Ensenada del Candelero on Isla Espiritu Santo to San Evaristo to Isla San Francisco

On Friday, November 18, the crescent moon was still shining brightly even as the day dawned.

Oceananigans in the glow of sunrise

Eric was eager to refill the tanks and dive again, so he spent some time in the early morning working on the dive compressor. He took apart the part he believed to be broken to the best of his ability to see if it could be easily fixed, lubricated it and put it back together. Still not working. He gave it Mike on Oceananigans, who also took it apart to look at it. It sounds like Mike didn’t do anything much different than Eric did, but after he returned the part, the compressor was kind of working. However, there seems to be an issue with another part. 

The wind died in the morning, and the tiny flies came out to the boat. The tiny flies didn’t bite, but they were super annoying as they tended to gravitate towards the eyes, ears and nose. We got Kosmos ready to go to sea and pulled up anchor at 10:45.

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Bahia Agua Verde, Day 7

On Sunday morning (November 6), we were not in a good mood when we woke up. As we’d mentioned in yesterday’s post, the motion in the anchorage was uncomfortable, and the discomfort lasted all night. None of us slept well. 

The wind picked up again fairly early in the morning, this time coming from the south, where we had good protection from the swells. By mid-morning, the anchorage was calm enough that our moods improved.

The last few days we’d headed to the sand bar instead of the village because the sand bar was protected from the swell and safe to land at, while the village was exposed to the swell and dangerous to land at. With the swells gone, it was safe to go to the village again.

Our first stop was the restaurant at the end of the beach. It was owned by a husband and wife. The wife did all the cooking while the husband chatted with us. Thanks to our broken Spanish, we missed a lot of what he said, which was probably interesting and useful. Several people came and went. We sensed they were family members stopping by for a Sunday visit.

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Third Trip to Puerto Escondido Days 2 – 4

Sandy had offered to take us to Loreto with her on Tuesday (October 25) to run errands. Christi took her up on the offer and spent most of Tuesday shopping. Christi and Sandy had lunch at a Birrieria stand that was packed with people.

Birria is a type of stew that is traditionally made with goat meat, though any type of meat can be used. Someone nearby told us that this stand used beef. It sounds like chili paste makes up the base of the stew, and any vegetables added, such as onions or garlic, are pureed into the base. We’re told that birria is usually served in a as a bowl as a stew, but at this stand, they used the meat to make tacos. Christi found the meat to be bland. The tacos were served with all the usual accoutrements to doll them up. 

Meanwhile, Eric did chores. Eric repaired the smokestack and lubricated the snaps on the window covers. He dropped off our empty propane tank at the marina office. The place that fills propane tanks is a few miles away on Highway 1, and the marina will take the tanks over to have them filled for a $5.00 service fee. 

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Second Trip to Santa Rosalia, Days 11 – 12 

Full moon about to set behind this house on the morning of Monday, October 10

Followed by the sunrise

Monday was our usual routine: chores in the morning and a trip to downtown in the afternoon to run some errands and have a late lunch in restaurant.

Eric had equalized the batteries overnight. He started the process right before we went to bed. Then he set an alarm for the middle of the night so he could keep up the process for the recommended 8 hours. In the morning, he changed the primary fuel filter (Racor filter) on the tank that had already finished filtering and started filtering the other tank.

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