Isla San Franciso is a beautiful, small island with a long sandy beach, and a spectacular ridge to walk along. While we were there, one of the large motor yachts had crew set up a couple of canopies, tables and chairs, and then brought in about a dozen people for the day. We contented ourselves with just kayaking over and walking on the beach before tackling the ridge.
We enjoyed a couple of days Isla San Francisco and then headed down toward Ensenada el Cardonal on Isla Partida. On the way we caught a nice black skipjack. The bottom at Cardonal was really grassy so even our 45 pound Mantus anchor wouldn’t grab. We tried a couple of times, but the anchor chain came up looking like a badly decorated Easter Basket. We had long, fine strands of grass everywhere. Off to El Cardoncito instead. Cardoncito is a small, V shaped cove that can maybe hold two boats at anchor. We dinghied over to the beach at the end and discovered that there’s a doable hike up into the island, but not in flip flops. Drifted along the canyon side on the way back to Gypsy and saw lots of fish: Panamic Sergeant Majors, half a dozen Guineafowl Puffers, a Balloon Fish and a bunch of Reef Cornet Fish. The latter look like undulous translucent ribbons in the water while they are moving. At rest they become lightly striped. That night the wind changed and blew out of the south, directly at us. It was a lumpy, hobby horse ride. Not much sleep. The wind was forecast for NE so we headed around the top of Isla Partida and headed over to Playa el Bonanza, on the south side of Isla Espiritu Santo. Pichelingue was the next quick stopover and then on to the Magote, the anchorage in La Paz. It was time to fix the water maker and have the engine looked at. However, the tidal flow at the end of January was a couple of meters, coupled with some high winds funneling down the channel. After a long, rough, wet dinghy ride to Gypsy, we headed back to Pichelingue for a couple of days until the wind died down. We scheduled a slip at Marina Palmira and went in to get work done.
GypsyKramer 
Sounds like one adventure after another! While you were rolling in the waves there, the wind started up in the Gorge 70mph with heavy blizzard warnings in effect. Just
light rain/snow all day. Supposed to get up to 6″ tomorrow! Stay warm! Love your
pictures! hugs, Mom
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It was 54 degrees this morning, but now the sun is out and the day is warming up. No worries about snow or ice. Stay warm and safe.
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Those reef cornet fish sound fantastic. I am going to look for images.
Don’t you worry, here we have freezing rain and snow pellets so your fog looks more inviting.
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The fish are cool. We are very glad to not be freezing. We hope to be in some warmer waters soon and able to go snorkeling.
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Gypsy is looking pretty at anchor. Nice for you to get a rain that makes the desert come to life. Beautiful vistas. Nice to know you are doing well. Sounds like you are managing to uphold the definition of cruising. It is 32 degrees here with snow in the forecast. We did get the Beta 35 all connected and went for a trial run around Liberty Bay on a calm sunny day. We just need to add a little ballast to offset the 100 pounds we lost compared to the heavier Perkins 4-108.
Fair winds Gypsy Kramers,
J&J
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Thanks, Gypsy’s engine has been looked over and is running very well. The watermaker is also working much better. We are glad Dromen is ready to go sailing. Sounds like you will have to find room in the bilge for a couple of cases of wine to solve your ballast needs.
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Hi Nina & Bill, Great post as always. Really gets the wanderlust going reading of your adventures….(and reading it during an ice storm! Hope we keep our elec. power) Anyway, inre a comment you made in the post, a good plant guide sounds, of course, desirable and being library types a book can’t be beat. But if Covid or whatever makes it difficult for you to get field guides in book form just thought I’d mention a site a friend turned me onto— it’s called iNaturalist and you can just post a pic (of any critter, plant etc) and almost always get an ID. Buen viaje! Tom ps. could that pic in the upper left with the scrawny branches and red flowers be ocotillo?
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Tom, thanks for the app suggestion. We will give iNaturalist a try.
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