On Friday the northern winds calmed down and we were able to cast off the dock lines and head out of Marina San Carlos. It's kinda funny how when you've been out cruising for awhile how nice it is to get to a marina...but when you've been stuck in a marina for awhile, it's also nice to get underway. We had several motivating factors for wanting to do our short (6.5 nautical mile) trip. Our main reason was to be able to continue to test things out before we cross back over the Sea of Cortez to Baja next week. It's much better to discover any kind of issues when you are 6.5 NM away from a marina then to find out about them when you are half way across a 70 NM wide sea. We also just wanted to get out to a nice bay, drop the hook (anchor) and dive of the stern of Si Bon into 80+ degree water.
As we made our way out of the narrow Bahia San Carlos channel the winds pick up a little and for the first time in three months I was able to unfurl Si Bon's main sail...as the large sail came smoothly out of the mast I was praying for no surprises...hoping that a birds nest didn't come flying out and land on our heads.... or some other strange unknown occurrence. Well the sail came out, the boat heeled (tilted) a little and off went the engine and out came our other sail, a large 155 Genora. For the first time in three months I was quietly gliding along through the calm seas....with a beautiful 7-8 knot wind filling our sails. Sharon made the comment "you look like a kid in a candy store", I think that might have been an understatement.
We spent the weekend snorkeling, exploring the beach and of course diving off Si Bon into the beautiful, warm waters of the Sea of Cortez.
Our current plan (subject to change) is to leave Marina San Carlos one week from today and cross the Sea to Santa Rosalia. This will be another busy week (not kidding) getting things done for our departure.