Gresham Family Exodus

October 31 – December 5, 2013

We stowed all of our food, gadgets, and boat parts that we had hauled back across the border and bid farewell to San Felipe.  We were going through Lady Carolina withdrawals and needed a fix, so our initial plan was to zip down the Baja as quickly as we could to meet up with them again.  We planned a two night passage down to Bahia San Fransiquito, and I was more than just a bit concerned about getting sea sick again after being at the dock and on land for so long.  Luckily, we all faired pretty well, but this time we decided to stick closer to the coast to avoid the craziness of the middle of the northern sea.  The passage itself was uneventful other than landing a couple of dorados, which are always tasty when Tim cooks them on the BBQ.  It seemed wierd to bypass the BLA area altogether after making it our home over most of the summer.  I strangely found myself wanting to go say good-bye to our laundry lady (who was also named Deanne, by the way).  We met her son once, and he’s in grade school, younger than Brenden, and he wants to be an engineer.  I was able to tell him in Spanish that I was also an engineer, and his face lit up.  So, before we left I had every intention of taking him some of our science related school supplies (magnets, pulleys, thermometers, etc.) but never got around to it.  It seems that even the cruising life is conducive to letting all of the mundane everyday tasks get in the way of taking care of the really important things. I need to continue to work on that.

We were the solitary boat at Bahia San Francisquito, which was quite a bit different from the last time we were there.  The weather was pleasant, and there were no bugs, so we even enjoyed a shore excursion and walked along a short ridgeline to some caves.  The sand on the beach was not too soft, not too packed, and the slope of the shore was not too steep, so I enjoyed a couple of awesome runs on the beach.  Once even in the middle of the day!  Summer was clearly over.  After that, a wonderful overnight passage brought us to Puta Chivato.  There were following seas and strong winds such that we kept 2 reefs in the main pretty much the whole way there.  On our way up the Baja Peninsula we stayed the night on the northern side of Punta Chivato to take refuge from SW winds, and this time we stayed on the south side to escape a northern blow.  We hunkered down for a couple of days here and waited for the norther to blow through without even venturing ashore. 

The next stop was Punta Pulpito, and after we left Chivato the winds died down completely and we ended up motoring.  We almost aborted the passage by waiting out the calm up at Bahia Santo Domingo, but Tim and I both really wanted to keep heading south and we really wanted to stay at Punta Pulpito.  So, we sucked it up and burned the diesel and pressed on.  It is a matter of pride among some in the cruising community to use the engines as absolutely little as possible, but Tim and I balance that with other factors and we don’t let a stubborn need to conserve every ounce of fuel or to impress others constrain our behavior.  We don’t use our engines much, but we will if we want to.  Punta Pulpito is where our race down the Baja came to a screeching halt.  As soon as we got there we were awed by the striking point (called “the pulpit” for a reason) with a vein of obsidian running through it.  The other quite noticeable aspect was how green the surrounding landscape was.  Clearly, this area had received some rain over the summer and was showing signs of life that hadn’t been there before. 

Initially, we were the only boat in the anchorage, but we were eventually joined by a power boat called Amiga with a really nice couple on board whom we played a game of beach bocce ball with.  Here, we heard the “crazy fish” belly flops for the first time in I don’t know how long.  It was like coming home to something familiar and comforting, those crazy rays.  The water was crystal clear, and although I didn’t snorkel I paddle boarded around the edge of the anchorage and enjoyed the water from above.  Tim went out and caught 4 langostas (lobsters) so we enjoyed that on the BBQ like old times, not quite as fun as with Lady Carolina, though.  Tim and I left the boys on board for an afternoon and hiked up to the top of the pulpit.  It wasn’t a very strenuous hike, and the views were absolutely amazing!  On our way up the coast we had stayed on the north side of Punta Pulpito (Bahia San Nicolas) and we could see that entire bay from way up there.  We had intended to stay at this anchorage only a night or two and then head down to San Juanico, but we kept hearing on the SSB nets that there were something like 17-23 boats there, so we extended our stay at Pulpito a bit longer.  Our last night we were abruptly awakened by another boat making VHF calls at 3am.  They had come into the anchorage to avoid some weather, and they were calling their buddy boat to let them know.  That’s totally the kind of thing the radio is for, so no hard feelings or anything, but that was our clue that it was time to move on.  We were clearly back in cruising civilization again so we might as well embrace it and join the crowd at San Juanico.  You see, it was the time of year that everyone who left for the summer starts coming back for the fall and winter cruising seasons. A lot of people keep their boats in San Carlos, so we were getting caught up in the traffic of the people crossing the sea from San Carlos to the Chivato and heading south.

San Juanico was as nice as we remembered, but due to the prevailing northern winds we weren’t able to stay in our favorite little cove on the south side.  Instead, we pulled up in the middle of all the traffic and dropped anchor on the north side.  Here we did quite a bit more paddle boarding and spear fishing, and one afternoon when I was feeling a particular need to get off the boat, Alex and Brenden humored me by taking me on a dinghy ride to view the sea caves.  (The same sea caves I had kayaked to from the opposition direction months before.)

