Return to San Carlos

On Sunday, we set sail at 5:00am leaving Dog Bay for the 60 mile sail back to Las Cocinas to anchor over night and then sail an additional 30 miles back to San Carlos with the goal of arriving Monday around 1:00pm to return the borrowed navigation books.

A smile at 4:30am and back to Nescafe instant coffee. It surely is not the caliber of Starbuck Via, however, we are just grateful for some form of coffee at such an early hour.

Weather reports touted north northwest winds at 15 knots. This thrilled us at it mean the wind would
be pushing us the entire way. Well, weather reports tend to be wrong at times...like this time. There
was no wind so we motored and enjoyed the sunrise. Sailing in the dark was easier this time as the seas were so calm. 

Several hours later it happened…DOLPHINS…and hundreds of them! We could see them in the distance in front of us and some of them turned right towards us. Being witness to these gorgeous beings truly is a breathtaking experience.

The video doesn't do justice however it gives you an idea of how close they came to us.

The dolphins were jumping all over and a few launched themselves completely out of the water!

DJ Suz was on board with the Bose system and iPod rocking the sea! Thanks to M&M for the iPod!

Here is one of the more notable landmarks due to the red color unlike any of the other mountains.

It took us 11.5 hours to arrive at Las Cocinas. Our arrival was met with northerly winds making the bay choppy. We attempted to anchor in the south bay however we were unable to secure our anchor. After four unsuccessful attempts, we headed to the north bay, a much smaller bay, however this bay protected us from the wind and choppy seas. It took us three more attempts to set our anchor. An hour and a half after arriving the anchor was set and we were relieved!

This is what one looks like after a day like this…tired, crazed and dazed!

The north bay of Las Cocina is home to small fishing village as described to us by others. The village consist of three dwellings and one operable panga.

To the other side of the north bay are two newly built and empty restaurants with a trailer in-between with that appears to be a man watching over the structures. We learned a few bays over a dozen cabanas were built to support a resort style living and the empty restaurants here were to be linked to the resort. Like many of the plans to develop these parts of Mexico it often does not come to fruition.
Many speculate corruption as the culprit.

The evening rewarded us with an incredible sunset and moon.

San Carlos bound and still no wind as promised by the weather report. We took advantage of our auto pilot and Poncha took in some stillness while passing San Pedro Island.

She also read up on Jade's electrical system. Not the easiest system to comprehend.

While passing San Pedro Island the dolphins were out in full force. These were a smaller species than the ones we saw the day before and they were everywhere swimming, jumping and feeding. As I was admiring them with the binoculars Poncha gasped which caused me to look up just in time! She had
spotted a whale! We both stood awestruck as the whale breached and its fluke swung majestically into the air and disappeared back into the sea.

Five miles from San Carlos the wind arrived! The sea was full of white caps. We clocked the winds
around 20 miles per hour!

Here are two pics showing the difference in the seas...

Without wind.

Wind at 20 mprh.

As we approached the marina the winds were picking up. 22 mph. 25 mph. Our senses heightened as we wondered if we could make it into the marina. As we turned towards the bahia which you pass before entering the marina there were more whitecaps than we had ever seen and the winds were gusting at 27 mph! We knew this was too much to handle and turned Jade around to seek an alternate place to anchor in hopes the wind might die down enough to allow us back into our marina slip. Well, this was not the case. The winds stayed strong and we struggled for FOUR long hours trying to set our anchor! Oh the joys of being novice sailors! We tried numerous places to anchor, two different bays, a cove and the bahia. The winds were so strong we could not keep Jade pointed into the wind which is where you want her when you anchor.  Exhausted and running out of options and daylight we headed to the fuel dock as sailboats dock there to wait out the winds before moving into their slips. As we rounded the corner we saw a 50 foot boat at the fuel dock leaving no room for Jade. Once again, we turned her around and retuned to one of the bays determined to set anchor. After a few more attempts and 30 minutes of daylight left we did it! We've never been so tired and spent!

