13 January 2022 – This afternoon we weighed anchor and departed Bahia San Quintin intending to anchor at Isla Cedros for a day or two before going on to Bahia Tortugas. What really happened was that we arrived several miles (and several hours) north of Islas Cedros just before dark, meaning we would not get to our anchorage until after nightfall. Bad idea.

So, we re-shaped our course on down to Bahia Tortugas and pressed on through the night. The wind died off just after sunset and we were windward of Isla Cedros, meaning we could have been pushed onto the island by the current, so I fired up the engine and we drove for about three hours to clear the southwest corner of Isla Cedros. (As an aside, Isla Cedros was so named by the Spanish explorers who mistook the endemic junipers for cedars, with which they were more familiar).

A couple of hours before dawn I took the helm from Jimena just south of Isla Natividad. We sailed slowly toward Bahia Tortugas. I heard several whales breathing around us in the dark and once the sun rose, I saw several more.

As we approached the entrance to Bahia Tortugas the wind died off. We fired up the engine a little ways out, then of course, the wind got up out of the northeast. Coming to the entrance to the Bay we threaded our way through the floats of numerous lobster pots.

The wind being out of the northeast, when we turned northeast into the Bay we ran right into it. We furled the mainsail, cranked the engine then drove into a beautiful anchorage in front of the town in about 25 feet of water. There were a couple of sailboats and a fisherman there already. Bahia Tortugas promises to be a veritable metropolis compared to the places we have anchored thus far. It advertises grocery stores, water, diesel fuel and internet access.

Jimena and a local panga driver, both speaking Spanish, could not understand hide nor hair of what the other was saying.