Strolling along the paved boardwalk in downtown La Paz, we noticed a cluster of crouchers and hoverers ogling the sand, all smiling and chittering excitedly, the majority obsessively videoing via cell phone. What’s the ruckus? A thoughtful stranger urged us to come over and take a look…we’re so glad we took his suggestion. We’d stumbled accidentally upon a turtle nest hatching!

Baby Turtles!
Wow! I mean, WOW!!! A gaggle (or more accurately a “bale”) of baby sea turtles had just emerged from their shells below the sandy surface. Amidst the arduous process of climbing out of their nest, we watched in awe as their wrinkly, clumsy bodies (not much bigger than my thumb) flailed up the shallow slope toward the flat sand.

Loggerheads or Olive Ridley?
While I think they were Olive Ridley (most common), I’m not certain. Either way, we saw about 15 of the little dudes crawl out of their hole and head for sea. With increased conservation efforts, the Olive Ridley, a threatened species during the 80’s, has increased to nearly a million females per season…quite an astounding comeback. Many call Baja California home, their offspring returning each year to the exact spot of their birth to nest.

It’s a Hard Knock Life
It’s gotta be rough to be a sea turtle. Before you even get out of the nest you are in danger of being dug up & eaten as an egg by animals or people… or crushed by 4x4 vehicles. Assuming you made it that far and actually hatched, now you’ve got to wiggle up through the suffocating sand - more like a grave than a nest, I’d say. If the sand is too packed down from vehicle traffic it’s difficult, maybe impossible, to get out. Finally, with the help of your siblings, you clawed your way to the surface. Good for you! Now you’ve got to make it out of that caved in caldera to open sand, while repeatedly being trampled on by your fellow escapees. One by one, your grueling march to the sea begins.

Sniper-Crawl to the Sea
Low-crawling like a Marine sniper towards an objective, the babies must immediately traverse the dangerous expanse of beachhead. Scraping themselves along a mere 20ft of beach strand, it probably feels like miles to their tiny bodies… the countless sand depressions akin to scaling hills and valleys. Some turtles were slower than others. After all, they’re just learning to maneuver those flippers. Many required numerous 2-second rest stops to catch their breath and reorient themselves.

A Real Life “Frogger” Game
From the time those turtles step out of their hole everything is trying to kill them – too bad these mini-marines are missing their M-16 rifles. Sea birds like gulls and frigate birds have the marked advantage of speed and height to spot their dark flailing bodies contrasted against the light sand from far away. Land mammals like wild dogs and raccoons are also a danger. One interesting tidbit is that while adult turtles often include crabs in their diet, crabs will also eat baby sea turtles! An example of Mother Nature’s circle of life, I guess. Since land is a pretty perilous place for the youngsters, they are desperate to reach the ocean before becoming Scooby snacks.

Citizen Protection Squad
Most turtles seem to have that homing instinct leading them to the sea, but some need a little push in the right direction. When a few babes headed away from the water, concerned citizen-spectators turned them around… sometimes several times before their innate GPS skills took over.  Employees from PROFEPA, which supports the National Sea Turtle Conservation Program, were called in to take notes and monitor activity. They also erected a protective chicken wire barrier around a newly-discovered adjacent nest with a warning sign not to disturb. A bystander informed me that no one had previously discovered this nest; otherwise it would have been similarly marked for protection and monitored until hatching. As it was, the little guys are lucky to have hatched out in the open during the day where concerned Baja Californians could protect them from land predators (and take lots of photos) until they made it to the water.

First Swim
Momma turtle nested in a perfect spot along the calm shores of the Bay of La Paz, so they had no crashing ocean waves with which to contend. I could almost sense their slight hesitation and ultimate relief as they’d hit the water’s edge. The weaker ones seemed so tired, getting rolled in the tiniest of wavelets, dazed and confused for a moment before slowly and awkwardly floating out to sea. The stronger ones would bolt out into the water, duck-diving through the oncoming tiny wavelets and using the receding undertow to their advantage. Furiously they paddled with their tiny flippers on the same instinctive course with a single-minded thought… “Get to the chopper!” Seriously. I swear I heard it.

