"Summer in the Sea of Cortez 2007 - Part 6"

San Juanico is this great bay some 40 miles north of Loreto. It is a place you can easily spend a month and not get bored. The diversity of this bay is incredible with it's different bays, reefs and beaches. There is the south anchorage behind the reef where we went first and there is the north anchorage. And than there is La Ramada, just around the corner with his own beauty. While in San Juanico, we went kayaking, fishing, diving,and rock rabbit hunting.

We celebrated TCM's Robin's birthday with a feast of lobster over a bed of linguini pasta. We had Carolyn and Steve of Light Heart and Lance and Jo of Milagro over for a feast of Baby Back Ribs ala Sue. Light Heart had us over for a delicious fish dinner and games, so overall the week went by too fast. But we did have a lot of fun.

We had to move from the south anchorage due to weather and opted to go to La Ramada. It wasn't a fun trip, since the waves right on our beam and made us roll sideways. We had closed to the front portholes but neglected to close the rear ones. Big mistake! We hit a few freak waves and our bed in the aft cabin got soaked in salt water. Yeaks! No fun. We also lost the paddle for the Kayak on the way. Oh well, another lesson learned. Idefix, Kai Kaha already there and Manta joined us later in this protectedanchorage. Next day was big laundry day, since all of the sheets and pillow cases needed to be washed in fresh water. And the aft cabin needed to be dried out.We returned to the north anchorage to spend a few more days having fun in the sun! Paid a visit to the cruiser's shrine where cruisers leave ornaments with their boat name hanging on a tree. The artistic work is incredible. Trolling between the rocks, Alex caught his first Snapper.

It was time to move on and on the 7th of August we headed for San Antonio. No wind meant the old iron Jenny had to do all of the work. The fishing Gods must have us on their black list, since all we caught was one of these dumb boobie birds, who have nothing better to do than to try to hit the lures we are trolling behind the boat.

San Antonio supposedly had this nice beach for shelling but it was a big disappointment. Several tire tracks were visible but that was it. We went for a dinghy ride to Punta Pulpito. There is a neat cave you can drive thru with the dinghy in the big rock. The water was crystal clear and you could see all the way to the bottom. Afterwards we went snorkeling around the rocks.

August 9th we headed for Bahia Conception. First we motored along the coast of the bay. We wanted to see where the entrance to the small cove of San Sebastian was. It is a small fishing village on our list for a future trip. We marked the entrance on our GPS and went on to Santo Domingo. The wind picked up from the south and we had a beautiful spinnaker run. As we neared Punta Conception, we dowsed the kite and rounded the point doing 6.5 knots with the staysail only. It was blowing the customary25 knots. At least we didn't have a repeat of last year's spinnaker blowing to shreds and we doing an accidental jibe due to the sail in the water. This jibe did serious damage to the main sheet traveler. Lesson learned last year. We settled in Bahia Santo Domingo at the mouth of the big Bay of Conception. Milagro joined us about an hour later.

Next morning Lance and Alex went on the hunt for those delicious steamer clams. They came back not only with 2 big bags of white steamer clams, but also with about 45 chocolates clams. Looks like a couple of Gourmet dinners developing....

After breakfast we headed for El Burro Cove to visit Geary, the weather Guru of the Sonrisa morning net. As we were heading into the bay, Blew Moon was heading out. Geary lives in his lovely palapa right on the water and enjoys life to the fullest. Along with Bertha's restaurant we also get access to Geary's satellite based internet service. Gives us a chance to check email and other computer related projects.While in El Burro Cove, we had ate at Bertha's, had BBQ'd chocolates a la Milagro and a steamers feast a la Sue with Geary and some of his friends. We went successfully hunting for Bay Scallops. These small scallops are delicious and go well with garlic, onions, tomatoes in white wine and over a bed of pasta. As you can see, the Sea provides us with some great culinary delicacies.

It was time to head out of Conception Bay again, because it gets pretty warm in there. August 14th we raised anchor and headed for Santa Rosalia. After Alex raised the anchor and while walking back to the cockpit, his feet got entangled in a coiled line hanging on the side and fell very awkward pulling several muscles in his left shoulder. Ouch, that hurt real bad! And such a stupid accident. This will take a long time to heal.All the way to Santa Rosalia we trolled again and no fish. It is like the fishing gods want to punish us for the good fishing season we had last year.

Arriving in Santa Rosalia we got the last slip in the old Marina. With the help of Milagro, Panoya and Reflections, we got shoe horned in to the slip. A bit tight but no problema. Plugged power in, turned the A/C on and voila!, we were in business cooling the boat down. Time for some Santa Rosalia bacon wrapped hot dogs and ice cream! Great!

We stayed a week in Santa Rosalia, did our laundry, fueled up, got fresh veggies and raided the ATM, since this is the last source for cash in the northern part of the Sea of Cortez. Went with Milagro for breakfast at the Hotel Frances and enjoyed the famous pan frances. Had a get together with Jo and Doug on Jenny. They were in the new Singlar marina. We had a chance to visit and a have a look at the new docks and facilities. The docks look like some lake docks with no reinforcement at the ends.Don't know if we want to be around for a hurricane on these docks. The buildings are identical to the ones in Puerto Escondito down to the same poor restroom design. No ventilation! What a waste of money!

