Isla San Francisco and Bahia San Everisto

3/14 Claire pulled the anchor up for her very first time at 7:20AM! Glass calm. Purple orange sunrise with reflections mirrored on the water. Light wind sail 21 miles to Isla San Francisco. 11:40AM 5 miles to go. Dropped sails calm. 14:15 Anchor up and leaving Isla San Francisco. We pulled in quick. Had a 100 yard swim to shore, quick walk down the beach, and swam back. Made lunch. Decided not to stay long and to also skip Amortajada and head straight to San Everisto. After weighing our options of probably not the greatest anchorage, no supplies, and definitely a lot of bugs coming out of it’s lagoon. We left Isla San Francisco spontaneously with the incoming tide. As soon as we are pulling out the National Geographic vessel “SeaBird” pulls in right behind us! We crossed the San Jose channel with strong North wind funneling down. We made our way up the coast, twelve 90º tacks in less than 10 miles! I highly doubt most other cruisers in the Sea of Cortez feel these kind of rides. With their inboard engines and lengthy waterlines they can just slice right through the headwinds while we sportingly climb our way against it. We pulled into San Everisto on a hard lean. The wind was cranking off the point. We dropped our sails quick and tried to anchor twice in breezy conditions 18:00. By skipping a few of our planned anchorages we are days ahead of schedule on our trek to Loreto! Time for a full Friday off.

3/15 Woke up early to pangas leaving 6:00. impressive mountains circling the bay. Cleaned the boat. Dinghy around the bay. Ceviche and Ballenas at the local palapa which was under construction by the father and son. Claire decides she likes Pacifico. Hit up the local tienda. Phosphorescence out of control. Fish on as soon as I climb into bed.

3/16 Hot. over 90º in the cabin. Sun blazing. Still anchored super shallow. Sketchy. I can tell the depth sounder is a couple feet off by my fishing line and a weight on the bottom. No south wind like forecasted. Just light and variable. Dinghy to tienda for produce. Doused boat decks with water, it just sizzled right off with steam, literally. 3 new boats here. Might go hike and definitely get more ice cold beer. Caught another fish for dinner.  Experienced our first south blow last night. Corumuel winds as they call them. Very gusty and sporadic. 25+ kts on some. Very shallow shoal under us. We’re probably only a foot from the bottom. Stuck beam-to, rocking with low tide swell. No sleep, bad night. Planned on leaving this morning.

3/17 trying to get weather forecast on the VHF. We moved and anchored more behind the small ridge to the south of the bay. 8:00am. Dangerously close to a random mooring. Someone has installed moorings in the two ideal anchoring spots of San Everisto, very annoying. We decided to not depart today because of no sleep and a messy boat. Another blow tonight is all the forecast I have. Anchor up at 10:30AM. Uncomfortably too close to the mooring. 2+ ft. Swell rolling into the bay. SE wind. We heard its flat on the North side of the point by the salt ponds. Motored around the cliff and had the anchor down by 11:00AM. There was good south wind and current in the San Jose channel. We were motoring at 5.5kts! Almost like being on a conveyor belt. What a great day to head North. But we were not ready to depart, need more sleep. One boat anchored over here. Fully exposed to the north, not used to this, exact opposite. Dinghy to shore. Cobblestone beach. Salt ponds. Found a ton of quartz or maybe agate all over the beach. Loaded with precious smooth stones. Claire found a perfect 2” Paper Nautilus. Crazy it didnt get smashed up on the rocks. Hung out with Doug and Linda from 33’ ¡Qué Linda! We burned our trash at the tide line. Doug helped me send an email to my mother through his HAM radio. Crazy science. Had dinner. Calm night. 

this is what our home looks like after a "bash"

view looking out san everisto

this was our sail from isla san francisco to san everisto. 12 tacks in less than 10 miles. against a 3 knot current and 20 knot headwinds. when i see this kind of sailing i feel confident that claire and i are learning to properly sail our boat. all the X's to the right is Amortajada where we decided to skip over.

local palapa restaurant. notice the tiny sign.

claire has introduced ballenas to her diet. ballena means whale, its the mexican 40.

the plywood house to the left and the panga to the right is all that pangadero owns. he has a VHF radio connecting his working vessel to his home. i think this is awesome. these men are true cowboys of the sea.

fresh ceviche

very nice, under construction

just a little throw up

the local grocery store. inviting!

the princess

she wants to help sail SO bad

nothing beats this

claires fresh loaf of cornbread and our bread crumbs for frying fish

look dad!

salt evaporation ponds. they sell this sea salt in La Paz.

north side of San Everisto

¡Qué Linda!

dolphins feeding in the drop off

the left is Isla San Francisco. behind is Isla San Jose

"the hook" of Isla San Francisco

looking over to the other side of the island

"the hook"

quick swim to shore

National Geographic "Sea Bird" pulling in

here's the link to their website

http://www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/expeditions/baja-photo-cruise/deckplans

"Sea Bird"

see Moms we wear our safety gear

crossing the channel from Isla San Francisco to San Everisto