Back to some touristy stuff

With the dental work done, and having a rental car for a few days, we first went shopping, including visits to Home Depot, Autozone, Walmart, plus a bunch of smaller shops. We want to provision for a good month, just in case a tropical storm decides to come our way and we have to escape north. North, because the TSs weaken on their way north, and by the time they reach Bahia de Los Angeles they typically aren't hurricanes anymore. September is 'high noon' for tropical storms here, so we are glued to any forecasts.

In the stores, as well as restaurants, the hygiene protocols are good: Walmart changed their entry and exit points to only have one entry, first they check your temperature and that you wear a mask, then you get a cart with a disinfected handle, plus some disinfectant on your hands.

With most of the shopping done, and to catch a breeze, we drove to the Soggy Peso beach bar for some Ceviche and Crab salad.

Poutine, really?

Poutine, the haute cuisine of Canada, we have avoided so far. One has to get to Mexico, to a Gringo town (San Carlos) and find pleasure in it... Well, at least it is easy to chew and even savory.

Here is the Mexican version of it, with some boneless chicken wings, and y'all know why.

Plus the draft beer in frosted glasses is "Indio", it makes up for it all.

Teeth, update. First world crap to be fixed in Mexico

 As expected, a molar needed root canals and a new crown. The local Dentista found residue of an old filling under the old crown, which possibly counts towards the infection... Plus the old crown left a too big gap along the gum towards the next tooth. It will all be better, made in Mexico! It is a tad bit weird, having dentists and assistants work on you in full protection suits, masks, face shields, gloves, etc. But they need to protect themselves to protect us too!

To soothe the pain, Dirk requested coconut water (the clear, non sweetened liquid) and a stiff dose of rum. That seemed hard to find on the boat:

Update on hurricane Genevieve: She is only a tropical storm now and went, as forecast, on the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsular, but just barely. She will bring some much needed rain over there, including some flooding, but no major damage. Tonight the swell from the ex-hurricane will make it's way here to Guyamas & SanCarlos, and we may be hopping, rolling, yawing, pitching a bit, but nothing bad is expected. And the weather forecasts look clear for another week to get the tooth finalized with a new crown. 

As per Michelle O: It is what it is...

In the wet bar...

... waiting for the dentist

oh happy dirk day

 

Next day, all nice

 LL is right in the center of the pic. We get a bit of swell at times, but we also have a breeze going thru the boat. Despite a higher humidity, sleeping is better here than on the Baja side, the boat does cool off a bit at night. We checked out the marina for a slip, but there is NO wind. And they want to charge us for 52 feet, since we would be on a dock for a maximum of 52ft... Maybe, just maybe only, in case hurricane Genevieve gives us grief. Until then, they have a dinghy dock for $2, and all needed shopping and some eateries in walking distance.

Not using a marina, we also needed to find cheaper GB/Peso internet access. Hotspotting the cellphone is good for daily needs, weather, news, etc. Here, Xpro-wifi reaches out to the anchorage and with that we will be able to update the photoalbum too.

Another Chubasco...

this time with more umph. Our wind instrument flashed 50 knots for a moment, the averaged & recorded data show 46 knots.

 

But this time we saw it coming, it was just past sunset, with a glass of wine in the hand.

Interestingly the local tour boats still went out with guests, the locals surely know better... but anything to make a buck or peso. It was somewhat of a shit show, when dozens of boats tried to make their way back into the marina, in the dark, maneuvering at slow speed in 20-30 knots of wind, with a couple boats unlit, others broken down and being towed. Some better captains did circles, waiting for the wind to die down and the other boats out of the way = good!

Before the big wind gust hit, we couldn't see the mountains anymore and thought, "oh good, a boat wash". But it was more sand in the air than rain, we did get a few drops, but nothing to rinse off the sand and salt. We haven't had a good rain in many months!

There was some lightning, with most of it being cloud to cloud, quite pretty actually. The following pic is from the same evening, stolen from Facebook, but since our boat is in the pic, we give ourselves permission to re-post :-)

Cerro las Tetas de Cabra / Tetakawi

Anyone who has been to San Carlos, Sonora, recognizes these hills...

Goat's tits

Teeth...

