October 10th, 2007:Cruising Puerto Escondido Area
Author: Adam
We finally left the Ellipse and spent a few days anchored in Honeymoon cove on Isla Danzante just 5 miles from Puerto Escondido. When we arrived the water was crystal clear and in excess of 80 degrees in temperature. We had heard there was good spearfishing off the south reef and were keen to check it out but wanted first to climb the island and take pictures of Estrella and the surrounding beauty. We anchored in the south cove in 14’ of water just off the beach. We could clearly see our Rocna buried deep in the sand from the dinghy as we motored ashore.
We hiked up the trail to the precipitous cliffs on the east side of the island and took many pictures. While we were up there two fellows from the Mexican “Parque” or Parks department landed in their panga and began the same hike we had. I spoke with them and they told me they were taking a survey of what species of brush, cacti and plants were on Isla Danzante. We had a lovely hike down with them and they sped off to the north cove.
We jumped in the water shortly after and swam the few hundred yards to the south reef leaving the dinghy tied to the boat. Instantly we saw lots of dinner swimming around. This was the first place I had seen good sized sawtail and leopard grouper swimming in open water. Unfortunately my jury rigged speargun was giving me lots of difficulty. I managed to dive and get near enough to a good sized leopard grouper but when I hit the bottom in about 18’ he turned to stare at me and in doing so presented a poor target.
It is much easier to shoot the side profile of a fish than his face, especially from 10’ away. So I waited, holding my breath for what seemed a long time before he turned to swim away. I shot him but couldn’t give chase to secure him since I needed to breathe. Consequently, he managed to flail off of my spear. This was the 2nd grouper I had shot and lost. I was getting a little frustrated. I spent the day hunting on that reef while Kris snorkeled and took pictures we both had a blast.
We went back to the boat empty handed and had a lovely Chicken Teriyaki dinner and watched some TV.
We spent the next two days snorkeling around and chased many fish to no avail. Tasin and Rengin on Delfin Solo sailed into the harbor and tasin joined me for some spearfishing. Tasin took a small pargo and I missed a few grouper.
Our last day in Honeymoon Kris, Tasin and I went around the point to the N end of the island and towed our dinghies along the outside of the island while we fished. After awhile Kris took over the towing of both dinghies to free Tasin and I up to dive for fish. We didn’t see many fish on the outside of the island and when we got to the N reef and turned into the cove we hit a stiff current. Part of the point of towing the dinghy while we spearfish is that if we get caught in a strong current we can jump in the dinghy and motor through it. Kris was struggling with the two dinghies so I took them from her and swam them to the shallower N reef and anchored them. Tasin decided we should go to the south reef as his freediving fins were having trouble beating the current.
Kris got in the dinghy and I noticed Tasin was making one last pass to look for fish so I decided to do the same. I saw a decent sized leopard grouper who seemed to be taunting me by staying just ahead of me in the current. If there had been no current I could have just dove and shot it but I knew if I dove the current would drag me out of range so I had to swim ahead of the fish. The fish seemed to know this and want me to suffer. I swam hard for a long way. My legs were burning as the fish ducked under a reef and displaced the biggest grouper I had ever seen. My eyes grew wide as I dove to give chase but this elder fish was much smarter and felt no need to toy with me and swam off instantly. I gave up and turned down current to return to the dinghy and on the way past that reef I saw a very nice sized grouper and dove. Tasin loaned me his extra European speargun so I was better equipped for shooting into reefs. So when that nice grouper ducked behind a rock and looked right at me I shot it right between the eyes. This paralyzed it and I had an easy swim back to the cooler. Tasin lit up when he took the fish from me and complimented me on the kill.
I reloaded and followed him to the south reef. We had a lovely day in the water. Tasin has a reputation for being an expert free diver and spear-fisherman. All the people who were cruising with him had spoken of how he would go diving for the day and bring enough fish back to feed the fleet. He had been suffering from a mild ear infection so he couldn’t dive for 10 days and was suffering from withdrawl. I wanted to give Tasin my first grouper, so he could be given fish for a change. When we were done that day we had swam a great distance, from the north tip of the island around the cove and then from the southern tip all the way to the next anchorage down the island. My fish was in Tasin’s cooler and I told Kris I hit a good sized grouper. When Tasin opened the cooler a massive Leopard grouper was on top of the pile and I had to tell Kristina mine was the “little one” underneath. So I didn’t get to give Tasin my fish but he didn’t need it, what with his huge grouper. Everybody in the cove ate well that night.
The N wind built up the following day to 20-25 knots and destroyed the lovely visibility in the water so we sailed back to Escondido to go watch football at Augie’s in Loreto with Kenny from Brandywine. It was a bouncy fast reach across under jib and jigger. Kenny from Brandywine took us to town many times for Sunday NFL football. My Bears are not having a great year but I am used to it. It was hard to leave Kenny and Escondido as we had gotten so comfortable there but we knew the northers would begin soon. We were already starting to get some northerly blows and the Sea of Cortez was getting choppy.
We spent the next week preparing for our departure from Escondido.
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