Aboard Astraea

Invest in experiences

May 29, 2015
by Nate

Punta Mangles and Caleta San Juanico

After enjoying two nights at Los Coronados we decided to continue north. We wanted to head to San Juanico, but the headwind was too strong, so we diverted to Punta Mangles for one night. We went ashore and checked out the unfinished abandoned luxury homes by shore. Luckily the homes nearest the water were never completed because the line of driftwood went all the way up to the front of the buildings. The beach at Mangles is rocky and the cliffs are sedimentary rocks full of shells. We forgot our camera for the shore excursion, so we didn’t get any pictures.

The next day we got underway early and made it to San Juanico. On our way in we saw our friends on S/V Prism. We last saw them back in January in Puerto Ballandra, and one of the island anchorages near La Paz. We anchored near them between the two large pinnacle rocks in the bay, a spot that was vacated by another boat that morning. We had a good afternoon catching up on their travels for the past few months in the Sea of Cortez.

We had 10 extra gallons of gas on the boat I wanted to sell before we hauled out, so I rode the dinghy around the anchorage to see if anyone would like to buy it. Unfortunately, all our anchorage neighbors were planning to cross the Sea to haul out in San Carlos or Guaymas, so they didn’t need more gas. When I was near S/V Kia Ora I turned the outboard off to talk, but then it wouldn’t start again when I tried to leave. The afternoon wind was strong and started blowing me across the bay and away from Astraea. We had our nice rowing oars stolen in Mazatlan and the paddles we were using in the dinghy were terrible for rowing alone so I couldn’t paddle. Luckily I was able to catch a tow home to Astraea from Kia Ora’s captain, where his rescue efforts were rewarded with an ice cold beer.

We spent the evening playing games aboard S/V Prism. Sully wouldn’t use the potty, so I had to dinghy him back home so he could use his little potty aboard Astraea. Let’s just say people know you’re a kid boat and doing potty training when there are 10 pairs of toddler shorts and underpants hanging on the lifelines.

The next morning we found out lots of boats were crossing the sea because the winds were light and favorable to head to San Carlos and Guaymas. We headed ashore to explore and stretch our legs before the overnight crossing, knowing this awesome anchorage will still be here when we return in the fall.

S/V Prism on the move

S/V Prism on the move

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May 26, 2015
by Nate

Isla Coronados

Our next stop after Honeymoon Cove was Isla Coronados, about another 20 miles away. Again we motorsailed between ports passing the town of Loreto to the west. We initially intended to anchor on the south side of the island, but decided to divert once we made it to our intended anchorage . Natalie and I decided to anchor on the western side because there was a hiking trail to a scenic overlook of the island and the wind was different than predicted.

Here comes the story of how we almost ran aground and sunk our home. I’m not proud to tell it because our problem was completely avoidable. I scoped out the chartlet in the Sea of Cortez Bansmer/Breeding guide book and it showed recommended waypoints and a route to follow to get to the nice anchorage on the west side of Isla Coronados. After looking at our chart plotter and the book I saw that if we followed the southern coastline of the island out and then turned northeast that we’d be able to safely navigate around the southwest side of the island and into our next anchorage.

So here we are at anchor, in the middle of the island according to our chartplotter. Can you see why I wasn't trusting the chartplotter's position display (but should have been using my waypoints instead).

So here we are at anchor, in the middle of the island according to our chartplotter. Can you see why I wasn’t trusting the chartplotter’s position display (but should have been using my waypoints instead).

One note on the electronic charts our plotter uses for Mexico. The vast majority of the country is covered by large overview charts, not precise harbor charts like we’re used to navigating with in the United States. Some of the land points are off by miles. In our case I saw that we had passed by the southwestern tip of Isla Coronados and decided to head north between it and another island to the west. Looking at our chartlet it showed the end of the island had navigable water, 12 ft deep at a minimum. Continue Reading →