Travels
from July 31 to September 8, 2000:
Ahoy,
We
passed up Isla San Lorenzo and Isla las Animas, heading for Isla
Salsipuedes. William's guide made
Salsipuedes sound interesting. However,
the holding ground was rocky and deep.
Two of the anchorages there were narrow, requiring stern anchors to
eliminate any swing. The other
recommended anchorage was still too close to the rocky shore and provided
protection only from the north. After
three nights of Chubascos from the east, we were not interested in staying and
being exposed to the seas coming from that direction. We could understand why the island's name translated is
"Leave if you can!" . . . We did.
Ten
miles farther to the northwest was Isla Partida. The wind continued its day off and we motored on. We finally rounded the southern tip of
Partida and entered the northern anchorage.
Only a mother ship for panga fishermen was at anchored in the deep part
of the cove, giving us the rest of the large cove. We tucked into the western side in 20'. Although it took us two tries before Max set to our satisfaction,
we felt comfortable with the anchorage if storms approached. But none did.
The
island is somewhat barren and didn't draw us to go ashore immediately. However, we finally rowed in to inspect the
wreckage of a boat strewn over the rock beach.
Once ashore, we burned trash, discovered the boat was a panga, found a
good fishing lure and hiked to the other side of the island. But the best part was the rock beach itself
- a natural Zen beach, with round, water polished stones in all sorts of
beautiful colors offset by pure black stones.
Several
days later, we decided to head for the southern tip of Isla Angel de la Guarda
and the small off-island there, Isla Estanque.
This small island has a completely enclosed cove and appeared
attractive, although a bit shallow at its entrance. We left Partida in the morning so that we could anchor in the
outer bay and use the dink to check the entrance at low tide. We didn't want to get trapped in the cove by
low water.
After
anchoring off the beach, just north of the reef, we motored the mile between
our "temporary" anchorage and the cove's entrance. I had brought my snorkel gear and hung my
head in the water as Nancy approached the reef. Everything looked fine until we were beginning to enter the
lagoon. The bottom became rocky and was
very shallow, maybe 5 or 6 feet. The
cove wasn't THAT attractive and clumps of rich, green vegetation supported the
reports that no-see-ums were about. So
our "temporary" anchorage became permanent.
This
end of Guarda is bleak and lifeless.
The beach was rock or "shingle", which identifies rocks from
pea-gravel to fist-sized cobbles. Only
a few birds could be seen on the beach and none in the air. This end of the island is very low, the
mountains rising up well northwest of us.
The wind built as the afternoon passed into dusk. Our good protection to the south and east
kept the waters around us settled as clouds built to the east, lightning already
signaling that a storm was approaching.
The winds continued through the evening, but we didn't have a full
Chubasco.
However,
the next morning lightning and rain moved west between our island and the Baja
peninsula. We figured we would stay
where we were. It wouldn't be very
intelligent to venture out with lightning in the area. However, by noon the storms had passed and
we decided to catch a free ride on the 15 kt. winds and head over to Puerto Don
Juan. Although the distance was a bit
more than an afternoon sail, I anticipated making excellent boat speed with
only a short distance to tack before being able to sail on a straight line for
the end of Guarda before turning west and having a broad reach to Don Juan.
This
became a reality as Nancy quickly exited the anchorage and passed Estanque at 8
knots, Nanjo flying on a beam reach.
Soon I put Steve in the water and we pinched up into the southeasterly
wind and close-hauled on a starboard reach for a half-hour before tacking over
to a port close-reach for the next 8 miles.
During this leg, I gimbaled the stove and we pressure-cooked a batch of
beans while Steve did a fine job maneuvering in the large swells and 20+ knots
of wind. Nanjo was enjoying the winds
that historically are absent during the summer.
When we
turned toward Don Juan, the wind had shifted to easterly. We lost some speed but still maintained a
good course. About half way across,
Steve was having a little trouble with the following swell, so I took over the
steering chores. The coastline where we
were headed was hidden behind a haze, so I followed Pinniped's waypoints in
Charlie's Charts toward Don Juan.
Finally, about 2 miles off land, we were able to verify points on land
that identified exactly where we were.
We lowered
sails after we rounded Punta Don Juan, just outside the entrance to the cove
known as The Best Hurricane Hole in the Sea.
We entered, passed behind Also II and anchored near Martha Rose on the
west side of Don Juan in about 28 feet.
The wind was whistling through from the southeast at about 20
knots. This turned out to be the usual
afternoon wind speed. A good hurricane
hole doesn't mean that it is windless, merely that the cove is protected from
all sides by land.
Puerto
Don Juan is clam heaven! The shallow
beaches have so many that you can sit in one spot, talking to neighbors while
blindly digging with one hand, extracting 4-5 clams at a time. You go out into a little deeper water and
the clams get bigger. The smallish,
"butter" clams were most prevalent.
However, Chocolates and Amarillos were discovered off the eastern
beaches. The bigger clams were more
accessible at lower tides. From then on
Nanjo had an onion sack full of clams hung from the stern. Whenever Nancy needed some for dinner, we
would remove 3 or 4 dozen for that meal.
Our usual clam dishes are New England style chowder, clams over pasta
with red sauce and fried clams. Clams
have turned out to have less protein than we expected, allowing me to eat more
without effecting my glucose level.
Instead of shucking the clams, Nancy steams them open in a few minutes,
extracting meat and removing the unwanted portions. This is time consuming, but worth the effort.
After
several days visiting and dining with friends, we migrated over to the village
at Bay of LA on Wednesday - Produce Day.
New provisions of fruits and vegetables arrive the night before. There is one store on the south side of town
that has the best fresh provisions. In
addition, if you don't like what is out on display, you can go into the back
and check their chillers where the "good stuff" is kept. It was a feeding frenzy. The cruisers and the few permanent land-based
gringos lined up to pay for their selections.
