July 2013
Even after extending our stay in Bahia Conception after the Fourth of July Party, our
northbound progress was still well ahead of schedule. Other boats attending the Fourth of July
party had quickly made their way up to the marina in Santa Rosalia and were
taking their time moving on. We needed
somewhere to hang out for a week or so while we waited for space to free
up. Isla San Marcos was pretty much the
only choice.
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| Isla San Marcos - not too shabby as the only choice |
We had plenty of company.
Several boats were already anchored in Sweet Pea Cove, the popular anchorage
on the northwest corner of Isla San Marcos nearest to the marina. Rather than squeeze in there, we opted for an
anchorage about a mile down the west side of the island that was noted in one
of older cruising guides. When we arrived
we found big patch of sand in twenty-seven feet of water at the mouth of an
arroyo (canyon) and dropped the hook.
This would be home for the next ten days.
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| Pangeros water skiing past our boat in the anchorage - this was a first! |
Isla San Marcos soon became one of our favorite
destinations. One big attraction was the
arroyos. On the islands we visit in the Sea of Cortez
the typical terrain is very rough, often crumbling, and covered with aggressive
vegetation sporting sharp spines. While most
overland exploring can be challenging and frequently painful (a cactus spine
can go right through the sole of your shoe), arroyos are the exception. In these canyons, the occasional rain storm produces
a torrent of water that washes away the vegetation and leaves a nice gravel
path to walk on. In addition to the easy
passage, every turn offers something new to see.
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| Derrick "rock balancing" during an arroyo hike |
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| One of the finished products |
On the southern end of the island there is a gypsum mine and
village. Ships dock near the mine where
they are loaded with gypsum. This
activity generates a giant plume of white dust that blows out over the water. Fortunately, we are far enough away that we
get no dust, but we can smell the gypsum when the wind shifts to the south.
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| Trisha posing on a hill of gypsum rock |
A couple of fishing boats from the village drive by
regularly. One day one of the boats
stops me as I am returning from a spear fishing outing. The two fishermen speak no English, but they
are obviously quite proud of this red fish they have caught. I have never seen this sort of red fish
before, but they assure me that it is “muy bueno” and would fetch 100 pesos per
kilo in town. I try to turn it down, but
they really want me to have this red fish for 50 pesos (they estimate that the
fish weighs half a kilo). So I buy the
fish. When I get back to the boat,
Trisha looks it up in our fish book.
Turns out they sold me a pacific snapper, edibility excellent. And it was.
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| A delectable fish! |
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| There were thousands of cicadas in the arroyo |
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| Interesting rock formations |
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| We left our mark! |
In the 70's I worked a couple of contracts on one of those gypsum ships. Most of the crew were Croatian, from fishing families, so someone would drop nets in the lagoon by the pier, and one of the locals who worked on the ship would dive for crabs and lobsters. The day after we left, we would clean the dust off the decks, and that evening we'd have a huge fish barbecue, so I've eaten a LOT of that snapper. I can attest to how good it is!
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