07/14/2012
Here are the pictures from the fishing tournament that I did not get to post last time
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07/14/2012, Santa Rosalia
We got an early start this morning on our way to Santa Rosalia. This is a historic Mexican mining town, with a rich past of copper mining. We will post more about that later
There is a small man made harbor, with two small marinas, each holding about 10-12 boats.
This will be a short stop, just a day or two, before heading back out to the islands. We will get the laundry done, buy some food, and of course get caught up on the blog. We have a bunch of pictures to post so stand by!!
As you can see by the photo posted, doing laundry at anchor is a bit more of a chre than doing it at home, but we do have a convienient place to hang cloths to dry
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07/12/2012, Sweet Pea Cove, Isla San Marcos
After breakfast this morning, we moved around to the north part of the bay, where we will have a little bit more protection from the SE winds that are blowing, and are predicted to continue for several days. We had bit of a down day, with some reading, computer work, a couple of minor boat projects, a swim, a walk on the beach...oh, and the ever important nap!
Tomorrow, we are going to explore some of the sea caves that are near here. Some are really large, you can drive your dinghy right into them, but we will take the kayaks so we can really get a good chance to look around.
Any of you friends or family that have our Mexico phone number and want to give us a call, we have great reception here in this bay, but wont be able to make any calls out as our phone minutes ran out. we will buy more on Saturday, when we go into Rosalia to provision, and do laundry
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07/11/2012, Sweet Pea Cove, Isla San Marcos
Hello to our fans, when we left you last night we were in Punta Chivato, it was getting windy, rolly and we had a lot of lightening off to the east. Well, the lightening never made it, but the winds did. We have found that when we have a rolly anchorage, it never seems to go away over night, and last night was no exception. In fact, got a whole hell of a lot worse! By 1:00 Am the winds had built to 26, with gusts over 30, and we had wind waves crashing into the anchorage that were over four feet high.
So, right after the net this morning, we pulled anchor and headed father north, to Isla San Marcos, and the anchorage called Sweet Pea. We mostly motored thru the 3-6 foot seas, with little or no wind, but the last 7-8 miles we were able to set the sails, and have a screaming fast sail, at 6.5 to 7.2 knots.
Jeanne is just pulling a pizza out of the oven, and we might just pull the anchor again, and go around the corner to a northern anchorage that will protect us from the southerlies that are now building.
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07/10/2012, Punta Chivato
We decided to make a run towards the north this morning, with the idea that we "might" get some wind to sail. WE DID!! we went 27.2 miles today, and sailed 25 miles of, with great winds, in the 15-18 knots the whole way.
We are anchored in south side cove of Punta Chivato. It is dark, a bit rolly, and we are watching the lightening out in the middle of the Sea. If you read my weather blog, you will know that is where we watch for Chubascos to come from. Looks like we are OK tonight, as they all seem to be passing towards the north of us.
We might move on tomorrow, as this just seems open and rolly.
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07/08/2012, Playa Santa Barbara
One of the things about living full time on a sailboat, especially one that is not tied to a dock, is a need to stay informed about the weather. The sea of Cortez has some of the most unique weather I have ever seen. The shape of the sea, and the different land shapes around it have so many different effects, that while predicting the weather can be an interesting challenge, there are some things that remain consistent. In the winter, we have mostly a series of northerlies that can blow up and down the sea to 40 knots, causing some pretty good wave action. As spring time rolls around, we are subject to some changes in weather here in the Sea of Cortez, many of which are localized, and also based on the shape of the land. In La Paz, where the low land funnels winds from the Pacific ocean we get the Coromuels. The warm air and waters of the Sea of Cortez, pull the cooler winds from the Pacific Ocean side primarily in the evenings. These winds are usually 15-20 knots but can, and usually do, occur almost every night in the La Paz area
As early summer rolls around, the dominate winds are now out of the south. This new direction now brings into play a few other phenomenons to consider. The first one, and a more common occurring event, are the Chubascos. These are convection based cells, that originate on the mainland, and migrate towards the west. They are very powerful, but short lived storms, lasting usually only 45 minutes, but sometimes as long as 4 hours of 50-70 knot winds. The next one is the Elephantes, a westerly based wind, that is much like a Coromuel, but are usually visible when their elephant trunk shaped cloud forms over the larger valleys or arroyos on the Baja.
And, last but surely not least, are the Pacific Hurricanes. The word Hurricanes brings to mind such violence and damage, and is with out doubt the biggest weather concern we have while here in the Sea of Cortez. Historically, there has never been a hurricane come up into the sea prior to August, and the higher you travel up into the sea, the lower your chances are of a direct hit by one. With that very thing in kind, we are heading north, and plan on being in the Bahia Los Angles area before the month of August gets here. The months of August, September, and October are three months that hold a threat for us to encounter a hurricane.
Now, with all that in mind, I am going to post a link for all of you back home, and around the world following along, to see what our weather is doing every day. Geary Ritchie, the host of the 4th of July party this week, is also our weather guru. He is a full time beach bum extraordinare, and the guy we rely on for daily weather. He does a live broadcast on the ham net at 7:45 AM local time (13:45 Zulu time - 3.968 mhz LSB ham), and then puts the daily weather on a podcast on the website that supports the ham net. If you go to the website. click on weather podcast and you can listen to exactly what we do every morning.
Sonrisa Net ham net
www.Sonrisanet.org
http://sonrisanet.org/podcasts/today.mp3
Hope you get a kick out of this!!
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Thanks.
