San Evaristo

It was April 4^th and our second night at Isla San Francisco when we had our first coromuel experience.  The La Paz area periodically experiences strong southerly winds called coromuels.  Forty five miles away from La Paz, Isla San Francisco is out of reach of the strong winds, but it gets the full force of the wind waves they generate.  Our great little anchorage was wide open to the south and became quite uncomfortable when the waves began rolling in.

The timing was pretty good.  We had been planning to make our way to San Evaristo because we were low on provisions and the anchorage offers good protection from coromuel winds.  The cruising guide tells of a small fishing village with a store.  We hoped that the store was still in business.  This concern was eased when we were invited to happy hour on Bella Brisa, another boat from Alameda.  They had been in San Evaristo a day earlier and reported that the store was well stocked for the Easter weekend.  We left our now rolling anchorage early the next morning and had a great downwind sail to San Evaristo.

Hiking in San Evaristo

Once tucked in to our new anchorage we went ashore to find the store.  For being so far off the beaten path, the store was amazingly well stocked.  We even bought raw chicken out of a homemade ice chest on the front porch.  When we asked about beer, we were directed to the red house on the beach.  We found the house and were taken into the living room where there were five cases of Tecate Light.  How many?  We bought eight beers for 100 pesos.

Derrick above the salt beds

During our second day at San Evaristo we were happy to have Pura Vida and Seychelles catch up with us.  After leaving Bonanza, both boats had gone into La Paz for provisions.  We celebrated our reunion by having Happy Hour on Interabang.  Pura Vida was starting a long trip north, but we convinced them to back track the nine miles to Isla San Francisco.  The three boats headed back to the crescent shaped beach and we were excited to share our favorite island with our friends.  

Judy and Mike of Pura Vida at Happy Hour

Nicki and John of Seychelles with Derrick