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.

Catching Up - More Stories From Isla Cedros

Meeting Victor and Carolina (described in an earlier blog post) was certainly the highlight of our visit to Isla Cerdos but it was not the only interesting thing we did during our stay. Our guide Jose had several days of activities lined up for us while we were there.

On the first day, Jose picked us up in his panga (Mexican fishing boat) at 6:30am. Our goal was to make the 30+ mile trip from Cedros to the San Benitos, a group of 3 small islands west of Cedros. The islands are ruggedly beautiful and have a resident elephant seal colony. Elaine and I visited the islands back in 1999 when we went down the coast with our friend Celina, but due to sea conditions at the time, we were not able to make the dingy trip from our anchorage across to the elephant seal colony. We were looking forward to this visit with Jose to see the elephant seals, nesting sea birds and to do some hiking. Alas, it was not to be. Despite two attempts to make the crossing, the wind and sea conditions were too much and we had to give up on making the passage.

While we did not make it to the San Benitos, the first part of the boat ride before poking out into the unsheltered ocean took us along the south eastern and southern shores of the island which were interesting in their own right. Since we had time to kill on the way back, we took the slow route, exploring the coast close up.

First, we stopped at the island’s southwestern most point where there is small fish camp with stunning views of the island’s southern coast and across to the Baja mainland and Isla Natividad. We walked around the camp and took some short hikes in the immediate area. We saw lots of sea birds, interesting desert plants and some cool sedimentary rock layers that had been turned completely on their sides and were eroding to form delicate parallel layers in the soil. We also hiked to the other side of the fish camp where there was a really beautiful little bay with clear water headed on one side by a dramatic, large black lava dome. It was so nice, we joked that if it was in California, it would have yoga retreat resort with a 4 star organic vegetarian restaurant and massage studios overlooking the bay. We all had fun pointing out where we thought each of these facilities would be placed along the bay’s edge.

After the fish camp, we got back in the panga and took the slow, up close tour of the large sweeping and unspoiled bay that makes up the island’s southern shore. The bay has 8-10 miles of wide empty beach backed by rugged desert. The contrast of the sea with the desert in the background is always fascinating to me.

Reaching the island’s south eastern corner, we passed the island’s huge salt processing facility. Salt from the estuaries of the Baja mainland near Guerro Negro is shipped via barge to Cedros for storage and for loading on to ocean going ships since there is no deep water port in that part of the mainland. The amount of salt stored in gleaming white piles at the facility is mind boggling. Huge systems of conveyors and earth movers move the salt around from the barges to the appropriate storage site and from the storage sites back to the ships at their loading pier. It was quite an impressive operation which we later saw from the land side as well.

Finally, a short 15 minutes ride later and we were back at the boat…in time for lunch !! Since we had the afternoon free, Jose suggested a ride back to the southern beach to explore it from land. It was this afternoon that we did our tide pooling and met Victor and Carolina as described in an earlier blog post.

Day 2 of our trip started with a lazy morning after waking up at 5am the day before. Jose picked us up at 1pm and we drove over to the “salt town”. It is a clean and orderly company town where the worker’s housing is provided as part of their compensation. Among the facilities are a grocery store, gym and a nice church with stained glass images of the salt works (and a few of Jesus) and a sculpture of a salt crystal outside with a cross on top !! As we left, we swung by the exterior fence of the salt facility, took photos and marveled at the masses of pure white salt in front of us.

After the salt town, we headed over to the island’s abalone hatchery. Abalone harvesting and processing is one of the islands largest industries. Sometime in the 90’s an El Nino weather pattern destroyed much of the island’s abalone. Not wanting to lose a valuable industry, the island’s fishing cooperative decided to start an abalone hatchery, modeled after those in California, in order to provide a source of abalone into the future.

At the facility were Lupe and Paul, who gave us the grand tour. The place was filled with bubbling tanks in all directions. In one area were tanks with the adults of 4 different abalone species. They were responsible for making the baby abalone. In another area were tanks with the microscopic babies. Since they are too small to see with the naked eye, Lupe took us over to the lab to see the little critters under a microscope. The largest tanks running in rows across the facility were for the teenagers. These tanks were filled with kelp and on each piece were dozens of abalone the size of a dime to a quarter. These were the abalone that would soon be spread out in the prime abalone habitat around the island. Lupe and Paul said that there is no good way to know but they estimated that between 10 and 25% of the island’s adult abalone catch today can be traced back to abalone hatched in the facility. 

On the way out of the hatchery, we were taken by an enormous mound of abalone shells stretching over 250 ft. After being processed, the left over shells are stored behind the hatchery for later sale. Paul and Lupe told us to take a few as souvenirs and they even showed us how to polish them up for when we got back home.

Following the abalone hatchery, we headed over to the lobster and abalone processing plant. The plant is certified by the EU and several other countries and strict cleanliness protocols were observed. Upon arrival at the plant we were greeted by an enthusiastic young woman named Nirvana who is in charge of quality control for the entire plant. On the tour, we watched as lobster was unloaded and sorted for live and frozen shipment as well as saw the fish and abalone processing lines and the canning facility. The tour was most interesting and the pride and care that everyone took in their jobs was obvious.

