hiking, beach combing, and sea caves
04 May 2013 | Caleta Partida, Isla Espiritu Santo
Julie
We've spent the last few nights anchored in Caleta Partida between Isla Espiritu Santo and Isla Partida. There is a weaving of sand spits between the island so it breaks any west traveling waves from entering the anchorage even though the wind comes whipping through.
There are several trails listed in both the cruising guides and the map that the park rangers gave us. Although we've located the trail heads, the trails are very unclear. We'd pick out way up what appeared to be a trail for a few hundred feet then it would be cut off.
There are sea caves on the Sea of Cortez side of Isla Espiritu Santo about a mile and a half south of the cut. We took the dinghy over to do a little exploring. The water is crystal clear with a bottom full of huge boulders. The caves were pretty but some of the rocks over head didn't seem stable. I'd hate to be in there when one of the rocks got free.
The bay just south of here (El Mezteno) is very pretty and worth a dinghy or kayak ride over to see. We saw interesting rock formations and a few tide pools that were fun to trudge through.
We've been suffering S to SW Coromuels almost every night. These winds come up at night and last until late morning the next day. If you are not tucked well enough into the south side of a bay, you're in for a very uncomfortable night as there are miles of open water gathering waves which hit you on the bow. It's like sleeping on a bucking broncho by about 3 am.
Ken and Paul have been fishing. They caught a Red Snapper and a few Graysbys yesterday so we got together and had a fish taco dinner followed by a movie last night. Lot's of puffer fish were caught too. Ken says that they inflate as they are reeled in then would deflate as they were released back into the water.
There are lots of very huge sea turtles in this bay and we had fun herding 100's of crabs on the beach while filming them on my GoPro camera.