Down the Sea 2.2. Santa Rosalía to La Paz
We left Santa Rosalia early after a short night sleep, because I was editing, formatting and uploading pictures and finally posting the last posts around midnight. Radu was preparing the boat, checking systems. On any passage we have a berth prepared for sleeping including a lee-cloth, not to fall off the bed. We don’t do watches on a day trip, but one of us might want to take a comfy nap, especially after a short night.
Santa Rosalia was fun again. This quaint and clean mining town doesn’t feel Mexican. Every one seems to be busy, have a job and tend to their houses with gardens. Wooden houses dominate in Santa Rosalia, which lies in a region without trees; all wood was imported. We were also busy fixing the water silencer box, essentially the muffler of our diesel engine. A seam of the stainless box had opened on our passage to Santa Rosalia and water spewed into the bilge, luckily only very little on the engine itself. We ran the bilge pump, made it safely to the harbor and had the entire box re-welded. More details about it here in ‘Viva La Bilge Pump’. This job only took two days mostly because of very helpful cruisers and a talented Mexican welder. We fixed other things and made it out of the marina in four days. Not bad.
Our next stop was Bahía Santispac near Mulegé. We had stopped there in early July, but this time the bay was full of cruising boats and the beach full with RVs and campers. As lonely as the experience was last time, this time there were happy hours, cruiser’s potlucks and trips into town. It is easy and convenient to hitchhike in Mexico with plenty of expats on the road. Mexicans are very hospitable and don’t leave gringos waiting on the road for long; if they have room, they’ll take you.
Mulegé was a very pretty, small town on a small river on the bottom of rounded hills, founded by Jesuit priests, who brought date palms with them from Spain. This region was barely outside of this years’ hurricanes’ path and got lots of rain, so that the village looked positively tropical with it’s palm trees and green hills. The rain continued for several days during our stay, but was pleasant with breaks of sun shining through puffy clouds on dramatic skies. We ate well, especially in one upstairs restaurant, from were we could look over the town and hills.
Christmas Day, we went to a cruiser’s potluck on SV Stray Catz, a large catamaran, who had come to the Sea all the way from Florida. All boats in the bay were invited: our buddy boat Canadian SV Coastal Drifter, Arizonian new cruisers SV Scuba Ninja, far travelled British Columbian SV Batwing, experienced SV Sea Fern from Hawaii, the senior crew of SV La Carancia and the French cruisers of SV Pupy Ça and SV Petit Frère. The food reflected this eclectic mix! Far away from everyone’s families, we were a family of like-minds that evening.
In true posse fashion, most of us met up again at the next anchorage, Caleta San Juanico, the French went a couple days before us in higher winds. We arrived in Caleta San Juanico just before sunset after a cloudy day with some sailing. This beautiful bay we visited back in June during Southern winds, now the bay was a glassy lake. We stayed only one night this time, because we wanted to be in Loreto for New Years and there were no winds predicted for the next three days, which would allow us to anchor right in front of the tow.
On our way just before Ísla Coronado, we spotted a large pod of dolphins coming our way. They were following a school of fish jumping out of the water while feeding. Suddenly, some of the dolphins split off their pod and came over to our boat. They played with the wake of our bow, diving through it, trailing back, then sprinting forward again. What an experience this was. We had crossed dolphin families before, but nothing like this! Their agility and strength, swimming and jumping effortlessly put us in awe. After about fifteen minutes, the dolphins left to join up with their pod, which was a couple of miles north by then.
That same day, I hiked up the volcano on Ísla Coronado. It was already afternoon when I started, so I made sure to get back down to Radu at the beach before dusk, but as I was hiking up the rocky terrain, sweating, stopping to drink a sip of water, I thought back at the ease with which the dolphins swam. I might not be in shape and can’t compare to serious hikers, who would have just run up that hill, but we humans in general need training to excel. Effortlessness in any field is the result of hard work and mental stamina. Lucky for me, the winter weather is nice and cool enough for hiking, in summer we hung out in the water and on the boat as the land was hot, boiling under a relentless sun.
On the last day of the year we arrived in Loreto late morning. We couldn’t wait to get ashore and walk to our favorite restaurant in Mexico so far, Mi Loreto. Edgar’s authentic cuisine uses native recipes and spices and was just the right taste to end this excitingly challenging year. After we had dined and provisioned, the wind picked up and we rushed back to the boat, as we had heard that sailors had stayed the night ashore in Loreto before they could get back on their boat. We watched the fireworks at midnight and music faintly wafted over from the Malecon until dawn. On New Years Day, we rocked out the winds on the boat, read and watched a WW2 series, Band of Brothers. Perfect. Another day ashore with wifi for sending out New Year wishes and then we were ready to leave and sail to Puerto Escondido for some tranquil nights without swell.
