AROUND BAHIA DE LOS ANGELES

May 30 - We’re tucked into the southeastern anchorage at Isla Partida, sheltered from the nightly westerlies. We found the sand patch to anchor in after a couple of tries! It’s pretty, though the currents are strong here, and we plan to go snorkeling at slack tide. There is a lot of bird and sea life, and plenty of sea lions, and we saw a couple of whales passing northward at sunset last night.

June 02 - Here we are at Punta Islotes in Bahia de Animas. It’s a nice, sheltered anchorage with mountain views, however because of a red tide we are unfortunately unable to snorkel or fish. Last night we had We had a nice get-together with the crews of SV Nike and SV Dovka aboard Nike; it’s always great to catch up with fellow cruisers and make new friends. Today we made a trip up the estuary in the dinghy through the mangroves, and floated back down on the ebb tide, very relaxing! We’re moving on sooner than we’d prefer though, in search of fresher waters.

June 03 - We’re tucked in behind the islet at El Pescador, after arriving last evening in search of a spot without the dread red tide. There are patches of it flowing through here, sadly, so we’ve forgone diving and instead explored ashore. We checked out the remains of the abandoned ecolodge, and walked across the flat to the anchorage around the point, El Quemado. It’s hot, so we swam at the beach which is clear of the redness. It is a pretty anchorage with obviously good free diving spots, so we’ll come back in the Fall. Meanwhile it’s a nice calm and sheltered spot to relax for a day.

June 05 - “BLA Village” in Bahia de Los Angeles is the only place to reprovision in this part of the sea, and we’ve stopped in for a couple of nights to stock up and enjoy a couple of meals ashore. We missed the museum as it was closed last time we were here, so hope to visit it today. We caught a Yellowtail trolling through a clear patch of water yesterday which will make for a nice poke bowl for lunch - so we’re eating well! Unfortunately, the dread red tide is all around this part of the bay too, that and strong overnight westerlies forecast to return in a couple of days will keep this visit short.

We can get fuel here, though it’s not easy as the Pemex station is away from the anchorage. We should be fine with what we have aboard, we’ll do a fuel calculation and try to stretch what we have until we get into San Carlos. It’ll be an early start tomorrow to head north to Refugio, where we’ve reports of clear water and not too many bugs. We’re looking forward to getting back in the water!

June 09 - We’ve wanted to make it to Bahia Refugio for a long time - we were turned back southward last season at Bahia de Los Angeles by strong northerlies, so were determined to make it this year. It’s worth the effort!

We’ve anchored in the middle bight of the large, sheltered bay and have enjoyed gorgeous sunsets with their golden evening glow on the hills of Isla Angel de la Guardia (Archangel Island). We’ve been enjoying being back in the water too, it’s warmer, full of sea life, and no red tide! The rocky points around the bay have made for excellent snorkeling - we’ve seen big turtles, a huge stingray, and lots of reef fish. Evenings echo to distant barking from the sealion colony on one of the rocky islets north of the bay.

It’s hot here, and getting hotter, temperatures have been in the mid-90’s F (around 35 C), and we’ve been focused on using strategically placed fans for air flow and keeping the boat as cool as possible. Evening winds from the south have been dry and hot, dropping humidity into the low teens. The SoC is heating up!

We plan to be here for a couple of weeks before making our way towards San Carlos and our summer layup. We’ll spend the time relaxing, fishing, swimming, working on a few pre-layup boat jobs, and trying to keep cool!