Zig and Zag

San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico

Our wish was to go to San Carlos, but it did not seem possible.  We had  emailed the Marina San Carlos to see if there was room for us - alas there was no room at the Inn.  We thought about just anchoring out in the bay but we wanted to get into the marina so we could leave the boat on its own for a couple of weeks.  We thought about going to the Marina Fonatur in the nearby city of Guaymas but we were not thrilled at the thought of a busy, dirty commercial harbor - the boat is enough of a mess already.  So it was that with tears in our eyes, we set sail back towards Santa Rosalia, about 125 miles south along the Baja peninsula coast - not really sure where we would be going after that.

Really big butterflies in San Carlos

We left around 8AM and motored southward.  After about 5 or 6 hours, as we neared Bahia San Francisquito, I checked our email and found a new message from Marina San Carlos.  A boat had just left unexpectedly and the spot was ours if we wanted it.  I calculated a new course and we immediately turned left to cross the Sea of Cortez.  By 10:30 AM the next morning, we were entering Bahia San Carlos and by 11AM we were securely docked on the end tie of B dock - the space was really a bit too short for us, but we are not complaining.

As for the crossing, there was no wind and no big seas, so it was a total of 27 hours of non-stop motoring, covering a distance of 145 miles.  The night was quite incredible, with a full moon that lit everything up so it was almost daylight.  We saw more whales on this trip than we ever seen before, and were visited by a delightful pod of large dolphins that stayed around to play in our bow wave for about a half hour.

San Carlos.  What a contrast!  Instead of the dry, deserted desert, we find ourselves in lush surroundings in a busy community.  Fancy homes and mega-yachts and lots of people and noise.  In some ways this place is a lot like Cabo San Lucas, with all the charter and dive boats coming and going and the upscale restaurants around the marina.  However it is much smaller and much less expensive.  We have taken our slip at the marina for a month for a total of about $575 - that would buy you about 3 days at Cabo.

Now, we are busy getting a lot of boat chores done.  First job was just washing all the salt off of everything - it has been many months since we have seen fresh water in any abundance.  After that, we will just have to see how ambitious we are.  We hope to get the boat hauled here at some point, to get the bottom looked at - it has suffered greatly since our arrival in the warm waters of Mexico.

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