The Southern Crossing is usually made from Mazatlan to the tip of Baja at Bahia Las Frailes. This route is used because it is the shortest distance between the Mainland and the Baja Peninsula. If going onto La Paz, however, it adds about 25 miles to the overall trip. I chose to go directly to La Paz which meant more time at sea. Just fine with me. My trip took two and one half days (65 hours). I'm sorry to say most of it was under power. I tried to sail a few times but on each attempt I made less than two knots on my course. This part of the sea of Cortez can have some pretty strong winds so I guess little or no wind wasn't a bad option. It would have been too far to go trying to sail directly into strong winds.

There is not much to report about most of the trip. I did leave in the fog with about one quarter mile visibility. Sound familiar? I did the first few hours under radar and always in the cockpit. I also realized that if you want to know what it's like sailing in the dark well it's exactly the same as sailing in dense fog. So there you have it. I did have a nigh-time visitor onboard. Sometime during the second night an arctic turn landed to take a rest. Eventually he found his way into the cockpit where he stayed for over an hour. He became quite comfortable. So comfortable that I was even able to pet him. Ever pet an arctic turn? I didn't think so.

Most notably on the trip was getting through the Canal de San Lorenzo, just north of La Paz. The bouys marking the reefs on both the north and the south are only about one mile apart. This seems like enough room and is but finding the channel in the dark was a bit challenging. I was relying entirely on the GPS positions for a few hours until I could make out the lights. Once I had the lights in sight I was able to relax until I noticed one of the inter-island ferries heading for the same channel. For a time I was seeing both his green and red running lights. Right, dead on the bow. We passed with no more than five hundred yards between us, in the dark, in the Sea of Cortez, a thousand miles from home.

I arrived at the first entrance buoy at 0300. I made my way down the channel using the GPS and chartplotter. I found not all the buoys had functioning lights. Even with GPS, not a good thing. This was the first time I have entered a strange place in the dark. Don't try this at home. All went well until I was in the anchorage and just ready to put my anchor down. I wasn't more than a hundred yards away from other boats when I ran hard aground. Yes, it's three thirty in the morning, I've been sailing for two and a half days and I have to wait for the tide to come in before I can get some sleep. All's well that ends well as they say. It was a low tide and around 0430 the boat drifted off the bar. shortly thereafter I was anchored up off Marina de La Paz and sound asleep.