Here is a photo of the area we went snorkeling in on Saturday. We were in the small, shallow strait between Isla Carmen and the tiny rock island. The anchorage is just to the right (south) of where this photo ends.
On Sunday morning, it rained again. The rain didn’t last as long as it had yesterday, but it rained harder, so Kosmos got a good wash down. Undeterred by the heavy rain, the Erics went for a hike onshore.
They literally watched the flora and fauna come to life with the rain – flowers blooming and bugs and lizards coming out of hiding.
On Tuesday, our friends on Whirlwind (the sailboat with the kids) and Sprezzatura (the Nordhavn 40) had gone to an anchorage called V Cove on Isla Carmen. On Thursday, we joined them. We left the marina in Puerto Escondido at 0930. We were delighted to find there was no wind and the water was calm and glassy. It barely felt like the boat was moving!
We arrived at V cove at 1400 (2:00 pm), not long after the wind picked up and the sea conditions had begun to deteriorate. The anchorage was small, tucked behind some cliffs.
We dropped anchor on the outskirts. According to the charts, we were anchored on land. After waiting a little bit to make sure the anchor was secure, we got the dinghy down and went to shore. There is a small, white sand beach with a sand dune. Eric and Keith snorkeled for a bit. The cove was loaded with fish! The family from Whirlwind joined us. The kids ran on the dune for a short while, then snorkeled in and around one of the caves in the cove.
On Sunday, Dan, Liz and Drake came to the marina at lunch time. The males went to the pool. Another cruising family was also at the pool, with kids who were 9 and 11. The four kids had a blast and played all afternoon and into the evening.
One of the tricks Christi and Eric learned while circumnavigating is that cooking can be difficult at times, so we need plenty of frozen foods onboard that can be easily re-heated. We’d eaten quite a bit of our frozen food stockpile on the passage, in Bahia Falsa and in Bahia Candeleros, so Christi spent the afternoon cooking in order to re-stock the freezer supply. Liz kept her company.
First thing Monday morning, Eric started on the battery charger project. Eric had located and read the manual, and had psyched himself up for a major repair project. He was delighted to find that it was just a breaker that needed to be re-set. Christi spent most of Monday cooking and doing chores. The boat kids came over and played in the afternoon. In the evening, we had dinner at the marina restaurant with the boating family and our neighbor on the Nordhavn 40.
A: We doubt we’ll go farther north than Bahia de Los Angeles, but we have no firm plans.
Q: Have you fished? Is the sea warm?
A: We have not fished as of yet. The sea is about 84 degrees Fahrenheit.
On Thursday, Eric ran the generator first thing in the morning, as he normally does. But this time, the batteries weren’t charging. Eric spent some time trouble-shooting the problem. We decided that we should head to the nearest marina, where it would be easier to diagnose and fix the problem. The batteries were still charging from the wind generator and the solar panels, and we have a small back up battery charger that was working, so this wasn’t an urgent issue for us. But charging the batteries with the full-size battery charger certainly makes life easier.
We contacted the marina at Puerto Escondido, only 6 nm away, and made a reservation for Friday. We spent the rest of the day doing chores. In the afternoon, Eric got out the SNUBA gear so Christi could tackle her most arduous chore: cleaning the bottom.
It was particularly rocky in the water that day, so swimming took a lot of effort. She pooped out pretty fast. Eric used the SNUBA to make sure all was fine under the waterline, then he used it to adjust the flopper stopper. Eric and Keith played in the water for a while before we called it a day.
In Bahia Falsa, I saw lots of pelicans and entire schools of fish. I saw some pelicans dive in to the water and get fish. At the beach, the water was super shallow. I could swim or wade! I used the new snorkel gear. I went all the way out to where it got deep with the sea scooter. At the beach, they had a place with awesome hamburgers!
À Bahia Falsa, j’ai vu beaucoup de pélicans et tout un banc de poissons. J’ai vu des pélicans plonger dans l’eau pour attraper un poisson. À la plage, l’eau n’était pas super profonde. Je pouvais nager ou patauger! J’ai utilisé le nouvel équipement de plongée. J’ai été jusqu’à l’endroit où ça devenait profond avec le scooter sous marin. À la plage, il y avait un restaurant avec de très bons hamburgers.
In La Paz, we saw baby sharks. We had to walk really far to the grocery store, but we stopped for apple pie along the way.
