We celebrated Alex’s 12th birthday when we were briefly anchored at Isla Salsipuedes. In the morning, he got to go on a special father/son spearfishing excursion and Tim taught him to use the speargun for the first time (the boys typically use spear poles when they spearfish). Brenden stayed behind with me to prepare for the celebration. We planned on a lunchtime party because we were pretty sure we would need to leave the anchorage and move on later in the afternoon. We made hot dogs, homemade chili, and homemade oreo cookies. We even made Alex his very own giant oreo. The Lady Carolina crew brought over balloons and we used them to decorate the cockpit along with a happy birthday sign Brenden made. Tim and I had already given the boys their birthday presents when we got back from San Diego (surfboards and long wetsuits), but Alex had a few presents to open including a chess game Brenden had picked out in Santa Rosalia, and some bubbles and a shiny new shackle from Lady Carolina. The chessboard made our next passage a peaceful one since the boys played it almost the whole time, and at this point I’m really not sure what Alex has chosen to use his shackle for.
Birthday OreosBirthday ShacklePlaying chess on passage
This was a diversion anchorage. We were headed for Isla Partida but the wind died and this was our backup plan. It was a great little anchorage, except for the no-see-ums! The highlight was Alex’s 12th birthday!
San Francisquito to Isla Salsipuedes. Again, it looks like we forgot to start the inReach.
Logbook – August 3, 2013 (San Francisquito to Isla Salsipuedes)
Passage log highlights
1100 Departed
1149 Gennaker and main
1236 Hammerhead sighting
1630 Arrived Isla Salsipuedes
Daily Notes
Passage – originally headed for Isla Partida but wind did not cooperate so anchored at Isla Salsipuedes
Swimming and snorkeling
Fish cookout w/ LC on Exodus
ISS flyby (International Space Station)
Sleepy boys in the cockpitDeanne reels in a DoradoStowaway
Logbook – August 4, 2013 (Isla Salsipuedes to Isla Partida)
T, Alex, Steve, Kyle spearfishing – Alex & Kyle each got leopard groupers with the guns
Party!! Hot dogs, chili, homemade oreos, balloons
Passage to Isla Partida
Email to family and friends dated August 4, 2013
Subject: Happy Birthday Alex!
We are anchored at this fantastic little island called Isla Salsipuedes. The guidebook doesn’t really discuss it as much of an anchorage but we heard from another cruiser about it. It’s not great protection but the forecast is pretty benign so we stopped just for a short stay. We are still with Lady Carolina and we are going to have a lunchtime party for Alex with hot dogs, chili, and a giant homemade oreo. The boys all play Minecraft together and they all gave Alex presents in Minecraft. Too funny! It’s possible we’ll stay here one more night but likely we’ll leave after the party to another nearby island.
Love and miss you all!
-D
Brenden made some decorationsChili for the birthday dinner. Shout out to Lady Carolina for bringing balloons!Party!No wrapping paper, no problemLady Carolina brought Alex a presentWhat boat kid doesn’t need one of theseGiant homemade oreo (This will become a tradition)Oreos for everyoneCleaning the fish before getting underwayBrenden got Alex a chess game for his birthday. He picked it out when we were in Santa RosaliaAlex’s leopard grouperBubbles are still fun
Bahia San Francisquito is a large, predominantly NE facing bay with two main anchorages: one good for southerly winds and one good for west and northwesterly winds. We had a great time here doing lots of swimming, paddleboarding, and lobster eating!
Logbook – July 30, 2013 (Santa Rosalia to San Francisquito)
Passage Log Highlights
0445 Light wind on the nose. Furled genoa. Port engine on.
0506 Wind picked up. Unfurled genoa.
0724 Screamin
1515 Motor sailing – Port engine on
1730 Arrive Bahia San Francisquito
Daily Notes
Beautiful sunset underway. Rollercoaster at the port bow.
Caught 2 dorados – Tim jumped in to cool off
Boys fun in the water upon arrival
Santa Rosalia to Bahia San Francisquito
Fishing on passage to San Francisquito
Dorado!
