San Evaristo
Lynn & Mike ..around the world
Mike Drinkrow & Lynn v/d Hoven
Mon 28 May 2012 08:17
24:54.71N 110:42.15W San
Evaristo
From La Paz we headed north into the Sea of Cortez.
The terrain is amazing - I imagine that if the moon had sea, this is what it
would look like. The hilly islands are very barren and the mountainous peninsula
is just as dry, but with a little more scrub. In contrast to this brown land,
there is the indigo blue deep sea, which becomes a lighter green as it
gets shallow into the anchorages. Absolutely stunning!
Our first stop was Isla Partida, a nice wide
open bay which seemed to be popular as a protected anchorage. However the
wind did pick up and we set an anchor alarm. Close to midnight Mike decided to
get up and do a check, only to spot a sailboat heading towards us. He was asleep
and was dragging his anchor! Mike quickly blew our horn (very loud!) and
put a spotlight on him. Quickly he woke up and sorted himself out. I dread to
think what would have happened if Mike had not got up. For those non- sailors
out there, it is in fact very easy to drag your anchor at night and not feel
it...that is..until you hit something!
The next day we headed up to Isla San Francisco - a
lovely anchorage with beach full of shells and very noisy gulls (they had chicks
and got a little hysterical if you got too close) Mike and Johnny did a little
more fishing and pulled in a few Trigger Fish. These are reef fish
with exceptionally thick skins, and while they are time-consuming to clean,
are good eating. Johnny fried them in a batter which worked out really
well.
A short hop over the channel took us to Bahia
Amortajada on Isla San Jose. We took our dinghy into the mangrove lagoon and
then hunted for clams in the shallow water. We found a great spot
and while it took us a while to get our technique right, feeling just under the
sand, we managed to pull up over 100 clams. They are quite small, but
should do us for two meals. I think a little garlic clam pasta this evening with
an ice cold Chilean Sauvignon Blanc may be just what we need.
We decide not to stay there overnight, as there
were lots of horseflies and at sunset the no-see-ums were promised. In Mexico
they call these tiny little nasty biters "jejenes" - and you do not want to
share your sunset cocktail with them! We crossed the sea to San Evaristo on
the peninsula - a protected anchorage with a small settlement which we will
visit in the morning. En route, we spotted two whales, and nearly drove
right over one of them - unfortunately there was a lot of wind and I could not
get a decent pic.
A note for those of you wondering why we are not
replying to our email. So far, there has been NO cell phone/ internet
connection out here in the Sea of Cortez. This is the most "disconnected" place
we have been in, in years of cruising. So, please be patient with GMAIL,
or email us on our MAILASAIL account, which we will pick up with the
satellite phone.
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