Getting To The Top: February 26th - March 2nd, 2024
Sunrise in Puerto Refugio
Wanting to leave Bahia de Los Angeles & move to a place that we thought would be better protected from the west, we motored up to Isla Coronado. It was beautiful & we had the place to ourselves!
It seemed pretty damn protected. Except from the northwest. -Which is where the winds decided to come from instead of strictly west. I guess we had been getting pretty lucky with the weather predictions & didn’t think that it would be very much off, if at all. Wrong! What started as a nice evening, turned into 40 knot gusts! -More from the north than the west. -Right into the little opening in the bay. The winds came just in time for us to get some sleep. Ha! I don’t think either one of us got sleep. We feel fairly secure with our anchor, but you just never know. I think the howling of the wind makes it even more scary. The funny thing was that I kept looking at the new weather prediction to see when the winds should start to die down. Yeah, well, maybe it could be somewhat accurate?
It actually was fairly accurate & the winds almost completely died mid-morning. I think around 9 or 10. I gladly went back to the v-berth for some sleep & then worked on the blog & some video. Matt, being the superman that he is, didn’t need sleep & did boat projects & went out fishing & came back with a score of 3 or 4 fish!
I really do hope we can return & stay for a night or 2 in a little bit better weather. Okay, a lot better weather! It beckoned for a little more exploring to do.
Scenes from Isla Coronado West
Setting off for Puerto Refugio, we almost sailed the whole way! -With both the main & genoa up. Got up to 7 knots! Unfortunately, Harriet didn’t work & I hand steered all day, while Matt took care of the sails. We went through a pretty gust squall. Nothing we couldn’t handle. But Matt did have to take in the genoa so that we wouldn’t be overpowered. It was awesome though! We always are stoked when we can be powered by the wind instead of the motor.
As we got close to Puerto Refugio, the waves became confused & turned into a washing machine. Nothing to huge but just really hard to steer in. There were a lot of reefs & shallows so we had to be on high alert & I had to maneuver MerSea just right. Thankfully, Matt could be near the bow to let me know which way I needed to go to not hit something.
After anchoring, we met Mary & Richard from Que Sera. I love that name! They kayaked over & we talked for a while. They have been sailing full-time for 30 years! And have been in the Sea of Cortez for 10. Very cool! They were on their way to haul out in Puerto Penasco. -Where we did end up seeing them later on. Hopefully, we can connect again with them in the autumn if they are still there.
Making our way to & anchoring in Puerto Refugio
Puerto Refugio is gorgeous & looks like there is so much to explore. However, the weather was not going to be conducive to us anchoring there by the end of the day. It was a bummer that we had to move on. Furthermore, since we were going to stop in San Felipe, we needed to get back to the east coast of Baja once again.
It took us all day to get to Willard Bay. Therefore the sun was setting & we were basically there in time to eat dinner & go to bed to get up early the next morning. Matt did catch a fish on the way! So we had a nice dinner that night!
I can’t tell you much about Willard. It looked okay. Kind of on the shallow side. And that is pretty much my impression of it.
Moving on to Willard Bay & then Puertocitos
Puertocitos took us a while to get to. We did see whales on the way, so we slowed down & Matt caught another fish! -In which we slowed down for. A mackerel!
There wasn’t much space to anchor in Puertocitos. I don’t think more than 3 boats could anchor there at a time. The tidal range was over 10 feet & the bottom was on the steeper side & changed rather quickly. It also wasn’t as protected as it looked on the chart.
Matt went to shore. He wasn’t too impressed. The store did have a few provisions though. So, that was nice. And that’s all we feel we can say about that bay. Yeah…
Puertocitos
And that is it for the anchorages on this voyage! Only marinas left. I really miss anchoring though. -Probably because it’s been a while & we’ve been on land for what seems forever & I’m always craving change. It’s cool though to think we’ll be back in Puerto Refugio this autumn! -Hopefully, for a much longer stay! -But, as always, the weather has the final say of what will be.
He would rather be left alone to bark at birdies but he’s too irresistible!
Thanks for reading! Only a couple of more stops & then we are back across the border! Don’t worry, the shenanigans continue. Wishing all of you a fun 4th of July! -Whether you are in the US or not. -There’s no reason not to celebrate!
