Puerto Escondido to Isla Espiritu Santo

The North wind came in with a vengeance at Puerto Escondido and even cut short the Loretofest activities on Sunday. We saw a gust over 30 at our mooring on the protected side of the bay. There were reports of 40 knot winds on the South side. Sounds a lot like Pueblo Reservoir! No serious damage occurred in the bay, just a couple of broken mooring pendants, flipped dinghys, and a few boats dragged anchor. The Norther caused us to get a late start to the Sea of Cortez Sailing Week rally down to La Paz. Cyn and I wanted to be sure the winds and seas settled a bit before heading out. The delay put us out of synch with the rest of the fleet for a couple of days. We left port with a double reefed main and wind in the high teens. The breeze quickly faded and left us motorsailing in a very large residual swell. It was a bit of a rough ride down to Agua Verde. We tucked in behind the reef and dropped anchor in 15 feet. The rest of the fleet made it 12 miles further to Isla San Francisco.

Our next leg was 44 miles to a fishing village called San Evaristo. As we motorsailed past Puerto Los Gatos, our previous southern most anchorage, a large pod pacific white sided dolphins crossed our bow. With the light wind you could easily see the large shoals of bait fish they were herding. As Solera approached the San Evaristo Channel the wind sarted to fill in. We began the sail with the wind nearly on the nose and all sails hauled in tight. We finished about three hours later with the spinnaker up and the dying breeze dead astern. Not a good situation for wind vane self steering. The result would have been a complete u-turn if you didn't pay attention!

The anchorage was calm and comfortable until about five in the morning when a swell started rolling into the bay. It’s fun trying to figure out the sea conditions. These waves traveled up from La Paz where a wind phenomenon called the Coromuel blows this time of year. It’s caused by the difference in temprature between the warm Sea of Cortez and the cold Pacific. There’s a stretch of low land that crosses the Baja peninsula there allowing the wind to build sometimes into the 30’s. The odd thing is that the Coromuel wind nearly always occurs at night. The swell we experienced formed 50 miles away after midnight but didn’t arrive at our anchorage until just before dawn.

We made an early exit and contacted the Sea of Cortez Sailing Week fleet on the VHF. The plan was to meet up with them in the afternoon at Bahia San Gabriel on Isla Espritu Santo. Once again we motorsailed until the wind filled in. It was almost the same scenario as the day before. With a similar geographic situation the wind clocked as we approached then traveled along side a large island. The big difference was the sea life. This time a very large pod of dolphins intercepted Solera and surrounded her for close to an hour. It was a real treat watching the dolphins watching us! They roll on their sides underwater then, without a doubt,  make eye contact with you. Sadly, on the beach at San Gabriel, we came across the remains of a dolphin. What struck me was the size of the animal’s skull. The brain cavity is nearly the size of a humans.        

As we approached Isla Partida, Cyn and I heard the unmistakable sound of a whale spouting. Soon, we passed a pod of three or four Grays off our port side only about 30 yards out. Then, just 20 minutes or so later a similar pod of Finbacks passed just off to starboard. These are really enormous animals and frankly I was glad they were several yards away. Grays grow to over 50 feet and weigh up to 70,000 lbs. Finbacks reach 70 feet and weigh up to 150,000 lbs. It’s estimated that these giants can live almost 150 years. At 18,000 lbs. Solera would be no match in a collision.

 We caught up to the Sailing Week flotilla that day at picturesque Bahia San Gabriel. Their schedule had us staying the following day also. What a nice time we had. There were several pot-lucks, bocci games, volleyball, snorkeling, and one or two cocktails shared. Many were lifelong sailors with interesting racing and cruising stories to tell. I really enjoyed listening and learning from this experienced bunch.

We have a week in La Paz planned so until next time…