So happy to catch a Dorado
Tim getting to use his new fish cleaning station
Email to family and friends dated July 30, 2013
Subject: Left Santa Rosalia last night
We made it off the dock about 10pm last night. We still haven’t stowed all the loot we brought back from San Diego, but we were very ready to be out of the marina. The boys have caught 2 Dorado (Mahi Mahi) today and Tim is using his new fish cleaning station now so the filets will be ready to grill up when we anchor. We are heading to Bahia San Fransiquito and the boys are really looking forward to being able to swim and use the new paddleboards. We likely won’t have cell service for months but should have wifi off and on once we get to the Bay of LA. We had a great time in SD, and it was so good to see everyone.
Love you all,
-D.
The geography of San Francisquito. Upon arrival we anchored the west side of the bay.
There was still a little bit of daylight left when we arrived so the boys were in the water right away with Kyle and Joel.
Logbook – July 31, 2013 (San Francisquito)
Daily Notes
Lobsters in the morning, cabrilla in the afternoon
No school – Boys played w/ LC boys all day
D – first paddle board
Seafood fest on Exodus w/ LC, Dazzler, Chara
Lobster jackpot!
Impressive lobster
The whole gang on Exodus for a seafood feast
Cruising kids read as well as fish and swim
A little too much sun and rum?
A grill full of lobster
A grill full of lobster
Logbook – August 1, 2013 (San Francisquito)
Daily Notes
Moved to other side of bay due to excessive swell from ESE winds. Followed LC and Dazzler here.
T & boys lunch on LC – D paddle board
LC boys here for dinner
Lost of mosquito bites in this anchorage. Alex had 19 on his back yesterday
The wind shifted so we moved to the other side of the bay. The blue dot is our new anchor location
The surfboard paddle board game, of course
Faceoff while Brenden poses for the camera
D out for a paddle
Going to visit LC
Kyle and Joel paddle upwind to get home
Logbook – August 2, 2013 (San Francisquito)
Daily Notes
Moved to other side of bay due to excessive swell from ESE winds. Followed LC and Dazzler here.
T & boys lunch on LC – D paddle board
LC boys here for dinner
Lost of mosquito bites in this anchorage. Alex had 19 on his back yesterday
Lady Carolina departing San Francisquito on the morning of August 3
Summer in the Sea of Cortez has been phenomenal. Way back when we were at La Paz and making the decision whether to head south to Central America or stay here I was racked with indecision having a hard time figuring out what was the right thing to do. Now, I know we unquestionably made the right decision. After reading this you might think I’m crazy… the bugs, theChubasco scares, the heat, etc. However, this summer gave us a fantastic opportunity to continue to get to know Exodus and to also experience some adversity while still being pretty close to home. Having these experiences and gaining confidence in Exodus and in ourselves as cruisers will be invaluable as we continue south further away from home and ultimately cross the pacific into much more foreign (to us) territory. And as an added bonus we got to spend the summer with a small group of fantastic cruisers and are making great friendships along the way.
We prefer to arrive at an anchorage during daylight hours, so we departed Santa Rosalia in the evening and had our first overnight passage since we were coming south on the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula. We waited until after the Chubasco report on SSB radio to make sure we were likely to have a convection free passage, so we pulled out of the Santa Rosalia breakwater at about 9:30 pm. As soon as we were out of the breakwater we were surprised by the surreal vision of what seemed like a hundred lights on the water. They were fishermen out in the pangas trying to catch squid that are predominant in that area. Navigating that was a bit tricky, but I’m thinking, hey, at least they have lights (you can’t always take that for granted). The passage was pretty uneventful after that, starting out with light wind on the nose, so I practiced tacking in these light conditions. The wind picked up and then died again, but we arrived at San Francisquito at about 5:30pm. As usual the boys were in the water about a split second after the 2nd engine was cut off (they have to wait until we are completely done anchoring and engines are off before swimming). Bahia San Francisquito is a large, predominantly NE facing bay with two main anchorages: one good for southerly winds and one good for west and northwesterly winds. We parked at the latter one just off a white sand beach about 1/2 mile long. There is also a small cove hanging off the SE corner of the bay were small boats can enter with great protection. I paddle boarded into this cove and there are residences along the south end as well as a small base for some sort of Naval operations. The Navy did circle through the anchorage past all of the boats (there were 4 of us there) but they didn’t stop or board any of us. They had a dog in the boat, so we suspect they were sniffing for drugs and didn’t get any whiffs from our crowd. The second or third day there, the wind shifted on us and we were getting pretty good swell so we all weighed anchor and joined S/V Interabang at the other end of the bay with better protection. They had just pulled in and we turned their secluded anchorage into a party of 5, including 2 noisy kid boats. I’m sure they were ecstatic!
