Up the Sea 1.3. Santa Rosalía to Bahía de los Ángeles
Santa Rosalía is a lovely town. It was build around a large copper mine and about two thirds of the population of this small town of 12.000 is employed by the mine. There is virtually no unemployment and the town conveys a strong sense of community.
The famous french engineer Eiffel designed a church for Santa Rosalía in Paris, where it was fabricated, then shipped and assembled here. The town was built with lumber brought in by the French, who initially owned the mine, and it resembles Park City/ Utah or Flagstaff/Arizona, which is odd and pretty at the same time. There is still a French bakery baking Mexican pastries and bread, so baguettes can’t be found and the croissants are a lumpy, sweetened mess. Their muffins were more successful but also a free interpretation. Right across is a cafe which makes a nice latte and offers free Wifi and a view over street life from a second story balcony, where we sat a couple of mornings. We then visited the local library which was dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi in the 60’s and had fantastic seafood tacos right in front of it.
We met up with our friends Debbie and Phil of SV Coastal Drifter, finally, and plotted our travels together going north for a couple of weeks towards Puerto Peñasco, the most northern port on the Sea. We explored the town together, drifted with them to restaurants, supermarkets and a department store and found what we needed to head out into the sea again.
All the distractions and fun don’t overshadow the fact, that we lost our beloved dog, Samba, in this town. At close to 14, she was old, living on seizure medicine, when suddenly one morning she lost the ability to walk and then her organs started to shut down. We rushed her to the local vet, but there was little he could do for her, except to help her die peacefully. It was very hard to leave her. Sambalina rests in peace now in Santa Rosalía.
We casted the dock lines right after our friends and buddy boat Coastal Drifter to sail up the coast. There was very little wind, but we had wanted to leave the marina, so we motored ahead of Coastal Drifter, who attempted to sail for a bit. Immediately, when we were had left the harbor, we were struck by a wave of mourning for Samba. Both of us were so sad and emotionally exhausted that we rested most of the way.
When we arrived in Bahia Trinidad, we were greeted by a very large and gorgeous bay. Costal Drifter was behind us, as they are a steel boat they weight double our tonnage. They have lots of room on board and their compromise is speed in light winds. Our compromise is having little space but our traveling speed under motor is 6 knots and under sail about 1.5 knots under wind speed, all depending on currents.
All was nice, we had anchored and prepared the boat at anchor. Coastal Drifter came and prepared too, when out of the blue it started blowing strongly and large waves started rolling into the bay. We had winds before during the night but this ruckus was caused by a cluster of thunderstorms on the mainland coast and over the sea. It was forecasted to die down only in the morning. Coastal Drifter opted to continue onto our next planned anchorage and we decided to stay to rest a little more and leave during the night. We ended up leaving only at 6 am because we could see the lightning during the night and didn’t want to be at sea during this. Coastal Drifter confirmed the next day that this passage was comparable to some winds and waves they had encountered on their way down the Pacific coast from Canada to California. We also encountered 8 to 10 foot waves the following day. Without any wind we were propelled by waves to nine and sometimes eleven knots. It was a very rocky ride, we and the boat were bounced around continuously and we were glad, when we finally entered Bahia San Francisquito and saw that this anchorage was well protected. Waves still made it into the bay so much so that Radu put the stove on the gimbal when he cooked one of his yummy stews. Still it was nothing compared to out there.
The winds died down in the afternoon when Coastal Drifter picked us up for a stroll on the beach. We checked out the coastline until we found a teardrop cove with a small camp of modest vacation homes and a motorhome with a roof. All seemed to be running on solar power, one house even had a couple of wind turbines.
We landed the beach to find it covered with pink and purple oyster shells. From afar we had mistaken them for discarded aluminum cans sparkling in the sun!
We waded through a small inlet pond formed by a dry river and backfilled with sea water. We wandered through a field of desert plants of cacti and flowering shrubs, found rocks with copper and turquoise and pieces of granite and crystal. Debbie and Phil’s grandson, Ethan, who has been traveling with them since last summer, has developed on his voyage up and down Mexico into a rock collector and a keen ‘perfect shell’ spotter. He said, he will take on his flight back to Canada ‘for sure one bag of rocks.’
We stayed another day and relaxed, read and explored another beach where a large school of Rays dove together, came back up and jumped right after out of the water. Word is still out on why Rays jump, maybe to twirl up the plankton they eat, or exercise or mating. Yesterday it looked like they were making sure their food slid down to their stomachs.
The next morning we were off to an Island, Isla Partida. Approaching we noticed two peaks on the island, one red the other gray, connected by a strip of low land. The two-tone island. It is interesting how every anchorage has a distinct character. This one felt particularly remote. An island for birds, hardly any vegetation, it was rocky and stark. A whale was decaying on the beach. It looked small judging the size and the vertebrae discs floating in the water. A flock of seagulls was swimming towards it. ‘Drive-in dinner’ Debbie called it.
A small deserted fort with a flag sat on a lava chard beach built by a lonely soul, I imagine, but more likely by a scout troop. We snooped around and found a fire pit, rooms, some utensils and tools.
Later we built a fire on another large pebble beach with driftwood and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows during sunset.
We woke up to a perfectly calm sea shimmering in the bay with a light breeze. Not far away was a rock island with a colony of sea lions. Their calling cries make the quiet even more apparent. Our next stop, Bahia de los Animas, was only a short distance away, so we stayed a bit and enjoyed the morning.
On our way we had the calmest sea so far. Like pale blue glass with an occasional ripple. Baja was all in pale pink lifting from the sea into the large ragged mountains of the Sierra Agua de Soda. There was only the wind the boat made motoring, the Mexican courtesy flag was hanging flaccid.
The bay was large with several anchorages in smaller baylets. We choose Cala Puertocito de Emmedio, the first one off the Sea. It has a pebble beach and several rocks around for snorkeling, My knee is still not healed enough for swimming, but Coastal Drifter went right in the water to check it out and found lots of fish near two inlet rocks.
We stayed in the boat and soon after bees found us. We have nets in all portholes and hatches and a net enclosure for the cockpit, but bees found a way to squeeze their bodies in between the nets and the boat and got in anyway. We have to find a better solution soon because in these already arid areas summer months are especially dry and bees are looking for fresh water. They must be able to smell it from very far.
We went later on the beach for sundowners to escape the bees and the heat on the boat and were swarmed by bees again. They let up a bit after sunset, but in the morning with the sunrise they were back. I usually like critters of any kind, particularly resourceful ones like bees, but being swarmed is another story, That freaks me out too.
The more we were making our way North into the Sea of Cortez the dryer and hotter it got. There was no escaping the heat. That causes inner tension and cabin fever. We were trying to ignore it, making trips to the beach, reading, dipping into the sea. But frankly there is very little relief. As if we were in lands we shouldn’t be in, so hostile was the environment. Without our boat and gear we wouldn’t survive here longer than a couple of days. Harsh, very harsh.
We were feeling it especially since our depth sounder broke and we went into anchorages by chart, guides and color of the sea. We thought we had redundant systems (two) for everything, but for this we didn’t. Coastal Drifter had a back up sonar on board they lent us until we are able to fix ours. Lucky us that we had such well prepared friends. So, we were all fixed up and off again to explore the Northern Sea further.
1-10 JULY 2016
