Candeleros

Smiles all around today, not because we left Agua Verde, but we have a breeze to break the heat. Not only that we are able to sail.

So it is only 15 nm to Candeleros from Agua Verde, and there is enough wind to sail. We have time and wind, something we haven't had up to this point. As Ashley worked the windlass, I rolled out some genoa and Royal Venture turned on a dime. We were sailing before we left the small bay we were anchored it. I am not sure how Ashley felt about the whole idea, but I was too excited about being able to sail to get into a long discussion.

We went along under genoa until the breeze changed outside the larger bay, we nosed up to a close haul and pulled the Main Sail up. So with the breeze cooling us down and the motor off we made our way north.

The sail was a reach for a while, then downwind, but unfortunately the swell was 90 degrees to our path and Ashley was suffering.

The cruising guides were very uncertain about where the reefs are around the entrance to Punta Candeleros and the navigation apps were equally as bad. The whole area is littered with reefs and bommies which is part of the reason our friends on Manta love it so much.

In Jack Williams cruising guide he quotes the US sailing directions " The Passage between the southern most rock and Punta Candeleros should not be attempted, nor should the one between the northern most rock and Isla Danzante." The official chart also indicates "no passage". Jack goes onto say that it should be possible to transit these passages with caution, but be extremely cautious.

We decided with the clear waters and light breeze we should be able to sail through. Again Ashley was on high alert. We sailed through the small passage with 90ft below us without any issues.

Loosing the wind behind the point. We motored into the large shallow bay of Ensenada Blanca. Finding the best spot was difficult, we were worried about swell wrapping around the corner but the shallow bay made it difficult. We snuck in as close as we could to the point and dropped the hook around 2pm.

Next we checked our phones to see if this would be a suitable office for Ashleys first week of work.

Coverage: check, Wind Protection: check, Spectacular View: check.

We we’re both pretty exhausted from the sun, wind and the general elements. We plan to stay for at least a week, so we quickly checked the weather - it all looks like southerlies, so this will be a great anchorage.

Next job, pull out the boat cover and get some heat protection. That totally changed the boat, I don’t know how we would live without it. Even though the boat decks are white, the shade from the Navy Blue cover makes the boat so much cooler. It drops the temperature probably 10 degrees in the boat. The dingy came off the deck next and the windsock went up.

So much nicer!

We were pretty exhausted from the day, but we had to jump in for a swim to cool off.

We don't seem to do as much in our none-cruising life. But everything takes so much longer. We’re always busy!

Ashley was keen to sleep out on deck in the hammock, it was a beautiful night, there wasn’t any wind, the milky way was producing her magic and no bugs were attacking. Unfortunately for her every once in a while a wave would come through and she to start swinging and nearly fall out. Down she came for another restless night inside the boat.

Our first “work day” while cruising the Sea.

I was on the same time zone as the San Fransisco office where I worked before, but my new team was mostly all East Coast based, so I had to be online early. I guess I will get uses to it, plus it is a little cooler in the mornings. With coffee in hand I turned on our modem and connected to the Telcel tower. The speed was great, what a relief.

Paul prepped our second solar panel for the bimini, we had only had enough time to get one setup in La Paz, and it was always windy there so the wind generator kept the batteries full. I feel power is going to be one of our biggest challenge this summer. We had invested in the solar panels but we don't really know how much power I will use for work. I hope we can run the freezer all summer.

Next job, keeping the sun out of the boat. The boat cover was excellent, but sun pours in the V-birth hatch and after a few minutes of it open you and feel the wood warming up. We had bought windshield reflectors for this job, so after getting the solar panel connected and working he moved on to designing shades for all the hatches.

It was a long day back at the office, you know like the Monday returning from holiday in a tropical paradise where you had spent a week snorkeling and relaxing. Okay so we are still in a tropical paridise, and its hard to work. It's hot and I could be swiming and snorkeling all day.

And that is what we did straight after loging off.

We swam 300-400 meters to the point, a personal best for me.

It was shallow, I could easily have swum down and touched the bottom. There were rays dotted all over the sandy bottom. As we reached the point and the sand turned to rocks and very quickly shallowed to less than 10ft. There were heaps of fish! It’s just fun to swim around - it feels like an aquarium. I spotted an eel. They are always cool to see, but never my favorite. The were also starfish, you know the big pink ones, the yellow and brown ones that look like they have chocolate chips on them and the thing blue ones as well. We need a book to know what all these new creatures are.

I loved diving through a school of fish - they didn’t scatter too far, then they circled around me. I got Paul to show him, but as I went for the school - I saw a turtle! Yep thats right a Turtle, the first one we saw while snorkeling.