The next day at 7:00am with calm seas and a slight breeze we pulled up anchor and Poncha guided Jade perfectly back into her slip at the marina! The best return to slip Poncha has done thus far!

The remainder of the day was spend washing clothes and washing Jade.

Jade performed beautifully over the past ten days. There are now just a few things to tend to like refueling, replenishing our water supply, provisioning up and working on a few more projects. We hope to take off again very soon….this time for weeks!

Dog Bay

We spent three wonderful days at Dog Bay on Isla Tiburón. This is the largest island in the Sea of Cortez (464 square miles) The Seri, an indigenous group to this area, believe the souls of their deceased come to this island and roam.

The guide books say there is a mountain/rock formation that looks like a dog, hence the name Dog Bay. We really could not locate it. We did however notice a small white shack atop a hill which we deemed 'The Dog House'. If you squint your eyes the hill may look like a dog skull…maybe.

We spent time exploring the beach. This place had a plethora of sand dollars and shells, in particular shells that resembled small conch shells which were white on top and pink underneath. These lined the shore looking like cotton candy.

   

Poncha found good use for a few shells.

Further down the beach we came across an area that contained whale vertebrae which we could tell were being used a stools we think by local fisherman due to the surroundings.

Can you say you've sat on a whale's back? Poncha can as she ponders life here at Dog Bay.

A few feet away was a shrine with Our Lady Guadalupe, sand dollars, a star fish and a sea turtle shell.

Along the beach were various others bones.

  

An outstanding view to another bay around the bend from us.

The next day we took a hike on the island with Sue, Barry and Riley from S/V Waveglider.

 

Here is a pic of our boats from our hike. Jade to the left. Waveglider in the middle. Yes, the boats are the tiny specs of white in the bay.

The view was breathtaking.

Amazing flowers in bloom.

At first sight, this plant looked dead, however the magenta blooms say otherwise. 

Landscape and clouds had us marveling at nature's beauty.

  

Another beautiful pic overlooking Dog Bay.

On our last day at Dog Bay, we enjoyed our last cup of Starbuck's Via. My mom gifted us enough Via to last the past month and a half. Thank you M&M!!!

Poncha lounged in the sun enjoying a good book while I took a ride in the dingy.

We really wanted to continue on with S/V Waveglider however we had left the marina with a few books loaned to us by a gentleman that taught us a basic navigation course and we received an email while in Kino that he needed those items back. Our lesson learned: never leave with something that doesn't belong to you. We had an incredible time and went further than we would had be been sailing alone. We greatly appreciate S/V Waveglider for the invite and incredible fun!

True Sailing to Isla Tiburón

Day five of our excursion we woke to enjoy a fabulous breakfast made by Poncha to fuel us up for the 20 mile sail to Isla Tiburón. Poncha prefected making toast on the stove and bought us a treat; fresh orange juice!

Before we left Whale's Point we noticed a ginormous jellyfish. Yowza, check out those tentacles! 

We couldn't have asked for better weather conditions; mild temperature, wind in our favor and calm seas! We sailed the entire way to Isla Tiburon with smiles!

We sailed at our highest speed yet: 6.6 knots as shown in the lower left of the pic. 

Poncha spent some time going over charts.

We picked up an extra passenger for a few minutes.

Best sail day yet!

Kino Bay. Long Day.

After spending three nights at Las Cocinas, we accompanied S/V Waveglider to Kino Bay. This meant ADVENTURE as we left at 4:30am due to an expected all day sail 50 miles north! Our first ever experience of sailing in the dark! We had a mixture of nervousness and exhilaration guiding Jade through the dark with the guidance of our trusty radar and being able to see S/V Waveglider's running lights to help guide us. When we exited the bay and moved into the sea the swells were big rocking Jade 20 degrees from side to side! A 20 degree angle doesn't sound like much but let me let you it sure feels like a lot on a boat! As we both found our sea legs I had to remind myself #1. I wanted this adventure and #2. I trusted Jade and ourselves to be safe. With those two thoughts all was well and we moved on with the moon behind us, the stars above us, the darkness around us and excitement in our hearts. There was not enough wind to sail so we motored, which was just fine for us given all the conditions.

