When we left Santa Rosalia, we headed eighty miles north to San
Francisquito. The first day of the trip consisted of calm winds so
we motored all the way to Punta Trinidad (about half way). During
this leg of the trip we had more fishing action than the rest of our
5 months combined. Someone had thrown the "switch" we had been
hearing about to start the good fishing season apparently.
 |
| First Dorado |
We caught a 32" Dorado, which was quite exciting to real in compared
to our previous skip jacks. Somehow Anne-Marie convinced me that we
should put the lures back in, since we could handle one more fish.
Despite my better judgement I agreed and we reset the reel and hand
line. Thirty minutes later we had two more Dorado on the line
simultaneously! One on the reel and one on the hand line. Catching
two at the same time hadn't even occurred to me, since our usual
problem was never catching anything!
 |
| Second Dorado! |
The Dorado on the hand line was even bigger, at 36"! Clay pulled it in with ease on the 200lb test hand line. The one on the reel was
another story. It was whipping the line off the reel even at maximum
resistance. It took all we had to make any progress against it.
"Luckily",
it solved our problem of too much fish by breaking the line and
escaping. It must of been massive, as novice fishermen we should
have let it get more exhausted before reeling it in so
aggressively... you live you learn you loose lures.
From Punta Trinidad to San Francisquito was uneventful, and we
enjoyed a couple days there waiting for a weather window to cross
the Sea of Cortez (approximately 80 miles). There are a lot of
thunder storms this time of year on the mainland side, and it is
best to avoid them while crossing. One day we got up at midnight to
inspect the thunder bumper situation, that is what
Geary the local weather man
calls thunder storms, and it looked relatively calm. We took off
into the night at about 1:30AM and had a 16 hour crossing to the
mainland. The weather forecast was a bit off unfortunately, and we
ended up pounding into the waves all the way there on a close haul
(30 degrees off the wind), as opposed to the more comfortable close
reach (45-50 degrees off the wind) which was forecast.
 |
| Hiking at San Francisquito |
The poor weather forecast may have actually been to our benefit
though, as we may not have visited some really amazing anchorages
north of San Carlos if the wind hadn't blown us more north. Most of
the people we have spoken to during our time cruising have told us
that there is not much happening on the mainland side of the Sea of
Cortez (from Mazatlan north). Which is certainly true when one just looks at the number of
anchorages on the mainland side of the Sea of Cortez, but the two
anchorages we visited were right up there with the best the Baja
peninsula has to offer.
The anchorages we went to were
Las
Cocinas, and
San
Pedro. Both had the best water visibility we had seen in the
Sea of Cortez so far, and had beautiful red rock formations along
the shore. We look forward to sharing this area with Anne-Marie's
parents when they come to visit in October.
 |
| Las Cocinas |
 |
| Sea Caves at Bahia San Pedro |
 |
| Red rocks at sunset Bahia San Pedro |
 |
| Sunset Bahia San Pedro |
 |
| Clay and Starship |
Right now we are in San Carlos doing boat projects and preparing to
put Starship to bed for the summer. We are getting out just in time
(perhaps a little too late!), as the heat is getting excruciating.
Even the simplest of boat projects results in sweat streaming off
your body. The other day I was just unscrewing our SSB (4 screws),
and I was soaked in sweat! That was at 7:30AM... we took the rest of
the day off.
 |
| Opie enjoys San Carlos! |
We look forward to spending a couple of months back in Canada visiting family and friends. That way we will miss the worst of the hurricane season, and the best of summer/fall in Canada. In mid October the journey will continue, as we explore the Pacific coast of mexico (Puerto Vallarta, Zihuatanejo, etc...) before jumping the puddle.
For more pictures of our trip to San Carlos, checkout the Picasa album (click picture or link below):
Thanks Chris for taking the time to share your adventure with great photos and the detailed account of your journey. Looking so much forward to see you all soon. Glad Starship gets a rest and give her or shall I say him a goodnight kiss from me. xo Mutti
ReplyDelete