We have just arrived at this sheltered anchorage on the Baja mainland side. It has been a short but rough passage with 20-25 kt the islands between its wide bay, beautiful sandy beach and crystal clear water make it northerly winds on the nose all the way.
We left Isla San Francisco this morning in company with Optical Illusion. The island is one of our favourite anchorages in the Sea of Cortez and is part of the recently established federal park zone encompassing most of La Paz and Loretto. This is our 4th time and we never tire of it. Unfortunately they do not allow dogs on these islands so Rosie isn't very happy to stay aboard while we go ashore in "her" dinghy. The water is cooler here and the beaches have shells. I've always wondered why there is such a disparity between the beaches mainland and those of the Sea.
On our way here we stopped at Isla Coyote, something we had always missed in our previous trips. It is a small fishing village of 5-6 houses perched on a rock formation. The 10-20 inhabitants live on fishing and selling trinkets to tourists who visit this unique location. Fran took the opportunity to stock up on Christmas and birthday presents and we bought some very nice fish from this morning's catch that was being cleaned on the shore. We were surprised to see an abundance of dogfish (sand sharks) and small rays in the catch. We also gave colouring books and crayons to the kids.
When we left Isla San Francisco the winds were light, and according to the weather gurus, they were supposed to stay like that all day, increasing tonight. Looks like they got it wrong this time, again. We'll be hunkered down here for a few days while this 25-30 kt northerly passes through. Slogging north under these conditions is not pleasant and our next stop, Los Gatos, is about 28 miles north, up the coast.
Our trip from La Pas to Isla San Francisco was quite enjoyable. Although the wind was light most of the day we made good progress under power. By early afternoon we arrived at Los Islotes and conditions were ideal for a swim with the sea lions. The large colony of sea lions didn't pay us much attention but several curious juveniles swam out to check us out. They even nipped at Fran and Janet but there were no injuries. As we left the island the wind picked up from the east and we were able to set the spinnaker for the first time this year and had a very pleasant sail to Isla San Francisco.
When we arrived we found all of the Sailfest boats at the anchorage. We had participated in this event last year and knew many of the participants including the Profilgate, Cirque, Pantera and Moontide. They left the following morning leaving only a few boats in the anchorage. By 1800 the bay had filled up again with other boats heading north.
It is difficult to predict how far north we will get to before we have to turn back to make the crossing back to Mazatlan but we will be dictated by the weather. We are hoping for a northerly breeze and at this time of year the north wind is still predominant.
As soon as we get to Mazatlan I will add photos to this blog. In the meantime I will ask our son Chris to post it via our ham radio link. It cannot accept large files such as photos.
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