Sea of Cortez Passage II - Ruminations on cruising (It gets easier)

Sea of Cortez Passage II - Ruminations on cruising (It gets easier)

- December 16, 2021

Gradually, the things that used to cause so much trouble become old hat: things get easier. You find better ways to do things. You address ahead of time the problems that always seem to occur. One by one you take on the things that cause you to gall or fret, the horrid magpies of your sailing life, and one by one they evolve into a non-issue or a slightly less bothersome one.

This is a picture of water. It covers 70% of the Earth.

One of the challenges of making life more pleasant is learning to orchestrate the boat systems and constraints together as a holistic enterprise. You solve for many objective functions and juggle amid many constraints. Battery level, water level, holding tank level, age of your weather GRIB files, garbage build-up. If you think of these individually, not together, you run in to the trouble of getting to a beautiful, secluded spot, thinking “Our water is full, so we are good for a few days.” Only to realize it’s near time to dump the holding tank, so you’ll need to head back out offshore tomorrow. Or the holding tank is empty, so you’re “good for a few days”. But the water is low, so you’ll need to run the watermaker. To do that, you need a pretty full battery bank or need to run the engine (which you usually want to do to get you moving, not idle). Or, water, battery and holding tank are good, so you are “good for a few days”….but your weather GRIB files are now five days old and you don’t have cell signal. You’ll need to go out and get signal to refresh them so you know what weather is coming. Also, the garbage is getting full, and you need to dump it. Organic only for ocean, the rest needs a land spot.

Only by managing all these together can you make it work, or you find you're always having to go out after a day or two and it’s exhausting. So, we are gradually figuring this out. As we do, it gets easier to live, easier to cruise, and the fun proportion of the life pie increases tremendously.

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Birdlist

Belted Kingfisher, Great Blue Heron, American Crow, Northwestern Crow, American Robin, Bald Eagle, Red-winged Blackbird, Spotted Towhee, House Finch, Steller’s Jay, Common Raven, Rock Pigeon/Rock Dove, Canada Goose, Mallard, Northern Flicker, Downy Woodpecker, Dark-eyed Junco, Black-capped Chickadee, Osprey, White-crowned Sparrow, Pelagic Cormorant, Wood Duck, Pileated Woodpecker, Surf Scoter, American Wigeon, Bufflehead, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Double-crested Cormorant, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Barrow’s Goldeneye, American Kestrel, Common Merganser, Blue-winged Teal, Greater Yellowlegs, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Brown Creeper, Trumpeter Swan, Hooded Merganser, Northern Shoveler, Horned Grebe, Cedar Waxwing, Varied Thrush, Ring-necked Duck, Gadwall, Pied-billed Grebe, Western Grebe, Killdeer, Pearly-eyed Thrasher, Zanaida Dove, Magnificent Frigatebird, Bananaquit, Great Kiskadee, Pigeon Guillemot, Common Murre, Rhinoceros Auklet, Black Oystercatcher, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Brown Pelican, Great Egret, Whimbrel, Spotted Sandpiper, Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Snowy Egret, Brewer’s Blackbird, Brandt’s Cormorant, Willet, Western Scrub-Jay (California Scrub-Jay), Acorn Woodpecker, Carolina Chickadee, Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay, Red-tailed Hawk, Mourning Dove, Wild Turkey, Greater Roadrunner, Eastern Towhee, Northern Mockingbird, American Goldfinch, White Ibis, Wood Stork, Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Boat-billed Heron, Tricolored Heron, Rufous-bellied Chachalaca, Roseate Spoonbill, Blue-footed Booby, Brown Booby, Red-billed Tropicbird, Great-tailed Grackle, Anhinga, Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, Golden-cheeked Woodpecker, Yellow-winged Cacique, Common Black Hawk, Neotropic Cormorant, Heerman’s Gull, Crested Caracara, Lineated Woodpecker, American Oystercatcher, Barn Swallow, Tree Swallow,
Green Kingfisher, Yellow Grosbeak, Cinnamon Hummingbird, Elegant Trogon, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Rufous-backed Robin, Long-billed Mexican Hermit, Guineafowl, Smooth-billed Ani, Hooded Oriole, Mangrove Swallow, White-throated Magpie-Jay, Inca dove, White-bellied Chachalaca, Social Flycatcher, White-winged Dove,
Black-throated Magpie-jay, Muscovy Duck, Purple Gallinule, Barred Antshrike, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Prothonotary Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Orchard Oriole, Yellow-Tailed Oriole, Orange-chinned Parakeet, Green Heron, Rufescent Tiger Heron, Common Tody-Flycatcher, Wattled Jacamar, Shiny Cowbird, Panama Flycatcher, Lesser Kiskadee, Isthmian Wren, Keel-billed Toucan, Greater Ani, Tropical Kingbird, Crimson-backed Tanager, Blue-gray Tanager, White-necked Jacobin, Yellow-throated Toucan, House Wren, Black-breasted Puffbird, White-necked Puffbird, Pied Puffbird, White-whiskered Puffbird, Slaty-tailed Trogon, Dusky Antbird, Black-bellied Wren, Cinnamon Woodpecker, Great Tinamou, Dot-winged Antwren, Southern Bentbill, Rufous-tailed Flycatcher, Rufous mourner, Yellow-rumped Cacique, Scarlet-rumped Cacique, Song Wren, Grey-chested Dove, Tawny-faced Gnatwren, Checker-throated Stipplethroat, Masked Tityra, Dusky-capped Flycatcher, Great-crested Flycatcher, Velvety Manakin, Red-capped Manakin, Blue-chested Hummingbird, Red Lored Parrot, Blue-headed Parrot, White-shouldered Tanager, Plain Brown Woodcreeper, Cocoa Woodcreeper, Crane Hawk, Blue-black Grosbeak, Collared Aracari, Fiery-billed Aracari, Chestnut-headed Oropendola, White-tailed Trogon, American Flamingo