The Cruising Life of Freshman - Part 2

Onward to the next adventure!

In this post, we will attempt to describe our time cruising the east side of Baja between Ensenada de los Muertos and Bahia Concepcion. After an exhilarating sail from Isla Isabel(a) to Muertos, we prepared for gentler conditions as we made our way north on the Baja peninsula. We left Muertos on April 12th along with our new friends on s/v Fly Aweigh II and s/v Juliet (read our PredictWind post to learn more about our journey with these two boats and one other on our way from Isabel to Muertos). We headed north past La Ventana and through the Cerralvo Channel where conditions were variable; we alternated between delightful sailing and motorsailing. After transiting the San Lorenzo channel which lies between the Baja peninsula and the island of Espiritu Santo, we made our way to Puerto Balandra, a stunningly beautiful anchorage at the NE tip of the Bay of La Paz. Our first night there, we experienced the "infamous" coromuel winds (click here to learn more about this weather phenomenon that is unique to this area).  

The next day, the Gulf swell became enormous so we decided to head to Bahia Falsa which lies a short distance north of the city of La Paz. We spent a couple of uneventful days in Falsa where we kayaked,  rested, and generally "killed time" while waiting for Michelle's ophthalmology appointment in La Paz. On April 16th we made our way to the La Paz anchorage where, unbeknownst to us at the time, a little excitement would ensue!

One of the exciting parts of being in La Paz is "dancing" to the La Paz Waltz! Boats enter the La Paz anchorage via a narrow channel that separates the city of La Paz and a narrow swath of land called El Mogote. A large tidal current flows through the narrow channel and competes with winds that blow nearly every day. Normally, sailboats naturally point their bow into the wind and swing gently from side to side with minor wind shifts. Strong currents, generally, affect the stern. Wind coupled with current affects boats differently, depending where you are in the anchorage. Additionally, the shapes of boats add another layer of complexity to the situation; full keels, fin keels, bulb keels, catamarans all swing differently under these conditions. Therefore, you will find some boats pointed into the wind, others stern to wind, others abeam of the wind; hence the term "The La Paz Waltz." Because of the erratic swinging, it is important to anchor with enough space between boats to avoid a low-speed collision!

The second exciting thing that happened while in La Paz, was a perceived domestic situation that occurred between a couple on a catamaran that anchored frighteningly close to us. Without going into much detail, we attempted to help a woman who seemed to be in trouble on the cat and we quickly discovered that she was mentally ill and the man was actually the victim! After 3 days of drama, the captain being forced off his vessel at flare gun point, every authority imaginable, and help from us and the marines, the captain was able to recover his boat and leave La Paz posthaste!

We decided that La Paz was far too exciting for us to stay any longer so we decided to depart on April 23rd. As we pulled in the chain, the windlass (the mechanical workhorse that pulls up our chain and anchor) stopped rotating. We let a little chain out and tried again. Same result. So we laid the chain back out and started problem-solving. We believed that our anchor and/or chain was caught on something but we weren't sure what. The water was not clear enough for us to see the anchor and we were in about 20-25 feet of water; too deep to try to dive the anchor without weights and dive gear. So we searched through the Club Cruceros Services Directory and found Paola Moreno. She was AMAZING! She arrived an hour after completing a sailboat race, dove our anchor, and freed us from an old mooring under which the anchor had wedged. We paid her, waved goodbye, and left La Paz.

We had a wonderful sail from La Paz to Espiritu Santo where we dropped the hook in Bahia San Gabriel. While the guidebooks talk about this anchorage, we learned much later that it is actually prohibited to anchor here; too bad because it was a beautiful spot with absolutely stunning scenery. After a few days in Gabriel, we departed for Isla Partida where we anchored in El Cardonal. This, too, was an exceptionally quiet, beautiful anchorage. On April 27th, we departed El Cardonal and headed for Isla San Francisco. We spent 2 splendid days in San Francisco but on Friday the anchorage was overrun by mega yachts and party boats so we decided to head up the San Jose Channel to San Evaristo where we enjoyed a couple of days in a small anchorage where we were eventually joined by 3 other boats. On our way to San Evaristo, we were treated to a hammerhead shark sighting! See our PredictWind posts about these amazing anchorages.

We woke in San Evaristo on May 1st to an "abandoned" anchorage and a building swell where we were getting tossed around like a toy boat. We hastily prepared the boat to pull up anchor. As we continued up the San Jose Channel, we attempted to find an anchorage that would be protected from the south swell. There really were none to be had so we anchored on the north side of Punta San Telmo which offered some protection from the south swell. After one night at San Telmo we made our way to Agua Verde where we spent 5 incredible nights and met our friends on s/v Susimi and s/v Sally. On May 9th we headed off under sail to Honeymoon Cove on the Northwest side of Isla Danzante where we spent a relaxing night in a small cove that we had all to ourselves. On the 10th, we motored across to Puerto Escondido to get fuel and stock up on a few items. Unfortunately we had to wait 4 hours while a couple of large sportfishing boats filled up their ginormous tanks. Once we were fueled, we headed north to Puerto Ballandra on the west side of Isla Carmen to wait out a forecasted "norther" (very strong north winds that accelerate down the long Gulf fetch created by the Baja peninsula on one side and the mainland on the other). While in Ballandra, we met our friends Carole and Dominique on s/v Hippo's Camp...these are two of the most incredible people we have ever met and we will share more detail in another post. While we were well-protected from the north winds, we were not so protected from the swell so after 2 days in Ballandra, we set sail for the south side of Isla Coronado. The highlights of Coronado included a hike to the top of the volcano where we were treated to breathtaking views and enjoying sundowners with our friends on Hippo's Camp. From Coronado, we met up again with Fly Aweigh II and Juliet and sailed to San Juanico where we enjoyed pilot whales, a lunar eclipse, and exquisite sunsets over the mountain range known as the Gigantas. After 2 nights in San Juanico, we set sail for Bahia Concepcion. At times we bobbed up the coast, other times we were reduced to motoring, we flew under spinnaker where we entered the top of Bahia Concepcion, and were, once again, reduced to motoring down the bay to our anchorage at Santispac. Once again, visit our PredictWind blog for more details on our voyage from San Evaristo to Bahia Concepcion.

Note: In an effort to make our posts live before leaving San Carlos today, we will forego adding pics right now. It takes considerable time to choose pictures to go along with the narrative so we will post pics of our journey from Banderas Bay down to Barra, back to Baja, and over to San Carlos on a separate page.