Santa Rosalia – San Juanico

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By Lowell | April 30, 2010 | Category Baja 2010

April 28 – 29 (Wed – Thur)

 

Tuesday night and Santa Rosalia is bustling. There’s a one way circle drive through the historic district and the cars are cruising past as we have dinner on the patio of El Muelle Restaurant where they have our famous runway pizza’s.

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Weather is now perfect for an after dinner walk through town.

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City hall lit up. It’s a historic mining operation center.

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Colorful pinatas keep a close eye on us as we stroll by.

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Wednesday April 28th.

We crossed the border to Baja South as we arrived in Santa Rosalia last night and our clocks are set forward one hour on Mountain standard time. The marina office was closed so we need to take care of paper work this morning and fill out almost empty fuel tanks. We probably had 4 gallons remaining from our drama yesterday.

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Neely enjoyed some time to hang out in town and on the docks before our departure. Finally made way 10ish our latest departure yet of this leg. Our destination is Santa Domingo on the NW tip of Punta Conception. We decided to bypass Mulege to make the legs ahead of us a little shorter and makeup our lost day.

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So,,, You want to be up close and personal with a pilot whale? Departing Santa Rosalia we had a marine life overload. Read Neely’s Update #2 for all the details. She had an awesome time with all the visitors.

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A pod of 20 pilot whales were in our route outside isla San Marcos. This is a young curious one ..

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Then dolphin come by, then a pod of 15 gray finbacks float by before doing tails up dive one by one. That’s our first experience with that many whales so close. A day to be remembered..

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Winds out of the SE on our nose again, but at least we have wind.

The plan is to motor sail out so we can lay our anchorage and sail the 2nd half the day. Light house pictured right is on the islands off Punta Chivato. We’ve never sailed outside these islands since we usually head to Mulege.

This is our first time to Santa Domingo. There’s one other boat anchored with us..

A run to the beach for Neely and as we arrive back to the boat the other boat pulls anchor and stops by to tell us strong westernly winds are forecasted tonight and we should find cover in Coyote bay. It’s near dark and the west winds have started already. We won’t make our anchorage until well past dark. So much for a early start down the coast. A better plan would have been to go into Mulege but it too late for that. All and all it was a nice evening. West winds made a nice sail into Conception while we enjoyed dinner before we had to make the tight passage into Coyote Bay. There are small islands / channels to enter in the dark.. More Drama… Anchor down 9ish…

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Friday April 29

We hoped to get an early start but it didn’t happen. 8 AM and we under way with winds at our back as we head back 8 miles north out of Conception. Last night was fairly calm so either the mountains west protected us or the forecasted winds didn’t materialize. Oh well, better safe then sorry.

Rounding Punta Conception winds are on our nose again.

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10:30 winds are clocking more eastward and motors can be lightened as sails take over. 11:30 down to a light one engine kicker and doing 7kts.. Life is good. 1 PM engines off with east winds and making 7-8 kts with screacher power. 4 ft seas behinds us… Oh, did I mention, there’s a weather front passing to the north. The Pacific coast of Baja is seeing 30-40 kts and Puerto Penasco is forecasted at 30 kts. That’s where these seas are coming from. No matter, we’re having a great day of sailing.

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We will make San Juanico no problem with these winds. Approaching Punta Pulpito winds drop below 15 and clock to our back.. It’s spinnaker time 🙂

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Our Hearts card game gets more interesting as we all begin to remember and develop strategies. As I write this Frankie is in the lead but we’re all pretty close.

San Juanico by 4 PM. Leaving so late from Conception this was great time.

 

Weather and water temps are nice and we take our first group swim (except Frankie, still too cold for her).

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It’s San Juanico and of coarse we need to make an offering to the cruiser shrine. I found a nice rock and Craig begins the creative process. You will have to wait until the next update to see our masterpiece..

West winds forecasted again tonight and we have everything well secure in anticipation.

Tomorrow is Craig and John’s last sailing day. In honor of our Leg 1 sail and tomorrow final leg into Loreto Craig wrote this little verse…

“Riding the waves to Loreto”

We’re riding the waves to Loreto.
The wind blowing what’s left of our hair.
We’re sailing with eyes mas abajo.
I hope we’ll be seeing you there.
We’ll soon be in Puerto Escondido,
With sailors from far and from near,
We’ll swap tales and swat at Mosquitos,
then we’ll laugh and we’ll drown in our beer.
Hope the wind will be fair in Loreto,
We’ll bask in the dawn’s early light.
Then just like sombrero’d bandidos,
We’ll be off like thieves in the night.

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Until the Next Update (Loreto Fest)