Bocas del Toro

We left the city of David at 0700. Our destination, Almirante, lay about 150 miles north, on the Caribbean coast of Panama. To get there we first traveled on a rough two lane road through the village of Gualaca, about 20 miles from David. Gualaca is at about 1000 feet elevation and is cooler than the sweltering coast. The road then took us up through the Cordillera Central, the high mountains that form the backbone of Central America. As we climbed higher toward the continental divide, cattle ranches gave way to highland rainforest. Traveling slowly over and around washouts and potholes, we wound our way up through fog and dripping rainforest to the pass, which I estimate to be at roughly 5000 feet elevation. Descending over a series of tight switchbacks on the northern slope of the mountains we passed La Fortuna reservoir at about 3000 feet elevation. This beautiful lake was formed when a dam was built in 1984, bringing hydroelectric power to the region. The Caribbean side of Panama gets more rainfall than the Pacific side and we rolled past banana and coconut plantations while the rain came down, sometimes in torrents, sometimes in drizzles on the way to Almirante.

Waterfront in Almirante

All along the road we saw people dressed for the holiday waiting for the bus to Almirante. When we got there, throngs of people, nearly all black or mestizo, were crowded around the water taxi terminal trying to get a ride to one island or another before dark. After an hour’s wait we managed to get aboard a water taxi to Bocas town. With the 25 foot boat loaded down with about 35 people and their bags, the overloaded launch motored out of the tiny harbor and gathered speed for the ten mile trip to Bocas Town where we were met by our friends, Craig and Liz. We celebrated our arrival there with a beer at a waterfront café and then hired a small boat to take us the last few miles to Isla Bastimento, where the Red Frog Marina is located. Craig and Liz have been living here aboard their 42 foot catamaran, Salida, for the last four months.

Red Frog marina, named for the tiny red frogs that are native to the area, is located in a small cove on the northwest side of the island. It’s part of a small resort that includes a hostel, cabins for rent and an outdoor bar on the beach. The beach is on the other side of the island, facing the open Caribbean Sea and is well known to surfers who come here from around the world to surf the many good breaks on Bastimento and other islands that make up this part of the Panamanian coast. The surf wasn’t great when we got there but we had a good time bodysurfing and then hanging out at the beachfront bar afterward.

The Pizza Oven at Rana Azul

The next day we sailed over to an area called Tierra Oscura (the Dark Lands in Spanish) and anchored in a cove known as Rana Azul (Blue Frog). There we met an Austrian named Josef who came to this place a few years ago with his wife, Maria, and built a tiny bar/restaurant on the edge of the jungle to serve the occasional sailors and eco-tourists that manage to find the place. They had sailed all over the world aboard their 40 foot sailboat, and decided to settle in this lonely but strikingly beautiful little spot. Their specialty is pizza baked in an outdoor charcoal fired earthen oven and Panamanian Mojitos. Since there are no roads to this place they had to bring everything in by boat, including a rickety old karaoke machine. Many a sailor has made a fool of him- or herself with that rusty mike-with-the-bad-connections in his hand, us included.

In the morning we upped the anchor and sailed for Starfish Cove on Isla Colon, where the snorkeling was fabulous. Later we took the dinghy around the point and halfway up the Bocas del Drago channel to a beachfront restaurant called Yarisnoris. Here we found tourists, lots of them. All around us at the restaurant we heard tourists speaking French, German and Italian along with English and Spanish. The locals of this area speak Guari Guari, which is a hybrid of Jamaican English, Spanish and Guaymi. Guaymi is name of the indigenous natives of this part of Panama.   Back when the Trans Isthmus railroad, and later the canal, was built, the French and American contractors imported laborers from Jamaica, Barbados, and even China, to work on those projects. Intermarriage among these groups as well as the native population has resulted in a rich cultural history and linguistic patois that is fascinating to hear.

From Starfish Cove we sailed for Bocas Town and anchored outside the harbor. Here we could see the local fishermen paddling dugout canoes out to fish the reefs and shoals that abound in this area. I first saw a dugout in Almirante and thought that perhaps the locals made them for tourists, of which there are very few in that town. But, no, they are working boats used every day by the local fishermen. I looked closely at a few of them and found them to be finely crafted vessels carved from a single log. It is not uncommon to see a man with wife and a kid or two

Native Dugout Canoe

paddling a dugout to or from Bocas town. The other boat that the natives use is the fiberglass panga powered by an outboard. Strong, fast and utilitarian, pangas are long and narrow open boats that are used for cargo, fishing, water taxis and just about everything else. There are dozens of small islands in the Bocas del Toro area and very few roads, so people travel everywhere by boat.

