Bahía Tortugas
Dec. 14
Like most sailors in new waters, Maxime does not like entering new anchorages in the dark.
We drift outside the harbour entrance for 2 hours before heading in at the crack o dawn. Drop hook in 4 fathoms of water with 26 fathoms of chain out. (24 feet with 156 feet of chain). 6 scope. This is Maximes first ever anchor in this boat. Glad to be here to lend a hand with setting it and whipping up a snubber setup.
3 days 20 hours for the Ensenada to Tortugas passage. 350 miles. We are thrilled and exhausted.
Grab some lunch and take a nap.
Bird life is unbelievable here. The town reminds us of a barren Arctic community with lots of little buildings brightly painted against an earth toned, desert coloured backdrop.
We tackle the autopilot issue by drilling 4 holes through the upper deck plate and caulk and seal up the bracket with 4 bolts holding it down. That ain’t going anywhere Ba. We can now simply call him ‘Rick’
Pasta and Sardines in tomato sauce for dinner. 2 celebratory anchor cervezas and an early good night.
Dec. 15
Coffee up on deck. There’s a big breeze howling through the bay.
We hitch a ride into town with some fisherman on pengha boats to explore. Very different little community feels like the outback of Mexico. Very poor village with children around each corner. The stores and homes are fully caked in a thick layer of dust. This place is actually at the very end of the road on this peninsula and is as far as you can go by vehicle.
“We’re Here” 🎯
We find some odds and ends around town including some boat hardware, diesel, water, and food provisions. We have used around 3 gallons of fuel since leaving LA! We figure that $18 value is pretty frugal. We are offered a ride back to the only beach bar in town in the back of a pickup truck. Check that off the bucket list.
We grab a Cerveza and meet 3 other sailors just arriving.
Lisa + Zaq on Sailing Sphynx left Vancouver, British Columbia in August on their 35’ cutter. They also travel with their hairless pussycats! Michael the hardcore catholic from Seattle, Washington in his 30’ yacht is quick to bring up the awesome powers of the Lord saviour Jesus Christ! He is taking a 6 month sabbatical from the boatyard work at home to try and make it down to Puerto Vallarta and back before the hurricane season in April/May?
Lastly we meet a cool quiet young fella originally from Chicago solo sailing his 23’ foot sloop down from the Oregon coast! Yes. Solo sailing a twenty three foot sailboat down the Pacific Coast. I only know one other sailorette that would attempt anything like this! He doesn’t have much on board besides his trusty windvane which uses solely the wind to autohelm the boat. His first story he told was from only a few hours earlier! As the wind howled this morning, he went to the front of the boat to check the anchor snubber and “SNAP” the connection between rode and anchor let go. His anchor had lasted for months but broke away while he was there looking at it. (“You want to be looking at it, not for it”) He quickly fired up his engine (no spare ground tackle on board) and drove to the nearest yacht! That boat happened to be Lisa+Zaq on Sailing Sphynx. So he is tied up to them until he can find some chain and anchor here in Tortugas.
(later that day we find a small shop to purchase some new chain for his anchor setup)
