San Pedro and Las Cocinas

Here are some pictures from a five day trip up the coast from San Carlos. The idea was to go out for a few days to be sure everything is working properly before heading into the more remote areas north of the Midriff Islands. We left with light wind coming over the stern so out came the spinnaker. We ghosted along at 3 kts for about three hours to our first stop Bahia San Pedro. Approaching the bay, I doused the spinnaker then began motoring the last mile into the bay. We had a little scare when the engine suddenly began straining and vibrating. It turned out to be just a wad of stringy seaweed wrapped around the prop shaft. Thankfully, it was easily removed by hand the next morning. We enjoyed two calm comfortable days at San Pedro.

Our next leg took us 13 miles further to the Las Cocinas anchorage. It was flat calm all day and we motored the whole way without incident. We thought about anchoring in the tiny cove of Julio Villa. Tom and I had been there in 2008 on Solstice, my Cal 2-27 (see some of the earliest posts). It was a tight fit for a 27 footer and as we motored through on Solera, Cyn and I agreed that we needed more room. Las Cocinas was just around the corner and is highly recommended by other cruisers. The guidebook claims "gin clear waters". This time of year there is just a little green to it. I’d call it a "dirty martini". The anchorage’s western orientation provided spectacular sunsets. We had the whole place to ourselves.

 We broke up the 27 mile return trip with another stop at San Pedro. A strong NW swell had us anchoring on the well protected north side of the bay.  After a comfortable night at anchor we left early to avoid the predicted strong afternoon winds. We monitor the Sonrisa net on sideband radio for daily weather reports.  It’s comforting to know when something big is coming our way. Solera rode an eighteen knot wind over the stern all the way back to San Carlos. We made a steady five knots under genoa only. I rarely use this sail configuration but wind direction and swell dictated the using the headsail only. It's off to Bahia Los Angeles in a few days.