Bahia Asuncion (by Elaine)

After two weeks in Turtle Bay, we upped anchor at sunrise and headed south for Bahia Asuncion.  Asuncion is a small town of around two thousand people of which six are full time North American residents.  There are also quite a few Americans and Canadians who make Asuncion their part-time home.  The town is situated on a spit of land between the Pacific Ocean and a large sheltering bay.

We anchored late in the afternoon and contacted Shari Bondi, a Canadian marine biologist 

we read about in a boating magazine who, with her Mexican husband Juan, runs a bed and breakfast, fishing outings and Campo Sirena.  She has lived on the Baja for 20 years, and has made Asuncion her home for more than a decade.  She invited us to her End of the World Party the next afternoon, which we gladly accepted.

After getting TARDIS cleaned up and put away, we deployed the boat’s Flopper-Stopper, as there was enough swell moving through the bay to cause the boat to roll more than rock, which never allows for a good night sleep.  Tired and satisfied, we settled in to make dinner and to relax for the evening.  At dusk we began to hear splashing noises around the boat and went on deck to investigate.  A pod of juvenile sea lions had discovered the Flopper-Stopper and were busy inspecting it.  We were a little concerned that they may chew on the lines to the Flopper-Stopper, but they never did more than nose the lines, which I would jerk when they got close, scattering them in a panic.  They stayed around the boat all night, and when we woke for our late night anchor checks, you could see the sea lions darting around the boat, leaving swooping trails of phosphorescence.

The next day we dinghied in to shore and explored the little town.  Asuncion is  charming, with sidewalks for strolling, many tidy homes painted colorful greens, pinks, corals and blues and bright flowers planted everywhere.  There is a large covered basketball court, as well as a baseball field with giant night game lights.  Both are used for sporting and cultural events: our last night there a party was held at the basketball court that went to 4 in the morning, with loud dancing music we could hear out to the boat.

After lunch and a little shopping, we walked the mile out to the point where Shari and Juan have built their home, and bed and breakfast.  They are in a gorgeous location, overlooking Isla Asuncion off the point, the Pacific Ocean and several small coves where Juan keeps his fishing pangas.  Shari threw a small party attended by many locals, Mexican and North Americans alike, with lots of good company, food and drink, including a delicious cactus pear margarita that she had invented.  After lots of fresh fish, shrimp balls, chips and salsa Jamie and wandered back to TARDIS.

For the three nights we were anchored in Asuncion, every night at dark the sea lions arrived and stayed until sunrise.  It was like the boat was the new attraction at the local water park.  There would be anywhere from a dozen to three dozen, all night swimming and frolicking around the boat.  Ten or so would be around the Flopper-Stopper, swimming around in a circle, splashing and diving and trying to get as close as possible.  Then there were several exploring the anchor chain, diving along it and pushing at it.  By the time they were comfortable with the chain, there would always be one hanging on to it by the surface, rubbing its face on the snubber!  And all night, more would be swimming around the whole boat, pushing on the rudder, rubbing the hull, diving under and around, blowing bubbles against the hull, splashing and playing. 

 

All this activity around the boat made it hard for me to go in to a deep sleep, so my nights were spent in REM, dreaming of roving, jumpy juvenile delinquents, ridiculous and dorky, but vaguely menacing.  In my waking moments I was worried they would bite the Flopper- Stopper lines and it would drop to the bay floor and we’d never be able to retrieve it.  So on the morning we left, as we brought the Flopper-Stopper back on board, I was more than a little relieved.  However, when Jamie brought the anchor up, he saw that they had chewed off the length markers! On the other hand, as we sailed out of Asuncion we saw our speed paddle-wheel was working again.  It had jammed up sometime in Turtle Bay; perhaps a shrimp or crab had crawled up there and got stuck.  One of our sea lion tormenters must have discovered it while exploring the hull and had sucked it out!  And off we went to our next destination, Punta Abreojos.

Bahia Santa Maria Pics

Mangroves

Avocets ??

