Sprint South

The second "leg" of our recent Mexico vacation was a 300 nautical mile run south from Guaymas to LaPaz.  The crossing of the Sea of Cortez from Guaymas to the mouth of Bahia Concepcion is an 85 NM, overnight run.  On Monday, we caught wind just a couple of hours south of Guaymas and were able to sail until just after midnight when the wind dropped.  As usual, the seas continued to be rough long after the wind died.  We each took three hour shifts and at first light Tuesday we approached the anchorage of Santo Domingo. 

Breakfast and napping took place and later we had a nice dinner on the boat.  We did not go ashore as we didn't want to assemble the Porta-Bote, choosing to keep it aboard for the next day's 50 NM run south.  Connie and I had stopped at Santo Domingo many times in the past.  The beach there has lots of shells and a good variety of seabirds.


By this time the erratic behavior of the depth sounder over the last couple of days convinced us that we could not rely on it for any type of reliable reading.  We had a hand deployed lead line aboard but that was only useful when moving slowly in shallow waters.  We didn't have large scale paper charts on board nor electronic equivalents so navigating into anchorages proved to be a taxing experience for the skipper.  Thus, we normally traveled about five NM off shore during the day and approached anchorages very carefully, well before sundown. I'm glad that Connie and I had visited those anchorages in the past and that we had Shawn and Heather's Sea of Cortez guide book on board for this trip.

The anchorage at San Juanico

Wednesday we motored out into the calm and made our way south to San Juanico. I believe we caught an hour or so of afternoon wind that day and were able to sail for a bit before finding the six other boats in the anchorage.  Thursday morning we convinced Martin to stay another day then we assembled the dinghy, attached the outboard motor and went ashore.  We found the old Cruiser's shrine tree and our little Traveler sign was there, a survivor of the hurricane.  Later, Connie and I took a long hike over the hill to the north anchorage. It felt good to get on land for a bit.  San Juanico is a beautiful place.

Our old Traveler sign (teak deck scrap) from 2014 still hangs in the cruiser memorial tree

By this time I was in the throes of a head cold, coughing through the nights and using up TP by the roll. For the next five days I spent most of the time lying down, reading and coughing in the vee berth. 

Isla Coronado, view from the top

Friday we motored 18 NM south to Isla Coronado, trailing the dinghy behind us.  Because we got there early enough, Connie and I were able to get ashore to make a second attempt to climb the 950 foot high volcanic dome there.  This year it was cooler and we brought enough water so we dragged each others butts up the rough trail to the summit. Another bucket-list item done.  Silly, I know.

CB on top!

SV on top!

Saturday we ran out of water.  Somehow we'd used 70 gallons in ten days.  Luckily ugly old Puerto Escondido was only 23 NM away so we motored (again) down there and tied up at the fuel dock.  Martin chose to take a slip at the Fonatur Marina there which was nice for us but quite expensive at $87 USD for him. We were able to shower, do laundry, fill the water tank, and have a nice walk-about.  Connie and I had a disappointing dinner ashore but at least we got off the boat for a while.  Fonatur has sold its Puerto Escondido holdings to a private owner and rumor has it they are putting in 100 slips and redeveloping the run down property.  I hope once they get those docks in place they drop their rates!

Puerto Escondido

Martin decided that he needed to get to LaPaz a little earlier than we planned so we folded up the Porta-Bote and hightailed south on Sunday finding the anchorage at Timbabiche (Bahía San Carlos) 44 NM later. 2 freshly hooked cabrillo from a panga fisherman made a nice dinner that night.  Thus far the weather had been calm, too calm in fact, as we rarely found enough wind to move us faster than 3 knots through the water. Normally, on our boat,we'd do more sailing, even if the wind was light but this time we were on a schedule.  On Traveler, we would also tend to leave later in the day, waiting for the wind to rise, and then catch the late afternoon breeze to get us to our destination by sunset. It's such a beautiful cruise with many anchorages. No need to hurry; it's Mexico.

Monday we motored (and sailed a little in the afternoon) the 36 NM to Isla San Francisco, another anchorage we'd enjoyed many times.  It's a beautiful place with a big crescent shaped sandy beach.

Tuesday we pushed on into LaPaz, running 44 NM catching a great wind on a broad reach with a following sea first thing in the morning off Isla San Francisco, a bit concerning as a strong Norther was predicted over the next few days. Just off of Isla Partida Connie called me on deck, "Get up here now, the autopilot has broken."  Sure enough, the wheel mounted autopilot ring had snapped a couple of fasteners.  Luckily, Jole' Elle has a permanent tiller mounted so I steered the boat with the tiller while Martin removed the wheel and the broken autopilot. Steering a boat that heavy (12,125 lbs) with a tiller really gives you some idea of the forces applied to the rudder. Later he put the wheel back on and switched it back to hydraulic steering.  We hand steered the second half of the day, taking shifts until we arrived in the LaPaz anchorage.

Thus we spent the second third of our 2017 Mexico holiday!  It wasn't quite the leisurely gunkholing trip we'd hoped for but at least we got to see some of our favorite places and did a couple of hikes.  And again, we didn't worry about the craziness going on up north in our home country.

Next up, good times in Cabo Pulmo.