La Paz Costa Baja

We arrived in La Paz after a short sail with successful fishing, to find our friends Doug and Marcie, getting their boat ready to put on Dockwise to take it back to Seattle where they plan to sell it and stay in condos in Mazatlan, like a lot of other cruisers who swallow the anchor. We had a nice last dinner with them at one of the many restaurants in beutiul Costa Baja marina, one of the nicest on the coast, as the photos from 2010 attest. I swam in the lap pool until the hotel manager decided that cruisers would have to pay a day fee for the use of the facilities (even though the marina and hotel have the same owner, and advertise the use of the pool, spa and weight room for both). We probably won't stay here again until they come to their senses. We were thrilled a couple of days later when Jim and Chris of La Ballona arrived, and spent the night in Costa Baja to be with us, before moving the boat to marina Palmira. We arranged for the van from the hotel to take us up to the beautiul new club house which overlooks all of La Paz Bay. There is a Gary Player designed golf course, but we were the only patrons of the club which closes at 7 pm. Jim and Chris came by the next morning on their way to Palmira to say good bye. We spent a relaxing couple of weeks buttoning the boat up for the summer.

Ensenad Grande

Apparently we did not take photos at Evaristo, which after our first less than pleasant anchoring attempt, turned out to be a good choice with the first cove all to ourselves. We departed the next morning for Ensenada Grande on Espiritu Santu, sadly our last anchorage before heading into a marina at La Paz. We have both enjoyed being on the hook as you can tell from the first photo. We had another great sunset, and even though a corumwel (southwesterly wind) blew into the anchorage, we seemed to have the best spot and spent a calm night. We visited the crew on Angel after exploring ashore. Baja Adventures maintains a camp here for the tourist who sleep in tents ashore and kayak around the islands. We hosted Christian and Rick of Angel for cocktails. Angel is a Cheoy Lee 48 yawl, which the owner sails as much as possible. Christian is Swiss and spends the summer house sitting in the Pacific Baja town of San Juanico (not the anchorage on the east coast) for the owner of Angel. In anticipation of leaving the boat in La Paz, Linda gave them a lot of the stuff in our freezer. On the way in to La Paz the next day, I caught a couple of bonita on the lure I made in the fishing seminar at Loreto Fest. They seemed to prefer it to the lures I purchased.

Los Gatos

On the recommendation of Christian (who is standing on the bow of the yawl Angel in the first photo) we next anchored in Los Gatos, red rocks, kind of like Sedona on the ocean. We met Jody and Doug on La Gitana (the gypsy) a Westsail 32 on their first year cruising. They joined us for cocktails on Iron Rose. I took the kayak around to the 3 coves of Los Gatos and snorkeled around the clear green water. A very pleasant, calm anchorage. We are really enjoying cruising Baja where nothing is more than 3 or 4 hours away to the next great anchorage. Next stop San Evaristo. In the past we have always anchored at Isla San Franciso, opposite the east coast. This time we plan to stop at the little village of Evaristo, near the big salt mines.

Bahia Agua Verde

Roca Solitaria marks the entrance to Bahia Agua Verde, a beutiful big sheltered bay, reminiscent of Lake Powell, with it's surrounding mountains, and structures in the bay, like Gunsight and Padre Bay on Powell. This is the only place where we have had dolphins surf the bow wake on our dingy, which has happened on two different visits. On the first, our son Jon was able to put on a mask and dive in before I could get the dinghy motor shut down. The dolphins sounded at once. We anchored in the south cove this time in the lee of the small rock island in the second photo. We met Christian who was crewing on a friends yawl which they sailed into the ancorage on a light breeze he convinced us to stop at Los Gatos (the next series of photos). As usual, we enjoyed the sunset. The Agua Verde Yacht Club, an informal group of cruisers was founded here. There is a small tienda a couple of miles up the road that serves the small village that we visited when we were first here in 1996. One of the best books about Baja, The King of the Moon was written about this area. Always a pleasure to visit.

Loreto

Loreto was the first town settled by the Spanish and the first capital of Baja. The first photo is the multiple islands in the Mexican National Park surrounding Loreto south to La Paz. Linda is sitting in one of the classic old hotels done in the Spanish style. There are many beautiful boulevards and classic Spanish style buildings throughout the area. Loreto has replace Mazatlan on the cruise ship tours of Mexico's west coast and Baja, as I discovered while having breakfast at one of the beach front restaurants. A large Holland America cruise ship came in and anchored in the open roadstead of Loreto and ferried the passengers in to the small darsena. Loreto does not have a protected anchorage, but Puerto Escondido is right next door, but too small for a cruise ship. The church in the last photo is the oldest chapel in Baja, built in the sixteenth centuary. You can see the different expansions in the varied stone work. Padre Kiono (famous for the crossing of the fathers at Padre Bay in Lake Powell) was one of the founders

