Loreto-SantaRosalia

Our plan was to spend our first night north of Loreto in San Juanico, an anchorage which almost everyone raves about. Unfortunately the winds didn’t favor anchoring in San Juanico so we continued a mile or so further and anchored in another favorite anchorage, La Ramada. La Ramada is just over a small hill from San Juanico so we were able to walk across and take pictures of the anchorage, even if we didn’Äôt get to explore it. We also knew that the winds may change and we may have an opportunity to visit the anchorage in a few days.

La Ramada was a great anchorage which sheltered us from wind and waves. A finger of low lying land fills about half of the entrance to the bay, so it is vvery well protrcted from all but a very small arc of wind directions.

One morning, we were startled by a large boil of fish in the sea right next to Trick. It was a school of what we think were Jacks corralling and devouring small fry hiding under Trick’Äôs hull. John Jumped in and speared a couple for dinner. The smaller, lighter colored one was pretty tasty but the larger one was a bit oily and fishy for our tastes.

The northwestern corner of the bay was magnificent snorkeling. There was a big jumble of rocks with tons of fish around. The triggerfish on the left was about 18" long and aggressively chased John around, bumping into him as if he wanted attention. We found an octopus in a hole on top of one of the rocks although he was too shy to come out and have his photograph taken. Maybe he was upset that John had wrested the hermit crab from his grip and deprived him of dinner.

Another kind of starfish and fern-like growths on the rocks.

There seemed to be schools of tiny fish everywhere, probably attracting the larger fish to the area. The small butterfly fish don’t seem to be too common but we’ve seen a few around. Yellowtails are a favorite gourmet dish but we seem to see lots of different sorts of fish with yellow tails and haven’t figured out which is the tasty one yet. We bet they are the ones that are hardest to catch!

We spent about a week in La Ramada before finally tearing ourselves away. Stefan in Ky Mani arrived during our stay. We did some snorkeling and fishing together then headed Northwards. We had planned to part ways as we planned a long haul on Trick, avoiding Bahia Concepcion which is reputed to be uncomfortably hot at this time of year. The winds didn’t cooperate too well for us though. Stefan has a small boat and doesn’t like to use his outboard engine to assist on his passages which left him on a potentially dangerous lee shore. We hung back to see if he needed assistance but he found an anchorage that he was comfortable with and we left him there. We continued on and tried our hand at fishing. We had 2 lines out and it wasn’t too long before we caught a 10 lb Bonito. Almost as soon as we noticed him on the line, a second bonito took the second lure. Unfortunately they are not very good to eat, so we unhooked them and gave it a second shot. Within perhaps a half hour we had another very lively fish on the line. This time it turned out to be a Dorado. One the best eating fish, also known as Mahi Mahi - yummy. Again a second one hit the other lure but got away before we could reel it in. John is quite sure he caught a glimpse of the biggest dorado ever caught and claims that his arms aren’t long enough to stretch from its head to its tail. Maybe a good thing it got away or our tiny freezer would have been way overstuffed. As it was, the one we caught fed us for 3 meals and we gave some away too!

All of this activity slowed us down a little so we turned the corner into Bahia Conception and dropped anchor in Bahia Santo Domingo for the night. Stefan arrived early the next morning after getting blown out of his anchorage and waiting for daylight before heading into Bahia Concepcion. He anchored nearby and we left him to sleep.

The detour to Santo Domingo was fortuitous. Patricia thought it was among the most attractive place we had visited and we had a great hike with Stefan in the afternoon. The area is very remote, at the end of a 20-mile-long peninsula that separates Bahia Concepcion from the rest of the Sea of Cortez. Ospreys watched us from their perches on the giant cactuses and we even startled a bobcat that had been sheltering in the shadow of some rocks at the water’s edge.

The scenery was spectacular and seemed to change hourly with the interplay of sun and weather. Clouds are becoming a daily occurrence of great interest because they are harbingers of the Summer storms and ssigns to watch for the sudden high winds that can happen at this time of year. I guess the area can’t be too bad though, or this little baby pelican wouldn’t be hanging around to play

I guess the place must be pretty remote for sailors too. Most head down into Bahia Concepcion to visit the busier beaches on the Baja side of the bay. John showed Stefan how to spot the chocolate clams and they came up with quite a haul in about a half hour. They were big ones too.

Time to move on again and our next stop was Sweet Pea Cove on Isla San Marcos. Most of these islands seem to be less than a half days sail apart so the cruising around here is very relaxed.

