Away from La Paz

The New Year of 2017 took off in fine form, with us still enjoying all that La Paz had to offer. Unfortunately, the relatively cool and humid winter weather soon caught up with GB and gave him a cold that quickly developed into a lingering case of bronchitis. We both made sure he stayed medicated and resting but it was hard for him to resist going out and about to see the sights.

The January 8, 2017, forecast promised good weather. GB was still sick but insisted he was well enough to set sail for the islands, so we closed out our paperwork with Marina CostaBaja and slipped the mooring lines at 0730 on January 9. Morning temps were in the 70s; damp, cool, and hazy. Winds underway were a very calm 4 knots or less.

We bypassed some of the more popular anchorages and aimed for El Mezteño on the west side of Isla Espiritu Santo, about 23.5 miles from La Paz. [Upper left photo via Mexico Boating Guide. The large bay partially out of frame in the upper left corner is Caleta Partida; El Mezteño is the small cove just to the right of Caleta Partida; and the anchorage of Candelero is the wide bay just to the right of El Mezteño.]

We anchored in El Mezteño in about 21'-25' depths some distance away from another small sailboat. It soon moved on and we had the place to ourselves for snorkeling under now-clear skies with afternoon temps in the comfortable 80s. Poor GB's snorkeling was over before it began; his lungs still couldn't handle much in the way of deep breathing. He stayed aboard while I swam around.

Shortly before lunch, a party of seven 2-person sea kayaks paddled in and set up camp on the beach. (Islas Espiritu Santo and Partida are popular destinations for sea kayakers/beach campers out of La Paz, especially during the pleasant winter months.) El Mezteño and Candelero are especially popular beach-camping sites for this type of marine recreation and these folks are fun to watch from anchor.

GB was well enough if he stayed out of the water, so the next day he and I paddled our sit-on-top kayaks around El Mezteño's north point into Caleta Partida, onto the beach there, back off the beach, and back again around the point. I went seashelling alone on the beach in El Mezteño but I'd rate it about 2/10 due to (1) being thoroughly picked-over and (2) smelling like the latrine it was (heavily used by successions of large groups of kayakers/beach campers).

Conditions remained calm except for a brief puff of westerly wind at about 10 knots that came up around midnight. Otherwise the weather remained flat-calm for two days and nights. The water was so clear that even under a waxing gibbous moon we could still see the bottom. GB's bronchial distress failed to deter me from snorkeling as much as I possibly could. Results inside the cove were about 6/10, but the morning I snorkeled along the offshore portion of El Mezteño's north wall and the shallow, steep-to rocky reef at the north point, I'd classify the quality as 9/10. Out there, the water was clear to about 40' and I saw large schools of reef cornetfish, bumphead parrotfish, sergeant majors, yellowfin surgeonfish, rainbow runners, grunts, damsels, chromis, and rainbow wrasses. It was glorious....up until about 1100, when green algae came out of nowhere and began reducing visibility throughout the cove. [Photos via mexican-fish.com.]

Snorkeling was over for the time being. We contented ourselves with listening to the music made by a number of belly-flopping smooth-tailed mobulus. Well after sunset, a panga with a helmsman and two divers using hookahs and lights eased into the cove and spent about a half hour moving along the north wall. Poachers? We'll never know...

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