Our return crossing from Baja California Sur to San Carlos, Sonora, was easy. Unlike our trip over to BCS in February, we had almost no wind. This isn't good for sailing, so our Yanmar engine guzzled diesel for nearly 20 hours. But the water was beautiful—glassy and reflective, even otherworldly at times, especially in the middle of the Gulf, 40 miles from land.
 |
| Sunset in Caleta San Juanico, BCS, the night before our crossing. |
We departed Caleta San Juanico on the BCS Gulf coast around 9:30 a.m. on March 9 and pointed
Cilantro north, our ship's compass hovering around 000
ºM (magnetic north).
A light wind picked up, and we sailed for an hour or two. When the wind died, we furled sails and motored; our Yanmar engine would not be silent until the next day.
 |
| Motoring out of Caleta San Juanico, BCS, on March 9. |
 |
| Ship's compass showing a heading of 000ºM (magnetic north). |
 |
Mainsail up for a short time on our March 9 crossing; Mexican flag (for the
host country) flying from the starboard spreader. |
 |
The sea was calm enough that Sue practiced yoga
(modified Warrior III pose) on the foredeck. |
 |
| Cilantro motoring on glassy seas. |
The birding was good from the start. (One advantage of motoring on calm seas is that you can spot birds more easily and keep them in sight.) Blue-footed and Brown Boobies were in good supply, along with Heermann's Gulls and occasional Magnificent Frigatebirds. The winter pelagics (birds that spend at least the winter months on ocean waters) were the stars of the show: Black-vented and Pink-footed Shearwaters, a Pomarine Jaeger, lots of Craveri's Murrelets, Black and Least Storm-Petrels, and Red-necked Phalaropes. We also had a great look at a Red-billed Tropicbird.
 |
| Male (left) and Female Brown Booby. |
 |
| Blue-footed Booby. |
 |
| Red-billed Tropicbird with its streamer-like tail. |
We submit our bird sightings to eBird (ebird.org), a worldwide citizen-science database of bird sightings managed by Cornell University. We use the eBird app to report what we see, and there's a related app called BirdsEye that maps recent eBird sightings of each species. Because the Gulf of California is a big place, our sightings are often the only ones for a particular spot. Check out the BirdsEye maps below for sightings over the past 4 weeks of Black Storm-Petrel, Craveri's Murrelet, and Red-billed Tropicbird in the Gulf. Because this date range happens to include both our southbound trip to Baja Sur on Feb 18–19 and our northbound return to Sonora on Mar 9–10, the lines of red dots are miniature maps of our crossings! (You may notice that our route does not trend straight up or down; this is because we navigate on a magnetic, not geographic, heading: 000
º magnetic north is a few degrees to the east of 000
º true or geographic north. The difference between the two is known as
magnetic declination: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_declination.)
 |
| We both look happier in this selfie than we did on our southbound crossing! |
 |
| Lasagna and steamed broccoli for dinner. |
 |
| Sunset in the middle of the Gulf of CA. |
 |
| Chartplotter showing our location at 1:00 a.m.: about 25 nautical miles from San Carlos/Guaymas, Sonora. |
 |
The moon rose
like a melon slice,
right on time. |
|
 |
Sunrise arrival at San Carlos, recognizable by the twin peaks of Tetakawi
(Cerro de las Tetas) at left. |
 |
Back in our home port, greeted by a pesky fly (or did it
stow away with us from Baja?). |
As of March 18, Cilantro is sitting in a slip at Marina San Carlos, and we are home in southeast Arizona. We will be back down in April and may take a short trip up the Sonoran coast, followed by prepping the boat for haul-out and dry storage for the summer. If the opportunity (and inspiration) arises, we'll update the blog. Thanks for reading!
