At sea off the coast of Baja California Sur, approaching the Tropic of Cancer

 

11/09/2021  

En route to La Paz with a planned fuel stop in San Jose del Cabo.

    Currently on my graveyard shift night watch, midnight to 04:00.  It’s a warm night with good wind of 15-20 knots, downwind sailing with a full main and staysail out, cruising around 5.5 to 6 knots.  Caught another Pacific Bonito today which we had for dinner.  There’s something so satisfying about catching your own dinner.  We’ve also had excellent sailing since leaving Mag Bay – we put the sails up before exiting the bay and haven’t stopped sailing once.   We had a check in from a Mexican Navy ship – we heard them on the VHF but it wasn’t clear if they were addressing us.  They should have been able to see us on AIS and know our boat name, but they kept referring to the yacht that was on heading 135 (we were on 111).  However once they kicked on a super spot light from about a mile and a half away I got on the VHF.  They asked if everything was OK and I said yes, so I guess they were just checking up.

Mag Bay was a quiet and calm stop off after our 400 plus mile journey from Ensenada.  Coming in we saw the first Magnificent Frigatebird we’ve encountered in Mexico.  The first night we anchored off Point Blecher, and on the second day made the short 5 miles sail to anchor off a tiny little town.  On the sail there I put a line in the water and caught my first Pacific Bonito.  I don’t know if it’s beginners’ luck or what, but we’ve caught a fish every day I’ve put a line out.  So far two Skipjack Tunas and two Pacific Bonitos.  After we anchored, bonito fillets for dinner chilling in the fridge, I put on my shorty wetsuit, mask and snorkel and dove on the prop.  We’d hit a seaweed or kelp bed at some point motoring and had noticeably slowed. This was my first time in the water on this voyage!  We’ve been paddleboarding in L.A. and Santa Catalina Island at Avalon but hadn’t gotten in the water yet.  This was a milestone for sure – since leaving Puget Sound I’ve been aching to jump from the boat into some water that wouldn’t kill me from hypothermia in minutes.  The water was lovely.  I removed a bunch of seaweed balled around the prop shaft, being careful not to cut myself on the line cutter I had installed there.  

The little town we anchored off on the second night was quite isolated – no road access, everything arrives by boat.  We rowed the dinghy ashore to take advantage of a little mini market palapa’s wifi.  I had a tequila to justify us taking our seats in front of a bunch of humongous old, bleached whale bones to download GRIB weather files from their wifi.   

These used to be old whaling stations, and still have this sense of isolation and a middle of nowhere pace. The primary reason for getting to shore to get wifi access was to download Predictwind GRIB files – the wind forecast we’d need for the rest of our sail down to San Jose de Cabo.  We don’t usually have any data service offshore, so we have to be opportunistic about getting the weather forecasts.

We picked up some corn meal masa at a tiny tienda (reminded me of the pulperias of Honduras), so I dry battered the bonito and we had an excellent dinner at the cockpit table with fried rice and red cabbage slaw.  We are out of cookies, though, which caused some mild concern.

The next day we set off.  A cloud of houseflies had somehow arrived in the cockpit, and Jen and I counted up fly kills like Legolas and Gimli counting orc kills in Lord of the Rings.   After clearing the bay we saw our first whale since entering Mexico.   I couldn’t help but thinking of all those giant bleached whale bones on the beach – I think that whale will have better luck than its predecessors did here.

Now the wind has picked up and we are hauling along a 6.5-7 knots at 01:30 in the morning.  At this pace we might make San Jose del Cabo tomorrow afternoon, instead of the following day as we expected.  I’m looking forward to crossing the Tropic of Cancer into the tropics, which will happen sometime this morning.  I don’t think it’ll be on my watch though – I’ll probably be asleep, dreaming of marbled murrelets and dorados, because I generally am beat by the time 04:00 comes around.

Often nobody asks me, “Hey Mike, how do you stay up on those night watches?”.  So I thought I’d take this opportunity to share my thoughts on the subject. 

1.       Music.  Current playlist on Brightnest:

a.      John Prine Tree of Forgiveness

b.      Rodriguez Searching for Sugarman

c.      Jack Johnson On and On

d.      Paul Simon Negotiations and Love Songs

e.      Angelique Kidjo Bahia

f.       Julieta Venega

g.      Bob Marley Legend

h.      Hits mix

i.       Folk mix

j.       Lewelyn (St. Croix Calypso)

2.      Snack bag

a.      Gummy bears

b.      Dried Amelie mangos

c.      Nuts

d.      Dried tart Montmorency cherries

e.      Chocolate

3.      Stars

4.      Check radar every fifteen minutes

5.      Check AIS boats list for anyone you know

6.      Shine flashlight on deck and sails, look for anything out of place

7.      Check battery voltage and % amp hours

8.      Check bilge

9.      Read Kindle (currently finishing Michener’s Caribbean), read fish books, bird field guides, cruising guides

 

As Jen comes up to take over watch I say “Sweetie, at 23 N 26’ we’ll cross the Tropic of Cancer.  Take a picture.”