Bahia Espiritu Santo is a large shallow bay on the SE corner of the Yucatan Peninsula. It is a biosphere reserve and very isolated. The only paved road runs many miles inland from the beach and only a very rough dirt road connects to Punta Allen in Bahia Asuncion, 30 miles north. However no roads come into Espiritu Santo. A few Mayans live along its shores as their ancestors did growing corn and beans and catching fish.
The opening to the reef is 1.5 miles wide. You can spot the light house on Punta Herrero on the southerly side of the bay. The existing DMA chart 28190 and the C-Map charts we used on our Furuno Navnet were totally inadequate in scale and detail. The land is placed properly; we did a chart overlay with our radar and could see that. But the soundings and reefs are wrong both here and at Chinchorro banks. If you came in using those charts you’d hit the reef, missing the entrance completely. We used Freya Rauscher’s charts to “Belize and Mexico’s Caribbean Coast” and found them accurate enough. On entry we had two navigation programs to go by. This was a great help, but you have to be very cautious and go by “eyeball” navigation through the reefs and coral heads by reading the color of the water. This is true almost anywhere in the Carribean.
We came in as described by FR from her waypoint on a heading of 265T lined up on Owen Point light on the north end of Isla Owen. If you draw 6’ or less you can go to anchor on the west side of Isla Owen. Once inside the depths began to shoal and we turned north to anchor behind the reef. We turned north because a norther was predicted and this would offer the best protection.
We motored slowly north about 3 miles and anchored at 19 25.9’N, 87 27.9W in 10’ of water over hard sand between small widely spaced small coral patches. We had a hard time getting the anchor to set. I dove to check the anchor amidst fantastic coral and brightly colored fish that were very curious. The anchor had not set and I could see that it was sand over hard pan. Back on board we very carefully backed on our 100’ of chain and the anchor eventually grabbed.
At sunset at norther blew through with winds gusting to 37 knots from the NW. We dragged a short distance and our CQR grabbed again, I imagine on a coral head. We veered out another 50 feet of our ½” chain before dark just for good measure. The wind blew all night and it was chilly on the boat.
Next day, the wind calmed down but still NW. That morning we responded to a Mayday Call from a 30’ catamaran, “Ally’s Cat”, that hit the reef and sank 7 miles outside of us. We aided in their rescue and the Mexican Navy showed up later and took them on board their vessel.
In the late afternoon we made some soundings with the dinghy but it was too rough to take the computer along so we did it manually. We were anchored .9 of a mile off shore where there was a group of about three huts. We headed toward them and people were standing on the beach trying to direct us through the grassy shallows but we didn’t attempt to land. We shouted to them what all the commotion was about with the search and rescue boat and helicopter.
After two nights in Espiritu we departed for Chinchorro Banks.
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