The boys swimming off the front of Exodus at Bahia San Francisquito
When we left San Francisquito we regretted that we never went ashore, but the bug situation somewhat dictated it. We departed bound for Isla Partida along with Lady Carolina. (Recall that there is an Isla Partida that we spent a fair amount of time at down by La Paz. We have learned that it is quite common in Mexico to have multiple places with the same name. Keeps people on their toes, I guess.) We didn’t make it all the way there, though, because the wind just wouldn’t cooperate, so we stopped on the south side of a small island called Isla Salsipuedes. It was a narrow, rocky anchorage, quite beautiful and somewhere I would have loved to stay several days. But we ended up staying just one night there, because it really was good for just fair weather and the wind picked up the next afternoon, not to mention the no-see-ums (bugs of the devil!) We did celebrate Alex’s 12th birthday in that anchorage, and we weighed anchor immediately after the celebration concluded because that’s when the wind shift came.
Our next stop was Isla Partida, which is also a small island. It has a large crescent-shaped anchorage with excellent protection from all directions except due north. We stayed here a few nights and the highlights include long paddleboard excursions, huge fish, and a mini-Chubasco. After that we headed back to the Baja Peninsula to Animas Slot. We didn’t check our map very well before heading out, though, because we were operating under the subconscious assumption that southish winds would be preferable for this passage since our overall general direction has been north from Santa Rosalia to Bahia de Los Angeles. It turns out that from Isla Partida to Animas Slot is actually a SW passage, so with S winds, we had a close reach and even had to tack to get to the anchorage. Live and learn (although I take a much more active role in passage planning after that.) Animas Slot was a fantastic little anchorage, long and narrow, and we knew it would be tight for both boats to fit. We arrived slightly ahead of Lady Carolina so we tried to tuck in as close to the beach as possible. Tim even got in the water and moved the anchor manually. Seriously, he dove down picked up the anchor and walked it closer to shore. In the end, when Lady Carolina got there they figured out the bottomed deepened too quickly so they couldn’t find a spot where the could put out adequate scope and not swing into the sides of the anchorage. Sunset was looming so they moved around the corner to Cala Puertocito de Enmedio. Of course, we took an infinite amount of crap for taking the best anchor spot for ourselves. And there was no doubt about that, Animas Slot was breathtaking. There was excellent snorkeling and paddleboarding, and I even hiked up to the top of the ridge between the two anchorages for some phenomenal views. And even though we were separated from Lady Carolina by a ridge and a reef, it didn’t stop us from gathering for potluck dinners and evening cocktails on the foredeck of Exodus.