That
Wednesday was also Aug. 9, Nancy's birthday.
We had lunch at the palapa restaurant on the beach where the dinghies
are beached and visited with the locals and cruisers. Our friends on Departure were anchored just off the beach and had
been for several weeks. They gave Nancy
a gift (Red Book and Good Housekeeping), as did Martha Rose (a crocheted
potholder and personalized card with a limerick for Nancy.) Dream Weaver's present was a big Margarita
for the birthday girl. The afternoon
was a great, spontaneous birthday party for my Firstmate. Earlier that day,
Cap'n John gave his Mate a new anklet made out of shells he had collected on
beaches in the last few months. She
also pulled out the birthday cards from family from last year and opened a new
card that Mary had sent back with us.
Departure
had made a quick passage up from La Paz.
Their plans were to leave Departure at anchor just north of the village,
behind the bar at Punta Arena and travel back to California and Oregon for a
month or more. But just a few days
after they left, Departure was found to be listing badly because it was in
water too shallow for the 11' tidal range.
Once the tide came back in, someone moved their anchor out into deeper
water. It seems that many people tend
to let out an extra 100' of chain if they are going to be away from their boats
for a long time, believing that will protect from dragging. It does, however, it also allows the boat to
swing in a wider circle, possibly into water too shallow.
Finally,
the party had to end. Our plan was to
sail with the gentle northeasterly breeze back to the Punta Animas area and
wait for Gemini to go by. We had
bypassed this bit of coastline when we went from Partida to Estanque and then
to Don Juan. First we headed to
Ensenada el Quemado, just east of Don Juan.
Several days later we headed east toward Cala Puertecito de Enmedio
(Enmedio) right on the tip of Punta de las Animas. However, as we were beating windward we recognized that clouds
were building to the east of Animas, the wind building over 25 knots and the
sea was becoming fairly rough. We
decided that taking down sails and anchoring on the exposed point might not be
prudent. Therefore, we opted for one of
the many optional anchorages close by, ducking south into Bahia de las Animas.
The
first cove we came to provided little relief as the high winds shot down a
valley in the slope, pounding the cove with gusts approaching 30 knots. So we moved a little further south, a mile
or so, to the last cove. Here we had
better protection.
However,
over the next 3 days we had high winds every day and Chubascos every
night. On the second day Max drug. We caught it quickly and had plenty of time
to reanchor Max. But anchors don't drag
in gentle winds, only blusters. We went
through this drill in 25 knots, but with cool heads and calm actions. However, on the fourth day we had had enough
of this cove and decided to head for Enmedio.
The
sail out of Bahia Animas to Punta Animas was relaxing. The winds were 12-15 downwind of the point
but dropped to less than 10 once we got into open water off the point. The anchorage at Enmedio was very close,
only requiring a single tack. The
anchorage is very picturesque, but small and tight. While there is a nice spot in the east end of the cove, behind
the rocks that protect the east part of the anchorage, we tended to feel
trapped. The prevailing wind swings you
toward the rocks. So we centered in the
cove and waited for Gemini to arrive in the afternoon.
The
next day the four of us snorkeled around the rocks. Lots of fish! However,
the water was much cooler than we had felt for a month or more.
After
lunch, we decided to follow Gemini to Don Juan. We had a following, easterly breeze for an easy sail.
The
next few weeks saw us enjoying several other anchorages in the Bay of LA: Isla
Ventana and Isla Smith (Coronado).
Ventana has only one reasonable anchorage at the northwestern end. It is deep though and somewhat narrow. However, we did have as many as 5 boats
there for a few nights. There are good
diving opportunities nearby.
Isla
Smith has numerous anchorages. The most
popular is between Isla Mitlan and Smith (William's anchorage #5). This anchorage has currents although it
gives the best protection from the typical westerlies. Nanjo anchored just south of Mitlan at #3
and later at #2, near the lagoon. Smith
has a lot of sights to explore at each anchorage.
All
these anchorages are within a few hours of the village. Therefore, reprovisioning was easily
accommodated when changing anchorages.
Yet no
matter how relaxing it was enjoying these anchorages, time was getting
shorter. Soon we had less than four
weeks before our plan called for us to point Nanjo to San Carlos and we wanted
to spend a few weeks at Refugio, the popular anchorage at the north end of
Angel de la Guarda. Our departure was
hastened by the tides, which were ranging close to 11', and the nightly
westerlies, which were beginning to wrack our nerves.
After
breakfast on Monday, September 4, Nanjo sailed north on a flood tide and a
northerly breeze. We appeared to
"fly" past the boats anchored by Mitlan, as they called to us via
VHF. The sail to the intermediate
anchorage at Bahia Alcatraz was just 10 miles north of Isla Smith. We anchored in the middle off the wide,
white-sand beach. Sand drifted right up
the side of the easterly hills and should have told us then what we were in
for.
But the
first sight we were treated to was a coyote family on the beach. The pups were playing, wrestling and cavorting
around the beach, while Mom watched.
The
next 4 days featured strong winds 20 hours each day. Mainly from the west, but also from the south or east
occasionally. Wind speed was rarely
below 15 knots. The wind generator
worked overtime. Nancy and I hiked,
dove at a reef off the point and just enjoyed the solitude and privacy. The rest of the fleet, just 10 miles away,
was being entertained by Chubascos and lightning.
Friday,
we finally decided to complete the journey to Refigio, 25 miles away. Another northerly breeze was building,
offering to provide us with some fun.
We heard two other boats at Isla Smith radio each other as they departed
for the same destination. It was going
to be the three of us making for one of the best destinations in the Sea of
Cortez.
Crew of
Nanjo