Is that a squid on deck?
Funny thing about the darkness of night…if you think about it, we don’t spend much of our lifetime up at night, and of the times I can remember being up through the night, most are not great memories. At night, everything seems bigger (including one’s thoughts), louder, colder, faster, and scarier. The night seems to pass more slowly than during the light of day. On the other hand, when you happen to be out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the night’s sky is most spectacular. At our next stop, we are definitely picking up a book on constellations!
Our voyage from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas totaled 5 nights (four of them consecutive), 6 days. It is the longest consecutive night passage Rob and I have done on our own to date.
On our 4th night, we pulled into Magdelena Bay (Santa Maria Cove) at 2a.m. The sky was completely black, with only our charts and the lights of one fishing boat to guide us (as an aside, it is not uncommon for small fishing boats in Mexico to skip lights altogether, let alone use radar or AIS). We successfully anchored, drank a beer, and hit the sack. I woke up a few hours later, after the sun had just risen, and couldn’t wait to see where we were. As I sat on the deck in the warm morning sun, one by one, two by two, dolphins appeared right along side the boat. They were having breakfast.
What I’ve learned during this voyage:
• If you have the opportunity, you really can sit and stare off into space for a very long time.
• Even the slightest touch of seasickness can render one useless.
• If the engine is running, the sails are flapping, and the seas are crashing, if you are at the bow, no matter if you’re yelling at the top of your lungs, the person in the cockpit cannot hear you.
• How much I love (and miss) my family.
Cabo San Lucas is largely about the fishing, and oh yes, the partying. Staying in a marina adds an entirely different experience than one might have in a hotel, for example. At dawn, there are literally hundreds of boats, some small pangas, others are mega sport fishing yachts, heading out – all at once. And yes, the reverse happens at 3p.m. (exactly when we naively arrived in Cabo). “Red Red Wine” plays on a tour boat in the background, along with the daily life of the locals here. The small pangas bring bait to the larger yachts – money exchanges hands; off the fishing yacht goes, while the panga returns to the dock to do it all over again.
We’ve rested up, done laundry, re-provisioned, and tomorrow we make our way north up the Sea of Cortez toward LaPaz.
--Susan
Our voyage from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas totaled 5 nights (four of them consecutive), 6 days. It is the longest consecutive night passage Rob and I have done on our own to date.
On our 4th night, we pulled into Magdelena Bay (Santa Maria Cove) at 2a.m. The sky was completely black, with only our charts and the lights of one fishing boat to guide us (as an aside, it is not uncommon for small fishing boats in Mexico to skip lights altogether, let alone use radar or AIS). We successfully anchored, drank a beer, and hit the sack. I woke up a few hours later, after the sun had just risen, and couldn’t wait to see where we were. As I sat on the deck in the warm morning sun, one by one, two by two, dolphins appeared right along side the boat. They were having breakfast.
What I’ve learned during this voyage:
• If you have the opportunity, you really can sit and stare off into space for a very long time.
• Even the slightest touch of seasickness can render one useless.
• If the engine is running, the sails are flapping, and the seas are crashing, if you are at the bow, no matter if you’re yelling at the top of your lungs, the person in the cockpit cannot hear you.
• How much I love (and miss) my family.
Cabo San Lucas is largely about the fishing, and oh yes, the partying. Staying in a marina adds an entirely different experience than one might have in a hotel, for example. At dawn, there are literally hundreds of boats, some small pangas, others are mega sport fishing yachts, heading out – all at once. And yes, the reverse happens at 3p.m. (exactly when we naively arrived in Cabo). “Red Red Wine” plays on a tour boat in the background, along with the daily life of the locals here. The small pangas bring bait to the larger yachts – money exchanges hands; off the fishing yacht goes, while the panga returns to the dock to do it all over again.
We’ve rested up, done laundry, re-provisioned, and tomorrow we make our way north up the Sea of Cortez toward LaPaz.
--Susan
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