BEAUTIFUL AND REMOTE BAHIA SANTA MARIA

We are currently (12/3/01) anchored in Bahia Santa Maria, in the lee of Mt. San Lazaro. We arrived here mid-day November 28 after a spectacular, even overly dramatic, 27 hour, 178 NM sail from Bahia San Hipolito. Short story is: steady 28 - 30 knots out of the WNW 8'+ seas for 12 hours then a BIG wind shift about 2 AM and 8 hours of 20 - 25 knots and 5' seas out of the NE while the NW seas continued. But it was warm!

We started from Hipolito at 8 AM with a single reefed main and full genoa. By 8 PM we had only a double reefed main and no headsail and were still making 7 - 9 knots. I did see one burst of 11.8 knots on the GPS. The problem was that we were right on the edge of deep water where it goes from 200+ fathoms to 30 fathoms so the seas were steep and close together. Things shook loose in the boat that had never moved before, even during the trip from Seattle to San Diego.

Mirador sailed great and the Sailomat windvane did an admirable job. It kept us within 15 degrees of the desired course, except when the odd wave hit from abeam and made us round up, but even then the Sailomat could drive us back downwind.

It was Arlene's birthday and the ugly wind waves/swells didn't make her feel very well. It was almost impossible to standup or lie down, the motion of the boat was pretty extreme. We put both rails in the water on some of the rolls. The wind maxed around mid-night when it was steady in the high 20s with extended periods in the 30s. My peak wind guage reading was 51 knots which agreed with what two other boats in the vicinity reported.

The wind shift was dramatic. In less than an hour it went from WNW to NNE. It dropped from 25 down to 12 or so as it shifted. Then it increased back to 25 or so and stayed that way until Cape San Lazaro. About day break I even got a queasy stomach! The two seaways at right angles to each other were horrendous. By then Arlene was feeling pretty good so she took over.

We have stayed here in Santa Maria for five days, partly to rest up, and mostly because it is just a beautiful and secluded anchorage. The NW wind is partially blocked by 4000' Mt. San Lazaro and the NW swell is totally blocked by the mountain and the huge sand spit that extends eastward toward mainland Baja. There are no villages or permanent structures on the Bay.

There are three temporary fishing villages on the NW part of the bay and back in the mangrove swamps that form the south border of the sand spit. Here are some pictures of the mangrove swamps and villages:

The water in the channel was more than 8' deep and ran with a strong current. The channel eventually just ended in a clump of mangroves.

We found a 24' wooden ketch about a mile back in the mangroves. It appeared to have been carefully anchored and secured to the mangroves and then abandoned. That is the mizzen mast leaning forward onto the main mast. The companionway was open and the interior was relatively uundamaged.

The odd thing about the whole mangrove swamp is that it exists as an oasis of green in an otherwise desolate desert environment. In the picture above, you can see Mt. San Lazaro behind the sailboat. We climbed about 1000' up the mountain and found only dried up cactus and lichen growing.

Here are is a view of the mangroves from the trail going up Lazaro.

Even the crabs have a hard time staying out of the cactus!

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A two mile wide sand dune seperates Bahia Santa Maria from the Pacific Ocean to the Northwest. The dune extends from Mt. San Lazaro to San Carlo. This is the NW side of the dunes which are bordered on the sourth and and southeast by the mangroves.

One of the fishing camps is situated on a bluff overlooking the bay, the other two are on the main channel in the mangroves. That is Mt. San Lazaro in the background. This camp is about a mile up the mangrove channel from the main bay.

We planned on leaving December 2 for Cabo San Lucas, but it was just too nice in Santa Marina so we stayed another day.