Jumping Rays
Fault of the Watermaker Brush
There is so much new for us here in the Gulf of California: new sailing ground, experiencing the desert, dealing with big tidal changes. Therefore, we still consider ourselves to be new chums to sailing but now find ourselves being referred to as 'salty sailors', with people seeking our advice and opinions on sailing related topics. It makes us feel like Oma and Opa among the fleet, an uneasy feeling. In reality we are old compared to most of the crews that remained in Sea of Cortez. Actually,as I write, Opa has just applied for his state pension. Between us, however, we do have a considerable amount of offshore sea time.
After our cruise around Isla Angel de la Guarda we
returned to Bahia de Los Angeles to re-provision and get ready
to cross the Sea to the San Carlos/Guaymas area via Isla Tiburon
and the town of Kino. From the Bay of LA to Kino winds were light, however, we sailed whenever
there was enough wind to keep us moving forward, sparingly using our engine.
We
anchored at several different spots at Isla Tiburon,
but didn't go ashore. This island is a reservation for the Seri
Indians and one needs a special permit and a Seri guide if you
want to explore the island. Anchoring on the South East side
of that island we experienced a strange tidal phenomena which
produced an uncomfortable swell in the anchorage when there was
absolutely no wind. We think that it caused by the tidal flow being
obstructed by the tortuous Canal de Infernillo. The name says much about
the inadvisability of navigating this channel!
Kino is a nice little Mexican town but the bay in front
of the village is quite shallow and we had to row a long way to
shore. Still, the anchorage was very busy, a lot of shrimp
fishing boats anchored there during the day; resting up before a night's work shrimp fishing.
From
Kino we had an overnight trip to the next
anchorage. The coast line here is shallow for a considerable
distance offshore, our cruising guide
suggested staying 10 NM out to sea to ovoid the shallow area.
With light winds forecast we decided to sail the shallow inshore route.
The advantage was, that the
fisherman fished the drop-off to deeper water so we didn't have
to worry about keeping clear, throughout the night, of a large number
of fishing boats trawling long lengths of fishing gear behind them. By
3am
the working vessels started moving back northwards as we kept
sailing south.
The next anchorages were very beautiful with gin
clear turquoise water. We enjoyed much
snorkeling and tramping here. In this part of the Gulf there are
few people and none to few cruising yachts. As such, we took much
pleasure in being on our own for awhile.
Next we made landfall at San Carlos, the American stronghold of the Guaymas area. Here we got in contact with our paint-crew to talk about the work we would like to have done on our excessively hot grey deck. The time-frame for the work needed to be discussed along with finding a yard that had the capacity to accommodate us on the hard while the work was done; the yards are full of Covid stranded boats. Luckily, in San Carlos, we were reacquainted with Dale and Katie from Wanderer. We met them in Puerto Escondido during the Mexican lock-down. They helped us greatly by driving us around in their truck between San Carlos and Guaymas. After negotiating from 'no es possible' to a three week window of opportunity it became clear that the best option for haul out was Guaymas/Marina Fonatur. So off we went and sailed to Guaymas.
But this is an other story.
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