Go ahead, I'll wait.
Of course we choose to head DIRECTLY into the prevailing winds. The wind vane at the top of our mast is our guiding star. It tells us where the wind is coming from and hence where we must go. We want to work our way north into the Sea as quickly as possible up towards Bahia Concepcion and make our way across the Sea to San Carlos to say hi to our friend Nanette who owns property in San Carlos. From there, we'll cross again and enjoy smooth downwind sailing back south. To that end, we take any break in the northerlies to jump out of the foxhole and race to the next anchorage with reasonable protection from the north. We've run from Isla San Francisco to San Evaristo to Los Gatos on to Puerto Escondido.
San Evaristo
Of all the anchorages we've run across to this point, Evaristo has had the best protection, open only to the east where we never really get much wind. We tucked up into the northern bight along with s/v Bint Al Khamseen. We ran into the village of San Evaristo the last day we were there seeking the tienda. Had there not been a hand-written sign tied to the barbed wire fence, I don't think we would have known which house was the "tienda". Turns out they are closed on Tuesdays. Or closed at 10:00 AM. Or are only open on prime number days. We never did figure it out.
Nestled nicely into the northern bight of the anchorage.
We totally went dumpster diving for some plastic milk crates to hold our cases of beer.
s/v Bint Al Khamseen taking their leave of San Evaristo.
Los Gatos
We caught word from the amateur weather forecasters (the only weather forecasts available for the Sea of Cortez) that the 12th was the day to make a run north as it should be light and variable winds all day long with no seas. The two parts to pay attention to here are a.) AMATEUR and b.) ONLY.Needless to say, they were wrong. So very, very wrong. We made our way north to Los Gatos and by the time we got about half way there, the wind whipped up to entirely not-light and not-variable which in turn whipped the seas up to not-flat.
We happily pulled into the reef strewn Los Gatos anchorage and into the lee of the point. We dropped anchor once again right behind Bint Al Khamseen. We shared some beer and banana bread with Ken and Susan before heading back to Hello World and collapsing into bed.
Los Gatos is a beautiful anchorage with these amazing red rocks. No pictures at Los Gatos since it was just a layover for us this time as the forecasters promised us "light and variable" once again. Only this time they really, really mean it! We are nothing if not gullible.
Puerto Escondido
We got an actual light and variable day. We'll take a day of running the engine over a day of bashing into the steep chop the Sea of Cortez loves so much. We stopped into the famed Aqua Verde anchorage but decided to keep going north to Isla Danzante. Forecasts all agreed that a particularly angry El Norte was on its way the next day promising winds of 35 knots.We pulled into Honeymoon Cove on Isla Danzante and tried to figure out how to make a stern anchor work in a northern bight that was too narrow to not be anchored bow and stern-to. We never came up with a satisfactory solution given the amount of wind we were going to be seeing the next three days. So we bid the dolphins playing in the cove adieu and made our way to Puerto Escondido.
Unfortunately.
Escondido is the safest, most protected harbor in the Sea of Cortez. But if you want to drop an anchor inside this mooring ball infested harbor, you have to cough up $15. US dollars. Per night. Or you can anchor just outside the inner harbor in what is called the "Waiting Room". It's an incredibly deep anchorage packed with boats too cheap to anchor inside. We like to call it "The Gong Show". I didn't want any part of that madness. So we paid our money and dropped our anchor to wait out the norther.
We took this chance to dinghy ashore and enjoy the charming armpit ambience of the ghost-town-esque Escondido, take mostly cold showers and walk around listening to the crickets in this not quite started resort development. I don't think I'd be quite as bitter about it if I didn't end up paying almost $50 for the privilege.
Our advice if you're thinking about going to Puerto Escondido? Don't.
The dolphins in Honeymoon Cove telling us how life is way better in Honeymoon Cove than over in Escondido. Why, dear dolphin, did we not listen to you??
25°18'8.3"N 110°56'42.94"W