Fish Camp

Mangroves with Dunes in Background

More Mangroves

Dunes w Cool Clouds

Dune Walk

Greenery in the Dunes

Shell Mound

More Dunes

More Greenery

Evil "Stickers"

Dunes - Mangroves-Bay

Green Heron

Deep Thoughts

Live Sand Dollar

Catching Up On Pics II - Food !!

Sashimi

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Dorado and Shrimp

Birria Tacos

Birria Taco Stand

Garlic Shrimp

Juanita Making Homemade Sopes

Sashimi Again ?!?

Lobster Again ?!?

Catching Up On Pics

Our Friends on Black Jack after the Rain

Fine Dining in Turtle Bay With the Black Jack Crew

Turtle Bay Roaming

TARDIS at Sunset

Baja Sunrise On the Way to Asuncion

Friends Along for the Ride

The Stress of Laundry Day

We Be Jammin'

Himachi !!

Pics From Turtle Bay

Hunkered Down in Turtle Bay

It is just after noon here in Turtle Bay and Elaine and I are doing fine,
hunkered down on the boat riding out a 25 knot blow that started last evening.
This time the wind is out of the north with no big direction changes so we
tucked into a nice sheltered spot on the north side of the bay and while the
boat moves around on the anchor a bit, the wind is straight off the beach so
there are no waves to speak of.

Yesterday we hung out a bit with the crews on Brezo and Sacred Dance. Both boats
have 3 really cool, 20 something kids aboard who have decided not to wait until
they are old, like us, to enjoy the good life cruising in Mexico. A couple days
earlier we visited with the folks on Serenity, a nice couple in their 20s as
well. It's interesting because on average, Elaine and I are typically the
"young" cruisers. What they these kids all lack in money, fancy boats and
experience, they more than make up for it with their positive attitudes and
enthusiasm. While we enjoy our showers every other day, these kids remind us of
how little you need to cruise and how positive mental attitude (in all
situations) is the most important ingredient to cruising and life in general.
They bring a wonderful energy and spirit to the cruising community and I hope we
see more of them down the road.

As we mentioned previously, we have been here for almost 2 weeks waiting for a
weather window that will allow us to comfortably slow hop down the coast to
Magdalena Bay. We have been passing the time walking around town, beach combing
for sea glass, shells and whale bones during the day and making nice meals and
watching movies in the evenings. The other day we started to watch the sci-fi
series Firefly which we are enjoying.

While it has been fun and relaxing here, two days ago we agreed that we are
ready to get moving again and resolved that we would leave on the 20th or 21st
and take what the weather gives us, meaning if the window was short we would
move fast and if it was good we would go slow. The good news is that as of this
morning's weather download, it looks like we will have a decent chance of moving
on the slower side. Our plan is to leave tomorrow about 7am and head to the next
anchorage down the line, Bahia Asuncion. From there we will assess the weather
daily and adjust our plans accordingly.

Turtle Bay

For the last week, Elaine and I have been hanging out in Turtle Bay. Turtle Bay is located half way down the Baja coast between Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas. It is situated on a beautiful natural bay with lots of wildlife and is surrounded by one of the largest Biosphere reserves in the world. It is extremely isolated, being over 100 miles from the nearest town of any size, more than 50 miles of which are on dirt roads through empty desert.

Due to its isolation and the closing of the tuna canning plant over 20 years ago, the town is nothing to write home about (although I am writing home about it anyway). It has a population of about 3000 that live primarily on fishing and the supply of and transportation from the fish camps in the area. There are a couple of so so restaurants, some OK stocked tiendas and not much else. The main reasons boats stop in Turtle Bay are the excellent anchoring in the bay and the availability of “yacht services”, mainly diesel, water, laundry, trash drop off and food. After Turtle Bay, you are pretty much on your own until Cabo.

Our primary reason for stopping here was for water, since our water maker was on the fritz (thankfully now fixed) and laundry since we had been out from Ensenada for almost 3 weeks. The other reason is to wait for a suitable weather window that will let us continue to go slow down the coast and stop in some of the cool bays and anchorages along the way to Cabo. Unfortunately that window hasn’t arrived yet but we are not in a hurry.

