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Trip Report: Sea of Cortez.

Started by bmiller, May 18, 2008, 10:14:05 AM

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bmiller

The plan was to leave CO on the 16th or 17th of April, trailer to San Carlos then sail across the SOC and down to Bahia Concepcion. Sail back around the 9th or 10th of May and head home. For the most part that's just what we did, just with a slight delay.
While servicing the trailer the day before we left one of the hub assemblies on the front axle just did not feel right. So a 6 hour round trip to Denver and half a day rebuilding the front axel and we were off, a day late. The trip went down went off without a hitch. The Dodge/Cummings ran like a champ, not a single issue with the trailer. We made it to a rest stop just north of Nogales Friday afternoon and stayed there until the morning. The trip down was equally painless. Even the stop at KM21 for visas and the now necessary TIP was pretty easy. We made San Carlos in the early afternoon, too late to get the boat rigged and launched. Had to wait till Monday morning. So we rigged the boat and spent two sleeping on the trailer.
Monday morning Pooka got splashed. We use the crane. At $36 each that's really cheap insurance against future trailer problems.

We spent a few hours getting the final provisioning in order, beer, block ice from the ice house, beer, you know just the essentials. Then we were off for Bahia Algodones for the first night. I planned on getting as far north as possible before the crossing to take advantage of prevailing winds. Our nest stop was Bahia San Pedro, a perfect anchorage.

Then on to Calet Armaga. We tried to get accurate weather info before we crossed since we wwere on the tail end of a bit of a norther. The report sounded pretty benign so at 1300 in the afternoon we headed west on a course to go around the north end of Isla San Pedro. On the way I tossed out a trolling and by a stroke of dumb luck caught a nice yellow tail.

After that the wind died down to nothing so we motored for quite a while. Right after sunset the wind piped back up. Not real bad but we got in some good sailing. Around midnight it really got blowing, right as we were in the middle of the sea. The seas were a little rough, not for the boat but for us. We were getting tired and beat up so I hove to and we slept until, or rested until 0500 or so. By then the wind and seas were calmer so we sailed on a beam reach the rest of the way to Santa Rosalia. We got a slip in the old marina and settled down to picking up the pieces from the night before.

Just so happens there was a squid festival and carnival planned for the next three days. We were only a few hundred yards away from the carnival but as tired as we were we had no problem sleeping. We spent three days exploring this really nice working town. Tourism has not taken hold here yet. We moved to the new Singlar marina for a decent shower and to do laundry before heading down to Concepcion.
The next two nights were spent at Punta Chivato. This is a huge bay that offers great protection from the north.

From there we headed down to Playa Santispac, home of Ana's restaraunt. We spent a couple nights there and the manager of the restaraunt gave us a ride into Mulege for supplies. Another very nice little Mexican town.
Next was Playa El Burro. We took the hike up to view the petroglyphs and to bang on the bell rocks. The petroglyphs are amazing. They are just a couple hundred yards off the road and are unspoiled. The bell rocks are a bunch of boulders that have a very high iron content. When you bang on them the ring like bells.

El Burro was the sight of one of my finest moments. The shear pin on the outboard sheared. So I rowed back and instead of asking my wife for help I tried to put the motor on it's bracket from the dinghy. As I lifted it up the dink went one way and the boat another. the motor and I went in between. On the way down the motor bounced off my head and into the drink. All I had a hold of was the little cable I use to lock it up. I got myself and the motor back into the dink, that's when I felt that familiar warm trickle of blood coming down my forehead. The whole time my wife was tending to my wound she berated me for not asking for help. She was right.
Next up was Playa Santa Barbara. We were the only boat there for three days.