One interesting side note to our days visit. Paul from the abalone hatchery and the Nirvana at the processing plant were born in Cedros. Both had lived in the states and had traveled to other parts of Mexico. Nirvana has a university degree and has traveled to Hong Kong. On a small, remote island like Cedros, with exposure to the broader world through satellite TV and internet, one might assume the first thing a young ambitious person would want to do when they grow up is to get off the island. In the case of these 2 smart and very capable young folks, they had gotten off the island and despite their experiences or maybe because of them, they both chose to come back and make their lives on the Cedros. It is very inspiring to see and it bodes well for the future of the island.

Our third day of touring got off to another early start. Jose picked us up at 7:00am for an 18 mile panga ride up to the north end of the island. On our agenda was a swing by the elephant seal and sea lion colonies along the way and a 6 hour hike (round trip) to a 100 year old abandoned copper mine where one can see not only the remnants of the mine but also the indigenous pine trees the Spaniards thought were Cypress, thus naming the island Cedros or Cypress in Spanish.

About an hour’s boat ride from the village, we came across the elephant seals and sea lions. There were not that many elephant seals but the ones there were quite large and impressive creatures but also pretty sedate and quiet. The sea lions on the other hand were just the opposite – numerous and quite boisterous and loud. We floated off the beach taking in the scene when a very large group of juvenile sea lions, maybe 80 to 100 strong, all approached the boat and watched us with great curiosity. As the boat drifted along the shore, the entire group followed us, all the while barking, coughing and grunting. It was a tremendous sight seeing all these animals romp around us. We could have stayed for hours watching them but we had a long hike ahead of us so we moved on.

After another 20 min in the boat, we came to the fish camp at the north end of the island and our landing spot for the hike. Due to an earlier storm from Oregon and California, the seas were up and the landing looked pretty dicey with some big waves crashing on the beach. Elaine and Barry were quite skeptical that we could pull off a landing but Jose and Dengue, our driver, seemed confident that with a little patience and timing we could get on the beach without killing ourselves. After a couple of false starts, Dengue went for it. Jose and I jumped off the boat right away but Elaine and Barry were hesitant. After a little emphatic encouragement, they both jumped onto the beach, just in time for Dengue to turn the boat around and head outside the breaker zone. We walked up the hill to the fish camp to change into our hiking gear with that “we cheated death” buzz.

Our hike started simply enough. From the fish camp, we followed a trail along a flat plateau above the beach with the ocean and the north point light house in the background. Along the way we saw a rattle snake and several interesting desert plants including elephant trees with their bulbous trunks, flowering agave plants with their flower stalks dripping sweet nectar and a prickly pear cactus with its fruit in full bloom. Jose picked a prickly pear off for us to taste. Its flesh was bright red with the consistency of watermelon and a taste reminiscent of a kiwi fruit.

About 30 min into the walk, we came upon a deep arroyo that cut across our path and headed up into the island’s center. Following Jose down into the arroyo our walk quickly turned more challenging. First, there was no more trail, so we had to pay close attention to our footing on the rocky arroyo bottom. As we proceeded, the arroyo became steeper and a bit of climbing became necessary as well. Also as we moved inland, first the fog then drizzle closed in. Not only were we getting wet but so were the rocks. Worse, the normally dry and powdery soil between the rocks was damp in places and wet in others turning the dirt into a really thick, sticky and slippery mud !! Now as we proceeded, it was necessary to only step rock to rock lest your shoes get caked with slime and you lose all traction. We soldiered on and up the arroyo this way for two hours. While the hike was pretty demanding, we were being rewarded with fantastic scenery, that is when we took the time to take our eyes off the next rock we were going to step on.

Just as we were reaching the point of “what the hell are we doing this for”, we scrambled over a small rise onto a large flat area that contained the ruins of mine. There were lots of interesting artifacts strewn about. Carts used to move the ore, old engines, giant pulleys and gears and a large brick water tank. Elaine found an old numbered clay crucible used for extracting copper from the ore and an old glass insulator from a power line. The only bummer of the mine site was the enormous piles of green, yellow mine tailings. I am sure they were toxic in several different ways. It is sad to think that these piles will never be cleaned up, leaving a permanent scar in an otherwise beautiful area.

Also at the mine site were some of the Cedros pines that the Spanish mistook for Cypress. After seeing so much desert all around the island, it is pretty amazing to see these bright green pine trees there. They seem like they were beamed down from another planet. There was a larger grove about a quarter mile further along up the hill in a place unspoiled by the mine ruins, but it was really foggy and drizzly, we were wet and tired and our slow progress up the hill due to the mud meant it was getting late so we headed back down.

The trip down was uneventful. We were all quite happy when we got back down to the sun and the dry flat trail. We were all quite tired but feeling good about the effort and reward of a challenging hike. Although we made it back to the fish camp, we could not fully enjoy our accomplishment since in the back of all our minds we were worried about what the conditions would be like at the landing site and could we even get back on the boat. To our relief, the seas had calmed down over the course of the day and getting into the panga was no issue. Two hours later we arrived at the boat completely beat but already savoring another Cedros adventure.