We left Bahia de los Angeles about 10 days ago. As we were leaving on route to Isla Partida, we came across 4 Sperm whales laying on the surface of the water. They look like logs floating on the water. We stopped and took a few pics (see gallery) and then carried on to Partida. We spent a day there snorkeling and relaxing before heading out for a 10 hour trip to Isla Tiburon. We went into a beautiful bay called Dog Bay but were chased out a few hours later by some big swells coming into the bay. We found a quieter anchorage around the corner and spent a few nights there.
Our next passage was 80 miles so would require an overnighter. We left at 2:30 in the afternoon and the seas looked pretty calm from our anchorage. Once we got out there, it was NOT calm at all. The swells were 3 to 4 feet coming around the island and a few miles later we were in swells from both sides of the island and it was pretty confused seas for a few hours. Luckily the winds were behind us so the sailing was pretty comfortable. We had a steady 15 knot wind with gusts to 20 for most of the evening and then around midnight the winds started to ease and slowly die out. We finished the trip into San Carlos motoring as the winds had totally died.
We anchored in the basin for a few nights and decided to go into the marina for 4 nights so that we could wash the boat and clean up the stainless and a few other jobs. We had lots of Baja dust on the boat all the way up to the top of the mast. We got it all clean and I spent the next few days polishing stainless and waxing the burgandy stripe on the hull while Ian was inside cleaning bilges, doing oil changes and fixing a problem with one of our water tanks.
Today we came back out to the anchorage but took a mooring ball for a week as we don't feel that the bottom here is the best holding. It seems to be a lot of rock with sand over it. So now that we have worked so hard, we will spend the next few days being tourists and seeing what San Carlos and Guaymas have to offer. I know that there is a pearl farm that sounds interesting to visit.
The landscape around here is quite striking. Its very craggy mountains different from anything I've seen in Mexico so far. It's very beautiful here. Don't know how long we will be around here but at least another week.