Cruise Log #17, Isla San Francisco, and Points North to Escondido, on the Baja Side
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Updated June 9th, 2005
SolMate's 500-mile route from Puerto Vallarta through Jaltemba, San Blas, and
Mazatlan on the mainland, then across the Sea, anchorage-hopping north to Puerto Escondido.
Breaking Away from Banderas Bay
Summertime weather and a prevailing southerly pushed us north, when there was a prevailing
wind, that is.
Our trusty Westerbeke actually did most of the pushing. La Cruz to Jaltemba, Jaltemba to San Blas,
two day hops with night anchorages - no big surprises; great weather, friendly seas.
However, the next leg, San Blas to Mazatlan, was a bit more exciting.
SolMate crew upped anchor in San Blas' Bahia Matenchen at 7:00 AM before "the enforcer" could harass
us anymore about checking in with the port captain. The Saturday morning quiet was broken only by the
chug of Mr. Beke and the slap of jumping rays bellyflopping as we motor-sailed past the
entrance to the main harbor. Shortly after the harbor breakwalls faded in our rearview mirror,
though, only the rays could be heard - Mr. Beke died.
Two minutes after Mr. Beke lost power, Stan had analyzed the problem and set about fixing it.
The drive shaft had parted, the ungrateful thing, and the bolts securing it to the prop shaft
had sheared. While he pretzeled
himself underneath the transmission and drilled out the sheared bolts, I rolled out headsails
and kept SolMate trucking on. In no time at all Stan
had the prop turning again, but we didn't need it for another twelve hours. A nice sailing wind
was blowing, albeit straight from Mazatlan, our next destination.
Tacking west every once in awhile to avoid crunching into the coast, we traveled 150
miles on this 120-mile leg north; the wind kept blowing from the NW until 10 PM
when we finally tested Stan's repair job. The prop shaft was fine, but now no cooling water
was flowing.
Mr. Fix-It dealt with that little problem by disconnecting a hose and sucking in raw water
(pa-tewie!) - the fault was an air lock in the cooling system. Engine fixed, again, we chugged
on through the moonlit night, pulling into Mazatlan 30 hours later for a much needed laundry
stop. We hauled 22 kilos of sweaty clothes, sheets and grungy boat towels to the closest
lavanderia, and for $US20, all was washed, dried, folded and ready for pick-up the next day
(our original provisions included a couple of gallons of laundry soap; we're still carrying
the same jugs of soap around with us because of the convenience of fluff and fold).
Although we splurged on laundry, we saved on check-in/-out. Instead of the $US100 we doled out to the
port captain and agents last December, we paid only $US9 this time around, and that was for the
use of the dinghy dock at Club Nautico. We made up for the savings at Mazatlan's supermercados.
After three short days of washing and shopping,
we aimed SolMate's pointy end NW towards Isla San Francisco, hoping the southerly winds would hold
for our two-day crossing to Baja.
A closer look at our Baja route.
Ah, the Sea of Cortez. What a treat to be cruising in waters with no ocean swell, no dinghy crash landings, and plenty of anchorages within just a few miles of each other. After a few days of play in Isla San Francisco, we began hop-scotching up the coast, stopping here and there, San Evaristo, Punta Prieta, Aqua Verde, Isla Monserat and Puerto Escondido.
San Evaristo anchorage and village.
Between the Rock and a Hard Place
Our three-hour jaunt from Punta Prieta to Aqua Verde produced a few anxious moments.
All three of our cruising guides, Margo Wood's "Charlie's Charts,"
Gerry Cunningham's "Cruising Guide...Sea of Cortez," and Jack Williams' "Baja Boater's Guide"
cautioned about Roca Marcial and its reefs. They recommended giving the rock a wide berth
by either skirting to the
north around it, or, according to two of the guides, by splitting the difference between the rock
and the point, Punta Marcial. The third guide said don't go there.
Besides the published guidance, another cruising boat also reported
that short-cutting inside the reefs was do-able. They stuck to the
50-foot contour line and passed between the two reefs, no problema.
The guides did say that the inside route shouldn't be attempted in unsettled weather.
Our weather couldn't have been any more settled. It was glass-flat calm, but that didn't
help us with our navigating.
Lulled into a sense of security by warm, bright sun and calm seas full of dolphins entertaining
us with a half-hour bow-surfing interlude, Stan and I felt confident that we could
negotiate the split between reefs. It didn't look that difficult on paper.
Unfortunately, those
craggy points jutting out into the water weren't named in real life like they were in the books,
and they all looked the same. What's more, the
underwater reefs weren't flagged out there in the open water like they were in the books, either.
As we neared Roca Marcial, we couldn't really distinguish which point we
were supposed to be watching out for, one point looked just like the next, and from the odd angle
from which we approached, nothing looked like the pictures in the books. We must have
continued north just a little too far. Instead of finding a 50-foot line to follow west between
the reefs, our depth
sounder kept displaying smaller numbers, it was getting lots shallower. I slowed down to a
crawl as the bottom rose to meet us.
Stan stood on the bow squinting into the murky water, but seeing nothing. He did notice a couple of pop bottles
floating over the reef, one clear and one red; they may have marked dangerous spots, but, again,
they weren't labeled for us, so how could we tell? We curled our toes, held our
breath, and squeaked over the reef with a least depth of 12 feet, a far cry from the 50 feet we
were expecting.
Conclusion: when the guides mention two possible routes,
we'll stick with the plan that's equipped with a bail-out option, no more short-cutting through reefs for SolMate.
