Santa Rosalia – July 4 – 13, 2012

We love Santa Rosalia, next to La Paz, this is our favorite Mexican town. After a quick stop at Sweet Pea Cove we came across the channel to the Marina in Santa Rosalia.

The town has French architecture and a church designed by Gustave Eiffel. The French company El Boleo founded the town in 1884 and ran the copper mine until it closed in 1954. Recently, a Canadian company has reopened the mine and the town is booming.

Laundry Hanging all over the boat

The Marina is short on money so there is no toilet paper in the bathrooms and no propane for the hot water or the clothes dryers. I can use the washers, but have to hang the laundry out to dry.

The town celebrated their 127^th anniversary with a Mariachi concert in the square. 

Mariachi Band

We’ve been enjoying fish tacos for breakfast almost daily. Tonight we’ll have Chinese food.

Derrick, Rick, Bob, Pam, Sherri and Kim having Fish Tacos

Rick will take the bus to Loreto tomorrow and pick up the rental car. We leave Friday to drive north to the bay area for a visit. We’ll be back around the middle of August to head further north into the Sea of Cortez.

Santa Rosalia - July 8, 2012

We are in Santa Rosalia marina enjoying the air conditioning, restaurants and internet.

Concepcion Bay – June 30 – July 4, 2012

Saturday morning, we left La Ramada early for an 8 hour, 50 mile trip north to the Bay of Concepcion. The plan was to stop at Santo Domingo, but it was windy so we crossed over to Santispac. We anchored close in and went to shore for dinner and margarita’s at Ana’s Restaurant. It was a very hot night with no breeze. I guess we better get used to this, as it will be hot in the northern sea.

Sunday, we moved further into the bay, all the way to Bahia Coyote. Since it was Sunday the beach was packed with families from Mulege swimming and partying with loud music. Several young people swam out to the boat. We weren’t sure what they wanted because our Spanish isn’t very good. We will have to work on that. By 10 o’clock that night, the beach was empty.

We put up the sun shades on the boat and it started to rain. We haven’t seen rain in a long time, but it did cool things down a bit.

Rick Adjusting the Sun Shades

Bahia Coyote

On the 3^rd, we went to Estrallias for drinks and dinner. We left early the next morning heading for Punta Chivato with Derrick and Tricia on ‘Interabang’.

La Ramada – June 25 – 29, 2012

This is a great little spot. There are 4 other boats in here when we arrive. The clamming is easy and the fishermen sell us lobster, so there is food on the table. We have been spending our time snorkeling and playing cards with ‘Interabang’.

Rick with Our Dinner!!

The anchorage is filling up. There are now 12 boats here and Pitt on ‘KharmaSea’ arrived with a ripped spinnaker. What a mess. After he had a little help getting it down, he volunteered to do a fire show on the beach after the pot luck. All the cruisers in the anchorage showed up and we had an amazing pot luck. The fire show was spectacular with Pitt spinning the fire balls and swallowing fire sticks. At the end he spit huge fire balls into the air. Following the show, we saw the Space Station fly overhead. It was a wonderful night.

Pot Luck on the Beach

The Fire Show

Pitt Swallowing the Fire

San Juanico – June 24-25, 2012

Heading north to San Juanico, we had big swells from the east. We went into the south anchorage behind some large rocks. We rolled most of the night.

The Small North Anchorage

In the morning, we headed across the bay to the northern anchorage with ‘Interabang’. We tucked in to the small anchorage in front of the Cruiser’s Shrine on the beach. This is a nice little protected spot. There is one power boat in here, but plenty of room for both of us. It is flat calm here. We went to shore to check out the Cruiser’s Shrine and saw many of our friends momentos. After talking to ‘Interabang’, we decided to go around the corner to La Ramada for better protection.

Isla Coronados – June 23-24, 2012

The Dark Clouds in the Evening

A quick stop for the night. We had dark clouds that evening and it looked like it was raining north of us as we left the anchorage the next morning.

A Bit of Rain in The Morning

Loreto – June 23, 2012

We are making one more trip (maybe) into Loreto with ‘True Companion’ before they head south to put their boat away in Escondido. They are heading back to Australia for the winter. A stop at El Rey Tacos, the liquor store for beer and on to Posada de Las Flores Hotel for Margarita’s to say good bye.

Rick Trying to ignore a Time Share Person??

Gravel and Natalie, We'll Miss You Guys

Rick and Pam

Ballandra, Isla Carmen – June 20 – 23, 2012

There is great protection from all sides in Ballandra, a good place to be if the winds are blowing. Us and  ‘True Companion’ entered the bay and found quite a few boats including ‘Interabang’. We all played ‘31’ on ‘True Companion’ and then had a swim party.

Huge Ball of Fish

There is a huge ball of fish that hang out under the boat. The fish are about a foot long. When you swim into it they shoot off in different directions. I tried to get a picture of them.

‘Interabang’ was having problems with their windlass so Rick helped them out by contacting a guy in Loreto who could fix it. He rode over to Loreto with them to drop it off. They went back the next day to pick it up. It works great now.

'Interabang'

La Lancha, Isla Carmen – June 18 – 20, 2012

Sunrise

The winds were coming from the south, so we went to the north side of Isla Carmen to a bay called La Lancha. ‘True Companion’ was already there. This bay is tucked far in and it was hard to find. It is called La Lancha because the workers from Salinas salt mines would use it as a boat lanch when the winds were too strong from the south.

The Beach at La Lancha

Natalie, Pam and gizmo

We spent a couple of nights here snorkeling and playing cards with Nat and Gravel, before we headed around the corner to Ballandra.

Loreto – June 17 – 18, 2012

The Best Tacos in Loreto!

Sunday morning was calm so we headed back over to Loreto with ‘True Companion’ to meet up with ‘Just a Minute’. We all went for tacos at El Rey, our favorite taco place in Loreto. A few other cruisers were already there so, we filled the place up.






From there we hit a few stores for supplies and boat parts. Rick needed a cotter pin. He had a fun time explaining to the guy at the hardware store, but he did have just what he needed. On the way back to the boat in the dinghy, we ran out of gas. ‘Just a Minute’ saved us one last time with a tow, before they left to go south. We will miss them, but we will see them again sometime!

Rick Describing the Part He Needs

On our way over to Isla Carmen we came close to hitting a whale. It was about 50 feet in front of the boat. I saw it and told Rick to throttle back. We saw it again as we passed it. That’s as close as we’ve come to whale so far.

The Whale We Almost Hit