Bahia Agua Verde

Puerto Escondido at sunset

We left Peuerto Escondido after a two day stay for provisioning and fuel, and headed for Agua Verde.  Agua Verde is a large bay that has several anchorage areas that are protected from all wind directions except the East.  We were expecting South winds so found a nice spot to anchor in the south part of the bay behind a small island.

There was great fishing around this island.

We had a nice beach.

And beautiful sunsets.

We planned to stay here only a couple of days before continuing south, but the south winds blew strong for a few days and we ended up staying here for a week.  We did a lot of fishing and snorkeling, but there were many small invisible jellyfish that gave you a good sting everytime you got in the water.  The temperature was starting to get uncomfortable, so you had no choice about swimming.  Cool off, get stung!  The stings only burn for about a half hour. This is the main reason many people leave their boats in Mexico and come home for the summer.  It gets very hot.

The top temp is outside, the lower is inside.  The bottom indicates coctail time!

Agua Verde is a fishing village.  Every day at least one or two pangas would come to our boat to beg for money, ask to pick up our garbage for a fee,  or sell us jewelry.  One day though, some actual fishermen came by and they had a load of chocolate clams.  These clams a incredibly good.  They are about 3 inches in diameter and about an inch think of clammy goodness. We got a few clams from them to have for dinner, and they were great.

We like our clams Loreto Style as it is known down here.  First you steam the clams until they open.  then quickly while they are still hot, you open them and cover with cheese and a squirt of hot sauce.  The clams just fall out of the shell and are tender and juicy, yum!

Great kayaking here

Do we really have to leave here?

Bahia Candeleros

This is what several hundred dolphin look like 

coming toward your boat.  You need to zoom in to see them.

After leaving our favorite volcano anchorage, we again headed south.  It was a short 4 hour sail to Bahia Candeleros where we planned to stay a couple of days.  After dropping the anchor we made for shore to check out the beach bar and hopefully get some fish tacos.

It turns out that the bar was part of the nearby resort. 

That's why everything is in English!

The beers were not cheap, but the view was great.

We spent just one night here because at about 6 pm the wind came up to 25 to 30+ knots and blew all night long.  Our anchor held well, but the wind noise made it hard to sleep.  This bay is apparently known for its night time winds that happen only here.  Only a half mile away the wind remained flat calm, so in the morning we left for nearby Puerto Escondido to restock on food and fuel for the final trip down to La Paz.

Isla Coronado, again?

View of the "monkey and squirrel" as we call them.

That's right, we ended up back at Isla Coronado again after leaving Bahia Marquer.  We attempted to stay in Bahia Ballandra, but it is a fairly small bay.  When we arrived, there were already 7 boats anchored there.  They were of course all anchored in the best spots, so we attempted to drop the anchor in one of the less desirable locations.  We could not get the anchor to set because of the steep slope so we decided to motor the 7 miles over to Isla Coronado as it is protected from the south winds and always has room. 

Plenty of room here!

Dolphins came to visit as we anchored.

They were almost jumping in the boat!

The next evening our friends on Seychelles, John and Niki, organized a beach potluck.  We were a little low on potluck food, but we managed to make our signature chipotle pasta dish.  There was a great selection of foods provided by the seven boats, and enough to feed the two fisherman we shared the palapa with.  Beach parties with other cruisers are a lot of fun and an opportunity to trade stories and get together with friends you haven't seen for awhile.

Dinner with your feet in the sand!

The next morning we were on our way south again.  We were really going to try to head to La Paz this time.  We seem to get sidetracked often, probably because we really don't want to go back right now.  But, we do have a flight to catch in a few weeks.

Sunrise over the volcano as we say goodbye.

Bahia Marquer

After leaving Puerto Escondido, we sailed 5 miles across the channel to Bahia Marquer on Isla Carmen.  The south winds had been blowing at night, so we felt this would be a quiet anchorage.  It's a large beautiful bay with several long rocky beaches.  The snorkeling along the steep shoreline proved to be very good.  We saw a good assortment of fish and several rays.  The Seargent Major fish were in full spawing mode, with dozens of multi colored nests.

