After a quick stop at the Marina Palmira fuel dock, we were on our way to Puerto Balandra just 12 miles to the North. Just after leaving the Canal de La Paz I stopped to check a charging problem. As Solera drifted and I sorted some wiring, Cyn said, " Hey, the marina boat is here." That was strange I thought, but she was right, everyone in the gray panga had a shirt on that said "MARINA". Turns out, in Mexico Marina equals Navy. It was a friendly visit. They were out checking boat documentation and ours was in order. The electrical problem was soon fixed and we were off again.
Puerto Balandra is a beautiful bay and home to the famous "El Hongo" or mushroom rock. Nothing against a local landmark tourist attraction but coming from Colorado, El Hongo was a disappointment. It’s a balanced rock about 12 feet tall, and like the Garden of the Gods Balanced Rock, it’s been reinforced. Cyn and I had a close look from the dinghy, shrugged, then headed over to Wave Glider for drinks and a game of dominos called Mexican Train with Barry and Sue.
We never finished the game. A coromuel wind kicked up that evening and soon we found Solera dragging anchor with nobody aboard. I hopped in the dinghy and raced to the boat. It was a struggle in the strong wind but I was able to re-anchor on the opposite side of the bay in the shelter of a large bluff. After a very wet dinghy ride all crew were back aboard. But wait, that’s not all. I tested and set the anchor alarm then tried to get some sleep as the wind howled. The coromuel finally abated a bit toward morning. Cyn woke up first and I asked her where Wave Glider was. She said, "Off our port side". "What!", sure enough, we dragged anchor again. This time about half way across the bay and no, the anchor alarm never sounded. I looked at the GPS and our track that night looked like a seismometer graph. Solera would swing and drag repeatedly through the night. On board we could not feel any of it. BIG lesson learned, get up and check the anchor often on nights like that. By the way, I estimate the winds were over thirty knots. The real problem was the bottom. By the scratches on my anchor it I would say it was a thin layer of sand over flat rock. We were lucky!
We had had enough of the coromuels so we headed North out of their reach to Isla San Francisco. This place is just beautiful. The South bay has a crescent shaped white sand beach over a half mile long. As the gulls fly overhead their white wings turn turquoise as they reflect the water color. It’s a picture perfect anchorage. To the East of the bay is a ridge of rock that looked interesting. The features were angular like basalt or rhyolite. We took the trail up the ridge to have a look and found the best bouldering area I have seen so far. Dozens of big blocks situated at all different angles and the rock is very solid. I’ll have to get Austin here at some point.
Next, we moved on to the fishing village of San Evaristo. It’s another nice, well protected bay. In the morning, the pangeros were out catching bait fish as we sipped our coffee. These guys are masters at throwing nets. I never saw one come up empty. Later, we went to shore to check out the little tienda. It was a bit of a gory scene as beef was being butchered on the front porch. Morgan got a whiff of the blood and immediately tucked her tail. Maybe she thought she was next.
The following day we were off to Puerto Los Gatos. Our last visit here was unpleasant with bee stings, hot temperatures, and a very rolly anchorage but, it’s the only stop on this stretch of coast. This visit was great, no bees, comfortable and calm. Hiking around on the sandstone formations was fun. The terrain was other worldly.
Then the plan was to sail up to Agua Verde. Weather reports were good here but farther up the sea there had been some wild wind. The trailing edge of a cold front brushed the northern sea and brought 54 kt winds to Bahia Los Angeles. We sailed through remnants of the disturbance and struggled a bit. We went through a wild range of wind speeds and directons. It was like a giant Lake Pueblo. We reefed and shook out reefs constantly. Finally, as we reached Punta San Marcial and Agua Verde, it was time to drop sail and motor around the point. Wind was on the nose and there’s not much room between the point and a reef offshore. As is typical in this situation the wind and waves built up as we continued. Then a big set of really steep waves slammed into Solera. We buried her nose and flooded the decks several times before giving up and heading back downwind to a close by anchorage. We hung out there for only a short while as the wind had quickly died out allowing us to continue on to Agua Verde. We needed a reservation when we got there! Seemed everyone came to seek shelter. Thankfully, it’s a huge bay.
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