Saw some whales, probably fin, and a seal who barked at us for disturbing his rest as we made our way to Candeleros. Nice day for motoring. We got to Bahia Candeleros and were so dissappointed. There is now a high rise hotel there with more huge buildings under construction. The water was nasty and we were quite a ways off the beach. Hmmmmm.....should we stay or should we go?
Thank god for the electric windlass! We decided GO! And we started off for Honeymoon Cove. We are very thankful we did because the winds picked up and white caps were starting to build and would have put us on a lee shore in Candeleros.
We checked out all the anchorages along the way and tried to anchor in the middle bight but could not get a good set. Our timing couldn't have been better as a boat pulled up anchor at the same time and we took their spot in the north bight. What a nice nightbut could not see any fish like before as the water was too murky.
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Well geez another tsunami year. We're getting the reports of the affects of the tsunami from the Japanese earthquake yesterday. Here in the Sea of Cortez, we didn't hear anyone who noticed anything unusual. The mainland side reported big swells and influx of large tides. The lagoon in Barra is closed because the tides took out a water main that crosses the channel. There are 7 boats stuck in the lagoon and who know when that will be fixed.
We motored all the way to San Marcial Rock light and then sailed into Agua Verde. As Jim is dropping the main, his boat hook goes overboard. Crap! So I'm trying to do the back and forth trying to get close to it and it is bouncing up an down in the water. Jim thought it was going to stay down so he dove for it and we got them both back aboard and dropped the hook over in the east bight. Wheewwww!
We kayaked to the beach behind us (nothing exciting) and talked to our neighbors on Warren Peace for a bit, then kayaked around the point to the next beach. All the beaches are covered with ray remains and shark heads. I should have taken a picture but it's such a sad sight. Have the fisherman always done this kind of harvesting or is it because the fishing has been exceptionally bad this year? Lots of starfish and sea urchins on the beaches here.
We still haven't walked the north beaches or tried the goat cheese. Guess that will be goals for next season.
We were fortunate and saw the re-entry of the shuttle from our anchorage. It was such a cloudy night that we were happy to see as much of it as we did.
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With the south winds we ran to Punta San Telmo with Castaway just ahead of us. Charlie & Sharon towed us ashore and we all walked the beach looking for goodies, well the girls more so than the guys. Some cowslips and such but nothing exciting. Sharon says I'm the first person she's met this season that even does any beachcombing. Now who doesn't like looking for shells? She said that she's not had an really good shell finds this year. We wonder if it's because the water has been much colder this year and affects them somehow. I also wonder if the fisherman are having such a tough time this year that maybe they are doing a lot more shell harvesting than usual, considering the piles we have found in certain places.
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Well according to the weather guys, it should have been a nice breezy day and a good sail for San Evaristo. You know how that goes! We left behind two other sailboats with full sails up. Once we passed the protection of the hill at the anchorage we heeled hard. The other two boats turned around and went back to the anchorage. We tried reefing the jib, then furling the jib, easing the main way out....just too overpowered at 9am in the morning. So Jim went up and dropped the main ( I really hate when he has to do that in rough seas). By the time that was taken care of, we were already a couple miles from the anchorage and it was only 8 more to San Evaristo so we just kept going. Used a lot more fuel at 2200 rpms than we normally run but we were already out in it and it wasn't a long run so what the heck.
We anchored in the north bight again with Duct Tape and Star. Guess who's in the open anchorage.....Cast Away. We caught up to them!
We rowed ashore and walked the beach with Cast Away and Libertad where we met (just our luck) the pee on you dog who got Virginia from Libertad.
We walked over the hill to the salt pans. These are just so impressive! I'm so busy taking pictures that another pee on you dog comes over and pees on me this time. What is it with these dogs? Maybe we just smell so good they can't resist! There is at least an acre of these salt pans and the locals were out with their salt piles bagging it up and loading it on a truck. I'm torn for the photo for this blog. I've already showed you some salt pans on San Francisco so I'm opting for this other cute one (which is just self explanatory).
We walked the beach not finding much and walked back, checking out all the cute and free range donkeys there near town.
We had munchies at Libertad with Otter and Althea and shared all kinds of stories. Funny enough Libertad are former Ventura West Dock A people! It's such a small world and Ventura does seem to be cruiser people!
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The waves/swell started picking up after I went to bed and Jim woke up when I started to get up to check which way it was coming from. He went out to find that our nice anchorage had turned into a lee shore with waves crashing on the cliff behind us. So here we go at 1am hauling anchor and running from Little Double Bight to go to Isla San Francisco 18 miles away.
Once we got out of our hole, the winds picked up bigger and we were able to sail some of the distance to our new anchorage. We had to wait about a half hour for more daylight to go into the hook (as we've never been there and the light on the point is not working and there are a few anchor lights from boats in there). We dropped the hook and after talking to Boomer (another red boat we met in La Cruz last year) had a nap for a few hours.
Boats pulling in all day here. We rowed ashore and did some beach walking all the way out to the light. Jim hit the shell lottery and found a paper nautilus with horns almost fully intact (didn't know what it was until we showed it to someone). Now I need to find one myself!
We walked across the island to the other side, pass the salt pans (which is what the photo is of) and to the rocky beach and hills. A very nice little island.
By the time we get back to the boat and the sun sets, there are 18 boats in the anchorage.
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Ran just one anchorage north as winds picked up. A tight little anchorage but great for one boat. We got to see lots of blue-footed boobies on the cliff. What an amazing color on their feet. Unfortunately I could not get a good shot of them with our camera so this one is downloaded from the net (and I'm a bad girl and didn't get whose it is to give proper credit).
We paddled the entire anchorage and the park ranger came by and gave us brochures. He asked if we had a pass (which we didn't) and said even to anchor you have to have a pass in the park areas (which we thought it was only for going ashore). We told him we were headed out the next day going north so he let us go without buying one. Really friendly and nice guy. I'll give you the whole enchilada on the freaking parks and their passes when you get to the Loreto section of the blog.
Jim got in with his wetsuit and scrubbed the bottom which really wasn't too bad after a couple of months.
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