Hauled anchor at 1030 this morning to catch the ebb tide. At 1040, we checked out with La Paz Port Captain, who offered “nice trip” for us. At 1510, we arrived at our destination and dropped anchor. This is a nice place and we anchored in 20 feet of crystal clear water. Got into our swimming attire and jumped in. It was a bit windy and there was some chop, but the water was refreshing. Put on a dive mask and checked anchor chain and bottom of boat. After swimming, we dried off a bit and then went for a ride in the dinghy. Since it wasn't quite high tide yet, the shoal (shallow) water was even too shallow for the dinghy motor to pass through. Once we started churning up sand, it was time to turn around and head back to the Shakedown. We lounged around, had some spaghetti, and read while we waited for sunset. After the sun was long set, it was dark enough to see more stars than seemed possible. Nancy pointed out (in an otherwise crystal clear sky) that there were some wispy clouds up there blocking some stars. After looking through our binoculars, she could make out the band of stars that are collectively known as the Milky Way! Off to bed....
8/14
Spent the night in fairly calm weather. Took the kayaks out for a ride this morning. Winds kicked up from the East just as we were paddling back to Shakedown. Good thing...got pretty choppy. Spent rest of day reading and relaxing, eating dinner and getting some sleep.
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| Pulling in with Isla Partida to the left and Isla Espiritu Santo to the right |
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| We'll be anchoring just past the point on the left |
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| At anchor looking East - desolate landscape |
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| At anchor looking South at Isla Espiritus Santo |
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| "Our Beach" |
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| Sunrise between the two Islands |
Was a bumpy night starting at 0330, and then hour by hour, had to get up to check status of boat. Hauled anchor up at 0925 and headed out of the cove and turned north. Originally had planned to overnight at Isla San Francisco, but when we got there, the swells from the overnight winds were still pouring in, and wind forecast called for the same tonight. So we headed another 10 miles north into the San Jose channel, and anchored at San Evaristo, supposedly an all weather anchorage. Was pleasantly surprised and after looking around and nudging the bottom (backing out quickly), we settled on dropping anchor in 18 feet of water at the southern side of the “circle” at 1500.
8/16
Had a really windy night from 0100 to sunrise this morning, with the wind dropping down over the mountains to our west. We had about an hour's worth of calm, then the wind shifted 180 degrees and started howling for the entire day, letting up just before sunset so we could dinghy to the beach and have dinner at Lupe Sierra's & Maggie Mae restaurant. The food was decent and the ambience was nice. They even gave us a shell and some paint so we could paint our boat/crew names and date of visit. They would then add it to the collection on the tree outside the restaurant. Got back to Shakedown just in time to see the wind shift back 180 degrees and start the westerlies again. Watched a movie.
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| The Happy Dink enjoying the ride |
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| Approaching San Evaristo |
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| Laying at anchor in the bay |
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| Restaurant entrance |
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| Visitor's tree |
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| The restaurant |
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| View from the restaurant. |
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| Our young friend Fernando doing a show and tell for us |
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| Shakedown at anchor |
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| Batten down the hatches, here come the westelies |
Anchor up at 0855. Cleared shoal waters and got into San Jose channel to stop and secure anchor and secure dinghy motor for towing. Another rotten night in Evaristo, checking and rechecking anchorage, as we had consistent 25-30 knot winds from the west (over the mountains) gusting to 35 knots. Although we thoroughly enjoyed our limited time ashore, we decided that we didn't want to spend another day and night in those conditions. We arrived some nine hours later at Bahia Aqua Verde, dropped anchor in 17 feet of water at 1800. It was a real pleasant change....no wind, no waves....lots of protection from both. By the time the sun had set, there were two catamarans, two power boats, and a large (70') cruiser in the bay.
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| Passing Nopolo fishing village - water access only |
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| The Sierra Gigantia mountains, Baja California Sur on our port side |
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| Entering Bahia Aqua Verde (Green Water) |
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| The "Isthmus" beach |
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| Looking east from our anchorage |
8/18
By 1000 this morning, we find ourselves alone in the Bay, although there are pangas about, most of them had already gone out to fish for the day. The only other human is a person apparently living in a small house on the beach near our anchorage. Spent the morning backing up computer files that (I hate to say) have not been backed up in almost a year or sometimes more! Nancy got brave and swam with just her undies on. We took a leisurely dinghy ride around the inner part of the bay and even got some video. We then beached the dinghy near the man's cabin and walked over to the other side of the isthmus to take a look at what's still north of us out in the Sea of Cortez. Then Nancy went shell hunting and Hal took a hike up a dirt road to get a bird's eye view of the anchorage. Got some footage and a great view of Shakedown nestled comfortably in green (Verde) waters. Got back to the boat, watched a small power cruiser come into the bay to anchor, did some reading, ate dinner, watched a movie, and hit the sack.
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| Sunrise in paradise |
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| "Our Beach" |
8/19
The power boat was gone by the time we got up this morning around 0700. Water looked inviting and we planned on a swim at our earliest convenience. Stopped to swim and have lunch, Nancy having tried out her new fins, snorkel and mask for fit and function.
8/20
Spent the entire day doing nothing but relaxing and reading and swimming.
