Punta Abreojos

So we left Bahia Tortuga as the sun was coming up. We had 110 Nm to get cover, but the plan was to make the first jump of 50 nm to Bahia Asuncion during the day.

It was a great sail, the wind was behind us and we made great time. By 2 in the afternoon the wind had started to build but we kept full sails up.

By 3:30 we were rounding the corner of Isla Asuncion, a little overpowered but we were able to reduce sail in the lee of the island and beam reach into the village area. It is just a small town, and we only wanted to spend a few hours here before heading out again. So after a little food we relaxed and napped.

We got underway around 9 pm. We still had the northerly so we were quickly across the bay and back out into safe water. The rest of the night was an easy downwind sail, and we were both able to get some sleep.

As the sun rose we were just 12 miles from anchoring, we had just started seeing a few pangas motoring around. They were out checking there lobster traps. The cruising guides say that you should stay well clear of the point, that there are many uncharted rocks and to expect crab traps. Abreojos actually translates to "open your eyes." This was part of the reason we decided to stop in Asuncion. The 110 nm distance we had just covered is hard to plan and we want to make sure we were arriving in the light.

So once we had a good line to head in I turned onto a beam reach, there were still lobster traps to look out for but a little time for some fishing as well. As Ashley started to wake up and move about the boat, I yell down "We have a fish!"

Completely unprepared, she races out and we get a nice Skipjack Tuna on board. I wasn't much help, I was trying to dodge Lobster traps. Ashley had the fish cut up really quickly and all without her coffee.

So we were anchored in Punta Abreojos with fresh tuna tacos for breakfast. It was still quite windy but the bay had good protection from the waves. There were a few other cruising boat that we recognised from Bahia Tortuga, and by the time we left probably the most we had been anchored with the whole trip.

We went ashore in the afternoon, and the town immediately stood out as different. We pulled the dinghy ashore at the end of a long line of pangas. This was clearly an active fishing town. One of them drove down the beach to ask us if we needed anything and we did our best to tell him we were just going to walk about. Once we were off the beach and onto the malecon, we couldn't believe how clean the town was, it was a pleasant contrast to Bahia Tortuga and Ensenada.

We new the town was only a few streets deep, and we saw the people from the trimaran. They said they had just been for a walk to the outer beach to check out the surf and were going to look into doing the whale watching tour in the next few days.

We only spent a short time on shore, we found the cafe which had wifi and a store, but we decided we would explore a little more tomorrow and go and just relax on the boat.

Abreojos was one of our favorite towns. The town is clean and the people were super friendly and helpful.

The town exists because the fishing co-op which protects and manages their abalone and lobster fishery. The Co-op was started in the 1940s by 2 families and although they have had some tough times, they now export abalone, lobster, tuna and over 16 other species which are rotationally caught. The people of the town are very proud of this as many areas of Mexico suffer from overfishing.

They also had a few dolphins that would frequent the bay and come up to the fisherman when they were cleaning their catch. Several time they would ride under our dinghy on the way to shore. One day when we were visiting Surfer John I got to pat one.

The trip to the whale park was amazing, the rest of the time in Abreojos was spent working and exploring the tidal pools. As we said, the fisherman we very proud of their fishery and town. They invited us to their end of season lobster party. Apart from the all you can eat lobster and steak we thought it would be worth hanging out an extra day to check out. Most of the other cruising boats thought so as well.

The party started at 4pm and food was served for the next few hours, there were buckets of beer being served and everyone was having a great time. They had a band playing, and towards the end of the night, maybe after a few cans of courage a few of the older fisherman decided to practice their English on us. They introduced themselves and we chatted about the town and again how proud they were of it.

It really was our favorite town on the West Coast of Baja, but the next day we took advantage of the northerly wind and set off South towards Bahia Magdalena.