The water gets very clear as it heats up and we experienced the clearest water ever in Sweet Pea Cove. Trick’s hull seems to be home to a community of tiny fish which look like baby Sergeant Majors. We are also visited regularly by swarms of tiny fry and other small fish.

The currents are getting stronger as we head North and John was fascinated to snap some pictures of the almost-invisible plankton as it washed by Trick. The round one at the bottom of the picture was about 1" diameter.

The water was so clear that we could watch the fish swimming about on the bottom underneath Trick. One unfortunate fellow was a sand dab which is another delicious fish. Patricia spotted him on the bottom and John jumped in and speared him for lunch. One of the great things about diving here is that the water is so warm that you don’t need any preparation to get in the water and explore. The anchorages are so shallow that snorkeling is perfectly adequate to just see the sights or to catch a meal. There were lots of other critters around. A ray gliding quietly by, sand eels poking their heads out of their burrows and a curious fish which lived in as hole in the sand and decorated its home with shells around the rim. John managed to accidentally catch one while trying to catch a needlefish which is reputed to be quite tasty (if you can eat green meat). What an odd looking fish with a tiny body relative to his huge head and mouth. This one really managed to get away. We pulled the hook out and watched him swim back down to his hole.

There were days when the water was so calm that there was barely a ripple to be seen. John’s shadow on the bottom of the sea, an unusual view of Trick and some almost perfect reflections of the island in the water

One day we took a dinghy ride around the north end of the island. The first thing we encountered was a large colony of pelicans just around the corner from Sweet Pea. Quite a ways further round is an anchorage known as Los Arcos. Not surprisingly, there were many rock arches and caves there.

We finally weighed anchor after a week in San Marcos and headed for Santa Rosalia about 7 miles up the coast.

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The water in Santa Rosalia Harbor is almost black but its little 10-boat maria seem one of the most pleasant that we have visited on our travels. The manager, Ricardo, is extremely helpful and runs a happy relaxed marina. Maybe it helps that the marina isn’t too busy and the most common visitors are cruisers on their way North or South. The harbor is full of pangas and about half of them seem to leave at around 7:30 at night to catch squid. You can see their lights spread out along the horizon when it gets dark. They return in the wee hours creating a disturbance we'd rather not have, but it isn’t really too bad and they are a friendly bunch of people.

The town of Santa Rosalia is something of a cutiosity. It was founded in the mid 19^th century by Europeans to mine and smelt copper ore, so the design of the town is predominantly post-industrial revolution and colonial European. Mining operations ceased in the 1960s and much of the company assets, including buildings were left to rot. The marina is pretty much surrounded by spectacular but derelict buildings, including a copper foundry. Even some of the local vehicles seem to fit the same pattern. One of few buildings to remain intactis the original company headquarters perched on a hill overlooking the town where it receives a wonderful cooling breeze in the afternoons. It has been converted into a museum although the major exhibits are a few photographs, office furniture, typewriters and adding machines.

The most fascinating ’exhibits’ in Santa Rosalia are just lying around. Old mine carts are common sights as planters in the local gardens. Locomotives and other railroad memorabilia seem to be strewn about the streets and mostly left to rust, although the climate here probably keeps things from rusting too quickly. There are all sorts of interesting structures that are pretty much left open for people to wander around at their own risk but frustratingly little to describe what any of it was used for.

The town itself has been very enjoyable. It seems small and compact yet seems to have most things that a person would need. Lots of stores to stock up for the trip North and the best vegetable store that I have seen for years.

One of the great pleasures of being here is the experience of a different culture and especially trying the different foods. Limes have become an integral part of our lives. So refreshing with so many drinks and great marinade (the fishermen use it to add flavor to raw fish and shellfish). We’re already into our second lime squeezer. The orange juice here is fresh squeezed. Walk ito a store and ask for orage juice and someone starts cutting oranges in half. The halves are then placed individually into a hand squeezer an squeezed. It costs about $2 for a quart. Our latest discovery has been prickly pears - just by asking how to eat one. The shopkeeper just peeled one for us and gave us each half. A delicious, juicy mix of apple and cucumber flavor. The fruits here are probably left to ripen for longer on the plants and are usually riper in the stores. That’s probably what makes them taste so good. Of course, it get overripe quite quickly and places like Santa Rosalia get deliveries only once a week.