The Coyotes are howling

Playa Coyote, Bahia Coyote, Bahia Concepcion, Baja California Sur, Mexico

A great passage across the Sea of Cortez, back to the Baja peninsula.

We left the dock at Marina San Carlos sometime after 8 AM yesterday morning. After a short stop at the fuel dock (we used only 263 liters of diesel since we fueled up in Santa Rosalia last July), we exited from San Carlos Bay at precisely 9 AM.

This is actually a bit early in the morning for leaving on this crossing of only 87 miles (we didn't want to arrive at the approach to Bahia Concepcion at night) but we figured this would allow us to sail more, even if the winds were light, as we had lots of time in hand. As it turned out, our plan worked wonderfully. Even with only 6 to 8 knots of wind, mostly on a close reach, we were able to sail steadily at between 3.5 and 4.5 knots, using our favorite combination of a double-reefed mainsail and a full Genoa. A lot of the time, we were deliberately trying to sail too close to the wind in order to slow the boat down, so as not to arrive too early. When the wind died to the point that we could not maintain our heading, we did motor, but at very minimal RPMs in order to keep our speed below 3.5 knots. In all, we sailed for over 14 hours and motored for about another 12 - what we would call a very successful trip. The seas were really smooth too, probably less than 1 foot of swell - no fear of the crew being sick on this crossing.

On the way, we had our closest ever encounter with a whale. Just as the sun was setting, Susanne spotted a whale crossing our path up ahead. We were sailing quite slowly at the time and were no threat to him. However, he must have got curious about us and he turned to meet us and passed across our bow and along our starboard side about 5 feet from the boat. This was not a really huge whale, maybe about 1/2 the size of the boat, but still quite an experience for us. Other than that, the only wildlife we saw was a couple of sea lions floating along the surface, and I heard a few dolphins around the boat in the middle of the night, although I could not see them in the dark.We arrived at the entrance to the huge bay of Bahia Concepcion around 9 AM and made our way to the largest anchorage in the bay, at one of the smaller inner bays called Bahia Coyote, anchoring along with 3 or 4 other boats, just off Playa Coyote (Coyote beach).

Today is the start of the huge Mexican holiday of Semana Santa, a week-long celebration that closes pretty much everything down from today (Thursday) until Sunday. The beaches here in Bahia Concepcion are packed with tents, trailers, cars and partiers. There is a lot of boat traffic, fishing boats, banana boats, water skiers, jet skis, kayaks, etc. And as the evening comes on, so does the music and laughter from the shore. Should be an exciting few days. This holiday is one of the reasons we wanted to get away from San Carlos when we did. Talking to some of the locals, it sounds like it gets pretty manic there, with the Marina (even most of the washrooms) closed, our favorite coffee shop running on 1/2 days and with a lot of strangers wandering around the marina - security can be an issue.

We are not sure how long we will stay here - at least a couple of days.

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