Isla San Francisco & the BIG BLOW



Crescent Bay on Isla San Francisco



After exploring the pearl farm on Espiritu Santo we headed north to the crescent bay on Isla San Francisco, one of the southern Sea of Cortez's most popular anchorages. This lovely spot offers great views of the Sierra de la Giganta mountain range (in the background of above picture), beautiful white sand beach, snorkeling and a great ridge trail.

Immediately after anchoring we went ashore for a short walk past some salt ponds to the oppostie shore. When we returned to the crescent beach we met Bonnie from s/v The Murray Grey II. She had just finished shelling on the far beach. She showed us her treasures and and explained that she was waiting for her husband Jim to pick her up in their dinghy (like a lot of husbands he doesn't share her excitment in hunting for treasures on the beach).

Back on Comocean we met "Zoom" an interesting single-hand sailor on a Tartan 10 anchored near us. He described himself as a contractor that spends 6 months each year off of Baja (for the last 12 yrs) where he can pursue his real passion fishing. While we were anchored at Isla San Francisco, Zoom continually raced around the bay in his odd-looking dinghy which was filled with big boxes and numerous fishing rods. Once while we were standing on the beach we came by and pulled up a rooster fish, holding it up for all to see and giving us an impromptu lesson on them.

The second morning we were hailed by The Murray Grey and invited to join them for a hike along the ridge trail. Now I have to say that Bonnie does not look like an athlete so I figured that if I got left in the dust she probably wouldn't be that far ahead of me. I felt good about the hike the moment Jim said that they stop several times on the way up the steep beginning of the trail "to gaze at the ocean" (yeah, that's exactly why I stop too).



Greg & Jim at Crest of Ridge Trail



Bonnie looking south from trail

  Although the hike up wasn't a "piece of cake" it wasn't that bad. Once at the top Bonnie and I decided to stay on the trail and take pictures while the guys went up to the top of the craggy spine (if I hadn't stayed behind, who would have taken their picture?).



Green copper-containing rocks

  There is a lot of copper in the rocks of this island and the hillsides are splashed with big green areas. When the rocks disintegrate there are piles of powder that resembles green eye shadow. Its easy to see how the original people that inhabited this area got their paint pigments.



End of the trail

  The trail follows the ridge in the picture to the left and winds down into the sandy swale below that connects the two beaches.








It turns out that Bonnie is an avid birder and will take off on her own to track down ellusive birds - which she did several times during our hike. She told me that she needed a hobby while cruising and birding seemed to fit the bill.


I am continually surprised by the flowers that we see on our hikes. I haven't been too successful in identifying most of them though. Several species manage to survive in the sand above the beach.



      Rama Parda            Ruellia californica                                 Beach daisey

                                                     Beautiful Christmas-like berries

 Weather is always an issue here for cruisers. The Amigo and Sonrisa nets along with the files that we download each day predicted very high winds over a three to four day period caused by a record high barometric pressure of 1045 over New Mexico. The expected "Northerly" would create gale storm conditions down the middle of the Sea of Cortez. Winds could reach 45 knots and seas to 18 feet - conditions that most of us would not care to experience. This Isla San Francisco anchorage would not provide much protection. Jim and Bonnie were heading to San Evaristo, about 9 nm away, on the east side of Baja to weather the storm and it sounded like a good place to us as well.

We managed to sail the entire way to San Evaristo. Along the way we encountered a school of Spinner Dolphins chasing their lunch. It was exciting to see them corkscrew through the air (unfortunately I didn't catch it on film).


Spinner Dolphins


It wasn't a very pleasant sail since we were seveerly heeled over and when we got to San Evaristo we had a struggle to get the sails stowed. Cinbad the sailing cat did not enjoy the crossing. He couldn't watch; it was too scary.




The Murray Grey had arrived ahead of us and had anchored in the western open area off the beach. We choose to anchor in the northern cove created by Punta Evaristo.   