The sunrise was lovely. The seas calmed a bit so we weren't heeling so much, however you can tell from the pic that the swells were still very present.

We finally figured out how to post a video to the blog!

Neither of us got much sleep the night before and the roll of the sea made us both a bit queasy. It hit Poncha first giving her a green hue that stayed with her most of the trip. No bueno! Now is she yawning due to sleep deprivation or yelling for the motion sickness to stop!?

I was feeling good for awhile, however it didn't take long to start to experience the uneasy feeling of motion sickness. There were some tricks we learned; fresh air is good (lucky we had an ongoing breeze for most of the day), being down below in the cabin made it worse as the movement of the boat was magnified, ice water and a bit of food helped soothe the stomach, a task helped distract my brain so I took to learning more about our radar, looking at the top of the mast to see the wind direction was to be avoided as it exponentially increased the 'I'm going to barf feeling'. Thankfully neither of us had to act on that feeling!

I was smiling while I could!

The queasiness latest for hours. We wished for wind when daylight came but no luck. As I type this we have been motor sailing for seven hours and our radar says we have at least two hours to go.

We made it to Kino Bay NINE hours after our departure! We anchored close to shore and chop of the surf was big and had Jade bouncing. Anchoring is still new to us and each time it rattles our nerves. The only thing keeping Jade, our 10 ton girl, from drifting away or being beached is our 45 pound anchor and chain. We set the anchor well and went into Old Kino to provision a bit (food and beer) and located an internet store to let family and friends know we were well. We returned to Jade (she was still  bobbing safe in the bay) and sailed a few miles to Whale's Point to anchor overnight before heading to Isla Tiburon. 

Buddy Boating to Las Cocinas

We arrived back at the marina from our second overnight anchoring on Friday. We were exhausted from very little sleep while on the hook the past two days and both fell into a long deep slumber that night! On Saturday S/V Waveglider invited us to buddy boat with them to the north. After a quick debrief, we decided to head to Guaymas for provisions which included not only food but two solar powered lights to act as our anchor lights. These lights are perfect as the don't require any power from our batteries unlike some of our other lights that draw quite a few amps.

On Sunday we left the marina, heading north and ready for adventure. We picked up a bit of wind, however nothing sustainable and ended up motoring to our first anchorage; Las Cocinas, 30 miles away.

Here were are buddy boating with S/V Waveglider off our starboard. We also saw a pod of dolphins, however, our camera could not to pick them up due to the distance. It was a thrill to see them!

We arrived at Las Cocinas and understood why people come here. It's a beautiful undeveloped bay with a sandy bottom. The water is a mix of light blues. 

Our first night there we enjoyed dinner aboard S/V Waveglider. It was the strangest feeling to motor away from Jade in our dingy as we've had never left her while anchored. Turns out she was just fine.

There's Jade on the left. 

The next day we went ashore and enjoyed some game time. We were introduced to the Swedish game called Kubb. So much fun! Anyone who spends some time with us will also be enjoying this game. Later that night we had S/V Waveglider aboard and enjoyed my divine shrimp pasta dish.

We also walked the beach to enjoy the views.

We came across an interesting parrot fish skeleton.

We had planned to leave after two days and head further north, however the winds really picked up mid-morning and the sea was full of whitecaps. We clocked the winds at 24 mph in the bay! A bit much for all of us. The wind never calmed down so we decided to stay one more night. Sue and Barry, on S/V Waveglider, taught us a new card game; Baja Rummy and are hooked! We also enjoyed Sue's delicious spicy cabbage soup which she made in honor St. Patrick's Day. We enjoyed great views of the incredible night sky filled with stars. 

We also tied up our garbage bags this time and avoided the gnat infestation!