Cathy's big fish

The birds were screaming "give it to me"

During one tide change, a large school of bonito came right near our boat and we jumped in the dinghy to do some fishing.  We caught several large trigger fish and a 5 pound bonito that wore out Cathy's arms.  We were using light tackle, so we had to be careful not to break the line and lose our lures! 

Back in USA

We are currently back home in the US, where we are having typically cold San Francisco weather.  Before we left the boat in Mexico we tried to update our blog on several occasions, but could not find enough bandwidth to get the job done.  The posts that follow this one pick up where we left off in July after leaving Puerto Escondido and heading to La Paz to prep and leave the boat for hurricane season.

Bahia Concepcion to Puerto Escondido

On our way to Puerto Escondido, we spent a couple of days at our favorite spots.  We couldn't stay too long though, because we were running out of food.  We have gotten good at catching fish at most of the anchorages, but we were nearly out of beer again.  A stop at the only store for miles was in order.

Early sunset at San Juanico

Later sunset at San Juanico

At Isla Coronados we saw a nice orange full moon, as well as a fly over by the international spacestation. 

We passed a beautiful schooner on the way to Puerto Escondido.  The mountains behind are close to 5,000 feet high.

View from the bar at Puerto Escondido.

 Our main reason to go to Puerto Escondido was to get food and beer.  Rich also needed to do an oil change on the engine and repair a blown hydraulic line on the autopilot.  It was also a chance to get some real showers and do some laundry.  The harbor is protected from all directions, so it's easy to get a good nights sleep.  The restaurant serves some good food with an outstanding view of your boat. 

Cathy had the chile relleno with scallops.

Rich had the Cabrilla (fish) ceviche.

Whaaa... I'm eating already!

We are leaving in the morning to explore other islands in the area before heading back to La Paz at the end of July to put the boat up when we head home to the Bay Area.  Stay tuned.

Santa Rosalia to Bahia Concepcion

Cathy on the breakwater at Santa Rosalia.  It is made of giant blocks of obsidian from the mines

that have been paved over.  The breakwater is truly made of glass!

When we left Santa Rosalia we decided to make the longer trip all the way to Bahia Concepcion.   We took the outside route to avoid all the fishing boats and their nets, even though this would put us in rougher water.  Luckily, the seas were only about 4 feet tall and the wind was behind us.  We managed to get several hours of sailing in before turning on the engine to make some water.  Fishing was pretty good, as we caught a large Green Jack and a bigger Black Skipjack.  Both of these fish are of the tuna family, so we think they taste pretty good.

Green Jack very tasty!

This one put up a fight.  He was about 10 pounds.

Unfortunately, after catching these two fish with a special lure that we made ourselves at a fishing seminar during Loreto Fest, a Frigate bird swooped down and grabed the lure.  Rich had to cut the line when the bird started to fly around the mast.  Right after we cut the line, he dropped the lure and it went to Davey Jones locker.  We have since bought all the parts to make some more lures just like it and we'll let you know how they work.

Cathy at the helm with Joss off our stern coming into Bahia Concepcion.

The wind continued to pick up to a little over 20 knots coming into Concepcion.  By the time we were ready to drop anchor, we were getting gusts up to 30 knots, but we were close to shore so there were no significant waves.  We anchored off the local restaurant in Bahia Santispac in the northern end of Bahia Coyote.  Cathy was very sick in bed for a couple of days here, so we didn't do much.  We think it may have been some bad food in Santa Rosalia, but some antibiotics fixed her up in a couple of days.  We had a nice lunch at the restaurant on the beach before heading south for San Juanico.

The layers of mountains around the bay.

San Juanico is one of our favorite spots and we spent a couple of days here before heading for Isla Coronados, another of our favorite spots.