A while ago Dirk bit on something hard, and it hurt more that it should have. Uh oh... Not having the best teeth anyways, it feels like some time at a dentist is in order. Great. In time of Covid to sit in a dentists chair... We do have a trusted dentista, but that is over in San Carlos, the mainland side of the Sea of Cortez. We will be heading there pretty soon.

Update 8/13/2020: We did.

Never boring, on a motoring day

 

Always at 02:00 at night !?

It wasn't a Chubasco, which would have brought rain and lightning. But the development looks similar: Over on the mainland side, in the tall mountain range, every night some convection develops. At times that convection then rushes down the mountains, over the Sea of Cortez and we get hammered with it for a few hours, and typically past midnight.

Last night we woke up when a sudden wind gust leaned the boat over a bit. The awning started flopping wildly. Fearing a Chubasco to be hitting us, we close all hatches, then took the awning down. And waited. With a coffee in hand. The wind barely hit a peak of 35 knots, the rigging was singing, but we had no rain or lightning. Weird. By 4:00 we were back in bed.

After a bit more sleep we reviewed the Sat-pics to learn what happened in the night. At 2:00 am, you can see cloud burst going over Mulege. 

 

Trash Burn

Not something we feel very good about... Trash management on a boat is hard enough. We try to unpack everything into reusable containers after we buy it. But there is soooo much plastic still. And it does get stinky, even if we wash the yogurt containers after use..

With many public beaches closed, also the trash services are far and few between. Now we have resorted to burn it when we can. On the more remote beaches we find plenty driftwood, so dry, it only has to see the lighter and it starts burning :-)

We first make a good coal bed, super hot, and add trash and wood later. With almost no black smoke when burning the plastics, we don't feel too bad. Compared to smoldering trash dumps of some municipalities, this is better. Finding a recycling place would be preferred...

clean burn... somewhat...

The island that isn't

Inside Bahía Concepción is a small island, Isla El Requeson, connected to land via a sand spit, at low tide. It is one of the beaches currently accessible for campers and RVs, except there are no services (no toilets, etc). That is most likely due to COVID-19, we haven't figured out why some beaches are accessible, others are not. Restaurants, even outdoor style restaurants, are almost all closed around here :-(

 

	At low tide people / campers do walk across the sand-bridge, but leave it to us to walk up the hill in the heat we have these days.
The begin (as is the end) of that walk goes thru the mangroves and at least cools the feet.		Up there we felt like being grilled on lava-stone....

From 1 to 5

Boats that is. After a night alone at Domingo Beach, 4 more boats snug up to us. 3 of them we have seen in or since La Cruz, where we all waited to sail over to the South Pacific early this year. There are plenty more of these wannabe Pacific-Puddle-Jumpers in the Sea of Cortez. There will be plenty of boats trying next year again.

Evening cool down

Más almejas

More clams... All the sand is full of clams. In the Loreto area they are proud of their almejas chocolatas, a clam with a dark chocolate color on the outside of the shells. Oh so tasty.

We are currently at the top end of Bahía Concepción, inside the tip of the peninsular on a deserted beach called "Domingo". No people around except for some fishermen having a couple of huts to get temporary shade, and sometimes they clean fish on the rocks by the beach. The sand in the water is 'soft', probably an ideal breeding ground for the almejas. Even with a Mexican fishing license, foreigners are not allowed to dig out clams, we can only fish for 'fin-fish'. So those clams are safe from us, but not from locals or strong storms that washes them ashore.

Some people, locals or not, do dig out the clams and make a nice little snack from them, grilled on an open fire:

After (too?) many months, we left Puerto Escondido (Loreto)

It has been a safe haven in these crazy times. It is far enough away from civilization, with access to Loreto when needed, and the marina supplies, supports with almost anything we want.

The caveat is, it is south of 27n latitude, and our insurance wants us north of there for the hurricane season. Plus, we have been there a while now...

We left, sailing / motoring north, and had planned a first stop in San Juanico Cove, one of our favorite places in that area. The wind had a more easterly component than forecast and we rolled too much after having anchored. With only a couple hours left to sunset, we upped anchor, and headed around Punta Pulpito to a beach called "San Nicholas".

We made it before sunset, greeted by dolphins, in flat water for a quiet night.

Way past sunset, and only a little illumination left, we heard some sounds, like dolphins ex-/inhaling, but much more pronounced, sharp. Looking around the boat, it was a small group of Orcas checking us out. No pictures, too dark... And as fast as they came, they left, patrolling the beach.