We followed him along towards the edge of the point and just as he was getting away from us a large school of big spotted eagle rays swam by in the other direction! It was amazing! There were probably 50 big rays! They really weren’t moving too fast, but they were going deeper. It was such a neat thing to see.

I like to stay in slightly deeper water - right on the edge between the reef and the sand. Paul goes in where it’s shallower, but I feel cornered by the fish.

And this is the best place to be, I found 2 octopus! I think. I couldn’t tell what they were at first and kept diving down to see. We think there were two - pretty good sized too. Maybe it’s head was 6 inches. It was on the corner of a rock , it was awesome. We were in shallow water. Hardly 10 feet - it’s colors were so bright - pink and purples.

There was red fern coral - all small guys though, I found a huge shell, definitely one to give to Paul to carry back for my collection! On the way back I found another turtle and followed him for a bit. I can’t swim very fast for very long under water at all so he also swam off into the distance. After that I spotted a giant electric ray or Cortez electric ray and we followed him halfway back to the boat. He was tan, almost brown and didn’t have the stinger tail, but rather a tail like a shark. Very cool. I guess they can shock you though!

It was an awesome snorkel and I’m really looking forward to more, what a great place to have an office.

And that was our routine for the first week. The boat was now setup. Every day we broke up the day by going for a swim to cool down and in the afternoons swim the to the point and snorkel.

We had no need to even put the outboard on the dinghy, the only reason it was in the water was to enable us to put the windsock up.

Work was good and this is by far the best internet we have had in Mexico. We had the big bay all to ourselves the first week. The beautiful valley is scared by the Ensenada Blanca Resort. A golf course resort that is slowly being built, scaring the desert valley in the process. It is however the reason we can work so easily. There is a small fishing village in the corner of the bay, but if the resort hadn't installed the Telcel tower we would have no internet until we reach Loreto, the next decently populated town, 40 nm further north.

At night there was no moon. We still aren’t used to the heat at night, but we’re getting better. There would always be a hot breeze blowing off the desert around 7:30, it usually lasted until about 11pm and after that it gets quite cool in the hammock on the bow.

We have moved to a Mexican schedule, eating our largest meal between 2 and 3 and then going for an evening snorkel to cool down. This is usually followed by a snack and some Dragon Ball on the laptop in the cockpit to finish off the evening.

With week one of work completed it was time to venture out of Ensenada Blanca, but with only the little 3.5hp outboard, it wouldn't be wise to go far if there was any kind of weather.

Fortunately for us the weather was calm when we woke up on Saturday. So we got going early to beat the heat. We wanted to get out around the point and explore one of the two little islands off Punta Candeleros to see if we could anchor the dingy and snorkel around them.

So with the dinghy fueled and sun hats on we motored off around the point. We straight lined for Isla Pardo, the weather was calm, the water like glass. We found a little beach on the west side of the island that looked good to land on but it was being protected by pelicans so we motored to the southern edge, there was a pebble beach here and it would be closer to where we wanted to snorkel so we landed and pulled the dinghy above the tide line. The rocks were already getting hot, but we explored a little. Above the high tide mark we found a whole bunch of shells as well as some small heads that were from hammer head sharks.

We got setup and jumped into the water. The shelf that we were on dropped away quickly, 100 ft from the beach and it was already too deep to snorkel. So we stayed in close to the shore, watching the fish dart around the boulders. We slowly progressed towards the southern point of the island where the small boulders changed to large rocks with crabs crawling on around them just above the water line.

We ventured further around the corner swimming between the larger rocks, the fish were getting bigger and there was more coral, and some of the red fan coral as well.

Then as we cleared the point the water got cold and out of no where a turtle popped up right in front of us. I am not sure who was more surprised. He turned his head, dove and disappeared down between the rocks. He then headed for the deep water. The water got deep quickly once we had cleared the point. We tested our abilities, diving deep down to look at the fish that were hiding under the rocks. It was so beautiful. Certainly one of the best spots we had snorkeled so far. It is amazing how we seem to keep finding better and better places.

We then made the decision to swim around the whole island, the current seemed to be negligible so we made a fairly quick swim up the outside of the island towards the northern end. The fish were certainly bigger on this side, but it wasn't quite as spectacular or easy snorkeling as the southern side. It was much deeper and the water was definitely cooler.

We made it to the north end, here we found the pelicans. As we cleared the northern point there was more current and the water was way less clear. We had to swim hard to make it further around out of the current. There was a sand spit coming out a little, and as we passed that the water wasn't cooler anymore. I can definitely say it was cold.

