After the winter cruising in Baja California Sur, we find ourselves on the verge of celebrating a major milestone. Its our one year anniversary of being on the boat. If you've been following along, we left Seattle back on April 1st 2023. Since April 2023 we've gone 5,000 nautical miles (give or take) at an average of 6 knots -- which is more than 800 hours at the helm. So basically, its like a part time job for us both. Throw in some sleepless nights too just for fun. And many many cribbage games.
We've seen the expansive wilderness of Alaska and now find ourselves back in a surprisingly beautiful wilderness of Mexico. Where the desert meets the sea and the turquoise blue provides an ever perfect complement to the sage brush and cactus filled arroyos. The lush greens of the PNW are now replaced with tans, green and red rocks.
The clouds of the northern skies replaced by day after day of ever blue. Since September, when we made that "big left turn" out of puget sound we've travelled 2300 miles down the west coast of North America, of which we've now spent ~600 miles exploring the Sea of Cortez.
The bay in which we sit is about 5 miles across at the opening. Areas protected from the wind are few and far between, but our little corner tucked behind 'Soldier rock' seems to be doing fine against the 20 knot breeze, with stronger cold gusts from the North. The temperatures in the day are mid-70s. And at night, a cool 60. We saw a whale here yesterday, we weren't sure of the species but either a Fin or maybe a Blue. We found out at the local natural history museum that it was likely a Blue.
We had bottlenose porpoises swimming around the boat as the sun dropped lower in the sky. A coyote walked down the beach in the distance. A turtle poked its head to take say hello. The water has dropped to a very cold 63 degrees. Only a week ago and two hundred miles south the water was 75. Today our backyard view is the Valley of the Souls...Bahai de las Animas just off the stern.
There are multiple flocks of migratory birds here gliding against the wind around the boat. Pelicans and Boobies are prolific. We saw one sailboat on the horizon today headed in the opposite direction. We saw two boats yesterday and imagine they'll catch up to us when the northerly winds abate. It is feeling vast like Alaska but strikingly different. Last night we got a strange smell of fish in the air, we looked to see if a whale was breathing near by... but didn't see anything.
From here we will make our final 2 legs of the season approximately 150 miles up to the NE corner of the Sea of Cortez to the city of Puerto Penasco where we'll be putting Okisollo on the hard (dry storage) for the hot hurricane season, move ashore for 6 months and regain our land legs.
During that time we'll be working through many boat projects that we've got backlogged, traveling back to Bellingham and will be completing our preparations for our ambitious next year of cruising. We are both ready for a change of pace, some time to explore other hobbies and time with our friends and family. Too much of a good thing -- can be just that -- too much. We know that with our planned summer break, we'll be ready and stoked for the next great adventure. More on that, next time! Onward!
Enjoyed your stories. Now enjoy family.
Have fun in dry dock, anything wrong with the boat?
You two are amazing!