Fishing ponga with boodies fishing beyound.

This first day wasn't too bad and we walked the beach that fronts the fishing village of San Evaristo with Jim and Bonney. Along the way we met Frank and Liz from the Canadian s/v Pacific Bliss.

About 20 families live fulltime in San Evaristo. The fishermen, unable to go out due to the storm, were sitting around and they smiled at us as we walked past their modest homes. Bonnie was in search of the Paper Nautilus shell (which I didn't know existed until I saw a large Paper Nautilus shell in the office at Marina de La Paz. She scored big time -finding three small ones in perfect condition. 

Paper Natilus



Sea cucumber found on the beach

Conditions degraded quickly after that. A shrimper came into the bay with waves breaking over its bow. Jim on The Murray Grey decided to join us in the north cove and deployed two anchors. Not long afterwards Comocean began to drag anchor and we decided that we had to pull our anchor and find a slightly better spot. This was going to be challenging because the wind was blowing 25 knots; Greg grudgingly agreed to use our headsets to aid our communication. At the same time, but unnoticed by us, Pacific Bliss began to move around alot as they attempted to deploy a second anchor.  While we were maneuvering I had to take sudden evasive action to prevent a collision with them. Thank goodness for all the reverse driving practice I did.  Greg then decided to deploy a second anchor which made the situation even more challenging. The headsets proved their value and we managed to set our anchors.

When we were finally swinging securely on our anchors, all of us on the three sailboats watched as the chartered cat dragged anchor all the way from the north end of the beach to the south end. We worried that perhaps they were complete novices and didn't notice. Eventually they did notice and pulled their anchor. They powered over to our cove and made a few unsuccessful anchoring attempts. As they circled Murray Grey Jim tried to yell some helpful information to them. They gave up after a few attempts and returned to their originale position in the SW bay. Not long afterward someone from the cat dinghied over to Jim's boat. He boarded and spent some time discussing his situation with Jim who told him to put all the rode he had out. To our relief they followed his advice and stayed secure.


San Evaristo northern anchorage (LtoR chartered cat, Comocean, The Murray Grey & Pacific Bliss)

Everyone had some sleepless nights as we worried about swing, drag and low tides.
During most of the Northerly event we were confined to our boats and communicated via VHF even though we were only a 100-200 feet or so apart. At one point both Liz and Frank were both on the deck and Greg thought Pacific Bliss might need assistance. He jumped in the dinghy and fought the wind to their boat. Fortunately they were fine. As Greg attempted to return to Comocean we all watched in horror as the dinghy went straight up in the wind - almost flipping over. Quick thinking on Greg's part averted disaster and he returned safely.


Greg dinghying to Pacific Bliss

 


An unexpected perk of coming to San Evaristo was the discovery of the colony of blue-footed boobies! During a slight lull in the blow I decided that it would be safe to dinghy around the cove and take some pictures of the boobies. The light wasn't good and the motion of the dinghy in the winds made it hard to take good pictures but it sure was fun!

There are three species of boobies, the brown, red-footed and blue-footed. The blue-footed booby males court the females by waving their blue feet in the air. I have no idea what the survival advantage or sex appeal of blue feet is. The booby stands 34" tall and has a wing spread of up to 5'.

The Blue Footed Boobie



Boobies and pelicans shared the rocks amicably. Note the great throat on the pelican.

The boobies do synchronided fishing. They look like turnstones or sanderlings as they turn in unison - suddenly dropping from the sky to hit the water and then suddenly emerging together.

Bonnie and I were anxious for some socializing so we planned a survivors pot-luck dinner. The crews from the three sailboats feasted on assorted appetizers and Bonnie's homemade pizza Saturday night along with a lot of good conversation.

The next morning The Murray Grey would continue north while Comocean and Pacific Bliss would head back to La Paz. We were hoping that the long awaited limping burrow would have finally delievered our package.


The Sierra de la Giganta of Baja