Crossing the Sea to San Carlos

Monday 26th April 2021

“San Carlos is a beachfront subdivision within the port city of Guaymas, in the northern state of Sonora in Mexico. It is noted for the exceptional clarity and warmth of the ocean water in its shallow bays. It lies on the Sea of Cortez.”
_{Copyright Wikipedia.}

The trip from Santa Rosalia on the Baja peninsula over to San Carlos on the mainland, is a 75 Nautical Mile passage across the sea of Cortez heading roughly North East. As I usually try to average around 5 knots, this journey would take 15 hours. The question always is, do you want to arrive in the dark, and as it’s a new place for me, plus it has a rock near the entrance I had been warned about, I decided a daylight approach was best, as the sun sets around 7pm, subtracting 15, plus a couple more for good measure, means a start time of 2AM, given that the moon rose as the sun set, and vice a versa, then the passage should be well lit, and without issue.
Checking the weather suggested everything would be ok, so Monday night/Tuesday early hours was set as the start time. Marina bills were paid, and the boat prepared. It’s been a long time since I did a night passage on my own, so I had to make sure I was well prepared, a good stock of Milky Way chocolate bars was essential, mars bars can be a substitute. Checking the weather again in the morning showed a change and that strong winds from the north were expected on Tuesday so I made the decision to leave early, and worked back from an arrival time of Tuesday morning to give me a departure time of 7PM Monday. A quick trip to the supermarket, and a farewell ice cream in town with Dirk & Sylvia and then I was ready. I left at 7 as the sun was about to disappear behind the mountains, and headed into a flat gentle sea. The plan was for the wind to be behind me, in calm seas for most of the way. I hoisted the mainsail and the staysail headsail and pointed to boat to San Carlos. It soon cooled and the breeze stiffened, so I put on my oilies and lifejacket and rigged up the safety harness.

Within an hour the skies were very clouded, the wind picked up quickly and the autohelm gave up as the big waves that seemed to come from nowhere overwhelmed the system. I had considered putting a reef into the mainsail, something I usually do when night sailing alone, it can be very difficult doing anything when the wind and waves are trying to throw the boat around, and the autohelm won’t work. You have to stay at the wheel, and stop the boat getting into a bad position. It was surprising how quickly things were escalating, so I turned the boat towards the wind, motor back on, and the autohelm was able to steer a course close hauled into the waves and wind while I rushed to the mast and quickly dropped the mainsail. One thing about lazy jacks, a system of ropes that run up along the side of the sail from the boom to the top of the mast, is that you can drop the sail very quickly and not worry about the wind blowing it into the sea, as used to happen on Lady Stardust. With the main down, I tried to furl up some of the staysail, but the forces were too strong, and I gave up after getting about 10% in. That was going to have to do, turning the boat back on course, the autohelm performed better, but was struggling. The waves were still building all the time, and although the wind was on the quarter, almost behind, the waves were arriving mostly from the side. I could hear things flying around below, looking down into the cabin I could see the floor littered with books and things.

Fortunately I had fitted the rudder and vane to the wind vane steering and after 5 minutes of attaching ropes, it was connected and steering the boat well. The engine was off and we were flying along, above 7 knots, touching 8.5 at times, and rolling like crazy. Time to go below and do some better stowing.

On the chart you can see the blue straight line which was the planned route and the curved red (possibly green) line, which was the actual track recorded, The sweep to the north at the start was to keep the wind away from being directly behind, with the hope that as the wind went more to the north I could correct this later easily, that mostly turned out ok, but I think the tides may have been involved as well.

Once I had stowed a few things, I set the alarm clock to wake me up in 30 minutes and went to sleep. It didn’t take long before a big crash, water on my head and the anti gravity force lifted me from my dreams, and the sofa. Big waves were crashing onto the boat. The portlights (windows) were all shut, but the one above me wasn’t dogged down 100%, so a big wave must have hit it and water squeezed through. I went above and the sea was quite wild, big rollers crashing into the boat, but the course was good so back to bed for another 30 minutes. This went on until sunrise, when we were almost there. It was quite a relief to turn the corner behind the rock face at Punta Doble and make my way into the very protected bay of San Carlos. Anchoring was easy, then 30 minutes of tidying up, breakfast then bed.

