Isla San Francisco and San Everisto

On April 30, we left Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida and sailed 20 miles north to Isla San Francisco, a tiny islet with two famously beautiful anchorages. We anchored on the northeast side to get protection from the strong nightly coromuel winds that blow from the southwest. After a rough night at Ensenada Grande, we wanted a calm anchorage.

The island has some spectacular hiking trails along the ridge that separates the two bays. Here is a picture of Sabbatical at anchor with another boat (Anon) in the northeast anchorage.

Here is Claudia scrambling up the hiking trail.

And here is a shot of a panga entering the southwest anchorage, which is known as "the hook."

The Hook has a beautiful crescent beach where we met a group of Mexican kayakers consisting of six brothers from Cuernavaca and their friends. They had kayaked from San Everisto, on the Baja peninsula and were contemplating crossing to Isla Partida, before continuing south to La Paz. We exchanged weather information and heard some very funny stories about obtuse gringo boaters.

After a pleasant night at this pretty island, we set sail for San Everisto. We motored through a narrow passage north of the island between two dangerous reefs, then fought strong head winds into San Everisto, a well-protected anchorage where there is a small fishing village.

Here is what the reef looked like.




And here is the village of San Everisto.



Although Everisto is pretty, we decided not to stay. We want to get north, and according to weather reports, we have about one more day of westerlies before we will be hit by a strong northerly wind. So we will head north tomorrow.