On the way to Bahia de Los Angeles

First stop after leaving Santa Rosalia was Punta Trinidad or as we have decided to rename it Punta Pastinaca or Bahia de Las Rayas maybe. Couldn't believe how many stingrays we saw as we passed over the shallow water heading for shore. It must be a stingray breading ground or something, there were 100s of them, everywhere we went a dozens rays would be seen trying to get out of our way. Big ones, little tiny baby ones, at least 2 different species.

Lagoon at Punta Trinidad

Just one of the 1000s of rays that must be in this bay, not somewhere you'd want to get in the water or even get too close to the surf, we saw them just a couple feet from the surfline.

This is Punta Trinidad, I think the headland even looks like a stingray

We only spent one night there, I had wanted to try and get some better photos that showed just how dense the rays were but the weather turned during the night and the anchorage got pretty lumpy so we headed out early for San Francisquito.

Heading around the corner into Bahia San Francisquito the currents collide making some crazy white water conditions, luckily we were going with the current and it was pushing us along at about 8 knots, hit this with the current against you and it get really rough and slows you down to a crawl.

Cala San Francisquito, a nice, well protected cove within Bahia San Francisquito. Our 1st Chubasco, high winds associated with a thunder cell, we usually don't see any rain from these but get the wind and in this case sand, the whole boat was coated by the time this was over. Wind speeds, we were told, were gusting over 40knots.

Cala San Francisquito on a calmer occasion.

Bahia Santa Teresa walking distance from Bahia San Francisquito

Some of the cool rocks found out on Punta Santa Teresa

So we arrive at Bahia San Francisquito with 2 good size dorado that we caught along the way and decide to go ahead an anchor in the cove located inside the bay, there were 5 other boats already in there, but with plenty of room for more, that little cala is much bigger than it looks. The best part about this place is the water temp is probably 10-15 degrees cooler than you'll find either up or down the coast from here. So cool and refreshing, temps in the boat dropped below 80 during the night, made sleeping so much nicer.

Another opportunity to get a better dolphin shot presented itself

A Finback Whale's Back Fin

Mr. Pelican wanted to catch a ride with us out to the islands, he landed on the boat and we chased him off about 6 times before he got the hint.

After spending a few days at B of SF, we head for Isla Salsipuedes, a little, guano covered island with nothing growing on it but a few cactus, 1000s of birds and a few Mexican Army guys camping out.

Isla Salsipuedes

What are these things called? I used to know. Amazing display of color

Isla Salsipuedes

While we there we did a little snorkeling and took a little tour around in the dinghy. Neat place but not somewhere you'd want to be if the weather got nasty. Later that evening while I was trying to make the bed, which needed clean sheets because a certain cat, who had eaten one too many giant moths, hung his head over the hatch and threw-up all over my leg, was stepped on by me, who then bit me right through the ankle. Four nice puncture wounds that bled profusely all over my hand woven rug. So the next morning we, with me unable to walk and in an incredible amount of pain, decide we better head for Bahia de Los Angeles and see if we can find some antibiotics, just in case. Luckily it was only a short day of sailing away, motoring actually, no wind at all, seas like glass for much of the way.

Some friend's of ours, who were already in the bay when we got there, fortunately had some aboard and gave me a couple days worth to start with. The next day Jim went into the local clinic and got some more antibiotics and some pain killers. It was couple days before I could walk on it and now it's day 8, one of the wounds is still not completely healed and I still have some swelling going on. The worse part about it is I've been pretty much stuck on the boat, can't walk around too much without my foot swelling up, I can't cool off by jumping in the water and I can't enjoy any frosty cold adult beverages either. Yesterday I went to see the pharmacist at the clinic myself, to see if I should keep taking the antibiotics. There was no wait, no forms to fill out, a very thorough examination of my injured foot, he gave me another weeks worth of drugs and no charge. I love this country!

This really is a beautiful bay though and we have several whale sharks swimming around the boat just about everyday. There's also a cool bat that flies around in the evening, skimming the water, that appears like it might be fishing, I don't know if there is such a thing as a fishing bat, wish I had some night vision goggles or some way to see what they are up to. They're driving Zero crazy, he wants to catch one bad. There's several other boats here now, it's gone from 2 to 20 in just a few days as there is a party planned for tomorrow for the net controllers of which we are not members and so maybe we'll head out and visit some of those nice anchorages around here now that the boats are all here and they are all empty.

Bahia de Los Angeles

Looking out towards the lighthouse

One of the smaller whale sharks that we've seen cruising around the bay

Santa Rosalia

Harbor at Santa Rosalia

We've been spending the last few days in Santa Rosalia. A copper mining town, founded by the French in late 1800's. Most of the buildings here are made out of wood, seem out of place in the middle of the desert. The wood was imported from the northwestern US, brought down on the ships that were coming to load up with copper.

Our Lady of Santa Barbara Church designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel built of stamped steel sheets, and erected in 1897

The Mahatma Gandhi Library

Black sand beaches composed of mine waste that was dumped in the ocean and washed up on the shore, looks like black glass up close

Known for their hotdog stands but we found the chili relleno tacos were even better

Some of the old mining equipment, museum is in the background

We will be heading north soon, sailing to Bahia de Los Angeles and either points beyond or maybe head over towards Guaymas.

Is it Safe?

On a recent trip to LA just about everyone I met, along with just about everyone else I know, upon hearing that I'd been spending time in Mexico, would ask "is it safe?". Well, no, not really

Watch out for missing manhole and utility hole covers. Jim stubbed his toe on one of these bolts sticking out of the sidewalk, luckily he didn't fall in the hole afterwards.

As you can see, Jim made it passed this whole mess safely

You really have to watch your step

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.