It feels like we really haven’t had any truly restful time since we returned to Mexico in mid-April. Our remaining time in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle involved lots of boat projects and starting to plan to head north and cross back to Baja. On top of that there was the frustration and delay over the failed wire transfer for the dinghy so when that was finally resolved we were in a hurry to get to Mazatlán.
On our first night out of the marina in a long time, Ensenada de Matanchen ended up being less comfortable than it had been on our way south so we quickly made our way to the Isla Piedra anchorage in Mazatlán only to encounter unexpectedly tough seas that we had to slowly motor through because the wind angle and coastline shape meant sailing would have taken so much longer. It left us with fuel anxiety because we were running through diesel faster than ever before.

After three nights in Mazatlán, the anchorage was getting rollier and we decided to cross to Los Muertos (north of Cabo but south of la Paz) after carefully thinking through whether we needed to get more diesel by going into the marina at Mazatlán or not. The crossing actually went pretty well as we had been incorporating new insights on resting and eating on longer trips (post on the eating will come soon).  However, even though Muertos was comfortable we only stayed one night as we had gotten a one week reservation at Marina Costa Baja in La Paz so we could re-provision and do other city type things. We ended up anchoring the next afternoon in a bay full of tiny flies called “bobos” by the locals that fly lazily into bays from nearby guano-covered islands when the wind is light. So we got frustrated and pulled up anchor and moved one bay closer to the marina.

The next day we got into the marina which was nice but somewhat remote. La Paz itself is a spread out car town and doesn’t really have a lot of taxi/Uber/DiDi availability… even tiny towns like San Blas on the mainland had more taxis. So getting our long punch list of stuff done was quite frustrating. Walking around in the hot dry sun was tiring and even with a week at the marina we never found time to buy a day pass for the neighboring resort and relax.

Then when we left La Paz we started to learn how little quality wind forecasting there is in the area. Models varied widely in speed, timing, and direction of winds and the cruising guides provided very little information about what to expect with the summer weather patterns in the area. We were worried about the southwest “corumel” winds that go across the La Paz area this time of year and how it would impact anchoring in the various bays at Islas Espiritu Santo and Partida. In our experience the winds were just noisy (as they rushed through our rigging and gear on deck) and there were no issues with annoying flop of sideways waves we’d been exposed to on the mainland. We’ve anchored in winds like that in Puget Sound many times. The key was to take advantage of the calm times of day to do dinghy tours and snorkeling. Within the bays we couldn’t tell if any of the models for weather were right for the area outside the islands except when the wind was strong enough that we could clearly see the swells of wind waves rushing by just outside the bay. Only one model forecast anything near the type of winds we saw at night and none of them lined up with what we saw in the bay.

We were then disappointed by the anchorage at San Evaristo when we left the islands. When we got there in the afternoon there was room for us in the anchorage but we could see the boats there already hobby-horsing in an afternoon southeast swell. Our guidebook (Sean and Heather latest version of Sea of Cortez) suggested there might be some wind relief anchoring north of the bay near the sand flats and cemetery. We did and slept very well – no swell or waves wrapping around the corner, just wind keeping our boat lined up and steady all night.

We could see that Isla San Francisco would not be a good choice for anchoring in the current pattern either unless we tried the northwest side. We were also seeing that even outside the protection of the islands, none of the weather models lined up with observations. All we could say for sure was it didn’t seem likely to see wind from the north like some of our friends had dealt with over the winter.

The next stop was Puerto Los Gatos. We saw again in the guidebook that the nearby anchorage of San Telmo might be better protected from SE wind/swell like our prior anchorage but the geology of the main bay is so amazing and the conditions were calm at our arrival do we decided to anchor in the main bay. By 5 or 6 PM we were feeling the southeast swell and wondering if we should pull up and move but all the weather models said the wind should come from the west soon and give us relief from the bouncing waves. The strong west winds never came but before midnight the wind and swell had died down and we slept quite well after that.

The next day we tired ourselves out a bit hiking all over the majestic pink sandstone on shore and seeing the aftermath of where a local puma was successfully hunting pelicans. We got back to our dinghy at 10 AM and already the SE wind and swell were up so we decided to leave the bay and head to Agua Verde rather than stay another night or even try the Punta Telmo anchorage.

We had a nice mix of sailing and motoring on our way to Agua Verde but when we got there we found the bay to be very full. We tried to anchor in 10-12 feet in the small southeastern lobe east of the pyramid rock but each time our anchor dragged a ways before setting which in some cases left us not where we wanted to be relative to other boats (too close!). Our Ultra anchor almost never drags when we set it so even though we think we had a good alternate strategy to set it better on a fourth try we started to question whether we were dealing with sand over rock and whether the other boats were truly set well or not. The northwest corner was full and the main town beach seemed like we’d have to start another row in the deeper water with less detail on the charts in our guide (Government and Navionics charts have no detail here so we really appreciate the Pat Rains book and the Sean & Heather book). So we started motoring to a less popular sand beach just to the east but realized that there was a valley between the mountains that perfectly lived up with the SE winds and that it would just be super strong wind all evening. Too much to even hop out for that much desired cool-down swim after anchoring. So we went back to the long main beach along the town of Agua Verde and tucked in as the last boat on the western end right next to the cliff in 10-12 feet of water. I could see that the bottom was clearly level sand all around, much more reassuring looking bottom than the SE lobe of the bay and we set our hook and relaxed. Noj had injured his back the prior day.  My knees were swollen from taking on all that onshore hiking on various terrain while being behind on my PT-recommended muscle strengthening for my legs (when I don’t do it, my “underworkers” don’t help me walk/climb and my “overworkers” pull mercilessly on my knees until they are quite sore). With my knees so swollen, my role on the boat dropping anchor was tough as my knee screamed in pain each time I brushed certain parts of it against things.

So once anchored we stayed on the boat, did not swim, did not take showers, did eat a nice dinner of grilled pork and zucchini with a quinoa pilaf and went to sleep.

Today was a much better day. We relaxed and washed our salty passage/dinghy clothes and hung them to dry. I showered. At 1:30 we got on the dinghy and went to one of the two restaurants in this small village. We each had two Pacificos and two giant fish tacos on some of the nicest ceramic dishes we’ve eaten from on all of Mexico. We paid to use wifi (how do they have wifi? Must be satellite). Then we wandered the town looking for the tienda (store). We found a local official and he tried to point us in the right direction and we did eventually find it and were able to get a few items to help us keep eating fresh if we stay here another few nights. Tomorrow or the next day we will try the other restaurant. Maybe if the wind calms down we will SUP tonight. One of the many things we busied ourselves with in PV was getting a second SUP board from the Costco.

In any case, I’m on the boat now without wifi or cell. I’m going to try to email this to the blog and hope it posts properly and the formatting isn’t too bad. I’ll check if out when we get to Puerto Escondido and also add a post with lots of pictures.