CATCHING UP! FROM PUERTO ESCONDIDO TO SAN CARLOS

Okay… maintaining a blog regularly is proving to be challenging, as there always seems to be something else to do – even if that’s “just” swinging in a hammock and reading a book! We do want to record our adventures (here, and in our even more sporadic YouTube videos) as we’ll want to look back at all this one day ourselves. So! For the handful of people other than Tino Pai’s crew who read these blogs, here’s an attempt to catch up on the rest of our first season in Baja. As you’ll recall, when last we blogged we’d just arrived at Puerto Escondido, mid-way up the Baja side of the Sea of Cortez.

Puerto Escondido is a perfect natural harbor with protection on all sides, its single entrance a narrow dogleg channel to the south. The wind can blow through a couple of low bars of land to the north and northwest but there is little fetch, as we were to experience later while sitting out northerlies. The port has excellent facilities – the best showers in Baja – with a restaurant, a small tienda with pricey “gringo essentials”, a pickle ball court and easy access to Loreto just to the north. We picked up a mooring ball towards the northwestern end of the anchorage and settled in for a week of exploring the area. Content with Tino Pai being secure on her mooring in settled weather, we rented a car and drove the short distance to Loreto where we’d booked a couple of nights being fancy at Hotel La Misión on the waterfront. SV Kelea had arrived in the anchorage off the waterfront, so we met up with Ben and Megan to explore Loreto.

We like to play around with what it’d be like to live in some of the places we visit, and Loreto rated highly in our imaginings. It’s a nice town with lovely old buildings and an historic feel, while being large enough to have most necessities. We’re mindful about the climate with Baja’s scorching summers but found Loreto delightful during our May visit. Together with Ben & Megan we explored the historic old town one day, and the next drove the rental car up a very winding road to San Javier up in the hills to visit the oldest Misión in Baja – and possibly all Mexico – where we explored the buildings and grounds. Back in Loreto we splurged on massages (one of the necessities!) and a fancy meal at the hotel for our last night before doing some provisioning and heading back to Puerto Escondido and Tino Pai. We stopped at a lovely beachside restaurant and had a delicious meal before realizing they were solo effectivo – cash only – and having few pesos left we had to make a quick dash north to a beachside town with an ATM! The proprietors were very kind, allowed us to make the ATM run, and laughed with us at our gringo mistake when we returned to pay.

Back on Tino Pai we readied the boat for an exploration of the islands around Loreto, which were to become one of our favorite cruising grounds. We’d waved farewell to Kalea and her crew as they headed to the north of Isla Carmen; we’d decided to loop around the southern end and planned to catch them further north, though sadly, that was not to be. Setting out on May 25th, we had a lovely sail across the north side of Isla Danzante, tacking through the channel between Danzante and Isla Carmen before turning northward to sail into Punta Colorada, on the southeast corner of Isla Carmen.

We spent a nice day enjoying the bay, snorkeling, and watching sea life around the boat. A southeasterly wind was building though, so on the 27th we headed northward to find shelter on the northern side of the island. Sadly, we had to pass Bahia Salinas, we’d planned a stop there but the building wind blowing into the bay meant we’d need to stop there at a future time. The silver lining was that the wind was perfect for getting our spinnaker up for the first time! It proved to be fairly straightforward, and we were happy to get the prettiest of our sail inventory up and fulfil our promise to Ben and Megan. It’s a beautiful sail to look at; white, light blue and dark blue in a 3-pronged star pattern. We were stoked!

Rounding Punta Lobos at the northeast corner of Carmen, we doused the spinnaker and motored into the wind the short distance to El Refugio, commonly referred to as “V-Cove” due to its shape. A magnificent, cliff lined cove that tapers to a white sand beach, it is a highlight for cruisers in the area. There are sea caves to explore, the beach to hang out at, and plenty of sea life, though spearfishing is prohibited. We had an enjoyable time at anchor with the pretty bay to ourselves, exploring the caves and beach, paddleboarding, and trolling for Trigger Fish in the dinghy. We met some local fishermen who gave us some pointers, and later came by the boat and gifted us a nice grouper. Getting to meet people like that is special for us, and Shan’s effort to speak Spanish is always appreciated by the locals.

Too soon it was time to move on, and on May 30th we sailed around the top of Isla Coronado and into the island’s beautiful southwest anchorage. With more beautiful white sand beaches, and plenty of sea life, this was another anchorage we rated highly. We swam, paddle boarded around the bay, and spent a day climbing the extinct volcano – a steep climb from sea level to 928’ (283m) which may not seem much but had we sea level types breathing hard! The expansive views of the islands and Baja peninsula around Loreto were well worth the effort.

