Isla San Francisco to San Evaristo

On my way from Isla San Franciso to San Evaristo I anchored briefly at Bahia Amortajada to see if I could dinghy into the large lagoon to photograph birds.  Unfortunately it was low tide, and both passes were much to shallow to get in .  So I continued on to San Evaristo.  In San Evaristo I initially anchored in the northern cove that was surrounded by steep cliffs, thinking it would be well sheltered from northerlies.  When a coromuel hit about midnight, the wind in the cove became wildly erratic:  going from zero to 25+ knots and back to zero about every minute or so.  It also would come from different directions.  With the depth dropping off precipitously  not far from where I had set the anchor, I knew dragging even a short distance could to lead to disaster.  So I sat anchor watch most of the night.  When I had enough of a plot on the chartplotter to see the anchor wasn't moving, I finally got some sleep.  But the next day I moved to the main cove.  At least there, if another coromuel hit, it would be from a constant direction and there was MUCH more leeway.  Turned out it was mellow the rest of the time I was there. While not too far from Highway 1, it's still a pretty remote place.  A small desalination plant provides the water.  One small tienda.  Picturesque of course:

In theory, there are two passes into the lagoon at Bahia 

Amortajada.  Turns out they are only usable at high tide.

Anchored off the east side of the lagoon; Isla San 

Francisco in the background.

Dinghy landed at the rocky beach by the east lagoon pass.

No way to get through at low tide when I was there.

Passing Isla Cayo on the way to San Evaristo

Typical mainland landscape along the way

Heading into San Evaristo

Getting blown around at anchor by a coromuel. 

The anchor was set just above the 28 mark.

When the coromuel hit, Circadian swung out almost

to the 54, then, over the next several hours was

blown around in the zig-zag pattern shown

by the pink dotted line.  Since it was an

arc overall, with the center point where the

anchor was, I knew I wasn't dragging and

finally got to sleep in the early morning hours.

Next day I moved to the main cove.

In the main cove, beach and village in the background

The village with mountains behind

Took the dinghy ashore to explore and pick up a few things

at the little store.

Flying rats.

Part of the fish carcass clean-up crew

You take what you can get when you can't make it on looks.

It's a beautiful, but unforgiving environment.

The only market.  A 'mini-super,' of course!

The entrance to the desalination plant:  Call "Tony Agua" 

on the VHF radio (Channel 16) if you want water.

Found on the beach near San Evaristo.  

Never saw a shell like this before.  For good reason:

it's paper thin and so fragile it's impossible to transport

and keep whole.

Morning coffee anchored off the beach.

Late afternoon view from the boat

Another boat anchored near the north cove

Neighbors

Some of the surrounding landscape

Dusk in the anchorage

Morning view of the mountains

My first attempt at photographing a jumping mobula ray.

They land with a loud smack, sometimes like a gunshot.

They do it to attract a mate.