Santa Rosalia to Puerto Escondido

November 7-18, 2023

After several days of strong winds from the north, we finally had a weather window to head south. In typical fashion, there was no wind and we had to motor. Fortunately we were rewarded with a nice sized mahi soon after departing the marina. After getting it onboard, cleaned, and safely stored away in the freezer, we continued on to an anchorage called Punta Chivato. This anchorage had good snorkeling and a cool little town built around a private air strip. There is a cool beach with more shells than I’ve ever seen in one place, aptly named Shell Beach.

The next day we headed south again to enter Bahia Concepcion and meet up with SV Tino Pai once again. We had been there last June when it was incredibly hot. This time of year the weather was perfect with warm air and water temperatures. Our first anchorage was Santispac where we enjoyed the beach, snorkeling and the beachside palapa. We next moved on to El Burro anchorage. This anchorage is surrounded by a beach with many beachside rental/winter homes. There is a great cafe called Nomadic with outstanding pastries and smoothies. There is a cool hike right behind the restaurant that had petroglyphs, cool views, and crazy stones that sound like a bell when hit together. Apparently it is due to the high iron content of the rocks.

After a few days we spent a night in Bahia Santo Domingo anchorage at the the north end of Bahia Conception before a great downwind sail to our next destination of San Jaunico. Early in the trip we heard the fishing reel whine loudly and found we had hooked a large mahi. Our freezer is officially full. San Juanico is one of our favorite anchorages. We spent several days snorkeling, hiking, and enjoying sundowners on the beach with Andy and Shannon from Tino Pai. We met up with old friends from SV CAVU and met up with new ones on SV Alegria and SV Boomerang.

By this time, there was another round of northerly winds forecast so we headed south towards Isla Carmen. Expecting a windy, downwind sail, we were disappointed to have light winds and had to motor almost the whole way. Oh well, it was still beautiful. We entered Ballandra Bay and enjoyed some hiking and swimming before heading off to Puerto Escondido to wait out another norther.