Approaching Santa Rosalia on Friday, September 30. It was much greener than when were here in mid-August!
We arrived at the marina is Santa Rosalia at 0845 local time. Just like last time, several men came to help us get into our slip safely. The docked us next to a Nordhavn 50.
Refugio was not very fun. It was so buggy at sunset until 9:30 am. We mostly snorkeled. There were some kids on a boat that I played with. We went on a hike the second day we were there, but it was sooooo hot. Once we got up on the mesa, there was clover-like plants there. There were also lots of caterpillars. Going down the other side, I slid on the dirt, flipped over, slid face first towards a pile of rocks, but then spun around and landed safe and sound. Over all, I did not like it because we were trapped on the boat.
Sunrise on Tuesday, September 27
We made two trips to shore. In the morning, we went to the grocery store run for perishables. In the afternoon, we had lunch at the motel restaurant. We haven’t been writing about the food lately because we generally only write about new foods to us. Living in San Diego, Mexican food is the staple of our diet, so we haven’t run across many foods that are new to us. But this time, there was something on the menu that we didn’t recognize: arrachera. Eric ordered it and found out that it was a marinated steak. The other items on his plate are a chili relleno (poblano chili stuffed with cheese, dipped in an egg batter and deep fried), rice and refried beans.
Continue readingSunday September 25 continued… As we were nearing an island called Isla Coronado (AKA Isla Smith), we saw on AIS that one of our friends was in one of the anchorages on that island called Bahia Las Rocas. We quickly checked the cruising guide and saw that the anchorage would be suitable both for the current winds and for the forecasted winds. We called our friends and asked about the flying bug situation and if there was enough space for us. Our friends reported no bugs and enough space. We were sold!
When we turned the corner and the anchorage came into view, we saw there was a second boat in the anchorage that didn’t have AIS on. They were anchored exactly where we’d wanted to go. We pulled in and dropped anchor in a spot that made us a little nervous. We were only a few hundred feet from the rock in front of us (picture 1), the shore behind us (picture 2), and the boat next to us (picture 3).
People will probably be surprised by how noisy it was in Refugio. In this video of sunrise on Sunday, September 25th, you can hear the fish doing whatever it is fish do while the sea lions barked vigorously from their island (2 miles away). Sometimes the fish get so loud, it sounds like a rainstorm!
The winds were forecast to change tomorrow to be coming from a direction which would make this anchorage uncomfortable. So at around 0830, we lifted anchor and set off for the Bahia de Los Angeles area. We hadn’t decided exactly which anchorage we’d go to, but there were several in that area that would offer good protection from the new wind direction.
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