Sunset at Isla Partida
Exodus at Animas Slot
We pressed onward, but not very far this time. We stopped at Bahia de Las Animas which is just a few nm away from Animas Slot. In contrast to Animas Slot, Bahia de Las Animas is a huge bay open to the NE, and we chose one of the anchorages on the SE side, also open to the NE. We stayed a couple nights here, but there wasn’t much to see aside from a whale skeleton and a coyote on the beach. We were starting to get that sense of urgency to get to the village at Bahia de Los Angeles because we were down to bare bones of fresh fruits and veggies, but we decided to make one more stop at Ensenada el Quemado. Lady Carolina left a few hours before us and had no wind, and by the time we got our act together and got underway we had 20 kts. Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good. Our navigation system communication network has been having some issues, and on this passage we were without GPS. It’s funny how you get so dependent on seeing that little boat icon move across the chart plotter. El Quemado faces north and we tucked in at the SE corner of the anchorage. While the boys were out spearfishing (as usual) Carolina and I hiked to the SE across to Ensenada el Pescador. Well, calling it a hike is a little generous. It was really a walk across flat, desert terrain, but the beach on the other side was fantastic. It had white sand and was a deep enough beach for some bocce ball or beach football. We decided we would definitely need to visit that anchorage at some point. There was also an abandoned resort where the rooms were small, individual, structures along the beach, and we noticed that some of them were occupied. It’s not clear if the people there are squatters or what, but they have million-dollar views every day. When we left El Quemado we were bound for the village at Bahia de Los Angeles, but we did a drive-by survey of Puerto Don Juan along the way. Puerto Don Juan is a natural “hurricane hole” that provides excellent protection from all directions. This is where we would all flock should the unlikely event of a tropical storm make its way this far north into the sea. We wanted to check it out and be familiar with the entrance and the depths of the anchorage in case we ever had to enter in a hurry. Bahia de Los Angeles (henceforth referred to as BLA) is a very large bay and the village is up at the NW corner with a sand spit providing a little added protection from the NE. We made it to the village just before noon and had time to check out the town in the afternoon.
The whale bone at Bahia de Las Animas
Ensenada el Quemado
From Santa Rosalia to BLA (Looks like we forgot to start the inReach beacon when we left Santa Rosalia.)
Breaking the stories into chapters is actually quite difficult because there’s never really an end, just an arbitrary breakpoint in how I’ve decided to describe our journey. This segment has been incredible, but it’s had a different tone than the previous one. I feel like we’ve slowed down a bit and really come to understand that we don’t have a destination. We have a journey and we are appreciating every bit of it. Even the heat and the bugs (stay tuned for stories about bugs and other winged creatures).
We haven’t dragged anchor, lost an engine, or ripped the bowsprit off the front of the boat this time, but we have had a couple mishaps and a few boat projects. The biggest problem we’ve had is the seizing of our solar array supports. On Exodus, the major way we get power is through three 250 W solar panels that you can manually rotate fore and aft to track the sun (so we have our best sun days if we are pointing East or West, and since we are still in the Northern hemisphere, pointing North isn’t too bad either.) Since we don’t have a generator, the only other way to charge the batteries is with the engines, which works fine, but adds wear and tear on the engines. At this point, we haven’t had to run the engines just to charge batteries, but then the solar array supports seized, and we couldn’t rotate them. Basically, each side is just two hollow stainless steel poles and you move the outer one up and down on the inner one to rotate the panels. Tim took everything apart when we were in Santa Rosalia, and tried many different things, but couldn’t get the poles to move freely against each other, and by this time, both sides were seized. He ended up getting new poles made when we were in San Diego, so now the old outer pole is the new inner pole, and they seem to be working well so far.
We had a couple sailing projects to work on in Santa Rosalia. First, when tacking we tore the bottom of the gennaker, so our new standard practice is to furl/unfurl the gennaker when we tack or jibe. The other was the mainsail stack pack. Marsha had sewn one side while she was here, and now the other side was torn. Unfortunately, we weren’t with Star Passage anymore and Kim’s awesome sewing machine, but there is never a shortage of helpful cruisers. Dan from Dazzler not only loaned his sewing machine but came and did the sewing as well. It only cost us a few beers.
Also, while in Santa Rosalia we had a little issue with our shore power connection. The power often goes out there, and one time after coming back on, we were no longer getting power to the boat. Tim called our resident electrical engineer, Steve from Lady Carolina, and of course, Dan from Dazzler came down to help too. They troubleshot for a while, and finally figured out it was a breaker in Alex’s room that would blow when the water heater was on. It just happened to be the breaker that Tim kept insisting wasn’t attached to anything, just leftover stuff from previous installations, so it took them a while to figure it out. We still aren’t sure what’s wrong with the water heater, we just haven’t used it since then.
