Farewell (for now) Sea of Cortez

Tomorrow, we leave the Sea of Cortez, heading toward mainland Pacific Mexico on our biggest passage thus far at over 300 miles, a two-night crossing.  We have travelled a total of 1,530 nautical miles as of today.

Heading south in the Sea with buddy boat Kaaluna, we had a very productive trip to our anchorage off the village of San Evaristo.  It was calm so we motored and ran the generator, allowing us to charge our batteries fully, heat water for a hot shower (amazing treat!), do a load of laundry, make fresh water using our water maker, and bake bread.  We try to lump together all the tasks that take extra power and do these when we need to run our engines or generator.  We arrived in the calm anchorage of San Evaristo clean with our clothes flapping off the rails to dry.  The next day we walked to the local tienda, which had the typical selection of dried goods, processed food, and some frozen meat products.  Though we didn’t find the produce or beer we were hoping for, we did restock on tortillas, salsa, crackers, and some cold drinks for the kids.

We temporarily anchored off the mangroves at Amortajada (on Isla San Jose) for a dink explore of the extensive mangrove system, our timing a bit off as we found ourselves hauling the dinghy in knee deep water against the tide over the shallow mangrove entrance – but we made it! 

Inside, Calder enjoyed catch and release of a variety of mangrove fish amidst the egrets and pelicans perched in the trees, turtles swimming by, and a cardon cactus forest.  Back on Terikah, we found ourselves moving way too slow, 1-2 whole knots slower then we should be, and Chris hypothesized we had a dirty bottom.

Moved on to Isla San Fransisco, exactly 2 years since the first time we were here on a catamaran charter with friends trying to decide whether we should buy a catamaran and go cruising…well, here we are!  Cora and I to the shore on the paddleboard, a sea turtle swimming under us to welcome us back.  This is a busy anchorage, stunning with great hikes and close to La Paz, and we found ourselves anchored with 17 other boats. 

Chris and Calder started cleaning the bottom of the boat, dismayed by the growth of barnacles, algae, small shrimp and even a crab that created an ecosystem on the hull and propellers.  They started with free-diving, but knew they were going to have to get the SCUBA gear up and running soon. 

We managed to enjoy a beachfire and a hike along a striated cliff’s edge amidst the prep work, delighting in a hummingbird tucked in her tiny cholla cactus nest protected by prickles.

Further south, we tucked into a new favorite anchorage, Cardoncito (on Isla Partida), moving along a little faster but still a way to go on cleaning the hull. 

We declared the next day a workday! Chris got his new SCUBAcito (our Mexico play on words for a small SCUBA set) going and he and Calder spent many hours cleaning the hull, almost finishing.  Chris pulled a small shrimp out of his ear that had moved from the boat hull ecosystem to that of his ear ecosystem.  We made sure to flush their ears with freshwater after that!  They didn’t want to wear ear plugs so they could hear and communicate somewhat with each other underwater. 

Cora and I prepped food for the upcoming crossing and I did some Integrative Medicine telehealth visits. We downloaded Audible “Lord of the Rings” to listen to and some books on our Kindles for the passage.   We tidied up the boat, putting everything in its home. Though busy working, we did this in a pocket anchorage of stunning steep red rocks ledges with brilliant green plants perched on each, anchored in only 10 feet of depth.  One ledge held a statue of Mary; many small shrines scattered throughout Mexico.  That night, we enjoyed gingerbread made by our buddy boat and wine from San Javier.  We put on our scopolamine patches, planning to leave the next morning…

…but the weather report looked feistier and we decided to wait a day, ate pancakes, did some schoolwork.  This extra day allowed all four of us to get in the water for more scrubbing and snorkeling.  The water is cool and a wetsuit allows us to stay in and play/work longer.  The hull is totally clean (for at least a few hours)! 

We hiked around on the beach, climbed up into a cave and back through a remarkably green vibrant arryo to an old well from the time of oyster farming here, and Cora and I made little beach homes out of shells for dead pufferfish we found. 

We enjoyed one more night with our buddy boat friends and I opened up my “Jen’s Cockpit Salon” to give Kim a haircut, then enjoyed “Jen’s Cockpit Saloon” for a beverage before we parted ways.  Tomorrow we would leave at first light.   Talk to you from Pacific mainland Mexico!

This morning at “boat school” we all brainstormed our favorite memories of our two months in the Sea:

• Cora:  planting Mango our cholla cactus, calm days, friends and family visiting, pelicans, frigate birds, rays, New Year’s Eve bay, snorkeling, Christmas watching Calder’s matchbox cars roll on the table due to the boat rolling at anchor, funny rough dinghy trip back to our boat in Escondido, swimming, turtles, all the Sally Lightfoot crabs, dolphins, bright green succulents by the tan dark Mexican background, cactus, coffee chocolate, coconut shrimp
• Calder: discovering that skipjack tuna are good in poke, cave hand paintings in Aqua Verde, pelicans (!), catching a yellowtail with Gpa, finding a small cholla cactus and planting it on the boat, hiking up Steinbeck Canyon hopping from boulder to boulder, warm southern breeze shifting to a cold northern breeze, San Telmo: finding giant dead lobster, beach fire, awesome red rocks, weathering out Norther in Bahia Salinas, exploring mangroves, saving a beached trigger fish, meeting people and making friends, funny very windy and wavy dinghy ride back to our boat in Escondido, rolly Christmas in Bonanza
• Chris: fuzzy long jump jackrabbit, wonderful shallow sandy anchorages – easy to anchor with great holding, red rocks/striations and rugged mountains in Loreto area, colorful and fast Sally Lightfoot crabs, green plants from fall storms all in bloom, rays doing back flips, eating fresh poke from fish kids caught, turtles cruising by, sharing time with family and friends (old and new), our Uber driver in San Jose, variety of different plants and cacti
• Jen: turquoise waters meeting red rocks, squadrons of pelicans flying quietly inches from the water’s surface like ancient pterodactyls, explosion of green growth unique from this year’s late season hurricane, mighty cardon cactus standing guard, back-flipping rays, floating on my back light and free in salt water, sweet abuela tucking tiny hot peppers into my hand, fishing excitement and eating from the sea, reading Steinbeck with the weather coming to life, sharing our lifestyle with family and friends, hiking to ancient hidden cave paintings, the taste of warm tortillas hot off the griddle, delight of finding a new shell, barefoot living, stars above and phosphorescence below, buddy-boating, feisty pickleball games, learning and exploring together as a family, sense of accomplishment as a family from our voyage thus far.