Starship at Rest in Guaymas

Right after Clayton left San Carlos via taxi for the airport, Anne-Marie and I hauled up the anchor to take Starship to Marina Seca Guaymas. It was good to know we could still manage to operate Starship without Clayton's assistance.

The bay and city of Guaymas is very interesting, it is very industrial with the major industry being fish and shrimp processing. There is no tourism industry what so ever, since San Carlos is much nicer and just 20 miles north. The down side of the lack of tourism and the industrial nature of the town was that the bay water was disgusting. The water was brown, and the terrible smell of shrimp boats passing up wind could be smelled a quarter mile away. We heard from one cruiser in the area that a few weeks before we arrived, there was a problem at a fish processing plant and they dumped all their fish into the bay. They said you could practically walk across the bay on top of the fish and the smell was terrible.

Luckily we only spent a couple of days in the bay before being hauled out at Marina Seca Guaymas.

Note to cruisers hauling at Marina Seca Guaymas: Bring your own paper roll and painting tape to cover the travel lift slings, or you will have stripes of bottom paint up your hull!

We decided to put Starship on the hard in Marina Seca Guaymas, the least expensive dry storage yard in Mexico, to escape the summer heat and hurricanes. The restrooms and showers at the yard were surprisingly nice and well cleaned. Gabriel, the owner and manager of the yard, was very nice and helpful. He even arranged for a super long extension cord so a welder could do some work on our boat.
It took us 4 days to decommission Starship, and it was terrible! So exhausting in the 110+ deg heat and humidity, at times we felt on the brink of collapse. Boy were we glad when we got on the air conditioned bus to Phoenix!

In Phoenix we met up with Anne-Marie's best friend Katrina and boyfriend Brian. It was great to see them and go on a trip to Flag Staff and The Grand Canyon. We had lots of great meals and enjoyed driving around in her new car (nacho). P.S. Freeways are terrifying compared to sailing.

When we got back to my home town of Harrow Ontario, my Dad Herb immediately put us to work on a deck he was working on by Lake Erie. It was really nice to spend some time by the water again, but Herb was working us pretty hard. Anne-Marie really enjoyed learning about deck construction and how to use some new tools like a miter saw. After a week of grueling labor the deck was complete!

Now we are in Toronto for a couple of weeks. It is great to have a break from deck building, and to see Anne-Marie's family. We will be bouncing around between Harrow and Toronto for the next month and half until we return to Starship on October 10th. So that is us signing off until the next Mexico cruising season begins in October. Enjoy the remainder of the summer and fall!

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Location:

Guaymas

Latitude:

27.9191

Longitude:

-110.8858

San Carlos - A Pleasant Surprise

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):

Santa Rosalia to San Carlos

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Location:

San Carlos, Mexico

Latitude:

27.9426

Longitude:

-111.0637

Clay's Time Aboard Starship

I have been in Baja for slightly over a month with Anne-Marie and Chris staying aboard Starship. The cruising lifestyle is almost exactly the way I imagined it would be. The one major difference is that I though there would be much more free time. Going grocery shopping in Loreto took almost the entire day and was one of the best workouts I have had in years, and going for a hike and snorkeling can make an entire day disappear.

This trip began exactly how I wanted it to. My sister gave me a haircut that my mother would strongly disapprove of.

As we traveled north along the coast of Baja we went from anchorage to anchorage staying at each for roughly 5 days at a time. Our biggest pastime so far has been snorkeling. I was amazed by the amount of fish that would be swimming around you.

As I snorkeled Annie and Chris would go spearfishing. Chris is the spearfishing expert of Starship and would often bring back fish for dinner.

Chris was kind enough to share some of his spearfishing wisdom with me. He showed me certain fish which were good to eat that you could shoot. One day while attempting spearfishing I was very determined to come back with a kill. While surveying the area from above I spotted a hogfish (known to be rather challenging prey). It looked like one of the biggest fish I had ever seen while snorkeling. My primal hunting instincts immediately kicked in and without hesitation I dove down and shot the fish in the spine instantly paralyzing it.

At least that's how I saw it. But here's what really happened...

Chris told me that he believed a type of fish called sweet lips would be hanging around this one rock. After swimming around there for 10 minutes I saw a bunch of fish I believed were sweet lips. I am not very good at identifying fish, so I reported my findings to Chris. He told me to go for it. After 10 more minutes of hesitation I dove down, tried to shoot at the head of one of the fish, and missed by a mile. A few minutes later I saw another one and dove down. This time I aimed for the body instead of the head, and somehow shot its spine and paralyzed it.

Once I had my kill back at the dingy I could tell that it was rather small fish and clearly not a sweet lips. It was quite purple at spots and only has a small amount of yellow on the tail. Chris confirmed these suspicions. Back at the boat Annie identified it as a hogfish. Surprisingly the fish guide book said they were easy to kill while spearfishing (I think the book must have its facts wrong). But luckily the book said these fish were good to eat so it wasn't a waste. Chris also killed a previously unknown type (we still aren't sure of its name). They were both quite delicious!

My fish

Chris' fish

We also have done quite a lot of hiking. One hike in particular was quite memorable. We left early in the morning in an attempt to avoid the hottest part of the day. This seemed to have little to no effect on me. I sweated more than what I thought was humanly possible. At times I considered giving up, but by the time we got to the top I was very glad I didn't. The view was incredible!

At the top of the mountain there were very interesting rocks. If you hit the boulders with smaller rocks they rang loudly and sounded like bells. On the way down the mountain we also saw hieroglyphs.

Besides that we have been kitesurfing, making delicious food, cooling off in the water, eating ice cream every chance we get, and having the occasional siesta.

Despite the bug infestation, bee swarms, and dingy explosion, I have thoroughly enjoyed my month aboard Starship. My lovely sister (Anne-Marie) and her super cool husband (Chris) have been extremely welcoming throughout the entire trip. They have made it a truly enjoyable and unique experience for me. I can't wait for the last 3 weeks and I will be sad when it all comes to an end.

For MANY more pictures, be sure to check out our web album!

Loreto to Santa Rosalia

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Location:

Santa Rosalia

Latitude:

27.34066667

Longitude:

-112.2643667