14 July 2006
Gonzaga Bay (29 45' N 114 18' W)
Yesterday at 5 AM we raised anchor at Isla Smith, off of BLA, and mostly motored the 65 miles NW to Bahia San Luis Gonzaga. We didn't drop the anchor until 6 PM which meant that John got to check in as an underway vessel (which take priority and get to go first) to all three radio nets - Sonrisa (HAM), Amigo, and Southbound (both SSB). John tried hard to get some sailing in, but we knew we had a long way to go and what wind there was was from directly aft (which is a very slow point of sail for us) so we only had the engine off for a couple of hours. The rest of the time we had the main up and we rolled the big jib in and out all day long whenever we thought it could help give us a push. We always motor with the main up, for shade if nothing else. We thought we might get an assist from an 8-12 foot flood tide (depending on whether you look at the tide table for BLA or Puertecitos farther north), but just because the beach gets huge at low tide doesn't mean you get any current out in open waters. The only place we really noticed it was exiting Canal de Ballenas that morning.
And the only interesting thing of note during the whole slow long day was a shark sighting. John looked aft and saw something big checking out his fishing lures. When it came to the surface we could clearly see that it was a 6-7 foot shark of some kind. John never felt any tension on the hand line, but after the shark departed and John pulled the line in, there was no lure and the 150 lb test line looked like it had been cut with a razor.
Our other shark story which I forgot to tell you about was when we had our really slow sail from Esta Ton on Isla Angel de la Guardia to Ensenada Alcatraz. We had the spinnaker up all morning making no headway, and by 1 PM we were actually just drifting, the spinnaker hanging limp. I had been thinking that a long day of slow sailing is fun when there's lots to see, but can be pretty boring when there's not much wildlife around. John stepped up to the starboard rail to give Mr. Winky some fresh air, and I looked to port from the cockpit when I heard a sound like an approaching wave in the glassy water. I whispered, "John, John" when I should have just screamed, "Shark!" This 7-8 foot monster made a direct bee-line for the cockpit end of the boat before rolling on its side to pass about two feet from the port side of the boat. Then it went around the bow to do the same thing on the starboard side. I guess I didn't really need to worry about scaring it away before John could see it! It was just incredible when it rolled on its side sort of looking up at us with a big eye in a very huge head. Friends of ours said it was probably a black fin, but it all looked dark gray to me with a big pointed head, so we thought maybe it was a mako. Good thing we hadn't decided to jump in for a refreshing swim before the wind filled in.
Anyway, we're now the farthest north that we've ever been in the Sea of Cortez and, boy, is it hot! It was over 90 degrees when we arrived and it was over 90 degrees when we woke up this morning. The good thing is that the humidity has been in the 30-40 percent range. The water temp is in the low 80's and we had a long soak before dinner last night. But the evening breeze felt like it came from a blast furnace (and is so dry you can't look directly into the wind or your eyeballs dry out), and every time I woke up during the night I was sweating even though we had two fans pointed at the bed. We are drinking liters of water at a time, and I even dreamt last night that I was snorkeling in cool water.
This morning we met SolMate on the beach at our usual 8 AM rendezvous time. (I had debated about making coffee when I got up at 6 AM, but I couldn't not have my morning cup in spite of the heat!) We took a leisurely walk through the section of "vacation homes" above the beach here. Much more primitive than at Punta Chivato, but I think that's because this is even more difficult to get to by dirt road (there's no water or power to these places, and they have dirt airstrips for private planes). There were lots of impressive solar arrays, but they all looked brown with age. The best part was when we got back down to the huge sandy beach exposed by low tide and found all kinds of small shells in the tidal runoff. The boys had to drag the shell collectors off the beach to return to the boats in time for a late breakfast.
Now we are hibernating in the heat of the afternoon. Tomorrow morning we plan to go a bit farther up to Bahia Willard, aka the other hurricane hole up in the Sea.
Linda and John