Moving Up The Sea of Cortez |
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Man This is The Life |
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After our friends Steve and Cyndi left we provisioned to take off and head up the Sea. We were planning on going all the way to San Carlos with Brad and Vicki from JoJo and haul out in Marina Seca but as it turns out we hauled out in Puerto Escondido, which I think was a good choice. Leaving La Paz we heard there was a northerly coming in for a few days so we headed to Caleta Partida knowing that it has great northerly protection. We ended up staying at Partida for 3 days with JoJo riding out the northerly. We did a great hike up through the arroyo to the top of Partida. It was pretty cool you could see both sides of the Island. After leaving Partida we headed for Isla San Francisco hoping to spend about a week there, getting there was pretty calm and we did see a whale and some dolphins. The first night in SF we got hit with a southerly so it was a rough night and then we heard another southerly was coming with a big northerly following. Dang, so much for hanging out in SF. We got underway and headed for San Everisto with JoJo figuring at least we'd have a little village to hang out in for the week while we rode out the weather. When we got there we ran into some fisherman that sold us about a 3 1/2' Yellow Tail for about $8, and they cut it into 4 huge filets for us. That was 2 nights dinners for JoJo and us for $8. How can you beat that? Generally, you can get fresh fish from the fisherman pretty cheap I guess that's why we haven't got our fishing lic yet. We hung out in Everisto for 6 nights riding out the weather but it wasn't bad. We did some hikes, Laura snorkeled and we met some new people. We also ran across our first rattlesnake in Mexico. When we left Everisto we had some big seas that slowed us up a bit so just before dark we headed into a little anchorage known as Timbabiche. When we got there the local fisherman brought us some lobster. Three lobster tails for $5. Talk about a deal! We only stayed there for one night then went on to Bahia Agua Verde where we only stayed for one night also, but that night we made lobster tacos with JoJo, and Oh Man, all I can say is Lobster Tacos....The next day we got to Puerto Escondido and grabbed a mooring ball for a week. WOW! Hot showers what a treat. We hung out meeting new people and hiking in Steinbeck's canyon, in fact this time we hiked up finding some caves that allowed us to get up even higher then we did before. After about 4 days we took off with JoJo and headed up to Isla Carmen to Bahia Ballandra. What a beautiful anchorage. It has great protection for almost all directions. We loved that anchorage. While there we met Phil and Kim from Salty. Phil's a great fisherman and caught us a bunch of fish for some homemade fish tacos. We also met Chad and Valerie from Mounton Noir, a 22' Catalina. A couple years ago Chad and a couple of his buddies bought a panga and took it from San Diego to Costa Rica on a surfing excursion. Now that's an adventure! We stayed at Ballandra for 5 days then headed for an anchorage called Honeymoon Cove. On our way we saw a bunch of whales. In fact, I think we almost had a head on with one. I was looking away when Laura looks up and yells ohhhhhh! I looked over the port side and there's a huge fin slapping the water like 2' from the boat then I see the body of a huge whale sliding by us about maybe 1-2' from the boat. At first we thought maybe we pissed him off and we were a little worried that he might come back and ram us but then we realized when he flapped his fin on the water twice he was just saying, "Wasssssssssssssssssssss up?" It was the closest I'd ever been to a whale. Honeymoon Cove is an awesome little anchorage and best of all it was only about an hour from Escondido. We ended up back at Escondido for a few more days then decided to haul out there instead of going all the way up to San Carlos. We'd really like to explore more Islands in that area so if the the boat was there when we came back we could start exploring right away. We said goodbye to Brad and Vicki on JoJo as they headed north for Guaymas and started getting Hanali ready to get hauled out. I pulled a Captain Ron at the fuel dock and slid right by another boat and into the dock beautifully. Even Laura was impressed. Well that's it for this season. We'll spend the summer in the states then back to Escondido in the fall. Hope you enjoy the photos.
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