Crossing the Sea

Having just completed our crossing of The Sea of Cortez, I wanted to give you all an idea of the experience that we had.  You may ask why this was any different than other parts of our journey, let me explain. 

Nancy, Adam and I have already traveled over a thousand miles in Antipodes from San Diego to La Paz Mexico over the past two months.  Most of these travels have been coast-wise, that is, we always saw land on one side of us or another.  In addition, we made the bulk of the journey with the FUBAR group, 40 other boats like ours travelling together with the support you would expect from such a large group.

This crossing was a bit different, first, we were doing this alone, no other boats joining us on the crossing.  The crossing was over 220 nautical miles which took us farther from land then we've ever been as well as in an area with much less support for us if a problem should arise.  Just to give you some reference to my hometown friends and family, crossing Lake Erie from Dunkirk to Bemus Point is 22 nautical miles, our trip was ten times in length, 31 hours to be exact.

Second, we were doing this crossing without the availability of our radar.  This expensive piece of equipment failed on us in La Paz and we have not replaced it as of yet.  This is due to the availability of replacement parts in Mexico plus the number of boat units* this will cost us ($5-6).  We plan on making a side trip in the summer back to the states to purchase a replacement and install on the boat.

Without radar we would not be able to “see” other small ships at sea overnight other than by their running lights.  Many small boat lights cannot be seen until you are very close, sometimes due to the size of the lights or the quality.  The big boats?  No problem, we have a system called Automated Identification System or AIS that displays the navigational information of these vessels.  My favorite piece of AIS information is called CPA or Closest Point of Approach. Basically, this tells us if we are going to be run over or not.

And lastly, this was the longest overnight that Nancy and I would have together, meaning we had to share 4 three hours shifts during the night to keep watch.  Tiring to say the least.

So, how did it go?

First, the weather was spectacular.  Greasy flat seas to start the trip, warm temps and calm winds.  This continued for the entire length of the trip.  Sunset and sunrise were both spectacular as see in the shots below.

 

The Sea of Cortez is known for the abundance of sea life and it did not disappoint, we saw many whales, including several breaching, manta rays jumping, dolphin in our wake and dozens of sea turtles.

     

We trolled for fish most of the way, it was slow on the Baja side but we started picking up fish as we got closer to Isla Isabella and this cumulated with Adam pulling in a beautiful 20 lb Dorado, his first. 

The fight was exciting with several acrobatic jumps by the fish as Adam brought him to the boat. Adam also caught a 15 lb Bonita Tuna that we released.  Our first meal at the island was fresh grilled Dorado tacos, nice!

The overnight was equally as enjoyable, we saw no boat traffic most of the night and the couple of cargo ships we did see were easily avoiding using our AIS system.  The night was dark with no moon meaning the stars were out in full force.  When was the last time you saw the Milky Way?  It was so pronounced.   But that wasn't the best thing about the night, the sea was full of small plankton that created bio-luminescence or sparks in the water.  Our bow and stern wakes looked like fireworks!  I tried to take pictures but couldn't get a good shot but what a beautiful sight.

Of course, the best sight of of all is one of land out the pilothouse window.  Land hoe!

So, after weeks of worrying, we made the trip without a hitch and got to Isla Isabella, or Mexico’s Galapagos islands.  Adam’s blog will cover this adventure.  For now, we venture onto the mainland of Mexico.

Until next time!

*Boat Units – An acronym for “Bust Out Another Thousand”, a common method of pricing boat equipment, for example, 4 boat units = $4,000.