Category Archives: Cruising Guide

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

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

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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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San Evaristo to Ensenada del Candelero on Isla Espiritu Santo

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Sunrise on Monday, November 14

We left at 0800 for Ensenada Candelero on Isla Espiritu Santo. We were frustrated to find that the exhaust leak is back. 🙁 The sea conditions were smooth overall, though there were enough small waves that we ran stabilizers. It was a 5.25 hour trip. To give you a sense of distance between the islands, here are two photos that we took shortly after leaving San Evaristo. They could almost be knit together into a panorama. The first photo is of the southern tip of Isla San Jose on the left and Isla San Francisco to the right (the rocks in the middle are the hazard we mentioned that Eric had manually entered into the chart). The second photo is Isla San Francisco on the left and Isla Partida in the back, middle. Isla Partida is so close to Isla Espiritu Santo that they almost touch.

The anchorage was stunning, with beautiful aquamarine water contrasting dramatically with the rugged hills and rocks.

We were the second boat in anchorage, but a steady stream of boats came in behind us. By sunset there were at least eight more boats in the anchorage with us. Shortly after we anchored, the wind did dramatic change and we instantly turned 180 degrees. It may be the most dramatic wind change we’ve ever seen.

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San Evaristo, Day 2

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On Thursday (November 10) the long-promised strong winds from the north finally arrived. It was a noticeably cool wind. The anchorage was nice and calm.

We went to shore at lunch time. Our first goal was to check out the market, so we landed the dinghy in front of a cluster of buildings towards the northern part of the bay. The cruising guide had indicated the market was here.

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Isla San Francisco to San Evaristo

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Sunrise on Wednesday, November 9. The full moon was still high in the sky and shining bright.

We are sad to report that we had another uncomfortable night. Unfortunately, the flopper stopper got caught on the shackle and wasn’t working properly. Even after Eric fixed and redeployed the flopper stopper, it was still rolly.

When Christi went outside to watch the sunrise, the few uncovered spots on her body were attacked. We were all feeling lethargic and grouchy from the rocking. Most of the boats in the anchorage left.

In more bad news, the forecast had changed again. The winds were supposed to change direction early in the morning, but now the forecast said it wouldn’t change until the early afternoon. Even if the wind really did change direction, it take several hours for the swells to die down, so it was going to be miserably rocky all day.

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Isla San Francisco, Day 2

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The first thing that Eric did when he got back up on Tuesday (November 8) was to go check the dinghy for damage. He was horrified to see that there were two large holes in the side. Fortunately, they were up high enough that no water got in.

He saw there was also damage to the seat in the middle of the dinghy.

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