There is always something that needs to be fixed on a boat. Relatively speaking, we have it pretty easy since we have a pretty new boat, but there’s always a balance to be struck between preventive and corrective maintenance. I’ve been doing a lot of reading since being out here, and I’ve found some resources that give decent outlines of what should be done when from a preventive perspective. So, I built a spreadsheet that lists maintenance tasks, by boat system, with the frequency it should be done, and then had it flag things that were overdue. I forced Tim to sit down and go through it with me to add his take, and now we are better organized and know what needs to be done when. Of course, I’m pretty sure Tim hasn’t cracked the spreadsheet since. Oh well, you can bring a horse to water… I think I’ll work more on my provisioning spreadsheet because I definitely use that
We made a whirlwind trip to San Diego in order to renew our tourist visas and buy a TON of stuff. There were no rental cars in Santa Rosalia so Tim took the bus down to Loreto and came back with a mini-van. We drove all the way to San Diego in one day and then had three wonderful days with friends and family amongst all of the errands. It was a difficult trip, but it was so worth it.
We left in the wee hours of the morning while it was still dark
We took the inReach with us on the drive from Santa Rosalia to San Diego
There’s nothing in the logbook about this, but I distinctly remember getting hassled at a checkpoint near Ensenada where they searched our car and also my purse and found that I had a couple thousand dollars worth of pesos and they wanted to know why. In my very broken Spanish I tried to explain that our boat is in Santa Rosalia and we were preparing to sail up to Bahia de Los Angeles for the summer where there are no ATMs so I had taken a bunch of cash for food, etc. Over and over he asked me the same thing and over and over I tried to explain. I’m not sure if he ever actually understood more or if he just gave up, I’m just happy he didn’t ask for a bribe.
We had our list ready (include stuff for Lady Carolina)
New wetsuits
Good morning Andrew
Brenden has missed the feather boa
Cousins at the counter,
Fun in the pool
Fun in the pool
Fun in the pool
Papa time
Relaxing on the deck
Alex and Cammy (Alex started learning how to make things with duck tape)
Ouch sunburn
Like grandma like grandson
With Gramma Nay
More fun in the pool
More fun in the pool
More fun in the pool
Lego time
Papa time in the pool
Family portrait
Getting silly
Happy momma
Happy brothers
After a long few days of playing
Saying good-bye to Cammy and Ethan
A big hug good-bye
One last ice cream bar on the morning of departure
We drove back to Santa Rosalia on July 27 and rushed around for two days in order to get off the dock as soon as we could. I had done my research regarding customs and had put everything in a spreadsheet and calculated what I thought we would owe at the border. When we stopped and they opened the van and saw how packed it was and I showed them my spreadsheet I think we overwhelmed them and they just waved us on.
When we pulled into the marina in Santa Rosalia, it was the first time we had stayed in a marina since we left San Diego. There are good and bad things about being in a marina versus anchoring out, but in Santa Rosalia, the bad was represented more than the good. In places like La Paz and Puerto Vallarta there are luxury marinas that seem like mini-vacations within the larger cruising journey. However, in Santa Rosalia there is one option for a marina, and it’s the small, government-run, Marina Fonatur (Singlar). When we first pulled in it was great fun for about 2 hours. Other cruisers we knew were already there, and they came and helped us with dock lines, then we all did the same for Lady Carolina, who came in just after us. We all brought our safe arrival cocktails out on the dock and it was a little social gathering while we chit-chatted about recent events, made dinner plans for the evening, and joked about the very close quarters we have at the marina (no naked showering on the swim step, etc.) However, the novelty soon wore off, and we all tried to get out of there as quickly as possible. One of the worst parts about being in the marina was the immense heat while not being able to just jump in the water any time you want (yuck, you don’t want to swim in the harbor!)
The good things about being in a marina are: 1) Shore power, 2) Wifi, 3) Laundry facilities, 4) Dock water, and 5) Shower facilities. In Santa Rosalia, most of these became a bit of a challenge. With shore power we can charge the boat’s house battery bank, so we aren’t solely dependent on the sun for our power, and we can directly run AC devices (like the microwave and electronics) without using DC from the battery through an inverter. In Santa Rosalia, I think the best thing about having shore power was that Lady Carolina had these large AC powered fans. The boys brought one over one evening and let’s just say Tim hijacked it for a while. We did end up buying some fans for ourselves.
