We left Muertos for La Paz and made a few quick stops along the way. We had a slow, bumpy cruise thru the Cerralvo Channel, a stretch that is known for strong currents and funneling winds. We stopped at Playa Bonanza on Isla Espíritu Santo to rest for the night. After anchoring and when the engine was still idling in neutral, a loud shrieking sound came from the engine compartment. After further inspection we found a loose belt. Jim tightened up the belt and after testing the noise was gone. There is always maintenance to be done and we were relieved this was an easy fix.
The Playa Bonanza anchorage is the most peaceful stop we’ve had in the last two seasons. There was no music coming from the beach, no people in sight, no boat traffic and no wind or sound of birds that evening. Absolute silence and stillness – just the stark, scenic beauty of the desert mountains and the sea. It was wonderful.
When we woke up we made our way across the channel to Bahia Balandra, a national park bay. Boats cannot stay overnight here so we only visited for the afternoon, cruised through the bay and walked in the clear, shallow waters. Another dreamy anchorage!
We moved over to Bahia Falsa that evening. We went ashore to walk the beach, have a cold drink at the restaurant and enjoy a $2.50 shrimp tostada. Later in the day, after making dinner on board, more boats pulled into the anchorage. The first was our buddy boat friends we left Mazatlán with a few weeks ago, it was great to see them again! We went down below to clean up when another boat came in and we heard, “It’s Jim and Lorin on Solitude!”. When we popped our heads out we saw friends on the boat that was next to us in Marina Mazatlán earlier this year, we haven’t seen them since January. It was an exciting night of reunions and the surprise of seeing all these happy faces again.
We went into La Paz the following morning and dropped anchor just across from Marina La Paz. Marina La Paz allows you to use their dinghy dock and get rid of trash for 50 pesos (about $2.70 USD). Wanting to continue on our travels, we had a full schedule of errands for our short stay. We needed to find a replacement inner tube for our dinghy wheel because the valve stem blew out while we were in Muertos. We learned the tire is the same size as a wheelbarrow wheel and we were able to find several spare tubes at a large ferretería (hardware store) in town. We also needed to check in with the port captain, provision, get diesel for Solitude as well as gas for the dinghy and generator. We stopped at La Fuente for homemade ice cream and had dinner with cruising friends, a night that had us laughing so hard we cried.
SV Solitude 