12/27/09
We’re currently on a mooring in Puerto Escondido; an almost completely landlocked harbor about half way up the Sea of Cortez (just south of Lareto). Towards the west the Sierra Gigante mountains go almost straight up and wrapped around the harbor are large hills, a very snug place to be. Here’s what we’ve been up to since last I updated this blog:
12/18
We left La Paz with plans to make a small jump north to the Isla Espirto Santo but La Paz wasn’t going to let us go easily! We cast off the dock lines with a little help from our neighbors (thanks Mary & Ken from Kachina) and motored out of the marina into the channel when suddenly silence.... our motor had quit! Oh ##&%$##@* I grabbed the wheel while Tom ran below to try to figure out what went wrong. Now with a car when the engine dies, the car slowly glides to a stop; you pull to the side of the road, and commence troubleshooting. Not so with a boat. I knew that unless we got restarted quickly, or we found a spot to throw the anchor out, we would be drifting into lots of other anchored boats. I looked around for a spot we would fit but there was nothing except the middle of the channel, so as we slowly lost steerage, I abandoned the helm, ran to the bow and dropped the anchor. I believe this was a record for how fast I got it untied and dropped. People on the nearby boats were popping out wondering what the heck some fool was doing anchoring in the middle of the channel. We settled only about 20 feet from another boat (who were glaring needles at me) and as I was hastily tying fenders around the boat, I yelled over that our motor had died. The glares disappeared and they started offering suggestions and readying their fenders.
Meanwhile Tom was trying everything he could, switching the fuel filters, switching the tanks, bleeding the fuel system, running up and down and sweating bullets. Eventually he got the engine started and we cautiously restarted our journey. Later he found a very tiny air leak in our fuel filter system, only a small bubble every few minutes, but enough that over time we got enough air in the system that we lost vacuum and the fuel stopped flowing. Once Tom discovered the leak, he tightened the nut and it (hopefully) has stopped leaking.
We motored past Isla Espirto Santo, which had spectacular red bluffs:
We spent the next two days at Caleta Partida and Ensenada Grande:
The islands were dry and rocky but with interesting worn sandstone sections and some very tenacious plants:
There was a nice beach we landed on:

We then went to beautiful Isle San Francisco. I think this is one of the most photographed anchorages in the Sea. It’s a semi-circle white sand beach surrounded with rocky bluffs (we're the boat on the right).
One morning we hiked up the southern ridge. Sections were very scary, the trail only seemed a foot wide with (probably) fatal falls on both sides. The views though were spectacular.


Once back at the beach we saw some very big crabs. They were very wary and wouldn't let us get to close to them.
On the last night we were treated to a nice sunset
Overnight, the wind started blowing hard from the North-West which made for an uncomfortable rolly anchorage, so we pulled anchor and headed north to Puerto Los Gatos. We stayed on the boat but there were some incredibly red sandstone sculptured rocks onshore.
In the morning the anchorage was “invaded” by a National Geographic ship. Maybe one day we’ll be watching a special and be able to say “That's us, we were there”!

The wind was blowing harder (of course from the north, the direction we were going) so we were anxious to get to a more secure anchorage so we bashed our way up to Bahia Agua Verde (Green Water Bay). We holed up in AV for a couple of days while the wind blew, the water was calm and protected though.
In the afternoon I decided I wanted to go ashore. I had heard there was a little tienda (store) that sold excellent local goat cheese. Tom wanted to stay on the boat so off I went on my own. I motored over to the shore and checked out the waves, they didn’t seem too bad so I went ashore. Once I landed they seemed a little larger than they looked from the ocean side, but not too much for me to get the dingy back out so I dragged her up onshore and went in search of cheese. The little “town” at AV was much more spread out and a little bit more ramshackle than I had thought it would be after reading the guide books. About 45 minutes later I hadn’t found the tienda, but I had bought some cheese from a local so I went back to the dingy.
Once back on the beach I saw the waves had seriously increased in height and frequency! While they were only about 1-2 feet high, they were coming at less than 1 second intervals, and there were no slack periods. I tried to get the dingy re-launched for about ten minutes and ended up soaked and bruised. I would just get it pushed out into the waves, jump in and grab the oars when a wave would swamp me and the dingy. It was clear that there was no way I could get her out on my own. I walked over to a guy on the beach just pulling his panga (fishing boat) further up the beach and asked for help. We went back my dingy and watched the waves crash in, they were increasing by the minute! After much discussion in my pidgin Spanish, smiles and hand waving, he said it would be impossible to get out here but he could load my boat onto his suv and drive it to a nearby cove that was much calmer (and closer to Sunny). We put everything that could be taken out of the dingy into the back of his suv then put the dingy on the top and tied it as securely as we could. Even though our dingy is rather small, it’s pretty heavy and awkward.
We then proceeded to drive up, up, up and around a mountain to get to the cove. Tom was able to get a few shots of us coming down into the cove:



Once unloaded, it was easy for me to get back to the boat in the relative quiet. Once again I am just astounded at the kindness and generosity of the people we have been meeting. We have yet to find a surly Mexican (other than a few government officials).
A few days later, after the wind calmed down, we sailed to Puerto Escondido. Other than a small marina, tienda, expensive restaurant, and a cruiser’s net, there is little here. It is well protected though. We did meet Deb and Alex on Nu Moon and had a nice visit on Christmas day. Deb and Alex were our dock mates in Alameda. We knew they were coming down a little after us but this was the first we’ve been able to meet up. It was great seeing them and I hope we cross paths again.
This is Tom smiling (seriously, this is his smile :-) ) Behind you can see the "windows", it's hard to see from this picture but there's a ridge of land between the humps to make this a well sheltered hole.:

The impressive Sierra Gigante mountains (more impressive in person):

We’re leaving tomorrow morning to make our way back to La Paz then probably cross the Sea to Mazatlan, it’s getting a bit cold here :-) Happy New Year.
Carolynn & Tom