SVSoulsticeAdventures: The end of Cruising Season 2020 for SV Soulstice

Bahia de Los Angeles arrived 7/27 and left 7/29

to Puerto Refugio on Isla Angel de la Guarda 7/29

Bay of LA is a HUGE bay with 16 charted different islands. The main bay has a small community with some touristy places, like RV parks, hotels/motels, and some restaurants. Whale sharks are known to hang out here, particularly in La Gringa, just slightly north of the bay and elefantes ( not animals but a localized strong westerly winds) are also known to frequent here. We did not see a whale shark but did experience an elefante our first night. Have you ever climbed in a hot oven and stayed there for 8 hours? How about put a blow dryer on HOT and just blow it in your face and on your body for 8 hours? Us neither but nature provided this experience for us our 1st night there. We arrived there in the afternoon and it was mild conditions on the way from Los Animas slot, our last anchorage, so we towed the dinghy and kept the paddleboards on deck.

When we arrived we only saw one sailboat in the huge bay and anchored fairly close because we thought it was another cruiser we knew. We were wrong ha! ha! In the distance, shortly after we arrived, Gabe, on Aiyana, dinghied over and greeted us with some Tecate beers. He will always be remembered for that sweet gesture. We chatted with him for a bit and realized his boat was probably another 500 yards away and not the boat 100 yards from us. That night was the hell night of unrelenting heat. Eventually at 2 am it calmed down from blowing 25 knots of HOT air. Even in the dark of night, the rigging on the boat was hot to touch. I went into the cockpit to sleep as now there a slightly cooler breeze. The cockpit before that time was even hotter despite being nighttime. When I awoke, I noted several pangas fishing very close and was quite embarrassed because I had little clothing on and had to slither back in through the companionway to hideout. Stephen was laughing when he realized what was going on.

We had a day of chores, which was to get fuel, we only needed 10 gallons as well as stock back up on freshies. Our last shop had in been in Santa Rosalia and the was just a baby shop with just a backpack full of goodies. So we got jerry cans and grocery bags and hopped in the dinghy and headed to shore. We landed the dinghy on the beach in front of a restaurant called Guillermo's. This was the recommended place in the cruiser’s guide and Gabe confirmed this. The place was closed due to the COVID. We made our way to get fuel walking to the Pemex about a 1 mile away. The 1st Pemex had gasoline but no diesel. It was already hot outside. Stephen came out of the store with a Tecate 40oz that we shared on the curb at 0930am. Was it wrong to split a 40 at 0930am in the gas station parking lot? We decided it was not and the beer went back easy and quenched our thirst! Aaaahhhh The joy of cruising!

We then needed to walk to the other Pemex which interestingly was less than a mile from this Pemex?! Weird but ok it is Mexico. We filled up on diesel and then had a luggage dolly we going to try to stack the fuel and walk back. A local offered us a ride in the back of his pick up. We gladly took the ride because it was already in high 90’s with temp and the luggage dolly was going to be sketchy. It was a young father with his 2 boys in the front seat. He dropped us back off Guillermos and I gave him some dineros as a thank you! We then loaded the dinghy with the fuel and gathered our grocery bags for now we needed to walk to the Mercado. Before we left, an old man came out and started chatting us up. He informed us the restaurant and tienda was closed. He was very soft-spoken and a good conversationalist. We realized he was Guillermo! We conversed with him for quite some time and realized he had many accolades including winning (1st place) the Baja 1000 race 2 separate times. He opened up the restaurant and showed us his trophies and awards from the races as well as many fishing trophies. He was so kind that he offered to drive us to the store or just even take his truck to the store and return it when we were done. We were complete strangers and he offered us his truck?? This has happened to us several times now with local folks and it is a consistent trait of the Mexican culture to be generous and helpful!

Despite his thoughtfulness, we declined. We actually wanted the walk for some exercise and so we went to the store. It was a tiny Mercado, more like a big tienda. We got most of our items except they had no cucumbers or limes. We do notice limes are often unavailable in Mexico, shocking I know! We made our way back to our little floating home to clean and put away our food. It was a bit windy now with some choppy wind waves so we decided not to paddleboard or swim. We waited for sunset and hopped in the dinghy for a troll session. This evening session was definitely not like fishing at Isla Partida. I got only one bite from a little mackeral looking guy with yellow distinct dots on his body. We threw him back and decided to go visit Aiyana. Gabe on SV Aiyana, a 1996 Island Packet, was just hanging out and gladly welcomed us aboard. The Caliber is often mistaken for an Island Packet and they do have the same designer, George McCreary, so that is why. It is always fun to admire and ogle someone else’s floating home. We let him know were going to take off to Puerto Refugio in the morning and just wish him a good rest of his cruising season. He is a single-hander and I always admire that because I know how much work a boat is with 2 people to help let alone be by yourself.

