Toward the end of June, 2022, we left Bahia Concepcion and the anchorage at Santo Domingo to sail north toward Santa Rosalia. We would make a stop for a few days at the Isla San Marcos to wait out some incoming wind. And to wait for space in the crowded Santa Rosalia harbor to open up for us to be able to anchor inside the break water.
Leaving Santo Domingo was a big day for us. This was the first day that we caught Mahi Mahi!! Up to this point, we’d been catching black skipjack tuna after black skipjack tuna. We like them but we were getting tired of their dark red meat. We wanted Mahi!
It was like flipping a switch. This was the land of the Mahi – or rather, the waters of the Mahi. We caught one on each of our next 3 passages heading north. And they were SO delicious. I wish we could catch one every time we go out. Sadly, after San Francisquito, the switch turned off again and that was the end of it.
Anchoring at Isla San Marcos (or the Island of Saint Marcus) – June 2022
We anchored with SV Captain Musick and SV Reverence in a roadstead anchorage off the NW tip of Isla San Marcos. Here, we waited out a couple of days of high winds from the SE. We were also awaiting, hopefully, a spot to open up in the crowded little harbor anchorage at Santa Rosalia.
The water here was super clear, and snorkeling was fun in a nearby bay. We swam and played with friends on the desolate beach. We found a turtle’s shell on the beach which raised some interest.
Around the corner, on the other side of the island, there’s supposed to be some pretty cool sea caves. Unfortuntately, we didn’t go as it would have taken us forever to reach them with our slow dinghy. Maybe we’ll be able to anchor at a closer spot as we cruise down the sea this spring. It would be awesome to check them out.
Anchoring at Santa Rosalia Harbor – June 2022
There’s one tiny marina at Santa Rosalia and it was packed full with cruisers transiting north in a big pack as we were heading through. Generally, it was said, there would be room for you to get a slip and you wouldn’t want to anchor there.
The protected anchorage inside the breakwater off the town is small and the bottom isn’t great. It’s rumored to have all kinds of industrial equipment primed and ready to catch your anchor. We were even told that cars have washed into the harbor during previous hurricanes … and may still languish on the harbor floor.
We had to anchor in there with 5 or 6 other boats. It’s a small space and the bottom was the worst holding we’ve ever experienced. We cruise with a 33kg Rocna anchor. It took something like 5 or 6 tries to get the anchor to hold in whatever gross sludge is at the bottom of that harbor. We were glad that it was forecast to be pretty calm while we were there. We didn’t trust the holding at all.
Above, you can see the harbor, as seen looking at it from the north side. Mosaic is the blue sailboat at the top left of the picture. The town itself was cute and we enjoyed our time here. It was a nice stop-over and would have been really great if we could have gotten a slip at the marina. We could have relaxed – but with the poor holding, we never quite did.
But we stayed for several nights and explored town a bit with friends. It was starting to get pretty hot though, so our forays to shore were somewhat limited. Brenden and I both agree that we would really love to visit the town again during a cooler time of year.
Exploring the Town of Santa Rosalia
I even got this photo – proof that it was starting to get pretty warm. Those are gummy snacks… completely melted into a puddle in their respective packages.
We also took a tour of a couple replicas of the old mines from the town’s past. We got a history lesson from a local in the process. It was really interesting to learn about. Here’s a cool blog post that I found with some of the same information.
Thanks for reading. Click here and sign up to help keep us afloat.