Onward to Bahia Asuncion

October 25-27, 2022  

Although we could have happily spent at least another few days exploring the area of San Quintin, on October 25th at around noon, just as the wind was starting to pick up, we pulled up our anchor and headed out.  

Once we were out of the shallow areas we put out our fishing lines and hoped for better luck.  Soon, it seemed that our luck had indeed changed and we got our first bite.  Unfortunately it got away, but it was not long after that that we had another one. 

This time Jason fought it to the boat, and I was able to net it.  It was a beautiful Pacific Bonito, what lovely colours! 

And, to add to the delight, the fillets from it were quite large (thick and wide) for the size of fish. 

It was our first time catching and dealing with a fish on board our sailboat while actually under sail, and having the fish-cleaning station at the back of the boat was perfect.   

After catching that fish we had two more bites that got away, we caught and kept another Bonito, and also caught and released a third.  Since we had only ever had Pacific Bonito in ceviche, we did not know what we would think of it as a fillet.  Now, however, since having had the Pacific Bonito for dinner, and trying it pan-fried and on tostadas, we would not have released the third one, because the Bonito was delicious.  It had dark meat, somewhat like tuna, and it was deliciously rich in flavour.   

The next day we had lots of action on our rods, but no fish to the boat.  Two of the fish, however, must have been massive, as they took off and began unspooling our reel, which was specifically designed for Tuna fishing.  Even with the reel set to max drag the fish easily unspooled about 400 feet of line.  Lucky for us, before the reel came to the end of its line, both fish managed to unhook themselves leaving us with all of our gear.  When we reeled in the line to check the lure we saw scratches that had been left from teeth about two feet up from the hook.  We did not get to see either of these two monsters, but one of them did come close enough to the surface for us to see a large area of disturbance in the water.  It would have been so interesting to see these ocean giants.   

On our second morning at sea, and just before coming in to our new anchorage, we caught our first Dorado (Mahi Mahi).  What a beautiful fish, brilliant yellow and blue coloring, a long dorsal fin, and a very unique shaped head with a large forehead. 

For the size of the fish we found that it had very thin fillets, not nearly as much meat from one of them as from the Bonito, but it was very delicious.   

The day before we left San Quintin another sailboat had pulled into the anchorage.  However, as I mentioned previously, the anchorage area was so very large that they were just a spec in the distance.  They left the anchorage shortly before we did, and so for the next two days we traveled within about 10-20 nautical miles of each other, and we ended up having a few conversations with them over the VHF radio.   

The boat was called "Forever and Ever" and they had left Brentwood Bay in British Columbia on the same day that we had left Tofino.  It is amazing how small the world can feel sometimes, as here we were, sailing down the Pacific coast of the Baja in Mexico, about 15 nautical miles from land, with only one other boat in the whole area, and not only do they end up being from Canada, but when we got on talking and mentioned that we were from Ocean Falls the captain replied, “I had never heard of Ocean Falls until earlier this year, but I have three friends who sailed up there and are living aboard at the Government dock”.  Well that sure surprised us, and of course since everyone knows everyone in Ocean Falls, we knew exactly who he was talking about.  What a very small world. 

On one of the nights, at about 22:00, as we were sailing peacefully along with a lovely wind of 10-15 knots, Jason was on first watch and I was asleep below when the Captain of Forever and Ever radioed to say that they had just been hit with a wind gust of 40 knots and currently had steady 25-30 knots winds.  They were ahead of us and also further offshore, but we could not ignore the warning, so moments later I was up on deck, we had our life jackets on, and we were tethered to the boat reefing our main sail.  After putting a double reef in our main, and also reefing our jib, I went back to bed, and we were both waiting for the sudden gust that seemed imminent. 

We sailed along slowly for the rest of the night and never saw more than 15 knots of wind.  Better safe than sorry though.   

Although we had wanted to stop and explore the San Bonito Islands, we also had perfect wind and sea conditions for comfortable sailing, so we decided to keep going all of the way to Bahia Asuncion.  As we were sailing between the San Bonito Islands and Isla Cedros we started seeing a new type of marine mammal, they were the Guadalupe Fur Seal, which are listed as threatened under the endangered species list.  They looked very much like a California Sea Lion, but much smaller, more the size of a common seal.  They would rest in the water with their heads under the surface and their fins sticking straight upward, and when they were on the move they would porpoise along, jumping out of the water.  They were very fun to watch.  We also saw a common seal with a large fish in its mouth surrounded by at least twenty sea birds that clearly all wanted a share.   

During a shift change on our last night of the trip to Bahia Asuncion we were both up in the cockpit when I felt something hit my leg and drop to the floor.  I thought that Jason had dropped something in the dark so I bent down to pick it up and was very surprised to feel something that was wet, cool, and slimy.  We turned on our red-light headlamp and found a squid, about 5” long staring up at us.  Jason scooped it up and threw it back out into its natural environment, but we were left amazed at the size of its jump.  Not only had it jumped up to deck level, but it had also come an extra 1.5’ higher to clear the side of our cockpit, and come in about four feet from the edge of our boat, and, it had managed to aim perfectly to enter through the open cockpit window panel.  The next morning we found three more squid that had been stranded on our deck during the night and had died. 

As we approached the anchorage of Bahia Asuncion we had a small white heron or egret-type bird come out to greet us.  It flew around and around our boat, and then landed on our solar panels.  Although it had come to see us, it was also very shy, and no matter how stealthily I tried to peek my head out to take a picture of it, it would spot me and fly away; then after another couple of flybys it would always come back and land again.  Sadly, I never managed to get a picture.