Sea of Cortez/ San Evaristo up to San Juanico

5/8/2019-5/29/2019

After we left La Paz we traveled to San Evaristo, Agua Verde, Puerto Escondido, Isla Danzante, and San Juanico. San Juanico was as far north as time would allow for this cruising season. We then returned back south re-visiting Agua Verde, San Evaristo, and Isla San Francisco. This was our first stop into the Sea of Cortez and we thought a good jumping off point to return back across the Sea of Cortez for distance and it was one our favorites. Truly a majestic view when hiking there, it provides a great view of the marvelous aquarium of the Sea of Cortez.  This would be our THIRD Sea of Cortez crossing.

During our travels to each coastal Baja town, which all are very small with tiny local communities, we admired the simple life that can be had still in 2019. We also had spectacular dolphin, whale and ray sightings. We are always amused and impressed by the Bat rays doing their huge belly flops. The height they attain and the resultant splash force your attention, it is mesmerizing. Interestingly, marine biologists still do not know why they have this behavior. Additionally, we saw one of our biggest pods of whales and best breach show since outside of San Francisco US. Large sperm whales getting great heights as well out of the water and fluke slapping which I assume is to stun some fish for good eats! And hundreds of bottlenose dolphins traveling together and making huge distances quickly across the Sea. 

It is Blue Planet LIVE and it is FUN! 

May 29, 2019

Last day of full cruising on Isla San Francisco

Started off with Stephen fishing and losing his fishing lure. It smacked a piece of hardware on the boat and then was flung off somewhere in the anchorage. He decided to pursue finding his lure and when he was diving under the boat he noted our max prop zinc was MISSING!!!

He changed our zincs more than a month ago in Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida. With this memory also came to his memory that possibly, just maybe, perhaps… he did not put lock tite fastener glue on the bolts………….hmmmm…… is it true, did this happen? we think so otherwise why did our max prop zinc disappear? 

Then an emotion of panic followed that we don’t want to replace our max prop, which is $5,000 at least. We started to create horrific thoughts in our minds that the max prop would dissolve in the salt water before our very eyes, erode and wither away into the Sea of Cortez. Sounds dramatic and it is/was and prompted a satellite call to Max Prop to get screws ordered and sent to Marina Mazatlan as we have NO max prop screws on board. 

The good news is that Steve so happened to have 4 bolts that matched the exact thread count and bolt size so we could fasten a new zinc onto the prop. We just so happened to purchase 4 new max prop zincs in the US when we went home to visit and brought them back to Mexico but had no bolts. Aaah, the joys of sailing! One minute you are in awe of your gorgeous surroundings and feel privileged for the moment and the next your cursing about spare parts….

The rest of the day continued on pleasantly as the “emergency” was taken care of. We then had our LAST day of spearfishing for the year most likely. It ended with success! Stephen got the biggest Trigger of our season measuring 18.5 inches. I was runner up with my biggest Trigger measuring 16 inches. These guys seem cartoon-like almost underwater, but not as cartoon-like as the puffer fish. I love the puffer fish and plan to write a Children’s book one day with Puffy as the lead character -ssshhhh!! don’t tell anyone, I don’t want them to steal my idea. They have big bright eyes and a little cute smile, definitely Children’s book material. Ok tangential thought, the usual for me. But back to the Trigger, have you seen their teeth??? Look at those choppers below- YIKES and YIKES! A large angry toddler can’t compare. 

Well, triggerfish ceviche again folks! No Yellow Tail at all this season for us. We did enjoy Dave’s from SV Arctos but no such luck for us.. We are more conservative in our new sport though. We got lazy or not lazy, not sure how you interpret this, but we have not commissioned our dinghy since leaving Zihuatanejo. Yep, that was a LONG time ago. We just use our paddle boards to go everywhere. This is including spearfishing. We put all our gear on the paddle boards. So… this does make it complicated getting a larger fish since you cannot have the more secure dinghy floor to put the fish into. We considered a mesh bag which some folks use but we don’t want to attract unwanted followers. Stephen was stalked by a moray eel one day!   Also, we don’t dive too deep since it just the two of us with paddle boards and so we don’t pursue deeper depths or go too far from the sailboat. If you are wondering what we do with the paddle boards, we carry them along with a long leash of 20-30ft to allow us the ability to dive down and they provide a float which aids other boaters/swimmers to know where we are. Good for safety really.  

The dinghy? why not use? We don’t really need to use it we found. It does make it nicer when we are carrying in the trash when not on the dock or bringing back groceries but I can paddle back an 18 count of huevos with all with shells intact:) Our boards and big and stable so we can pile up gear. We do then forgo late night dinghy missions and bigger travel around some of the shorelines but obviously not really missed. We are not lazy since we have to paddle everywhere and I like that but we are lazy because we hate pumping up the dinghy and getting her attached to a halyard to put in the water, locking up her everywhere and then having to haul her back up onto boat when we put her away. You decide…. I do think the desire to not have a big fish you just speared flop out of the bucket, slide off your paddle board and escape into the water again will get the dinghy out more next season- Nuff said!

