Santa Rosalia to Bahia Los Angeles

Cala San Francisqito

It was 78 miles from Santa Rosalia to Bahia Santa Teresa. We spent an uncomfortable night here when a westerly wind blew strongly kicking up wind waves. The next day we motored round the corner to quiet and calm Cala San Francisquito. There were no other boats.

Yurts at Ensenada el Alacran

On Sunday 18th March, we weighed anchor at 0645, expecting to motor 39 miles in calm conditions to Ensenada el Alacran (Scorpion). This was the case for most of the journey. Our updated weather forecast warned us of strong, northerly winds and they came to make us tack in bouncy, breaking waves for the last two hours. We met Charlie in his 25 foot yacht and he told us we were the first cruiser he'd seen since leaving San Carlos on the mainland side of the Sea of Cortez. We waited for two nights for the wind to abate.

Jeremy standing on the "Window"

We had a pleasant sail to the hurricane hole of Puerto Don Juan only 7 miles further north.

Puerto Don Juan

Here we had the company of a motor boat for one night.

Isla Ventana

We had an overnight stop at Bahia de Los Angeles for food supplies. Lunch ashore at Guiillermo's was lovely looking out over the beach to Sal Darago waiting quietly at anchor. We left for nearby Isla Ventana, where we snorkelled and walked up one of the hills to a bay on the other side. We saw several ospreys flying above us.

Islas Pata and Bota

The next day, we motored one mile to Islas Pata and Bota. We anchored between the two islands. Once again, we snorkelled and I wore my wetsuit and a bathing hat as the water was so cold. We had a walk on both islands. One walk took us past an osprey's nest, which had 3 eggs in it. We left it undisturbed and passed by as quickly as we could.

Kathy having a rest

I suppose it was inevitable that the weather would change. We had no mobile phone signal and no internet access, so our only source of weather information was from the three SSB Nets, Amigo, Sonrisa and Trebasco. None of them forecast the night time westerly that hit us that night. At 0200, Jeremy decided to let out more anchor chain as we were pitching up to 3 feet. He took the skin off several fingers and had cuts down the sides of his finger nails from the pressure of the chain.

Wicked looking cloud in Bahia de Los Angeles

A break in the wind in the morning gave us the chance to weigh anchor and motor back to Bahia de Los Angeles. An enormous cloud called an elephantine dominated the sky. More wind was to come and it did as we were ashore. We watched SD heel and swing violently on her anchor, but amazingly, it did not pull out and drag.

Punta Chivato to Santa Rosalia

Gypsum mine, Isla San Carlos

The anchor dragged at Punta Chivato taking us close to a motor boat. We had to react quickly, start the engine, weigh anchor and then re-anchor in a better place.

Dinghy tunnel

The next morning (Happy Birthday Sophie) we motored six miles to Sweet Pea Cove on the NW side of Isla San Marcos. First, we had to navigate through Craig Channel. We were lucky that it was flat calm and the tide was with us, so we had no problems. We could see clouds of white dust above the gypsum mine and the village, near the south end of Isla San Marcos, beyond the extensive reef and sand bar. Once again, we had problems anchoring. The first time the chain wrapped around the anchor, the second time it dragged and the third time it held.

Underneath the arches

We stayed for three nights, just south of a panga fishing camp. One or two pangas landed at the camp from time to time, usually spending the night ashore. We explored by dinghy. Just north of us there were a number of interesting sea caves and arches. Jeremy found a cut off pair of legs from some jogging bottoms. Later he made them into fender socks.

More arches

The following day, we took the dinghy to some rocky islets just beyond Punta Piedra Blanca.  We wore our snorkelling gear and wetsuits. There were many interesting fish and starfish but the visibility was not as clear as it had been the previous day. Back on SD, we took advantage of our good phone signal to keep in touch with our family and to book further hotels for our land trip to Canada in May. Jeremy was upset when he lost a spanner overboard replacing the top step of the bathing ladders. He dived the 9 metres for it with no luck as the bottom was partially covered in weed.

