Reunion in Bahia Concepcion

After a long motor north in rolly seas, all of us a bit green except for Gma Hyer and Calder, we had a lovely final 1-hour sail into our anchorage, Bahia Santa Domingo in Bahia Concepcion.  Even my loaf of bread felt too ill to rise properly! 

Bahia Concepcion is a large, narrow bay 25 miles in length that we would be exploring over the next few nights.  The next morning, Calder and I (the early birds in our family) went to shore to explore, finding gigantic shells, a massive surprise labyrinth that we walked together, and red rock walls with quartz fissures. 

We had a stellar downwind sail in 18 knots of wind, our blue and white asymmetrical spinnaker flying full at a speed of 6-7 knots, so calm that we ate lunch on deck underway – fresh tuna poke and pineapple. 

Pulled into Playa Santispac in Bahia Coyote, where we had the surreal experience of meeting up with Chris and Kim Taylor with their boat Kaaluna.  When Chris and I lived aboard our boat in Oregon during medical school, we were in a community of other live-aboards including our dear friends Chris and Kim.  We moved to Alaska and they started a life of cruising here in Mexico.  It’s been 14 years since we’ve seen them, but we picked right back up, enjoying stories, laughter, and simply being together. 

Playa Santispac is quite a busy place, as it is directly on Hwy 1, but we benefited from two delicious dinners on the beach at Armandos (the best coconut shrimp ever) and some captivating live Mexican music.  A dinghy exploration to find hot springs on the beach was successful, the water so hot it boiled an egg, as it bubbled out of the shoreline into the ocean. 

Winds picked up and we splashed our way home, as pelicans dove down and hit the water all around us, seagulls eagerly and aggressively gobbling up the scraps.  That evening, Gpa won our family crib tourney, skunking Calder in the final game; though Cora would have the last laugh when she beat undefeated Gpa a few nights later.   

Next stop in Bahia Concepcion was Playa Santa Barbara, a more remote less populated anchorage to explore – mangroves, piles of tiny shells we gathered to make a shell garland, and a hike out to “cactus point” lookout. 

We had a fun Wallace & Gromit style dinner of crackers, cheese, meats, and wine in the cockpit with the whole crew of family and friends.  After a Buen viaje for now to our friends, we started the trip back toward Loreto to drop off Gpa and Gma, anchoring again in 13 feet of clear water in Bahia Santo Domingo, greeted by a pod of hundreds of dolphins on their way through.  To shore again, we walked the labyrinth as a family at sunset, magical. 

Coyotes yipped and howled from the shore at night.  The highlight of my day was when I commented on the lack of other boating kids up north, Calder smiled and said, “That’s fine, Cora is my best friend anyway.”  Though they have moments where they might not feel this way, this warmed my heart.

Fantastic downwind sail all day in 12-17 knots of wind, boat hit max of 7.4 knots speed….I’ll share my rambling passage notes for something different:  Up at first blush of light, the land smells overpowering those of the sea.  Do cacti have a smell?  Mingling with unexpected evergreen and dew-moistened desert.  Swells on beam initially, spilled coffee.  Round the point, wind and waves behind us, hoisted the azul y blanco asymmetrical, started moving a leisurely 3 knots.  Now winds 9 and we are making a solid 4.5!  Other boats we don’t know moving in the same direction we are, unspoken race and friendly shaming to get one’s sails up.  We watch as 2 boats also set their asym, we’ve pulled ahead by a mere quarter mile  – the race is on!  Cockpit pancakes underway, the last one a Nutella-rolled dessert pancake.  I’ve set up camp on the sunny deck with my journal and water bottle, Cora still in bed, Calder reading, Chris and Gma at the helm, Gpa monitoring fishing gear. 

Gpa and Calder caught a beautiful yellowtail together, our first one on board.  Cora cuddled with me on deck, reading aloud to me.  We were greeted with “popcorn rays” jumping all around us quickly as we anchored in Punta Mangle for the night, dinner of tuna and langusta.  A bit frustrating the next morning to have south winds for our necessary passage south, but an overall mellow motor back to a Puerto Escondido mooring ball, where we enjoyed fresh yellowtail for dinner.

“Nature we have always with us, an inexhaustible storehouse of that which moves the heart, appeals to the mind, and fires the imagination – health to the body, a stimulus to the intellect, and joy to the soul (John Burroughs).”  As we explore the nature of the Sea of Cortez, we find that nature is indeed a stimulus to the intellect.  Any beach we sit on, trail we hike, or ocean passage we make; we find ourselves with a list of questions…Why is there a band of blue in that rock wall?  What makes dolphins different from our Alaska porpoise?  Why do rays jump?  What do those clouds indicate?  Who lived in this shell?  So many questions unasked, still left to discover…