Time to start heading back north. We made it to Punta Chivato and dropped the hook. At some time in the middle of the night the wind clocked around to the south. My previous anchor/stern anchor set up now had me held beam to some nasty rollers. So I tied a fender onto the stern anchor line and let her go. That settled the boat down quite a bit but it was still a sleepless night as I kept anchor watch and an eye on the now lee shore.
We moved back to Santa Rosalia with a perfect west wind. Beam reach till the very end, then it died and we motored into the marina. We had so much fun the last time in town we decided tostay for a few days and wait for a weather window to cross back.
The weather cooperated perfectly, the night we were to cross the sea was like glass. The little Universal and auto pilot worked all night and got across without a single problem. In fact we had a gentle following breeze and seas. So we got there a little early and had to lay off about 7 miles, hove to for a nap. In the morning the wind picked just enough to fill the sails and take us back to Algodones. We met some people who offered us their slip in Marina Real. We spent the day anchored out and caught reef fish for tacos. The next day we sailed back down to San Carlos, got the truck and Pooka was gently placed back on her trailer. Spent the night on the trailer and left at 0400 the next morning. A federalia thought he need to check out a sailboat going down the road at that hour. He was very polite and sent us on our way. There is a check point in the middle of the desert were the military checks all semi trucks and random private vehicles. We were chosen. A nice very young soldier got in the boat and looked around. I think he really was more interested t in thwe boat then anything else. We made the border by noon and crossed without issue. We drove till dark to just south of Albuquerque and slept in the rest area. We were home by 1700 the next.
All in all it was a fantastic trip. I can't wait to do it again.

All the photos can be viewed here.


Bob23

Bill:
   Thanks for wonderful coverage of a wonderful trip. Your photos are great and writing excellent. I'll have to pick your brain as to just how you post photos like that as I have a slightly smaller journey planned that I'd like to share with my fellow Compac-tors.
   It sure is a lot nicer than NJ!
   Bob23, dreaming
   

mrb

Thanks for sharing story and photos.  Nice to hear there are some places not overwhelmed by tourists yet.

Melvin

Deborah Klaus

Thanks for sharing the photos and your adventures in "paradise." Look forward to your next edition.

multimedia_smith

Great story and Pics... thanks for sharing... a vicarious thrill for us.
It looks like you really had great weather too.
Where do you sail in CO?
Best Regards
Dale

bmiller

Glad you all liked it. We have kept Pooka on a mooring on the Frisco side of Dillon. But this year probaby not. Since we just got back from MX and will be heading to the San Juans in Sept.

Mundaysj

Fabulous trip report!!  And the pictures were stunning. 

It reminds me of my favorite sailing quote ..."That's what a ship is, you know. It's not just a keel and hull and a deck and sails. That's what a ship needs. But what a ship is... is freedom." -- Captain Jack Sparrow

Please continue to share your adventures with us so we can vicariously share the freedom!!

kchunk

Quote from: bmiller on June 07, 2008, 08:27:29 AM
Glad you all liked it. We have kept Pooka on a mooring on the Frisco side of Dillon. But this year probaby not. Since we just got back from MX and will be heading to the San Juans in Sept.

Bill, just spent a couple hours this morning watching your video and going through your trip report (...again!). Did you ever make the San Juans last Fall?

I sorta talked myself out of that '97 CP27 I was looking at last month, but now I don't know...I getting that "itch" again!

--Greg

bmiller

Greg,
Yes we did make it up to the San Juans.
If time permits this evening I'll put together a trip report. It was a great trip.
Bill

romei

Quote from: bmiller on April 01, 2009, 12:16:12 PM
Greg,
Yes we did make it up to the San Juans.
If time permits this evening I'll put together a trip report. It was a great trip.
Bill

I am also enjoying your vacations.  The SOC trip was great.  Can't wait to read about the San Juans.  Where are we going next???

:-P
Blog Site: http://www.ronmeinsler.com/cantina

"Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit."
-Brooks Atkinson

bmiller

Quote from: romei on April 05, 2009, 08:31:54 AM

  Where are we going next???

:-P

If all goes well the Bahamas in 2010!
This year will be spent on our local lake and save up some funds.