It was nice to have the anchor set by mid morning in San Francisquito – what was not nice was the water temperature – 51 f’ing degrees. Are we in the PNW? This is unheard of. Ugh, maybe we won’t be doing much snorkeling. But we did wash all of the salt of the boat, filled the fuel tanks from our jerry cans just barely having enough to top off the tanks for our final 220+ nm to Puerto Penasco.
The first afternoon included a good long nap and some beach walking. Oh and plan formulation for a bonfire the next evening. It felt good to have some downtime after our sleeping lacking night passage.
The next morning I hit the ground running with a trip to shore where I spent an hour picking up trash. It was disappointing to see so much garbage, but I tried to do my part picking up the equivalent of five large black garbage bags worth.
Later in the morning it was time for a group excursion. We piled into dinghy and motored over and into the slot for a hike. From there we walked over to the dirt airstrip and on to the long sandy beach at Playa Santa Teresa. I walked awhile with Jack and Shalise before breaking off to look at a house overlooking the bay while they continued on. The water was a beautiful crystal blue and was calling Shalise’s name – so with a bit of privacy she dawned her birthday suit and slid in for swim.
The house I explored was abandoned but still in good condition overall. Someone spent a lot of money building it and I kept wondering what that the story behind its emptiness. Best guess was a couple years ago it was packed up and the owners left. No doubt a tough real estate market but damn you would think someone would have been interested and kept it up. I managed to sneak inside and explore.
On the walk back we checked out the “back in the day” fuel storage tanks for the 100LL and unleaded fuel for the airport before wandering back to our dinghy. A great morning spent exploring. But we weren’t done! On the way back we followed the shore line darting into a sea cave and checking out a possible cliff diving spot (considered even with the damn cold water temps). Hungry and thirsty we returned to our floating oasis.
That afternoon Steve and Tracy (Salish Dragon), Cheryl and Ken (Sedna), and Scott and Jib (Malika) pulled in to the anchorage after a passage that was the opposite of ours – flat clam. Oh what a few days makes, even when there are identical forecasts. We talked everyone into a sunset bonfire! It was a beautiful evening sharing stories and listening to the crackle of the fire. Next thing we knew it was past 11 o’clock. Whew long day, but a great day.
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