25° 59.691’N, 111° 06.460’W

After Puerto Escondido we made the 22 nm hop on May 17 to Bahia Salinas where we anchored off the ruins of the salt processing facility and abandoned community. This is a large bay on the east side of Isla Carmen’s northern end. There is a large salt flat that is visible in the satellite photos and the abandoned salt works and company housing area just off the beach. We anchored in good holding at about 17 foot of depth in this well protected anchorage that is open only to the south. The cruising guide says there is a caretaker living at the sight and we took our dinghies ashore to explore. We found a new floating dock facility and renovated main housing area with a sign that said “Welcome”. The caretaker came out to greet us and with Karen’s by-lingual assistance we obtained permission to explore the ruins and salt flats. The caretaker explained that the facility is now leased by a hunting and fishing club who operate out of Loreto. The grounds around the two main buildings were neat and clean, several buildings have been renovated and are operated as an private lodge. Fortunately for us no guests were there or we probably would have been denied access.

We walked out to the salt flats and then into the processing plant and old community ruins. The grounds are fairly well kept so that it was not so hazardous, yet quite interesting as you can see by the various photos Marisa has posted. We all enjoyed seeing the salt flats, old equipment and facilities. After several hours ashore we returned to our boats to get our snorkeling gear to dinghy out to the wreck of a tuna boat that sank in about 35 feet of water further out in the bay. This wreck was interesting, but not the best we have had the opportunity to explore down here, of course without tanks we could only look down on most of it with only a part of the deteriorated structure at surface level.

That night we all got together aboard So Inclined for Karen’s home made pizza with brownies for desert and a little route planning for our next leg of the trip north. We decided to shorten the trip to our next intended destination, San Juanico by making a short hop over to the south anchorage at Isla Coronado, which I’ll talk about here.

The run to Isla Coronado on May 18 was 23 nm. We departed Bahia Salinas in the early afternoon and arrived at the anchorage, an open roadstead with protection only from the north at about 1735 hrs. We intended for this to be an overnight stop only and didn’t make any attempt to go ashore here. As it turned out it was a brief and uncomfortable stop. An ‘unscheduled’ west wind off the mountains above Loreto kicked in about dusk and by 2200 hrs. some of the boats were beginning to pull out and seek shelter. The wind was up to about 20-23 knots, but with about six nm of fetch it got pretty uncomfortable. I let out more scope, and was about ready to pull the anchor and leave myself when it moderated just enough to allow the swell to subside. None the less, we spent a rolly night and pulled out along with So Inclined at first light.