Isla San Francisco - 'The Hook' is the name of the bay.
Another 'The Hook'.
King Angelfish at Ensenada Grande in about 3' of water. If you click on the pic to see the larger image you can see 2 Sergeant Major fish behind the Angelfish.
Sea Turtle at Ensenada Grande
It's a bird and a rather rare one at that. On the south side of the adjacent bay, La Cueva, there is a sandstone wall covered with shelves and pot marked holes that the Boobies use to nest in. This is the only place in the islands where they reside. They look similar in size to a gull but are slimmer and they have blue feet. A person in Marina de La Paz told us about them, thanks Bill. When you approach them, still a 100 yards away, they start to dance lifting one foot them the other back and forth and then spreading their wings in a threatening manner but they are just too cute to fear.
Returning to our anchorage, we saw what looked to be a dead small seal on the beach with 6 vultures around it waiting for it to wash up on the shore. We've never seen a vulture before with it's red nose, interesting but kind of icky.
We went snorkeling again, it's becoming a regular afternoon event. There are so many tropical fish it's like swimming in an aquarium. Schools of hundreds of small fish with colorful Angel fish and yellow and black stripped Sargent Major fish. I saw an eel of some type disappear in the shadows, it looked to be about 3' long. From the dinghy we saw a turtle about 2' across briefly surface for air and we continue to see Mexican Needle fish swimming at the surface that are 4' long and about as big around as your arm. This place is an amazing zoological treasure.
Pictures to follow as soon as we have a broadband connection in a few weeks.
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We left Marina de La Paz today after getting 1056 liters of fuel at 9.10 pesos per liter or about 300 gallons at US$2.20 per gallon. Marina de La Paz is one of the nicest, friendliest, and most enjoyable marinas we have ever been in. If you take your boat to La Paz, this is the best place to go. Costa Baja Marina is the fanciest, a big resort with mega yachts and swimming pools and high moorage rates. Marina Palmara has new ownership that don't seem to care about the customers, they've let go a lot of the staff and increased rates to the point that many yachts are leaving and anchoring out rather than stay in the marina. If you can get into Marina de La Paz, go there.
We motored north 27 NM to the Caleta Partida bay in between the islands of Isla Espiritu Santo (Holy Spirit) and Isla Partida (Parted). The two island are separated by a small bay and a channel that is only 2' deep and 50' wide at low tide. We anchored on the south side of the bay in 20' of water over a sandy bottom. Air temp is in the mid 80's with a water temp of 77°. For the first time in decades, Linda and I went for a swim. Yep, just jumped off the aft of the boat into the water. What a feeling. It was great! A little cool but not bad. A lot of fun! Linda has told people since we started planning this that she wanted to be able to swim in the water that the boat was in and now she can. Up north the water was cold enough, mid 50's, that in 15 minutes you would start to get hypothermia and would likely die within an hour. Here all we got was some sore shoulder muscles from swimming after so many years.
The water here is very clear, you can see the bottom in 15', and the color goes from dark blue to emerald green in the shallows next to shore. There are lots of fish that are new to us; Puffer fish from 4" to 12", small rays 10" across, crabs under 6" with a red pattern on their backs, and a 4' long Mexican Needle fish. This place is so kewl and we are having so much fun it's hard to express. More latter...
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