The Holidays in Baja!

We have now spent our first holidays the “cruising” way. Much thanks to Betsy, Derek and wonder dog Wilbur for spending these days with us and hosting so many of the dinners! They have a lovely 45’ catamaran named Taj, that has so much room for entertaining. Each night we were together, we’d have at least happy hour if not dinner on their boat. 

We left San Juanico on Christmas Eve and had a wild day of sailing with strong winds from practically every direction through the 55 mile sail. Christmas dinner was in Bahia Concepcion - an aptly appropriate place for Christmas!  The day was so special as we also met their son, Jeremy and his girlfriend Kristin. Add to the mix, the dynamo couple of Henri and Olle; more folks from Salt Spring Island, BC. There are ALOT of Salt Springers down here! Henri and Olle drove their luxury Class A RV down and are spending their 5th winter at Bahia Concepcion. Betsy rocked the meal by making a 16lb turkey and all the fixings! Henri and I brought sides and we all went back to our “homes” stuffed, happy and with leftovers.

We spent the week in Bahia Concepcion which included a ride in to the nearest town, Mulege, with Henri, Olle and their sweet rescue yellow lab, Bella. Mulege is a small town that has none of the tourist trappings. Just a real local vibe. We were anchored in Playa Santispac, the northern bay in Bahia Concepcion. BC is 25 miles long bay and stunningly beautiful but we feel its geared more towards the “land” cruising life. Highway 1 runs along its coast and each of the turquoise bays has a beach that is lined with campers and RVs. Santispac has all the conveniences to make RV/camper life easy -local farmers bring their veggies, fruit, homemade rellenos, flan etc… once or twice a week. There’s 2 small restaurants that serve way better margaritas than food. Yoga, art classes and other events can fill a calendar and create a close community. 

Produce shopping in Bahia Concepcion

Mulege

We sailed down to the end of the big bay to check it out but its deserted - just jagged mountains that come down to the water. Pristine. After reaching the most southern part of BC, we anchored for the night at Isla Requeson. An idyllic little sandspit connects the tiny island to the mainland. Two little coves are created around the spit with white sand beaches and very shallow water. We climbed the hill for a breathtaking view of entire Bahia Concepcion and paddled around the cove. By the next morning the winds had picked up and we headed back to Santispac. 

Isla Requesón

After a couple days, we headed south with Taj back to San Juanico. For New Year’s Eve, Henri, Olle and Bella drove down to our anchorage and stayed the night on Taj. Another fantastic meal, drinks and we even stayed up until 10 pm to celebrate the New Year! 

When Jeff and I got back to the boat; our anchorage site was rocking and rolling like I’ve never seen in an anchorage! After laying in bed for about 2 minutes, we decided to put out a stern anchor to hold our bow into the swells. So, it’s 1am and 3-4’ broadside swells are rolling Salpare around and you can imagine how fun it is to climb in to the dinghy with a stern anchor system on an absolutely black night with no land references. Let’s just say it was a bit of a buzz kill from all the earlier fun of the night.  Our many night mission experiences with mountain rescue really pays off at these times. We’re a solid team in what was a challenging situation. We did the best we could but it barely dampened the rolls. Oh well, we tried. 

Morning came - FINALLY - and we headed back over to Taj. The southern point of the bay is aptly named The Aquarium and we wanted to see it. Derek and Betsy anchored Taj in a small bay behind the rocks and we all jumped in with snorkels and headed for the Aquarium. Jagged, rocky islets create the perfect habitat for rays, coral and the most variety of fish we’ve seen so far. Then back to the anchorage.

We decided to move closer to where Taj was anchored as it was more protected from the swells. Just pop up the stern anchor (which didn’t seem to do that much the night before), pull our main anchor and re-anchor. What could go wrong… The next paragraph will probably only make sense to boaters but the rest of you can just think - “shit show”.

Well, the winds had now piped up to 25kt gusts and the boat had pulled so hard on the Danforth stern anchor that I’m sure the tips were poking out in Beijing. Jeff could not pull it up on his own. Ok, we’ll pull it up with our windlass after we pull up our main anchor. It all sounds easy to do but Murphy was onboard that day. After retrieving our main anchor (while tending the stern anchor rode so it wouldn’t go under the boat and catch the prop), Jeff put the rode on the windlass - but it jumped in to the ridiculously small space between the roller and the sheave plate and was caught tight. Ok, so now we are attached to the earth by our stern anchor that can’t be pulled in - oh and it might pop at any time in the increasing winds. I radioed Derek for more manpower. In seconds he was over and helped retrieve the anchor. I maneuvered the boat around; probably scaring the bejesus out of the other boats who looked on while knowing the boating reality that it will happen to them someday if it hasn’t already.  We re-anchored in the more protected cove and took a nap!

We hosted Derek and Betsy that night on our boat as we were heading south the next day. We’ll see them a couple more times before we leave for French Polynesia and they head north to Salt Spring via Hawaii.

An easy sail brought us back to the type of anchorage that has spoiled us; Puerto Ballandra is a small cove, white beach, turquoise water, trails leading through the hilly desert and nobody but us… A few days here and then to Puerto Escondido to meet up with friends Lynda and Bill, from wherelse… Salt Spring Island!

Can't get enough of the beautiful water!