We thoroughly enjoyed our time in La Paz. Weeks after the
rally ended, there were many Ha-Ha boats still in town, some
planning on leaving their boats here, where there are top-notch
marinas and easy airport access while they fly home for the
holidays (as we are doing) and others getting ready to cross to
the main land and warmer ports of call farther South as the
weather in La Paz has cooled down considerably. With
hurricane season officially over, post Ha-Ha newcomers arrive
daily, having either come down the outside from California or
from the northern part of the Sea of Cortez. Often, a
recognized cap or t-shirt on the street or in and around the
marina would lead to spontaneous conversations with cervasas to
follow. The morning VHF radio net (Channel 22A at 8:00am)
is the cruiser's check-in, advice-seeking, gossip hot line where
every morning one could tune in for the weather report or ask
where the best place in town is to get new anchor chain.
Boats with kids onboard in particular seem to find one-another
quickly. We became fast friends with Nancy and Mike and
their kids Fletcher (age 8) and Dana (age 7) on S/V Desidarada,
who were living life "on the hard" in the Abaroa boat yard for a
week or two, having new fuel tanks custom built after their old
one bit the dust.
But all good things must come to an end. RJ and Kelsey
were particularly sad about saying goodbye to Dana and Fletcher,
but after spending over a week in Marina Palmira and Marina de
La Paz, we departed this wonderful city on Thanksgiving Day for
Bahia San Gabriel on Isla Espiritu Santo, a beautiful island
with many fine anchorages just 10 miles to the north. Our
plan was to spend a leisurely two weeks "anchored out" in the
relative isolation of the islands before returning to La Paz and
flying home for the holidays and this is exactly what we did.
The anchorages on both Isla Espiritu Santo, where we spent
our first week, and Isla Partida (where we spent the second
week) are very picturesque, with great diving and snorkeling and
white sand and shell beaches surrounded by rugged,
cactus-studded, red volcanic hills and cliffs. Frigate
birds and pelicans frequent these coves, flying along and then
suddenly dive bombing into the water when they spot a fish.
Here's a video.
Generally well protected from the prevailing North and
Northwest winds, almost all the anchorages are exposed to the
West and Southwest where as we found out one night in Bahia
Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida, an unpredicted SW wind can
makes things very uncomfortable and even dangerous as the fetch
across Bahia La Paz is considerable and even a 20kt breeze can
generate 4-5 foot breaking waves in the anchorage! Still,
we rode it out without incident and all in all had a wonderful
two weeks cruising this lovely part of the Sea of Cortez, or
rather just "The Sea" as cruisers down here call it. We
visited 5 different anchorages in all, getting as far north as
Los Islotes where the kids snorkeled with sea lions while
Melissa and Eric, along with Steve from S/V Trinity and Nick and
Nicole from S/V Stargazer went scuba diving with these playful
mammals. Los Islotes is famous for it's "tame" sea lions,
which will swim alongside you, doing flips and dives and
"kissing" your mask. The kids in particular had a grand
time playing tug-o-war with these guys as they pulled on the
dingy anchor line or with grabbed their fins in their teeth and
it was obvious the sea lions were having just as much fun!
Check out these photos (courtesy of
Nick and Nicole
on S/V Stargazer) from diving in Los Islotes!
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The kids also spent a lot of time after school being
pulled behind the
dingy on all manner of water toys borrowed from S/V
Stargazer. RJ was a wake
boarding fool, jumping the wake and generally showing off
while Kelsey
actually stood up on her bogie board! But the real fun
was getting towed on
the surf boards! The kids had a blast and even
the adults got into the act. I guess we know what Santa is
going to bring this year.
We arrived back in La Paz on December 8th and spent the next
few days enjoying the town and getting the boat ready to leave
until our return on January 7th. Eric even arranged to
have "Zeke the Boat Guy", one of the many local and extremely
knowledgeable and experienced entrepreneurs, take care of some
waxing and varnish jobs while we are away at very reasonable
prices, so hopefully when we return, everything will be ready to
go.
Here are some photos of our two weeks in the islands.
Don't miss the link to the
second page of photos at the bottom of this page. As
always, click on the images to see a larger view.