Puerto Refugio -or Hurricane Hillary part II

9/29/2011


By the time we had motored back south from Bahia Willard things were looking pretty settles and we felt safe in postponing going all the way back to Puerto Don Juan in favor of waiting and watching from Puerto Refugio. In the end Hillary simply blew herself out allowing us to remain in one of the most beautiful and unspoiled anchorages in all of the North Sea.

In all we spent several weeks in the clear, clean, warm waters of Refugio. Tucked in safe and sound, no matter the winds there is a nook to slip into for protection which kept us safe from an array of weather. We had evening Westerly’s and a late night Chubasco or two along with afternoon thunderstorms and glorious sunsets. There are no inhabited areas close by which meant when the sun set at night the skies were amazingly dark and the stars were astoundingly bright. The entire time we were there we rarely had a boat close yet there were people close enough often enough to have a shared dinner or two and even hold a potluck while all our friends were potlucking in Puerto Don Juan to the south.

The fishing was by far the best we experienced anywhere in the Sea. We fished essentially every day and it never took more than a few minutes to catch enough for dinner. It was hot days, warm evenings and cool nights and the promised no-see-ums were few and far between.

These were the most isolated and most laid back of all our days so far. We discovered we didn’t wither away and die from the four month break from the internet. Instead I stacked up these blog posts and spent the days fishing, reading, swimming and baking bread. One day it was even cool enough to bake cinnamon rolls!
We learned to simply do without while keeping up a list of all the things we hoped to bring aboard again once we sail south. Laundry in buckets, showers everyday(we’re lucky,) simple meals and loads of solitude.

Of the thousands of boats that enter Mexico each year there were perhaps 20 who stayed all summer. Yet even many of them never make it as far as Refugio: most prefer to stay close to both the Village at BLA and to the refuge of Don Juan’s’ hurricane hole. But with the sea lions singing us to sleep each night and the birds calling us awake each morning we will look back to these days as some of our very best in Mexico.

Kat