I am the lone boat just off of the nearly 2 mile long white sand beach of Playa Bonanza on the southeastern end of Isla Espiritu Santo. The winds were blowing steady at about 20+ knots all night long and have continued through today. As I look through the binoculars out to the open water to the east I can easily see the "white buffaloes" (white caps in a rough sea) romping southward before the strong north winds. It is a bit rolly here in the anchorage but the shore and mountains to the north and west of me along with the shallow, good holding sand bottom keeps me comfortably safe.
Around noon today I threw the paddle board in the water and paddled the short 1/4 mile or so to shore with my trail shoes and camera in my backpack hoping to do a little trail run to the other side of the island. The Baja cruising guide talks of a trail that leads from this beach over to the west side of the island to Bahia San Gabriel, about 2 miles each way. As I approached the beach I spotted a man sitting under a small tree/bush and after landing I walked over to him and we began to chat. He is a guide here on the island for a company called Baja Adventures and stays on the island for 10 days taking care of clients who come and go. After the 10 days he goes home to LaPaz for 3-4 days to be with his family and then comes back here to care for the client who come to kayak, sailboard, hike, dive and do whatever else it is that they do here. After a brief visit I wiped the sand off of my feet, put on my Cascadia trail shoes and jaunted off to the other side of the island. Baja is definitely a desert environment and I enjoyed the beauty of red rock cliffs, large cactus and various thorny shrubs that lined the not so well marked trail. My paddle back to the boat into 20+ knots of wind was a bit challenging but topped off the day's workout nicely.
Before lunch I treated myself to a sun warmed, fresh water shower on deck. Since then I have just been bouncing between leisurely reading and various small projects. While I read I ran the watermaker for about an hour and topped off the tanks while the new array of solar panels did it's job of running the equipment and keeping the batteries full.
According to the weather reports this norther should start to settle down over the next two days. I will be 3 to 4 days of day sailing to get down to San Jose del Cabo where I pick up Dave and Stephanie on the 14th. I have been considering going in to LaPaz for a couple of days as it is only about 4 hours away but not really sure if I will or not. I'm not really a big fan of the city life and other than grabbing a few more fresh fruits and vegetables, there is really nothing there I need.
Question for all...I have been considering having my sister post these updates on the blog...what do you think? A waste of time or a good idea? Unfortunately there are no pictures to go with all of this writing, there is just no way of uploading pics unless I have internet, which obviously I don't. Well, I guess that will do for the report from my windy hide-a-way here in Playa Bonanza.
Bret
SV Liahona
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