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Mazatlan to Puerto Escondido: Friends, Whale Sharks, Big Horn Sheep, Spinner Dolphins, and Deserted Beaches

We started out from Mazatlan on the mainland
(far right) on April 14th and arrived on Baja just
south of Isla Cerralvo at Ensenada de los Muertos
on April 15th. It was a fairly comfortable passage.

We crossed paths with this tanker who came very close to us -
see the GPS photo below. We had the right of way, and he
turned to go behind us, but if I had been at the helm I would have
changed our course. It's probably good I am NOT the captain:)


Gorgeous sunrise on the way across

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When Tom and Claudette left us in Mazatlan they flew to La Paz to get on Mike and Kathy’s (mutual friends) boat “Running Horse”.  We left Mazatlan a little later than we planned due to dentist appointments and weather so it took us five days to catch up with Running Horse.
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We did an overnight passage from Mazaltan across the Sea of Cortez to Ensenada de Los Muertos just south of the Cerralvo Channel and La Paz , spent the night and headed to Playa Bonanza on Isla Espiritu Santos where we met some good friends for a late lunch and spent the next night. The following three days were spent getting to Puerto Los Gatos, Agua Verde and then Punta Colorada on the SE side of Isla Carmen (See chart below) on April 19th where we finally connected with Running Horse.  We played and partied for four days with the RH crew, plus other friends and ended up saying goodbye from Bahia Candeleros.

A gathering of Bainbridge/Poulsbo boats:
s/v Running Horse (hosting) with Kathy and Mike and Tom
and Claudette, s/v Carmanah with John and Donna,
and s/v Loomba-Loomba
Then next night we added the m/v Pacific crew -Steve
When Running Horse left to go back to La Paz we stayed in Candeleros
another day and were thrilled to encounter this whale shark near
the boat. We got in the dinghy to get a closer look and he swam
right under us! They are very gentle creatures and they
feed on plankton.



                                          
From Candeleros we went to Puerto Escondido for several days, rented a car with some friends to go into Loreto for some provisioning and lunch, washed the boat, did laundry, filled up with fuel, took care of business while we had wifi, saw friends, and rested up from our marathon journey and partying.  We spent about a month hanging around the Loreto area – mostly on Isla Carmen.
 
Spinner dolphins swimming with us off of Isla Carmen
We circumnavigated counter-clockwise
around Isla Carmen: Most of the time we had the anchorages to ourselves.
We spotted these big horn sheep on the beach in Bahia Cobre
young sheep actually wading in the water.....

while mom and dad stood watch

While all this was going on in at the beach another group was
walking across the ridge above us
We moved to the Painted Cliffs anchorage that
evening after Steve on Pacific said it was his favorite.
Great evening on Pacific that night, Steve left the next morning.
We ended up staying four more nights and loving it!
Sunrise at Painted Cliffs - view from the cockpit

The water was clear and warm

We caught a couple of triggerfish and
made ceviche



The weather eventually turned a little snarly so we headed
 around the north end of Carmen to Isla Coronados, 
dropped the anchor, had lunch and pretty soon the
predicted northwest wind became southeast.
We opted for a lively sail to Puerto Escondido and
a good night's sleep.

Sailing back to Puerto Escondido
Puerto Escondido has seen many changes just 
since last year with new ownership. We're
hoping they can make a go of it:
The staff is great - very helpful and efficient.
The landscaping has been re-done and looks great.
There are new docks in the canals and a house is
actually being built.
The mooring buoys have all been re-done.
They are putting in a new store and in the
mean time they have a free shuttle to the little
store in Ligui about five miles from PE.



The Ligui Tienda has a surprisingly diverse inventory from
produce to spark plugs.
The new tienda in Puerto Escondido should be
open in about a week.


We are leaving Puerto Escondido today to head north
to Isla Coronados and then San Juanico before 
heading back to the mainland and San Carlos to
haul out for the summer.
Haul out date is June 6.




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