December 6-20, 2013
The Sea of Cortez has two crossing points that are most common among cruisers, and they are creatively called the Northern Crossing and the Southern Crossing. The Northern Crossing is between the Punta Chivato/Santa Rosalia area on the Baja side over to San Carlos/Guyamas on the mainland side. Likewise, the Southern Crossing is between the East Cape area on the tip of Baja over to Mazatlan/Puerto Vallarta on the mainland side. We never did make the Northern Crossing, opting to stay on the Baja side the whole time. But on a cold, gray, and rainy morning we left Playa Bonanza on Isla Espiritu Santo bound for the mainland, with hopefully a stop at Isla Isabel in between. This was our longest passage in quite some time, since we came south down the outside of Baja between Turtle Bay and Cabo. Unlike that passage where we were isolated and alone, this time we were travelling in a caravan with 3 other boats: Dazzler, Lady Carolina, and True Blue V. We picked a VHF working channel to monitor so we could easily chat without having to first hail and then switch channels. It was a wonderful passage, and it started out with plenty of wind, close hauled, about 17-22 kts. We were starting to pull away from the other boats, so we put one, then two reefs in the mainsail in order to stay close. On the second day the wind died off a bit, and we all discussed whether we should engine up or stay patient, and we decided to stay patient for now. We agreed that if we didn’t make it to Isla Isabel by nightfall the next day we would just hove to and wait until morning to anchor. Then the wind started to pick up and we started making calculations. We had a chance of making it. We definitely had a chance of making it. So, to hell with everyone else, no reefs in the sails tonight, we are outta here! Although, it turned out in the end that everyone made it, and we only arrived a couple hours in advance. Along the way the boys landed a couple of Dorados so we were looking forward to some cookouts with everyone else.
We pulled into the anchorage around 3pm, and there was one other vessel there when we arrived. I felt bad that we were all showing up to disturb their solitude. It is a rocky anchorage, so we did as the guidebook suggested and attached a tripline to the anchor, and Tim dove down to check the holding. While he was still in the water Dazzler pulled in, so Tim dove and checked his anchor too. Repeat for True Blue and Lady Carolina. Leanne called it Tim’s valet parking service.
We were all pretty tired the first evening after being on passage for two nights, but the next day we got together and explored the island. We learned why Isla Isabel is called “The Galapagos of Mexico.” Frigate birds and blue footed boobies were everywhere! Talk about photo ops. I was wearing my running shoes with the bright blue coloring, so Carolina tried to get a photo of me with the boobies, but they wouldn’t quite let me get that close. The island is not that big, so we hike around just about all of it. It was an absolutely amazing place. We were fortunate to have good weather and be able to anchor there for a few days.
The snorkeling was nice as well. Carolina and I and the kids snorkled near the anhorage off of one of the beaches and the visibility was great and the colorful fish plentiful. For the first time I felt comfortable enough that I wish I had a weight belt. When I have my full wetsuit on it is quite a struggle to propel myself down and then I have to fight to stay down and then I have very little air left and have to shoot back up to the top. Maybe next time I will try with a weight belt. Our last day there we went on a family snorkle in the dinghy around to the other side of the island. Can you say “washing machine?” Needless to say, I did not use a weight belt on that day. I kept worrying about where Alex was and where Brenden was, and it finally occurred to me that they should all by worried about where *I* was. By this time, they are both much stronger swimmers than I am, so it was then that a load was lifted from my mind that I no longer needed to worry about them. And it was with great amusement that I told them later that they should be worried about me.
We had a couple of potlucks on Exodus while we were there in order to share the couple of Dorados that the boys caught on passage. It is pretty much unanimous that Tim cooks the best Dorado on the BBQ. He always cooks it just right so it’s juicy and delicious. Just like chicken.
Dazzler went on ahead of us to Chacala, but Lady Carolina, True Blue V, and Exodus headed to Matanchen Bay near San Blas in order to go on the Tovaro River jungle tour. Lady Carolina had done the tour the previous season, so they gave us a full briefing on how we needed to do it in order to minimize the damage done to our bodies by the no-see-ums. Add link to post about No-see-ums.
Now, to describe the really fun stuff, our day of exploring the river and San Blas… It started with us all piling into a large panga with our own personal driver and heading down (up?) the Tovaro River. It was a winding path through mangroves and tons of wildlife: crocs, iguanas, turtles, and birds, birds, birds. It was amazing! However, Lady Carolina had done it the year before, and Steve kept apologizing to us because it wasn’t as good as last year. Funny thing about that is since we weren’t there the year before we had no context, so it seemed great to us. At the far end of the tour we stopped at a crocodile sanctuary, paid our pesos for admittance, and started exploring. It was basically a small zoo, and was really quite depressing. But there was a cage with a couple possums next to a cage with a bobcat and the curious possums and the bobcat who clearly wanted to eat them could have kept the boys entertained all day. On the way back we stopped at a restaurant with a fresh water pool with a rope swing and I’ll let you guess who had more fun with that, Tim or the boys.
After the river tour, we caught a bus into the town of San Blas. We didn’t get to do much exploring, but we found the central market, and stocked up on a few fresh veggies, including mushrooms. We hadn’t had fresh mushrooms in quite some time, so we promptly sauteed them up that evening with just a little butter and cilantro. Tasty. While we were hitting the veggie market, Tim said they were going to go find a bar and have a beer, and I asked him to take the kids and find ice cream. Just a half block (if even that) away from the market they hit the jackpot: an ice cream shop right next to a bar. We joined them for a drink and relaxed a little bit, then we headed up the hill to the “ruins,” which was really just what’s left of some 17th century Spanish buildings including a church and a military fort. The fort had suffered some damage a few years back in a tropical storm, so they had repaired it, but tried to make it still look old, but it just looked a little cheesy. Overall, it was a fantastic day. I would have liked to have had more time to explore San Blas, and I’ve heard from several cruisers since who actually stay in the marina there, but we were so paranoid about the bugs based on what we heard from Lady Carolina and Dazzler, we didn’t even consider it.
Chacala is a picture perfect tropical anchorage… it was clear we had left Baja and had arrived on the mainland. The northern point of the bay is not very prominent so swell bends around and enters the anchorage. So, we got our first experience with setting a stern anchor. The stern anchor is deployed, well, off the stern in order to keep the bow of the boat pointed into the swell, which is the most comfortable way to take it. We were planning on staying only a day or two, but ended up staying 5 days, and we definitely could have stayed longer. There was light surf, and the boys spent hours, literally hours, in the water everyday boogie boarding. At home they could never stay in that long before their lips turned blue and their fingers and toes went numb. Tim and I spent one full day as a beach day where all we did was lounge around on the beach without doing any boat chores or repairs. We also spent one full day as a computer day, and I went crazy after Tim showed me how to embed photos in my essays using html. On one of the radio nets someone told us about a crater at the top of the hill above the anchorage, so Tim and I made our way up there, and the crater itself was only slightly interesting, but the views from up there were amazing. One of our last nights there, we had a wonderful dinner out, just adults, and it was the closest thing to fine dining we’ve experienced since being in Mexico. The wine was flowing and the shrimps were plentiful.
When we left Chacala our intent was to round Punta de Mita into Banderas Bay, but the wind direction compounded by the affects of the geographic point caused us to have to stay one uncomfortable night on the north side of Punta de Mita before finally making our entrance into Banderas Bay.
Gresham Family Exodus 