Sunday, February 19, 2017

Passage North in Sea of Cortez

[Kyle] We had planned to make it all of the way north to the town of San Felipe, pretty much the northernmost pace to go on the Baja side, but the delay in Ensenada (waiting on parts) and then in Santa Rosalia (due to weather) meant it would be a more relaxing pace if we ceased our northerly progress a little short.  Our northerly most point inside the Sea of Cortez was now to be Bahia San Luis Gonzaga – two stops short of San Felipe on our original plan.

Even then, we had a frustratingly slow passage that took five days rather than three – a combination of having almost no wind and having to put in extra miles tacking nearly the whole way.  Heading south from here we now believe it should mostly be day sails, and from this point on– we can return to a shared sleep cycle, enjoy daylight together, and share the sights of this area of Mexico.



A passage filled with sunsets/sunrises, calms and the odd visitor

So – back to the passage north.  Apart from staring at our ETA indicator on the chartplotter, and wishing the wind would get us there the same week, we were close enough to land to have some nice scenery along the way. We also had several dolphin sightings a day and Maryanne had a big whale surface right next to her in the moonless dark of our first night.


Dolphins put on several shows for us on passage - always a pleasure!


We saw almost no boats during our journey until we arrived at our anchorage. where there were several pangas criss-crossing the bay fishing with nets, and a lone (longer term) sailboat; we guess the longer term cruisers in this area stick south in the winter, and keep the northerly points for the summer heat.

Busy fishermen at work as we finally arrive


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