8/21
Today we took the dinghy to the small beach (Isthmus), tied up, and put on our walking shoes. We headed up the steep hill on the dirt road trail to see if we could find the village from the back side (instead of just driving the dinghy over to it). Decided we needed the exercise and went for it. The walk was not too difficult up and down hills, but the sun was doing its work and heating the place up. We did manage to find the village. It was fairly spread out and sparse. There was the church and a school. We saw a sign on a barb wire fence stating there was a restaurant somewhere nearby, although we never found it. We were looking for the Tienda (small store) to buy something to drink because we had failed to bring any along. We finally saw a little girl and hollered to her "Tienda por favor". She apparently understood what we were trying to say, and we headed her way as her older sister was also making her way after coming out from the house. We were informed that the little girl, who we now know is six years old and named Jessie, would take us to the Tienda. Of course we were thrilled and followed her (and her little umbrella) "over the hill and through the woods" until we arrived at the Tienda. We purchased three bottles of soda, one for our guide, and headed back to where we started so we could follow the road out of the village and back the way we came. But just before we got back, Jessie wanted to show us the goats that (apparently) her family owned. The sun bore down on us some more, making the trek back a chore. There was no shade to cool down, so we clogged along and finally made it over the last ridge and down to the beach. Back to the boat, had a swim, cooled off. Decided we should probably leave the next day.
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| Starting "the hike" in good spirits |
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| The trail continues |
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| Nearing the top of first hill |
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| The view is breath taking |
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| "The Sea" in the background |
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| The Village is in sight....finally |
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| The Church |
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| Some of the goats |
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| Jessie approaching goat gate |
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| This one knows how to pose for a glamour shoot |
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| Our guide Jessie |
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| Heading back to "our beach" |
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| We're back to our little slice of Paradise |
Underway at 1130 this morning. Dropped anchor at 1550 at the south anchorage of Honeymoon Cove. It was a pleasant journey on a sunny day with a bit of following breeze. Electronic Chart is getting less and less detail, so the two cruising guides we are carrying are helping tremendously in filling in the details of various places and associated landmarks.
8/23
What a wonderful place. Lots of swimming, some seashell hunting on the beach, and without warning, Eric & Pati on Shearwater pulled up. They were on their way to a small party in Honeymoon Cove, having sailed over from Puerto Escondido (about 3 miles due west). We joined them a little bit later where they had anchored at one of the northern anchorages of the cove. The dinghy motor was acting strangely necessitating making the journey slowly. But we finally arrived and got to meet a bunch of folks who'd come over with Shearwater to spend an afternoon having a picnic and a swim. The party had to break up as it was getting late. Shearwater headed back to Puerto Escondido, and we limped back to Shakedown in our dinghy, wondering how long before it wouldn't work at all. Since we were full from the party, we skipped dinner, did some reading and went to bed.
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| Our new anchorage |
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| Peeking around the corner towards Puerto Escondido and the mountains behind |
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| "Our (new) Beach" |
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| NJ snorkeling near the reef |
We had read in our cruising guides about different weather patterns at different time of the year for this area. One of them (Mr. Chubasco, obviously a close cousin of Mr. Murphy) chose to visit us in the middle of the night...."A chubasco is a violent, but short-lived squal, usually accompanied by thunder, lightning, rain, and strong winds. Chubascos are a summer time convection storm that can hit at any time from the late afternoon to early morning.".... We think it was around 0100 when the boat started acting funny and it was time to check the anchor. Since we had anchored fairly close to shore in around 15 feet of water, it was wise to check that it was still doing what it was meant to do...hold the boat where we wanted it. A quick look at our "anchor watch" setting on the GPS showed that the boat was not where it was supposed to be. It was pitch dark outside, the wind had come up and was blowing fairly brisk from the North. We had anchored in this spot because all forecasts had shown winds from the south, and we'd be protected should something like this occur. The motor was immediately started, the spotlight pulled out, and a quick look around showed that the water level had dropped several feet and we were uncomfortably close to the little reef that was now looking like dangerous rocks close on our port beam. The now activated depth gage was showing two feet of water below the keel, then zero feet! We put the boat in gear and pointed north, started heading out into deeper water. Then the fury of the Chubasco finally pounded down on us, almost turning the boat 180 degrees and trying to drive us into the beach, lightening, thunder and rain (as advertised). We were having a difficult time getting our bearings to figure out which way we need to go. The anchor GPS was a bit of help, but the spotlight no longer was, as the batteries had gone down enough so to render it useless in heavy downpour. Thank goodness there was lightning, as it was the only time we could get a fix on where we were and which way we now needed to go. We were even in reverse for a number of minutes, backing away from the beach. And all this time, the anchor was still out there somewhere underneath us, or perhaps front, left, right or behind. We finally got some traction and found ourselves pulling into deeper water and making enough headway for the compass to give us an idea which direction we were going. We were now in about 135 feet of water heading in a northerly direction, with 90 feet of anchor chain and anchor hanging below us. The waves kicked up by the Chubasco were now very uncomfortable, somewhere in the neighborhood of steep 8 footers, but we had to stop the boat to haul in the anchor. Anchor up at 0255! The Chubasco was finally backing off somewhat and finally petered out about 0315 or so. What a storm!.......We spent the rest of the night/morning just heading north into the waves, at enough speed to keep steerage. About 2 hours later, we turned around and headed back south at slow speed to arrive at the entrance to Puerto Escondido at sunrise. By 0700, with seas now down to 2 feet and the sun beginning to rise, we were outside Puerto Escondido, somewhat exhausted (ya think?). We took some time to straighten up the boat and slowly made our way into the harbor.
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| Three miles to Puerto Escondido |
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