Back at Isla San Marcos: Wildlife focused photos
We spent six nights in the very affordable marina in Santa Rosalia. It was nice to have some land time and provision at the well-stocked stores in town (Ley and Mini Super Delia as well as the historic panaderia and tortilleria). We also got to reconnect with friends on S/V Stella J (who were in the 2021 Coho Ho Ho with us) and S/V Robusta, a Swiss boat we met on the other side of Baja in December.
However, it’s always a little warmer in the marina and we knew the anchorage at Isla San Marcos was nice so we headed back to rest a bit in preparation for crossing the Sea of Cortez for the San Carlos / Guaymas area. When we got here there was a fair amount of swell wrapping around the north point so we decided not to anchor near the sea caves again and instead headed south of Punta Piedra Blanca to the “Sweet Pea Cove” anchorage – a decent sand shelf which was protected by the island from waves generated by the easterly winds. We’ve been here three nights and plan to start our crossing of the sea after dinner tonight.
Yesterday we took our dinghy north around the point and landed at a red gravel beach. I wanted to share some of the many photos I took of the landscapes and wildlife here. I know we still “owe” some posts on Balandra, Isla Coronado, and San Juanico as well as the food post I’m working on… it will happen but I was super excited to share our experience seeing all the pelicans and rays yesterday.
We also saw about five giant yellowtail tuna circling our dinghy as we were heading back to the boat from our outing. I don’t have pictures of them, but when we saw them we turned the motor off and they just circled us several times before leaving. They were each a meter long or more. Too big for me to catch because I just don’t have the freezer space. OK, enough conversational babble, here’s the slideshow:
Sunset Saturday night, looking at Punta Piedra Blanca light 
Rounding the point by dinghy we saw that all rocks were covered in pelicans with boobies on higher roosts. 
Pelicans clearly have given up personal space to hang out here. 
What a majestic pelican! 
The rocks around the point vary in color, this one is red. 
Pelicans loving the low rocks being bared at lower tides. 
Looking back at the point we just rounded. 
What’s this? An undewater rock? No, it’s a ray buried in the gravel. 
Small mobula ray swimming over the rocks. 
The water was calm so I could get lots of great pics through the shallow water. 
Here we have three rays hiding under the gravel… this is why we shuffle walk when wading in Baja. 
We were just so delighted, sometimes it felt like the rays were following us along the shore. 
Again, not rocks but an “array of rays” as Noj said. 
Here we have a small sunstar that was rolling on the beach loose from his rock. I put him back at the rocks. 
This guy was some sort of chiton. As soon as I picked him up he rolled into a ball so I can’t show you his red-orange chiton foot. 
Look at that red gravel beach: the southwest end was larger gravel and the northeast end was more like sand. 
These rocks get mostly covered at high tide – tide pool time! 
This view looking back to where we landed the dinghy was so pretty. 
Mini-sea caves and arches being carved by the surf. 
Such a nice morning for a beach stroll. 
This seaweed was floating around and some was on the beach… it felt like gummy worms. 
On our way back to the boat – sun safety in effect!
Great photos! Nice to see the water so beautifully clear. We’ll spend more time out there next year, I hope – it’s a beautiful island!
https://sailingsteelaway.com/
An interesting sail to the south seas after 30 years working on the boat.
This is Old Michael from San Diego friend of Sylvia and Dave.
Hi Michael! What a great website, thanks for sharing it.
We had a great time from San Diego to Cabo thanks to everything we learned in San Diego.