The food here is what I would call a uniquely eclectic blend of creole, Carib, Panamanian, European and American. I love the spice and tang of the local cuisine. The architecture along the waterfront and main streets is also a blend of Caribbean, Latin and European styles, all painted in bright colors. Located just nine degrees north of the equator, Bocas is out of the hurricane zone and the weather is what I call equatorial; Hot and sunny most of the time except when it’s hot and rainy. Humidity also stays near a hundred percent, so we swim or snorkel off the back of the boat every day.

Red Frog Beach, Isla Bastimento

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La Paz to San Jose del Cabo

Finisterras route from La Paz to San Jose. Ensenada de Los Muertos is to the right of the "286".  Cabo Pulmo is the easternmost point on the peninsula.

Finisterra departed La Paz on the morning of May 30th with the temperature hovering at 92 degrees and about three knots of wind out of the north. The plan was to transit the San Lorenzo and Cerralvo channels in daylight and anchor at Ensenada de los Muertos around sunset. The forecast was for northerly winds and a nice 12 knot wind arrived around noon. We had been motoring until then and I was about to set the mainsail when the breeze veered northeast, then east and settled at southeast...exactly the direction we were headed. On top of that, once in the Cerralvo channel, we found ourselves bucking a southeast current of about a knot. So I left the mainsail on the boom and we settled down to a long motor to Los Muertos.

We got the hook down around 1730 and had time for a sunset swim in the 85 degree water. We were up well before dawn the next morning and were underway by 0430. Our next destination was Los Frailes, where we hoped to explore the coral reef at Cabo Pulmo. This reef is the northernmost coral reef in the eastern Pacific and is now a Mexican National Park. You can learn more about it at www.cabopulmopark.com/thereef.html

Cabo Pulmo National Park

Unfortunately the unfriendly southeast wind continued to blow and brought with it a hefty south swell, making the anchorage unsuitable. So we reluctantly continued on toward San Jose del Cabo, where we planned to stay until a good weather window opened for us to work our way around Cabo San Lucas and northward to Bahia Santa Maria on the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula.

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Tenacatita

Tenacatita Sunset

Bahia Tenacatita is the most beautiful place the Honcho has visited so far on this voyage. After we arrived here we just sat in the cockpit and enjoyed the magnificent views of the golden sand beaches to our north and east, the craggy rocks to our west and southwest, and the pretty little town of La Manzanilla across the bay to our south, then were treated to a beautiful sunset. Weve been here three days, doing very little except enjoying the scenery and visiting with friends. Wednesday we took the dinghy up the small estuary where there are supposed to be crocodiles but we didnt see any. That was fine by me, as we did see lots of other wildlfe as we motored slowly through the mangroves. In spite of the beauty of the place, there has been trouble here recently. A developer showed up a few months ago with armed guards and bulldozers and chased everyone off the beach in one part of the bay where there had been some palapa restaurants that locals and yatistas liked to hang out, claiming that he owned the land that others thought they owned. Apparently the developer won this argument because we were met with some of the guards a mile or so up the estuary, and thats as far as we got to go.

We were also visited by the Mexican Navy here. Early on the first morning we were anchored in the bay, a boatload of sailors, all armed with automatic weapons approached and boarded the Honcho. They asked for our papers, took pictures of our communications gear and filled out some forms before bidding us a good day. They were friendly and didnt intentionally point their guns at us, but with five of them crowded into the cockpit, it was impossible not to find myself looking down the barrel of one or the other now and then.

Another Approach to Cruising
Weve seen this Nordhavn 63 in various places along the Mexican coast.

The day before we left Tenacatita we took the dinghy across the bay to La Manzanilla, a quaint fishing and tourist village, where we stocked up on fresh vegetables. Located on the southeast side of the bay, it is exposed to the open ocean so going ashore means landing the dinghy through the surf. We stayed dry going in but got a bit damp going out, as the wind and waves had built during the afternoon. If youre looking for a quiet seaside vacation, far from the crowds, but still with a little spice, you might like La Manzanilla. To me, it appears to be Mexican with a Mediterranean twist.

