"Going South - Ensenada to Turtle Bay"

Going South

As we wrote to you in our last newsletter, we were invited to a weekend of fun under the sun by Lynn Sisco, President of Parrotheads Baja California in Puerto Salinas on the last weekend in July.

This marina is a brand new development about 60 miles south of San Diego. It is very close to the La Fonda Restaurant. This marina does not have a breakwater so the entrance is constantly being dredged. Boats with 4-5 feet draft don’t have a problem; anything deeper may need a guide to enter. Once inside there is enough depth for any type of boat. The marina is trying to establish itself as a center for Baja fishing tournaments to attract more customers.

Sunday morning, after recuperating from the festivities, we went to La Fonda for brunch. We both did a double take when we saw Don and Pat Coffelt sitting at the next table. It’s a small world. There are PMYC members roaming around in the world…

The next day we briefly went to San Diego to provision one last time. You know, those little things you forgot, like stock to print your boat cards (business cards), some new special hash browns we were introduced to at Silver Gate YC, candies for the little kids underway, etc... Yes, the waterline is history again, but what’s new?

Tuesday, August 02, 2005 it’s time for one last load of laundry, a visit to the port captain to get the crew list valid for all of Mexico, to load up on ice for the sundowners, to stow everything away and a great dinner at Mexico’s oldest French restaurant “El Rey Sol”. The next morning we left for Punta Colonett, some 69 miles south of Ensenada. The skies were grey and foggy at 7:00 AM.

The real adventure begins – un-chartered waters for us from now on.

When leaving Cruise Port Marina, the route takes you along the old half sunken SS Catalina. What a sad sight. There is still talk about raising and restoring her to her old beauty. Seeing the reality makes you question the sanity of this whole project. As we were trying to leave Ensenada Harbor, one of the regular cruise ships was entering the harbor. As the saying goes, “Tonnage rules”. We made a u-turn and waited for this monster to finish entering the harbor. Conti, this is what you do when the other boat is way bigger than you. You don’t play chicken with it.

All the way to Punta Banda the ocean was like a mirror. It remained flat all the way with no wind. I guess Murphy exists also in Mexico. As soon as we approached the anchorage, the wind picked to 15 knot gusts.

Punta Colonett is easy to recognize; a big mesa looking like a Milky Way bar, caramel in the middle and dark chocolate on top. Once around the corner, the anchorage is about a mile along the cliff just past the gorge (a big “V” in the wall). We anchored in about 25 feet of water with a sandy bottom. The anchorage was surprisingly calm, although it had the looks of Paradise Cove. This was our first night totally away from civilization. A deserted cove, pitch black surroundings and a sky full of stars.

As the movie title says: “A day without a Mexican”. We may be in Mexico but we miss our favorite one, the one and only “You”, I mean the one and only “Gonzo”…


All the way down the coast we had regular encounters with red tide. The phenomenon is due to a population explosion of toxic (not to humans) naturally occurring microscopic plankton. The bloom occurs when the ocean has warm surface temperatures, high nutrient content, low salinity and calm seas. It makes for a great light show at night, when you can see the fish swimming by your boat. You can see the waves breaking on the beach and if you have salt water flush in your toilets, you don’t have to turn the light on at night in your head. The light show in the bowl will illuminate the whole room.

After a very quiet and peaceful night, we departed next morning to San Quintin. As we were leaving the anchorage a nice wind came up. We hoisted the spinnaker and cruised along at 7 knots. It didn’t last long. The wind died and the iron Genny came back on. It went like this all day, even so we tried a few times to sail.

Underway we decided to have a look at the anchorage in Isla San Martin called Hassler Cove. Most guides describe it as an anchorage not suitable during N, NE and NW winds. Even so we had a northwesterly, the anchorage was nice and flat. We opted to stay for a night or two. We had to anchor twice, since our first attempt resulted in scooping up a whole farm of sea grass from the bottom. On our second attempt the anchor finally bit securely. The boat settled nicely at anchor and it was cocktail hour with melted brie and mini toasts. A bee decides to come and visit us from the island. It kept circling the boat without entering it. Somehow it must have figured out that it was persona non grata on the boat, especially given the past experiences from Carrillo Beach. It just keeps circling.

The next morning we were watching the fishermen bringing in their overnight loot of crabs. At the very end they raised a net in the cove containing a lot of fish as well as a lobster. After they emptied their loot in their icebox, they came over to our boat and offered us the lobster in exchange for a couple of beers. A few oatmeal cookies on top of it resulted in an additional half a bucket of crab legs. Not a bad deal. Dinner was secured.

The dinghy went in the water for some explorations. We went around the bend looking for the little lagoon shown on all the maps. Unfortunately it was hidden behind a big kelp field. We beach landed by the fishing camp and went to explore by foot. A short walk through some scrub and we got to the bay. It is home to some seals and a whole
Legion of Gooney birds. When they saw us approaching, they all decided to take off at the same time. It felt like a scene from “The Birds” by Hitchcock. We tried to climb to the top of the island but there was no trail. Plus the Cactus needle balls stopped us from any progress. We just wandered about the little fishing village houses (or ruins). The beach was littered with a green channel buoy, lobster hooplas, shoes, cans, etc.

We went back to the boat to prepare our seafood festival with some fine wines. A peaceful night was followed by an invasion of flies from the island in the morning. We must have a special attraction for unwanted critters. After a quick breakfast, we lifted anchor and made a beautiful spinnaker run to Cape San Quintin / Bahia Santa Maria. Originally we decided to anchor right behind the cape, but there were so many shoals. We opted to make a run for Playa Santa Maria across the bay and anchor in front of some hotels. Another cruising boat was already there. They were on their way north without an engine. A while later a steel hulled French flagged ketch pulled into the anchorage dropping anchor right next to us, even so the anchorage is huge and empty.

