Loreto to Santa Rosalia

Mission Our Lady of Loreto built in 1698 was the 1st of the California Missions built

After doing some provisioning in Loreto we headed up to the next anchorage, Isla Coronado, which is a whole 6nm away, so that made for a really long day, well morning anyway and we did receive a dolphin escort so that made the whole voyage a little less boring than usual plus we caught a nice little dorado, which we turned into lunch.

Our dophin escort

Isla Coronado

After a night there we pull anchor before daylight and head straight back to Loreto and took Zero to see the local vet. Zero had been having some urinary problems that we thought we had resolved but he took a turn for the worst and got to the point where he couldn't pee at all. Poor little kitty wasn't happy at all. So we put down the anchor, load Zero into the dinghy, head for shore with Zero protesting loudly the whole way, a guy in the marina parking lot offers to give us a ride to the vet and the blond kid on the bike offers to watch our dinghy for us if we pay him, well okay, maybe if the dinghy is still here when we get back. The vet in Loreto gave him some pills and said he should start peeing again soon, and said to make sure he gets plenty of water, the total bill came to the price of the medication, she didn't charge us for her time at all, got to love Mexico. We head back to the dock, get in the dinghy, pull away from the dock just as the blond kid races down the jetty on his bike so he can collect his money. He had obviously been over at the beach swimming while we were gone and hadn't actually been watching the dinghy at all, so we weren't even thinking about paying him. He had a really pissed off look on his face, I'm scared to go back to Loreto now.

Zero started peeing again and he seemed to be getting better and then had a relapse and so were in the middle of another round of pills, which leaves me bloody every morning and him pissed off at me, I never seen a cat so reluctant to swallow a pill, he even pretends to swallow so I'll let him go and then spits it out. On the advice of one friend, we've been mixing apple cider vinegar in with his food and adding extra water to it. We bought him some grass seed and I have been growing sprouts for him to chew on, on the advice of another cruiser with a cat on board who had been having the same problem. I hope he gets back to normal soon.

Great Blue Heron at Isla Coronado

We stopped in San Sebastian, a small little anchorage in front of a small little village if you could even call it that, about an hours drive over dirt roads from the main highway. There's about a dozen vacation homes there on the beach, with one guy who stays there pretty much year round. We made friends with a couple of the home owners and shared the dorado we caught that day. They gave us some wine they had made and we gave them a bottle of tequila.

San Sebastian

Wanted to stop in San Juanico, everyone told us what an awesome place it was, but on the day we were there the weather was coming out of the exact wrong direction, making the anchorage very lumpy. We ended up anchoring around the corner in a place called La Ramada Cove. We did get to hike around San Juanico a bit, the snorkeling wasn't too good as the water visibility was low.

San Juanico

San Juanico

Next stop was Bahia Conception, beautiful spot, lots of neat little anchorages in the bay. First night there we were treated to a 360 degree sunset, a lot like the ones you'd see back in NM, color everywhere. It was hot there, like Puerto Escondido it's pretty well protected, so the air doesn't move much. The water gets really warm too, it was like jumping into a warm bath, hardly refreshing at all. We hadn't planned on staying more than a day or two, just long enough to make the hike up to see the rocks that sound like bells when you strike them, but ended up meeting some cool people, including the guy who was the 1st commodore of the yacht club we belonged to back when we lived in the delta, and so we hung out a few extra days. I think at a cooler time of year, we could hang out there for quite awhile, as it was, we were waking up to it only having cooled off to 90F during the night and 98F inside the boat during the day and that was with the sun covers up, it was just too much.

Series of photos is one sunset 360 degrees

We sailed from there, we've been doing quite a bit of sailing actually, we've been lucky, to Isla San Marcos. So much cooler there, the water was quite refreshing and the inside boat temp fell below 90F before we even went to bed which was nice for a change. The bat rays have really been active the last few days, large groups of them flying out of the water, doing somersaults and backflips, fun to watch, hard to get on film.

Isla San Marcos

Flying Bat Ray

Sunset from San Marcos

We are now in Santa Rosalia, anchored in the harbor, this is the last town of any size we are going to see until we make the jump over to the San Carlos/Guaymus area, so we're trying to stock up while we're here. The humidity seems lower here and it cools off a bit more at night, so it hasn't been too bad. We meet a lot of cruisers who break down and buy an air conditioner, find a dock to plug into and never leave their boat again, I think it's better to just get acclimated to the heat and it also helps if you are out on the islands and can get in the water to cool off, which you probably wouldn't want to do in the harbor here.

A Few More Photos

Puerto Balandra

Sea cave near Partida

Isla Sanfancisco with the Sierras Gigantes in the background

San Evaristo's burros para tacos

San Telmo

Agua Verde

Puerto Escondido

Isla Danzante, Honeymoon Cove

Cortez Angelfish

Isla Carmen

Okay, so it's been awhile since the last blog post and if there is anyone who actually reads this thing, you are probably wondering what we have been up to. I thought about maybe catching you all up on what we've been doing for the last month and a half but then I thought it might be easier to just post the latest.

