Since our last post, we have spent the last few weeks in the Loreto area. This is one of our favorite areas for it's picturesque views; the mountains, desert and sea.
After leaving Isla Coronado, we were running low on provisions, so it was time we stocked up. At that point, we had not had access to any sort of store for over 3 weeks. On our way to Loreto we were visited by numerous dolphin, which is always fun!
The cute town of Loreto provides a roadstead anchorage, in which you anchor right in front of the town and dinghy to the fisherman's dock. In the past when we have done this, it was free of charge. As of late, the port captain has implemented a small fee structure based on how many people arrive by dinghy and if you dispose of any garbage. We were happy to pay the fee, as the convenience outweighs the price.
The only downfall to the roadstead anchorage is there is no wind or wave protection. Luckily, since we are not on any schedule we can be flexible and watch for the ideal weather windows. We had planned our timing perfectly and had very calm weather, so we shopped and explored the town for a couple of days. We then left Loreto and sailed to Puerto Escondido.
On our way, we had more wind than we were expecting and it was gradually building. We were enjoying the sail and we were consistently experiencing 4 foot waves, but out of nowhere we had two, 10 foot, rouge waves hit us from behind. All was good except we were towing our dinghy and there was a moment when it was surfing higher than our bimini. We typically do not tow the dinghy if there is a chance of high wind or swell, as most of the time we hoist and stow it. When we arrived to Puerto Escondido we connected to a mooring ball with 17 knots of wind and headed to shore to make calls to our families to wish them a happy Thanksgiving.
Puerto Escondido offers both marina slips and mooring balls. The mooring balls are considerably more economical. We had some boat projects that we needed to tackle so this was the perfect place to do so. We have two alternators which charge our batteries, but our larger one has been giving us some problems lately, so Doug removed it and coordinated for it to be picked up and brought back to the states for repair (which is no small feat!). We hope to have it shipped to La Paz in the upcoming weeks. Doug also dove into a head project (he deserves a medal for everything he did, while I gagged in the corner). We filled up with diesel and after a week, we were ready to go.
We headed to Isla Carmen towards Bahia Salinas. Here there is an abandoned salt mine and a massive white sand beach. We enjoyed our days with some yoga and exploring. As always we were watching weather and deciding on our next destination. We needed internet access, so we decided we would continue on around the island to the Loreto roadstead. It took us a couple attempts to get there. The first time we turned around after an hour as we had sustained 25 knots of wind, right on the nose, which makes for an uncomfortable ride. We stopped at Punta Perico and spent the afternoon cleaning the bottom of the boat.
The next day we were able to make it to Loreto and again timed it perfectly, and we're able to stay a couple days with calm weather. We did more provisioning, which is quite impressive on how much we can carry. Everything is done by walking, so we load ourselves up with backpacks, coolers, and our bike trailers, which we can walk with. It's quite the show to watch us stuff a packed grocery cart into our bags and trailers!!
We headed back to Puerto Escondido and met up with our friends on Lison Life. It was nice to catch up over a few drinks and talk about what we had been up to for the past month. We decided to share a rental car for two days to do one last shopping trip, paid the clam shack a visit, and also took a drive to the small mountain town of San Javier. San Javier is a beautiful 45 minute drive from Puerto Escondido. We enjoyed the quaint town, the Mission, views, and even bought a bottle of wine from a small local winery.
Meanwhile our friends on Coddiwomple, a sistership to Karuna, arrived in Puerto Escondido. We had fun catching up with them as we haven't seen them in over a year.
Next up we head to Agua Verde as we make our way south to La Paz.