After a long hiatus, the blog is back!
We spent February and March 2016 cruising aboard Cilantro in the Gulf of California (Sea
of Cortez) along the coast of Baja California Sur, the Mexican state that comprises the
southern half of the Baja Peninsula. Our plan was to explore many anchorages between
Santa Rosalía to the north and La Paz to the south. Our interests included birds, plants, marine life, sailing, kayaking, snorkeling, and just plain living
aboard Cilantro for two months. To get to Baja from the San Carlos–Guaymas region in Sonora, we would be making
our first overnight crossing of the Gulf of California, a roughly 100-mile passage,
which at 4 to 5 knots (nautical miles per hour; 1 nautical mile = 6000 feet) takes about 24 hours.
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| Map showing a synopsis of our trip from mainland Mexico at right to Baja California Sur at left. The red markers are clusters of waypoints recorded as we traveled southwest from San Carlos, Sonora, to Baja and continued down the coast. |
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| The back of Sue's 4Runner the morning we left Arizona. |
We provisioned heavily before departing, in part because
we didn’t know what to expect in Baja but also because we prefer remote
anchorages to marinas and towns. We brought many favorite
foodstuffs with us from Arizona and loaded up on more goodies in
Guaymas and San Carlos. Cans and boxes and bottles and bags and plastic
containers of storable foods were bundled and stuffed into cabinets, under
settees, in lockers, and down into the dry parts of the bilge. Sue typed up an
elaborate inventory and drew storage maps that we hoped would eliminate
head-scratching searches.
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| Cabbage in the bilge! |
Cilantro’s refrigerator and tiny freezer were stuffed with homemade
bread, chili, chipotle chicken stew, enchiladas, turkey sausages, cheeses, yogurt,
half-and-half (a significant luxury!) and delicate vegetables. Two hanging net
bags in the cabin held oranges, lemons, tomatoes, and avocados. Overflow bags
of chips nestled on top of books in the bookcase. Apples and red
cabbages stayed cool in bins in the bilge. And red onions and garlic rode in a
ventilated basket on the floor under the salon table. In addition to food, we
squirreled away what we calculated as two months’ supply of paper towels,
toilet paper, laundry soap, toiletries, first aid supplies, and batteries.
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| High-pressure pump for the watermaker. |
Our inboard diesel tank holds about 39 gallons, plus we
carry two 5-gallon jugs on deck. In a specially vented stern locker we keep 5 gallons
of propane for cooking and 8 gallons of gasoline to run our portable generator
and 5-hp dinghy motor. We carry 85 gallons of fresh water in built-in tanks,
plus a 6-gallon emergency jug on deck. Curtis had installed a Cruise R.O. SeaMaker 20 watermaker—a
sophisticated high-pressure reverse osmosis system that makes drinking water
from sea water—that we had never used before this trip. We hoped it would save
us from having to purchase and “jug” water from town or marina sources every few
weeks.
Portable electronics we brought included our iPhones, an iPad,
2 Mac laptops, 3 digital cameras, a DeLorme InReach satellite messenger, and a Sony shortwave radio.
With cell coverage very scarce in this part of Mexico, the iPhones were used
mainly for taking photos and videos, creating eBird lists to submit later, and recording hiking
tracks. The iPad holds music and also functions as a second chartplotter,
with a set of anchorage maps by Shawn Breeding and Heather Bansmer from Blue Latitudes Press that turned out to be more accurate than the standard commercial ones. The laptops were used to offload and edit photos and
videos, watch a couple of DVDs, and type up blog posts. The InReach satellite
messenger tracked our movements on a map. It could also have broadcast a distress signal and message for Search and Rescue. It also allows us to share maps and send and receive
short text messages with family and friends, which was a great way to stay in touch without email or phone. The Sony shortwave radio was essential for receiving weather forecasts throughout the trip, allowing us to plan our travel days and choose anchorages with good protection from wind and waves.
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| Curtis tuning the shortwave radio to hear the 7:30 a.m. cruisers network, which included point forecasts for the entire Gulf of California and both coasts of Baja. Without cell service or Internet access, this was our only weather resource. |
Sue brought 2 Olympus point-and-shoot cameras: her old Olympus XZ-1 that
has served her well but the electronics were becoming touchy, and a new Olympus
TG-4 that is rugged and waterproof. Sue isn’t as happy with the macro image
quality from the TG-4 but it is a much safer camera to take in the kayak. It is
rated as waterproof but we aren’t sure we want to submerge it in saltwater…yet.
Curtis has a Nikon P900 CoolPix with an ultra-zoom lens that is great for photographing
and videotaping distant birds and whales but is challenging to hold steady on a boat!
His iPhone 6-Plus is hard to beat for general photo and video quality.
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| Curtis with his Nikon CoolPix P900. |
Water gear that we brought along included masks and snorkels, some lightweight snorkeling skins, and 2 folding-inflatable kayaks purchased from REI. They are AirFusion Elites made by Advanced Elements. We love kayaks for exploring and getting ashore but can't fit hard sea kayaks on Cilantro's narrow deck. We had looked at inflatable kayaks in the past but found most of them to be too beamy and flat-bottomed, difficult to paddle any distance in a straight line. The AirFusion Elites have narrow high-pressure air tubes along the sides and a central aluminum pole set that keeps them rigid and gives them a better sea kayak shape. They are 13 feet long, 28 inches wide, and weigh 32 pounds (light enough for Sue to carry up the beach without struggling). They also fit nicely on deck and are easy to deploy.
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| Sue in one of the Advanced Elements folding-inflatable kayaks. |
More posts to come! Next up is our crossing from Sonora to the Baja Peninsula on 29–30 January.
