San Evaristo to Bahia La Gato – sleeping under the stars

Dec 22 – San Evaristo was a dirty sprawling disheveled town. Garbage was strewn in the bushes, dogs roamed the grounds and chicken pecked in the dirt. They have road access to La Paz, where they go for everything they need, but in town there are no amenities. One family runs a small Tienda, which was closed when we were they as they had run out of merchandise to sell. Apparently someone was returning from La Paz that evening with products to stock their shelves. The locals communicate via VHF – channel 22.

We left easy morning- 6:30 – just as the sunrise was fading into blue. The wind was gone, only a small trace of it was left on the choppy sea, but even that levelled out before we made Bahia Los Gatos. We first stopped by Timbabiche, thinking the old Casa Grande would be worth a visit and a few photographs, but it was overgrown with bushes and there were plastic tents in the foreground -we didn’t even bother investigating. Rather we took a spell on the beach, met a lonely fisherman, then continued onwards to Bahia La Gato.

I have no idea why this is called Bay of the Cats. Really it should be called Bahia de Rocas Rojo – or bay of red rock. Here the cliffs meet the sea in swirling waves of rolling red sandstone, painted in all the colors of the sunset.  It was geography as I had never seen it, and made for excellent walking along the smooth tops. Anchored that night, watching the sunset brilliant colors across the backdrop of the jagged La Gigantic mountain range, we both decided this little bay was one of the most beautiful places we had seen.

Dec 23 – Almost Christmas Eve! Kolby and Fynn slept outside last night – dragging the aft mattress onto the bow and making a nest of blankets under the stars. In the morning we all piled on the mattress with coffee and smoothies and watched the sun come up. It was a particularly amazing sunrise, the best we had seen.

There was a light breeze and we were able to mostly sail as we made our way towards Aqua Verde.  We also started on some shitty projects. Literally shitty. Kolby replaced the broken macerator pump with a new one and repaired the old one to have a spare. I stuck my arm up to my elbow into the holding tank to try and clean the sides so that the sensors to indicate tank level would work again. Like I said, very shitty. Then as we were making water the water maker motor overheated and shut down so Kolby spent the next 40 minutes installing the fan he had purchased months ago for that purpose. So three jobs off the to do list, but a bit of a lost trip up the coast. Despite it all we saw pilot whales and caught a fish off the lure. It was just a tiddler, so we threw it back.