Bahia Aqua Verde to Puerto Escondido
25°49.363'N, 111°18.483'W


On Sunday, May 15 we departed Bahia Aqua Verde for Puerto Escondido which is about 24 nm further north. This was an easy one, no seas and light breezes. This trip, like most of the others since leaving La Paz have been all motor sailing; except for the leg from Isla San Francisco to San Evaristo, when we had too much wind from the wrong direction. We are generally seeing light winds here in the Sea or 'land and sea' breezes. On some passages when we approach a point of land there is a compression effect and we can have 10-15 knots of breeze to sail in, but it is usually short in duration and before long we are rolling up the gennoa and running up the engine RPM. That and it's all from the north, which is generally the way we are going so it's not much help. So much for being a purist!


Arriving in Puerto Escondido, which means hidden port, we were surprised to find that there is an almost entirely land locked basin with only one entrance channel on the south end. The basin is about ½ to ¾ mile wide and a mile long north to south and with good depths throughout. This basin is controlled by the Mexican governments tourist board, Singlar, and they have a small marina at the south end. With only a few slips available the bay is set up with about 150 mooring balls that you rent or you can anchor, but you are charged either way, about $15 a day, which includes use of the dinghy dock and marina facilities, showers and even a pool.


This is a remote area, about 15 miles from the old town of Loreto and the mountains behind the basin are spectacular, the Sierra de la Giganta range. What a setting, only to our surprise no cell phone service and internet from the marina was 'iffy' at best. There was one restaurant at the marina, one very small convenience store and a cruiser's lounge that they call a yacht club. None the less, we had dinner twice at the restaurant and it was pretty good especially since I didn't have to cook. We also used the pool and showers. Not having a dock we were limited on cleaning up the boat to just a quick rinse off when we were getting fuel on the way out. It's always good to get the salt off.


So Inclinded was already there and Sirocco came in from Honeymoon Cove across the straights at Isla Danzante to complete the rendezvous. Mike had been joined by his friend Karen from La Cruz, also known as "some company" who having been in these regions before and speaking Spanish is a wonderful tour guide. We all took a taxi van together to Loreto the following day, Monday, so that we could see the sights and go to a real store for provisions. We also found a pretty decent fishing tackle/ marine hardware shop. We had lunch at a nice place called Las Casitas and they had wifi. We brought our mini lap top, but it was all we could do just to get through weeks of backed up emails and tending to 'real life' business, no time to catch up on blogs!


Loreto was founded in 1679 and the first of the California Missions was established there, making this the "head and mother" of the missions. Loreto served as the capital of Lower California until 1829 when it was pretty well destroyed by a hurricane and the government moved to La Paz. After a whirlwind tour of town we returned to our boats to store our provisions and meet for dinner at the marina restaurant, Porto Bello.


The following morning we were up and departing Porto Escondido with So Inclined and Pacifico keeping company to head further north while Sirocco started their trek south back towards La Paz and eventually to Cabo to get ready to head up the coast about June 1 to return to Oceanside.


While exiting the outer harbor at Puerto Escondido we saw a whale shark swimming next to the boat. I had not seen one before and was surprised at the size of the thing. They are docile and harmless, feeding on micro organisms in the water. Shortly after that we saw a shark take a ray swimming on the surface. Rays seem plentiful in these waters and I guess just about everything is food for something else. This place is full of sea life and we would find out just how common place the whale sharks are in these waters at later stops.


We sailed in company of Sirocco and So Inclined to above Isla Danzante and through the channel between Danzante and Isla Carmen where they turned south and we along with So Inclined turned north. It was nice to see everyone again and we will see them next in Oceanside, or that's the plan!