INTREPID II arrived in Playa Santispac in time to view the continuing arrival of RVs, tenters, camper trucks lining up on the beach for the upcoming
Semana Santa - Holy Week - leading up to Easter celebrations. The event seems more Spring Break than a religious observation for these vacation goers. The sandy beach was gradually covered up here and at El Burro Cove with hardly any space available by the end of the week. A quiet anchorage this was not - but the music was loud only this first night, as someone must have advised the folks with the huge speakers to keep the noise down. The remaining evenings were much quieter during our stay.
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| Bahia Concepcion has over 50 miles of beaches |
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| Gathering spot at Playa Santispac - Ana's |
Wednesday morning (March 24th), we lowered our dinghy into the water, outboard on and off to explore. The landing is very shallow in front of Ana's restaurant and you have to wade in and pull it for some distance at times. Ana's is closed Wednesdays but Russ, the owner, came out to welcome us and share some local information, including that it should be easy to hitch rides into nearby Mulege. The town is 20 miles to the north and it seems buses are not a viable option.
We took a long walk towards the SE end of the beach and met up with the SV Galatea folks who had also arrived the day before. The road ends at a shell beach which looks back to the entrance into Bahia Concepcion - very turquoise, very shallow and at that time, still showing some left over chop. We found some very colourful shells, a very large one and only one (a tent olive type) which we kept for our small collection - better to enjoy them in their natural setting.
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| A shell to admire |
Setting out again in the dinghy to get to deeper water, one of the wheels basically popped off; it seems the lock washer must have broken off. Add yet another project to the Captain's list. As the wind wasn't too strong yet, we set off to explore El Burro Cove a few miles to the SW and the home of Sonrisa Net weather guru, Geary Ritchie. We eventually found our way there and said hi to MV The Dark Side folks, who had zipped by us on the way up to anchor in El Burro Cove. Geary was just leaving his palapa as we landed and headed into Mulege We briefly introduced ourselves and thanked him for all his efforts everyday to deliver weather info on the ham net. He volunteers to get up at "zero dark thirty" to check countless weather sites and make his amateur assessment, then conveys that information in a most enjoyable manner to all the Sonrisa ham net listeners at 07:45 am.
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| Bertha's Restaurant at El Burro Cove |
On down the beach we rambled to "Bertha's Restaurant" for a treat of fish tacos, with one eye and one ear on the wind, as it was increasing. The dinghy ride back to INTREPID II was 35 minutes long and very wet as the north winds blow right down the bay and into the coves. The day was sunny though and provided us a chance to explore a portion of the large bay. Later, we returned to Ana's to check out their dinner offerings and met up with the Keetya I crew for a "BCA fleet debriefing". Our first full day at this intriguing
bahia had been a good one!
