Crossing the Sea of Cortez to Punta Chivato

November 5, 2024  
At 06:00 on November 5th we were raising our mainsail and motoring out of the protected bay. 
Because of the winds that we had been having the seas were jumbled, but the swells were not bad and we were soon sailing with good conditions, and we caught a Bonito early in the day.   
We had a good morning of sailing, but gradually as we got further out into the sea, and the wind gradually increased throughout the day, the waves grew with it.  The Sea of Cortez is a very different sea to sail in than in open water.  With the winds that we had that day, it should have been near perfect sailing and swells in the open ocean would have had a spacing of about 12 seconds apart.  In the Sea of Cortez, however, the sea state quickly turns large and quick.  The swells become much higher than over open water, and the spacing is much shorter.  That day we had 4 seconds between each increasingly steep swell, and as the wind increased the waves on top of the swells began to break.   
We were sailing on a beam reach to these seas so we had them on our starboard (right) side all day.  Waves were breaking over our stern, and we had one wave that came over our enclosure and partly into our cockpit.  That being said we made good time and we were nearing the protection of land in time for sunset.  We had seen one whale and the first flying fish of our trip this year.  
Unfortunately Falcon got seasick, so he spent most of the journey sleeping on a bed on the cockpit floor. 
Despite feeling sick for most of the day, just moments after we sailed into more protected waters south of an island reef that stuck out from the anchorage he was up and alert pointing out the moon and any lights that he saw.  As we came in to anchor he was suddenly demanding food and it was good that we had a snack ready for him as it allowed us to anchor while he sat eating happily in the cockpit.   
We were now back in the anchorage of Punta Chivato, the same anchorage that we had left from in March of 2023 when we sailed East to Bahia San Carlos, before putting the Red Witch to bed for the winter. 

Comments

  1. Jan BellamyDecember 15, 2024 at 10:21 AM

    Poor little diadems. Not fun to get seasick but good to sleep through it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ColleenDecember 15, 2024 at 3:01 PM

    Poor Falcon! I was getting seasick just reading about your trip.Glad you made it safe to your anchorage.

    ReplyDelete

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