While waiting for our weather window, we have been strolling around town, hanging out with some of the other boaters, making friends with Rogelio, the owner of the beach bar, and exploring the area. As I mentioned the sea life in the bay is great. We have been treated to dolphins playing around the boat, huge sea lions swimming by and hundreds and hundreds of cormorants, pelicans and seagulls flying in great groups hunting bait fish. We have also seen herons, egrets, several types of ducks and even an osprey.

On one excursion we took the boat over to the south end of the bay to explore the beach there. Elaine has become quite the beach comber, on the hunt for interesting shells, rocks and her new passion sea glass. While she found some cool “keeper” shells and we came across some interesting whale bones, the beach was filled with trash at the high tide line. In hind sight this was predictable since 90% of the times the wind blows from the north thus pushing any trash from town that makes it into the bay onto the south beach. The best part of the day

On the subject of sea glass, I would have to say Elaine has a new obsession and may need an interventionJ. Both her brother Sam and good friend Jennie are sea glass collectors and as we have been walking on the beaches she would see a piece and would say “oh Jennie and Sam would like this”. Well stopping for a piece here and there has quickly evolved into a full on hunt any time we hit the beach. Lucky for her, Mexicans have thrown a lot of glass into the ocean over the years and nobody here seem to be interested in the glass after it has been broken up and tumbled in the sea. We found 2 spots in particular where she picked up handfuls of glass of all colors, in a matter of minutes. Now when we are walking on the beach, I have to remind her to look up every once and a while and enjoy the view !!

Our most “exciting” adventure so far was yesterday afternoon and evening. We have been keeping a close eye on the weather, primarily to find a weather window for our trip south but also for anything coming our way. Well something did come. A fast moving frontal system arrived about 2pm yesterday and blew 20 to 25 knots steady all afternoon, last night and this morning with periodic heavy rain squalls thrown in for fun. It felt like being in a car wash for hours, with the dry mechanism stuck on. To make matters more interesting, the initial, and biggest winds were forecast to come out of the south with the winds shifting to the W then WNW later at night.

The problem with the shift in wind direction is that the primary anchorage in the north end of the bay, off the town, is good for most weather but is open to the south. The anchorage in the south end of the bay is well protected from southerlies but is less so as the wind shifts W and NW. The question of the day was whether to stay in the north anchorage or head to the south. Ideally, one would head to the south anchorage, hang out there until the worst of the southerlies passed, and then head back to the north anchorage as the winds shifted WNW. The problem was the wind shift was forecast to occur in the middle of the night. In general, anchoring at night is not desirable. Making matters worse, it was a moonless night and there was a large oyster farm with dozens of buoys between the south and north anchorages!! After some moderate agonizing, we decided to go for the southern anchorage to get protection form the biggest winds and hope the wind shift to the WNW would be late enough that we would only have to endure them until first light when we could head back north.

I am happy to say we make the right choice although it was not a comfortable night. At about 11am, we headed for the south anchorage and tucked into a nice spot. The other 2 boats here had decided to stay north. As forecast, the front arrived at 2 pm and by 3:30pm the wind was ripping, white caps filled the bay and rain was pouring down.  At this point, we were just fine. The anchor was holding well and the boat motion was minimal, and it was still warm enough for shorts and T-shirts. At 4pm, in the height of the first squall passing, I looked out the hatch and what do I see but the 2 other boats from the north anchorage emerge from the sheets of rain seeking shelter in the south anchorage. It must have really sucked up there if they both moved at the height of the rain. As the evening proceeded, the wind persisted in the mid 20’s and the predicted shift unfortunately came early. The bad news was that the wind waves from the westerlies came in pretty good into the anchorage. The good news is that the steady winds kept us pointed into them so we mainly hobby horsed (pitched bow up and down) vs. roll side to side, which is the worst. None the less, I only slept about half the night and Elaine not at all.

Looking ahead, we will probably be here for a couple more days. Tonight we are going out to dinner with the folks from 2 boats. Should be fun.