Sweet Pee for Saturday Night

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By Lowell | April 29, 2012 | Category Baja 2012

  Friday April 27th, 3PM

Motoring without sails since leaving San Francisqito. We’re 18 miles north of Santa Rosalia and our cellular internet popped on.. Cool… But wait… The flat seas have suddenly turned into whitecaps and we need to focus on steering Gato Loco down wind. San Rosalia here we come. 15kts nice. 25kts even better!! Wait, now we’ve got gust hitting 40.. Woo Hoo, but we need to focus.. We are surfing now and bows are driving into the swells we catch. The small catamaran sailor in me makes me run to the back of the boat as if that would help. Doug steers while I take care of the main sail. Glad I put gloves on as the sheets are hard to handle and the main cleat has released on us a couple of times.  We settle in to the rhythm as winds drop back to the low 30s. All is good. Max speed we hit is 14kts San Rosalia is approching fast.

5:30pm we’re tied up to the dock with the help of Pat & Kelly our neighbor boats at the Singular docks. Dock conversations go on for an hour.. We’re hungry so it’s time to run into town for dinner. We’ve been hearing about this great hot dog stand near the Iglesia Santa Barbara church. The mixto hot dog is a turkey frank beacon wrapped, mystery meat on top loaded with lots of condiments on a sweet bun… To die for… Perfect dinner. We added a Elote side (hot corn, cut form the cob, butter, mayo, chilli powder with a squeeze of lemon in a cup.. That makes a well rounded meal… OH wait… Thrifty’s ice cream for desert.. Being in port is nice sometimes. The only thing we’re missing is our wives to have ice cream with us.

Saturday April 28..

Another cool, quiet, restful night. The plan is to do boat maintenance pickup supplies and catch up on communications then off to Isla San Marcos.

All morning long, military boats are landing on the fuel dock. There’s 2 big Navy ships out side the harbor and they may be shuttling crew changes to and from the ship. Anyway, as I always say ,it’s nice to have a presence of authority. There’s no smugglers or pirates in the Sea of Cortez. They’re making sure of that.

Of course we have to take Doug to the Eiffel church..

2PM .. Off for Isla San Marcos , just 11 miles southeast.. First stop is Caleta de los Arcos. This is one of my favorite beaches in the lower Sea of Cortez. Very cool arches that you can motor the dinghy through. The island has a huge gypsum mine and we speculate that the arches were created by washing out the soft gypsum. I’ve posted pictures of the area before but can’t help my self. It’s an awesome location….

Shoreline as we approach.  The smaller arch to the left.

 

 

Ducking your head as you clear the arch opens up to the inside bay.

Looking back out of the arch you can see Baja in the distance.

 

Climbing up on the arch you see the inter-bay below.

There’s a smaller arch to the north and a hole in the arch looking SW.

 

 

 

 

   

Doug waving from on top the arch and the view back to the beach from the hole

 

Gato Loco waits while we explore   >>>>> 

Spinal remains from an eel fully intact.

 

 

 

Big Osprey nest sets on top a small up cropping in the anchorage.

 

 

 

 

Time to move 1/2 mile south to Sweet Pee Cove for the night. Sweet Pee has better protection from north winds.

  Sunset over Baja 10 miles west across the Craig Channel.

Coni, you would be proud of Doug. He’s loving the galley and prepared pasta with Italian sausage in Ragu sauce and of course red pepper spices. You taught him well.Yum Yum..Oh yes, a nice bottle of red wine. The only thing missing are our lovely wives.

We’re even  on Bitchin Rummy 4-4:)  

Thinking of our wives.. Coni above, Frankie and Neely on Gato Loco right.. Wish you were with us.. Love ya…

Until the next update

Sending this as we pass Mulege heading into Conception Bay.. Dinner tonight at Bertha’s. Day 8 of the cruise.