Sailing Report:
We dropped the anchor in San Carlos at 0630 this morning and were greated with a cool rain shower thanks to hurricane Amanda I’m sure. Conditions exceeded expectations and Stormy was a rocket on the crossing resulting in a predawn arrival. This meant heaving to and bobbing up and down like a cork a few miles out while we waited for the sun to rise

Lat: 17°56.41’N
Lon: 111°03.22’W

Fishing Report:
The fishing was amazing as we left Isla San Marcos. For the first 4 hours we had at least one fish on per hour. Unfortunately, keeping them on proved to be a bit of a challenge. While I did land a couple more skipjacks, the 4ft, blue and silver, thrashing, jumping mass of fish managed to shake the hook. When it jumped it was a few hundred feet from the boat, and all I saw was giant silver and blue—marlin maybe???

There was another that took the rapala and –almost– all of my line before letting go deep underwater. It took me a while to reel all the line back in, and it really felt like it had snapped. However, once I got it back, the rapala was still there unharmed. Maybe it’s too small for these fish?

The dorado will have to wait for us to come back…

The Plan:
We will be heading over to the marina office today to book our haulout. Then Stormy will be put in the storage yard, and we’ll hitch a ride or take a bus back to the US.

This shouldn’t take more than a week. See you all soon.

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We are leaving this morning (Wed. 5/28/14 0830) to make the big jump across the Sea of Cortez from Isla San Marcos to San Carlos. It’s about 70nm, and we should arrive by noon tomorrow.

The weather forecasts are calling for pretty light conditions, since hurricane Amanda is still far away, so we’ll probably be motoring a lot of the way. The fishing should be great, though. It’s dorado season and we’ll be in the middle of dorado territory

Look for another update soon after we arrive—with an exciting fishing report hopefully.

Once we arrive in San Carlos, we should have normal internet access again to finally upload some of the photos and videos we’ve been making.

Now it’s time to finish getting the boat ready and get out of here!

D&H

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What can I say? Wow! I love this island. It has been all of the things that we came to the Sea of Cortez for and has been the perfect final adventure before shooting across to San Carlos to store Stormy for the summer.

Our plan is to spend our last days on the Baja side circumnavigating Isla San Marcos. The weather has been perfect for it, with sunny days and light winds forecast for the next 2-3 days, we can anchor on any and every side of the island in comfort.

It’s working great so far. There’s a gypsum mine here, and the guidebook doesn’t really talk up the island, so it’s not such a hot destination. Let’s hope nobody else reads this blog and the secret stays with us!

We have had the anchorages around the island to ourselves, and it’s the first time since we rounded Cabo that we have anchored somewhere where the best and most protected spots weren’t already taken by other boats. We have had beautiful snorkeling with perfect visibility, great spear-fishing, fun hiking, colorful sunsets (again, with no other boats!), sea caves!, and today we had an entire DAY of dolphins and porpoises—some so big that I thought they were orcas at first.

Fishing Report: we caught a skipjack on the handline yesterday, and this morning I caught a nice triggerfish with the speargun that we enjoyed breaded in riceflour as a taco lunch. They really do taste like lobster. We kept in touch with Mandolina via the SSB radio as they crossed over to Guaymas, and they radiod last night that they landed a 6ft. sailfish on a handline! Then they had mahimahi swimming in their bow wake throughout the night.

I have stockpiled a bit of fresh squid we found while snorkeling to use as bait for our crossing. I’m not sure I want to catch an enormous billfish, but a nice dorado would be awesome. That being said, I would love to see a billfish up close.

Position Report: you can pin us on the map right here—

Lat: 27°15.061’N
Lon: 112°05.985’W

All is well on board.

DB & HJ

The post //WL2K Circumnavigation of Isla San Marcos appeared first on Sailing Stormy.

Position Report: we are currently anchored off of Playa Coyote in the southern portion of Bahia Coyote. There are several other boats anchored with us. It’s crowded, but the beach is beautiful and lined with palms, and the mountains’ steep edges begin just beyond the beach.

Lat: 26°43.300’N
Lon: 111°54.392’W

Fishing Report: one person has told me that our average boat speed of 5kts is a little slow for dorado and recommended 7-10kts. Short of surfing down 15ft. seas, that won’t be happening on Stormy, so I guess we’ll have to hope for slow dorado. Interesting note: the anchorage yesterday at Playa Santispac was full of saltwater catfish that swarm anything you put in the water, including yourself.

Galley Report: Thanks to some local info that was passed on to us from Thomas on Mandolina, we’re going to try collecting some fresh scallops today, and hopefullly, we’ll find some water clear enough to spear a couple triggerfish too. With any luck, I’ll be writing about a magnificent seafood feast in the next post.

