Down the Sea 3.1. Puerto Peñasco to Bahía de los Ángeles., sailin g
The boat splashed, we turned the engine on and motored away. Not too far, just from Cabrales Boatyard across the harbor to Fonatur Marina. I looked back to see that everyone had come out: the New Zealand/Canadian couple getting their colossal catamaran painted for their last stretch of their twenty-year circumnavigation. The French couple just in from twenty year long stay around the South Pacific, where they had been everywhere between Patagonia and New Zealand and crossed recently from the Marquesas to Vancouver, they are now repairing the paint on the freeboard and bottom from wave damage caused by a 40 day tack. The American-Mexican couple at the end of their time cruising are preparing their boat for sale. Salvador Cabrales, Pancho and his workers made sure we were lowered into the water smoothly and held our lines. All of them were now hanging out and watching a seal performing a bit of water ballet. We had held many lines of boats that splashed since October and now it was our turn.
We had been on the hard for 20 months, many of those away from the boat and six months restoring her. We discovered that the wooden toe rail leaked into Radu’s locker and throughout the cabin, we tried to take it off, but the old wood was too brittle. So, our Imagine got a full toe rail restoration for her 50’th… and then we did all the other wood to match. Then winter came, temperatures dropped and only a heater and a double layer of blankets kept us warm at night. Days were pleasantly warm, so we decided to stay and work down our long list of ‘maybe one day’ projects and that was alright with us. pix!!! links
As it happens often on a boat, projects are more complicated than anticipated and in the midst of it things break, which need to be ordered to Lukeville and then brought down. Or we came up with a nicer and better solution, which involved more work and materials. This is why these projects took way longer. And now, our Alberg 37 born 7 MAR 1969 looks better than the day she was finished, as a boat yard neighbor said.
At Fonatur Marina, a pleasure boat captain and crew caught our lines and soon we were tied safely to the dock bow pointing out at sea. We stayed two nights to get last things done: wash the boat yard dust off the boat, check the engine in the water, get a fishing license for the season, buy fresh vegetables and fruits and check out at the port captains office. And host good bye drinks with Salvador and our boat yard friends on the last evening.
On March 21st 2019 we left Puerto Peñasco at 15:30 with destination Puerto Refugio on the northern tip of Islá Ángel de la Guardia an overnight passage away. Right out of the harbor and as soon we had set course a nice wind came up and we were sailing 6 knots. The swell was easy and sailing in a light breeze just the thing we needed after so many months on the hard. Two hours later the wind slowed and we motor-sailed until the early morning hours when it died completely. Winds around 15 knots had been predicted but didn’t materialize. A little disappointing, we had had such a great ride on a steady northerly wind the last time we had sailed south.
We arrived around 8 am and enjoyed the majestic view of the high mountains beyond the lava beaches of Islá Ángel de la Guardia when we spotted a fountain spewed out of the water and soon later the backs of two whales appeared. What a welcome to this remote and wild island!
We anchored in the West Bay as Northern/ S-West and East winds were predicted for the next days, had a big breakfast and went to sleep. The first passage out is always a little nerve recking, remembering all there is to check, being on watch alone out under the night sky and sleeping in the captain’s berth while the boat is rolling – all needed adjusting too. The anchorage was calm the entire time we were there this time, the days were warm and the nights not too cold. We relaxed in the cockpit, walked the beaches, ate lavish meals and didn’t see a soul until after four days a local panga with scallop divers passed by and asked for a lighter.
The next day we lifted anchor and motored out the bay into a glassy sea. No wind nor waves, the water reflected the overcast sky like an oily liquid. We sat on the bow and watched the Baja’ shoreline on one side and Isla Angel de la Guardia on the other. The geology in the Sea of Cortez is spectacular, the sea literally had sprung up out of the Andreas fault and is a varied as that sounds. Birds were everywhere and feeding on fish attracted by deep sea upwellings. If one can ignore the sound of the diesel engine, it was very peaceful.
We wanted to anchor next to a volcano, which actually is just a mountain shaped like a cone, but with overcast skies and the scare of rocks scattered around in the waters, we opted to move on to a bay on the Baja, La Gringa, where we had been before and know it’s very large sand shelf. The last couple of times we were here in high winds, funneled over the Baja they had turned into ‘Elefantes’ (funneled as if through a elephants trunk), winds of 40 knots battering us all night.
All was calm and peaceful when we arrived in Ensenada La Gringa. No wind, no waves. Only the voices of some campers on the beach reached our boat and the sharp exhale of a seal swimming and fishing throughout the bay. We are back to civilization though, if only at the end of a dirt road and one day drive away from Highway 1.
The following day we sunny and warm,the first day we didn’t dress in fleece jackets for breakfast in the cockpit. We went ashore and walked the beach and, as always collected shells and garbage. In addition to the fishing line, plastic rope, plastic bag, plastic bottle caps and soda can tops there was a plastic chair, edges rounded by sand, pebbles and sea. Between Isla Angel de la Guardia and here we’ve collected a 10 gallon bag of trash, mostly plastic washed ashore which makes us want to start a trash collection campaign on the beaches of the Sea of Cortez. There are probably several already we could associate ourselves with, I will look into that. Until then we’ll bring a trash bag ashore and keep collecting on our own.
In the early evening we took another stroll on the beach and met the campers on beach: An American/Mexican couple from Washington State camping here in their trailer the past 30 winters. A French/Italian couple following Highway 1 from Seattle to Baja in an Astro Van. And four Southern California pensioners who had driven their off road trucks with camper tops all over Baja and Californian deserts. A mexican family came fishing around sunset, we could hear the woman giving fishing instructions to her son.
The next morning the wind picked up at breakfast. Predicted were 5-10 knots from the North, but at least 20 knots of wind with 25 knot gusts kept the Imagine pointing into the wind. Luckily the winds were coming off the shore and waves didn’t have time to build but we were stayed on the boat for the whole day. The next morning we left after breakfast for Bahia de los Angeles and anchored in front of the village. We love this remote place which feels like an outpost of civilization in the wilderness of a desert. Pangas with fishermen leave with the first morning light and sometimes fishing, wildlife and birding tourist groups are leaving or returning from the islands. There is a little bit of Wifi for me to upload posts (it does take dedication and several days to upload posts and pix!), have meals under a palapa roof overlooking the bay and the SV Imagine. Very peaceful.
For several days the winds continued during the days and came up in the late mornings when we were already on shore and died down before sunset. The calm nights were restful and sometimes waves of music drifted from the shore or fish splashed around us. We spent days like this until the winds were predicted to come off shore and would make anchoring less pleasant. So we will leave tomorrow for Bahia de las Animas, a bay named for it’s wildlife and a week or so we’ll be in Santa Rosalia.
21 – 29 MAR 2019