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.
Eric carried Keith in to keep Keith’s pants dry, but it didn’t work. Both Keith and Eric managed to get sopping wet none-the-less.
It was a large, beautiful beach with soft, fine, white sand. The first picture is looking north, the second is looking south.
The beach was loaded with a huge number of sea shells, with seemingly endless varieties. There was one that we think may have been a turtle shell.
Just in from the shore it was full of plant life, but we didn’t attempt to go trekking inland.
After walking the length of the beach, we waded out to the dinghies. The tide had gone out some more. While the dinghies weren’t grounded, the engines couldn’t be put down, so the dinghies had to be led to deeper water before the engines could be turned on.
As soon as we got back to our boats, we each quickly got our boats ready for sea and pulled up anchor. The wind was about to shift again, so we were moving to Playa la Bonanza. Given how rocky it was last time we went to Bonanza, we were a bit leery that the anchorage would be calm. But we were willing to give it another try, primarily because we wanted to explore the shore there (which we hadn’t done last time).
It was a two-hour ride around the southern end of Espiritu Santo to the large crescent bay on the east side of the island. Last time, we’d anchored on the south end of the crescent. This time anchored in the north end, hoping that maybe the north side would be calmer than the south side had been. Eric preemptively put down one of the flopper stoppers.
In the evening, all three families all got together on one of the boats. Eric and all the kids played D&D while the rest of adults socialized.
Here was the sunset.
