Sailing Encore

It has been a fantastic last 12 days! Sailing and snorkeling and enjoying the Sea of Cortez’ bays and water.

Started off a bit rough. We sailed to Caleta Partida, a bay on the island of Espirito Santos, North of La Paz. We anchored in a section of the bay that the guide book said would be best if you got the rare “Coromuel winds”. These night winds are caused by the narrow and low area of the Baja Peninsula by La Paz. Pressure and temperature pull southwest winds across from the West to the Sea of Cortez and funnel into bays that don’t really have protection from strong winds of that direction. But if you give yourself enough swing room at anchor you would be fine. EXCEPT the normal swell that comes into these bays is the exact 90 degree angle from the winds and it creates a very strong washing machine effect. We had just finished dinner when they started. They came on fast and strong and I could not walk about the boat without hitting things- hard. We stored and locked things down and barely slept all night. I had to brace myself in bed to remain there. Vernon sat up most of the night. When the sun rose we got off anchor, deciding to sail far enough north to not encounter these winds. We motored north in fairly calm seas but after a couple hours we entered a channel and started to experience some intense wind against sea current effect that came on suddenly and continued to build. It looked as if we weren’t going to catch a break. Here is the cutest video of me trying to film the building seas as I called Vernon up to show him. You may not hear it, but he is cursing the gods for the Coromuels and now this sea change, envisioning that the whole trip would be a mess instead of the ‘vacation’ we were after.

If we had carried on in that sea it would have taken more than four more nasty ‘ beat up the boat’  hours to get to the intended bay. Instead, we fell back to a closer bay and slept well, then had a delightful sail up that same channel the next day….

But let me tell you about the amazing stuff we encountered—–

We had wonderful sails – under spinnaker, on a beat, on a reach, all depending on the contrary wind of course. And it truly came from every direction, changing within minutes. And of course was never what the predicted wind was described as. Vernon found great pleasure in tweaking the sails to get a wonderful performance from Encore. That truly is his happy zone- making Encore perform beautifully. And he did get that opportunity. Strangely, we would see other sailboats motoring in some wonderful sailing conditions. Why they did not ‘put out some canvas’ and enjoy the fair winds and smooth seas was beyond us.

My happy zone was in the water swimming, snorkeling and attempting to capture it with my GoPro. (it took me a while to figure out working the GoPro- sometimes I thought it was on but it was off L).We traveled north each day to a new bay and as soon as we anchored I put on my wetsuit and jumped in. I have a book about the sea life in the Sea of Cortez and I just about saw everything! My very first jump in brought eels, sea snake and octopus plus tropical fish. I do believe the Sergeant Major has the advantage in these shallow reefs. Here are some pictures and then a video. Sometimes the water was cloudy, other times like swimming in someone’s aquarium.

If I wasn’t in the water enjoying the sea life, I was in the cockpit enjoying the view. The landscape, fairly unappealing to me at first, started to grow on my senses. I remember a year ago when we were looking into this destination, I googled a video of a sailboat traveling in this area and thought ‘how could anyone think this is that pretty’. But soon I was marveling in the layers of rock and the geological creations that are these mountains and hillsides of color, rocks and cactus as they meet the blue turquoise sea. I feel like I am sailing in Utah past Bryce and Zion. The prehistoric volcanic and tectonic activity that created this area seems so basic and pure. And quiet. The landscape gave off a sense of quiet and calmness that was exaggerated when sitting in at anchor in a calm bay with no other boats around. Here is a video I took as we sailed along. Just us and lots of brown and red layered land.

And some of the bays where the desert hills meet the colored sea.

Some bays we had all to ourselves or maybe one other boat. In others, there were more boats but plenty of room for all. And not once when I was snorkeling a reef or rocky ledge did I come upon any other snorkeler (except Vernon, but he was invited). Almost every bay held a new surprise in the water, on shore or in the sky. I sat and watched this hawk hunt for dinner on the hillside for over an hour. Finally catching a snake and flying off with it (look closely at the top of the right cactus branch).

Along the beach I found beautiful shells, some with owners! And almost every bay had different entertainment. At Agua Verde we had over 2 hours of the Manta Ray show. Vernon said the theory is they are trying to remove parasites. But it looked like a competition to me. Groups of them jump and jump and jump. In this video they seem to be going for style, with the last one doing a back flop.

In this video, height is the winning quality.

At times there were several groups all jumping at once and the popping sound they made as they hit the water sounded like fireworks on the 4^th of July. In another bay, close to a seal rookery, 6 pups came swimming through, jumping and playing as the sun set.

Speaking of sunsets, every night a color fest as we relaxed in the cockpit with a rum and OJ or glass of wine, talking about the day and where we would sail tomorrow.

While we sailed we continued to be entertained by whales and dolphins. (I will always run to the bow to see dolphins riding the pressure wave there). 

When we were in bays that also had small villages on the shore, I would wake up and have my coffee in the cockpit, watching the local fishermen ready their pangas for a day on the water. And the kids fishing and playing on the beach.

It is amazing to think the local people live so simply. Small huts and no cell phone connection, maybe a generator for electricity. Some had goat herds and made cheese you could purchase at the small tienda. All very friendly and welcoming when you went ashore.

Every night I made something different for dinner with the fresh provisions from Mazatlán and La Paz. My stove, propane and oven (with new thermometer) worked perfectly! Then we would read or enjoy a DVD on our TV. We have about 50 DVDs we got in So Cal at a used book store. Most oldies but goodies. Like The Searchers with John Wayne (actually looked like we were sailing by that scenery). Or Man on Fire with Denzel Washington set in modern day Mexico City. Intense. Then we would sleep so sweetly to the small rocking motion that anchorage brings. I love that.

But my favorite thing of all was diving on some rocks in the channel that are a seal rookery. It is hard to get to by dinghy, so Vernon motored Encore in close and I jumped off and swam into the rocks. So many fish!

And the seals were swimming and playing around me. Here is a video of a pup checking me out and mom coming in to see what is going on. (excuse the green tether GoPro cord)

This is the experience I was hoping for – this has been amazing! 

Special thanks to my captain Vern for making it happen!