I have been pretty successful with the Hawaiin Sling after a tip given to me by the owner of Neptonics, a spearfishing company. We met Josh in Agua Verde, he was in his jeep with his girlfriend Molly and we were hiking. Anyway, we met them both for a beer when we returned and he told me to put a piece of tape where I hold tension to “cock” the sling. This helped tremendously for me with arm fatigue. I may need to YouTube some folks using the sling to get other tips when I get internet but that tape trick was the bomb! I went from not getting any fish to getting usually 2 a day. You pick your menu, so you are not looking to get all the fish you can. The nice thing about spearfishing is that you are fishing sustainably. I actually like snorkeling more now too. Sometimes I hate to admit it but I would get bored snorkeling but now on the hunt, I am very interested in everything and I am more aware. 

Sailing, in general, has made me more aware and living in the moment. Such the trendy new phrase of be Mindful but this activity does make you mindful. Because you are on disconnect from the other world really, no internet or phone most of the time you are in tune with your environment so much more. Just like most outdoor activities. It makes you think about your water resources, food, conservation with energy. This is the most environmental I have ever been to. I am using solar, water filtration, carpooling ( give lots of boobies rides on the bowsprit), and procuring my own food ( we ate fish every day for the last 3 weeks - we had one day with no success spearfishing).  

I have to say I ended up liking cruising much more than I thought I would.  After our dog Petra died, I just wanted an adventure. Well, I am always looking for fun outdoorsy holidays but something of an extended period of time. Many know this story but it was originally going to be to travel through S. America for a year. It was going to be in a van but I realized how expensive sports mobiles are and other vans outfitted for offroad and adventure, many are upwards $150,000. Then I decided that motorcycles would be cool. We were paragliding in Colombia when we met folks touring on bikes. First, we needed to buy bikes and then learn how to ride them. Stephen did excellently. I did not have enough time with my crazy work schedule and I was finishing a post master’s certification full time as well,  so it was hard to get enough ride time in. Also, I did fall and break my finger. This translated to me into a bigger accident, in S. America in one of their ERs. And after being an ER nurse for over 20 years I know most motorcycle accidents, unfortunately, are not without complex trauma. You are not in a metal box like a car. You are EXPOSED on your bike and usually the associated injuries of pelvic fractures, femur fractures, spinal cord injuries, head trauma, etc… reflect this exposure. I decided I liked the motorcycle riding but I did not have the confidence nor the skill to do a trip like that. Now we are back to the boat. It is like glamping! And I love moving to a new waterfront home whenever we feel like it but keeping our same bed and food in the fridge.  I still get to hike, run, fish, paddle board, etc… 

It has been a terrific 1st cruising season with many new places explored, friends made and sailing skills enhanced. We bought Soulstice in January 2017 and are finishing our 1st cruising season in Mexico in June 2019. Not too bad considering we wanted and did pay her off and paid off all the wonderful additions to make her cruise ready before we left the dock in Seattle. Thank you Nursing careers and the ability to get OT! We even got to explore the Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands, the Gulf Islands, Vancouver Island and Princess Louisa on the Sunshine Coast of BC, Canada the Summer of 2017. 3 Countries, US, Mexico, and Canada. We are just getting started! 

Yay! Heading north up the Baja Coast

Really cool coastline with big jagged peaks

Sails up!

Beach at Agua Verde - remnants of a sharks head - we have not seen any sharks so we think from a fishing panga...

Burro in Agua Verde

Hike in Agua Verde

Anchorage area Agua Verde - 3 lobes - we are tucked behind north lobe which is on the left and you cannot see

Hiking the road in Agua Verde

Agua Verde town

Trigger Ceviche

Agua Verde 

Hike off road from Agua Verde

Agua Verde hike

Captive birds awaiting fish remains

Isla Danzante

Isla Danzante - great little trails all over the summit

Soulstice

Our friend, Josh, paddleboarding back to Brian's Cat2Fold 

Isla Danzante

Isla Danzante

Isla Danzante - Honeymoon cove

Handlines - very disappointing. We did very well coming down Pacific Coast of Baja but not by the mainland or Sea of Cortez. No Dorado for us this year.  Lots of Tuna and a Bonita 

Fossilized shells in the rock

Little Estuary in San Juanico 

Fossilized shells

San Juanico hike

San Juanico

Steinbeck Canyon in Puerto Escondido

Got on the hook! So that day, May 25, I speared 3 triggers and got one on the hook too! I officially named it Trigger Day now:)

One of my spearfish trigger catches

Triggerfish cakes! Delicious made with panko bread crumbs, one egg, some dijon- pan fried with butter, garlic and lemon! Oh man good stuff! 

Spearfish day's catch:) 

Teeth of a Triggerfish - YIKES

Booby hitching a ride - at times we had upwards of 3. We thought very cute until we pulled into Mazatlan and realized they crapped all over our jib! NO MORE RIDES BOOBIES

One of our last sunsets

stats from our AIS - water temp is wrong but we were cooking at 7-8 knots at times! We had more wind than forcasted

Sail back across Sea of Cortez - was a bit chilly 

San Juanico - volcanic peak climb

View from a peak in San Juanico

8am and on the 2nd cup of coffee catch! 

San Evaristo Cowboy! 

Stephen's great grouper catch

San Evaristo

View from the little restaurant in San Evaristo