After a long day working on minor boat projects, it was time to sit down for cocktail hour. We barely had our first sip when out of nowhere a Mexican Military Speedboat showed up and boarded the steel ketch next to us. This must have been a planed and targeted boarding. When we looked over to the beach, we saw a Mexican Army detail standing guard parallel to the ketch. It lasted almost two hours. We assumed we were next and got ready for their boarding party. Once they finished with the ketch, they sped off and never bothered us. Afterwards the captain of the ketch informed us that they went through the whole boat. They even drilled holes into his water and fuel tanks looking for drugs. Can you imagine the screams if this had happened aboard Maitairoa? While he had been boarded before, it was always with a dog, which he actually preferred.

Punta Baja was our next stop, 28 miles down the road. We left San Quintin under spinnaker, again with the perfect conditions. Unfortunately it lasted only for four hours, the chute came down and the iron Genny came back to life. Entering the anchorage after rounding the cape, we saw some campers up on the hill. It turns out this is a famous surfers location. We anchored close to the village for what turned out to be so far, the rolliest anchorage we have been in.

The next morning we lifted the anchor and headed for Bahia San Carlos. Along the way lays Isla San Geronimo and the dangerous Sacramento reef. We plotted a course to the island and then to Punta San Carlos, inside the reef as suggested by the cruising guides. What they failed to mention was the giant kelp forest along the coast. Some of the nicest kelp we have seen in a while. This kelp was so thick that you could walk over it. So much for the short route. We went outside of the island and the reef, being it the safe way to go. We spent a peaceful night in a sandy anchorage of 25 feet of water nicely tucked in by the village. Our AM departure was set for 7:00 to Bahia Playa Maria, some 60 miles down the coast.

Several hours running a chute is a sailors dream, but the wind gods like to mess around a bit. The oil industry needs our support once in a while, so on comes the venerable Perkins.

This was also our first encounter with large schools of dolphins. They stayed and swam with us for several hours, almost until we entered the anchorage. Finding a good anchorage was difficult because we had some many to choose from. But once we saw the fishing village, we aimed straight for it and anchored in 15 feet of water over a sandy bottom.

In the morning, we launched the skiff and went ashore to go the village. We hadn’t seen anybody in the village and were somewhat curious. It turns out it was a deserted fishing village with signs dating back to early 80’s. It was obvious that some sporadic visitors used this place to party, judging from the recent trash lying around. The village location was absolutely spectacular even so somewhat spooky. Several graves scattered around the village and a little shrine with fresh flowers and candles made the whole place even more eerie. This village obviously was once a working fishing town, judging by the large amount of left behind lobster traps and pangas on the beach. All still are in relatively good condition. Strangely there were also a large amount of partially stripped cars scattered around the village. It looked like a mechanic had been working there too.

And when we saw the following writing on one of the vans, it was time to leave. It said:

I feel sorry for the fisherman
Four drowned while in their pangas
Emeraldo and Juanito were burned
A manta ray killed the other one
And a heart attack the last one
Eight in one year
Beware of the devil.

We opted to return to the boat and get it ready to leave next morning for Bahia Santa Rosalilita., some 22 miles further south. The winds coming directly from aft made for a leisurely sail downwind. Since we were in no rush, we unfurled the jib only and went smoothly at 4-5 knots downwind.

Santa Rosalilita is a small town and will be the Pacific Coast’s harbor for the planned land bridge to the Sea of Cortez. The Mexican government is planning to haul pleasure boats from this point across the Baja Peninsula to increase boating tourism. This way pleasure boaters will not have to make the long trip around Cabo San Lucas and can still take their boast to the Sea of Cortez. The problem with the whole project is that the government put a halt on it. The recently built small marina needs to be constantly dredged, since it rapidly fills up with sand. Time will tell.

As we went ashore to explore the village, we were greeted by Luiz, a small boy from the village. He was totally amazed by the dinghy. Apparently he never saw one before with wheels on. Our main mission was to see if we could get some fresh veggies, which we were able to get including some potatoes and apples. One thing we noticed right away was that every house had solar panels. Even the street lights had some. This village has no electricity, yet satellite dishes were abundant on the roofs. Everywhere we went we were greeted with a friendly smile.

The next morning we left bright and early to across the bay of Vizcaino for Cedros Island. After a great sail across the flat ocean, we arrived at the north tip of the island where a small fishing village is located. It had a beautiful anchorage tied in with an orchestra of seals. We opted to continue further south along the island since a night concert of this magnitude was not on our schedule.

The east side of Cedros in many places reminded us of Catalina Island, just with much higher elevations. The clouds rolled over the high mountain tops and combined with the setting sun made for a nice panorama. We finally settled in front of Las Palmitas atop a small shelf in 20 feet of water for the night, just north of Cedros village.

After a nice peaceful night without any barking seals nearby, we lifted anchor for Turtle Bay. Again motoring for the first few hours waiting for the wind to build, we went by Cedros Village towards Keller Channel. As we went along Isla de Navidad (Christmas Island) Sue was wondering if Santa had her Xmas present ready for pick up. She tried to raise him on the VHF but no answer. Guess he must have been out playing with the elves on the beach. Big disappointment on Sue’s side, knowing how much she likes presents….

Along the mainland coast we went again. The mixture of ocean and desert side by side is fascinating. The colors of the dry desert land meeting with the blue and green waters of the pacific is just mind boggling.

A nice downwind sail finally took us to Turtle Bay where we dropped anchor in front of the pier.

Yippee, we made it, the half way point to Cabo!