The new ride!

 

Rebecca "on the hard" waiting for next season

Caught a ride with Mike and Theresa, THANKS!

Heading North with Cypress

Never thought you would see Marcus in a McDonalds!
Nogales

In Tucson picking up our rental car.

We are ready for our next adventure!  

Planing on buying an RV and traveling around the US.

JC's restaurant at El Burro Cove

 

 

Went by earlier in the day and pre ordered our clams, Juan Carlo goes out fishing/clamming and then the family serves up "catch of the day" literally.

  yummy clam dinner.

 Family watching TV as long as the generator is running

Whale shark!

Whale shark!

Must have been 20 feet, we were in our 9 foot dinghy.  Amazing

Sanispac homes and petroglyphs above the hills of El Burro Cove

 

 

 

Starting to get it right!

All alone at Punta Pulpito

 

  Just us

Interesting rock formations

 Turtle skeleton, didn't try to bring that home!

 Sand dollar fossil 

More shell fossils

San Juanico Cruisers shrine and pot luck!

Cruisers Shrine, crews that come by here leave a memento of their visit, usually with their boat names on it

 Hiking to the other bay with our little group

view from above, San Juanico is a lovely place quiet, big lots to do and explore.

Good friends: crew of Rebecca, Moontide, Talion, Kanga, Pantera, and Dolphin.

 

Yum good food!

Just around the corner, pretty river, lots of green!

 

Loretofest in Puerto Escondito

I wasn't sure I wanted to go to Loretofest, it was a fundraiser for Loreto schools, but I thought it would be a mass of people and not much fun. Not nearly as many people as I thought, and it was great fun. Bands, food, a few seminars and just generally meeting up with friends you have made throughout the season.

One night they had a band consisting of local kids that sang and played great oldie songs in English, and some in Spanish, it was fun and they were good.

Agua Verde Adventures

We took a hike at Aqua Verde over the hill and then back along the beach.  Really beautiful rock formations.

 

I'm on the left a little miffed because I'm not so sure we can get back this way . . .

 

Agua Verde is a picturesque spot that Marcus has been looking forward to the entire trip. It was beautiful as always, however the water was colder than I remember it and we didn't feel up to snorkeling, ah well. We were lucky enough to cross paths with Pam and Eric on Pie de Mar again, and we went for a long hike. Marcus and Eric drug us along the shore on the return trip and I was sure we were going to get caught at high tide and not be able to get back to the boat. Should just trust Marcus, he and Eric were right, we made it back to the beach with no problems.

The village seems improved over last time. Still dirt streets, but it seemed the individual houses and lots were better marked and the dirt was raked. We also saw evidence of habitat for humanity in the numerous cinder block homes. Only one of the 3 tiendas had evidence of refrigeration, ice kept the few drinks available cold at the others.

There are still cows wandering around, a couple of piglets and a heard of dairy goats came through, apparently tended only by a dog. We purchased some goat cheese and it was EXCELLENT. Sure wish I could get that at home!

Last night at Agua Verde there were some signifigant swells coming through the anchorage, so we considered moving to a corner of the anchorage that would have additional protection. We have a manual windlass instead of electric so it is a bit of work to get the anchor up and re-anchor. Deciding the swell would subside shortly, we elected to stay put. What a mistake!! Rolling and pitching all night long, we were so tired the next morning! Did I mention the first thing on the list to bring back to the boat next season is an electric windless?

 

Everisto

San Gabriel to Everisto

Winds out of the Southwest were no fun a this anchorage! High winds, 22-28 knots, which led to high wind waves made for an uncomfortable night. Early the next morning the boat was continuing to pitch or hobbyhorse, with the bow rising up and crashing down into the waves, this while still at anchor. As Marcus came up into the cockpit, he realized we had drug anchor and were MUCH closer to shore than we had been, much closer than was safe. At the same time as he was turning on the depth sounder a neighboring boat sped over in his dinghy to see if we were ok. Marcus told him we were preparing to leave and everything went into warp speed as the pitching of the boat led to a slight bounce off of the bottom, then a bigger bounce, yikes!! Time to go, started the engine, and I motored slowly forward, trying to keep us off the bottom, while Marcus quickly pulled up the anchor. I can tell you that was a rude awakening!!

We were a little disquieted as this was the first time we had drug anchor; we are pretty careful about anchoring. The anchor is designed to dig in deeper as the boat is pushed back by the wind. Marcus found some scarring on the anchor chain and surmised that with the wind shifting and the boat bouncing the anchor drug a little then a rock caused the anchor to skip over the sand and lose it's hold.

Since we were already up and on our way, we headed North towards Isla San Francisco (NOT in California) taking advantage of the wind that was going our way. We had a nice sail and as the wind weakened we put up our spinnaker for the first time. The spinnaker is a big pretty balloon like sail made out of very light material to be used in light winds. Ours is for a smaller boat than ours, but still worked pretty well, coasting along at 3 knots in 5-7 knots of wind.

When we came close to Isla San Franciso it was still early in the day, so we headed on to San Everisto where we knew we would be protected form pretty much all points of wind. We needed a good night's sleep!

Salt mining?

Here are the upscale homes!

Following the tracks led to the donkeys

Our boat anchored at Everisto, lovely protected bay

 Everisto school

Things that go bump in the morning . . .

After a quick shopping trip to stock up on veggies, we took the long slow ride back out of La Paz. Again attempting to experience a few different anchorages, we chose to anchor at San Gabriel. A windstorm called a coromuel kicked up during the night which made for a sleep deprived night. Next morning we awoke groggy and were very surprised to find we had drug anchor early that morning. Marcus was checking the depthsounder and said we were ok as we were in 15 feet of water. Within moments I felt a little “bump” and as I was asking if that was us hitting the bottom, we both felt a stronger bump. Oh yes we were no longer in 15 feet of water and with the hobbyhorse effect the waves had on the boat, we were bouncing on the bottom.

I'm pretty sure we set a record in firing up the boat and pulling up the anchor. With that narrow escape, we headed North on a nice breeze.

Meeting up with Delta friends

Bonanza to La Paz

Long slow enterance to LaPaz made easy with a cruisers guidebook that has waypoints every step of the way, so the dogleg path is well marked, but backup is the waypoints so you don't accidently miss one!

Stopped at the fuel dock, and made radio contact with friends on Gone Nuts, whom we met in San Diego seems like an age ago. We were looking for Mark and Lea on Catalpa who left a month after we did from our home port of Isleton. Even though they knew we were headed their way, it was still a great surprise for them and we celebrated with dinner and Margaritas. It is really hard to explain how cool it was to see them again, I guess it has something to do with the actual leaving on a trip. Planning is one thing, but the actual departure is a powerful event.

Bonanza Beach

Bonanza Beach was lovely, turquoise water, sandy beach. We were visited by a number of bees. Not sure what they wanted, but it was disconcerting to realize a bee was crawling around on your toe and just wait for it to get bored and fly off, yuck!!

Took a nice hike to look at the other side of the island, not much of a trail, but got us off the boat and walking!

We did have a crash bang evening from a strong southerly, not much sleep. Kind of wished we had gone a little further to Balandra or Caleta Lobos where we would have been more protected, but we are planing to try some new anchorages.