We were planning to stop and spend a little time at each of the anchorages between Bahia Tortugas and Cabo (Asuncion, Abreojos, Hipolito, San Juanico, Bahia Santa Maria, Mag Bay) but after 5 days at Turtle Bay, the last few where it was blowing hard, we were a bit chilly and anxious to get south. There was a good weather window to leave and we didn’t want to get stuck in an anchorage that wasn’t fully protected (Bahia Tortugas is the most protected anchorage along the Baja Pacific coast). There was a window to hop down to Asuncion, so we treked 50 nautical miles south with the intention of anchoring in Asuncion if we could get there before sundown. The sun was rapidly sinking in the sky when we approached, but we felt we’d have just enough light to get in safely and drop hook.

Our prayer flags flapping in the breeze.

On the way in, we noticed several lobster traps scattered throughout the channel. We noticed one go by dangerously close to Bloom’s hull, all of us looking at it and thinking “close call!” just as the lobster trap’s float slowly got sucked underneath Bloom. Yipes! We quickly killed the motor and grabbed a knife. After a few minutes, we were able to cut the trap free. We think it was caught on our rudder, but aren’t entirely sure. We just feel terrible for the poor local who lost their lobster trap, not to mention the poor lobsters trapped for all eternity…. 🙁 Thankful that Bloom didn’t suffer any damage from the incident though!

Bloom has some company, tagging a ride on her bow.

We woke at about midnight in the anchorage at Asuncion to Bloom, rolling around aimlessly on the lumpy waves. Southern swell was coming into the anchorage that is only protected from the North/North West. No bueno! We tolerated it for a few more hours and tried to rest up from our long sail the day before, ate a quick breakfast and got the heck out of there. We were all feeling disappointed about this as we had wanted to explore the town here and perhaps grab a jerry of diesel. Our friends on sv Adventurer had stayed here several days as they absolutely loved it. Oh well! On we went bright and early, heading further south to Bahia Santa Maria, about 200 nautical miles. This would mean some long days and a night sail, but we were ready for it! It was a pleasant trip, and we even caught a Skipjack tuna along the way! Our first fish of the journey. Fish tacos for dinner- yum! We also were joined by an unidentified sea bird on our bow for about 12 hours straight. We nicknamed him Al and enjoyed watching him preen himself and rest on Bloom’s bow all along the journey to BSM. We dropped our anchor in the dark at about 9pm the next night in about 25 feet with a sand bottom at 24°46’509 N / 112°15’283. We watched closely off the bow on the way in with a super-bright spotlight to be sure we didn’t hit another lobster pot!

We finally got to go to shore!! A beach all to ourselves…

Bahia Santa Maria was full of several other boats, several of whom we knew from our journey south. It was nice to link up with some friends again and be stationary as well! All of the boats were monitoring channel 68, so it was easy to keep in touch and join in with the others rather than being isolated from everyone. The next day proved very windy- so much that we couldn’t get to shore. So, we were pent up on the boat for even more time. Lisa and Ruby had not been off the boat in 6 days and Jason and Carson, 5. Needless to say, we were all itching to get off and stretch our legs! Finally, we got a calmer day and ventured to shore. Several other boats when up the estuary, but the Bloom crew just wanted a long beach and a walking trail. We took the dinghy around the bay, looking for the ideal spot to land as there is some big (surfable!) waves coming into this bay that make for difficult (or interesting?) dinghy landings. We found a little sandy beach on the Northwest side of the bay that had some smaller breakers coming in, timed it and got shot in to the beach. Ruby immediately leaped out and started doing a happy dance all over the beach. We pulled the dinghy up onto the sand and spent the next few hours exploring, hiking and beach combing! Getting back int the dinghy and out into the water was another story that involved an upside-down Carson, half-wet Jason and bruised Lisa. We managed to get going and as we were heading back out to Bloom, saw a panga full of Mexican fisherman. We flagged them down and asked them if they had any lobster. They did and they wanted $3 a piece for them. Amazing. We asked for three and handed him $10 (the extra intended for them to keep) They tossed 4 lobsters in our dinghy and were on their way- leaving Ruby sitting there wondering what the heck just happened and who our new crew members were. We headed back to Bloom just in time to cook the lobsters up for lunch. Deee-lish! Ruby has also discovered that she loves langosta… 

Fresh lobster lunch onboard!

Connectivity note: We got some spotty cell reception in Asuncion as well as Bahia Santa Maria. Asuncion supposedly has an internet cafe you can go to onshore, but we only stayed one night, so never got the chance to go see! NO WiFi in Bahia Santa Maria. If you go to shore and climb the mountain some, you will have better luck getting cell reception.

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