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Barra de Navidad

The Honcho sailed from Tenacatita on Thursday, February 3rd, bound for Barra de Navidad, about 14 miles down the coast. For this short hop we didnt hoist any sails. Instead we motored along the coast, looking in on a couple of coves where we might like to anchor in the future. As we approached the entrance to the lagoon at Barra, the wind piped up to about 20 knots and the sea grew lumpy and confused. The lagoon where we planned to anchor is up a narrow channel with shoals on both sides. Using waypoints taken from Shawn Breeding and Heather Bansmers "Pacific Mexico, A Cruisers Guidebook", I programmed the GPS with our route into the anchorage, and we got in around 1400 without mishap. We got the hook down in about 10 feet of murky water and sat back to enjoy the view while the wind whistled in the rigging.

The next day we joined some friends for a bus ride to Melaque, a seaside town on the northern side of Bahia de Navidad. Not a particularly picturesque place, Melaque does boast a bank and the excellent Hawaiian Market. We stocked up on food and beverages at the market, and pesos at the bank, then had lunch in a seaside restaurant before heading back to the boat.

A word on cruising guides. The Honcho left California with copies of "Charlies Charts" by Charles and Margo Wood, and "Mexico Boating Guide" by Pat Rains. In Puerto Vallarta we picked up a copy of the Pacific Mexico Guide. Charlies Charts, originally published in 1982 and periodically updated has been the most widely used guidebook for this area. The Rains guidebook was first published more recently and offers better maps and charts as well as some photographs. The Pacific Mexico book, published in 2010, is illustrated with accurate charts and maps using satellite photos and GPS technology. It is a significant improvement over the other guides in terms of providing accurate navigational information. Since acquiring this book, the others have, for the most part, stayed in the bookshelf. I highly recommend the Pacific Mexico Cruising Guide, as well as Shawn and Heathers other book, Sea of Cortez Cruising Guide.

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Homeward Bound Bahia Santa Maria to Ensenada

Finisterra remained in Bahia Santa Maria all day waiting for more favorable winds, and by 2200 the strong northwesterly had died down to about ten knots. We got the anchor up and slipped out of the bay at 2330 under a beautiful gibbous moon and rounded the south-facing Punta Hughes around midnight. From there we headed northwest toward Turtle Bay, about 225 miles up the coast. We headed offshore a couple of extra miles as we passed Cabo San Lazaro, giving it plenty of room. The last time we passed this way, in 2011, we watched a large sailing yacht that had strayed too close break up after it was stranded on the rocks there.

Once past San Lazaro, its a straight line to Turtle Bay and we motored comfortably into the northwesterly wind and swell, which remained mild until the next morning. By 1000 we were punching into a fifteen knot headwind and a short, steep swell. Fifteen knots of wind on the nose translates to 20 knots of apparent wind, which is enough to send spray flying across the deck. These conditions stayed with us well into the night, then eased around midnight. The next morning we were greeted with the same lumpy conditions, which finally eased about ten miles out of Turtle Bay.

Finisterras route to Turtle Bay. Notorious Cabo San Lazaro is the point just north of Bahia Santa Maria

We made the entrance to the bay at midday and were tied up to the fuel dock at 1245. We took on about sixty gallons of fuel and checked the weather forecast. It looked good for us to continue north, so we headed out again at 1330. From Turtle Bay, we could go inside Cedros Island, which is roughly the size of Catalina Island,or head further out to sea and pass to the west of it.  We chose the westerly route and headed well out to sea, passing to the west of Cedros and its neighboring islands of Natividad and San Benito. This turned out to be a good decision because that night we passed well to the west of a very large fishing operation instead of threading our way through it. We could see the bright lights of a dozen or so large fishing boats and many smaller lights around them. Throughout the night we could hear the radio chatter of other sailboats that were dodging their way through the fishing fleet. I was glad have a few miles between us and the fishermen, which were most likely after squid. Commercial squid fishing operations use "light boats" and purse seiners. The light boats are fitted with very bright lights that are shined into the water to attract large schools of squid. The purse seiners deploy a net around the school and reel it in close. With the net drawn up close to the boat, a pump is lowered into it and the squid are pumped aboard. I love calamari!

