Shark Island Melodies
Thursday April 21st
We’ll open with a fishing report and you can see fishing is good as Lynnie last touched the pole cleaning the seaweed and BAM a 30” Yellowtail sushi monster. Jeffrey landed him and I let him do the gaffing honors. Darren will understand why when I let his dorado get free with my poor gaffing technique.
Our night in Puerto Lobos was very calm and we woke to a 6:30 alarm for the Sonrisa ham net and Baja ham weather report. Light south winds are forecasted which puts it on our nose as we head south to Isla Tiburon (Shark Island), the largest in the Sea of Cortez. The combination of morning north bound currents and light south winds make for tough day ahead and a change anchorage targets. Instead of Punta Willard on the southwest corner of Tiburon we’ll shoot for north anchorage called Agua Dulce a 3 mile wide bay. A couple hours south of Lobos we picked up a 15kt breeze on our nose but with some tight tacking it helped us make better progress than expected. It turned into a long day as we anchored 30 minutes after sunset in 12 ft of water. The new Rocna anchor set solid on the first tough.
The anchorage weather is cooler with a light NW breeze making a perfect calm night. The title this blog comes from the sounds in the cabins below deck. They were something like a cicada and extremely loud as if they were drilling though the hulls. I’ve never heard anything like this before. They serenaded us to sleep as we retired early.
Sunset and Moon rise as we ghost in to Agua Dulce
Friday April 22nd.
An excellent restful night and I’m feeling better after being under the weather the past 24 hours. We’re trying to shoot for Kino today but we must contend with currents around Tiburon and light winds. It will be a 60 mile day and hopefully we get some wind as we round the SW corner pointing the bow toward Kino Bay.
Left Lynnie and Jeffrey jettison their chardonnay box wine overboard after it had turned to vinegar. So sad, hopefully we can find some in Kino.
Heading down the western Tiburon shore I’ve got a big catch of seaweed which gave me my morning cardio reeling it in.
Left.. some of the interesting rock scapes on the west side of Tiburon. Right an awesome lunch from the yellowtail caught yesterday.
As I mentioned Tiburon is not so easy to navigate and our hopes to make Kino soon diminished with currents working against us and wind Gods with no mercy. Heading down the west shore current and wind worked against us. 12 kt winds on our nose disappeared as we rounded Tiburon’s SW corner heading to Kino. As we make Cactus Pass we decided to turn to much closer Dog Bay after 2 days arriving in our anchorages after dark.
We can now report that Dog Bay is infested with bees. Soon after dropping anchor a scout bee showed up and after our first swim of the cruise (beautiful cool water) bees just kept arriving. After 1st Moscow Mule there was thousands descending on us so it’s time to hoist the anchor and head out in the bay until sunset. Watching the sunset from the bay we enjoyed our 2nd Mule. I have note the ginger beer we drinking the Mule with is Australian (very appropriate).
Anchor report.. Dove the anchor on the sand bottom and all seen was the shaft disappearing into the sand and all cases have been instant sets.
Left.. There goes the sun as we set in the bay hiding from bees.
All good in Dog Bay. Heading for Kino and south tomorrow..
Broom tailed grouper for dinner.. Yum..
Until the Next Update…
Moscow Mules are my favorite! Wonderful photos! Great memories!