Santa Rosalia to Bahia San Francisquito (Leg 3)

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By Lowell | May 12, 2010 | Category Baja 2010

Sunday May 9th.

A final Seawind Rally note. The Seawind that traveled the farthest is Brad & Lisa on Tenacious Grace. Their boat is named absolutely perfectly. Their journey began in northern Alberta Canada far inland. They decided to become sailors, taking a 5 day sailing course then purchasing their 1160 in Seattle. Over the past year they’ve made the journey starting in the treacherous northern Pacific near Vancouver and finally joining us in the Seawind Rally after spending time in the Puerto Vallarta area on mainland Mexico. They get the iron-person crew award along with their children Kat and Zac. Brad plans to single hand back to San Diego in the coming months. You can read more and follow their journey at www.sailblogs.com/member/ramer

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Bruce & Cynthia Tegge sailing friends from Cholla Bay join us for Leg 3. They have a Catalina 25 at Mr. Fish Taco boat yard in Cholla and sail the area frequently.

Forecast today is 10-12kts from the SE and we’re hoping to fly the spinnaker as we head north for Punta Trinidad or points north. Dream Catcher is heading north with us and exited Santa Rosa 2 hours ahead of us.

Heading north from Santa Rosalia seems to always be a sea life overload..

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Marlin in the picture above. Neely has a wild ride chasing dolphin after dolphin.

Dolphin count 500+ with pod after pod coming south each getting Neely more excited. Marlin count 14 sometimes in threes swimming on the surface the their slight bent dorsal fin…

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12ish as expected winds are up allowing us to fly the spinnaker with 3 hours of stable flying winds. The pineapple express clouds are back and the humidity is very high. Thank goodness it’s still cool.

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Now the drama begins… The picture right shows another fog bank heading north from Santa Rosalia.. Great 🙁

Our hopes that we could out run or have the fog disapate before reaching us fade as we sail well past Punta Trinidad. Now the concern is can we make an anchorage before the fog?? Cabo San Miguel is now five miles north and the fog is rounding up on the coast line. Winds and 2′ waves are out of the SE and the San Miguel anchorage will offer no protection but the overnight forecast is for north winds. We can ride the seas that should settle later tonight and have north wind protection later in the night… That is… if we can get to the anchorage before it’s fogged in. One mile out and things are beginning to get thick. Dream Catcher is now a few miles behind us and in the fog.

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We can still see the Punta San Miguel which stands 225′ and use that to find our way to the anchorage we overnighted at on our way south. Depth is 12′ and we still don’t see the small sand beach that defines the anchorage. Cool.. there’s the beach!! The anchor is down and the seas don’t seem to be to bad rolling in from the SE. Visibility is now 75 yards. We radio Dream Catcher our coordinates and advise how to approach the anchorage. They make our latitude and begin easing their way towards land. They radio they’re in 8′ of water and don’t see shore. It’s getting tense.. We get the fog horns out and they hear us and we hear them. They’re a little bit north and close to the point that could have submerged rocks. They turn south and their horn gets closer… Like a ghost, they appear north of us and are a little too close to shore. They round out side of us and drop the hook safe and sound and another successful sail experience under their belt and war story to tell. No cocktail hour tonight just a quick dinner and rest.

The sunset briefly appears before the fog is back and we can’t even see the beach. This is a little erie knowing we have southern exposure and still have wind and wave pushing us toward the beach. Before retiring we spend a good bit of time watching the GPS assuring our selves that the anchor is not dragging. Early AM the winds clock to the north and clear the fog and seas settle. We have a surprisingly restful night under these conditions.

Monday May 10th

Fog is gone and now we have north winds on our nose for our next leg. Dream Catcher heads out at sunrise hoping to make progress north before winds and seas get lumpy. Of course, we head in for Neely shore time before we start north. Cynthia snapped this picture as we explore a shallow cave at the north end of our anchorage. Ham net reports cool weather in Puerto Penasco and it’s gotten much cooler here (we’re sleeping under blankets). .

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We round Cabo San Migeul out of our anchorage 8ish and face into the 20kt wind hoping to make Isla Salispuedes. Our first tack takes us 8 miles of the 14 to San Francisquito. 3 more tacks to make the Francisquito south beach.. Calm water and we surrender. We’re already low on ice it’s time to go in search of ice on the beach.

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Above the Mexican resort that sets on the south shore of San Francisquito.

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Ladies hooking around...

Howard met us at the resort and invited us down to his place to use the internet. It’s the next to last place south on the beach. He’s from Laguna Beach and spends lots of time in San Francisquito fishing & diving. Thanks Howard for the internet fill.

The resort said they would have ice in 3 hours. The plan, finish an update, have lunch, head to Howard’s and get emails / send update, pick up ice and hopefully winds will back down so we can make Salsipudes before night fall.

Bruce, Cynthia & Neely watch an airplane land on the runway behind the resort.

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2:30 after visiting Howard and taking care of internet, we head to the resort and find they were making the ice and only have 1 1/2 ready. Oh well, A little ice is better than none. We’re off.. Rounding the point the wind is still at 15-18 and now we have the channel current of 2 kts working against us. No hope for the island. We find Dream Catcher in the north bay of San Franscisquito and decide to join them making our afternoon more enjoyable.

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It’s been a tough 24 hours and it’s time relax a little. John & Regina on Dream Catcher totally agree.

Until the next Update

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Sunset walk Bahia San Francisquito and the cliffs behind the beach.