4/30 Sunday: The wind in Puerto Escondido had been blowing for days and some boats who left yesterday had turned back and were back in the harbor waiting for a better forecast. Most of the Islands off of Loreto have good protection from the east and the south but not from the north west. After checking various forecasts we decided we might be better off leaving and going between Danzante and Carmen and staying a day or two on the backside of Carmen. We dropped our mooring at 1045 Sunday and headed for the backside of Isla Carmen in 15Kts of N wind. Anchor down at 12:45 @Punta Colorado in 20' of water and 150' of chain.
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| Punta Colorado, Isla Carmen |
Wind Rose was anchored near shore having had a good night they were off diving.
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| Wind Rose |
Note the Gigantes to the left in the picture below and the closer low land of Carmen in front and on the right. Between the two is Danzante. Its hard to see the narrow cut between Isla Danzante and Carmen until you are lined up. Don't cut between these two at night.
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| Punto Colorado, Isla Carmen |
5/1 Monday: anchor up at 10:00 and underway to Bahia Salinas only 11miles away. Great day on the beach and a very quiet night. This is the site of an old salt mine and now a Ram hunting lodge. we could only explore a part of it as it was bow and arrow season and they had guests out hunting.
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| Mystery Chairs at Bahia Salinas |
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| Al and Wally |
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| Not even half of the long the beach |
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| Pine tree on a desert salt island ? |
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| This Ram's butt was used for target practice ! |
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| These shells covered an entire wall of the old school house. |
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Ship wreck..can you spot Chez Nous
Well we looked a lot closer when we put down the hook.
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View from Chez Nous looking west to the beach and salt factory.
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5/2 Tuesday: Anchor up at 0845. Flat calm so our plan was to con't on around the west and north side of the Island to Bahia Balantra for the night unless we could get into V cove which had been recommended by Shawna as a good dive spot.
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| Painted Cliffs |
We stopped at the Painted Cliffs cove to snorkel. Not a bad place. There were lots of Damzels, Sargent Majors, and Angel fish. Just remember there is a large rock near the center of where you'd think would be the best place to anchor as one of the other boats in the cove nicely reminded us.
V Cove just didn't seem right. Very narrow for us, not protected from the northeast and we didn't think the chart was clear regarding obstructions. It was a nice afternoon cruising around the north part of the island.
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Approach to Balandra from the north end of Isla Carmen
JoLinda yells, "Stop ! No I mean Hard right !" |
More excitement than we needed!
Although we were proceeding with caution, had our radar on and I on the bow looking for the reef, we were surprised to see rocks under the water right in front of us. Al made the hard right and saved us from potentially grounding. Water is so clear its hard to say how deep the reef was at that point but it looked less than six feet to me. Who knew Chez Nous could turn that fast. Still pretty amazing we didn't get a scratch. Al reminds me of a saying, "If you haven't grounded then you're not a cruiser".
Anchor set by 1345, wind was 15Kts from the north but inside the cove it was calm. Lunch and then snorkeling on the southern entrance rocky outcropping. Gorgeous sunset.
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| Lights on the Baja from Carmen looking toward Loreto |
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