No sooner had we left the channel and headed toward Isla Espirito Santos than a large whale breached right in front of Steve and Sheri on SV Pablo. What a spectacular site! We shared the experience over the radio and then made plans to catch them in a few days. They had decided to head around the Island a different way. We say our Hasta Luago and head toward Bonanza Bay. We were expecting to meet Intuition there. Don and Laura had promised to teach us how to play Bochy Ball. It isn’t a very long sail and soon we round the point into a beautiful white sand crescent beach. Blue water and the sun shining down it was like a deserted island miles away from all civilization.
We were greeted by a few “scout” bees looking for water. We were prepared however and made sure there wasn’t a drop of fresh water anywhere. They soon left. We headed to shore to play Bochy ball, have a beverage, and watch the sun set. Don and Laura are great company and we make dinner plans for the next day after Sam and I hike over to Bahia San Gabriel. Don has done the hike before and warned us about the cholla. “Take pliers” is the best advise anyone has ever given us.
The hike over to Bahia San Gabriel is a mostly flat hike starting in an arroyo that is difficult to find. Then the trail even harder. But it is beautiful and interesting watching the white sand turn to red and brown rock and massive number of ancient sea shells. Then comes the cholla. As you’re watching the ground for the trail and the cholla you end up stepping on a cholla. At this time you let out a yelp and a “grab the pliers”. The thorns will damn near go right through your bone. But stick with it you will soon find a trail. Or maybe it is just a hair trial. The rabbits are HUGE and black. They hop alot faster than I can grab my camera too.
Just when we are thinking we will never find the real trail we end up stumbling onto a karn and a well walked path. It just appears in the middle of no where. We have a nice walk the rest of the way continuing to watch for the cholla. We think the trail began about half way. We soon started smelling mangroves and noticing a bunch of birds flying in the sky. Knowing we were getting close we hurry up the slight crest in the trail and look out over the water. Only a few hundred yards in front of us lies Bahia San Gabriel. Known for it’s shallow water and bird refuge you are greeted with white sand and turquoise water. Birds flying, diving, and singing. Skinny long legged sea birds stand in the shallow water quietly waiting for their next meal to swim by. The further out the water takes on a deep blue color and the sun is getting lower in the sky adding a touch of magic to the air.
We enjoy, soak it in and then head back to Hiraya. Dinner with Don and Laura more story telling and more Bochy ball for the next couple days. Then the winds are changing and things are getting a little more rolly. Time to move on and we head north to El Portico or Calita East. This is a small v shaped cove that connects to Calita Partida on the West side by a small winding shallow split. It is actually the split between Espirito Santos and Isla Partida. Crazy that two islands can be so close together. We will be able to dingy or paddle board over to Steve and Sheri!
We radio Steve and Sheri and make plans for the rising tide. Then we enjoy a paddle and more fun with Don and Laura. We go out on a dinghy ride and explore the sea caves and find all sorts of neat sea life. Most interesting was this florescent orange growth at the water line in the sea caves.
When the tides and winds allowed we paddled over to visit with Steve and Sheri. Don and Laura had friends on this side as well. So we split up and enjoyed our visits. Turtles were popping up to see what we were doing and the bait fish were swimming around. We visited a little too long and the wind started to funnel through the spit. We were into the wind paddling as hard as we could and barely making progress. In time though we made it and waded our selves through the spit and then paddled back to Hiraya. We will be moving around to the west side of the island tomorrow.
We spent a night or two in Ensenada el Cardonal all by our selves. Don and Laura had made further ground and ended up a few bays ahead of us. We didn’t know it then but this would be our see ya laters untill later in the season. The nights in Cardonal were nice and quiet. We sailed one more bay down to meet Steve and Sheri one more time. We would say good bye and head back to La Paz to grab our packages that had arrived and they were staying out a few more days. We will be gone by the time they return to La Paz. So we eat, drink, and stare at the stars.