After a late night move to anchor in the much calmer Don Juan cove, we woke up to serene conditions once again. While we were excited to see the anchor lights of a couple boats in the anchorage when we arrived in the middle of the night, we were disappointed to wake up to an empty bay. We hadn’t talked to any other boats since Santa Rosalia and were desperate for some social interaction and looking forward to connecting with cruisers that had been here for the season. Our friends on SV Sauce Sea hauled out the same week we splashed our boat and had given us the names of a couple young cruising boats, SV Bula and SV Indy, to be on the lookout for in the area.
With such serene conditions, I launched the paddle board and went for a stroll around the empty bay. As I entered one of the coves, I saw some strange white shapes just below the surface. Upon further inspection I realized they were severed hammerhead shark heads, about a dozen of them, each around 1 foot in width. The thought of someone poaching these creatures made me sick, but to the local fisherman they were just eliminating the competition for fish. Bahia de Los Angeles is famous for its sport fishing, which is the primary tourism industry there. During our time there, we heard stories of overfishing and poaching causing imbalances in the ecosystem and overpopulation in some species. We also heard stories of the horrible fishing practices, destroying entire reefs and populations of fish just to make a few pesos. Much to my dad’s disappointment, we didn’t do much fishing during our time here, in part, to not stress the ecosystem even further. But also because catching and filleting fish is a pain when you can get fresh pre-cut fillets from our cruising buddies or trade a local fisherman for some beer.
We left Don Juan for the main anchorage near the town of Bahia de Los Angeles. There were about a half dozen boats in the anchorage and we were excited to be a part of the cruising scene once again. After getting wifi at one of the local restaurants, we stopped by a couple of the other boats to meet the neighbors. We spotted SV Bula and made plans to come over for drinks with them a little later. Brett and Dilana are an Australian and Costa Rican couple who met working in the oil and gas industry and had been in the Sea of Cortez a couple of years already. They also have plans of crossing the pacific, but with Brett’s Australian citizenship they don’t face the same immigration challenges that Eitan and I have. We shared stories and found that we have a lot of cruising friends in common. It’s a small world up here in the SOC, especially for the young cruisers.
While on SV Bula we asked about the best places to see whale sharks in the area. They mentioned that just a week prior, there was a full moon party for the cruisers in an anchorage called La Gringa and there were about 8 whale sharks there! Although the whale shark season is from July through September, it seemed we weren’t too late to catch them before their southern migration. However, I was cautiously optimistic because we had heard stories that the whale shark populations were down this year and pangas weren’t even taking tourists out to see them because they were so unpredictable.
The next morning, Eitan and I pulled anchor and headed north toward La Gringa, about an hour away. Despite having no wind in the main town anchorage, we were surprised to find 25 knots on the bow for our trip north, making for a wet ride. Eitan called on the radio to any boats currently in La Gringa and were answered by SV Indy, the other boat SV Sauce Sea recommended we connect with. They said they were leaving La Gringa since it had been a bit windy and swelly. They also hadn’t seen any whale sharks, but hadn’t been looking for them either. Although I had my heart set on staying in La Gringa until we saw whale sharks, beating upwind and being in an uncomfortable anchorage didn’t seem too appealing. So, we turned around and decided to join SV Indy at a different anchorage to the south called Pescador.
