Some Serious Vacationing

The Whitacre family of four (Heath, Marina, Elijah, and Gabriele) arrived from our hometown of Petersburg, Alaska and we commenced some serious vacationing!  Prior to their arrival, we did piles of laundry, loads of provisioning for four teens (who never got full), and cleaned the boat inside and out.  I managed to beat Chris (again) in pickleball at Puerto Escondido, ruthless with my past tennis playing expertise. 

We had a mellow motor of 24 miles south to Aqua Verde, passing up the more populated northern anchorage in favor of the southern bight, the only boat in the tucked in turquoise blue waters which we jumped in promptly upon anchoring. 

Over to the shore for fish (and mystery meat) tacos and margaritas, before dinking back to the boat in the dark, fish leaping in front of us.  We had an uneasy moment when a panga was circling us in the dark, not responding to our greetings, concluding that we were the annoying intruders in his fishing grounds, humbled again.  The next day, we hiked through an oasis of palms, across a beach, and up a bluff to a cave with rust-red handprints on an overhang.  Our research on this site revealed discrepancies in date and origin (1,000 to 8,000 years old? Cochimi or Mayan?), but appears to be a coming of age ritual of children’s handprints.  The ink has remained intact for many years due to its red volcanic rock base. 

Back at the boat, enjoyed more swimming, paddle board balancing battles, and put Heath to work scrubbing the underwater hull. 

A sunset walk on the beach revealed numerous ocean-sculpted rock formations. 

Walking through the palm-lined dirt streets of town, we bought 4 kg of fresh tortillas (both maiz and harina) at the Tortilleria, and numerous veggies and fruit at a local tienda.  A highlight was when the lovely abuela who owned the tienda brought us out to her garden and cut us fresh cilantro and cradled tiny peppers in my palm, treasures. 

We treated the Whitacre family to new Mexican seafoods including:  yellowtail fish tacos, skipjack tuna poke, yellowfin tuna steaks, coconut Baja shrimp, smoked yellowtail, and Spanish mackerel (Mexican Sierra) tacos.  We love living off the sea here, as we did in Alaska.

Around the corner into Bahia San Marte for more swimming, paddleboard battles, and beach exploration with treasures from polished colorful cowries to delicate dried violet sea fans.  Beach time exploration results in games such as “How many dried pencil urchins can be stacked up?”

North to Isla Carmen, where we managed an hour of sailing in flukey winds, anchoring at Punta Colorado where we explored the stunning geology of the shoreline, ate piles of fresh guac, and played Farkle. 

The next night, we moved up to Bahia Salinas, where we had an impromptu tour from a local stationed there of the once-bustling abandoned salt mine, now a ghost town of work buildings, a mile-long salt pond, machinery, living quarters, a church, and a school.  The community of 200 folded up in a period of a few weeks in 1982, apparently due to the change in island status for conservation, but not entirely clear. 

We tried to move the 3 miles to a new anchorage of Punta Perico South, but found lovely sand over a hardpan of rock with no holding.  Back to Bahia Salinas we went, Calder catching a Spanish mackerel on the way which made a delicious dinner that night.

We were able to show off four of our five sails (all except our storm sail thankfully!), starting with a downwind sail using our asymmetrical spinnaker, changing out to our main and screecher when the wind direction changed, and finally our main and genoa as the wind freshened.  It’s a rare day we use all our sails and it made for an active experience for our guests. 

We snuck in a desert hike at Isla Danzante before grabbing a mooring ball back at Puerto Escondido for a few nights, exploring Loreto, playing more entertaining pickleball, re-provisioning for the next 4 weeks, filling propane/water/diesel, doing laundry, and enjoying a few meals out.