Bahaí Agua Verde

We arrived Bahaí Agua Verde after a full day of sailing in mostly light  (4 - 6kt), variable winds out of the north.   It took is all day to travel the mere 18 nm stretch from los Gatos to here.  It was an amazingly beautiful ride over seas that were surrealistically calm, so calm that it’s seemed hardly possible for such a large body of water to be so still.



Malo made good use of the light winds making 2 - 3 kts of boat speed, oddly sitting almost straight upright with almost no perceivable heel.  There was just the slightest sensation of movement or feeling that we were being propelled along magically, by an invisible and gentle hand.  We took turns sailing, read, looked for whales and dolphins.  It was a deliciously mellow day of sailing.

We made harbor and dropped our anchor about 5:00 pm.  One the boat properly secured and sorted Bev made a delicious dinner of pasta and clams.   After dinner I sat out in the cockpit after the sun had set, the smell of  a cooking fire from on shore hung in the air as the sky came alive with bight moon lit clouds that ran all the way from one cobalt horizon to the the other with me smack dab in the middle,  my head tilted back, jaw agape and I thought; pinch me, I must be dreaming this deliciously floaty evening…  



The next day we awoke to properly see and explore this amazing place that we had landed in.  There is an immense gravity about this place, perhaps it’s the acclimated weight of all those countless millennia so readily apparent, or perhaps it’s the vast hectares of sparseness but for some reason doesn’t seem to weigh me down.  In fact it has quite the opposite effect and ends up leaving me feeling buoyant, lighthearted and happy…

We paddled our SUP boards out to a tooth of rock (Roca Solitaria) out at the mouth of the harbor we’re we got another perspective on this lovely spot.

It was magical in that as our boards glided over the smooth, clear surface we could see tons of tropical fish swimming below us.



From Roca Solitaria we paddled back to Malo and then onto the beach for lunch.  We had heard that there was a small palapa restaurant on the beach.  It turned out that there were two small restaurants on the beach.  We chose the smaller and further away one and that made all the difference or not.  Two tables, delicious fish tacos and we had lunch with the fisherman who had caught our lunch.  



The was a fire on the beach at sunset and the strands of guitar music could be heard over the water as a late arriving boat made it’s way into the anchorage, dropped it’s anchor and settled in for the evening as Malo’s own crew settled in for the night with the warm thought that; tomorrow would be another day…a sailing day, our favorite kind.   

Puerto los Gatos

We didn’t see any cats here, just a couple of cows that were on the beach when we arrived.  Beach cows, who knew?  It was the cows plus one other boat and a kayak expedition on the beach while we were there.  After we set our anchor the crew from another boat stopped by and ended up coming aboard for nibbles and cocktails and that turned into an invitation over to their boat for dinner.  Later back on Malo after what felt like a long and full day, as I lay in our bed, being gently rocked to sleep by the now peaceful waves of the Sea I had thought one last thought before sleep; can it ever get any better than this, will I get to savor this again or will I have to live on just the memories… Old sailors, who knows how many good sails we have left in us but for certain there will always be that urge for just one more sail, just one more time… 



We were up early the next morning to greet the sun as usual and we were excited to check this place out.  The rock formations looked so enticing from the boat and a hill at the harbor entrance looked like it would offer a fun climb and some great views.



The beach that we landed our SUPs on ran directly into some amazing colored an shaped rock formations.  The rock had a liquid quality and color palette that was quite pleasing to the eye. 

Sandstone, shaped by the wind and waves over time.  The is an abundance of those three thing here in the Sea.  The result is remarkable, being here is like being inside a beautiful painting.  The experience is like hallucinating in rock, sea and sky, it just takes me away…

As we made our way up the hill and onto a knife edge ridge that led us to the top where we got a good look at one of many offshore islands that dot the coast.  

There was a narrow ridge line trail to the top that challenged my vertigo but didn’t seem to bother Bev.   



At the top we got our reward… but still no cats.  We’ll have to come back for the cats, they must be around here someplace...

Isla San Jose

We enjoyed a quite and beautiful morning waiting for the wind to come up.  We didn’t have to wait very long.  Soon a sweet, light braze filled in from the north.

Once the boat was secured for sailing we hove anchor and quietly ghosted out the harbor in just 4 kts  of wind.  Soon that grew to winds in the mid teens toughing 20 kts at times.  We put one reef in our main sail and tacked our way up the San Jose Channel alternating our view from the Sierrade la Glganta mountains on the Baja side and the rugged hills and coast of San Jose Island on the other.    



