After extending our stay at anchorage for another night to get a better weather window, we arrived in Santa Rosalia end of morning. We didn't even need to raise the marina on VHF to see 2 friendly helpers waving us in to a spare slip.
We learned from them that the dock water was not potable and would only be switched on for a couple hours in the morning. Apart from this minor inconvenience, the marina was a real gem. A small modern dock with about 20 slips total, for smaller boats mostly, ranging from 30 to 50 feet and room for a larger boat on the T-dock.
Even better, the marina was a few minutes' walk to downtown Santa Rosalia, although downtown is probably a big word and "down village" would probably describe things better.
To top things off, our slip cost us US$23 a night, the most reasonable we'd had in a long long time, to which our liberal use of electricity whilst making water and running the AC in heat mode added another $1.50 a day.
As soon as we were docked and settled in we went exploring, and found a very neat place. Most of the architecture dates from the town's mining past, with many colorful houses and shops. The first mining company there was French, so there are a number of reminders of their influence.
It starts with a famous bakery. We tried it, and more than the bread I enjoyed delicious chocolate donuts, fresh out of the oven. Then there is the church, an interesting building that was designed by Eiffel, of Parisian tower fame, and made basically as a flat pack building to be reassembled on site.
Th slip costs left plenty of room in the budget to also enjoy local restaurants, from the nice marina waterside one, to the local beer tavern and my favorite the open air taqueria next to the old swelter.
We had initially planned a 5 day stay, but strong Northerly winds came in. Soon all the slips were taken with everybody hunkering down to await calmer days. Our slip neighbors turned out to be a very interesting bunch. Out of the 20 slips, 5 were from the other side of the world, New Zealand and Australia, and another couple from Canada. Most boats were solid steel or aluminum made to purpose designs with integrated hard dodger, full railing all around and oozing cruising details and strength. As an eternal boat admirer, I really enjoyed learning more about each boat and each owner.
At this time of the year, with the heavy northerlies that are so frequent in the region, Santa Rosalia seems to be the gathering place for world adventurers. Most our neighbors had significant world wide cruising experience, including Pacific crossings, Alaska and French Polynesia.
All these hardy sailors with uncompromisingly stout boats had an interest for Nordhavn. A couple mentioned looking at buying one, and a few thinking of switching to one in the future to gain more comfort without losing seaworthiness. The husband of our German / Canadian neighbors, a very kind couple on a beautiful Bruce inspired steel design, even joked that we should stop mentioning our comforts to his wife, namely the water-maker and our washer dryer as it would push them to a Nordhavn.
Another declared we were living on a luxury condo that could also cruise like them. I can't disagree.
Santa Rosalia was also our last good opportunity for a complete provisioning run, with a large supermarket within easy walking distance from the marina, nice open air street vendors for excellent fresh fruits and vegetables as well as a local market for some last minute purchases.
Di and I must have been quite a sight rolling our 2 heavy carts full to the brim.
I got a few simple items from the local AutoZone as well.
With the storm raging outside we could see and hear the waves crashing on the outer jetty. Even the marina, on the far south side of the harbor was getting some wave action, which soon coated Enfin with a whole coat of salt and desert sand. Di and I did our best during the 2 hour water daily availability to pressure wash the boat, but I suspect we're going to find desert sand everywhere on the boat for the next 6 months!
All cruisers shared their weather forecasts and thoughts on when the waves would calm down, comparing the different forecasting models and their apparent disagreement. Not wanting to subject ourselves needlessly to big waves on the nose, I was happy to wait for things to calm down. No one can truly know how accurate a forecast will be, so we elected to stay another few days, paying for an extra weekend at the dock. To make things simpler for the marina crew we sorted out our departure paperwork and payment before hand. That left us free to leave at anytime during the weekend if the conditions improved as the European model was forecasting.
The European model proved right, as well as my guess that the angry choppy seas would calm down in only one night, so we set off at maritime dawn towards the North.
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Santa Rosalia, and were rather happy when the weather "forced" us to stay longer than anticipated.
Most marinas we've been to since arriving in Mexico have been very "gringo", with many of the surrounding businesses catering essentially to rich tourists. For the first time we felt like living a more authentic and less touristy experience, leaving us with big smiles on our faces and great memories from this little place.
Most our cruiser friends look at us funny when we tell them we're continuing to head North: Most cruisers seek to get away from the Northerly winds and head towards the warmer South instead.
We're hoping that despite the winds we'll find large empty anchorages with abundant wildlife.
The cruise continues.
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