“An Adventure is the lack of stability, comfort, and security.”

25 October – 4 November 2021

Keeping it Light and Simple

It is a quiet start to our season.  The ease of adjusting back to our lifestyle as we return is wonderful. While my ego tells me I miss the convenience of land life, the luxurious life for two and half months; the true me says not so much. Although convenience is just that; convenient, I prefer the less stressful and simple this minimalist lifestyle presents.  

BAHIA SAN NICOLAS

October 25-26th

Bahia San Nicolas Bay is quiet.  We are the only boat here. Bahia San Nicolas is the north side of Punta Pulpito, and I think it is largely overlooked for one reason or another. We don’t mind – there’s a long beach, some road for walking and an excellent reef for snorkeling.

We did our daily walk along the beach.  A truck with locals rumbled by, stopping to offer us some free lobster they had in their cooler. “How many you want, 2, 3,  4 …?”  They wouldn’t receive cervezas or dinero at the time.  But we shared that we want to gift them in exchange.  So we set up a location for them to come back to, to pick up our gift for them.  (We forgot about taking any photos.)

Getting into Pickles and All Cattywampus

Our idea of providing the langosta-regalito exchange was easy in concept.  Executing the concept – well, … not so much. The wind had clocked around that morning, making the shoreline waves rather large during our walk.  We returned to the dingy to the motor to DG and we had to time it right.  While carefully motoring to DG, the swells are becoming larger, about a two-foot wind chop.  We got on board, grabbed our gift, and returned to the beach.  Our plan was for Carrie to stay on the dinghy, anchoring just off the beach and for Chris to wade ashore,  drop off our gift for the men in our designated location, then swim back. It was only a 20-30 yard swim with waist-deep water. This way we wouldn’t have to relaunch the dinghy from shore and do our typical Navy SEAL-type deployment.  

Carrie ran into some challenges but managed to keep the bow of the dinghy into the swells while anchored. For a little bit that is —  it didn’t take long before she got herself into what we like to call  “a little bit of a pickle”. The other word we use is “Cattywampus”.  While Chris had his back turned to the shore, burying the sodas and cookies and dinero under our agreed secret location marker, Carrie quickly found herself in a little bit of a pickle and just a bit Cattywompus. The anchor line fouled on the dinghy transom and positioned her beam-to in the wind chop. Very exciting. She leaped out of the dinghy, freed the anchor line that wrapped around the outboard prop.  Chris had now returned and the two of us got on our way.  Lesson learned here, do not anchor with large swells.

Putting the dinghy and outboard away with the boat rocking upon and down was also a lot of fun ; ). But we managed and got out of there to enjoy a nice broad reach sail down to San Juanico.

SAN JUANICO

October 26-30th

Ah, San Juanico.  See those mountains. Ah, if it was feasible, we would move here.  The climate is ideal and the terrain is eye candy for our soul.  But are not the only folks who also find San Juanico a gem.  As we sail from the north and turn west into the anchorage, we drop our sails and motor to the north lobe.  Hello! 11 other boats are anchored.  WOW!  All tucked in and ready for the forecasted northerlies of 25 knots of wind.  Hold on to your hats!

Pam and Jeff on SV Aventura announced over the VHF an invite for a two-hour morning hike.  We joined, naturally. And so did a cruising couple from SV Lunazul, who are new to Mexico.  The hike was relatively flat until the last 20 minutes.  It became technical as we carefully found our way up on loose shale.  The view was spectacular.  We forgot our photos but Pam was gracious to share her photos.

After the hike, some parted to go back to the beach start and some walked to the rancho.  The rancho is a farm that sells seasonal vegetables, fresh goat cheese, and chicken eggs.  During our visit, we learned that it is too early for goat cheese and vegetables.  And sadly the chickens are getting eaten by the nearby cougars and coatis, aka the Mexican raccoons. 

The beginning of our day – 29th Sunrise

With a Sunrise time-lapse video

Second Hike

Pelicans gracefully land on the water

What an amazing four days and three hikes.  We made new friends and discovered a new trail.  And made plans to see some old friends down the road.

DIVORCADOS COVE 

October 31st – November 2nd

From San Juanico, we stopped over for one night in Isla Coronados before sailing south to Divorcados Cove.  We believe, many years ago, a few cruisers thought it would be comical to name the cove Divorce Cove.  It happens to be located at the opposite end of the anchorage where an official named Honeymoon Cove is located. The tale is about a wife of a captain who kicked him off their boat and he spent time at the other end of the anchorage; only to provide speculation of what really happened. You know sea stories are never told the same twice.  

We are enjoying this cove again, remember how much we enjoyed this ’new to us’ anchorage last season.  With room for one boat, we had solitude with the pelicans, fish bait balls, and the singing gulls.  Also the type of snorkeling and swimming off the boat in the aquamarine waters.  And later enjoying, the 2 bars of the internet with a cool drink in our hand.

Sunset from Isla Danzante, Divorce Cove sunset at 1750 and then at 1812; what a difference 20+ makes. Good looking ‘god’ rays. This is a sample of a light dinner on Dharma Girl. Handsome photo of Chris – celebrating 30 days no drinking, Can you believe this clarity of the water?  This is referred to as gin clear.  That is Chris snorkeling and yes, you are seeing the bottom of the bay.  

Our little paradise cove quickly became bookended by the Life of the Locally Rich and Famous.  Naturally with internet access, one is curious who the other .5% is; we enjoy the info on the self-made billionaire. We didn’t want to leave you wondering, so here is the link to fill your curiosity. https://www.superyachtfan.com/yacht/hodor/

MV Hodor support vessel for MY Lorian (aka motor vessel Hodor and Motor Yacht Lorian)

PUERTO ESCONDIDO

You have read many of our past posts about our stops in Puerto Escondido.  We didn’t do much out of our ordinary but we didn’t hike any either.  We did some VERY light provisioning, visits with Gina and Kevin of SV Raven and Chad, Michelle, Teagan, Keelyn on SV Tulum V, (URL) & Jamie and Joe on SV Sherpa, 

With this marina now focusing more on motor yachts and less on cruising sailboats, the vibes are not the same with the many yacht folks here. Aside from visits with our cool cruising friend, we focused on a few boat projects of the head, the windlass, and sanding and oiling teak.  We are itching to move again. So we will head south tomorrow to one of our favorite snorkeling anchorage, Bahia San Marte.

We hope you are enjoying the ride with us.  

If you would like to contact us, you are guaranteed to reach us at svdharmagirl@myiridium.net.  This is the satellite email that allows us to receive and send an email anytime.  We check it once a day when in cell service and twice a day when away from cell service.  So send away.  Make our day.  We would enjoy hearing from you. We promise to write back!

Thank you SV Adventura for the photos from our San Juanico hike.