08-18-2012, Sat. - Caleta
Partida to Isla San Francisco
Woke up to a beautiful sunrise this morning and delicate
delicious breezes. We weren’t sure if we
were going to leave today for Isla San Francisco or not in the morning. Of course Dick had his morning ham nets to
monitor and check in with and I had some blogging to catch up on.
At 10:00 we decided that we’d go ahead and make the passage
to Isla San Francisco, which is about a four hour passage. It was absolutely beautiful! Not enough wind to sail, but we saw a big
Marlin jumping (or sword fish, not sure) and a HUGE pod of dolphins on our way
and I got excellent video of them swimming under the bow of our boat on my iPad.
We decided to try the Southwest facing anchorage, which is
the most popular of the three on this island and the prettiest. There was no one there! We had the whole thing to ourselves. Very nice!
We had a lovely evening with nice breezes! Then three power boats came in for the
night. There’s plenty of room here
however, so no big deal. It is a no-moon
night and very dark, so the stars were out in abundance. Beautiful!
08-19-2012, Sun - Isla San Francisco (SW Anchorage)
Nice morning! Some
breezes are blowing and the power boats are gone. We will spend the day here swimming and
trying to find turtles. I saw one
yesterday when we got here and could hear him when he came up to take a breath
and look around. I would love to see
them in the water swimming around.
We did go looking for them, but saw no turtles. It was a very hot day, but the water was 82
degrees, so that was pleasant. It was a
relaxing day with the exception of preparing the pasta fruit salad, which was
our main meal of the day (Mmmmm yummy!) and studying Spanish for a couple
hours.
The wind died down after the morning and by night time, it
ended up being 103 in the salon (at 9:00 at night). Thank goodness for fans!!
08-20-2012, Mon – Isla San Francisco (SW Anchorage)
We awoke in the early morning hours to find a lightning storm
and rain. It is still probably in the
high 80’s. After the rain in the early
morning hours, it is just 85 degrees at 7:30 a.m. (but climbing, just changed
to 86 in the last 10 minutes). In the
end, it stayed cloudy all day and never got above 88 degrees!! Yaaaaaay!
It was like being in Hawaii for the day.
We worked on our Spanish, read, played computer games and
enjoyed the cooler temperature for the day.
I made a fabulous frittata for our main meal and we enjoyed another
episode of the West Wing.
08-21-2012, Tues – Isla San Francisco (moved to N Anchorage)
Another beautiful day in paradise! Still no one in the anchorage. It has been perfect, with only a few boats
showing up, but leaving by the end of the day or by morning. Nice!
The sun is out and the sky is clear though today. This means temperatures will be climbing and
we’ll be getting in the water for sure!
We want to move to the north end of the island though today. There is a little island just off the north
end by the name of Isla Coyote which has a town (if thirty adults and no
children can be called a town – D) on it.
The island is made up of a small community of pescadors and artists. We want to take the dinghy over and say hello
to the folks; maybe look at their art and jewelry.
So, we moved to the northern anchorage. We have this anchorage all to ourselves
too. So, nice! We can see Isla Coyote and the Rocas de la
Focas (seal rocks) from here too. It is
a much more exposed anchorage, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that no
weather comes from the east or west (it is not forecasted).
Twas a pleasant afternoon, with more snorkeling/swimming,
reading and playing games (in front of the fans, of course).
08-22-2012, Wed. – Isla San Francisco to San Evaristo
Our plan today was to go to Isla Coyote by dinghy in the
morning after the net and before it gets too hot, but when Dick tried to get
the outboard running on the dinghy, it wouldn’t stay running. So, he thinks he’s going to have to clean the
carburetor parts. It must not have liked
sitting in the heat for 6 weeks with no use.
Another lesson learned. So, we
had to cancel our plans to go to Isla Coyote and headed for San Eva
risto for the night.
This is another darling fishing village anchorage, which we stopped in
on the way up and back in June.
We got here around 1:00 p.m. and were here with only one
other sailboat (plus pangas, of course).
It was a very peaceful evening with absolutely no wind, so it was a bit
humid and hot. At least we got a fairly
good night sleep.
We will be picking up anchor and heading to our other
favorite fishing village anchorage, Agua Verde.