Ocean Hazards
Once they hit the water though, another epic journey to deeper waters ensues. Migrating hundreds or even thousands of sea miles, babies are constantly in danger of getting chomped on by larger carnivorous fish like grouper, rockfish, barracuda and sharks. A great many die as bycatch, caught helplessly in fishermen’s nets. Incredibly, only 1 in 1000 actually live to adulthood….terrible odds. It’s a hard knock life. I can’t help but wonder what people would do with their lives if we all had such odds.

An App for That
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has made a kids videogame app by now…like Frogger or Plant Zombies but with turtles: “In their desperate escape to the ocean, adorable sea turtle babies must avoid bird bombs and crab snatchers, sand-castle-moat-digging children and reckless ATV’s, floating fishing nets, sneaky sharks and gulping groupers!” If anyone rolls with this idea, I’d better get a percentage…
​
Bucket List Item - Check
Only once have we witnessed turtles here in the Sea of Cortez. On our 2-day passage from Mazatlán, we encountered multiple large turtles floating lazily with us back to La Paz. Since then, we’d sadly never seen another…until today. I’d contemplated finding a turtle release program where volunteers can assist hatchlings from known protected turtle sites. But this random event was perfect in its spontaneity…raw nature in action. It’s quite possibly a once-in-a-lifetime experience to witness baby turtles in their first moments. What a great day! Bucket list item complete.
 
​~~~~~~~~~
Be sure to watch my Turtle Trek Video. Baby turtles are adorable! I promise it will make your day. 

Merry Christmas from Marina Costa Baja in the beautiful city of La Paz!

Costa Baja Christmas Tree
Each December, a beautiful, two-story Christmas tree is erected in Marina Costa Baja. While it’s often easy to forget it is Christmastime here in flip-flop weather, the tree is a lovely reminder of the season. Constructed of a bundle of steel bars, it takes two days for one guy to weld these fragments into a giant, hollow, tee-pee skeleton. That’s right, I said weld. Over the next few days the structure is then meticulously spiral-encircled with probably a mile of fake green garland; white Christmas light pin-striping flows down from the gilded star to potted poinsettias surrounding the base. This Jolly Green Giant is then adorned with red and golden ornaments: cantaloupe-sized, sparkly orbs and smaller teardrops that I like to think resemble (artistically) chili peppers…a Red Hot Chili Pepper Christmas.

After the New Year, someone will take a cutting torch to the skeleton, rendering our mighty tree to a bundle of bars (and a gaggle of garland) once again. When we witnessed this process in 2014, my first thought was…why wouldn’t you buy a made-to-assemble, tinker-toy-type tree? You know…the IKEAesque  ”no tools required” kind. Well, they’re not cheap…but this permits us a slight insight into how things are done here in Mexico. My guess is they probably already had the steel bars left over from some other building project. Joe the dockworker over here is a decent welder; let’s just have him do it. Labor is cheap – so the cost of labor for 4 days is waaaay cheaper than buying a commercial grade, erector-set tree, even if they have to pay a guy to weld it up and cut it down every year for the next 20 years. Food for thought. In the US, time is money; in Mexico, time is trivial, efficiency is underrated because labor is cheap… and dinero is still dinero.

Christmas Market
Just up the dock from our boat, Marina Costa Baja sponsored an evening Christmas Market. About 30 merchants lined the sidewalk selling their wares atop decorated tables: dried spices, La Paz t-shirts, shell-art, handmade shoes, woven handbags, jewelry, pottery and more. I was more in it for the food (can’t fill a small boat with knickknacks). We soon discovered a chocolatier named Fan Fan and sampled their amazing chocolate brownies. Gotta have dessert first! The “Sausage Lady” was there too, a German transplant (I believe) whose handmade sausages are well-known throughout the La Paz cruising community; her spicy links and fresh baguette buns made a delish dinner. Costa Baja offered free Mexican hot chocolate and galletas (a hard sugar cookie) for all the attending marina, hotel and condo patrons. Finally, I could not resist taking home two enormous corn muffins filled with cajeta (sugary, caramely, creamy goodness) for breakfast. Delectable delights abound in La Paz…part of the reason we like this city!

