April 5-16, 2021

Southern Crossing 5-7 April

The Southern Crossing is also referred to as the crossing among cruisers. This trip we are heading west-northwest but first we go north. After we waited an extra 4 days for the ideal weather window, we, among 6 other boats departing in a two hour window, head out from Mazatlan Harbor to somewhere on the Baja California Sur. A seventh boat, SV Jo, departed from Chacala Bay four hours earlier and is now part of the pack. We have a two night passage ahead of us. We dropped anchor in Pichilingue at 0740.

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Ensenada de Cardanol 9-11 April

After a brief rest stop at our perennial favorite of Pinchilinque, we made our way over to Ensenada Cardonal. FYI – after stopping at Pinchilinque probably like five times, this time we actually went ashore.

Cardonal is a big, deep, vee-shaped anchorage with pretty good protection from everywhere but due west. There are some ruins of an old aquaculture farm and some mangroves on the inside end. We shared the place with Bill & Nina and even managed a short hike to the east side of the island. It was a really short hike.

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In the above photos of the beautiful environment we hiked in; photo credit of Carrie by Nina, SV Gypsy.

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The other highlight of our stop was our good friends John & Marcella, SV Beethoven, were able to spend a single night to say hello. Those guys are enroute to Hawaii and were headed to Los Cabos for a weather window. We all had a nice BYO dinner aboard Beethoven. By the time of this writing, they’re likely sitting in Ali Wai drinking Mai-Tais. We all miss them.

Ensenada Grande – 11-12 April

Well, it was still the week after Semana Santa, and maybe Spring Break in the States. You could tell because the anchorages were filled with charter boats and vacationers. You may be asking yourself – how can you tell it’s a charter boat? Usually the afternoon bass gives it away. boom-boom-chickaboom. If it’s over 80 feet in length and towing a full-on sport fisher as the dinghy = charter boat. And if they’re not yawning at 0830 PM in front of a Kindle. Your second question to yourself might be – how can you tell if they’re reading a Kindle?

Ah, well … it’s because you spy on everybody with binoculars. It’s the de facto happy hour routine, all conducted under the false pretense of anchoring safety of course. We did not spend much time here because the forecast called for the wind to blow right in the anchorage, so we headed up to San Evaristo.

San Evaristo – 12-16 April

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San Evaristo is a tiny little fishing village on the north end of Bahia La Paz, just before you go up the San Jose channel. it’s tranquil, and a great hidey-hole from the weather. Southbound, we spent two days here in 25+ knots of a norther. This time, we were able to go ashore, do a little paddling around and enjoy the place a bit more. We had a rolly first night but luckily snagged another boat’s spot the following morning. That was a mood changer. Lupe’s is a little beach restaurant that has cold beer, food, and Wi-Fi for purchase. When you picture a little beach shack selling fish tacos, Lupe’s is exactly that.

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Jay & Kelly, from SV Joy, joined us in the anchorage. They had come north from Mantachen and managed to catch up to us. This is also the spot where we decided to make a U-turn and head back to La Paz to address our transmission leak. We had the gang over for coffee and broke the rather depressing news. They all took off later that morning, and Carrie and I spent one more rather sullen night here before making our way back to La Paz.

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LA PAZ MAGOTE – April 16

We had hoped for some westerly winds so we could sail the 60 NM leg back to La Paz. Didn’t happen. I got up just before daybreak and got us going while Carrie caught a little more shuteye. It was a long, thankfully uneventful day south, to the channel, with us ending up just outside Marina de La Paz for one night. We moved into the marina the next morning and spent a week there.

Well, you did it again. You read another one of our posts. We thank you. And thank you for understanding these last few have been more photos and less text. We are having a great time enjoying the best life we can live. We have learned so much of our own selves, as a couple, and the gifts of live experiences presented to us. We are even so grateful.

We wish you only the best of life. And encourage you to take great care of yourself and others.

Chris and Carrie

currently lying in Marina Palmera, La Paz, MX