Tanque de Tiburon: To Baja or Bust....again

OK! Finally - let's head south!

The second departure was January 27^th and the destination – the Baja! Looking at winds and weather, we headed more south, looking to get to San Juanico as a first stop. We passed San Juanico at 0700 the next day so just kept on going and ended up anchoring at Isla Coronado, near Loreto. The key was wifi there and we did get stuck for four rocky-rolly nights in the anchorage. It was so rolly that I actually fell off the toilet once. Ow!

On February 1, we headed more south faster. The next stop was into Puerto Escondido for fuel. We dropped an anchor in there, as well, as we don’t trust the balls. Did a little provisioning at Pedro’s store there and had a nice fish dinner at his restaurant, PortoBello’s. From there, we cruised to the bay in front of the Villa de Palmar resort for a night at anchor – hoping to catch a Super Bowl game ashore. We did stay a night but decided to go to the next bay on the agenda for listening to the game as the resort appeared pretty quiet.

The next anchorage was Agua Verde, motor-sailing on February 3. We had a bit of excitement on anchoring! After about 50’ of chain out toward an anticipated 100+ foot rode, the chain had a knot in it about the size of a volleyball! We are guessing it was from much of the rock and roll we had done over the trip so far, causing it to amass into a ball. So…we had to clear out the V berth (my very full storage locker) to get to the chain locker to un-ass the mass of chain so it would fit thru the windlass/hole. Luckily, the 50’ out held us during the project. Phew.

What?? the anchor is in a KN0T!

"Linda - clear out the V berth?" aye yi yi...there goes the salon...

OH! We DO have an anchor locker back behind all the valuables stored....anchor sails, food, crafts, first aid, Sunbrella and supplies....

And we try to miss that giant ROCK! Note the rainbow!

Ho Hum, another gorgeous view of the Baja's "spine"....

What a sunset!

Yes, getting the salon back together after the V berth dump!!

OMG! Schools of dolphin - many this year joining us here and there to say "hello". They are very hard to capture because they are so fast....but we got one lucky shot:

This is Bill, a view from inside, of the refueling process on deck - using the Baja filter from the jerry cans. Helps keep the tanks clear of debris. We never fill direct from the fuel dock to our tanks.

Next Port: Los Gatos and anticipating Manuel and LOBSTER.. On February 5^th, we cruised in and stayed a night and traded for lobster. We did buy some great fish from a few local pangero fishermen and it was very tasty. I ceviche’d some for the next day’s lunch and we grilled 2 filets that night. Manual arrived with our “order” the next AM before we left - 4 good size lobsters! We traded some cash, a fresh cup of coffee, a bottle of water, batteries, bought some hand-work his wife does, a few spices…and we got lobster. Cleaned and froze them for a future meal. We met a new boat…Victoria LA, a seasoned sailor couple aboard, from Maine and Florida. We encouraged them to order lobster, as well. And they joined us for cocktails aboard.

Looking at weather prediction of more “norther” winds and waves, we decided to skip San Evaristo, as well…and head to Isla San Francisco and meet up with Victoria LA.. Also, perhaps to sit-out the next “blow” in a semi-protected bay. We did deploy our dinghy and shared a happy hour at Victoria’s cockpit. Thinking we had finally hit the night time Cormuels, the famous westerly winds in the Baja’s La Paz area, we blew at anchor for two nights before we decided enough was enough. Bill pulled up the anchor with a bit of wind – 22 knots – tugging at us to stay. He did a great job getting the anchor up with the boat wandering side to side on the anchor chain. We then rolled south, crossing the open area between San Francisco and Espiritu Santo.

Manuel's Fresh lobster!

YUM!

At sea, sailing and anchored, etc....

Isla San Francisco fisher persons... there's a girl, very unusual!
They are dragging a net across the bay....tight in front of us as we are trying to pull up the anchor and depart so we had to scoot around them to miss their net....