puerto ballandra

We got wind of a very out of season southerly brewing up for the Sea of Cortez. To date, we have only ever seen wind coming from the north and west. We know where south is, we just have no idea how to perceive of wind coming from that direction. As Honeymoon Cove was wide open to the south, we chose to dash up to Isla Carmen and hunker down in Puerto Ballandra. This cove is protected from every direction but the west and southwest (you can see what's coming, can't you?). Puerto Ballandra was a nice little cove. On the northern shore is a fish camp which we, judging by the smell of fish guts, we anchored a little too close to.

We spent a couple days here hiding from the southerly. We got some boat projects done. Christy whipped us up a lee cloth so now we can sleep in the salon on a passage instead of having to clear out the quarterberth. I cleaned out the anchor locker (long time coming, that project) and cleaned some corrosion off the windlass wiring.

There's a great hike down a wash that crosses the island and ends up over at Bahia Salinas on the eastern side of the island. We followed it probably 95% of the way and turned around as the sun started to set.

The last night we were in Puerto Ballandra, the wind shifted around to the west. Of course. We had a bit of a bumpy ride that night but not nearly the rodeo ride the boats in the southern end of the anchorage got. We got up a couple times that night and saw their anchor lights flying around and were thankful we anchored too close to the fish guts.


On the hike across Isla Carmen.


The flood wash we hiked through across the island.


One of the locals.


Christy and her schnazzy new lee cloth.

26°01.247'N 111°09.837'W