Finally making our way to Mangle Solo anchorage at the north end of San Jose, 26 nm and 4 1/2 hours after out start.  We were both grateful for the pleasure of a beautiful day of sailing in perfect conditions.  



We anchored in 29’ of water just 100 yds off the beach near a rustic a fishing shack.  

Bev made us a late lunch that tasted all the better as we were both pretty hungry at that point.  Once the boat was secured and were were fed we SUPed to shore to take a walk and look around.  The fishing shack was interesting.  



It was tidy in it’s own way with evidence of the last pot of coffee made in the crude, wood fired stove.  

I couldn’t tell if this skeleton was just find brought home for decoration or something left over from a past meal.  Either way it’s beautiful like the rest of this place. 

I found a deer antler out it the desert behind the shack that I brought back to Malo for decoration.  It made me wonder how something like a dear could survive in such a dry place.  There must be water somewhere out there.  Water aside, bones do seem to be a pretty good representation of timeless quality this place and the dryness… 

I’m still blown away by the desert being right next to the sea.  



We walked the beach before SUPing back to Malo.  On the way back to Malo we swung by another cruising boat and met the crew who had been sailing Sea for many years.   Nice couple!

Isla San Francisco

Malo was partially prepped the night before.  We got up before dawn, finished preparing her for sailing and then hove our anchor at 7:30.  We were headed to a small island northeast of us with a large, beautiful, crescent shape bay, the island; Isla San Francisco.  As I hauled up the anchor Bev drove the boat.  Once the anchor was up Bev guided Malo out of the cove and into the Sea were we were met with 18-26 kt winds out of the north pushing 4’ to 6’ short period seas into our bow.  Senior El Norte had arrived and we were ready.  We had set the mainsail with one reef and later added a second and also rolled up a bit of the jib too as the winds increased throughout the day.  At one point Bev spotted a manta ray just off Malo’s beam headed straight for us, moving fast.  Luckily at the last minute it must have spotted Malo because it dove just 30’ aways from us and went right under the keel.  It was a magnificent creature, thrilling to behold but given the choice, it’s one thrill I’d rather not have.  But we lived!

Bev has been tackling increasing difficult sailing tasks.  She’s learned to tack and gybe the boat by herself so far and she’s also working on solo reefing.  This day gave her the opportunity to practice these skills in stronger wind conditions.  She’s a excellent crew and now she working her way to the next level, on to developing captain level skills.    



After a boisterous 6 hours (36 nm) of sailing we were delighted to enter the safe harbor.   We set our anchor in 23’ of water into a sandy bottom in a beautiful, large crescent shaped bay.  As is our custom we covered the sails and coiled the lines right away.  It had been a pretty rough sail that didn’t accord us a chance to have lunch, so we had a late one and then we both took a nap. 

Luckily we awoke in time to see the combination sunset and moonrise.  A peaceful ending to an exciting day.  The next morning we awoke rested and ready to explore this new island that we find ourselves at.  The Norte was still blowing so it was a bit of a challenge just getting ashore on the SUP boards but we made it and were greatly rewarded for our efforts.



Once ashore we walked up the beach, headed to the hill out on the southeastern arm of the harbor.  The simple, raw beauty of this pace continues to astound me.

Bev observed that it would be hard to take a bad photo here so off course I had to try but you know, she was right again.  I tried pointing the camera in every direction but couldn’t manage to get a bad one.  Weird.   



As we got higher up we got a good view of the Sea and harbor. 



We hiked back down and then around the salt flat between the hills.  

Plant life in the desert islands is often sparse, sharp and tenacious.



And in some places it can be surprisingly lush and vibrant. 

This land seems both ancient and new at the same time.  My first impression was that it’s was old, prehistory old, geologically old but now, after spending a few weeks wandering around this place, it’s paradoxically staring to feel new.  Like life is just getting started here.  

Isla Espiritu Santo

We left La Paz on a beautiful, clear morning, which so far has been typical here in the Sea.   The light in this place is unusually striking in it’s clarity, a clarity that seems to heighten reality and takes it to a place of either unreality or some kind of super reality.

We rode a light westerly breeze down the long La Paz channel, out into the sea were the wind clocked around to the north and became stronger, causing us to first tack away from our destination before we could tack again and make our approach which strikes me as a good metaphor for our greater journey to this place.     



On this bright morning we were headed to Isla Espiritu Santo (Island of the Holy Sprit) which is only 22 nm from civilization, 22 miles and a countless millennium away.  The early Spanish explorers must have been feeling quite close to god themselves when they first discovered and named this place, perhaps inspired by it’s startling, super-reality and quiet magnificence.  

