(another post that somehow didn't make it via satellite...)

The BIG Crossing!

Today we've fled the 'big city' of San Carlos to do a wee bit more sailing before the boat gets hauled out into the desert for the next few months. I have no San Carlos stories to share, I was literally holed up in the boat, doing work work on the computer for the past couple days. Meanwhile, Paul traversed the city on foot and by bus, and invented and built some very useful boat items. (More on those another time.) Most importantly, Paul kicked, spit, licked and generally did whatever it took to keep the air conditioning running on the boat while we were in the marina. Did I mention it's reaaaalllly hot in the desert in the summer time? But, with a big yellow plug coming out of the side our our fine vessel, I had air conditioning, hot water, AND internet, holy smokes!

I haven't had a chance to share a lot of stories along the way, so I'll try to at least backtrack to The BIG Crossing story. Now, for you folks who regularly sail yourselves to Hawaii and back , this here Sea of Cortez deal is just a little ole' puddle. For ninnies like me however, it was kind of a big deal as it was our first open water long sail as just a twosome. Paul “nerves of steel” West was excited, but of course he was not at all nervous. OK, now keep in mind that my goal here is to be honest... a year from now I want to look back, read this and laugh at myself, while grinning with a sense of accomplishment, embracing my newly found “macha” self, ready to leap off docks and haul myself up masts and stop speeding bulletts....

We sailed from Santa Rosalia to Isla San Marcos as the first step. Anchorage was at a place called Sweet Pea Cove, so how can you lose with a name like that? We had a great afternoon and evening out there, I'll tell you about the very cool sea cave explorations and the amazing sunset etc., some other time.

Shove-off time for the crossing was set for 3:00 a.m. We both woke up earlier than our alarms, excited and ready to go. Everything was dead calm and we had a great, big beautiful full moon to help us see our way clear of rocks. Thanks, I'll take it! In fact, this day was selected for our crossing due to it's almost full moon, along with the Solstice - Sailstice celebration, held on the Saturday closest to the Solstice. Okay, so 3 am is technically Sunday...I digress.

Of course-- the day of The BIG Crossing, I couldn't get weather on our SSB (Single Side Band radio), so Paul humoured me by downloading GRIB files and such on the satellite. We didn't see any hurricanes or monsters ahead. In fact, turns out that the GRIB files actually got the wind direction right this time, and the speed was about right too! 9 times out of 10 here, it's basically 'your guess is as good as mine', “local conditions prevail”...

So Captn' Paul took the graveyard shift and I supplied coffee then tried to go back to sleep. No luck there, but at least I was resting. I came up above to greet a great sunrise, and then Paul and I welcomed the actual wind (!) which finally turned on. We raised the sails and then lowered Captn' Paul. I had a grand time sailing along. Winds grew. Waves grew. “Paul honey can we put a reef in?” Winds were predicted for 20+ knots, so Paul was supportive and in fact we took it all the way to a double reef. In my opinion, the seas were really getting big, and “confused”. 6 foot swells, a couple came up and over into the boat, they were pretty rapid fire and coming from lots of different directions. Notice I say “in my opinion....”

I voted for my favorite baby sail to take over for the jib. I still get nervous about being able to roll in that jib and reef it when we need to. In retrospect, we probably would have been better leaving it out, as our speed was cut pretty dramatically when we put up the staysail and took down the jib. But winds were 20 – 24 knots or so. (And did I mention seas were pretty intense?--in my opionion--) I didn't know if things were going to get bigger and louder, and I didn't mind slowing down when it was still relatively easy to do so.

But finally at one point it just got stupid. Even for me!! The currents and waves were doing one thing while the boat tried to do another. It didn't feel like we were moving at all. How can you go less than 4 knots in 16 knots of wind? The angle started to change more toward 60 instead of 90, our boat doesn't point up that well. Oh, and then there was this island coming...the water was pushing us closer to the island...I saw a 2000 foot rapid change in depth on the chart... “Paul honey can you come up here, I'm worried about what's going to happen with this current and swells and crazy ocean topography...” The poor thing...he was very sweet, amused me again, and then we decided to let out the jib. But, guess what, whether you call one of us nervous and the other one bold, neither one of us was too keen to go forward to take down the baby sail. Did I mention that our decks are like a skating rink? Well, after this trip, miraculously the “refinish decks with non-skid” work request has been moved up toward the top.... (Thank You Neptune!)

Okay, so guess what, now we have twice as much sail area out. Nervous Nellie says “I think this is counter-point, we need just one”. Steel Nerves says “YEEEHAAAY ! We're going 7.3Knots!!” Good ole boat says “ heeeeel this away, heeeel that away, round up to the wind....” Steal Nerves agrees to tolerate Nervous Nellie, neither one of us wants to go ice skating to get the baby sail down, so voila, jib goes back in, and then IronSides comes to the rescue...A little motor sailing to help alleviate Nellie's fear of island meeting boat...

Right after sunrise I saw a whale, well not the whale as much as a steady flow of whale blows. That whale was kind of just hangin' out. At some point along the way, a big sailfish jumped out of the water and splashed behind us, that was verrry cool. I have never seen a sailfish before, they actually do have those big long beaks!!! We had a few birds here and there. These funny dark boobies would circle around us every so often, like they were looking for a place to rest. Mostly the water was so rough you couldn't see a ton of sealife.

After snow and sleet and hail and dark of night... it was LAND HO and very cool to see these dramatic, very “western-movie” type funny mountains rising up. The slowest part of the trip was the last couple hours, wind died but seas continued pushing and shoving. We made the 75NM in 13 hours, not bad. We sailed a good portion of the way, and I don't think I screamed out loud, (maybe a thought bubble or two....)

I had prepared enough food for a Pacific crossing, but once we got out there and the seas were rough I wished I had also made the sandwiches in advance. I like how if you throw a piece of cheese up in the air, and then throw the bread up a few seconds later, your bread meets up with the cheese on the downside. Works for me!

Once we anchored in Bahia Algodones, a lovely spot, we made it through the crashing surf (in my opinion) with an excellently manuevered dinghy landing by Paul. Followed our noses to the Soggy Peso Bar, where celebrations and high-fives were doled out in abundance. Next stop, Fiji!!

Adios for now,
Pamela