To Puerto Escondido

On May 2nd, we left San Everisto and sailed 44 miles north to Bahia Aqua Verde. It was a beautiful day of sailing along the colorful, rocky east coast of Baja. We saw few boats other than this motor yacht that passed us in the morning.


To enter Aqua Verde we needed to sail northwest through a narrow passage between Punta San Marcial and the notorious San Marcial reef. With wind from the southeast, we were running dead downwind through the passage on starboard tack. To avoid running by the lee, I favored the right (northern) side of the passage, but kept an eye on the chartplotter and the depth gauge. About half way through the passage, the depth gauge suddenly showed us running into shallow water. Guessing we were too close to the reef, Claudia and I executed an emergency jibe as the depth gauge showed less than 10 feet. We breathed a sigh of relief as we headed left into deeper water. We had nearly run aground on a shoal south of the reef.

The shoal is not shown on the Navionics charts in our chartplotter. I later noticed that the shoal is mentioned in the cruising guide Sea of Cortez by Shawn Breeding and Heather Bansmer. After our close call, I decided to pay more attention to Shawn and Heather and less to the chartplotter. Many of the electronic charts are simply reproductions of old charts, some dating back to the 19th century, that have not been updated with modern technology. Locations shown on the chartplotter can be off by a mile or more, which creates a serious margin for error when negotiating passages less than a half-mile wide. We learned that another boat ran aground on the shoal a few days later.

Here is the rocky pinnacle that marks the entrance to Bahia Agua Verde, a popular anchorage about 40 miles south of Loreto.


Although Agua Verde is beautiful, we could only stay one night. The weather forecasts called for strong "northers" the next few days. Because Bahia Agua Verde is open to the north, it was not a good spot to stay. So we headed farther north for the protection of Puerto Escondido, a remarkable natural harbor that is almost completely enclosed by land, except for a narrow entrance channel.

Getting to Puerto Escondido required another passage through a narrow channel among a group of islands known as Los Candeleros. This time I followed GPS waypoints set forth in Sea of Cortez and had no problem, although it was a bit anxiety provoking because the waypoints took us very close to a dangerous underwater rock that is marked on the Navionics charts. We sailed cautiously through and saw no sign of the rock. Score another one for Shawn and Heather. Their guidebook is essential for cruisers in this area.

We arrived a Puerto Escondido in the early afternoon. It was packed with boats that had come for an event called LoretoFest that had ended the previous day, but we managed to find a mooring ball. We saw a number of boats we know well, including Liberty and the "other" Sabbatical. We caught up with Seth, Sophie and Casey on Liberty, and then had dinner with Phil, Marylou, Kelly and Ryan on Otra Sabbatical. They filled us in on things to do in Puerto Escondido and nearby Loreto.

Here are some pictures of Puerto Escondido, which is located at the base of the Sierra Gigante mountains, just south of the city of Loreto. It is a stunningly beautiful place.