Loreto fest

Loreto Fest is a multi day event of games, seminars, music, food and all around fun, sponsored by Hidden Port Yacht Club (of which we are now members). There are horseshoe, bocci ball contests, seminars on fishing, cruising and cooking, and music and pot lucks. We had a great time with our old friends Jim and Chris (shown with Linda in 3d photo) and several new ones we made during our 2 week stay in Escondido. We renewed our aquaintance with Wickenburg cat sailors Helen and Ralph of Moon Drifter. We also met some new ones from Phoenix who had charted a Moorings boat out of La Paz. I helped erect the tents before the start of Loreto Fest. Chris is British
so they checked into a nearby hotel to watch the Royal Wedding. I tried swimming laps in the roof top pool that is a feature of all the Singular marinas. It was so shallow my hands hit the bottom. I went back to swimming to shore and back. The last day of the fest the wind blew 33 knots and higher. I went ashore on the shore boat for a fishing seminar, but the pot luck was cancelled due to the high winds, no one wanted to be off their boats! We had signed up for a day long trip to the old mission San Javier along with Jim and Chris and Ralph and Helen, but cancelled due to the high winds and our scheduled departure. We had a great last dinner ashore with everyone before heading south

Puerto Escandido

We arrived at Puerto Escandio after a short sail down the coast of Isla Carmen. We docked at the fuel dock and luckly were able to get a mooring for Loretofest. There are 117 bouys and about 10 side ties for boats and anchorage for another 50 or so. They fill up every year for Loretofest, which last about 4 days. Only about a third were occupied when we arrived but a few days later the entire cove was full. The first photo shows a sunset our first night there. The second shows one of the 2 "windows". We think the original Spanish filled in the area between 2 islands to enclose the cove. You can see the Sierra Gigante behind the shot of the Iron Rose on our first mooring. The water is
exceptionally clear in the shallows. There are a couple of restaurants, a small store and chandlery ashore, plus a guy who could help me fix the 15 horse motor. It turned out to be the electronic ignition. We rented a car and went into Loreto to call and order the part from San Diego. We spent the first few days exploring the anchorage by kayak, and the water was warm enough for me to swim.

Ballandra Cove on Isla Carmen

We left San Juanico for Ballandra Cove on Isla Carmen, a beautiful Island just off the east coast of Baja abeam Lorreto. The first photo shows the narrow entrance which opens into a big bay with a long white sand beach. The second shows Iron Rose anchored of the northern entrance. Although there were a dozen boats anchored, the beach was pretty deserted as you can see in the 3d photo. We met a few other couples ashore, Steve and Charlotte of Simple Pleasure, a Catalina 27, and Murray and Cindy of Valhalla, a 38 foot sloop. They joined us for cocktails and filled us in on the repair opportunity for the 15 horse in Puerto Escandido, our next stop. Sadly, we did not h
enough time to hike inland on the island, but it certainly looks inviting. The water was unusally clear, and we kayaked and dove for a couple of days before departing for Escandido. We were contacted by our friends Jim and Chris of La Ballona on the Amigo Net (a morning cruisers net on the Ham Radio) and plan to meet them in Escandido for Lorettofest.

San Juanico

We departed Conception Bay on April 19 for San Juanico, a unique multi anchorage cove on the outside of Conception Bay, 45 nautical miles away. On departure, we discovered that Conception Bay is very shallow in what appears to be the middle of the large bay. The deep water is near the eastern side. The boat in the first photo is anchored a little too close to the rock that gives some protection from northerly winds. He was nearly aground the next morning at low tide. The second photo shows one of the many unusual rock formations that make this bay so attractive. There is a small beach behind us, and good clear water to dive and explore all around.

Diving Conception Bay

I took these while free diving (no tanks) the islands of Conception
Bay. I do not have a strobe for this camera, so the colors are not true. The first is an ordinary 6 point starfish, the second is a skate and the third a Queen Angelish. I ended up doing another rescue as 2 kids in an inflatable kayak that was leaking air, lost a paddle and the wind blew them out to the islands where I was diving. I brought them halfway back, when their parents realized the problem and picked them up in a ski boat. It is the week before Smena Sante, the biggest holiday in Mexico, and the beach is already filling with tents and campers. We will be leaving before the noise starts. It is very pretty here when the winds are calm. There are many anchorages in this sea within a sea. The water is still cold enough to require a shorty wet suit. We visited the old river town of Mulege a couple of times to get parts and have a nice meal ashore. Coyote Bay is the largest anchorage and has a big expat community adjacent. They all showed up to dance and party on Saturday and the lone restaurant on shore.

Leaving San Carlos

Crossing The Sea of Cortez
We departed San Carlos at 5 am on April 12, headed for Conception Bay with a single hander Tom on Nipagon. We had a nice passage after some rolly seas at the start and arrived in Conception Bay at 4 pm and anchored in Coyote Bay. Nipagon kept falling further behind on the crossing and we lost radio contact as only his portable was working. Around 9 pm we got a call rom Nipagon, who was in the Bay but with no wind, he could not proceed, so at his request, we launched the dingy with the 15 horse and sped out to the rescue. The winds were calm and he did not set the anchor as he could not get the transmission to work. We determined the next day that he had overheated it due to seaweed on the prop. I loaned him a quart and I think he had one as well, but he failed to try the transmission.Meanwhile the 15 horse outboard quit working. The next day the wind got up to 30 knots and we noticed his boat drifting. We could not raise him on the radio so I broadcast on channels 22 and 16 that he was adrift, and two other boats came to the rescue and helped him reanchor. Luckily, the transmission worked well enough to set the hook. When we visited his boat, we discovered he did not know how to operate the SSB Radio, and only had the portable vhf. I got the 2 horse outboard working so we could use the big dingy as well as the kayak