Magical Anchorages!: January 20th - 25th, 2024
Last morning in San Evaristo.
After we left San Evaristo, we also left socializing behind. We encountered two anchorages all to ourselves. This was actually kind of a treat. Normally, I like to be around people. However, for a few nights, it was special to experience these places by ourselves.
Nopolo! It was basically just around the corner from San Evaristo. But we thought, since we had time, we would take smaller sails & stop at more places than make long hauls between ports.
This place was gorgeous! There was a lot of green there. -Which I always love. I’m not exactly a desert person. I like lushness & green. And there was actually a bit of folage here.
Nopolo - the beautiful bay we had to ourselves!
Besides all the cool shells & other objects on the beach. -People seem to kayak here & camp & sometimes leave cool things & not so cool things. It’s still a beautiful place though.
There are also a few abandoned houses on the shore. It looks like they used to be pretty cool. -With a pretty cool view to match! From what we read, it used to be occupied by someone. -Or by the descendants of the person who founded the fishing village back in the 1800s. -Supposedly it is the founder’s dugout canoe that still lies just off the beach on the way up the riverbed. I have tried researching this place & haven’t been able to find anything much more.
There is a cemetery there. -Just up the riverbed. The oldest grave that we could see was from the 1880s. Pretty fascinating. So if anyone reads this & knows anything more, please get back to me.
Another fun thing about this place is that you could hear the wild burros at night braying in the distance. -Or probably right on the beach! Yes, we really want to go back!
Abandoned houses.
The famous dugout canoe.
Nopolo Cemetary
Tidepools with tiny shells that had really cool designs on them.
Well, as much as I could have probably stayed an extra day in Nopolo, it was time to move on to Los Gatos. Matt caught a tuna on the way! And if I remember correctly, we got to sail! A great day leading up to a great anchorage!
Matt catches his first tuna!
We arrived at Los Gatos in the late afternoon. We were the only ones there. It was a pretty amazing bay. There were these smooth, pinkish-red rocks that puddled the shore. It was a bay unlike any other that we had been to so far. And it was very different from any of the anchorages that we saw in the surrounding area. The Sea of Cortez never stopped surprising me at how much diversity there was in a fairly small “sea”. We loved that about it!
Bahia Los Gatos
Zephyr needed a shore run. And he is our boss. So we got on our dinghy & went to shore. Pretty cool beach! Both in the sandy areas & the rocky areas. We explored until it started getting dark & we started getting hungry. Then we zipped back to the boat to grill up the tuna that Matt caught.
Our view for a few days. Not bad!
The next morning we took a little hike inland. There is actually a road that goes to the beach. So it isn’t as isolated as it seemed but Los Gatos is definitely not a major traffic stop off of the main road.
It was so quiet. Matt pointed out that it was probably the quietest place we had encountered on our whole trip. There wasn’t much wind & once you go inland, just a tiny bit, you didn’t hear the any water movement whatsoever. Kind of eerie. But kind of nice.
When you look at these photos, what do you hear? Nothing? Neither did we when we were there. So peaceful.
That afternoon we did more red-rock hiking. We need our geologist friend, Matt Meyers, to tell us all about this area & how this amazing landscape came to be. Yes, I could look this up. But isn’t it more fun to have someone else do that work? Actually, I just don’t know if I did look it up if I could fully understand it & then relate it back to all of you better than someone in 1st grade. So let’s all wait on this & I’ll get back to you later after I discuss it with our very intelligent friend.
Stunning red rocks!
Yes, it was a little cool but just gorgeous! So I didn’t mind too much!
No fire & no filter!
After 2 nights in Los Gatos, we thought it was time to sail on to Agua Verde. We heard so many great things about it. We also heard that there was a small grocery place there with very fresh produce. We were very excited!
That excitement started to dissipate when we got there & found it fairly packed. I wouldn’t call it crowded but in order to be in a protected spot you needed to be in parts of the bay that were fairly full. We did find one last area where we thought we would be protected enough from the wind & swell & also able to anchor a proper distance from the boats around us.
That’s when our engine suddenly died! Thankfully, we were in a pretty good spot to anchor immediately. Although we did feel slightly too close to one boat. The crew seemed to be out at the time. So we just kept an eye out for them to return. -Mostly to apologize but also to let them know that we did know what we were doing but that we had to do an emergency anchor set.
Until then, Matt set about trying to figure out why our engine decided to give up on us. The engine seemed to have overheated. There was spillage of coolant in one of the bilges. Yet there was still a bunch of coolant in the coolant tank. Hmmm… Matt then checked the oil tank & we were almost completely out of oil. But we weren’t due for an oil change for quite a while. This was really odd. He couldn’t figure out where anything leaked or drained or evaporated or whatever. So crazy!!! (Just to let you all know, this was a few months ago & we still don’t know what happened!)
Anyway, when we saw that the engine was cool enough again, we tried starting it & it sounded fine. Totally fine. Did not overheat again. Huh? So weird.
We were able to re-anchor. We didn’t move much but enough so that none of us in our pocket of the bay would get nervous.
Matt & I both agree that we couldn’t have been luckier to have the engine die when it did. -Angels in the wind?
What wasn’t so lucky is that the next day the swell picked up. And then picked up some more. And then some more. We couldn’t even take the dinghy to shore to get relief because the waves were crashing on the beach. So we were stuck on our boat again. -In absolute rock & rolliness. It wasn’t as bad as Punta Abreojos. Yet, it was still pretty miserable.
So, we left the next day, not getting a chance to experience Agua Verde. We needed to leave anyway, as a storm was headed towards the area in a few days. We needed to haul-ass to Puerto Escondido! And that is where I will leave you all for this week.
Arriving in Agua Verde just in time to deal with our engine issues.
We were so lucky to have gotten to experience these little anchorage gems. I hope we can go back to both of them. Although, we know there are so many other gems out there waiting for us to discover them for ourselves. And we all only have a finite time on this earth. I mean, I still am hoping to make it to the South Pacific in the not too far future. So, we shall see what is possible to visit again. -Yes, the weather is our first boss when it comes to this. Anyway, I’m just happy that we had the opportunity even once.
I will break through any obstacle to get table scraps!
Thanks for reading! I hope all of you get to find some nook or cranny in the world. -No matter how close or far to home it is. The important thing is to be open to the opportunities that come up. I mean, what would have happened if Alice never followed the rabbit down the hole? Think about that this week!