Cave man

On UK Mothering Sunday, 11^th March, we headed for Santa Rosalia, eleven miles away on the Baja Peninsula. It was very calm and on the short passage we saw dozens of dolphins, a leather back turtle and a sealion. We were greeted by the security guard at Marina Fonatur. Two yachts came in soon after us. Other cruisers greeted us. It was a friendly place.

Inside Iglesia Santa Barbara

We checked in on Monday with Isabel in the marina office. We were happy to pay 8 pesos (less than 50 US cents) a foot for our berth. 

Highway 1

We stayed for five nights. Drinking water was delivered to our berth and our empty cooking gas cylinder was refilled. We made use of the laundrette at the marina and enjoyed the hot showers.

Hotel Frances

 Santa Rosalia was a copper mining town for many years. Extensive remains of the huge operation can still be seen. 

Mining trains

We went to the free Museo Historica Minero de Santa Rosalia and learned more about the town’s early mining days. Most of the buildings nearby, including the museum, were built of wood in traditional European style.

Iglesia Santa Barbara dates from 1897. It is steel and was designed by Gustave Eiffel, creator of a famous tower in Paris. The church was disassembled in Brussels, shipped to Santa Rosalia by the French mining company, Compagnie de Bolero, and reassembled on the site where it stands today.

Old copper processing plant

 Naturally, we gave SD’s galley a rest and ate out every day, including one evening when several other cruisers invited us to have dinner with them at Tonks. We enjoyed the company of Laurie Lee and Dave from Slipper, Karen and Alan and Geoff from Stryder.

Harbour view from the museum

On our last day, we finalised bookings for our Canada road trip and shopped at Leys Supermarket for our passage to Bahia de Los Angeles.

Bahia Concepcion to Punta Chivato

Eco beach at Playa Escondida

We spent eight days in Bahia Conception. It reminded me of a Scottish loch with ridges of mountains rising along both sides. Instead of pine trees and heather there were tall cacti and prickly bushes. No waterfalls cascaded down the gullies because there is no rain until the hurricane season begins.

RV's at Playa Coco

Playa Santispac has a beach bar and a restaurant. We went to Ana’s for lunch and met up with Tamara and Andrew from Veraison.  Our next anchorage was at Playa El Coco. We were the only cruising vessel there, perhaps because there was no restaurant. Nearby is the eco beach of Playa Escondida, where we met former world cruisers, Katie and Jim, who used to own S/V Tenaya. Now they have a motor home.  From here there are good trails over the hill to Playa El Coco and out to Highway 1. We think we found a warm spring, but it was so depleted and half full of debris that neither of us felt like touching the water.

All alone at Playa Coco

The strong north winds abated for a day, so we headed to the southern anchorage of Isla Requeson. We crossed a sandspit that joins the island to the mainland in the dinghy on our way to the hotel and restaurant at Playa Buenaventura. We met land travellers, Stu and Norma, on the beach and had lunch with them. The food was good and plentiful and the owner was friendly. It was worth paying a little extra for the amazing seafront view.

The sandbar and the anchorage behind Jeremy, from the top of the island

The afternoon wind had risen while we ate and we had a wet ride in the dinghy back to a pitching Sal Darago. A motor boat arrived and anchored in quiet water in the shallows. We took the dinghy to the island and followed the trail up to the top. Like several before, the trail petered out or there had been rock falls and we had to pick our way over rough and slippery ground avoiding the prickly bushes waiting to grab our legs as we passed.

On top of Isla Requeson

On Saturday 3^rd March, we motored northwards and anchored in our favourite bay, Playa El Burro. Naturally, we had to follow the “beautiful trail” we had read about in our cruising guide that started just across Highway 1. It took us a while to find the start (not a good omen). Then we had to scramble over rocks and boulders until we came to a slippery, zig-zag path. The views over Bahia Coyote and Bahia Concepcion were good at the half-way point. Further up the trail came to an abrupt stop. Jeremy climbed up large rocks and saw a path on the other side. When he came down, he searched for the trail and found it hidden behind a bush. We carried on and finally made it to the top. The view was spectacular.