Isla Espiritu Santo off in the distance

We traveled throughout the day under an extraordinary sky that brought to mind some of Georga Okief’s landscape paintings.  There are several beautiful bays at Espiritu Santo. we chose Puerto Ballena (Whale Port) because of it’s beauty and the excellent protection that it offers from El Norte, one of which was in our immediate forecast.  




We anchored in a sandy bottom, next to some remarkable cliffs, in 23’ of water under the watchful gaze of the rock faces just off of Malo’s bow and just ahead of our friends on Cool Change, Galapagos and Gray Goose.  

After covering our sails and tidying the boats, six of us jumped into the water and snorkeled around the rocky edge of the cliffs.  

Later, after another tasty and wholesome meal prepared by Bev, we watched the sun set from Malo’s cockpit.  Sitting there at the quiet end of the day, it dawned on me that none of us, not a single one of us in this remarkable bay, got here casually or by accident.  Bev and I had spent years dreaming of this, over a year of preparation and then sailed over three thousand miles to get here and now we were finally getting a taste of the magnificence of this place.  The crews on 
the other boats had similar arduous backstories. 



On the second day at Espiritu Santo Bev and I SUPed over to the island and then hiked the arroyo that is formed by the two ridges that form the bay.  We made sure to take plenty of water so that we wouldn’t end up like this guy: 

It also had a beautiful little beach just big enough for  a stroll.



There was an El Norte forecast for tomorrow that was suppose to last for three days, which if we didn’t move out would have us harbor bound for the next three or four days.  After snorkeling, SUPing and hiking we were ready to move on.  We were also ready to go sailing again. The first day of the Norte was forecast to favor our course to our next destination, Isla San Francisco, a beautiful island north east of Puerto Ballena.  All the other boats with the exception of one decided to say at Ballena and ride out the Norte.  We were feeling for a challenge.  We are were starting to feel the close of the season (the beginning of the next hurricane season) coming closer and closer and we still had lots of spots that we wanted to visit.  



The desert, sea and sky…an elemental cocktail that highness my sprit while calming my soul.  “I’ll have another please.”

In La Paz

La Paz is a very nice town.  One of the nicest that we’ve encountered along the coast.  The marinas (there are 7 of them) seem very nice and reasonably priced.  We ended up at marina Cortez, one of he newest and it’s also right downtown, close to just about everything and then the is the malecon, the 4 mile long walkway that runs along the bay.  with shops and restaurants on the land side and a series of sculptures every few hundred yards on the bay side.  

This guy was one of my favorites.



Further on is another favorite of mine, Jacques Cousteau:



And in-between is scattered the marinas.  

We got just a taste of La Paz.  We did some minor repairs and reprovisioned.  Tomorrow we have to be on our way north as the hurricane season is coming and we want to get out of the the hurricane zone before that happens.  As nice as La Paz is, we’d rather spend our remaining time out on the wild Baja coast and remote islands.  

We have water, fuel, papers, permits, the laundry has been done, the bikes are stowed, last minute repairs made, the boat washed, all portable lights & radios have been charged and we have a good weather forecast.  With luck and good fortune we will be leaving on tomorrow morning's tide bound for Isla Espiritu Santo and beyond in the company of two other boats; Cool Change and Passport. 

Into the Sea of Cortez, on to La Paz part 2

Bahía los Frailes

That’s our dink Bueno in the left foreground and Malo out in the center middle-ground.

We spent a few days anchored at Los Frailes in order to rest from the passage that we’d just completed and to dry out some of our things that had gotten soaked from the antics of Senior Norte and to repair a few things he had broken such as the deck hatch clasp and our push-pit brace.  Drying here was quick and easy with warm breeze and only 18% humidity.  The humidity had been usually 80% or more in La Cruz.   We also took the opportunity to service our steering gear that had gotten a real workout during the crossing.  All that we did on the first day there.  On the second day we did a sensible thing and relaxed by taking a dinghy ride into shore and strolled the beach in the morning.

Have you notice that almost every time we go to shore Bev is wearing a backpack?  The funny thing is that I’ve yet to discover all that she carries around with her.  I’m sure that it’s all useful. 

What lies behind the sand dunes?

A pond, who knew?






RVing at the end of the Baja. 

We met our neighbors from the anchorage on the beach, a wonderful family sailing Melu on an amazing 2 year journey from the Great Lakes, to the Atlantic ocean (via the Erie Canal & the Hudson river, down the east coast, through the Bahamas, the Caribbean Ocean, the Panama Canal then up Central America to the the Sea of Cortez where they plan to end their odyssey at Guaymas.

