{"id":9166,"date":"2021-03-22T04:58:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T04:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/?p=9166"},"modified":"2021-03-22T05:03:16","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T05:03:16","slug":"la-paz-bcs-to-puerto-escondido-to-loreto-in-search-of-la-vacuna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/?p=9166","title":{"rendered":"La Paz BCS to Puerto Escondido (To Loreto, in search of La Vacuna)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The navy pass by on Sunday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Another baba 40 (Karuna) arrives into La Paz, good looking boat \ud83d\ude09<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Arturo at work, calls by to drop off his faulty GoPro and borrow my snorkel mask<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The dinghy loaded up with drinks and food + one bicycle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Monday 15th March 2021<\/strong>
Up at 6:30 as the sun rises, a cup of coffee, then to work. At 7 I will leave La Paz, possibly for the last time, and head north to Loreto. I\u2019m hoping I might be able to get vaccinated there, then I will sail over to the mainland, possibly somewhere around San Carlos\/Guyamas and from there head south to Puerto Vallarta. That will all take a month or two, depending how much I like the places en route. Last night I had a farewell meal with Arturo, I\u2019m not sure when we will meet again, hopefully not too long. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I setup the GoPro 9 on the bow to do some time lapse, I haven\u2019t used it yet, and I\u2019m keen to learn more about it. At 7am I haul anchor and start making my way down the long buoyed channel that leads out of La Paz bay and into the Sea of Cortez proper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boat traffic is light, but I\u2019m struck by the five Cruise ships, mothballed at anchor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Three are sister ships, the westerdam, the zuiderdam, and the edam or something like that. Another two cruise ships look similar, and I think are from the Carnival cruise line. It\u2019s scary to think they will soon be pressed back into service and crammed with holiday makers, hopefully antivaxers and covid conspiracists. Best keep them all together in a big floating box in my opinion, what could possibly go wrong, other than accidentally cruising over the edge of the earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not long after I pass the Pemex oil terminal and power station I\u2019m in open water and I can spot quite a commotion ahead of me. There appears to be hundreds of pelicans and seagulls swarming around a few small boats, I assume it\u2019s fishermen, but as I get closer, they\u2019re right ahead of me, I spot a large pod of dolphins, maybe a hundred or more diving, jumping and generally having a big feeding frenzy. I end up steaming right through the middle of it. The smaller boats who keep out of my way are tourist pangas, who diverted here to see the spectacle. Once in the middle of it, I\u2019m surrounded by dolphins and swooping pelicans. What a great way to get the day going. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after it\u2019s all over and as the sun gets higher I can tell it\u2019s going to be a hot day. I have a 9 hour passage to San Evaristo, so I settle down and start a few small jobs around the boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t catch a fish, but do see many Manta rays doing their dance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 5pm I get the anchor down and relax, The mainsail helped for about 2 hours, but mostly it was motoring. One fact yachties might find interesting, is that you can keep the engine block cold-start heaters on for 2 hours by accident and they don\u2019t burn out on the MD22 \ud83d\ude41 .\u00a0 After running hard for 10 hours, I feel confident the new timing belt has gone back on ok.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The anchorage at San Everisto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Retired General Tom and Debbie on the motor boat \u2018At Ease\u2019, my neighbours from Marina De La Paz, are anchored two boats down from me here.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday<\/strong>\u00a0
Up early again for a long slog to Agua Verde. It would be nice to have some time at these stops, but I have been here before, on several occaisions now, and I’m on a mission to get to the clinic in Loreto before they run out of vaccine.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The route from San Everisto to Agua Verde<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The waves are substantial, and of a short period, i.e. close together, so it’s not a very comfortable ride, but another huge pod of dolphins in the San jose chanel cross my path. We all love them, but they’re a serious bunch of fish committing mass murder as they travel along in these big groups. I don’t feel so bad about trailing a hook behind me now, I didn’t catch anything yesterday, the first time this cedar plug hook has let me down, and today is no better. To make matters worse, as you can see in the video of the trip later, a seagull is convinced the painted cedar plug is a real fish and tries to eat him. As it’s dive bombing the hook, I’m terrified it will get caught and I won’t have a clue how to help it. The thought of reeling in a seagull on the end of the line struggling to escape causes me to bring the hook in as soon as I can and wait until the skies are clear before I launch it again. The wind reaches 20 knots (apparent) on the nose, so we are struggling at 3 knots for some of the time. I have the engine running flat out at near maximum revs for a couple of hours, it’s supposed to be good as it burns off excess carbon at the higher temperatures, but who knows, I’m not a mechanic, despite earning my timing belt badge. After we hang a left at Point San Marceal I manage to get some help from the sails for an hour as we approach Agua Verde. Again, Tom on ‘At Ease’ is anchored there along with a couple of sailboats. It’s a little crowded in the only corner of the bay protected from the swell, and I tuck in behind them, it looks like I’m too close, and I’m worried they might be nervous with my proximity, but I also feel quite sure I know the anchorage well, and there’s not going to be a problem. As it turns out, we are all perfectly separated, even when we swing 180 degrees in the night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Agua Verde, the reef to the east protects us from the swell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday<\/strong>
Up early again to get away before the wind builds, that turns out to buy me about 30 minutes, soon after I leave the calm cove and hit the exposed sea, the waves and wind build and it’s a long 5 hour slog to cover the 23 miles to Escondido. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Agua Verde to Escondido<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Some nice rocks I weave through en route<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
These rocks are the top left in the chart above (i think)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The entrance to Puerto Escondido is via a very narrow channel, perhaps 60ft wide in places and only 10ft deep. I had heard it was being dredged and some special marks were out, but it turned out to be an easy entrance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The dredged channel entrance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The actual harbour is a natural bay and hurricane safe area. It’s like a big lagoon, with huge hills and mountains all around. To the north east there are two gaps, or windows, where northerly winds can blow through. Refreshing in the summer, but in a gale can make some waves in the harbour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The harbour at Escondido<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
And the satellite view of the above chart<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once in the harbour I picked up a mooring buoy, completed the log book and put my feet up for a bit. Next a quick dinghy ride ashore to check in and book a car for my trip to the clinic tomorrow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I made a 10 minute condensed video of the trip, it’s on Youtube, but embedded here. It’s 1080p HD so should look ok on a big screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n