Ensenada el Quemado

Thursday, June 16, 2011

028-55.678 N
113-24.452 W

Ahoy from Ensenada el Quemado!

We're currently at the northern and western limits of our journey up the Sea of Cortez. From here we'll begin to move E towards the mainland and then begin heading S down the coastline towards Guaymas, where we'll leave BlueJacket for hurricane season. So far we've logged about 1400 miles and have seen a lot of beautiful territory. It's kind of sad for me to make this turn back down the Sea of Cortez as I realize that there's a good chance that I won't ever be here again. I also know that most cruisers who come to the Sea of Cortez never make it this far north, so we've done well.

Anyhow, we pulled into Ensenada el Quemado (The Burned Bay) yesterday morning and noted that there was a bit of a NE swell coming into the anchorage, but it wasn't bad and it quickly dissipated. After lunch we took the dinghy and toured around the bay. One thing that surprised us was the apparent lack of the normal small fish that we'd see in the shallows. Clearly there are lots of larger fish in the bay as evidenced by the the number of Pelicans and Boobies fishing here, so I can't explain the disconnect. We also ran across a styrofoam cooler that was taped up and floating along the shore. As suggested, we decided not to investigate what it was as it's better to not get involved with what might be a messy situation.

I wanted to hike across the desert to an adjoining bay, but due to the heat Sue didn't want to go, so I set off by myself. It wasn't a long hike, certainly less than a mile, but it was cool to see all of the desert plants. At this point everything other than the cacti appear to be dormant, but one can only imagine what the desert will look like once the summer rains begin to come. Speaking of interesting sights, I came across the top of a hill and below me was Ensenada el Pescador (Fisherman's Bay). Someone had built some kind of resort with ten individual 15x15' cement rooms, a couple of common rooms and 3 large palaps. For some reason each of the rooms had a solar powered street light facing the room. Huh? I wandered around the facility and found a large Cat diesel generator purring away, a huge empty water cistern, but not a soul in sight. Strange!!! (see the photo album)

I traced my path back home and saw a panga with 2 people come into the bay. They were friendly enough, waving as they went by. Then they pulled up to the shore and from what we could tell, spent the next several hours up on a hill looking out across the bay and the area that I had just walked thru. Of course we came up with all kind of scenarios, but in the end we decided that they were looking for some kind of fish run that occurs on the full moon. They left without doing anything.

That evening we were treated to a rare sunset with _clouds_ and then the full moon rose. Unfortunately at about 3:30 we were awaken by the boat rolling side to side with a big NE swell coming into the anchorage. It appears that when the tide switches to an outgoing tide that these swells are generated. I'm sure that it doesn't help that we're at the spring neap tides, which are the largest, but it sure didn't make for a good night's sleep.

Today we're headed east to the S end of a huge island named Isla Angel da la Guarda (Guardian Angel) which is about 20 miles away.

-- Geoff & Sue

For the cruiser:

We anchored at the SE end of the bay in 20' over sand. Holding was good. The beach has a small area of nice sand, but much of it is covered in small rocks that exhibit all of the colors of the surrounding mountains. I just wish that I could have brought some home.

Log ID: 1456