San Carlos Marina to Punta Chivato, Dec. 4
This day started early, 2:00 am early. We had tried to make the crossing from San Carlos across the Sea of Cortez, about 83 miles, to Punta Chivato about a week before but found it was too rough with the wind from the west rather than the predicted NW. This time the wind was from the NNW at about 16 knots and the seas 6 feet or so, quite steep and about 3-4 seconds apart. The wind was predicted to drop to 10-12 knots and the seas to lay down to less than 3 feet by mid-morning. Initially it would be uncomfortable but by dawn it should be OK. By the 5th the winds would pick back up to 20+ knots from the north.
We left as the moon was rising at 2:30 and headed out from San Carlos. Both of us had on our self-inflating PFD’s and were clipped in to the clip points Chris had installed previously. Oh, and this time we had our foulies on too. Leaving the marina, a dolphin swam alongside Enosis, and a shorttime later another dolphin joined us also. We took these as good omens. Once away from the lee of the point we found everything as predicted and could see a couple of masthead lights of boats on the far horizon who were making the jump during this window of “calm” weather. One appeared to be heading to Santa Rosalia to the north of Punta Chivato. Santa Rosalia would be the shortest distance to cross by about 7 miles. The other boat seemed to be on a heading to the Bay of Conception about 12 miles south of Punta Chivato. So we weren’t exactly alone but we felt a bit lonely. It was important that we make land fall before sunset as there were a number of reefs and low rocks near the point. We used the iPad loaded with the iNaviX program to plot our course and monitor our progress. We had up a main that was reefed down about 40% and since it was a starboard tack the motor would be available to help us along to make good time. In fact we averaged well over 5 knots the whole trip. The seas from the northwest were large but not often breaking so it was a fairly dry sail on our heading of 220 degrees.
A few hours into the trip we were concerned when we spotted what appeared to be a masthead light on our stern quarter coming up from the south. It seemed to gaining on us and it was apparent that the closer it got the taller the mast was. The strange part was we could not see any other navigation lights. Chris grabbed our super bright spot light and pointed it directly at the approaching vessel and then flashed it on our sails. No response; so we flashed the vessel again. It was about this time Chris realized that the “vessel” would not see our signal for several hours as that is the time it would take light to travel to Venus. As Venus rose above the mainland mountains, it appeared to be a masthead light of a boat. As it continued to rise it seemed that it was approaching us, hence the increasing relative height of the “masthead” light. We felt somewhat foolish. It is odd how a preconception can be maintained by seeing the evidence only in the context of your expected interpretation. Lesson learned; sort of.
We left as the moon was rising at 2:30 and headed out from San Carlos. Both of us had on our self-inflating PFD’s and were clipped in to the clip points Chris had installed previously. Oh, and this time we had our foulies on too. Leaving the marina, a dolphin swam alongside Enosis, and a shorttime later another dolphin joined us also. We took these as good omens. Once away from the lee of the point we found everything as predicted and could see a couple of masthead lights of boats on the far horizon who were making the jump during this window of “calm” weather. One appeared to be heading to Santa Rosalia to the north of Punta Chivato. Santa Rosalia would be the shortest distance to cross by about 7 miles. The other boat seemed to be on a heading to the Bay of Conception about 12 miles south of Punta Chivato. So we weren’t exactly alone but we felt a bit lonely. It was important that we make land fall before sunset as there were a number of reefs and low rocks near the point. We used the iPad loaded with the iNaviX program to plot our course and monitor our progress. We had up a main that was reefed down about 40% and since it was a starboard tack the motor would be available to help us along to make good time. In fact we averaged well over 5 knots the whole trip. The seas from the northwest were large but not often breaking so it was a fairly dry sail on our heading of 220 degrees.
A few hours into the trip we were concerned when we spotted what appeared to be a masthead light on our stern quarter coming up from the south. It seemed to gaining on us and it was apparent that the closer it got the taller the mast was. The strange part was we could not see any other navigation lights. Chris grabbed our super bright spot light and pointed it directly at the approaching vessel and then flashed it on our sails. No response; so we flashed the vessel again. It was about this time Chris realized that the “vessel” would not see our signal for several hours as that is the time it would take light to travel to Venus. As Venus rose above the mainland mountains, it appeared to be a masthead light of a boat. As it continued to rise it seemed that it was approaching us, hence the increasing relative height of the “masthead” light. We felt somewhat foolish. It is odd how a preconception can be maintained by seeing the evidence only in the context of your expected interpretation. Lesson learned; sort of.
No one slept and the sunrise brought some warmth and the seas did not seem so big or challenging. Within a short time it was apparent the seas were going down the wind moderating. We could see both the mainland shore of San Carlos behind us and the mountains and Islands of the Baja shore in front of us. We shook out some of the reef and motor sailed for another 8 hours. Chris took a long nap while Alice carried on. By 4:30 we dropped 2 anchors in the lee of Punta Chivato. It had been quite a while since we had made a similar crossing so we had been a bit apprehensive emotionally even though we knew intellectually it was a low risk crossing. A person motored up in a dingy from another boat and let us know that there was a good restaurant ashore and the best shelling beach on this coast was a short distance away. We, however, just sat and relaxed, made a simple dinner and talked about the crossing and what lay ahead of us. We were beat and went to bed early and slept late into the next morning.
Punta Chivato is a small 2nd home off the grid community of large upscale homes along the beach. They are owned mostly by North Americans. There was also a very large resort on the point but it appeared to have been closed for some time. We were to find that there were a lot of resorts and developments here on the Baja that seem incomplete or abandoned.