March 14, 2016 - Bahia Concepcion

We felt a lot of excitement coming back to Bahia Concepcion.  We were here in August of 2015 just prior to crossing the sea to San Carlos to put the boat away for the summer.  Last year there was no one here, it was HOT, and the water was warm!  We had one of our most memorable and enjoyable stops here.  This time we have had fun but this location has lost a lot of its flare.  We arrived after a 7 hour run from the north in favorable winds and seas, ending up with higher winds as we entered the bay, winds at 20-30 knots.  We still had a comfortable ride and we got anchored without issue.  We found an unsecured wifi hotspot and had a bit of internet access, which we limit to checking weather, and email.  The empty beaches we remember from last year are now filled with RV's and campers.  All the empty houses are occupied, and one of the bays is filled with local's boats on mooring balls.  It looks very different from our visit last year.

The following day we had decided to move to a fabulously special location we remember from last year; Isla Coyote (Bargo).  Last year we had the small/tight anchorage to ourselves and thoroughly enjoyed snorkeling in the warm water, and playing on the pristine white sand beach.  It was truly one of the highlights of our entire journey last year.  As we approached we noticed two people with three tents on the beach at Isla Coyote.  The man appeared to be walking around naked.  As we got closer the man decided he should get dressed.  He then proceeded to stare us down as we anchored, standing motionless for 10 minutes on the beach just staring at us.  We ate breakfast at the same they were eating their breakfast on shore when we heard the woman yell "You are an Axx-Hxxx!  Why HERE?"  Those x's are a curse word.  They stood up and then smoked something, the woman mooned us and even got out a sling shot and started shooting rocks out into the water near us.  Was this some sort of  warning shot across the bow?  The man took off his clothes and started doing yoga exercises, probably to make some sort of statement, we assume.  Not a good return to one of our favorite locations in all of Mexico.  They looked as if they were going to be here a while with an assortment of gear scattered about one corner of the beach.  An hour later they headed out on paddleboards and the woman paddled over and said "can I ask you a question? why HERE?"  She was quite hostile and told us that we ruined their "view".  We explained a bit about anchoring and the limitations we have if we want to be safe (depth, bottom conditions, rocks, proximity to shoreline, GPS coordinates for a known safe anchorage, etc).  We brought the kids out so she could see we were a family, together, and to hopefully suggest that perhaps their "nasty" behavior was inappropriate.  She then toned down her aggressive attitude, fortunately.  She definitely sounded like an American, but we suppose she could have been Canadian, but we doubt it.  She told us they paid to be taken here to this remote location to get away from all the RV's on the beach, and they didn't like our boat parked in front of them, and could we move somewhere else.  She thought we were incredibly rude for anchoring in front of "their" beach.  She also informed us that they were going to be here for 6 more days.  Multiple dinghies of American's came through, as well as a few Mexican Panga's during our brief stay here.  A few even landing on the beach.  This is a beautiful little island and cove and is not privately owned.  It is for everyone to enjoy.  These people seemed to think it was theirs, alone, and did not want to share it with anyone else.  In nearly 1.5 years and 5000 miles of cruising during our adventure this is the first negative experience we have had in any anchorage, and wouldn't you know it, it had nothing to do with Mexico, or Mexicans.  It was the result of Americans!

Naked man, and the woman, doing yoga on "their" beach.

The camp for the two "ugly American tourists" we encountered.

We decided to stay, not wanting to cave in to their negative approach, and lowered the dinghy.  In a strange twist of fate, not 5 minutes after getting the dingy down a strong NW wind kicked up and an unpleasant wave started rolling through the anchorage.  This is a tight anchorage, where we are anchored just 150' off the beach in shallow water.  There isn't room for anything to go wrong, and having winds kick up makes this an unappealing anchorage. We lifted the dinghy and decided to leave this crazy encounter behind us, and head south to Isla Requeston.  This would be the southern-most stop in Bahia Concepcion.  We arrived at Isla Requeston but unfortunatley the winds and waves were beginning to pick up a bit more.  Two sailboats were in the south cove (the two American boats we met back in Santa Rosalia) so we took the north bight in about 10 knots of breeze.  For the next few hours the winds slowly increased and we were seeing steady 15-20 knots instead of the 4-6 knots which were in the forecast.  With more than 10 miles of fetch, the waves were getting larger and larger.  After a few hours of increasing wind and waves, we decided to go back north to the place we originally departed from in the morning.

As we motored up the bay we saw winds of 25 knots with increasingly larger waves.  Whitecaps were everywhere and the pilothouse received a nice salt water shower thanks to waves splashing against the hull.  So much for the flat seas in the forecasts!  We anchored back in Posada Concepcion a few hundred feet from where we started our day.  The winds were still blowing 20+ knots.  A far cry from the predicted winds we saw in 4 different weather forecasts this morning, which all called for light winds (4-6 knots) and calm seas.  Oh well, this is boating, and nothing is written in stone.