Our last great adventure was on Isla Carmen, about 10 miles east of Loreto. We stopped at the 1st anchorage on the western side, Bahia Marquer for a couple days. Nice peaceful anchorage, not much life there but the water was crystal clear. Full moon night and we could see clear to the bottom. We were woken up a 3am to Zero growling and hissing at something, got up but didn't see what he was so upset about. Very possible with the visibility being what it was that he saw something big swim past the boat. 

On the way to Isla Carmen from Isla Danzante

Water was so clear we could see our anchor

Beautiful full moon night

Sea cliff at Bahia Marquer anchorage

The next day we headed up to the next anchorage, Puerto Ballandra. A couple people had told us not to bother going there 'all those islands look the same, don't even bother' or 'they call that place Bee landra for a reason', but we went anyway. We dropped the hook, we were the only ones there, the water was turquoise blue and it was a nice overcast day for a change and so we thought it would be a perfect day for a hike.

Puerto Ballandra, Isla Carmen. 

So we had read in the cruising guide that Isla Carmen is home to several Desert Bighorn Sheep, they were placed there so they could be in a safe place to reproduce and hopefully provide stock for the dwindling sheep herds on the mainland of Baja. We never thought we would be lucky enough to actually spot one.

 We also saw a Jack Rabbit and a cool blue bellied lizard. We ended up seeing about a dozen sheep in all, making the whole trip well worth the effort.

Beautiful hike through the canyon, didn't make it over to the other side where there is the remains of an old salt mine, it's just gets too hot to be out there for very long.

When we got back to the boat, we found out why they call it Bee landra. We found about 500-600 bees on board, swarming all over the boat but mostly down inside the cabin, they come out to the boats looking for fresh water, which is in short supply in the desert this time of year. They found the cat's water dish and also got into the dish pan.

So needless to say we high tailed it out of there, I don't really care for bees, I can deal with a few at a time, but so many that they are landing on us, crawling up inside our shorts, and we couldn't take a step without stepping on them, it was just too much. Jim lit up a cigar to smoke them out and along with the motion of the boat all of those that could still move on their own left the boat. Somehow we made it through without any of us getting stung. The rest were either drowned or rolling around on their backs so full of water that they couldn't fly off.

The next morning when we made ourselves a pot of tea, we found that a bunch of them had also drowned themselves in the water kettle.

We are currently in Loreto doing some provisioning, getting ready to head north to do some more exploring. Other than that, we're trying to stay cool. It's starting to get really hot, it's worse on the coast where there is little breeze and the humidity is higher than it is out on the islands. We spend as much time as possible in the water and in the shade or now that we are in Loreto, in air conditioned bars during happy hour or shopping the air conditioned stores, we don't go in if it doesn't have air conditioning and some we visit even if the don't have anything we want but have air conditioning. Think maybe we'd be better off without the brief breaks from the heat though, it makes it all that much worse when we have to go back into it.

Hurricane season is approaching and so the further north we go, the less likely we'll have to experience one and we are still waiting for the first experience with the dreaded Chubascos. Still haven't seen any rain on this side of the sea but can see from here that they are getting some good storms on the mainland side.

On returning to Mazatlan

Our next destination after leaving San Blas was Mazatlan with an overnight stop at Isla Isabela where Jim cleaned the bottom again, the rate of growth on the bottom of the boat has been almost more than we can keep up with. We probably would of stayed longer had the visibility been better but it was pretty cloudy when we got there and so we skipped doing any snorkeling, I would of liked to go ashore to see what stage the nesting birds were in as compared to when we were there in December but that involves the effort of setting up the dinghy.

Had intended to only stay in Mazatlan for a couple days but plans change always it seems. Ended up staying there 3 weeks waiting for some decent wind so we wouldn't have to spend the money on fuel to get to La Paz. Winds normally come from the west and northwest which was the direction we wanted to go, but occasionally, there will be a southerly or a northerly that will allow a nice sail across, and that's what we were waiting for. Jim made friends with some fishermen who ended up supplying us with plenty of fresh fish and our friends on Third Day along with about 4 other boats were also there, so it ended up being a good time despite the waiting.

Early morning in the harbor, tug boats heading out to guide in the ferry

Old Mazatlan waterfront

Tostiloco is like a frito pie only made with tostitos, the only Fritos I've been able to find here have been lime flavored like everything here, it has to be flavored with lime, and or chili or they don't carry it. They top it with chili, beans, cheese and your choice of about 8 other toppings. The corn on the cob is not a sweet corn and served with lime, chili powder and mayo? The fried platanos are also served with chili powder. They also had what looked like hotdogs wrapped in tortillas, deep fried and then cut up in pieces and smothered in chili, cheese etc, I didn't try that one, it gave me heartburn just looking at it.

Pangas in the old harbor

This tortilleria made the best tortillas maize that we found in Mazatlan, the other places seemed to be putting too much water in their masa making them fall apart when you try to use them. The price of tortillas has gone up to 14 pesos a kilo.

Peregrine Falcon that I found feeding on a bird it had just caught during a hike up to El Faro

White-winged Dove defending his cactus