Puerto Escondido is a natural, nearly completely enclosed harbor and incredibly serene in its beauty. We took again advantage of the winter weather and made off to hike Cañon de Tabor. Cut into the high reaching Sierra Giganta, the canyon transports rain water to a wide delta and apparently becomes a wild river. Judging by the bank enforcements, it might even at times flood the highway.
We made our way up river stones and boulders until we reached a series of pools emptying into each other. Rock basins were carved round by the constant flow of water, the high mountains reflecting in the clear water. Recent rains had fed the stream and small waterfalls, above the steep canyon walls shrubs and stout trees were green of new leaves, like hanging gardens. The scene was ethereal. Just like Steinbeck had seen it in 1941, this place was heaven on earth.
Our next stop was Bahía Aqua Verde. In summer, we had liked the bay at the feet of Sierra Giganta and wanted now to experience it again. This time the bay was full with boats. We went ashore and learned that the beach hut restaurant ‘Brisas del Mar’ would serve fish tacos that evening, so we reserved a spot. We strolled through the wide spread village, which had more a wild west ranch town feeling than a Mexican village, with small houses on large properties dotting the valley. Last time in the heat of the summer, it had felt like an oasis with its palm trees giving shade of the blistering sun. Even Samba finally had surrendered there to standing in shallow seawater to cool off. This time horses and mules transported tourists from a large motor yacht to a nearby canyon with cave paintings of the ancestors of the village. The guides galloping along the beach introduced this new layer, the Wild West.
A large community table was set that night, Canadian and American snowbird campers joined us for an excellent meal made from scratch. One of the couples came to the bay every year for over fifteen years and had unique insights in how this community is close knit and betters itself slowly with solar power, trash awareness and a new school, so that kids could stay at home during childhood.
We left Bahía Aqua Verde the next morning as the bay was open to the east winds and we had rolled all night a little stronger than needed for a deep sleep. Our next stop was Puerto Los Gatos, a large open bay shaped like an E with coral reefs dotting the shore. We explored rounded rock formations of red colored petrified sand on the north beach, the setting sun adding to the intensity of the color. I like collecting shells and wearing them strung on a simple silver band. On this beach I found many beautifully broken shells. Tumbled into abstract shapes by sea and sand, they were rounded and the surface sanded blind, just like the red rock landscapes.
We stayed a couple nights, had drinks on the beach with Renate and Peter from Germany. In their fifth year of cruising, they had crossed the Atlantic, had spent a couple years in the Caribbean, another year in Panama, had sailed to Hawaii and Alaska and after the Sea of Cortez they will be heading to the South Seas in late spring. Meeting far traveled sailing couples makes the imagined real. They did it and so will we. We are living on the boat for two years now and left San Diego 10 months ago, but it still doesn’t seem real somehow. That night we were all Europeans in Los Gatos: the Germans, the French boat Toupa 2 and us.
Bahía San Evaristo was next, where lots of boat came to hide out for a couple stormy days and we explored the fishing village some more. We had stopped here in June on our way north into the Sea (here the link). We went to Lupe’s restaurant this time and enjoyed his company, his food and watched the efforts of Australian sailors of helping the community by giving away free glasses at Lupe’s. Many came by to be fitted or to watch, it was a beautiful moment of true connection (more about Frances and Paul and wealth here).
We waited out strong winds for a couple days on the boat and sailed away on a gorgeous day with light winds so that we sailed with full sails to get to our favorite traveling speed of six knots. Our Imagine is fast, even in light winds she sails two knots under the wind speed. So far, winds were either strong with 10-15 knots, or there was no wind, so that we mostly sailed with our 130% headsail and got easily to eight knots, her hull speed. Anything faster and we are surfing, down Baja the waves brought us frequently to eleven knots and as exciting as it is to go fast, we prefer a little less! The sail over to Caleta Partida on Ísla Espirito Santo was just beautiful. Hardly any waves, the Imagine glided along effortlessly, heeled in her sweet spot.
When we arrived at Caleta Partida, we saw many boats anchored. It is the season for the Sea, many sailors come and escape the winters at home. At closer look we found SV Stray Catz and SV Sea Fern and after big hellos we had a big potluck dinner that night. ‘See you on the Seas’ we had said and that we did. The two had buddy boated since New Years and had explored many anchorages on their relaxed schedule. We want to be in Panama and south of the hurricane belt by June, so that we pressed on to La Paz to check a couple of systems on board, provision, fill all tanks, walk the town, experience city life before we are off again. Next we will cross to the mainland and leave the Sea of Cortez to start our way south.