Fav Christmas Movies
Every December it is our tradition to watch the following movies: It's a Wonderful Life, White Christmas and Elf. Sometimes Miracle on 34th Street. And usually, Die Hard, but not lately. Yes, it's a Christmas movie (according to my husband), remember? For the last two years when Christmas rolls around, we keep thinking we have the DVD... then remember we don't. We had the VHS tape (shows our age) but threw it away when we moved on the boat, no longer owning a VHS player. Today we did it again (this is becoming a running joke now), assuming we had it only to discover the opposite. Brian is shocked and dismayed - not having Die Hard on board is blastphemous! "Cause it's one of the best Christmas movies of all time!" says he.

Polar Vortex
Here in Baja Mexico we play in the sand instead of snow this time of year, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have Christmas trees and blow-up Santas just like home. So here are a few Christmas decoration pics to prove it…and I’ve added in some infinity pool shots just to make you guys in the north jealous. By the way, it’s about 75 today. We were freezing last week during our first polar vortex… it got down to about 60 at night. We all had to put on JEANS. Some of us wore SOCKS. Oh, the horror! 

Wing-on-winging-it
This trip, with its consistent 10-15 knots of wind, has been our chance to improve our downwind sailing skills. Rarely do we get the precise wind angle for our direction to go wing-on-wing, but we’ve done it four days on this trip and for several hours each time. A brief definition of wing-on-wing (W.O.W.) is: flying the mainsail on one side of the boat and the jib on the other with the wind directly behind us, essentially pushing us forward.  

Yesterday, we flew downstream from San Marte to Timbabiche wing-on wing, but I refused to let Brian put up the pole to keep the jib furled out. It was already far too windy and wavy for Brian to be crawling around on a convulsing, pitching deck unnecessarily. Without the pole though, it was very difficult to keep Indigo in check and stay at the necessary precise angle to the wind. Any little distraction in steering can result in a flapping and flailing jib. Let’s just say it was no leisurely Sunday drive.

WOW Event
So today, we hauled the pole up early, before it got too windy and the seas too gnarly. All the stars aligned for a superior WOW event: wave direction, wind direction and our direction to the next anchorage. It was a glorious thing.

For hours we enjoyed near perfect downwind conditions into the head of the San Jose Channel. As the wind had died the previous night, we started out with minimal waves and 5 knots of wind. And as the morning progressed, the wind slowly built to 15-17 knots but the slow uptick kept wave heights to middling. So the ride was just beautiful, like coasting a sled downhill. Unlike the previous day when Indigo was getting bullied about by the large waves (and me getting bandied about trying to steer her)… today she was expertly schussing down those seas like they weren’t even there.

The Pole is The Key when WOWing
Without the pole, the jib is constantly on the verge of collapsing because it wants to flip to the other side to align with the mainsail (my wandering steering doesn’t help). With the pole, the jib is held out in position whether it wants to be or not. Even though it requires some setup time, pole deployment balances the boat and thwarts the jib’s flip-flop tendency. This accomplished, I could darn near sail without paying attention. My true wind angle could vary anywhere from 180-140 degrees, as opposed to having to vigorously maintain 170 dead on without the pole. I could even venture over 10 degrees into the other side for a bit without gybing (don’t ask how I know this). Ah, but this is gibberish to you non-sailors. Basically, I could wander off unintentionally (my specialty) without dire consequences. What dire consequences? An accidental gybe.

What is a Gybe?
In sailing, there are essentially two types of turns, a tack and a gybe. You tack when your boat is driving into the wind; you perform a gybe when your boat is facing away from the wind. Tacking is way easier than gybing. Gybing can incur anxiety in even the most seasoned sailors - if not done right, disaster can ensue. There are three types of gybes: a ‘controlled gybe’, an ‘uncontrolled gybe’ and what I call a ‘semi-controlled gybe’.