They had decent wifi in the marina office but for some reason we had trouble getting it from the boat. One OK thing about that was that the office was air-conditioned, so we would just take our devices and computers up to the office to use the internet. The boys did that a lot. I wonder if the marina office staff was glad when we left since those noisy kids wouldn’t be spending all their time there anymore.
Like the marina in Puerto Escondido, the laundry facilities took tokens that you had to purchase at the office. The problem was they only had like 4 tokens for the whole marina. Just between the two families of four (Lady Carolina and us) this was a huge problem and we weren’t the only ones in the marina. You had to do a couple loads, then go get the marina guy to come and open the washer and dryer to get the tokens out to buy more so you could do all of your laundry. And that’s assuming you were the one with the tokens in the first place. I grew tired of that pretty quick and just carried our laundry to a place in town where I could just leave it and have them do it and pick it up later that day.
The dock water was nonpotable, but that was OK. We didn’t put it in our tanks but we used it for everything else: taking showers, hosing down exodus, and hosing down ourselves in the middle of the day when we just couldn’t take the heat anymore. We were able to purchase potable water and it was delivered in large “Sparklets” jugs and the delivery guys were unbelievably efficient in how they got the jugs on board and poured them in the tanks.
The shower facilities weren’t worth using since they didn’t have hot water, and we could just use the deck water hose dropped down the hatch of our bathroom and shower with that in our own shower. For the most part the bathrooms and shower facilities were kept pretty clean, with the exception of the day after a huge birthday party for a little kid where clearly the adults did more partying than the kids. The entire marina and especially the bathrooms were a disaster.
One good thing about being at a marina is it’s a good stable place to give Exodus some love and clean her off and do some boat projects. The Exodus and Lady Carolina boys teamed up and would do work on both boats together. Among other things, they were responsible for the care and cleaning of both dingies, and maybe working together made the chores a little more fun. The kids were also in charge of running to the store every day or so to pick up ice and milk. They also “hand bombed” some jerry cans to the gas station to fill using the hand carts. They didn’t exactly do all this without a grumble, but they did do it. And no one can say boat kids are spoiled!
Marina Life
The boys enjoying their boat work in Santa Rosalia
In Santa Rosalia we got a lot of boat chores done, but we also took some time to explore the town a bit.
Santa Rosalía is a town located in the Mulegé Municipality of northern Baja California Sur, Mexico. It is on the Gulf of California coast of the Baja California Peninsula. As of 2015, the town had a population of 14,160 inhabitants.It was only about a two and half hour passage from Isla San Marcos to Santa Rosalia, and we sailed most of the way
Logbook – July 16, 2013 (Sweet Pea Cove to Santa Rosalia)
Passage Log Highlights
0955 Depart Sweet Pea Cove
1037 Genniker only
1226 Arrive Santa Rosalia Marina Fonatur
Daily Notes
Passage to Santa Rosalia – parked at the end slip at Fonatur Marina
Afternoon of school & wifi
Dinner w/ LC and Dazzler @ air-conditioned Chinese restaurant
(Edit: no mention of the food at the restaurant only that it was airconditioned. That’s because it was HOT!)
The town of Santa Rosalia and its small harborHe was not granted permission to come aboardFirst time at the dock since we left San DiegoWalking to the Chinese restaurant looking north towards the Santa Rosalia harborDinner at the *air conditioned* Chinese restaurant with Lady Carolina and DazzlerBrenden studied the menuTim thought it was hilarious that I was holding my beer while eating
Facebook Post July 16, 2013
We are at the marina in Santa Rosalia. Plugged into shore power for the first time in 4.5 months. Time to turn on the AC… oh yeah, we don’t have one of those.
