We’ve been sinners. We committed the most cardinal of the cruiser sins: we made plans to meet people, both in a specific place, and at a specific time. Back before we left San Francisco and officially became cruisers, we made plans to meet a group of our friends around Christmas and New Year’s, in Mexico. We tried to guess where we’d be at the time, but there’s no way we could have known what was in store for us on this journey. Living and traveling by sea is so dependent on local weather and unforeseen circumstances.
We committed to be with our friends in Bahía Concepción in January with our boat anchored off our AirBnB on Playa del Coyote, but as Mike Tyson would have warned us, we got punched in face1. Due to the weather at the time, we couldn’t sail the seventy five upwind nautical miles and ended up arriving by car at the beautiful house we rented on the beach. It was a lovely visit but it was also much cooler than we expected due to the northers that blow frequently that time of year. Despite all the cruising guides, we never really understood the weather on the Sea of Cortez until we started living there.
We finally arrived by boat! We were only about three months behind schedule but it was well worth the wait!
The water and air were mostly calm and warm except for one wind storm that was forecast to hit at the end of our time there, the northers blowing less often in April. Bahía Concepción is over 20 miles long and varies in width from two to five miles, but there are many shallow areas to avoid. The tidal changes are very large in the bay and up in the northern part of the sea, so we stayed aware of the depths as we anchored.
Concepción is a very popular destination for travelers to Baja California Sur, and most rarely go further given its exquisite beauty. There are many pristine beaches to visit for swims and snorkels, not all of them accessible by land. We first dropped anchor in Playa Santispac, where a couple of restaurants serve a long parking lot where vans and RVs can pay to park. It’s right off Highway 1. Santispac is the safest anchorage in Concepción during strong northern winds, and was an easy place for Carrie to arrange a taxi pickup into town.
The next day, we organized our own taxi into Mulegé, to drop off our laundry and do some provisioning, since we wouldn’t have access again until Santa Rosalía in a couple of weeks. Luckily, the van that took us up to Mulegé fit all eight of us with our laundry, and all the groceries we picked up in town!
After dropping off the laundry, our first stop was the Santa Rosalía Mission which, despite being closed due to recent thefts, had an overlook of the town just behind the church, which is now only open on Sundays for church services. We were also able to walk down the dry and dusty path to the low head dam in the river creating the water reservoir area — a giant oasis, lush and green with many palm trees. Such a contrast to the desert that surrounds it.
After walking around the mission, we climbed back in the van and drove down the road next to the river, homes lining its edges all the way out to the sea. Hurricane Odile in September 2014 destroyed most of the previous homes there including the road that led out to the light house, due to massive flooding, as the torrential rains substantially raised the river’s waterline. Most of the homes being built in the floodplain now are being funded by American expats. The locals we spoke to all thought it was a pretty crazy place to build a house.
Upon our return from Mulegé, we moved our boats to the next anchorage over called El Burro. We did the famous hike above it which was steep and long but so worth the effort with gorgeous views of the whole Bay. From the top we watched a pod of dolphins frolicking through the Bay. We finished our hike with lunch at Bertha’s restaurant on the beach.
The next day we moved our boats over to the anchorage next to Burro called El Coyote which is where we stayed with our friends on New Years. This time we had a view of the house from the water. We jumped off our boat for a cool swim (without a wet suit) and also sailed around in Patty and Tom’s dinghy. We enjoyed being on the water and wished our friends from SF were with us too.
During our stay in Coyote, we went searching for the natural hot springs just off the beach past the campers. The hot spring was marked on our charts, but somewhat vaguely, so we cruised around in the dinghy looking for any sign on the hot springs, eventually landing on a small ledge at the waterline, and climbing up the steep cliff faces to search among the cactus and scrub brush in various directions, before finally calling off the search and heading back to the beach. Peter climbed back down to the dinghy, and jetted over to the beach to pick up the rest of our crew, where he was met by a group of local children, who were interested in the dingy.
The kids were traveling with their families, and their vans were parked next to one another just up the beach. They had been returning to this beach for several years, and knew exactly where the springs were, enthusiastically leading us back up to the springs, and pointing out all their landmarks, and telling us about there experiences there. They seemed to enjoy themselves and it was great they had each other for exploring too. The hot springs had been claimed by the seagulls though, and since their housekeeping wasn’t up to our standards, we decided to pass on a dip.
After our time in Coyote, we enjoyed a brisk sail over to El Requeson which is the southern most anchorage in Concepción. El Requeson is an island, connected to the Baja Peninsula by a sand bar from the middle of the island, which is just barely covered by water at high tide. We had a beautiful upwind sail in 18 knots coming from the south, and Salacia took off like a race horse, with Donna at the helm enjoying how well Salacia sailed upwind. Requeson has two separate anchorages according to the charts, one at the south end and one at the north end, separated by the sandbar. We arrived first, and headed towards the southern anchorage, but the wind direction and very shallow depth forced us to reconsider, and so we changed course and anchored on the north side. Luckily the wind died off before too long, just enough to help the wind waves from the afternoon lie down, leaving us in a nice calm anchorage.
The evening, we took the dinghies to the sand bar beach for a bonfire as the tide came in, and then for yoga in the morning while the tide moved out. It was a prime spot and we spent our nights gazing up at the stars. One night we actually saw the space station whiz by.
We committed another sin by planning to meet a couple of friends in Santa Rosalía. We originally were suppose to meet them in Bahía Concepción but the weather wasn’t cooperating. We later learned there was enough protection in the Bay and because the rest of us wanted to stay longer, we decided to call them to see if we could change the timing and location again! Oh the convenience of satellite phones! It turned out it was exactly what they wanted so it worked out for all of us. Plans change all the time while sailing. We figure things out as we go!
Before a bout, Mike Tyson, when asked by a reporter, “What’s your plan?” replied “Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the face.”
Love reading about your adventures, Peter and Donna. Wow, I am there with you in spirit. The beaches, hot springs, and sailing look absolutely fabulous! Enjoy Jamaica, and being on land this summer too. xoxo.
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