Turtle Bay to Ensenada

The passage from Turtle Bay to Ensenada is about 280 miles. It was all upwind and into seas that varied from easy swells to vicious lumps that we slammed into, making life aboard something less than comfortable. We had those lumpy conditions until we were about 40 miles from Ensenada, where conditions eased and we had a smooth ride between Isla Todos Santos and Punta Banda, and on into Ensenada harbor where we secured a berth at the Cruiseport Marina at 1230 on June 12th. Total distance traveled from San Jose to Ensenada was 824 nautical miles in six days and three hours.

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Homeward Bound Los Cabos to Bahia Santa Maria

We stayed about a week in San Jose del Cabo at the luxurious and expensive Marina Puerto Los Cabos. Actually it’s not really luxurious. It doesn’t have a pool or much in the way of amenities for cruising sailors. Instead it caters to sportfishermen and mega yachters, a totally different type of clientele. It is very well maintained and has a nice little open air restaurant where you can get a hamburger for only about $13.00. That’s dollars, not pesos. The marina is beautifully landscaped and the docks are perfectly maintained, while the staff is mostly quite friendly and helpful. On the other hand, it has a sterile, soulless ambience along with plenty of security. I credit this to the mostly absentee ownership of the boats that call this place home. Of the hundred or so boats in the marina there were only five or six sailboats, most of which had people living aboard who were, like us, simply waiting for a weather window to head north to the US.

While we waited for the window to open, we spent a little time preparing the boat for the arduous 900 mile trip up the outside coast of Baja, but there really wasn’t much to do, as Finisterra was pretty much ready when we left La Paz. I had the bottom cleaned, changed the fuel filters and gave the engine a thorough inspection because we expect to be motoring or motorsailing for the nest 900 miles. There are very few places on the outside of Baja that have fuel or any kind of marine services so we want the engine systems in tip top shape. We also want the sails and rig to be in top form. There was nothing to do in that respect except give it all a thorough once-over. The only thing on the to-do list was to make a set of sail ties for the reef points. With all that done, we spent the rest of our free time checking out the beaches and hanging out in the very upscale environs of San Jose. It really wasn’t a very fun place to be and I confess that I checked the weather forecasts several times a day, looking for the first opportunity to get out of San Jose.

One of the new “attractions” at the marina is a Dolphin Discovery exhibit. It consists of three or four large pens next to the marina where they keep a half dozen or so dolphins in captivity. Tourists pay for the experience of getting into the pens with the dolphins for a personal encounter. We walked past the place several times in the early mornings, before the customers arrived and watched the captive dolphins swimming around in the pens while the “trainers” got ready for the day’s show. The poor dolphins looked pathetic compared to the exuberant ones we always see in the wild, and the whole concept of keeping these animals in captivity for profit disgusts me. I hope you never pay to pet a dolphin.

My primary sources for weather information are Predictwind and GRIB files. GRIB’s provide a good overview of winds in the region while the information from Predictwind is more detailed and specific. By Monday, June 2nd, the forecast started looking good for a Saturday departure, but as the week wore on, the forecast for the area around Cabo began to worsen. So we could either leave on Friday morning or wait for the forecasted adverse winds to pass by, which could be another week or more. We decided to take advantage of the current conditions and quickly checked out of the marina and got underway at 0930 on Friday, June 6^th, bound for Bahia Santa Maria.

The wind was light when we left San Jose but quickly built to 20-25 knots on the nose as we approached the Cape. In the twenty miles between San Jose and Cabo San Lucas the sea temperature plummeted from 83 to a surprising 68 degrees and we prepared for a chilly passage. But after rounding Cabo Falso, the last point of land before we could turn northward, the wind began to ease and the sea temperature rose to a much more comfortable 77 degrees. For the rest of the day and throughout most of the night we motored in balmy seas and a light wind. It was still on the nose though.

Finisterras route from San Jose del Cabo to Bahia Santa Maria

That night there was a waxing gibbous moon amid scattered clouds until around 0200. After the moon set the overcast sky cleared and we were kept company by the vast Milky Way, with Polaris, the north star off our starboard bow. The next day we continued in lovely light conditions until around noon when the wind and seas built. By 1500, when we arrived at Bahia Santa Maria it was again blowing 20 with a bumpy sea throwing spray over the dodger.

We are anchored in the northwest corner of the bay now. The wind is still blowing hard outside the bay, but I expect it to lie down a bit this evening. If it does, we’ll get underway around midnight, and head toward Turtle Bay, 220 miles away.

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