The Sea of Cortez
15 June 2012 | La Paz, Mexico
Karyn/hot!
WOW - we have just had the best couple of weeks. We were able to get repairs completed and leave the marina to really cruise and explore. We had almost 2 weeks until Bob's sister Mary Beth and her husband Keith would arrive. We decided to head north into the Sea of Cortez. We wanted to be familiar with the area before we introduced it to them. We were able to go a lot further than we had expected. For me, it was the best experience yet. It is late in the season now, and most of the cruisers have closed their boats up and gone home because of the heat. It was very isolated. Often we had the anchorages to ourselves. Jacque Cousteau was fascinated with this place, and called it the world's aquarium. He was right. We saw so much sea life. I'm guessing 10 whales, hundreds of dolphins and manta rays. All were jumping, playing, fighting.....We just got to observe. Sometimes we would quietly move into their midst. Other times we would just sit and watch. We had our own "Sea World". We hiked, swam, snorkled and explored. The scenery here is like the red rock of the Grand Canyon or Sedona meeting the ocean. The colors are off the charts. We took so many pictures, it took me a while to sift through them to make the gallery, but that task is now complete. I want all of you to have a chance to see this largely untraveled part of the world. We honed our boating skills. Sometimes we anchored three times in a day. I got much more attentive of the weather as we worked out safe places to stay the night. We were a good team! I did not want to go back to the Marina so soon. I'd be ready to take off again tomorrow. To me, this was what I had imagined cruising to be. Of course, if you don't take care of the boat, you can't do it at all, can you? Must have a little sour with the sweet. I'm going to list the places we saw so that you might see them on the map.
Isla San Francisco - 3 different anchorages - shell beach, agate beach, swimming beach, hike First experience of Coromuel Winds at 25 knots
Isla San Jose - dinghy ride through the mangrove estuary, very shallow anchorage - hundreds of jumping manta rays
Puerto Los Gatos (after bypassing San Evaristo) - red rock, picnic, snorkeling, swimming, hiking, lobster dinner on the BBQ from fisherman Manuel in exchange for gifts and a few pesos. Yum!
Agua Verde - woman who came in a panga to get the garbage asked for Bob's watch (regalo/gift)
Candalero Chico - fished, swam, snorkled, hiked, visited by two tour groups (one in a cat and one in kayaks). They came and left. We met Efraim, their tour guide, who invited us to Candalero
Candalero - palapa on the beach. Efraim swam out and brought back "chocolate" clams which he then cooked in garlic butter for us and some other couples from Arkansas and Oklahoma. Outstanding!
Puerto Escondido - a hurricane hole, more industrial and fairly quiet, met Phyllis and Gary on Apolima with their dog Sophie. They drove us to one of our favorite towns, Loreto. We walked, ate, got Internet access and a few groceries. Also ran into Reg and Phoebe from Three Sheets.
Candeleros - this time we went to the big hotel and swam in the pool. Had salad lunch and saw Julie and Jeff from Buena Vida. We shared a slip in Cabo San Lucas many months ago. Coromuel 25knots in the night. Boats with anchors dragging. Man overboard from a power boat; picked up in a dinghy at 2am; he was drunk! I slept in the cockpit...
San Evaristo - looked but didn't stay
Ague Verde East - channel full of rays, whales, dolphins - miraculous. Bob caught a "bull's eye" puffer fish and threw him back
Napolo - stopped for lunch
Isla San Francisco - tried the third (east) anchorage, swam, hiked, looked for agates on the beach, stung by tiny jellyfish
Espirito Santo - surveyed the west side of the island, no safe anchorages in this weather, anchored and ate at Gallena in San Gabriel and moved to the east side to
Playa Bonanza - anchored in the dark and fog
Balandra - Beautiful bay just out of La Paz - took the dinghy through the clear water around the area. Birds, rocks, kayakers.
Back to the Marina :-(
On this trip, Realtime was mostly a motorboat as the wind was seldom going in the direction we needed or was not blowing at all. She did a good job. We had simple meals as all of our veggies/salad stuff/fruit froze in the refrigerator. Still work to do there. We used our new grill because it was too hot to cook in the cabin and we worked as a team. It was a really great experience. Now we have some interesting places to take Mary Beth and Keith. It was a delight. When we got into the marina, we fueled up. Guess what? Our friends Carol and Bill on La Sirena were at the dock too. Great surprise! Nice dinner with them last night. This is a great life. I heartily recommend it. Aloha, Karyn