Nearly at the top of the trail

On the way down, I wore supports on both knees, like before. Jeremy fell full length when his feet slipped away beneath him. He was lucky to hurt only his thumb. Bertha’s restaurant was a welcome sight at the bottom of the hill. Tamara met us inside and gave us a quarter of a fruit cake she’d made. Thank you, Tamara. We had it for dessert later. Lunch at Bertha’s was good, affordable and pleasant.

Playa El Burro and Playa Coyote from the top of the trail

We really thought we had been transported to Scotland when the amplified sound of bagpipes playing Amazing Grace echoed across the bay at 8.00am. We learned that this was a daily ritual, but it was particularly loud on Sunday. We went ashore to look for Amerindian petroglyphs which were meant to be near the trailhead. I suppose it’s not too surprising that we didn’t find any, as we’d had such difficulty finding the trail. We walked along Hwy 1 to have a look at Playa Coyote. Much of the beach is not accessible and there were signs saying “Privado”. A dog ran out at us barking and growling - not very welcoming. On the way back we stopped at Bertha’s tienda and bought some bread, red wine and tomatoes. Nearer to SD we had a fish taco lunch at JC’s.

Mision Santa Rosalia de Mulege

The next day we went ashore to have lunch at Bertha’s restaurant. It was closed on Mondays. We met Errol who used to play in the Stone Canyon Band with Rick Nelson. He gave us a lift to another Bertha’s next to the tienda. Although the cold north wind blew into the restaurant, the chicken and fish dinners were huge and great value, along with a pint of beer each.

Museo Regional de Historia

Tuesday 6^th March was our last day in Playa Burro. We hitched a ride to Mulege in the back of a pick up truck. It was quite scary at 60 mph with no tailgate, but we covered the 14 miles quickly. The town is pleasant, not touristy and had lots of date palms on the banks of the freshwater river. We went to the historic Mision Santa Rosalia de Mulege and the Museo Regional de Historia. The latter was housed in the former prison.

Hitching a ride

We had an excellent lunch at Los Equipales, an upstairs restaurant with a tropical feel. We watched humming birds just outside the window, when we looked up from our phones. We had WiFi for the first time in over a week and there were many messages to read. After shopping for the next few days, we returned to Hwy 1 and started hitching. One ride dropped us off next to a speed bump and a row of shops. After about half an hour, a woman and her daughter picked us up and drove us all the way to Playa Burro.

Los Equipales

On Wednesday 7^th March, we weighed anchor before 0700 and motored north to Punta Chivato.

Dawn exit from Punta Chivato

Loreto to Bahia Concepcion

Loreto was once the capital of Baja California Sur. The anchorage is an open roadstead exposed to N, S and E winds. Fortunately, there was a fair amount of West in the wind when we anchored off on Monday 19^th February.

We went ashore in the dinghy and tied up in the small boat darsena. It was a short walk into town, where there was a large, pedestrianised area called The Plaza with several restaurants and many shady trees. Close by is the historic mission church, Mision Nuestra Senora de Loreto and the Museo de las Misiones. From here, twenty-three missions were built throughout Baja California.

View from the top of Isla Coronados

We had lunch at a popular, roadside, open air café, where we sat at plastic tables on a dirt parking lot enjoying beef tacos. Afterwards, we stocked up our supplies at the two supermercados, El Pescador and Leys.

It was calm overnight, so we stayed off Loreto and motored down to the marina at Puerto Escondido the next day. A large investment has been made at the marina providing pontoons, an office, a shop, a laundry and hot showers. Sadly, it was too expensive for us at 90USD per night, so we chose to go on a mooring ball in the lagoon for 18USD. Each time we went ashore it was a 7-10 minute dinghy ride depending on the wind waves.

Inside view Mision Nuestra Senora de Loreto

The wind blew strongly from the north and it was cold. Out came our fleeces and thermal socks once again. Ashore, only the office with a work area for cruisers and the shop gave shelter from the cold wind. The food in the restaurant was good but it was open to the weather on all four sides. We had three nights at Puerto Escondido. There was a Cruisers’ Net every morning at 0800 on VHF 22A with a good five day weather forecast.

