Bahia Santa Maria

Bahia Santa Maria anchorage
in morning light

Village in Bahia Santa Maria

Bahia Santa Maria anchorage
in afternoon light 

Sandbar at far end of anchorage

And if we thought Turtle Bay was huge, this bay was ENORMOUS! At over 9 miles long and over 4 miles wide, with just a low sandbar for much of its perimeter, anchoring in Bahia Santa Maria almost felt like anchoring in the open ocean. Most cruising boats stop in Magdalena Bay, about 15 miles south of here, since it is a more active harbor. We were attracted to this bay by its location, and by the opportunity to visit the tiny fishing village and estuary.

The location couldn't have been better in terms of timing our last passage down the Pacific coast of Baja, and the scenery was truly awesome. Sitting in the cockpit, just being in this isolated beauty, was worth the stop. But unfortunately, the wind foiled us again; it was blowing 20 knots during both days at anchor, which we felt was much too strong to try to wrestle the dinghy on and off the boat. We were deeply disappointed; after all, we came to explore, not just pass through! We also didn't know if we were being wimps, or being prudent (though I can say that the panga fishermen didn't go out to check their lobster traps either, so hopefully it's the latter). Since overall we've had good luck with weather, we can't complain about a little bad luck (and as bad weather luck goes, this is nothing!); I'm just hoping that our best laid plans of anchoring/hiking/snorkeling in the Sea of Cortez won't all be derailed like this...

In the meantime, we made the most of the days, interspersing more boat projects (making and installing a couple of shelves for safer storage, painting and rustbusting, etc.)  with admiring the spectacular surroundings.