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Baha North North, Well Ansa and ECHO are finally far enough away from La Paz to say we really left this time. We've been wandering our way North to get to the "top" of the Sea of Cortez. At least higher than the hurricanes go. The first day we got to Partida, nice but we have been there before. The second day we got to Isla San Francisco. This is a nice island in the Marine park. The wind here blows all the time so we only stayed a day to explore. We found a salt pond on the other side of the sand dune and I collected about about a pound. It's really good sea salt and scoops up like someone dumped a truck load of morton salt. White, pure, and small grained.
Thirsty bees - When we pull in close to shore to anchor we are swarmed by bees, They can smell the fresh water on our boats miles away. To keep them out of the cabin we put out cereal bowls full of water with a paper towel to land on. Once they find this oasis they come swarming for water. One afternoon I filled the water
bowl four times. Hopefully they will make it until until the rains come.
We've been having better luck with the wind finally. It's been blowing in the right direction so we have been geting some good sailing in. Our next stop was Puerto San Evaristo. This is a fishing village and a lot of Pangas from all over bring their catch in for overland transport to Cities. At least it had a palapa bar and a small tienda (store) I bought some fruit, vegies and cookies. Here we made our first attempt at actually snorkeling. The water is finally warm enough. Since then we've taken to snorkeling in the afternoon heat rather than cooking in the sun. Temperatures are in the 80's in the morning, but the wind dies down about two PM and and the heat goes up into the 90's. I now understand what siesta means. Stop work and wait a few hours because its toooo hot. You seldom do anthing on deck in the afternoon. A stiffeling engine room isn't better.
We stayed a few days and left to Puerto los Gatos. Not much here but the canyon walls are pretty. As a thought we don't
Collecting Salt
We found a salt bed on Isla San Francisco. I collected a bunch. You would think it was morton salt. But a lot better. talk much about the scenery. It's somewhat the same everywhere. It is bueatiful. Giant mountains, islands, sunrises, sunsets, wildlife abounds. Whales, dolphins, fish, birds, BUGS.... Not Bad Yet. So in these blogs it's hard to say the same thing over and over. So we just talk about the strange or really different or what we are doing.
Next to Bahia Aqua Verde. This is a big bay. It has a small town and a goat dairy. We were kind of surprised there was little being done for the many boats that use this anchorage. It is one of the most popular but doesn't seem to have the local atmosphere other ports have and no infrastruture. The first night we anchored in the north hook. It was preety tight and I didn't feel real comfortable. I went snorkeling from ECHO for the first time. I needed to make a longer ladder to get out of the water. I went over and pounded on Ansa and Dave had a to do some searching to find just me in the water under his dinghy. When I swam back to ECHO a large manta ray swam right under me. It's "wings" were about
Puerto Everisto
Nice small fishing village 6 feet tip to tip. I really like mantas.
That night Dave encouraged me to go have dinner at the "restaurant" So off we went to find it. No easy chore in Aqua Verde. On the way we passed a whole tree of vultures giving us the evil eye. Well afer a lot of walking, trying to get directions, our little spanish and their no english didn't work, but belly rubbing and pointing and being polite got us to the restaurant. The meal was great. we had fried fish, rice, tortillas, cabbage, and a beer. So we decided to stay a few days. In the morning two boats pulled out of a quaint little cove across the bay. We moved right in. It was early morning the next day I found out why the vultures were eyeing us. To not provide too much information we stayed two more days. Our first trial with Montezumas revenge.....
Off to Los Candeleros on our way to Puerto Escondido. We only stopped here to get us close to the port and in early in the morning.
Puerto Escondido - This bay is enclosed all around except a 200 foot opening. What this
Pelicans
Waiting on the catch of the day to come in. means is, it's a hurrican hole. Most boats can take the winds of a hurricane. Think about it, a car goes 90 miles an hour and you say "we made good time" So it's not the wind it's the waves. Storm waves 15 to 20 feet or more pick up the boat, pull the anchor out of the sand, and throw you on the rocks. In an enclosed harbor the storm waves can't get in. We pulled in to check it out in case we need to steam here rapidly some day. The Mexican government has put in 100 mooring balls each with a big chain connected to a huge block of conctete. We picked up one of the mooring balls and checked in.
We had showers, laundry, trash, a small store, a pool, a "yacht" club. etc. The marina here was built by the government expecting more boaters from the US. The economy crunch killed that so it looks a little unfinished. We only stayed one night. Why pay to park when you can anchor for free.
Right now we are in Isla Coronados (south) This is another Marine Park. People come in Pangas for the day to enjoy
Restaurant at Aqua Verde
This restaurant was really just someones house. The food tasted good but had a demon inside. the beach and climb the volcano. This island is a cinder cone. It threw out boulder size round lava balls that just pilled up after cooling enough in the air to stay in one piece. We went snorkeling on the reef and saw a lot of fish. I made my first underwater movie clip of a snowflake moray eel. Their white with a brown snowflake pattern. The eel was in two feet of water where the kids play. Good thing morrays are friendly. They just look mean to us because they breath with their mouths open showing their teeth. Of the thousands I have encountered every one has been curious and friendy. Some have even come up and wrapped themselves in my dive gear so they could check me out.
We have been skipping a lot of anchorages and bays on our trip. There are about 25 between La Paz and here and over 50 to where we are going. If you wanted you could have a tropical bay to your self almost every day. Numbers wise thats about 25 campgrounds in 150 miles.
We are going to spend today and maybe tomorrow on what Dave calls a "make and
mend day" In other words we are going to clean the boats, stow stuff, and do minor repairs.
So I had better get busy.
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Eva wetzstein
non-member comment
Looks like your having fun
Dear David and Mike, So glad everything is finally going your way. We are in Mazatlan preparing to go to Canada for 3 months love Eva