Saturday, Jun 10, 2006  Isla Todos Santos. About 10 miles away from Ensenada are a small pair of islands. By the way, when we say miles we mean nautical miles, and for speeds we use nautical miles per hour, aka knots. It was a slow, smooth, and steady trip. 2-3 foot swells and about 10 knots of wind. We anchored at the Isla Norte seen here:

On our way back a big huge rock appeared towards the front of the boat. Then it disappeared and appeared again with a spray of water. That is no moon, it’s a space station. Err, no it is an enormous gray whale! We turned around and got some quick video. We were excited to see our first whale from Kosmos. We hope to see many more.

• Video Action
  • First Whale – Kinda hard to see, but certainly noticable when the whale breathes.

Some people have asked how do we know where to go, and how do we know it is safe? We planned this trip using a few sources. First of all, we looked at the charts, aka maps. We have both electronic (C-MAP) and paper charts. Second we have cruising guides, which describe various areas. An important focus of most cruising guides is safe and reasonable place to anchor. And third we talked to local people at the marina about the islands.

The chart confirmed the depth around the islands was good per the cruising guide. The guide mentioned “aquaculture” and indicated a place you could not anchor. The locals mentioned “lots of nets”, and unlikely you could anchor there. The locals were right about the south island. There appeared to be many nets in the really nice looking anchorage areas detailed in the guide. However the north island is where we anchored in about 30 feet of water near some kelp beds.

After we made sure the anchor was set well, we turn on the anchor alarm (tells us if we are drifting), and took a nap. We really enjoy sleeping on the boat as it gently sways. We brought a friend and she was amazed how well she slept.

No Ensenada blog entry is complete without a flag in the background picture. Here is Christi and our friend Rosanna.