We enjoyed a lovely sail north from Isla Coronado, passing close by a sea lion who ignored us as it munched on a huge fish, catching and releasing three Skipjacks (“Skipjack, throw it back”), and having a large Thresher Shark leap out of the water nearby. We dropped anchor just after 4pm at San Juanico, back on the Baja Peninsula. San Juanico is a picturesque bay with several beaches to choose from for strolls, and several walks. We’d anchored in the north side of the bay out of the swell, close to a reef we could swim to for snorkeling. We hiked, swam, had cocktails on the beach, and spear fished around the reef where Andy shot a nice grouper – delicious!

The absolute highlight though, was the day we noticed Mobula Rays circling in the small bay just east of the reef. Jumping in the dinghy with fins and goggles, we motored over to where they were swimming, to find a huge school flapping around the bay. We watched from the dinghy for a while, then dropped in to watch from the water. They are curious and circled around us… it was like being the center of a Mobula vortex. An amazing experience! We watched in awe for a while, then returned to Tino Pai to toast yet another incredible Baja experience.

Our first season of cruising was drawing to a close, sadly, and San Juanico was to be our most northern stop on the peninsula as the heat of summer approached and with it our reservation at Marina San Carlos. At just after noon on June 6th we set out for our overnight passage to Bahia Algodones, just north of San Carlos on the mainland. We had a nice sail through the afternoon, catching and releasing a small Skipjack, until at 1030pm the swell and flagging SW wind combined to set our sails flogging, and we motored through the rest of the night. It was uncomfortable in the swell but otherwise an uneventful night and by 8am we were anchor down in Bahia Algodones. We quickly realized it was way too rolly for comfort, even tired as we were after the overnighter and with the flop stopper out, and we decided to motor the short distance into San Carlos harbor, where we dropped the hook and relaxed, enjoying the very scenic harbor. It is where the movie Catch 22 was filmed in the 60’s, and we quickly came to appreciate fiery sunsets over the grand rock formations west of the harbor.

Mexico's oldest Mission at San Javier

Moonrise at San Juanico

Sunset while crossing the sea to San Carlos

We spent nearly a week at anchor, exploring the area by dinghy, catching up on laundry, and watching the daily parade of yachtas de renta from the marina out for cruises around the bay. This was very popular with the locals, and we watched many heavily laden power boats motor by, with their customers’ music of choice blaring, and often neon flashing lights as night fell after sunset cruises. Navigation lights were tough to spot!

Our slip for the summer came available on June 12th, and we tied Tino Pai up in her home for the summer. We had a couple of days to settle in before we were to fly to Cabo to catch our dive boat for a long-planned liveaboard dive trip to the Revillagigedo Islands on June 15th. That’s a whole story in itself, suffice to say it’s an incredible experience for any diver. We had wonderful encounters with Giant Manta Rays, turtles, large Tuna, an abundance of schooling fish forming “bait balls”, and sharks – Silkies, Silver Tips, White Tips, Galapagos, Tigers, and Hammerheads. It was Shan’s retirement gift and it didn’t disappoint!

Upon our return to San Carlos, we had a week to prepare Tino Pai for summer hibernation before our flight to the USA on 4th July. So, we set to, removing sails, canvas, lines, heat proofing the cabin, putting away food, decommissioning the fridge and water maker, tidying up and stowing everything, then cleaning and pest proofing the boat. We set up plenty of dock lines in case of high winds and arranged a boat minder to clean the boat weekly, check her lines, check our battery levels, and do a monthly dive to clean the hull and check her zincs. And it was HOT! Over the week we were away, real summer temperatures arrived in San Carlos and the combination 0f 100-110F temperatures and over 70% humidity was draining. Even the cold water at the marina showers was lukewarm, so there was no relief from the dripping heat. We’d only manage 2-3 hours in the morning before flailing, so with the heat barely abating overnight we grabbed a hotel room for the last few nights so we could accomplish what we needed to before our departure. We managed it all, though, and on 3rd July we departed to Hermosillo where we had a room before our early morning flights.

It was an odd and sad feeling to leave Tino Pai after nearly a year of full-time cruising. We’d traveled 2,250 nautical miles safely on her through some challenging waters, met terrific people, seen many beautiful places and had many memorable encounters with wildlife, grown as sailors, and we were already looking forward to more!