Controlled Gybe
A purposeful turn, the sailor conscientiously controls the boom angle all the way through the turn. So there we are… picture the boom (that big, swinging stick perpendicular to the mast) hanging out over the water with its sail full. As the driver (me) carefully turns the boat towards the opposite wind angle, the mate (Brian) hauls the boom in (reeling it in with rope) until it hits almost amidships (aligning with the length of the boat). At this brief moment in time the wind angle is at exactly 180 degrees on our stern. If it’s calm, the mainsail flutters and the boom does a little waggle, deciding which way it wants to sail, and we can actually manhandle it over to the other side to reduce any load. But, if it’s windy out, forget it. We’d better be quick. As the boom crosses that 180 degree angle, the sail shakes loudly and the boom slams (hopefully just a little) to the opposite side as the wind suddenly poofs the sail. As the boat heels over, I quickly turn her even further and Brian lets the line out so the boom extends over the opposite side. That’s what happens when you do it right. It doesn’t always go so well.

Uncontrolled Gybe
An uncontrolled gybe occurs when the boom slams unchecked to the opposite side of the boat. This can result from a sudden switch in wind direction or a pushy wave. But most likely, someone (me) accidentally turned too far downwind and backwinded the sail before we are ready for a controlled gybe. Imagine that big, heavy boom swinging unrestrained from one side of the boat to the other, a pendulum swing of potentially 90 degrees or more (15 feet rather than 1 or 2 inches).

It can happen in the blink of an eye, but it feels like a slow-mo movie scene where the actor is just watching, wide-eyed and powerless to help. Noooooo! Before you know it, the boom has soundlessly whipped over your head and crashed to the other side with an earsplitting, lightning-bolt “SNAP”. A deep shudder reverberates up the attached mast, throughout the ship and deep into your gut (you are, after all, one with the boat). A palpable sensation, it’s enough to cause some pronounced bowel-shifting. Depending on your speed and how far and fast the pendulum has swung, enough momentum is in play here to break that boom-to-mast joint or snap the boom in half. High wind and wave conditions make that force even greater. If your body or head is in the way… good luck. We have never experienced a really bad gybe, but we have bungled a few over the years in light winds… and while we haven’t damaged anything, we still abhor gybing simply because we can’t help but anticipate potential catastrophe!

Semi-Controlled Gybe
This is pretty much the combo meal deal where I asked for 10 chicken nuggets but I only got 7 and complaining to the manager is pointless because, well, YOU are the manager. In turning across that 180-degree space, the driver turns too quickly and the mate can’t tighten up the boom all the way in time before it schwacks across at a 10-20 degree arc. Or…turn too slowly and a following wave can broadside the boat as the mate is in the process of bringing in the line, causing the boat to roll and gybe. Still a mighty crunch, but not AS BAD as it could have been had the mate not gotten that boom part-way tightened. Seven out of ten nuggets isn’t what I set out for, but at least I got some. Effectively a controlled gybe part of the way, uncontrolled the rest. Brian would still call this an uncontrolled gybe, partially tightened or not, but I prefer to note the difference. A 20-degree pendulum swing is a thousand times better than a 90-degree free swing. But either way… No Bueno. So what can you do?

The Preventer
Sounds like a super hero, eh? “THE PREVENTER – preventing accidental gybes worldwide. Wherever there be sloppy sailors, careless cruisers or ridiculous racers, THE PREVENTER precludes improper pointing.” While most boat parts are awarded some incongruous label, a preventer does exactly what it says. It prevents an uncontrolled gybe, reigning in that boom from flying about, willy nilly. A preventer is simply a line attached from the end or the middle of the boom to the deck, usually encompassing a ratcheting device which can be tightened as needed.

While we employ a preventer to stop full-on uncontrolled gybes, an inadvertent gybe will still cause the mainsail to become backwinded. Wind suddenly filling the sail from the opposing direction can cause excessive load. Depending on a lot of factors, your boom will prooobably stay in place; but this sudden load has caused preventer lines to snap (bad) thus resulting in an uncontrolled gybe anyway. Also, in heavy seas the rolling motion of a wave can cause a quick loosening in the preventer line and then a sickening ‘snap’ as the preventer whips the boom back into place. Despite its shortcomings, we usually sail with a preventer when sailing downwind and always when sailing wing-on wing.

