Sunrise Friday morning (August 26)

When we were on Isla Coronados, we’d noticed that someone had put a bucket of water on the shore. Tons of bees swarmed the bucket, but there were no bees anywhere else. One of the things we’d liked about Isla Coronados was the lack of bees bothering us onboard. 

On Friday morning, we tried an experiment. We left a couple of small containers of water onshore to see if the bees would stay onshore if they had water. We also went for a walk to check out the little cave that was visible from the shore. 

The walk was longer than anticipated. We were surprised at how many plants, and how many varieties of plants, there were. It must look glorious when all the plants come to life during the rainy season.

The cave was not all that exciting.

The water clarity was great, so we immediately went for a snorkel at the rocks along the north side of the anchorage.

We saw tons of fish, and tons of varities of fish. There were hundreds of pretty little damsel fish, lots of rays ranging in color from light tan to black, several verities of starfish, and a few spots of colorful coral.

After snorkeling, we went back to the boat to do some chores. In the afternoon, Eric took a dinghy ride over to the next bay over to visit with some cruisers that we’d met in Santa Rosalia. Here is a little video that he took of his ride.

It is hard to say if the water onshore helped. There were still quite a few bees and wasps around Kosmos, but it is possible there would have been more had we not put the water out. Here is the sunset on Friday.

In the evening, Eric and Keith stayed up later than normal to stargaze. Being a moonless night in an area with no other lights, the stars were amazing. They also put a light into the water and watched all the fish it attracted. That was also amazing. There was a small thunderstorm over mainland Mexico.

Saturday sunrise

On Saturday morning, it was a little rolly when we woke up, which surprised us. We should have been protected from the swell in this anchorage. The plan had been to get out the SNUBA gear and Christi would clean the bottom, but we stopped cold when we saw there was another wasp/bee party in the cockpit and dinghy. Sigh. 

As the morning progressed, the swell slowly but steadily picked up. By 0900, it felt like we were at sea in the Pacific. We were all feeling grumpy about not being able to swim or go to shore – we were being held prisoner by the bees/wasps! Our friends on Avalon, who were still in Santa Rosalia, reported that the swell was also bad in Santa Rosalia. 

The wind also picked up. By 1400, the wind was 15 knots, with gusts to 18 knots. In good news, the strong wind blew all the bees away. In bad news, between the swells and wind chop, it was really uncomfortable in the anchorage. We couldn’t believe how big the wave winds got with so little fetch in the bay. 

We tried to take the dinghy to shore to get a reprieve from the rocking, but when we saw the waves breaking on the beach, we realized that the waves may be too big to safely relaunch the dinghy. So we turned around and went back to Kosmos. Likewise, we didn’t think it was wise to swim in the rough water. The swell and wind chop both continued to get worse as the day wore on. Here is a short video of the rocking.

We decided to leave in the morning. Even though it is difficult to bring up and secure the dinghy in strong winds, we realized we were better off doing it in the wind than with the bees and wasps that would inevitably return as soon as the wind died.

Saturday sunset

Once it was dark, we saw that there was a giant thunderstorm over mainland Mexico that lit up the entire horizon, with one giant bolt after another. The bright flashes of light behind the clouds were dramatic, almost like a light show. 

By 2230, the rocking was so extreme that we felt like we were at sea in the South Pacific. Things that had been secured “good enough” for the Sea of Cortez fell. Things that had been stowed in cabinets and lockers were moving. Christi and Eric got up several times in the night to locate annoying mystery noises, which usually involved re-packing a cabinet/locker more tightly. 

Between all the noises, the extreme rocking, the heat and humidity, it was a miserable night with little sleep. 

In the morning, conditions were comparable to what they had been when we’d gone to bed, so still uncomfortable, but not as bad as it was in the middle of the night.

Eric brought in the flopper stoppers first thing in the morning. He was not surprised to see that one of them had broken. There were a few bees/wasps around, but it wasn’t terrible. 

We made breakfast, did the last minute things, and were ready to go an hour later. More bees/wasps had arrived. Once the anchor was up and we were moving, the motion improved significantly. It is ironic that there is less motion when we are in motion than when we are not moving. Sometimes boating is counter-intuitive.