Originally, I had intended for us to fit in at least one of island anchorages in Bay of LA called Isla Smith. It has a huge dormant volcano, 1500 ft high with a nice hike to it. If we went there it would be for a day and then we would have just 2 days at our next spot. We decided to forgo Isla Smith so we could get to our “last” anchorage and enjoy it for a few days before heading up the marina to get Soulstice ready for haul out. You can’t do everything and see everything so maybe next time.

We knew our sail to Refugio on the northern end of Isla Angel de La Guarda would be dynamic and it was! Winds with gust in high 20’s and low 30’s, big wind waves, swell and some of it cross. We had the dinghy and the paddleboards deflated and put away for safety. We sailed upwind, downwind, on the beam. We were reefed down to just a handkerchief of a genoa and reefed main and still making 6-7 knots. It started with an upwind journey due to wind wrapping around into the Bay of LA and then the rest was downwind, with lots of jibes. We decided not to use the whisker pole for the downwind sail. We usually get that set up the night before and due to the numerous points of sail, we would want to do we decided it was not our best option. In those high winds and bigger seas, we made the right decision. We jibed back and forth for several hours along the West side of the long island which is approximately 30nm long and so covering most of the distance of our 40nm sail. We eventually reached the well-known maker of Roca Vela and made the turn east to enter the anchorage. There is a small passage you can pass through to get to the anchorage more quickly but it is only 2/10 mile wide and has a 5-knot current. We are very conservative and decided to bypass this and go all the way around. It was slightly longer but gave us peace of mind.

Coming around to the entrance there are 3 bays to anchor in with the middle bite being the largest and the one we chose. All 3 bays were empty so we had another pristine place all to ourselves. We were too pooped to blow up the paddle boards or dinghy and decided to wait until the next day. The next day we noted a catamaran in the Easternmost bay and recognized it was some friends we met in Puerto Escondido, Ken, and Wendy, on SV SeaShifter. Stephen and I had a nice swim in the bay for exercise and did some spearfishing too. We each speared a nice size cabrilla and it was decided we would have dinner on SV SeaShifter that night. Catamarans have way more space for entertaining than a monohull so no complaints by us. Another guest for dinner would be coming too and that was Gabe from Aiyana. The heat at this time of year was too much, so he decided shortly after we left Bay of LA, that he too would head to Puerto Penasco for haul out.

Ken made fabulous dirty rice and beans to accompany our cabrilla on the grill. It was an enjoyable dinner followed by a meet up on the beach for a campfire. We made a small campfire, brought some tunes, and admired the starry sky. After Baja midnight ( 0930 which can be 0830 sometimes - ha!) we all paddled back to our respective boats for a dreamy sleep. The next day would be another day of swimming and spearfishing. Wendy joined us for our hour-long swim and it was fun to share with someone else our snorkel/swim time. If we saw a cool fish or sea turtle or ray we would put our heads up and be like, “ did you see that?” We all passed the cool electric ray with it’s noted 3 shark tooth bumped tail. We also had some large sea turtles go by as well. Spearfishing today was just ok as the visibility was not so great. Gabe joined us for his 1st time. We decided to call it and I speared a trigger with my pulse spear and used Stephen’s gun for another trigger. We would make ceviche tonight and meet up on the beach for our last evening campfire. The next morning was a buddy boat sail with all 3 vessels to Penasco. No other boats arrived at Refugio until the next am when we were leaving.

We all timed our exit so we could arrive close to high tide the next day. The tidal change was 18ft and it was a Spring Tide as the full moon was on 8/3 and we left at noon on 8/2 from Refugio. We all left with a decent wind on the beam and eventually the wind veered to the expected downwind sail. The sun was setting and the moon was rising. It was beautiful last sail to port.

Our time in Puerto Penasco was busy and HOT!!! Lots of shrimp boats playing bumper boats. It was nice to see el pastor tacos again! Otherwise, it was unrelenting HOT with dock showers and pools/puddles of sweat daily from the moment we woke until sunset. At sunset it was still HOT but the sweating was only slightly better) ( this probably because we more dehydrated!). We hauled out on 8/8 in the evening at high tide and made our way across the border to Phoenix on 8/11 for an evening flight to MD. The end of our 2020 cruising season that was supposed to end in New Zealand. We “enjoyed” the pandemic on the Sea of Cortez and now are returning to the hurricane of humanity as we like to call it. This too shall pass…..