Santa Rosalia is this neat little old mining town. The French used to run a mining operation for many years until it became inefficient. The decaying remains of this operation are visible all over town. Santa Rosalia is also famous for their steel church designed by Carl Gustav Eiffel. The church was prefabricated in France, displayed in Paris along with the Eiffel tower, re-assembled in Brussels where it was taken apart and shipped to Santa Rosalia by the mining company in 1895. The wood for thehouses and offices was also imported from France by square riggers. There is a museum showing the history of Santa Rosalia and well worth visiting.August 22nd, time to go back on the road.

We left bright and early for the 75 mile trip to San Francisquito. With no wind in the forecast we looking at a 12 hour motorboat ride up the coast. And that it was. But, FINALLY, we caught our first Dorado along the way. Actually, we had a dual simultaneous hook up. While Alex was gaffing one, the other managed to spit the lure back out and got away. But the one we were able to land was a nice big bull about 15 lbs. in weight. We were looking forward to our first fresh Dorado dinner that evening. And did we feast on it!

We anchored inn the inner harbor of San Francisquito all by ourselves. There were 4 boats on the outside, Masquerade, Momo, Moon Hunter and a fourth unknown boat. Non idea why they wouldn't come in. Maybe they were newbies and didn't know their way in into this shallow anchorage.

Next morning we left bright and early under spinnaker headed for Isla Animas. Had a beautiful sail up the coast and ended in Caleta Blanca all by ourselves. Later in the afternoon Masquerade joined us for the evening. We had them over for cocktails and got to know Tim and Cindy a bit
better. It is always nice to be able to put a face to a name you hear on the radio.

August 24th, on our way to Isla Partida. A lumpy ride with weird swells from the north and a light breeze from the south. We anchored well inside the cove but had to re-anchor, because the wind decided to change directions. No problem. Next day Masquerade, Java and Rapscallion joined us in the anchorage. When Java, a huge cat dropped his hook right in front of us, he was way to close for comfort. But a friendly chat on the VHF got the situation cleared and they re-anchored in another part of thebay. Since there was so much room in the bay, there is no reason to anchor right on top of one another. Some people are slow in learning....

Two days later we left Isla Partida and headed for BLA. Along the village that magic sound of a reel going off got us going again. A second Dorado!!!! Caught just outside of Don Juan. Looks like the fishing gods are starting to show some mercy on us! Gigi decided to throw her breakfast up. Apparently the fish wasn't fresh enough (3 days old). While puking her guts out next to the hatch of the aft cabin, some of it dribbled down on to Sue's pillows and bed sheets. Wasn't aware Sue knew how to curse in so many ways.....

We briefly stopped in BLA village anchorage and were met by John of Nakia and KC of V'Ger on their dinghies. They met us in the bay to pick up their respective packages from TCP. John got all of his cat food, sand and toys for their new feline crew member Ziggy.

Onward we went to K-Lee Ville in south BLA. Anchored there already were Blew Moon, Ceilidh and Milagro. After settling down, we put the dinghy in the water and headed for Daffy's Tavern to meet up with Jay and Janice of Ceilidh as well as with Larry and Lois of Rancho Pacifico. Larry brought us down a dive light from the USA which we needed to pick up and pay for. The crews of Blew Moon and Milagro joined us later for a friendly game of darts at Daffy's. A lot of fun was had by everybody with the boy's team winning. It took a while to hit the last Bull's eye, but Lance of Milagro finally managed it.

Next morning we headed over to La Mona on the other side of the bay in preparation for the full moon's jacuzzi party. The jacuzzi is a small lagoon which fills with water during high tide and creates a large pool heated up by the sunshine. Thus the name Jacuzzi. As the tide goes out, it creates a small river one can float on. It's fun and a good way for everybody to get together and meet each other.During the night of August 27 to the 28th we observed a full lunar eclipse. Incredible how within an hour the moon turns from bright white to blood red. August 28, we had a total of 26 boats anchored in La Mona for the party. Great fun was had by all and we got to meet a lot of new cruisers.

We left late in the afternoon and headed for BLA Village, since we had to make a provisioning run. Our supply of fresh vegggies was starting to dwindling down. Milagro joined us for the trip to the village. For dinner we had the famous Bahia tacos, went across the street for some internet work and headed finally to the yellow store to stock up on our supplies.

Next morning we headed out for Las Rocas. Well, while rounding the sand spit of the BLA anchorage Alex didn't give the point a wide enough berth and clunk, we ran aground in soft sand. OUCH! Due to the extreme tides during full moon, the tide was a lot lower than usual..... Nobody is perfect.... Rocking back and forth and pointing the boat hard to starboard got us free again in a few minutes. Damage: A bit of bottom paint off the keel and a bruise on Sue's hip. Guess she wasn't expecting a suddenstop. While we were trying to get off, Sue noticed a lot of Sand Dollars at the bottom. Looks like a place to return by dinghy...

We settled in Las Rocas, one of our favorite places to stay. Milagro joined us a few hours later.