Mision Nuestra Senora de Loreto

The data on my phone had stopped working at Puerto Ballandra, after only 12 days’ use of the 30 day contract. Soon afterwards, Jeremy’s data stopped working as well. Jeremy topped his up online translating the Spanish instructions. I was not prepared to give the phone company any more money, so I used the Wi-Fi at the marina office to book flights and some of the attractions for our Canada trip in May.

Picking my way down from the volcano

Early on Friday morning, 23^rd February, we left Puerto Esdcondido and motored back to the anchorage off Loreto in a very light southerly wind. When we returned having had lunch and been shopping, the wind had turned to the NE and the wind waves were building. Sal Darago was bouncing on her anchor. We knew strong northerlies were coming, so we weighed anchor and motored seven miles to Islas Coronadas. The only other vessel at anchor was a catamaran called InnCredible.

On top of Isla Coronados

The gas ran out as the pressure cooker was coming to the boil. Fortunately, we had more cylinders on board. The NNW wind blew to 24 knots, wind waves were breaking on the beach, so we did not go ashore. We spent the day navigating and booking rental cars, hotels etcetera for our land trip. We ventured outside for sundowners in the late afternoon and it was cold in the wind.

The lighthouse and darsena wall Loreto

The sea was quieter on Sunday and a few pangas landed passengers on the beach. We went ashore in the dinghy and decided to hike to the crater of the volcano on Islas Coronados. The first part was easy walking on a path through the sand dunes. The middle part was a scramble over rocks and boulders and the last part was a slippery, slidy path, which zig-zagged upwards. The spectacular view at the top was worth the effort. I put my knee support bandages on for the downhill crawl.

Moorings in the lagoon Puerta Escondido

On Monday 26^th February, we had less wind and only 22 miles to go to Caleta San Juanico. The swell through the inner passage between Islas Coronados and Baja was quite big, but it was long with no breaking waves, so SD glided over the sea giving us a comfortable ride. All this was to change by mid-day when the 5 knots of WNW wind shot up to 19 knots from the north. Yes, we were going north. Short, sharp, breaking waves smacked against the hull.

One of the windows in the lagoon

Two hours later, we reached the shelter of Caleta San Juanico. We saw a yacht aground and heeled over on a reef near the shore. It was S/V Veraison with Andrew and Tamara on board. They had offered us a lift into Loreto when we were in Puerto Escondido. We anchored behind S/V Quick, launched the dinghy and went over to help Veraison. Nothing more could be done until high water. On the way back to SD, we saw a motor cruiser, named Suzie, from Yellowknife, Canada. Our friends of five continents, Ann and Barry from S/V Cat’s Paw IV, come from Yellowknife, so we had to stop and say hello. Janet and George invited us on board and soon we were drinking tea, eating scones and talking about the games of Bridge, we had all played, at different times, with Ann and Barry.

Early start. Marina Puerta Escondido

At high water, the combined efforts of many cruising men and women careened and tugged Veraison off the reef, just before dark. Thankfully, she was not taking on water.

Tequila Sunrise!

All the weather forecasts told us that the next day, Tuesday was the best day of the week for going north. We left at first light at 0620 in 3 knots of wind. By 0900 we had two reefs in the mainsail, a tiny genoa and 20-26 knots of wind from the WSW. Jeremy was soaked by a wave as he went forward to adjust the reefing line. For a short time it was almost calm. Then the wind changed direction and gave us 22 knots from the SSW. S/V Quick called us on the VHF radio to ask us about the weather as we were about an hour and a half ahead of them. They had also been surprised by the gusty conditions.

Playa Santispac Bahia Concepcion

We turned into Bahia Concepcion and managed to put the mainsail to bed in a brief lull. Several yachts were anchored off Playa Santispac in Bahia Coyote. We dropped the anchor off the white, sand beach lined with RV’s as large as buses. A bar on the beach was starting “happy hour” but we were too weary to launch the dinghy and go ashore.