We're sitting here watching carefully as a lightening and thunder 'cell' slides slowly by us. We are (yup, we made it!) anchored in Caleta San Juanico...exactly where Sean and Heather (in their cruising guide) suggested. We are one happy pair.
But I must tell you about our crossing! It was a collage of, well, everything. We slipped Bahia San Carlos at 1515 hrs. and headed out to take a look. The wind had been whistling through the anchorage and we were indeed having second thoughts about the crossing. Never done it before. Never sailed across from San Carlos to the Baja. Never sailed this boat more than an hour or two. Quite the predicament. But, and so, we sucked it up and headed out. Miss Sophie might have been tsk tsking us... but we headed out anyway.
We left while we still had enough daylight to sort things out. You wouldn't believe how many bits and pieces get collected while you work on and set up a sailing yacht. Anyway, we waded through them all and got re-acquainted with our sea legs while we bounced and flounced our way out of and away from San Carlos. We saw only three fishing boats as we left and not a single, floating vessel of any kind throughout the remainder of the crossing. That's one of the good things about sailing up here... no (or very few) long lines and no commercial traffic (except for the ferry running from Santa Rosalia to Guaymas).
Our crossing was windy, lumpy, cold, wet ... and marvelous. Let me tell you about the highlights (and leave the lowlights to your imaginations :-). Our journey across the Sea could be divided into three parts. The first involved learning SSpirit; setting up a second reef on the main, making sure all necessary lines were snug (jerry cans, boarding ladder, etc., etc.), setting up the cockpit for helming in comfort, preparing our snacks and meals for the crossing (sandwiches made before we left, along with drinks and snacks), and generally getting used to the feel of SSpirit as we began to move with the seas. They were largish and kind of lumpy, but they weren't bad enough to turn us back. We've been waiting almost three years for this moment and a little water wasn't going to stop us... so onward we pushed. Long story short, we motor-sailed into lumpy seas and wind, almost on the nose, and carried on across. At one point we had a bit of a disappointment... our auto pilot stopped working. Those of you who followed our journey down the coast of North America in 2011 will recall how upsetting the loss of that one piece of equipment can be. Faced with the loss of auto, others might have been tempted to turn back, but we had come too far and waited too long, so we decided to keep going. Heck, we hand-steered the majority of the NA coast, surely we could do the same to cross the Sea. Even so, Kathy was determined to check out everything she could, and lo and behold - she cleaned up the connections to the auto-pilot motor and old Otto began to hum his little heart out. He worked fine for the remainder of the trip. Things calmed down for the central third (where it was supposed to be rough) and then built up into a real challenge as we approached the Baja, especially for the last three hours. Twenty-one hours after setting sail from San Carlos, we were 'hook down' in San Juanico.
Now then, let me tell you about the phosphorescent torpedoes... of the dolphin variety. 'Round about the centre of the crossing (98 nautical miles in total) we were joined by some wonderful dolphins. They swam with us, at us and away from us... all the while trailing magical streams of green phosphorescence. It was a delight to watch, and to share in their joy as they challenged and tackled our bow wake.
As well, the stars blew us away. The Milky Way flared across the sky right over our heads and the rest of the sky was filled with clusters and constellations and, well, enough to keep you watching for the entire night. Each of us saw a few 'falling stars' as well and the new moon was so bright that even as a little 'slip' of a piece... it sent out a moon beam across the sea.
So, that was our crossing. We arrived in San Juanico all crusty with salt... even in our hair. SSpirit had buried her nose in several steep waves along the way, and we had taken spray all the way back in the cockpit - and over our heads. Guess you could say it was a little lumpy :-).
We are safe and sound in San Juanico, along with several other boats. SV Cahoots arrived today after an even tougher crossing than ours. They saw winds up to 35 Knots (we can only boast 24) and huge seas. From where we are sitting we can look out and see mountains of water rolling by, some with their tops exploding off with the wind. Yup, there's a big wind blowing out there now and we're in the best place we could be for protection from the north.
Ahhh, life is good. BBQ steak for dinner tonight. Sleep well... CJ
PS. After arriving at San Juanico, we discovered our Pactor Modem has packed it in. Sadly that means no emails in or out. I'm writing this post now, and will follow with others, so as to tell you of our journeys. They will get posted once we hit civilization again.
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