beautiful Hand Painted Sinks and Toilets

One evening we had dinner with friends Larry and Nelda at a restaurant-bar called the Shack. The owner had just remodeled and invited us to write any graffiti we care to on the walls, so if course we scribbled our boat name and home port on the wall right below  “Baja’s Best Burger”.    

Fine dining at the Shack with Larry and Nelda

Cindy was excited to try a new recipe for Chicken Verde Chili that she got from Trisha on S/V Interbang.  The recipe was an instant success with the crew and we were all very happy that Cindy cooked up a large pot it for us. That recipe as we like to say is a “re-do”!