We left San Carlos back on November 1st. We had good wind and made great time sailing across the Sea of Cortez. We arrived in Santo Domingo in about 13 hours, hardly needing to motor. We spent almost a week there doing yoga on the beach in the mornings and having beach fires in the evenings. We filled our days with paddle boarding and beach combing while mixing in some boat work; greasing the propeller and cleaning the waterline of Karuna.
We let the weather dictate how long we stayed. Santo Domingo does not have the best north protection so we kept an eye out on when we wanted to head south to San Juanico. We arrived in San Juanico November 9th. On the way, Doug had his fishing pole setup, along with a handline. After about 30 minutes, the handline set off and Doug jumped up and started reeling it in. He could tell it was good sized. As he got it close to the boat, we could tell it was a Dorado (mahi mahi) Yay!!! While filleting the fish the filet knife decided it wanted to go for a swim and jump off the boat. This made us realize two things. 1. We need to sharpen our knifes, as Doug had a heck of a time using our other knifes to finish filleting. 2. We should have more than one filet knife...just in case.
At San Juanico we shared the anchorage with about 12 other boats, as there is good wind and fetch protection there. The wind was predicted to blow 25 knots from the north. We had a couple windy days, but nothing too bad. Even when the anchorage gets rolly, Karuna is very comfortable and we are gently rocked to sleep. We kept up on our morning yoga routine on the beach and found some amazing snorkeling spots with great visibility. We visited the Cruisers Shrine and added a shell and little anchor representing Karuna.
Many of the boats anchored at San Juanico we recognized from San Carlos, so we invited a few of them to join us for a beach fire one evening. It was fun to chat with other cruisers and discuss where we all were heading to next.
We aren't sure how time flies by so quickly, but before we knew it, we had been there a week and we decided to head to Isla Coronado. The winds were incredibly light that day and after trying a few different sail plans, we decided to motor and take the calm passage to make water and do laundry. We have a portable high-volume Rainman water maker, which takes sea water and produces approximately 30 gallons of fresh drinking water an hour. While filling the tanks, we started to do laundry which consists of tubs, buckets, and some elbow grease.
We arrived in Isla Coronado November 16th with full tanks and clean clothes. There was a rumor buzzing around that the bees were bad and had chased most boats away. We rounded the corner and there was only one boat anchored, which made us a bit nervous, however we spent a week there and only had a couple bees visit us and were not bothersome at all.
Isla Coronado is one of our favorite anchorages if wanting to have a few peaceful beach days. The water is clear, the sand is perfect, and there is even an old volcano that you can hike up. So far, this is our favorite beach to do yoga on. The views are stunning! We enjoyed the beach, hiked the volcano, and celebrated my birthday while at Isla Coronado. On my birthday we headed to the south side of the island so we could get some good cell phone service to make some calls to family and friends. We then enjoyed a beach day with a birthday treasure hunt, mimosas, and floating in the pristine water. Towards the end of the day a local fisherman, who had brought his wife and another couple to the island for the afternoon, chatted with us for a bit. We always appreciate meeting locals as they are typically very eager to help or provide information. Fransisco gave us his number and told us to contact him if we ever needed anything while in the area, he even offered to bring out beer or groceries to Karuna, if needed!!!
Next up, we head to Loreto for a few days and then have a sporty sail to Puerto Escondido...stay tuned.