Casualty Report: Unfortunately, Heather’s iPhone has decided to leave our company. We caught a ride into Mulege to do some provisioning, and as we rounded one particularly bumpy curve, an attempt to take a photo out the window resulted in an important physics lesson. Search and rescue attempts were called off after 30 minutes and a sunburn. Sadly, any attempts to call Heather will now result in a lonely iphone ringing at the bottom of a canyon on the highway to Mulege. If you’d like a free iphone, the approximate location is: 26°47.974’N, 111°53.249’W.

Aside from the loss, the trip to Mulege was fun. We met a nice guy named Jerry, who first flew down here on his own plane 40 years ago. He eventually built a house and decided to stay. He gave us a ride into town and showed us the sites, and then he topped it all off by treating us to burgers at a local gringo haunt. Thanks, Jerry!

This is the area where Steve and Genny saw whale sharks, so we’re keeping a close watch on the water.

It’s 87° and sunny. All is well on board. Now it’s time to go get some scallops!

The post //WL2K Playa Coyote, free iPhone! appeared first on Sailing Stormy.

With wind on our nose most of the way, it took us about 10 hours to get to Bahia Santo Domingo on the northern end of the Bay of Concepcion. We dropped the anchor at 8:50pm with about 10 minutes left until totally dark, starry night. Talk about cutting it close

Sailing Report: weather reports turned out to be less accurate yesterday, and we had less favorable wind than I hoped for. The result was that we motorsailed most of the way. There were a couple nice moments where we could turn off the engine, but they were short.

Fishing Report: trolled for 10 hours and had one strong hit on the yellow/green cedar plug on the handline (about 5:30pm–same as the day before), but the mystery fish managed to avoid the hook and didn’t come back for a second attempt.

Whale Report: We saw a large, dark colored whale swimming with an enormous pod of dolphins. The pod made a line in the water at least a half mile wide. We watched them for 30 minutes or so and the whale stayed right in the middle of them the whole time.

We’re leaving this morning for Bahia Coyote, 8 miles to the south. We’re excited about visiting the small tienda and restaurant there and unloading the trash that is starting to pile up on board as well as replenishing our stock of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Position Report: Bahia Santo Domingo in Bahia Concepcion. We are anchored off of a small beach with a little fish camp. Last night we could see the lights of Mulege across the bay.

Lat: 26 52.031N
Lon: 11 50.940W

All is well on board. The wind is picking up from the northeast and we are looking forward to a fun 2-hour sail to Bahia Coyote.

The post //WL2K Bahia Concepcion appeared first on Sailing Stormy.

Just a one night stopover on our way to Bahia Concepcion.

Cooking Report: made an awesome pizza last night with rice flour for the dough and mexican style tomato jalapeno sauce. I didn’t think the rice flour would turn out, but it was delicious.

Fishing Report: trolled the lucky rapala and a green and yellow cedar plug. 20 minutes from Punta Pulpita just as we hit the 200ft shelf the drag on the rapala started racing out! I stopped the engine and pulled in the handline that was also out, grabbed the pole, and NOTHING. I guess he didn’t get hooked. The rapala was still there, but no fish. It was probably just another skipjack anyway…

Position Report: Punta Pulpita is a giant rock outcropping with streaks of obsidian. It looks like the Prudential commercial. We tucked in behind it as close as we could get, but we still had a bit of a rolly night.

Lat: 26 30.903N
Lon: 111 27.017W

Weather Report: we had crazy “pirates of the caribbean” fog in San Juanico, but last night was clear and the sky was full of stars. The bioluminescence in the water was amazing. You could see glowing green outlines and trails where fish darted around the boat. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

All is well on board.

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We are currently at anchor in Caleta San Juanico. We motored about 4 hours on a glassy, calm sea from Isla Carmen only to arrive and find easterly thermal winds blowing through the anchorage at 10-15kts. At least we were able to cool off a bit.

We spent the previous two days at Isla Carmen doing a few boat chores and some snorkeling, too. We got invited to triggerfish tacos with Rich, Rebecca, Thomas, and Sachi on Mandolina.

Boat Chores:

– Overhauled the sheet winches in the cockpit. Both pawl springs had broken in the starboard winch, rendering it useless, and when I disassembled the port winch, I discovered one spring had broken in it as well. It’s a good thing I brought a little bag of spare springs
– Scrubbed the waterline. I should have taken the advice of just about every cruiser I talked to while preparing for this trip and raised the waterline on Stormy. There was a nice crop of barnacles growing about 1-2 inches above the bottom paint on the aft third of the boat. I’m sure we’re going to find some nice little blisters in the paint in that area too.

While at Isla Carmen, I finally got a chance to try out the speargun that Mario gave us and discovered a new way to feed the crew on Stormy. I thought it was going to take lots of practice, but I nailed a triggerfish on the first shot. It’s more reliable and less random than fishing with a pole.