We motor-sailed down to Isla Coronados, and although we could see a couple boats positioned over on the south side of the island, we decided to drop anchor on the north side since the forecast was for a shift of light winds around to the south.  We went ashore almost immediately to scout the head of the trail that led up to the peak of the volcano.  The next morning we set out for the hike, and it took us about 3 hours to get to the top and about 2 hours to get back down.  The trail started along sand and desert shrubbery, and then progressed along reddish rocks.  At that point the trail was marked by rock piles, so you had to keep a close eye out in order to stay on the trail.  When we reached the base of the final slope up to the peak, it was a much steeper dirt trail again with taller desert shrubbery, tall enough to scratch your arms and your face, if you were not careful.  It was a hot day, but not suffocatingly hot, and we carried enough water and snacks to see us through.  We paused at the top just long enough to eat our PuBJa’s (PB & J sandwiches) and soak up the views from all directions.  Tim and Brenden raced down the steep part of the trail, while Alex and I took our time and meandered a bit.  We meandered so much we found ourselves off the trail and Tim had to come back up and call out so we could move towards his voice.  So, we failed survival skills 101 (not even 101 more like the pre-requisite) but thanks to the half of our crew with more aptitude for, well, staying on a trail, we all made it down safely.  At the bottom we enjoyed a quick soak in the crystal blue water and also noticed how the beach had changed since the last time we were here.  Before, it was a steep shore with coarse sand and lots of seaweed and natural debris strewn about.  This time it was a much more pristine beach with a more gradual slope and finer sand.  It would have been fine for running this time, but I didn’t take advantage of it.  We left the anchorage that afternoon and sailed for Nopolo, where we stayed one night and enjoyed a lazy evening and morning soaking up the internet from the resort.

We had a gusty sail from Nopolo to Puerto Escondido, and we dropped anchor quickly.  We could see Lady Carolina way out on one of the mooring balls but the dinghy was up, and we suspected they still weren’t back yet.  We headed to shore to try and catch the tail end of the much publicized yacht club anniversary pizza party, but we ran into some acquaintances who told us we had missed it, but that we really didn’t miss much.  As we were chatting our handheld VHF lit up, “Exodus, Exodus, Lady Carolina.”  They’re back!  We helped them empty their car, and they had to be just as creative at loading their car as I had to be.  Unfortunately all this was happening around dusk, and we got thoroughly munched on by the all the mosquitos.  Everyone was pretty tired, so we had an early night, but the next day we all ventured up the road away from the harbor, across the highway, and up into what is known as “Steinbeck’s Canyon.”  Wow, what a hike.  Unlike our previous hikes that had been along trails, this was really more like boulder hopping, with a stream running down the middle.  The boys had an absolute blast, and they all showed their mountain goat skills as we got higher and higher and had to be creative about finding routes to keep moving up.  On the way back down we stopped at a small pool, and Tim started undressing.  I was too far away to hear the conversation between Steve and Tim, but soon Steve started also undressing.  In their underwear, they moved over to the edge of the rocks above the pool, still bantering back and forth but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.  A countdown commenced, and holy crap, they jumped in.  Surely, they each thought the other was bluffing?  Well, either way, that broke the ice, and pretty soon all the boys were taking turns jumping in and having a fantastic time.  I think that hike goes down as one of the boys’ favorite days of our trip so far.

Lady Carolina left Puerto Escondido the same day that Tim left to fly back to LA.  Tim would be gone for 5 days and the plan was to hook back up with Lady Carolina in La Paz after that.  But in the meantime, the boys and I hunkered down for several days by ourselves in Puerto Escondido.  I enjoyed some runs along the road in the cooler weather and we all enjoyed hanging out at the Portobello Restaurant losing ourselves in the internet.  We rented a car for a day and did some provisioning in Loreto.  I ran around to every store and then found we had some extra time, so we relaxed and enjoyed an afternoon in Loreto, one last time. 

We left Puerto Escondio within hours of Tim returning, and we had another overnight sail down to Isla San Francisco.  We made really good time, too good actually, in that we arrived a couple hourse before sunrise.  We had been to this anchorage before, so we ventured in and chose a spot well away from the other boats.  However, we were well exposed to the wraparound swell, and had a couple of rocky rolly hours of sleep before the sun came up.  After that we moved and tucked in a little better amongst the other boats, and we were much more comfortable.  We had a great time exploring ashore, looking for agates again and meeting some kayakers who were camping on the other side of the island.  The winds were howling on that side and the sound and smell of the surf reminded me of the very familiar Pacific Ocean.

On Thanksgiving we sailed down to Isla Partida, to pretty much the only anchorage we hadn’t been to before, Ensenada Cardonal.  This is a mile deep anchorage with a beach that shallows very gradually.  We had the anchorage to ourselves and enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner of BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, some sort of veggie, I’m sure, and apple crumble for dessert.  We hiked across the island the next day.  It was a very easy, short hike, and we found the strong NE winds on the other side of the island again.  We spent a couple cold and gray days at the anchorage, and when the boys were bored they decided to put a treasure in a jar and leave it in a cave up on a hill on the north side of the anchorage.  Then they made a treasure map with clues and put in in a bottle and down the road when we were underway they threw the bottle in the sea.  No word on whether anyone has found the treasure, yet.

When it seemed like the right time, we made the short sail into La Paz and dropped anchor right next to Lady Carolina.  As we were making our way down the long channel into La Paz, we came across s/v Sara M and her skipper, Alan, who we had gotten to know up in the sea during the summer.  Sara M is a large schooner without an engine.  However, Alan is creative, and to make his way down the channel he was using his dinghy to “push” Sara M along.  It was quite a sight. 

We enjoyed a few days in La Paz, including a celebration for Tim’s birthday.  I enjoyed a last couple runs along the malecon before it was time to push on and cross the Sea of Cortez on to new adventures.  We were a caravan of boats leaving La Paz: Exodus, Lady Carolina, True Blue V, and Dazzler.  We stayed the night at Playa Bonanza on Isla Espiritu Santo before leaving for the crossing to the mainland on Friday, 6 December.  The boys rode on Lady Carolina for the passage between La Paz and Playa Bonanza, and as far as I know all went well.  They commented on the different motion of a monohull versus a catamaran, and Brenden is pretty sure he will get a catamaran when he grows up.