The Baja side of the Sea of Cortez is the place that time forgot.  The terrain looks like the Grand Canyon filled up with salt water that you get to sail your boat through.  From what I understand, there are also people who kayak the part of the Sea north of La Paz to Loreto.  I can see why, the coast line is littered with sandy beaches and warm, clear water. The word on the street is that there are also Great White sharks hanging out in the Sea, but you will have to tune into Expedition Great White on National Geographic to find out for yourself.  As we crossed over to the mainland this last time we could hear some chatter on the VHF from a National Geographic research boat out in the middle.  It was the dead of night and they were concerned about someone crashing into them.  I made sure it was not us and resumed my position of being huddled in the corner of the cockpit.  The sail–we did actually get to sail–was pretty gross.  We had sustained 20 knot winds and the waves were coming from a pukey direction.  However, I was given some ginger by this wonderful woman Cathy in San Evaristo and it was magic! The ginger helped the seasickness, but not the anxiety of knowing that if I fell overboard I would be eaten by a great white shark.

Anyway, back to the Baja. After leaving La Paz, we anchored at 11 different places and met as many or more interesting people. There are the people that live in the Baja and then there are the people on sailboats. The first group looks like this:

And the second group looks like this:

However, if the  beautiful Quincey family on s/v Orca keep at this sailing thing for 30 more years, they will turn into the Toby, Toby and Toby.  That is the risk you run with this lifestyle.  Jeff dreams of becoming “The Dude”; I would prefer he buys a guitar and dreams of becoming the next Jack Johnson.

Highlights from the Baja in chronological order:

San Evaristo: Meeting Cathy and Grant Cooper and giving the kids that live in this fishing village a bunch of crayons and a soccer ball.  It was like Christmas morning!

Agua Verde:  This is where the rumor of the Whale Sharks began.  I don’t know how many times we heard–”He will come right up to your dinghy!” “You could almost ride him!”  We never saw him.

Puerto Escondido:  Caught up to the boys on Gato Go and met the crews on Orca, Black Dragon and once again heard about a whale shark that “Was just seen yesterday splashing around the anchorage!”  We were there for three days and never saw it.  However, when we were leaving the anchorage, someone called over the VHF to say that he was spotted right where we had been anchored.

Puerto Ballandra: Not much here–not even the rumor of a whale shark.

Caleta De San Juanico: Killer bees. Which make for a disturbing alarm clock.

Bahia Coyote: We rolled in here, did a drive through the popular anchorage at Coyote, thought there were too many boats and went over to Playa Burro.  As we were traveling the one mile between these anchorages someone calls us on the VHF:
“Hello sailing vessel Oblivion! We were just watching the whale shark in the anchorage and my granddaughter saw the Santa Clause on your bow. She was wondering if it was Christmas.”

Me: “You saw a whale shark?”

Them: “Yes, it was right in front of your boat.”

Me: “Sorry little girl, there is no Santa Clause.”

In Burro/Coyote we met Sapphire, Fjordmos, Patrick and Geary.  We hung out here for a few days with all of the fantastic people that we had just met.  We spent out 6th wedding anniversary aboard Gato Go eating banana cream pie and listening to Alex play the guitar. The next morning we set off for Santa Rosalia.

The history of Santa Rosalia is pretty amazing.  It was a hub of copper mining in the late 1800’s.  A. G. Effiel designed a church that was built in France and then shipped in parts over to this tiny little town in 1898. The town looks like something out of an old western. The copper ran out a long time ago, but most of the structures are still there.  We were there on a Sunday while there was mass going on at the church.  I would have gone Aunt Rose, but it was standing room only.

The next evening we left for San Carlos and ended up in Guaymas.  It is a little stinky here as a result of the shrimping, but it is better than being in San Carlos–a place once described to us as “soul sucking”.  We went there yesterday and if the Baja is the place time forgot, San Carlos is a place that you want to forget.

Nancy