Ashley got out, we had been in the water for over an hour and she was cold. She hot footed it along the beach and I continued around in the water. There were a lot of small rays swimming along the sand. The beach was too hot to stay on, you could probably cook an egg on it. So we wet our feet up and quickly dragged the dinghy down. It was an awesome place for a snorkel.

With sun hats on we motored across the channel to Punta Candeleros and then staying close to the shore we motored our way back. We were using the shade of the cliffs and looking for the another spot for a snorkeling expedition.

The shoreline had way more boulders on this side and looked like it would be excellent for an afternoon snorkel as the cliffs would create some shade. There was a small bay just around the corner from the point we had snorkeled all week so it looked like we could leave the dinghy there. So with our exploration done and the sun well overhead we headed back to the boat to eat and relax. We would definitely be heading back out this afternoon.

Later that day about an hour before the sunset we loaded up the dinghy with snorklelling gear and flashlights and headed back out around the corner for a sunset snorkel.

We had already sussed out where we would anchor the dinghy. We had chosen the first bay around from the point and with the light breeze being southerly the bay was like glass.

We dove in and swam around the shore, visiblity was great. This point was so different to our usual spot. It was about 15-20 feet deep, and there were heaps of boulders that we could dive down and explore.

We found some holes that had lobster in them. It was a great spot. We uses the flashlights to see right under the boulders. It was another awesome spot for a snorkel. We went back to the same spot the next day and explored the other side of the bay. It is so amazing how varied this area of the coast is.

Monday it was back to work, we were liking our early rising late snorkeling schedule. Paul started working on setting up the watermaker, while I worked away on the computer. We were definitely glad we got a fan powered computer support, because the old Macbook was hot.

The solar panels combined with the evening breeze was keeping the batteries charges. The only downside was we discovered the Royal Venture Roll. When the sea is almost flat and there is no wind we might turn side onto the the small waves and the boat starts to roll. It is amazing how much of a roll we got going. Our friends Katanu spent one night here in the bay before they headed to Puerto Escondido to get supplies, they were almost stationary and we rolled back and forth.

This week the moon was out til about 2-4 am, big and bright. It was harder to sleep and I couldn't see the Milky Way. But we took the dinghy to shore to try and get some night photos. One night, we took the dinghy to the little beach next to us and we got some cool night shots of the boat.

On the weekend we went exploring to the other end of the bay near the fishing village. We could see a rock rise up out of the water as the tide dropped.

We anchored the dinghy over the top and dove in. The visibility wasn't as good here, but the rock was made up of 4 bommies that rose out of dark depths. It was by far our most challenging snorkel. We were diving past 30ft regularly to explore around the rocks.

We found more lobster and our first Moree Eel. It was hiding between a V in the rock. We tried fishing on the way back but to no avail. We have to get better at fishing, we haven't really caught anything on the inside.

The day before we left our friends from Katanu had rented a car and asked if we wanted to do a road trip to Loreto for supplies and to visit one of the missions that dot the coast. So we loaded our garbage into the dingy and motored in towards the resort.

We were greeted by a man with a clipboard. This day of adventure might not be happening. But the man was super nice. He spoke english and we asked if we could leave the dinghy here while we went ashore and if there was anywhere we could put our garbage.

He helped us pull the dinghy up the beach and then carried our garbage to the start of the resorts. He then took us through to reception. Although we saw the resort as a scar on the landscape it was a super nice resort. Swimming pools and restaurants, and not too crowded. When we got to reception, we explained what we were trying to do and they were happy to sign us in and show us around. About half n hour later Nina and Robert arrived in their rental car to pick us up. They said it was a little difficult at the gate to the resort, but once they said our name the security allowed them in. I guess they had to radio the guards to tell them what was happening. So off we headed out of the bay leaving Royal Venture all alone. We weren't really worried because we had been anchored there for 2 weeks already but it is a weird feeling leaving the boat behind.

Our Blog Post about San Javier Mission is here

Paul got our new water maker up and running! It’s still a temporary job until we redo the galley sink area. So he has the new clark pump connected up to our old membrane - until we get a new membrane for the 40 inch. But with that set up - we are already producing 6 gallons an hour! It's awesome! After 2 days the tanks are nearly full. Good thing - we were running on empty. But we probably worked for 10 hours a day for 2 days to get that up and running. Boat life isn’t easy!

After 2 weeks, we left Candeleros Bay. It seems like we left La Paz months ago - it’s a distant memory now. But at the same time, it feels like we only just arrived in Candeleros.