Logbook – July 17, 2013 (Santa Rosalia)
Daily Notes
T & Steve went w/ Edgar to all the h/w stores
Loss of shore power after power outage. Discovered the breaker in Alex’s room IS connected
D & Carolina & boys scouted the town
Hot dogs from the cart w/ LC and Dazzler, drinks at el Muelle, grocery store
Boys sleepover on the net
Beachfront propertyA few of the harborHeading to town, Alex looks thrilled doesn’t he?Close up with the trainA French company owned the copper mining operation in Santa Rosalia in the late 1800s, so there is still a bit of French influence observable. This church is constructed of steel and was designed by Gustave Eiffel (yes, that Eiffel).The best tortilleria in townMmmmm…. street hot dog vendor
Logbook – July 18, 2013 (Santa Rosalia)
Daily Notes
T fixed the stackpack
Fish tacos on Exodus w/ LC & Dazzler
(Edit: “Stackpack” is the canvas covering that the main sail is stored in.)
Logbook – July 19, 2013 (Santa Rosalia)
Daily Notes
Filled propane tanks
Three backpack trips to town, new flip-flops for Alex
Boys did boat chores – waxed dinghy, scrubbed deck, cleaned LC lines
(Edit: The backpack trips to town were for provisions.)
The boys are not happy about their boat choresAnother view of the Eiffel Church (It’s actually called Iglesia Santa Barbara de Santa Rosalia)
Logbook – July 20, 2013 (Santa Rosalia)
Daily Notes
Laundry, alcohol run
Dinner (Pizza) at El Muelle
Edit: I bought all the Bacardi Anejo in town and Steve was not pleased.
Pelicans acted like the owned the placeExodus at the dockMarina lifeMarina lifeMexican Navy at the fuel dockExodus at the dockBrenden arranged the alcohol purchase into a bar graphThere was a great ice cream shop in townThe plaque at the Eiffel ChurchDinner at El Muelle with Steve and CarolinaThe kids’ tableWe weighed the pros and cons and decided to GO NOW on a road trip to San Diego in order to renew our tourist visas.
Santa Rosalia
Santa Rosalia is a small-town sort of wedged in a ravine with 3 main streets heading east up from the coast. I enjoyed Santa Rosalia much more than La Paz or Loreto, but not because it was necessarily a more enjoyable town in general. It was just that I had many more opportunities to enjoy it. Since we were at a marina, getting to town was as easy as stepping off the boat with no wet bouncy dinghy ride required. Plus, the town was quite close to the marina, so it was really just a short walk, although it did seem a lot longer in the blistering heat. We had dinner out several times, and although it wasn’t gourmet, we did enjoy the evenings in air-conditioned establishments. We did two big group dinners at a Chinese restaurant about a quarter-mile away from the marina. I’ve never really been a huge Chinese food fan, but these were nice evenings out. I really enjoyed a pizza place called El Muelle (The Dock) since we so rarely have pizza these days (although Lady Carolina has made excellent pizza on the boat a couple times). El Muelle makes a pizza called El Metro (The meter) which, you guessed it, is a meter-long pizza. They let you put up to 4 different sections of toppings, so everyone was happy. Like every restaurant we’ve ever been to outside the U.S., service was slow, but when the beer and wine are flowing and the kids are playing cards, it’s all good. I guess it’s just in the U.S. we have no idea how to slow down. In addition to the air-conditioned restaurants, I’m not ashamed to admit that we visited a couple street hot dog vendors. I love hot dogs with lots of toppings, but I did draw the line at nacho cheese. For some reason I can eat a hot dog, no problem, but nacho cheese just grosses me out. Our favorite place, by far, was the Splash ice cream shop. There was one streak where I went there three days in a row. They had rich and creamy ice cream (like Cold Stone) and waffle bowls and everything.
Provisioning was pretty easy just using my hiking backpack. In fact, one day I made a total of four trips into town. The people there were very friendly. You hardly passed anyone without them saying, “hola,” or “buenas tardes.” There was a fantastic bakery, although I never could figure out how to order non-whole wheat baguettes. I guess they figure all the gringos like their whole wheat. The Tortilleria in town was also excellent, in fact, I am really going to miss fresh-made tortillas when we leave Mexico. We got to know the tiendas in town by the color of their storefronts. The most popular were the “green store” and the “purple store.” In fact, they became the prominent landmarks, so if you wanted to tell someone where something was, it was always so many blocks from the green store.
We had fun in Santa Rosalia, but when it was time to go, we were dying to get back out to an anchorage with a little more space between boats and the ability to swim again
Gresham Family Exodus 