Ok, enough sailing terminology …back to our lovely WOW Event…

The San Jose Channel
The San Jose Channel is notorious for its squirrely nature. It can be as fickle as a 2-yr-old… serene one minute, wailing the next. This 3 to 5 mile-wide slice of water runs between the Sierra Gigantas mountain range on the Baja peninsula and the 16-mile-long mountainous island of San Jose. Swooping tidal current can accelerate already high winds and seas. Previous experience with the Channel has ranged from benign flat water to mildly energetic. But we’d witnessed its howling rage from safe anchorage and were thankful we weren’t out there. Today, we miscalculated.

Let’s Keep Going!…Bad Idea
We had left at dawn, so about noon we’d gone almost 25 miles and were nearing San Evaristo, our original destination. But we’re feeling good, it’s early and Isla San Francisco is only another 12 miles away, we argued. Sailing a brisk 5-6 knots, Indigo rode at a perfect, comfortable angle to the slowly increasing waves… which we noticed… but ignored since our ship was effortlessly balanced. A little lulled into the lure of our perfect WOW sail continuing “as is”, we kept going. Those darn sea sirens must have been singing. Between that irreversible decision (@ noon) and our landing at Isla San Francisco (@ 2:30), the wind gods became angry….probably hangry, they didn’t have lunch yet I assume. Maybe next time I should throw some Cheez Whiz into the sea to calm them down.

Max Hull Speed
Passing San Evaristo, the wind quickly ticked upward from a manageable 15-17 knots… to 22 knots. Indigo was hauling butt at 7-7.5 knots, which by the way is hull speed, the theoretical maximum speed at which our particular boat is designed to go! Whitecaps snarled and hissed intermittently at our rear but there was no turning back. It would have actually been supercalifragilistically uncomfortable to do so, to bash into that mess. It was so windy, sailing wing-on-wing was no longer an option – too risky as the boat became unbalanced. Brian furled in the jib and went up on the lurching bow to take down the pole, no easy task in these now 5ft/4second seas. Sans jib, we were still racing down the channel at 6 knots under full mainsail alone.

27 Knots!
We try very hard not to sail in 27 knots; we just don’t go out when it’s forecasted over 20. But sometimes it sneaks up on you...like right now. I should have just turned off the wind indicator when I consistently started seeing 25-27 knots! Waves now broke behind us in a continuous hissy-fit, threatening to eat us for lunch. I gritted my teeth and opted not to look backward. Hand-steering down those short waves I felt like an Indy car driver – to focus so fully on not crashing is exhausting! Every 4 seconds our rear end lifted, our bow pointed at a daunting downward angle and Indigo was thrust forward like a plaything until it fell into the next trough. The boat handled it fine but at some point we were going to have to make a left turn into the anchorage and go beam-on to these frothing whitecaps. The stern waves were our friend now, helping to push us towards our goal, but as soon as we turned even a little they’d become the enemy.

Sailing Under Reefed Main Only
At 2pm, Brian put a reef in the mainsail and we continued to fly towards the island in 27 knots of wind but at a more controllable pace of 5 knots. We managed to (purposefully) get as close as physically possible to the island, skimming its west side a mere several hundred feet off shore. We are thankful for our accurate chartplotter and The Sea of Cortez Cruiser’s Guide; we had skimmed the island once before in calm waters and were thus confidant as to depths and rock obstructions so close to its edge. Once we made the pronounced left turn into the anchorage, this proximity reduced our time sailing beam-on to the breaking waves to mere minutes. Our skim-the-shore-wave-avoidance plan worked. Whew! We were in. That 8-hr WOW Event turned into quite a bit more WOW than expected, but we made it!

