After a week waiting for a weather window in Agua Verde, we decided to make a run for our southern destinations. This would be our last longer passage on the route back to La Paz, so we left at dawn hoping to avoid the winds for at least part of the trip. We did manage to make the first 5 hours without the winds, but then they came up to 20 knots plus right on the nose, accompanied of course by 4 foot chop. We decided to stop short of our destination and take some shelter at San Evaristo. Due to the wind direction, we opted to anchor on the North side of the town off the beach with the large salt pond. We were behind the large rock point, so we had some good wind protection as well. We did not go ashore here as we were planning to leave early in the morning and make another attempt to get to Isla San Jose.
Big rock point we anchored behind.
Beach at San Evaristo with salt pile.
We again left at dawn to avoid the winds in the channel between the island and the Baja peninsula. Well, it didn't work. We not only had strong winds, but an opposing current that made for close, steep 5 foot waves that we had to bash the final 5 miles into. Not a fun morning. It did however wash the entire deck clean of the dust that had accumulated over the past couple of weeks.
We finally anchored in Bahia Amortajada at around noon. This is a beautiful anchorage with good south wind protection. It's really a 2 mile long sand spit surrounding a mangrove lagoon. We were excited to take our dinghy on the reported mangrove river that runs through the island into the lagoon, and then on to the other side of the peninsula.
We had the place to ourselves for awhile.
We spent the afternoon relaxing and swimming. Our plan was to do the 1.5 mile mangrove dinghy trip in the morning at high tide so we would have a lesser chance of getting stuck.
Fishing at the start of the mangrove trip.
The trip through the mangroves is a lot of fun. Most of the river is at least 10 feet wide or more so there is plenty of room to steer around the sand bars. On the other end is a fabulous lagoon that is so perfect, it looks man made. The mangroves are full of wildlife. Many nesting birds can be seen fairly close up.
Frigate birds hanging out.
Lagoon entrance on the other side. Ocean to the right, lagoon to left.
When we got back from our exploration, we found the anchorage to be full of giant motor yachts. The smallest ones were 80 feet long and the largest was 150 feet or so. These were not megayachts as we know them, because no one had their own helicopter. However, they did all have complete crews, several ski boats, jetskis, kayaks, and every other water toy. Their crews were in the process of carefully setting up their private beach cabanas and lining their toys up on the beach. After everything is prepared and the towels properly laid out, the crew would go back and bring their owners to the beach.
One yachts beach setup.
A couple of the big boats.
No close pictures, as these people do not like their picture taken.
We ended up with 9 of these large yachts in the anchorage for the night. When you consider that they each cost between 20 and 100 million, a large portion of the GDP of Baja Mexico was in this anchorage at once!
That night, when the sun went down, we were invaded by no-see-ums. In Mexico they are called hay-hay-nays (jejenes). By the time we realized we were being attacked, it was too late. They don't call them no see ums for nothing! We got all the hatches closed, because they are so small they fly right through screens. The temp in the boat rose to 90 degrees with 80% humidity, and we were miserable. The bugs live for about 48 hours and they were in our bed, our clothes, everywhere. You really need strong reading glasses or a magnifying glasses to see them. By morning, Rich was covered with about 300 itchy red bumps, and Cathy about half that amount. We decided that although the anchorage was beautiful, we needed to get the heck out of here! We pulled anchor at first light and headed for Caleta Partida.
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