The only casualty was an old mug used to hold pens, the coconut monkey head had smashed into the treasure box that had slid along and decapitated the mug.
I quite enjoyed the trip, it never felt unsafe, and I’m pleased I can still handle the solo night passages in my old age.

Not a lot happened on Tuesday, I just tidied the boat a little, and rested. I planned to go ashore on Wednesday, but the wind was blowing strong, the boat was sailing around on its anchor, caused by the gusts coming into the bay switching direction every few minutes. I didn’t want to be too far from the boat, just in case the anchor might slip out.

On Thursday morning the wind had dropped so I headed ashore, there is a lovely marina here, tucked into the corner of the bay, very popular, and I parked up at the dinghy dock and went to the office. There I paid the $2 for the use of the dock, and also checked into the port.

Once officially registered with the authorities I headed off into town. It’s about a 20 minute walk, but when I got there I found a main road with a lot of luxury holiday homes to the side, plenty of eateries and a big Ley Supermarket. Soulless!

I popped into the ley supermarket and bought a few goodies, mostly fresh bread, that turned out to be stale, then headed back to the boat. I took a side road leading towards the beach, but ended up at a dead end, having walked a long way parallel to the beach, but with no way to access it. I could see through the lovely homes right out to the sea. They had a great location, but didn’t want to share the view, or access with anyone else. Still I have a great view, and easy access from the boat if I want.

Just before the Marina there’s a lovely square and classic looking church. Catch 22 was filmed in San Carlos, one of my favorite books and films.

Back on the boat I fixed the port navigation light, on the pulpit. The wire connection had corroded and was an easy fix. I use that light when motoring at night, and the tricolour light on the top of the mast when sailing. The red green and white lights let other boats know which direction you’re travelling in.

Sitting down I put the fan on to cool down, but it didnt want to turn. A little investigation revealed the switch had broken, fortunately I carry a spare, as I expect most of us do. Unfortunately, despite being a perfect fit, it was black, not white. Well I will just have to live with that.

Saturday and I head ashore to get some food, I’m leaving for Guaymas in the morning.

Back at the marina, the place is full of tourists waiting for boats to take them for a whiz around the bay. There are many nooks and crannies here. I’m not sure I approve of outsiders just turning up and expecting to have a good time on the water 😉

I return to the boat and spend the afternoon doing a bit of planning, my flight home is in July, so I divide up the weeks between now and then and assign ports to them. Right now it goes, Guaymas, Topolobampo, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, then La Paz. There will be lots of little stops along the way. I do some Spanish and marvel at the number of pleasure boats streaming in and out of the harbour. I’ve never seen so many in all my travels. For such a small port and bay, they sure pack them in.

Later a loud band kicks off in the marina, so loud I have to go below deck to be able to read. Then fireworks, in the marina, but also around town.

Sunday morning, I decide to skip church (again) and head out to sea. The forecast is for light winds, a calming sea and generally a pleasant 3 hour passage to an island near Guaymas. Nearly 5 hours later, a little beaten up, I arrive at the island. It was a hard passage, and often only making 2 knots against the 15 knot wind with huge steep waves on the bow. I’m going to have to improve my weather forecasting. The boat was thrown around quite violently at times, but nothing broke. The monkey went after the mug this time. I should have left him wrapped inside the towel.

I’m anchored in the lee of an island called Isla Pajaros, which means ‘Birds Island’, there’s a lot of them around, mostly pelicans. Yesterday I saw a duck surface with a fish in its beak that was massive. It flipped it up into the air and caught the end of it in its mouth and proceeded to swallow the whole thing. Very impressive, but I felt bad for the poor fish. A bit like a James bond kind of death!

From here I’m able to see the industrial end of town, I think the bright lights are in the main dock, and oil terminal. Tomorrow, Monday, I will head over and try to get a berth in the marina, which could well be full. If so I will anchor near the town and try to find a way ashore. It’s a very industrial town, and may not be as safe as most of the places I have been to, so I need to find a safe place for the dinghy. Petty theft is more likely here, but shopping and exploring the centre should be fine during the day. I want to visit some churches which I think date back to the conquistadors time.

Paul Collister