Lounge Lizards
We set the hook and promptly lazed like lounge lizards in the cockpit, resting our travel weary bones. We didn’t move from that heavenly spot for 3 days. I LOVE Isla San Francisco!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Uncouth Charterboaters
OK, you yacht charterer guys. Just so you know… when you pee off the boat in the middle of the day, count on EVERYBODY seeing it.

So a charter catamaran anchors next to us with a couple families on board. We saw two different adult males pee off the boat no less than four times. During the day. In broad daylight. From the swim step. AND off the bow into the wind – Hey genius, never pee into the wind!  I seem to recall some song lyrics about that. It’s not like we were intently watching them. We’d just happen to be looking out from the cockpit to see what the commotion is about or up on deck showering after a snorkel… and whammo, our eyes are inundated with the uncouth sight. Acckkk! Seriously? And if you think we were the ONLY ones who saw your tactless little display? Think again. In kayaking over to our trawler boat neighbor, the subject happened to come up. “Yeah! We SAW that too! What an idiot, peeing off the bow into the wind. And like no one could see him…” So, if you think no one is watching? Think again. And guess what language said charterers were speaking? French. Yah.

Before we crossed the Sea, I happened to skim a decade-old government-issued marketing plan/coffee table book printed by Fonatur (tourist arm of the Mexican government) and SEMARNAT (environmental arm). Since the 70’s, Fonatur has actively developed key areas of Mexico for tourism. Under their purview, the sleepy beach village of Cabo San Lucas has turned into a miniature Las Vegas; Cancun, former swampland inhabited by merely a few fishermen, is now a world-renowned resort destination.  Critics may wring hands about overbuilding and environmental concerns, but there is no doubt the economy has benefitted by this influx of tourism money. (Here’s a link to an interesting article on Fonatur.) 

Escalera Nautica
Long before the term “eco-tourism” was coined, Mexico understood the extraordinary jewel that is the Sea of Cortez.  Years ago, they began developing several small marinas throughout the Sea to attract the yachting industry, also working with developers to provide nearby hotel facilities for water-loving land-based visitors. The Escalera Nautica, as it was marketed, or Nautical Staircase, was purposefully designed to facilitate boaters (people like us) to safely climb their way to the top of the Sea and back down. Just like their previously developed resort communities, they hoped by seeding key areas with marinas and visitor accommodations, that the tourism industry would snowball economic growth, provide jobs and enable infrastructure development.  Over the years, several small, 18-20 slip Fonatur marinas have been built according to this plan. Some are more well-run and visited than others, but all along, the objective has been to sell these marinas once established.

SOLD!
So I am happy to tell you that since our last visit, the former government-run Marina Fonatur at Puerto Escondido has been purchased by a private firm. It is now run, as of June I believe, by a company called Waicuri. According to brochures, their master plan is pretty ambitious. We’ve been told part of the contract is that Waicuri must complete a certain amount of development within two years. What those exact stipulations are, I’ve no idea…but here’s a couple major items on their overall agenda...

Sell Those Lots!
One goal is to sell those primo vacant lots! Puerto Escondido lies just 15 miles south of the “Magic Town” of Loreto, with its myriad shops & eateries, historical town square and an international airport to boot. Years ago, the foundation was laid here for a harbor-front housing community. Custom homes built on canal frontage surely should entice boating enthusiasts galore with the promise of a private dock in an amazing locale. With its background a spectacular mountain range, its foreground a beautiful and safe harbor, this place begs further development.

But for years, the grid of paved subdivision roads sits empty, like a cliché apocalypse movie. Cracked pavement. Tumbleweeds. Skittering lizards. Screeching hawks in the distance. Canals that go nowhere. Crumbling bridges. Street lighting poles hover over scrub-strewn, vacant homesites, waiting to be switched on… but not a single house built. An empty shell of concrete and rebar stands alone overlooking the docks, perhaps a condo or hotel started but abandoned. Outrageous price expectation? Poor infrastructure (sewer, water, electric)? Who knows why nothing sold.

