Northerlies

For the month of January, we planned to island hop our way north from La Paz to Loreto. We did it! But we were also slowed down or turned around a few times by the northerlies. This time of year it is very common for strong north winds to blow down the Sea of Cortez, and we’ve heard that this year the northerlies have been particularly strong. Early in the month, we had plans to buddy boat and scuba dive around Isla Espiritu Santo. We departed La Paz and stayed two nights at nearby anchorages, no more than 10 nautical miles away, and then chose to return to the safety of La Paz based on the forecast. So did our friends. We ended up staying a full extra week in La Paz, waiting for the weather to change. If you have to be “stuck” somewhere, La Paz with friends is excellent! Our ground tackle did its job and Surface Interval stayed put throughout the northerly. However we did see a nearby unoccupied boat drag anchor, all the way to the Navy base! Other boats moved and re-anchored out of its path, and the Navy watched its slow progression and secured it once it was within reach of one of their ships on their dock. Meanwhile, we continued to enjoy all the great restaurants and walks along the malecon, and had time to go snorkeling with whale sharks. It was quite the experience. The snorkel guide companies are very strict about the national park and whale shark protection rules and definitely adhered to them. The rules prevent more than one boat from getting close to a whale shark, and they only allow 6 people in the water at a time for a total of 30 minutes (split between each group of 6). The boat finds a whale shark, you jump off in front of it, and you get to watch it cruise by and then attempt to keep up with it while kicking your heart out with your tiny human legs and fins. We’ve never been that close to whale sharks before, or had such an intense time leaping off the boat, finning along, and jumping back in the boat as fast as possible so the next group could jump. Quite different from diving and watching a whale shark swim by in the distance.

On our second departure from La Paz, we stopped at Caleta Lobos. We had been snorkeling there before and now had time to dive around the small islet at the edge of the bay. It was a fantastic site. We saw so much coral there, plus a school of coronet fish, and a giant hawkfish. From Caleta Lobos we made our way up to Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida. Isla Partida is between Isla Espiritu Santo and Los Islotes (where we did our sea lion dive in December). During our dive in Ensenada Grande we explored lots of crevices and overhangs, and two juvenile sea lions zoomed around us for part of the dive! From there we continued north to Isla San Francisco. We anchored in a large sand-ringed bay and had time to dive and explore the island. We had a lovely dive among huge boulders on the outside of the bay. We spotted a sea turtle swimming off, and more fantastic fish. We also saw some very interesting long squiggly jellies (that is our best non-scientific description). The Sea of Cortez is very deep in many areas, over 4,200 feet deep near Isla San Francisco. The proximity of deep water allows divers to spot very interesting creatures that make their way up from the depths. We also saw a heartbreaking sight – a dead sea turtle, caught in fishing gear, about 40 feet below the surface. It was halfway through our dive and it took all the strength and focus we had to keep diving. At depth you cannot breakdown. You have to breath, and keep diving. We have a link to a picture here (https://www.svsurfaceinterval.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/DSC00015-scaled.jpg) instead of directly posting the picture because we know some people will not want to see it. We thought it was important to document and to share with you the realities of what we see. Aside from this, Isla San Francisco was still one of our favorite stops. We hiked to the top of the ridge above the bay. It was a windy day and we were hiking and bouldering over the pointy tops of the ridge, with cliffs straight down to the water below. It’s good to step outside of your comfort zone, as long as you don’t step off the edge! The views from the top were stunning and it was absolutely worth it. We also explored the salt flats and rocky beach on the west side of the island. We harvested some fresh salt from the abandoned salt pools and we’ve been enjoying it ever since.

Another northerly was forecast, so it was time to move on to a more protected anchorage. On the day we decided to move, the wind was completely calm in the morning. This gave us the opportunity to anchor off the beach on the east side of Isla San Jose at the site of a former huge salt pool mining operation. As we were dropping anchor, a pod of dolphins swam right along side us. It was awesome. On land we explored the abandoned buildings and machinery, and then set out to harvest more salt! Between the two islands, we harvested just under 10 pounds. We’ll be eating this salt for years!

We tucked in to San Evaristo to sit through the next northerly. We went ashore one day for tacos and margaritas. The other days in the bay we stayed aboard. It was rough out there and we were comfortable and safe onboard. We were there for 4 nights before the winds calmed down and we had the chance to move farther north. We were on a bit of a schedule because Kris’ sister was coming to visit and after the two northerlies slowed us down we still had about 80 nautical miles to cover in 4 days. That’s a relatively short distance for us, but we wanted to stop and dive too! There was still a large swell for our first day out after the northerly. It was large enough that at one point, we could see dolphins swimming in the wave (not breaking the surface) and they were at eye level for us. To put it another way, the waves were high enough that the dolphins were still completely underwater, but at our height. On our way north, we made stops in Puerto Los Gatos and Agua Verde. The diving and shore adventures did not disappoint. We feel like almost every dive we do we come out of the water saying how amazing it was, and that it was the best so far. Outside the bay in Puerto Los Gatos we enjoyed beautiful ledges and swim-throughs amid many fish, a few electric bullseye rays, spiny lobster, scorpionfish, and a large variety of fan corals. We also encountered a curious bullseye pufferfish. It swam back and forth in front of us for a while, and we all just checked each other out. After a few minutes of enjoying its company, we decided to swim along and our new friend followed us for a while! So cool. At the surface in Puerto Los Gatos we enjoyed the red rocks and watched a flock of blue-footed boobies hunting in unison.

In Agua Verde we squeezed in two dives, one along a rock wall, and one around a pinnacle island (Roca Solitaria) at the mouth of the bay. The pinnacle was amazing. We had a nice deep dive down to 85 feet. The visibility was fantastic and we could look up and down the wall to see the amazing sea stars, fish, and corals, plus we came across a beautiful jewel eel. The wall dive was more shallow, and we could only get down to 40 feet. We saw multiple large schools of fish, a few round Cortez stingrays which we had only seen a few other times, plus a few more bullseye puffers.

On our way north again, the weather cooperated for a short midday stopover en route to our evening anchorage. We stopped in Bahia San Cosme to visit the natural hot springs on the beach. We were the only people there and were able to anchor in about 20 feet of water, protected by a hill, and dinghy in to the beach. We sat in the nice warm pool and soaked in the views. We had lunch back on the boat and continued north to our last stop before Kris’ sister, Kathrin, joined us. We picked up Kathrin in our dinghy the following day and sailed off to Bahia Balandra on Isla Carmen. Conditions were great for an upwind sail without too much swell. The only reason we dropped the sails about 6 nautical miles away from the anchorage was because we wanted to drop anchor before sunset and we had run out of time to continue tacking upwind. We went on a classic hike the next day – meaning we didn’t really find the trail for a while and instead made our own way through the river bed and mountainsides. We also relaxed on the beach and Mark found his biggest and most impressive haul of sea glass yet! From there, we had an excellent downwind sail back south to Isla Danzante. We went fishing along the way, but none of the fish were interested in the new cedar plug lure we bought in La Paz. Once we anchored, we explored the trails (that we easily found) and took in some spectacular views. Kathrin was a great crew member throughout, helping to drop the anchor and raise sails, and lending a hand in the galley.

We pulled into the marina in Puerto Escondido for Kathrin’s last night, to be near the airport and to position ourselves for hauling out for some boat work here. We explored the nearby town of Loreto for the afternoon as a send-off for Kathrin, and we’re looking forward to seeing more of it while our boat is in the yard.

Next Stops: Haul out in Puerto Escondido (in preparation of crossing the Pacific Ocean in April) and staying on land in Loreto