We’ve just completed another series of passages from the
Pacific back up into the beautiful Sea of Cortez. First stop after our 310 mile
passage from Banderas Bay across to Baja California peninsula: Bahia de Los
Muertos (Bay of the Dead). 63 hours total transit time at ave 5 knots(mi)/ hr. Sighted
the cape of the Baja peninsula at 7:30 am Friday, 50 ½ hours into our passage from
the mainland. Although not a long distance compared to our friends heading to
the south Pacific, landfall is a welcome sight.
We watched for fishing lines stretched across large areas
along the northern route from Puerto Vallarta through the Tres Marias, 3
islands that include a prison – must stay 20 miles off shore to avoid Navy
intervention. Winds were changing to stronger NW earlier than the various weather
reports we’d studied.
We had all 4 sails up, then we took down two, and
motorsailed with main and mizzen, as our boat isn’t that great sailing to wind
(heading directly into it).
We did our 6 hour shifts 7:30pm to 1:30am – and 1:30 to
7:30am. We do long night watches and enjoy constellations passing across the
sky and waited for the waning moon crescent arising in the wee hours for a
spectacular, but short time. On the 2 nights, we switched schedules so each
could experience the sunset to darkness shift and the late night to sunrise.
Each offers different sensations! Main sail up at night with a reef in it. That
presents the most interesting exhilaration seeing the sail against the night
sky and the wind whipping in your face when you peer into the darkness looking
for something you don’t want to see.
The rest of the story fell below the photos from our journeys...
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| Mexican navy boat in the anchorage |
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| Bird on the sheet as we enter Barra |
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| Sunrises rock! |
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| Jumping giant rays |
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| Time for our 5th flag! |
Although I am enjoying night passages more each time, they
are unnerving as you can’t really see where you’re headed unless the stars or
moon light your way. Whitecaps and waves bash against the boat and you wonder
what the noise is.
The water in the sea is so intense in its many shades of
blue and green, it’s incredible. The bioluminescence has been incredible these
last few days. A fish passing, or a dolphin zipping by in the darkness leaves
an undescribable trail of light in the water.
We made the passage with friends on Loomba Loomba so shared
communications during our two and a half days northwestbound. We maneuvered 50
degrees to port behind a cargo ship that showed on our radar screen as moving,
but apparently wasn’t actually moving. So, best to be safe and pass to stern,
giving plenty of distance between us. Rules of the road say to avoid collisions
and it’s just plain good thinking!
As the morning progressed, the chop picked up and the winds
made us hobbyhorse, fighting current and against the wind. This slows us down
to 3-4 knots per hour so our passage was longer. The Japanese temple bell we
received from Teresa and Dan tinkles constantly as a reminder that all is well.
We had several days of red tide on the Pacific side, with
intense blooms of red and brown that made the water scary and the water
temperature dropped by 20 degrees. So no more swimming. Algae blooms and
thousands of small white jellyfish floating by near the surface. Good
reminders: don’t fall in!