Now though, from the looks of it, things are happening. We noted much construction activity out there in the canal areas – a backhoe, freshly graded dirt, stacked bricks awaiting placement, rebar in a new foundation, a mess of guys repairing a canal bridge, and new landscaping. Last time we visited, the canal was empty. This time we sighted several powerboats attached to brand-new, aluminum floating docks in the canal. Whether those owners have purchased lots or are just renting those private docks, I can’t say. But it’s a good sign. According to the Waicuri website, “condominiums, a beach club with restaurant, spa and gym for all the home owners, boutique hotel and much more!” are eventually on the docket. Well, that sounds a little ambitious. We’ll see.

Slips in the Ellipse? Can it be true?
Another ambitious project is to build 200 slips in the Ellipse. The Ellipse is a curved breakwater structure that once housed several mooring balls and was operated by a different entity. I always thought mooring balls here was a waste of space in such a small area. A dock system would maximize the number of boats who wish to be “attached” to land longer-term. As long as they still maintain plenty of inexpensive moorings in the large harbor, this could be a win-win for both cruising types. The PE harbor itself is already a relatively safe “hurricane hole” surrounded by mountains and completely cut off from the capricious powers of the Sea. The Ellipse’s breakwater offers double-protection from small, choppy wind waves that funnel down the harbor in a north blow. We think this marina expansion is great idea and would definitely consider keeping Indigo here longer term. But only if they provided shuttle service to town.

Click here to see an aerial mock-up of the proposed facilities…notice the slips in the Ellipse next to the harbor opening. I am skeptical this will be built anytime soon…but, you never know. They have already removed all but three of the boats that were moored here, many of which were left permanently unattended. I do not know what, if anything, is planned for the Waiting Room where many people actually live on their boats on a mooring full time.

Other small improvements have taken place. Here are the things we’ve noticed…

• The marina office is getting an interior facelift. By the way, the office folks are very nice and helpful. But don’t expect your records (boat documentation) to be on file from before June - everything has been expunged.
• Laundry is now FREE! One free load per boat per day. Staying for 2-3 days? You can combine your loads all in one session. The marina office notifies their cleaning attendant who will turn on the washers & dryers for you manually. Formerly $3 per load, this is a really nice bonus.
• The POOL works! That pool has been empty and forlorn for at least the two years we’ve been visiting. Now it is crystal clear and, although colder than the sea water, refreshing in the 90 degree heat.

Same ‘ole…

• The mooring prices are still the same, @$10 per day. We’re certainly not complaining…just glad they didn’t raise their rates.
• Internet sucks. Still. But the marina says they are “working on it”. The normally half-way decent internet at Tripui hotel/restaurant was also inoperative at the time we visited. Double whammy. So we had to rely on our phone. Except…
• Cell service is still spotty in Puerto Escondido. We’ve been advised to take a farther mooring near the “windows” for better line of sight with the Loreto tower, and folks in the Waiting Room have no trouble as their boats face the Bahia Candeleros tower. But this isn’t the marina’s fault; it’s not like I expect them to buy a cell phone tower! But if we could get halfway decent marina internet, we wouldn’t give a whit about cell cervice.
• The women’s bathroom shower stalls still have no exterior shower curtains, the interior walls are still crumbling, the internal shower doors are still catawampus and still no hot water. Good thing it was HOT outside and we didn’t care so much. This time. But this gripe is getting old. Showers should be at the top of the list of improvements.

​And then there’s the sad news…

• Carole’s tienda is closing as of December. The owner’s just don’t have enough business during the summer to remain in the black. This is a huge disappointment to ALL cruisers as it is the only place to obtain cold drinks, milk, chips, bread, cereal and a few fresh veges to sustain our trip onward. Not to mention her made-to-order hamburgers and the occasional homemade banana bread for sale. And I don’t know what’s going to happen to Taco Saturday. The undesirable alternative is to rent a car for $80 a day or take an all-day taxi to Loreto for just about as much or anchor in a tenuous location off the Loreto breakwater with no wave protection. The little store is so important to cruising customers - I wish Waicuri would just give them free rent during the lean summer months. Very sad.

