The Blog from the Sea of Cortez

It’s crazy to think that our time living aboard is wrapping up.  In about two weeks, I (Sarah) will be hopping on a plane with Josie and LouLou and headed back to Los Angeles.  Wild!  We will be reflecting on this whole trip for a long time to come.

We last left off in La Paz with the dune buggies. We also made it to the Whale Museum. This was an awesome spot. Apparently it has more whale skeletons than any other museum in the world? We had a great tour and the kids really enjoyed it.

After a few more days sweating it out on the Malecon during the day and eating ice cream along it at night and provisioning, provisioning, provisioning for the Sea, we set off to Playa Balandra, just 10 miles north of La Paz.  What a spectacular place!  Crystal clear, sparkling turquoise water – soaring cliffs with mushroom shaped rocks – incredible snorkeling.  This was the beginning of the real Sea of Cortez – complete with crazy wind howling through the anchorage at 2am.  Fortunately, we were tucked in nicely out of the swell and our anchor held solid.  

Continuing on up the coast we had a gorgeous wing on wing sail over to the Isla de Espirtu Santos.  Another stunning spot.  We would have liked to spend more time on this famous island, but the wild westerly winds – the infamous Corumel – kept us on our toes every night.  Plus, we were hurrying a bit to meet up with a friend further north for a birthday party.  

Zooming north, we spent Mother’s Day at Isla San Francisco – simply stunning.  Then we headed to Puerto Los Gatos – again – simply stunning.  The red rocks reminded me of Joshua Tree. All of these places we would have liked to have spent more time.   

Finally we made it to Agua Verde, another gorgeous bay, but this time we had some time to relax.  The birthday bonfire was a smash hit.  It was great to catch up with some other kid boats and enjoy a gorgeous sunset.  The hermit crab races were also a blast – and LouLou’s crab won! 

Agua Verde was definitely a favorite stop.  It has several anchoring spots that are all beautiful.  We were tucked in the south anchorage and we were able to swim to Pyramid Rock, which had amazing snorkeling – and I saw the first starfish of the whole trip.  Another fun part of Agua Verde were the sweet little goats.  There is a goat dairy with good goat cheese, and at night the goats roam the cliffs surrounding the water and their bells tinkle through the twilight. 

 Our last day in Agua Verde, we headed out on a hike to see some cave paintings.  This was an incredible hike, taking us to an old cemetery, a palm oasis, a windswept beach, and finally, to a cave high up in the cliffs with 7000 year old hand prints.  It was really special seeing this and made us appreciate the ancient history of Baja.  

After several days in Agua Verde, we decided to head up to Puerto Escondido, a gorgeous marina about 10 miles south of Loreto.  Puerto Escondido is a popular spot because it has an enormous protected harbor, with the benefits of flat water and a modern marina.  We appreciated our time here as we got ourselves cleaned up (i.e. laundry!) and provisioned to head north up to the Bahia Concepcion.  

We rocketed up to Bahia Concepcion, a large bay about a third of the way up Baja.  We had favorable currents so we made excellent time and managed to get to the entrance of the bay before sunset.  Our friends on Eventide were already there and we found them down in Playa Santa Barbara the next morning.  We had a great time coming up with Eventide and the kids had a blast exploring the anchorage.  We also had a fun day making butter tarts on Ohana – yum!  Another incredible moment was heading deep into Concepcion to an unmarked anchorage to hike up an unnamed arroyo to find more cave paintings.  This was truly a National Geographic moment – and it was absolutely amazing to see all of these cave paintings that are not very well known.  

After a few days in Santa Barbara we moved over to Playa Burro, which was a gem of an anchorage.  There was a wacky campground on the beach and a perfect beachside coffee shop – which we spent many hours at and I now aim to decorate our new apartment exactly like.  Also, no cave paintings but dozens of petroglyphs right behind the coffee shop.  Fantastic!  

We returned to Playa Santo Domingo for a few days at the mouth of Concepcion and then headed south towards San Juanico.  What a gorgeous spot!   We stayed in the northern anchorage of La Ramada due to southerly winds.  This was a perfect little Sea of Cortez spot.  White sand beach, turquoise water, awesome snorkeling, fun hiking trails.  We had a great few days there and we finished off with a super fun birthday party for six-year-old Cora on Eventide.  Shark cake and ukuleles – super fun!

Continuing south, we anchored at Islas Coronado, an incredible volcanic island.  This may have been the absolute perfect spot – again – there are not enough superlatives! We met up with a bunch more kid boats and had a wonderful beach day in the white sand dunes.  More incredible snorkeling and a pretty extreme hike to the top of a volcano at sunset.  This hike was complete with scorpions, tarantulas, and rattlesnakes – yes we saw them all 😉  Some fun dinner and pot lucks as well, with kiddos dinghying around the anchorage.  

By early June it was time to start thinking about our final plans.  We decided to head into Loreto town and then to Puerto Escondido again for a week.  We had a part arriving to fix our windlass (which had gone kaput in Bahia Concepcion) and needed to clean up the boat and provision in preparation for our friend and crew Kenji.  Kenji is a good friend who crewed with us back in the fall down the Pacific Side of Baja.  He is joining Jeff to help sail Ohana back up to Los Angeles.  This can be a challenging, upwind passage, so we have decided it would be best for the girls to sit this one out.  I am going to fly back to Los Angeles on June 18th and then up to Canada on June 28th.  It’s all coming rapidly to an end.  

I do feel ready to go home.  We have seen amazing things and made fabulous memories, but I am looking forward to seeing family and friends – and having access to a bathtub 😉  But what a year.  So many people and places.  So many sunsets.  So many miles of wild blue yonder.