April 2012

It was time to be heading north. Loreto Fest is held in Escondido at the beginning of May and that was our destination. We left Espiritu Santo on April Fool’s Day with a forecast of good wind. For the first time in forever, we raised the main sail before lifting anchor. We were hoping for a nice sail…and we were NOT disappointed. Even before leaving Caleta Partida, we had 15-20 knots on the beam and we were hauling. Rock N roll had left about 30 minutes before us and we raced past them. The wind held for almost the entire trip to Isla Francisco and we had an absolutely gorgeous sail going 6-8 knots. About halfway on our trip, Russ hailed us and said he had lost his steering. We brought in our jib and tried to slow down, but with the wind, we could not turn around safely. About an hour later, when the winds died down a little, we told Russ we could come back to him if he needed it. He was steering by autopilot and had things under control so he said to go ahead. Once settled in at Isla Francisco, we put the dinghy down and greeted RnR at the entrance, guiding them in and helping them drop the anchor. Russ got some help from up above…Terry on Manta was in the anchorage. He is the guy who has an anchoring system in Escondido that RnR will use when they return to the States in May. He also had exactly what Russ needed: a new steering chain and a grinder. Russ spent the next day repairing his steering. Good to go! Amazing. Who carries these kinds of spares??? While in Isla Francisco, we took a hike around the island and visited the salt ponds. When we headed back, there was a large motor yacht in the anchorage and a helicopter landed on the beach and picked up its passengers for a tour of the area. We headed over to the yacht to find out who these passengers were, but the captain (although quite friendly) would not tell us. We did notice the extra flag on the rigging: Orlando Magic. We never saw any tall basketball player looking guys, so this was maybe admin or family?? We will never know.

We spent 3 nights in Isla Francisco, then headed north to San Evaristo. Because there were south winds forecasted, we anchored in the southern part of the bay but we noticed Eagle was anchored in the north lobe. Tom and Jeanie spent a lot of time here in San Evaristo. Another boat had folks who had brought down school supplies for the local kids and Jeanie took pictures of the event. Then she went to the school and did pictures for all of the students. Russ did a lot of fishing with Tom and regularly caught something.

From San Evaristo, we hopped up to Los Gatos. The swell was pretty bad so we left after one night. We were heading for Agua Verde, but tucked in at San Marte instead. The next morning was Easter and Janet made some great egg sandwiches and we celebrated the morning in gorgeous flat calm waters.

We headed around the corner in the afternoon, expecting lots of boats because of the holiday, but we were the only ones there! We anchored in our favorite spot in the southeast corner. By the end of the day, there were 4 of us in the cove and a couple of boats in the northwest anchorage. Oasis came down from Escondido and joined us for the week. The wind started picking up from the north so we all moved over to the more protected anchorage in the northwest. We stayed behind everyone off of a little beach and loved our solitude…for one day. The swell got really bad and was hitting us from the side. We suffered through a game of Baja Rummy with Russ and Janet and when they left, we decided we had had enough and moved Neos up close to the beach. No swell there and we were comfortable for the rest of the week. We took a couple of trips into town for supplies, hiked with Bella Brisa to the cave paintings, and had 2 potlucks on the beach.

We met a lot of nice folks including a bunch of hunters (on a guided tour hunting inland for mountain goats) and kayakers. The beach is regularly visited by campers, even though the road in is a four wheel drive road for the last ¼ mile. There is a herd of goats that comes home to the beach every night and when we hiked to the caves, we saw herds of cattle inland. This is such a great spot for hiking and relaxing! A good spot to be stuck in waiting for the winds to die down. We stayed for 10 nights and then finally broke free and headed for Candeleros. Rock N Roll decided to join Oasis and go all of the way up to Escondido so that they could start preparations for their trip home. In Candeleros, we met up with new friends Rich and Cathy of Bella Brisa. We headed into the beautiful resort Villa del Palmar and walked all around, stopping for a drink in their outside restaurant. We even taught them how to play Baja Rummy…but they are not near addictive enough!! Rog and I took the nature trail the hotel has put out to the point. A nicely groomed trail with benches along the way for rest stops. Not quite like the hike to the cave paintings!!

Not quite ready to head into Escondido, we headed up to Loreto for provisioning. I had forgotten how nice this town is. There are now “dock boys” offering to watch the dinghies and help you with your packages and a lot of construction on the malecon. But the town itself is still charming. We hiked to Pescador for groceries and then had ice cream at the Thrifty. Rog also had a quick stop for coffee at Café Ole. We were lucky and the night was calm. This anchorage is wide open to whatever the sea does, so can be rough at times. We headed up to Isla Coronados and were happy to see Bella Brisa there. They had planned to go to Ballandra but changed their mind. We spent almost 10 days together, waiting for the Loreto Fest. We even attempted the hike up to the top of the volcano but after a couple of hours and rough rocky trails, we decided we didn’t need to get to the top. Luckily, it was breezy so we didn’t die of the heat, but our legs were rubbery and if we continued up, we would have a hard time getting back down without ankle sprains.

The anchorage emptied out and headed for the south anchorage but we stuck out the 2 day blow from the north with Bella Brisa. We were visited by whales and dolphins regularly. They came right into the anchorage. You found yourself listening to the breathy exhalations to decide if they were “just” dolphins. The whales put on a show one afternoon, about ½ mile out. They were almost clearing the water breaching and then crashing back into the water. Outstanding! The water turned nippy again after the north blow but we did jump in a few times…then jumped right back out. A bit refreshing. Almost time for Loreto Fest!