THE BASH.....Bahia de Tortugas

After rounding Cabo Falso to go north to San Diego there are very few really good anchorages on the Pacific side of the Baja. Once  past Cabo  Falso we never saw a white cap all the way to Turtle Bay aka Bahia de Tortugas. Normally on a bash I would stop at Bahia Santa Maria or Bahia Magdalena, but when it is calm you just keep going. We pulled into Bahia Tortugas and we were here for seven days waiting for a decent window to go North. 

 

Bahia de Tortugas is one of those places where you ask yourself why anybody lives there. Apparently there used to be a cannery set up upon the 19th century company town model. The workers threatened to go on strike to get paid and the owners closed the cannery . Jobs today revolve around the fishing industry.

 

 Turtle Bay is one of the few good natural harbors on the coast with almost a mile at the opening. We actually entered at night without any trouble.

 Northern point of the harbor.

 This orphan seal pup was a constant presence in town. Chuck and Jan of Wind Watcher were constantly trying to keep the pup off their boat. They sleep with the bottom hatchboard off and one night Chuck woke up and the seal had crawled into the boat and was snoring on the cabin sole. Took quite an effort to make the sleepy seal get out of the boat. The locals at the fuel dock have been feeding the seal and it will lay in your lap and sleep if you let it. I am not sure if it will make it as it is quite young to be separated from it's  mother but hopefully next Fall it will be there. I am not a big seal fan but this youngster does pull the heart strings.

North from La Paz

 The Baja reminds me of the SW United States with water. As one travels North from La Paz the scenery becomes very rugged and constantly changing as the sun makes it's transit.

 Another shot of boat with village of Agua Verde in background.

 Roca Solataire, entrance to Agua Verde.

 Passing by the anchorage of Dos Gatos.

Las Frailles to Bahia de Muertos

 Approaching the Baja Peninsula from the east, Frailles is the usual first stop for cruisers who sail from Mazatlán. If you motor you can make points further North but the best I have ever achieved just sailing is Los Frailles. Of course if you were to get a Southerly a more northerly point can be achieved. When you leave Mazatlán for Baja , early on it appears you can sil more Northerly but the four times I have made this trip as you close the coast the wind tends to blow more NW to West.

 Anchored in Frailles. The beach landing can be rough here as the Pacific swell reaches his far into the SEa of Cortez. As you go North the swell disappears.

 The beach at Los Muertos ,which is about 40 miles North of Los Frailles.

 Looking the other way on the beach.

The Gran Sueno Resort is in Los Frailles and is very friendly to cruisers. WIFI is good and the bar has a great train collection. Unfortunately those pictures of the resort are so blurry as to be useless. Cannot remember if drinking commenced before or after I started taking pictures.

traveling to Agua Verde

 I have been way too slack about the blog. Bandwidth in Mexico can be hard to achieve so now I am in Indio, California using LJ's internet. We left the boat in San Diego ,California on a mooring. The bash from Cabo took 16 days as we were stuck  in Bahia de Tortugas for 7 days waiting on a weather window. After leaving Mazatlán we traveled to the Sea to spend about a month. My favorite place was Agua Verde, which means green water. I will jump around the sea as I add to the blog so the timeline will be off but the pictures speak for themselves.

 We traveled with two other boats. On Air , Burton and Debby  and dog Zula and June and Dennis on the Shamaness. On Air is the Piver Tri.

 Local resident in Agua Verde

 Le Chat Beaute at anchor, notice the beach umbrella. Shade is a good thing in the Sea.

A crested night heron was a frequent visitor to the boat.