La Paz to Santa Rosalia - the last three weeks

Dolphins in Ensenada Grande

A quick run-down of our voyaging since leaving Marina Palmira in La Paz on Tuesday, April 3rd:

• April 3:  La Paz to Ensenada Grande, Isla Partida:  27 nm; stayed 2 nights at anchor

Arriving at Ensenada Grande - south lobe

• April 5:  Ensenada Grande to Isla San Francisco:  19 nm; actually sailed across!
• April 6:  to San Evaristo:  9 nm;  windlass problems, lots of hauling up anchor by hand; wiggled in to the anchorage with 7 other boats; spent Semana Santa here and sat out northers.

San Evaristo anchorage from Cipriana`s cantina

• April 9: to Los Gatos:  30 nm; all alone in the south lobe - the best place for protection from the south east swell and south winds; dolphins and small rays.

Red rocks of Los Gatos

• April 10:  to Yellowstone Beach, north end of Isla Monserat; 29 nm; breeching whale, then a huge manta ray just under the water, 10 feet from the boat;  a beautiful spot, but we had a very challenging late afternoon and night...winds shifted to the west and we pitched and rocked but stayed secure.

Yellowstone beach - north side Isla Monserat

• April 11:  to Punta Perico, north east side of Isla Carmen; 20 nm, with some sailing again!  All alone in a quiet spot until a largish power boat arrived in late afternoon.  We rested and stayed on the next day to tidy up and catch our breath from the Yellowstone adventure.

Punta Perico - Isla Carmen - near Loreto

• April 13:  to San Juanico on the Baja peninsula; 36 nm; a nice day but we had 3 - 5 foot north east swells with not enough south east winds to knock them down; motor-sailed past Isla Coronado and joined friends in this favorite anchorage.  We weathered another round of northers here, but hiked and fished, played Mexican Train and had two Bocce tournaments!

Cruisers on the beach San Juanico

INTREPID II anchored in Bahia Santispac

• April 18:  to Bahia Santispac in Bahia Concepcion: 55 nm - a long journey and we started out at 6:30 am, arriving at 3 pm.  the only boat for a few hours; we hadn't been here since 2010 and enjoyed visiting Lupe`s restaurant (Ana`s); getting a ride into Mulege from Joel and Louise and visiting Sonrisa weather guru Geary on his patio in El Burro Cove; we especially enjoyed spending time with Paula and Bill and Max and Emma on SV Content - great new amigos.

Captain`s new Mulege T-shirt design - Day of the Dead

• April 23:  to Bahia Santa Inez "Punta Chivato": 27 nm;  left at 7:15 am in case we kept going to Santa Rosalia and to miss the stronger winds.  This anchorage has a great shelling beach but is open to south and east winds, so it can be tricky to stay here.  We encountered building winds by 09:00 am and lots of easterly swell. We gave our auto-pilot a workout as we tried to sail northwest across the large bay with Mulege at its centre point, as well as the 27 degree latitude boundary; the "north sea".  All turned out well as we anchored and the winds stayed from the northerly quadrants;with minimal swel.   SV Content joined us later and we had a visit from Ed, a local resident.

Hotel on point at Bahia Santa Inez

• April 24:  to Santa Rosalia: 27 nm;  underway again by 7:15 am into rolly seas as we came out of the bay, with wind from the north west "on the nose"; there were lots of cross currents pushing against us, slowing us down to under 5 knots for almost 2 hours until we neared Isla San Marco. A highlight...a humpback whale swimming right across our bow, then diving with tail flukes held high into the brilliant sunlight; no picture, but we will remember this!  Motor-sailed in to the marina and met folks from three boats, all of whom headed south within a day; a bit lonely at the dock. 
•  An unanticipated boat chore...draining our port water tank and flushing and flushing and adding chlorine - should be good now.

We will expand on these travels as we can....but that`s our trip northward to date......adios.