Home to Penasco, Santa Rosalia & San Francisquito
Saturday June 2, day 5
In to the Mystic. Morning dew is very heavy as we haul anchor and motor out of the Mulege channel. Turning north towards Punta Chavato we soon see why. There’s a fog bank a few miles north creating probably nearly 100% humidity. We have good way-points in the GPS so navigating through this won’t be a problem. Fog in the Sea isn’t that big of problem so we’ve never invested in radar.
Destination today is Santa Rosalia. Another 35 mile day and we plan on stopping at Los Arcos for some snorkeling since neither Rick or Paul have been there. Winds are light but start to build as we bust through the fog back exposing the Chivato shoreline.
Chef Rick is still at it fixing a big scrambled egg breakfast as we round Chivato and sail west of Isla San Marcos to escape the 3’ rollers coming from the SE.
On the SW corner of San Marcos there’s a gypsum mine and they’re loading a ship as we pass.
Los Arcos, a different view, a smaller arch near the grand arch, right below
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Snorkeling off Gato Loco’s steer in 20’ there’s rocks reaching near the surface. This huge school loves to swim with us.
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Paul snorkels into one of the deep canyons left and through the grand arch center
Seeing Los Arcos under water is as good as above. Rick and Paul loved it. We need to spend a few days here someday to completely explore.
3ish we haul anchor and head to Santa Rosalia 10 miles west with wind and no motors, making Rick very happy.
Rick & Paul give Gato Loco a compete wash while I check us in at the marina office. Only 4 other boats on the dock. Time for our 3 priorities, gas, provision and Paul’s number one Stanley Cup action.
Both the fuel dock and the Pemix across the street are closes so Rick hitches a ride to the station north.
As you can tell Paul is a happy boy when we talked the sports bar near the banks to put on the game. Even happier when LA won in OT.
We have a very noisy carnival on the breakwater across the harbor as we try to retire for the night. Cool enough to close the hatches to drown out the music.
Sunday June 3, day 6
The alarm goes off at 5:45 for an early start for our 78 mile leg to San Francisquito. Just a glimmer of light to the east. Local west winds give us a good ride for our first hour north. Photo right, one of the 3 whale sighting in the first hour while the sun rises in the fog bank to the east.
< Paul videoing a huge pod of dolphin cruising by. Always lots of sealife near Santa Rosalia.
We have a challenge today. It’s a full moon which means extreme tidal flow and we need to round Punta San Francisquito where there’s a shelf causing even stronger currents. The wind builds to 18 dead down wind with huge 7’ swells rolling by. Thankfully we’re running with them and making good time motor sailing.
The tide turns south at 3PM and we didn’t make it to the shelf until 4:30. You can see the result above, the speed over water is 6.3 and our speed over land from GPS is 1.9. Seemed to take for ever to round the point. Finally we rounded and motored into Cala San Francisquito and smooth water after a long 13 hour day 6ish. The last hours were punishing and we’re looking forward to a restful night, especially Paul who hasn’t felt well all day. Rick has pork chops on the menu tonight. Looks like we get a double serving minus Paul for dinner.
The moon above, comes up as the sun sets with a cross holding it in the sky as we have dinner comfortably in the anchorage.
Below left, as we awake, tides in our anchorage are way out with Marine boats setting on the bottom and 2 guy standing knee deep at the end of the dock… Those boats won’t be going anywhere for a while.
Monday June 4, Day 7
Unfortunately Paul’s system didn’t agree with the chicken wings we eat while watching hockey in Santa Rosalia but today he’s alive and well.
We had a fog bank over us after sunset. Cold sleeping with blankets, but clear this morning. Heading north to Bay of LA today with that fog bank closing in on us from the east.
Until the next Update. (sending this from Bay of LA)
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Great under water shots!! The week is winding down.. we will see all your smiling faces in Cholla soon! Yay!
Lowell…reading the blog is like Deja Vu with no Sea Legs. Sounds like all is well and hopefully you will not get Blown out of Bay of LA. I hope you , Paul and Rick swim with the Whale Sharks if in Bay of LA.