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14th February 2008 La Paz with friends to Isla San Francisco Baja California We were very lucky to have ‘cruising’ friends joining us, good company had been in short supply over the past few months; as we were moving north and just about everyone else was headed south, we had been unable to strike up any lasting friendships. Having friends aboard also breaks up the regime of continuous work on maintenance projects around the boat; here is a time when we can say ‘hey, we’re all going to have a little holiday’. That our friends had a similar type of boat to ours and were well versed in life aboard a cruising boat was a bonus; sometimes it can get difficult being confined in such a small space and its best that everyone knows what they are in for before flying great distances with great expectations! We had met Ron and Leslie Batt with “Sleepwalker II” (a Tartan 37) on the east coast of the U.S. and the Bahamas about three years previous and then cruised in company for quite a while; so we had spent quite some time in each others company. They spent the first couple of days in a hotel before moving on board ‘Mr John’. The day after they arrived we took an early morning bus to Todos Santos, a Mecca for the tourists because of its Art Galleries and Silver Boutiques which lined the high street; I can’t say I found a great deal of interest there but everyone else found some jewellery to buy and after a nice lunch and dinner at the famous ‘Hotel California’ we all returned to La Paz happy and worn out. In the evenings we went along the Malecon and checked out the Carnival however, with the ‘norther’ blowing it was rather cool so there was little to keep us. In fact I was rather disappointed with the Carnival in general; it seems to me that ‘Carnival’ is not for everyone and not for every place, I don’t think it’s a Mexican thing and in particular not during the winter! The participants were freezing to death trying to show a little skin so that only the ones with some blubber were enticed to put in an appearance; all the good looking girls had stayed home or were hiding under a mass of clothing. At least that is what I assumed as it was only on the last parade of the Carnival, when the weather improved, that there was anything worth looking at. In general, Mexicans are short, squat and not really the beach bikini material; that’s not to say they don’t have a few real ‘crackers’, just that they are ‘sort of rare’…….Hey, what do you expect on a diet of Taco’s and Enchilada’s? The weather improved somewhat as the Carnival ended so it was a good time for us to make our departure from La Paz and head out to see the islands. We had a magical five days during which the weather co-operated fully and we were able to sample some of the best that the area has to offer. We visited four anchorages and picked up a mooring off Los Islotes twice; this was where we got to visit with the local Sea Lion population and had a truly wonderful experience of being right up close to nature in the natural environment. We also had a great sail up to Isla San Francisco and an equally good sail back encountering many whales along the way; we all got lots of Photos and took home a ton of great memories! One point that became clear was that La Paz has a very nice little cruising ground right on its doorstep, especially for a handy type cruising boat such as ours. There are some very nice anchorages where having a shallow draft increases the amount of space available and the amount of shelter available in the event of inclement weather. There were moorings available at Los Islotes and in the calm conditions we were not so big as to overload them (the guide says they are for ‘Panga’ type vessels). A larger boat would have to anchor off in deep water or dinghy over from the nearest anchorage on Isla Partida; some distance away. The winds, on the better days, are mostly light and a medium to light displacement boat can have some enjoyable sailing here where as a big, heavy cruising boat may have a lot of motoring to contend with. On the Islands that we visited, Espiritu Santo, Partida and San Francisco, there are no settlements although there are seasonal Fish Camps and Base Camps for some of the Adventure Tours (mainly Kayaking) that take place in the area. There are some very nice beaches and a few trails where one can wander off and explore; on San Francisco, having climbed up to the southern ridge line, we were able to watch a whale lazing around just a short distance offshore; there are also many more birds than we expected so taking a little picnic ashore to do some nature watching can become a real treat! Back in La Paz we said goodbye to Ron and Leslie and they flew home to freezing temperatures and snow in Toronto; we were sorry to see them go but very pleased that their holiday had worked out so well. We were all extremely lucky that the La Paz destination turned out to be such an overwhelming success. We spent a couple of nights in the La Paz Marina, cleaning up the boat and catching up with laundry before going out to anchor off El Mogote, the peninsular of low land that lies to the northwest of La Paz and along with its huge, attached sand bar, somewhat protects the anchorage; if not from the wind then at least from big seas. I had applied for a new passport and we were awaiting its arrival so we used the waiting period to do jobs around the boat and attend to correspondence. It was the 15th of May 2008 before we managed to get away from La Paz and by this time we’d had enough of ‘civilization’ and were keen to get a bit of nice sailing in however, it was apparent that the weather was not going to co-operate. We had already experienced our first ‘Coromuels’, a local wind that is only felt in the La Paz area and up to thirty miles away; it blows up, usually after sunset, from the southwest and can honk away at fifteen to twenty-five knots until mid morning. It can make the anchorage off La Paz most uncomfortable, causing us move from our spot off the Mogote and re-anchor close under the lee of the town. We left a little to late in the morning to make use of this favourable breeze and motored