Category Archives: Cruising Guide

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

Puerto Refugio Day 2

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Blog Q: Do you worry about boat thieves?

A: It is difficult to steal a larger boat, like ours. We’d report it to the authorities and it’d be found pretty quickly. 

That said, dinghy theft is a little more of a concern. Dinghies that are fast with big motors have appeal to thieves, but even that kind of theft is rare. We have a slow dinghy with an electric motor, so no one wants our dinghy/motor. 

The biggest concern is people stealing things off of the boats. As far as we know, all the places that we’ve stopped are safe. It was explained that because this part of Baja is off the trafficking routes, there is nothing to attract criminals. There are reports of theft being an issue in some other areas, such as Guayamas, but we don’t plan to go to those places. 

On Wednesday morning (September 21), it was a bit rolly when we woke up. Eric put out the paravanes, which helped. While Eric was working on the paravanes, the family, on s/v Auryn, called on the radio and invited us to go for a hike onshore with them. Here was the view from the shore.

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Bahia de Los Angeles Village to Puerto Refugio on Isla Angel de la Guarda

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Blog Q: It’s kind of like a never ending party—with some boat repairs and a hurricane thrown in! How you figure out which boats have cool people to visit and which have the solitary pirate to avoid?  

A: We think this year has been more social than most. Because of the hurricane, the cruisers were forced to congregate together in Bahia de Los Angeles when we’d normally be spread out. Everyone was eager to talk to one another in order to get feedback and advice on how to prepare, and more importantly, so that there was a friendship established with people who could help you if you needed it. 

It also helped that a woman on one of the boats is a social coordinator by nature. She coordinated the majority of the cruiser social events, made fantastic food to share, etc. She is truly amazing and it wouldn’t be a non-stop party without her. 

Finally, the lack of bugs in the Bahia de Los Angeles area lent itself to the socializing. It’s a lot harder to get together when you are being eaten alive by bugs that bite/sting.

That said, when people are not feeling social, they simply ignore the announcements on the radio that a party has been planned. We actually did that on Sunday (the 18th), when we went to The Village. The rest of the fleet had gone to La Mona for another party, but at that moment in time, we were craving civilization. 

Here is the sunrise on Tuesday, September 20

Not long after we woke up, we left for Puerto Refugio, which is an anchorage on the northern part of Isla Angel de la Guarda. It will be the northernmost point of our Baja adventure. 

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Ensenada el Quemado to Ensenada el Pescador

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Sunrise with the moon on Wednesday, September 14 

When we woke up, it was rolly in the anchorage. The rolling made us so lethargic, so we had a hard time getting moving in the morning. Chris let us know that he’d decided to continue north today, so we said our goodbyes… or more accurately, our “see ya laters,” since we will see him again sooner or later.  

In another fortuitous coincidence, four boats that we were friendly with, including one of the families, happened to be two anchorages south of us, in a bay called Ensenada El Pescador. We headed over to join them. It was a quick half-hour ride. 

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La Mona Anchorage to La Gringa Anchorage, Both in Bahia de Los Angeles

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When Eric woke up, on Sunday (September 11), a few of his toes were bruised and it was a bit hard for him to walk. Not a fun way to start the day. He is glad he did not fall farther on the stairs.

The almost full moon was visible — and magical looking — long after sunrise.

A few boats had left the Bay of LA on Saturday, but most had stayed for the party. Today, people began to part ways. One by one, people announced on the radio that they were leaving and where they were going. Even though we’d only known most of these people for ten days (some more, some less), after so much fun socializing and going through the hurricane together, we felt bonded with them. It was sad to see them go.

We weren’t going very far, just to the northern tip of Bahia de Los Angeles. Before we left, we had some of the boat kids over to play D&D for a couple of hours. 

We pulled up anchor at 1315 and headed for La Gringa, about a 1.75 hour ride from La Mona. We knew we were in the right place when we saw a giant sign on a hill that said “Welcome to La Gringa.”

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Puerto Don Juan to La Mona Anchorage

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Thursday, September 1 — One of our neighbors in the anchorage at Don Juan was throwing herself a birthday party this evening, and she had invited us to attend. The party was taking place in a different anchorage, called La Mona, which was about an hour ride away.

On Thursday morning, we got up early and hustled through our chores. Thursday was also Keith’s first day of school, so he did his schoolwork while Eric and Christi did chores.

One of Eric’s chores was to remove one of the alternator belts. When Eric had changed the alternator belts in Puerto Escondido, he used the same size belt made by two different manufacturers. Even though the belts were supposed to be the same, they were slightly different and it was causing a vibration. Eric figured that removing one of the belts would solve this (the alternator can run with only one belt).

Once chores/schoolwork were done, we got Kosmos ready to go to sea. We pulled up anchor at around 0915. We were the last boat to leave Don Juan. In transit, we passed “the window.” After enjoying the view through “the window” for several days from inside the anchorage, It was fun to see the view from the outside looking in.

La Mona was a lovely beach on the east side of Southern Bahia de Los Angeles, protected by large hills and jutting rock formations to the north. The beach was lined with homes. Some of the homes were nice, some were mobile homes.  

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