I’ll Believe It When I See It
When it comes to big proposals like this in Mexico, we immediately take on a “I’ll believe it when I see it” attitude. So many projects start and get abandoned just as quickly, it’s impossible to tell whether this one will fail or succeed. In perusing the Waicuri website, I recognize one of the developers as San Diego-based Hamann Construction, who I watched build the manufacturing facility I worked in several years ago. I am hopeful their expert involvement lends a positive tilt to the overall success. But, the best indication is that Waicuri IS beginning to make improvements. Let’s just hope they continue!

Isla Coronados south anchorage is one of our favorites. Boasting crystal clear turquoise water, 15-20ft deep above perfect white sand, its nightly sunset spectacle is reason enough to stay another day. It provides good protection from north winds and decent blockage from occasional southern swell due to large Isla Carmen 10 miles to the south. At over a mile wide, it could probably fit an aircraft carrier. So anchoring is never a problem. During our four-day stint, we enjoyed the company of only 1-3 other anchored boats at any given time. Ahhh. Time to lay down the hook and relax.

What do we do for 4 days?
Well, each morning we listen to the weather radio net at 7:30am. We then eat breakfast and contemplate if we should stay or continue on to another anchorage. Eh…it’s nice here. Let’s stay another day. So we relax and read books and type blogs. On any given day we might kayak, or snorkel, or swim, or go to shore to look for shells (OK I look for shells, Brian just tags along). Throw in time for making lunch and dinner. And, as long as it has been sunny all day and our batteries are charged sufficiently, we can watch one TV show at night. Tonight’s showing? The Shield.

Cellular Servicio
Coronados also provides excellent cell phone service! The first we’ve had in several days…so we take advantage and notify our families we are still alive. Isla Coronados is a mere 6 miles east of Loreto and in direct view of a cell phone tower. My T-Mobile cell phone coverage is better on a deserted, desert island, mid-Mexico than pretty much everywhere mid-Michigan. Figures.

No Volcano Hike
I have always wanted to go up to the top of the volcano that is Isla Coronados. But, apparently it’s a fairly strenuous 4-hour hike under the best circumstances. After our botched Punta Pulpito summit, I thought it best NOT to insist we go on yet another Death March. Me: Too soon? Brian: Yah. The following day we talked to our boat neighbor who just tackled the volcano and confirmed the 4-hr time length; they ALSO encountered a rattlesnake on the trail. Hmmm. Maybe I don’t want to go up that volcano anyway…how about we just do some easy inland hiking?

No Hiking, Period
A well-defined trail, sand paths lined with volcanic rocks, stretch along the south spit leading over to the opposite north beach. Our kayak landing showed no sign of a trail link nearby; we hadn’t dinghied far enough west to find the connection. Strike one. So Brian scrambled up the short but steep embankment to search out a trail, but he quickly came back down. The area was strewn with tough scrub and spider webs. Strike two. AND he saw a spider so big even HE didn’t want to remain up there poking around. Those who know me know my planned hike was immediately and irrevocably cancelled!! Strike three! I’m OUT.

Reef Fish
Snorkeling the southeastern island point proved a nice day’s diversion. We found an easily negotiated kayak landing (now very important). And while we’ve never experienced any bothersome current from tide in the anchorage itself, it comes into play here at the point where all the water rushes along the east side of the island. So we stayed well west of the actual point and floated along nice and easy. Oh, and the water was an absolute perfect 80 degrees. Just to rub it in a little more to those of you living in snow right about now. :)

While the fish were often very small, we witnessed a good variety. After having decent internet connection, I was finally able to identify and sear into my brain many of the colorful and common reef fish we see so often: Yellow Surgeonfish, King Angelfish, Triggerfish, Panamic Sargent Major, Grey Bar Grunt, Cortez Damselfish, Cortez Rainbow Wrasse, Reef Cornetfish, Balloonfish, Pufferfish. And these are just the tip of the iceberg. It is hard to believe that over 900 species of fish ply the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez, the vast majority of which we will never see due to our inshore snorkeling constraints. And that’s fine by me. I have no desire to swim with those Hammerheads or Orcas in person… I’ll stick to my cute and harmless little reef fishies! ​