around to Caleta Lobos which was the first bay outside of La Paz where we knew we’d have protection from an overnight ‘Coromuel’. Unfortunately we were heavily invaded with small flies as soon as we had got the anchor down and this cast a shadow over this otherwise idyllic location; after a while of suffering, we hung out our mosquito nets (one of which encloses the cockpit area) and took cover until the onslaught of that evenings ‘Coromuel’ which dropped the temperature about ten degrees and drove the pesky monsters away. We quickly took down the nets and prepared the boat for a reasonably early departure time the following morning however, during the night and the early hours the wind gusted heavily making us glad we’d picked the most sheltered anchorage available but making us tardy at getting underway when daylight came…….. I wanted to be sure it was actually going to go down again! We got away soon after our morning forecast and had a good sail in fifteen to eighteen knots of breeze; unfortunately the strong overnight winds from the southwest had built up a short sea and this was running against a swell that was coming into our area both from the north and northwest. Thus the whole area to the west of Isla Espiritu Santo was turned into a ‘washing machine’ of rather unpleasant conditions in which “Mr John” bounced about doing more ‘up and down’ than forward progress; we were forced to use the motor to get clear of the area so that we could resume normal sailing again. Just as we were beginning to get a little despondent, a real treat arrived in way of an inquisitive Whale that decide he would come and take a look at us rather than have us chasing all over the ocean to have a look at him. We had a fantastic half hour with this fellow surfacing close by, first on one side and then the other, blowing away and almost rubbing up against our hull. It was close, perhaps a little too close, for one flip of the tail and we would have sustained damage for sure; it was however, well worth the risk as getting this close to such a magnificent animal is a treat not to be missed. The rest of the trip to Isla San Francisco went without incident, however once the anchor was down there was an indecent rush below to the pictures and video footage that Paula had managed to take of our Whale encounter. Once we had cleaned up and put away the sailing gear we took stock of the bay; this is said to be a popular spot and it was indeed well stacked with boats, more than we were expecting for this time of the year. Most surprising for us was the amount of large power boats (over fifty feet in length); there were at least half a dozen of them in the anchorage and most of them seemed to be carrying ‘jet-ski’s’, so any peace and quiet that had once been on offer here was now well shattered. It was however weekend and most of them were gone by the Monday morning; unfortunately they were replaced by rising winds, inclement weather and….. believe it or not…rain! There were a couple of very nice rainbow’s and we got some pictures however this was not an activity we’d been expecting to participate in during our time in Baja; there wasn’t a lot of rain, just a brief shower and the temperature seemed to drop to freezing. That was just the imagination working overtime but it was cold! Along with the rain we had some heavy squalls which down-drafted over the island peaks and into the bay at over thirty knots. The wind generator went into over-speed mode and closed down whilst the boat healed over heavily. A couple of the motor cruisers dragged their anchors and had to re-set them, we didn’t move but for securities sake, I set our second anchor and flaked out the rode on the deck as insurance. Thus we settled down for a couple of days of ‘hanging on’ behind this island whilst the weather sorted itself out, we did however manage to row ashore the next morning and had a lovely four hours of hiking the trails; following the well worn paths of the many that have gone before. Whilst it was blowing so strong we made good use of the power that our wind generator was pumping in to our batteries, Paula brought all our accounts up to date and I used my sander on the forward hatch where the paint had flaked off; it is amazing how we manage to produce power for sanders, drills, grinders and computers! The secret is power management and whilst, in the past, we managed to do this quite well in a rudimentary sort of way (taking battery densities at regular intervals) we are now basking in the luxury of a monitoring system. It has taken a bit of time for us to build up the trust required to work with the system but after much checking and reading of densities we are finally getting more relaxed with just watching the amps roll in / roll out, it has certainly made our lives a lot easier and like most of these fancy gadgets we have around these days, in the end, we wonder how we ever managed to live without them! One of the nice things about San Francisco is that there is plenty of space both in the anchorage and ashore, you can choose to meet people or be close to people but you can also have privacy. No one lives on the island and there are no fishing camps and we tend to gravitate towards these spots; we dislike being on display in front of some fish camp or small village and we have found that those who live ashore in these remote areas have lost their awe of peace and tranquillity, turning instead towards ‘noise’ to fill the vacuum. This turn towards ‘The Dark Side’ has ruined much of the world, it is becoming more and more difficult to escape the power of the dark side and I guess that’s why so many people now own sailboats, RV’s and ATV’s, the potential to escape is there, even if it is never used! More to follow in other news letters as we slowly venture north. John & Paula |
| Sunrise from Isla San Francisco |
| Ron & Leslie |
| Baja California Hotel (Figure this one out!) |
| La Paz Carnival |
| Los Islotes. One checky baby sea lion who wanted to come with us at. |
| Grey Whale with her young a few weeks old |
| Isla Del espiritu Santos |
| Isla San Francisco. Double rainbow |
| Isla San Francisco |
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