27. Back to Baja

We arrived in Mazatlán in the early evening after three perfect days of sailing. As we pulled into the old harbor area, we were greeted by a familiar aroma that I hadn’t smelled since working in Los Angeles: the unmistakable fragrance of a wastewater treatment plant. The anchorage is located right next to the treatment facility for the entire area. I’m not certain if most of the wastewater along the Mexican coastline is treated before being discharged to the ocean, so I also wasn’t sure if being next to a treatment plant meant the water was cleaner or dirtier than a normal city or smaller community anchorage would be.

With such an early start and a long day of sailing, Eitan and I were exhausted and anxious to get some sleep, so we settled in for the night. Mazatlán also seems to have another slightly worse underlying aroma, that to me smells like rotting fish, but Eitan insisted he could not detect it. We spent about 24 hours in the city which was enough time to get groceries and top off the diesel fuel and water. Eitan had been checking the forecast to head back across the Sea of Cortez to the Baja Peninsula, and he seemed to think now was as good a time as any. Having had a bit of an uncomfortable crossing the first time, I was quite nervous about this next leg, beyond my normal level of anxiety. Although the first trip across the sea took about three days and two nights, leaving from farther north helped cut down on the distance across the water. Eitan estimated the trip to take about two days and one night, which was welcome news to me.

We took off from Mazatlán around 7 am, just as the sun was rising. Overall, it was a nice and uneventful trip with maximum wind speeds of around 15 knots. My two night-watches were full of stars and bioluminescent dolphins. The days were lazy and I napped off and on to make up for the loss of sleep at night. The shorter trip and light winds made for a much more comfortable trip, despite some of the small swells that rolled us around.

We arrived in Baja around sunset on the second day and anchored in a bay with a small fishing village, just south of La Paz. In the morning, we woke to completely placid conditions. Although it was quite cold, I still took a swim in the clear water that we had missed since leaving Baja. We decided to celebrate by spending a couple of days north of Espiritu Santo, in the northernmost bay of Isla Partita. As we motored past the islands, the anchorages appeared much more crowded than they had been in November.

We pulled into our destination on Isla Partita and let out a sigh of relief to see the striking turquoise water. We could finally anchor in water clear enough to see the anchor on the bottom. The water was still quite cold but I enjoyed a snorkel around the bay before heading inside for some hot chocolate, as the wind started to rip through the anchorage. We spent the rest of the day sheltered inside until around 7 pm when the wind finally died down again. We then headed to shore to our own private beach to eat some leftovers and open up a couple of coconuts to enjoy while watching the sunset.

Hoping the wind would stay down until the following afternoon, we pulled out the scuba gear for a dive in the morning but woke up to very windy conditions. Unfortunately, wind predictions in the Sea of Cortez aren’t very accurate and subject to constant change. The conditions can go from dead calm to blowing hard in just a matter of minutes. Instead of diving, we took advantage of the downtime to learn how to make eggs benedict with hollandaise sauce from scratch.

As our food coma was setting in, the winds died down enough for us to throw our dive gear in the dinghy and take Francois out to a nearby scuba spot. The small island just to the north of Isla Partida, Isla Lobos, is known for diving with sea lions. I was slightly nervous, remembering the size of their teeth, but Eitan said if they get too close to bop them with the Go-Pro stick. Once we descended on the mooring line, our first sea lion approached us, trying to nip at Eitan’s fins. With poor visibility, the sea lions were about all we managed to see on that dive. Typically, they would come to check us out but quickly get bored and dart away. We did, in fact, have to bop a few on the nose for getting too close.

We stayed in the turquoise waters of Isla Partida for two nights before continuing north to Isla San Jose! Unfortunately, we didn’t take too many pictures…

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