Category Archives: Cruising Guide

Information for other cruising boats. Our experiences finding places to anchor, dealing with officials, provisions, etc.

Playa Pichilingue to Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida

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On Thursday, January 19, the little sliver of the moon was again in the east as the sun rose underneath it.

We left for shore at noon. Our plan was to walk over to the ferry terminal to catch the 1230 bus. As we pulled up to the beach, a man walked up to us and asked how we liked the Torquedo electric motor. He and Eric chatted for a few minutes. Then Christi said “We don’t want to be rude, but we have to leave. We’re going to the ferry terminal to catch a bus into town.”

And the man said “Would you like me to give you a ride into town?” We took him up on his offer. His wife was waiting in their van. It turned out they were former cruisers. And they also went cruising with son, who was a teenager at the time. They eventually switched from traveling via boats to traveling via a camping van.

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Third Trip to Playa Pichilingue, Days 3 – 4

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Sunrise on Tuesday, January 17. The crescent moon looks fuzzy in this photo because it was blurred by a cloud.

The waves built through the night, and it was another uncomfortably rocky morning. After we finished our morning chores, we went to the Cantamar for Elevensies (late breakfast/early lunch. Eric ordered chili rellenos stuffed with seafood in a cream sauce. They may have been the biggest rellenos we’ve ever seen, and they were great.

After we ordered, Christi walked over to the reception desk to ask if we could leave our dinghy on their beach while we went to La Paz. The reception staff told us that we could for a $10 per person fee, so $30. When Christi said that were spending more than $30 at the restaurant, they made it clear that the fee was to have the dinghy on their property, and that the fee was on top of anything we purchased at the hotel. Christi said that we’d leave right away to avoid the fee.

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Playa de Bonanza on Espiritu Santo to Playa Pichilingue

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Sunrise on Sunday, January 15

We are sad to report that it was no calmer on the north end of the anchorage than it had been on the south end. The rolling wasn’t terrible, but it certainly wasn’t calm. 

At 1000, we met Moin and Erin Skye on the beach and went on a hike inland with them. There were several hikes at Bonanza, and we chose the one closest to where we landed the dinghies. Looking south from the trail head.

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Ensenada el Gallo to Playa la Bonanza, Both on Espiritu Santo… And The Forbidden Anchorage

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Half moon was high in the sky as the sun rose on Saturday, January 14, 2023

One of the reasons for wanting to come to this anchorage was so that we could visit Bahia San Gabriel, AKA The Forbidden Anchorage. It’s been nicknamed that because it is forbidden for boats to anchor there. We’ve also gotten the impression that the tourist panga day-trips and camping groups aren’t allowed to go to this beach, either. We have no details as to why this area had been closed off in recent years; all we found was that this bay used to be rich with oysters and once upon a time there was a pearl fishery.

But there was a hiking trail that goes to Bahia San Gabriel from Bonanza, and dinghies were allowed to go there, so visiting the beach is to allowed. Our dinghy was too slow to make the 3.2 nm trek, so Moin picked us up in their fast dinghy at 1000. Erin Skye went, too.

When we rounded the corner of the finger into Bahia San Gabriel, we were surprised to see that there was a boat anchored there. We figured it was only a matter of time before the park ranger ran them off. We had to anchor the dinghy pretty far away from shore because the water was so shallow. Erin Skye managed to get their dinghy in closer than we did.

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Ensenada del Candelero to Ensenada el Gallo, Both on Espiritu Santo

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On Friday (January 13), we awoke up to no wind and super clear water. We knew the calm wasn’t going to last for long. The forecast was that the winds were shifting direction and would pick up from the southwest, so we needed to move to a more protected location. We decided to go to an anchorage called Ensenada la Gallina, which was only 3.5 nautical miles south. The west side of Espiritu Santo has many fingers, and this anchorage had a particularly long finger on the south side that offered a little more protection than the rest of the fingers. Moin and Erin Sky decided to come with us.

We pulled up anchor at about 0820, and the other two boats were right behind us. We arrived at around 0900, with the other two boats filing in shortly after we did. We chose a spot in the southwest end of the cove because everything closer inland was too shallow to anchor in. As you can see, it would be a long dinghy ride to shore.

We tried to anchor three times. The first time the anchor didn’t hold. The bottom was kind of rocky, so we guessed the anchor must have hit a rock. The second time the anchor held, but we settled too close to the rocks along the shore. We moved farther away from the rocks and dropped the anchor again. The anchor didn’t hold. 

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