What a mellow crossing! We sailed out of San Carlos at 1530 with about 10 kts on the beam. As the sun set and the Sonoran coast faded away behind us, the wind faded too. This evening we were lucky and saw the "green flash" at sunset. This burst of light can sometimes be seen as the very last of the sun’s disk dips below the horizon. It’s the result of the atmosphere bending the light and causing a color change from red-orange to blue-green. It’s only seen when the sun sets over the sea.
With autopilot and chartplotter powered up Solera took care of herself. We motorsailed through the night on flat calm seas. Once again, the luminescence put on a show. This time it was different though as large schools of fish created great undulating clouds of glowing water around Solera. As we motored along in the moonless night these schools would brighten then dim depending on the activity of the fish. The scene was very dynamic and captivating. A golden moon rose at around 2300 and gave the sea surface a dramatic look. It faded to yellow then to the more usual light blue as it rose. I stayed up till around 0100 then Cyn took her turn at watch. After a good 3 hours of sleep I was back in the cockpit. So far, I’ve never had a problem staying awake. The 72 mile passage took us just under 15 hours.
With the calm conditions we decided to take a more southern track and head to Punta Chivato instead of Isla San Marcos. This is a beautiful and comfortable anchorage but only in calm or light northerly winds. Ashore, there is an incredible shell beach, a few gringo houses and a small restaurant / hotel complex. Our cruisers guide suggested having a margarita on the stone patio of the restaurant that overlooks the anchorage. We took that advise and thank the author for the suggestion.
Next, it was off to Bahia Concepcion . The sailing was great on this 18 mile passage. We arrived at the Santispac anchorage on the Saturday before Easter. One problem though. This is a huge holiday weekend in Mexico and this spot has easy access. So, it was party central with atvs, dirt bikes, jet skis, ski boats, kayaks and families camping all along the half mile beach. We moved less than a mile to a more inaccessible anchorage and found peace.
Cyn just reminded me to write about my dinghy incident while preparing to leave Concepcion. First off, I think there is a place in hell reserved for the guy who designed this little deflatable boat. Everything glued is coming unglued, the floorboards are too big and make you crazy trying to fit them, and the two patches it has are starting to leak. It’s leaks are leaking! Anyway, I was lifting the dinghy onto the deck with the spinnaker halyard when "pop" the lifting handle on the bow broke. The boat lands in the water, begins drifting away, and I get to go for a cool early morning swim to go retrieve it. Time for a new dink!
Our next passage was a long one from Posada Concepcion to San Juanico. We sailed and motorsailed the 54 miles to keep from arriving after dark. Anything under five knots would not do. We also had an interesting sea state. A strong SE swell was running against wind driven NE waves. I’d call it lumpy. Not really rough but lumpy and confused. The preventer on the boom really helped since the apparent wind was not strong enough to always keep the mainsail out. We arrived to a somewhat crowded and rolly anchorage. While scoping things out we got a call on VHF from catamaran Magic. He asked what our draft was then suggested we anchor between him and shore in about six feet of water! Solera draws four and one half. The plus side was this part of the anchorage was well protected with a good sand bottom. Boats in the deeper open area were rocking rail to rail. The cruisers out here are really great. We had a kayak escort checking the depth for us as we carefully anchored. We slept like beach dogs that night as the deep draft boats out in the swell did their best metronome impressions.
Our plan is to keep quickly moving South while these North winds are blowing. They will be changing to southerlies soon and when they do, they stay that way all summer. Hopefully we can ride these winds to La Paz then take our time on the way back. There is still a lot to see along this section of the Baja coast.
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