Snorkeling

In the afternoon we dinked over to a near by dive site, part of the Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park.  Our snorkeling here was the best we’ve enjoyed so far on this trip that featured 25’ visibility, live coral and enough tropical fish to keep things interesting.  Unfortunately I don’t have any photos from this place as my underwater camera chose this time to end it’s life. 

Night Sail 

That afternoon we hove anchor and did an overnight sail, 75 miles to Ensenada de los Muertos, the next harbor to the northeast of Frailes.  Senior El Norte was just leaving the party and we decided to risk riding his windy coat tails up the coast hoping that the dying forecast would hold true.  It was a boisterous ride at first but things soon enough settled down as we shook one reef after another out of our main sail as we sailed through the night and the wind diminished.  This made for an interesting and fast passage to los Muertos. With hardly anyone living in this part of the Baja the night sky was a star-filled light show that made sky-gazing more than a joy, it was a heavenly party that entertained us through the night. 

Ensenada de los Muertos

This end of Los Cabos (The Capes) is at the eastern end of the southern tip of of the Baja Peninsula and is quite different than it’s nearest city, Cabo San Lucas. It is a very special place, so different from the busy and very populated western end.  Los Muertos is a barren place, austere and unpopulated with an otherworldly beauty that takes my soul to a timeless space beyond civilization and even people. 

The Temple of the Sea & Sky

The Sea of Cortez turns out to be an amazing place for sea and sky viewing.   We went SUPing today along a live reef in 25’ of clear turquoise water, looking down upon coral and fish.  Several turtles swam near us.  It was a mesmerizing and ethereal experience.  



Sailors end up spending so much time outside with almost unlimited vistas all around us and the air is so clear down here and the scenes so vivid that it takes my breath away. 



Sunsets, just as you would have expected, are when the sky shows take off, but what you may not expect is how captivating, mesmerizing and all encompassing they can be.  



The great depth and beauty of them is astonishing and their variety is remarkable. 



The ancient geomorphic quality of this place challenges my modern sensibilities, as the Baja often appears both simply familiar and at the same time exotically strange. 



The desert and the sea are in a constant state of incredulous juxtaposition here and the border between them is startling, abrupt and beautiful.  



Exploring that splendid border has now become our happy occupation.



After five lovely days at los Muetros it was time to move on again.  Another  El Norte had started to weaken so we jumped on it’s coat tails for another overnight sail this time to La Paz.  Bev took the first watch of the evening as the sun was just starting to set. 

I followed her watch 3 hours later with an easy one of my own.  Sun set and sunrise watch are my favorite but the middle of the night can be special too. Night watches can also be pretty hard and that’s what Bev pulled, her next watch ended up being challenged by difficult winds and large cargo ships and small, unlit fishing pangas.  She woke me at 5:00am to help tack the boat so I took the watch from there.  Bev gave me a situation briefing and then went below for a much needed rest.  My watch turned out to be as perfect a sail as any sailer would want and perhaps even dream of.  The sky was full of stars from the beginning of my watch with a crescent moon in the east.  



I got a favorable wind shift and was able to ease off the sheets off and let Malo glide smoothly on her way through the night.  While looking out to port I noticed a strange red light off in the clear, dark, cobalt night sky.  Upon closer inspection seemed to be more of a glow than a light.  I check it out with the binoculars and was shocked to realize what I was seeing was a structure fire.  A large two story house, perched high atop a hill overlooking the sea was completely engulfed in flame with a glowing plume of light rising up from the fire.  I could clearly make out the house and it’s windows with flames coming out.  I wondered if everyone was ok over there and then said a heart felt prayer to that end.  Seeing a house fire like that, especially without any emergency response visible is a hard thing to shake.  

After we passed by the fire, I noticed a new red glow, this time in the east.  The first rays fo the new days sun were blasting out, seemingly trying to heat up the caldron of the crescent moon above.  Oh my!  



I was shaken out of my skywatching by the VHF radio as the pilot of the car carrying ferry in the channel behind us call Malo, stating his intentions to pass us to port and requesting that we alter our course to starboard to ease his passage.  



The eastern sky continued to entertain me as Malo continued on her way downwind to La Paz.



A couple of hours later when we pulled into the Marina Cortez were delighted to discover that we would be dock mates, sharing a finger slip with out friends Curt and Lynn on Cool Change who we had first met in Crescent City Oregon on our way down the coast.  And now they standing on the dock, waving, ready to catch our dock lines.  Small wonderful world…