The trip should take about 6 hours today. We are interested in getting ourselves up to
the Loreto area to spend the majority of our time, since we have already been
to these anchorages before. We had not
been to the two anchorages we went to on Isla San Francisco.
What a nice trip we had indeed! No wind to speak of though, but we did get to
see a small pod of Orca whales about of three hours into the trip. It was VERY exciting! At first I thought they were dolphins off in
the distance because I could see their dorsal fins rolling out of the water
just like dolphins do. As I was watching,
however, I kept saying “My those are big dolphins”! As they moved closer to us, I saw the
beautiful white underbellies that go with Orcas and I hollered to Dick “THOSE
ARE ORCAS, get up here quick!!” He got
up just in time to see them approach our port side. I throttled back while Dick grabbed my iPad
so I could film them, but they must have dove down. We never saw them after that. Sorry, I didn’t get any footage of them.
We traveled through the beautiful Martes Reef and landed at
Agua Verde around 3:00. Such a pretty
anchorage. However, it is a bit warmer
here, high 90’s. Around about 5:00 as we were wondering what we were going to
do for dinner, a panga came to our boat and offered lobster tails for $100
pesos ($8 US). We couldn’t resist! They were about 1-2 lbs each and fresh! I suffered turning on the stove and pan-fried
them in butter, garlic and white wine.
They were delicious!!!
It was another beautiful evening, with very little wind. We read in the cockpit well after dark and
then retired to our fan-engulfed bed (it was still in the 90’s after dark) for
a decent night sleep.
We decided to spend a day here to snorkel and relax. That’s pretty much all we did today. It is getting hotter as we head north now and
the water is getting warmer. It was 103
degrees in the boat at 9:30 p.m. Yikes!
08-25-2012, Saturday – Agua Verde to Los Candeleros
We were going to meet “Merilon” at an anchorage we hadn’t
been to yet called Yellowstone beach on one of the islands just off Candeleros,
but they stayed there last night and got eaten up by no-see-ums. They reported this to us on the radio this
morning so we wouldn’t go there. So we met
them at Candeleros instead.
This was about a three hour trip. It was nice and breezy when we got to
Candeleros, but the wind died down and it was 104 degrees in the boat at 9:30
p.m.! More yikes! Erlin and Jenn are here on the boat
“Ventured”. We haven’t seen them since
we were here a couple months ago. Erlin
came by to visit for a couple hours and informed us they are going to “bash”
back up to San Diego to work for a year or so.
Michael & Tiki pulled in later in the afternoon on “Merilon”.
Michael came by to visit because Tiki was in bed having taken Benedryl to treat
the itching from the no-see-um bites she got last night. They have been up in the northern Sea until
now. They are heading home at the end of
this month, leaving their boat in Puerto Escondido. They won’t be coming back until about January
this coming year.
We’re going to hang out here for a while, get some
provisions, hopefully do some interneting and spend some time with Michael
& Tiki.
08-26-2012, Sunday to 9-01-2012, Saturday – Candeleros
(For those who care to look it up on Google Earth enter “Ensenada
Blanca” , we’re anchored about where the words are, the photo is three years
old so the resort is still under construction and the little town is at the
other end from the resort – D)
We’ve been enjoying the Candeleros Bay for the last
week! The weather has been stable around
mid to high 90’s, a little rain now and then with some cloud cover to keep the
temperature under 100. Yaaay! (This
little rain thing is actually very rare, it's been years since the last time they had
this much rain, the local hills are a lush green, almost like a tropical island
– D)
We’ve been snorkeling, swimming at the resort, having some nice meals at
the resort and enjoying time with our friends Michael & Tiki. Nothing super exciting other than the turtles
that keep coming around and the nice snorkeling. I did get to sing at the resort on karaoke
night! That was fun, of course! (Real
nice day of snorkeling yesterday – best clarity yet – 30/40 ft easy. Many fish of all sizes and colors – favorite
was a bright blue with silver sparkle spots like jewels – D)
Still looking for turtles when I snorkel!! We see them surfacing all over the place, but
never when we’re in the water! Oh
well….. We will be heading to Puerto Escondido to do some provisioning and then
heading out to the islands around the Loreto area for the remainder of
Sept. Will be heading back to La Paz,
expecting to be there on 10/1. Will have
a new blog for you all then…. Ciao for
now and have a great month.