On our way from Isla Carmen to San Juanico we trolled a green and silver spoon and a blue and silver rapala with no takers. Just as we reached the entrance to San Juanico, Heather noticed some movement in the water about 200 yards from us, and we changed course to take a closer look at what turned out to be a pair of orcas making their way south along the 300ft. line—probably feasting on all the fish we didn’t catch along the way.

Now at San Juanico we are anchored between two small, rocky islets. These strong afternoon thermal winds have kicked up quite a chop, and we’ve put off snorkeling until later this evening. We have already done a bit of hiking, though, and discovered a cave going back into one of the cliffs. I carefully worked my way inside watching the ceiling for bats and discovered—a green lawnchair. It did seem like a nice, cool place to escape the direct sun and read a book.

There is a small river that we heard is deep enough to explore with the dinghy. We might give this a shot in the morning.

Position:
26 22.09 N
111 25.79 W

Fishing Report:
No luck trolling offshore. Catching them faster than we can eat them with the speargun.

All is well on board, but we did just run out of ice.

The post //WL2K San Juanico, Windy Oasis appeared first on Sailing Stormy.

We had a fun windward bash with light winds that built throughout the day to about 15kts. We trolled a spoon, a squid plug, and a rapala the whole way, and about 2 hours into the trip we heard the drag racing out on the rapala. Steve landed a nice skipjack about 10lbs. I know everyone says “it’s just a skipjack, not a r e a l bonito” but its red meat grilled up like a t-bone last night. We all thought it was as delicious as good beef.

We had a small delay when I hooked my 80 pounder and fought it for 20 minutes or so. It turned out to be another 10lb skipjack, which we released. He sure put up a fight, though. We didn’t make it to Puerto Ballandra until nearly sunset, but we found a spot to anchor between the 5 other boats.

Today we’re going to do a bit of hiking and explore Isla Carmen. There are a couple spots on the chart that look like good snorkeling which we’ll check out as well.

The boat looks like a circus tent with all the sun awnings we have put up, but it really makes a difference. It’s 73 degrees in the cabin as I write this.

The weather is great. The fishing is great. The sun is hot. The drinks are cold.

Current Position:

Puerto Ballandra, Isla Carmen

Lat. 26 01.139N
Lon. 111 09.813W

The post //WL2K It’s just a skipjack… appeared first on Sailing Stormy.

The fishing has been poor here, but we have caught a few smaller fish that we released. I read that this area all the way to Loreto has been severely overfished and now has some of the worst fishing in all of Baja.

We also did some snorkeling, which was fun, but I think I saw more trash on the bottom than fish. I even saw a pair of pants standing upright on the bottom with their waist down and feet up so that it looked like someone dove head first into the water and get stuck in the sand up to their waist.

Our Current Position:

25 31.413N
111 04.439W

We’ll be leaving this morning for Puerto Escondido and should arrive this afternoon.

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After leaving La Paz, we spent our first night anchored in Ensenada Grande at Isla Partida. It was a new first for us—-we earned our dinghy-painter-around-the-prop badge! We had been towing the dinghy, and I forgot to pull it in closer to the boat as we entered the anchorage. I dropped the anchor and Heather put the engine in reverse to back down and set the anchor, only this time there was a sudden klang and then silence as the tow rope was now wrapped tightly around our propeller. At the very least, it was a good excuse for me to go swimming

Everything checked out ok, and we were able to motor out of the anchorage the next morning with no problems.

The painter around the prop was only one of the issues we faced that day. While in La Paz we installed a reverse-osmosis watermaker (I do what I can to keep HJ from threatening mutiny which worked flawlessly at anchor turning dirty sea water into delicious drinking water with disolved solids at around 200PPM. Unfortunately, we soon discovered that tiny air bubbles travel along the hull and trickle into the sea water intake when we are under way. The little bubbles collect until they become a big bubble, which is the mortal enemy of a high-pressure reverse osmosis system.

It was a little depressing, because we thought we were going to be taking 3 showers a day from now on, but it turns out there’s a little more creative problem solving to do.

The next day we sailed north past Isla San Jose with a southerly wind. It was HOT enough that Heather was inspired to build a sail-friendly cockpit bimini out of old tent parts that we brought along with us. Our normal cockit awning is too big to use while underway and gets in the way of the mainsail.

We made it to Punta San Telmo just as the sun was setting. Heather made taco salad (tex-mex style) and we slept like babies. It was the quietest, calmest night we’ve had in a while.

Punta San Telmo is also the first anchorage we’ve had all to ourselves since Bahia Magdalena on the pacific side. We had one of the coolest sunrises we’ve seen this trip with purple, orange clouds and red rock formations of the Sierra de la Giganta. We’re now enjoying a delicious cup of coffee this morning and preparing to head to Agua Verde to meet Genny and Steve.

Our current position is:

25 19.867’N
110 57.684’W

Unfortunately, the fishing report is short. We have had no bites since leaving La Paz.

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