Our Bubble

Yes, too close, too many people, no masks...

But we have been with these cruisers for a while now, sitting outdoors in a place with a good breeze. Everyone is cautious when leaving the bubble, i.e going to town.

It gives us some well needed social life in time of distancing.

Now these are some shrimp!

Lucio, from the local marine workers group here in Marina Puerto Escondido, gave us a kilo of 'shrimp'. Well, they got our old dinghy, they can use to wax boats from it...

These shrimp did not taste anything like shrimp, but much like lobster and had the firmness of lobster-tails too. Just great!

Hanging Gardens of Loreto

At the end of each hot day in this desert, we usually go to our swimming hole in the lagoon: A place with sandy, shallow bottom to stand up in, play, have a drink with friends...

On the way to the swimming hole, we pass some rocks with some dead looking cacti, hanging from the rock. Since they are hanging down, we assumed them as toppled, limp, or dead. Not so!

For a very few days these cacti suddenly bloomed:

The cacti know something... the humidity is going up, rainy season = hurricane season is coming soon enough. Within days the bloom was over, now they are probably spreading the seeds before the rain.

Bahia Salinas, Isla Del Carmen

Another spot best visited during settled weather...

It looks protected from all but the south at first, but the mountains have a North-South gap and the wind does blow, amplified by the mountains, on either side.

The flat terrain, occasionally swamped by seawater during storms, the strong sun, plus the relentless wind in the gap gave birth to natural salt lakes.

The Jesuits settled on the Baja in the late 1600s and established their regional religious center in Loreto. Supposedly, on one of their trips across the Sea of Cortez, a ship broke down and sought shelter in the same bay. There they discovered the naturally existing dried sea-salt and started extracting it. The Jesuits became too strong, too influential, for the non-cleric powers and soon they were replaced, first by Franciscans, later by Dominicans, but salt collection continued in a simple form throughout.

All changed with industrialization and concessions sold to private entities. By 1875 a railroad and steam engine were in place to transport salt to a dock. Mechanization plus electrification continued into the 1900s. From the buildings we were able to identify a, of course well preserved, church, and the ruins of  a school, doctor/hospital, mechanical workshop, tienda, governmental (taxes!) office.

In 1984 the operation closed. A listed cause is the market for this sea-salt was mainly in Japan (!?!?!) and a newer, larger sea-salt operation had opened on the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsular, more efficient in production and also closer to reach by ship.


Today the island is part of a wildlife conservation area to protect flora and fauna typical for the Baja California. In 1995 they began to reestablish the once native big horn sheep population in areas of the Baja and the islands including Isla Carmen. There is also a private business on the island with a care taker, his family and occasional guests for the hunting lodge, specializing in hunting big horn sheep. Yes, hunting the sheep they re-introduced some years ago, for big $$$$ ....

Church	Hunting Lodge
	Dirk at the Doctors Office
Radiation abound	Brine Shrimp makes that color

Leave it to us, who else would walk in the blistering midday sun, on the longest days of the year, in the midst of glitzerig, reflecting white salt. We didn't feel warm, since there is always a wind blowing through the mountain gap. Despite having hats on, we did get a bit of sun burn on the faces...

Isla Montserrat

After a night in one of our favorite and protected anchorages on these shores (Agua Verde), we motored to the north end of Isla Montserrat for some snorkeling. This island is further out in the Sea of Cortez, has clearer water, and lots of current around it to keep sea life happy. It needs settled conditions (no wind) to spend the night in this exposed spot.

On the way we saw a small family of Blue Wales, and later a pack of dolphins joined us into the anchorage.

Blue Wale

There were many more, jumping, leaping, splashing and welcoming us!

To the north of Isla Montserrat is a large shallow shelf with 20-40ft depth, not well charted and we were super happy to have a working depth-sounder again (see post below) to feel ourselves into this anchorage. Additional info was from other boats on where NOT to anchor.





Snorkeling was OK, we are spoiled from tropical waters with colorful coral, that don't exist at this latitude. The water temperature was just shy of 80F, so we spent a bit of time in the water. Some nice fish and star fish were seen:

After having cooled off, we headed for the beach. Some interesting patterns of black and white sand happen here:

After a scramble up a typical Baja-rubble hill, we could see the mountain range of the Baja Peninsular behind the anchorage.

Sierra de la Giganta in the background