The blog from the Sea of Cortez

“One who was born by the ocean or has associated with it cannot ever be quite content away from it for very long”
― John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez

 We had hoped to see more animal life in the Sea of Cortez, but the geology is beautiful. The Sierra de la Gigantes, Mountain range of the Giants, stands guard in the southern portion of the Sea, rising dramatically from the ocean and funneling wind down the channel.

The mountains create  wonderful canyons and some of them are accessible for hiking. We hiked up the Tabor Canyon, also known as the Steinbeck Canyon.

A lot of rock scrambling, and beautiful views

The further we got up the canyon the narrower the walls got and the water volume increased. There was none at the beginning of the trail, and the passable portion of the canyon culminated in a waterfall.

Looking back at our anchorage in Puerto Escondido. Rhapsody is one of those masts. The guidebook says of interesting things to do in Puerto Escondido- Loreto is 14 miles away. End of description. 

By far the most colorful rocks were at a bay called Puerto los Gatos, Port of the Cats.

Beautiful, softly sculpted red rocks.

And Rhapsody all alone in the anchorage.

Along the way we discovered

the government of Mexico, 

and made a few friends.

And now we are headed south, to warmer weather. Goodbye to the Sea of Cortez.

2 weeks without WiFi

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Internet Connectivity

Flower from the Sea of Cortez 

The Sea of Cortez is known for having large blank spots for internet signals. We were aware of that heading north, but there were still things that we missed. We learned that 1) yes, we can live without the internet  and 2) no, we don't really want to. For me the greatest hole was felt in connecting to friends and family, not just direct contact, but in reading your stories posted on Facebook. We do have a satellite connection (more on that later), but it is very basic.

Some of the other things that I missed had both good and bad aspects.
• The lack of news being at the tops the list. I assume that if a world war broke out I would somehow hear about it, but day to day news is not there.
• No bill paying, and no buying things online ( which is good because I couldn't pay the bill when it came!)
• No looking up information, no recipes to try to make the best of whatever food we happen to have left on board
• No sports news, certainly felt by Bob more than me.
• No daily poems
• No Word of the Day

We do have a satellite phone connection, and for those of you who missed talking to me I can definitely teach you the *secret handshake* if you want! We receive messages as if they are a text and when we reply back to you it goes to your email. The problem with this is that it has a weird "Iridium" address and can go straight to your spam, so unless someone knows the message is coming, it may not actually get to them! The messages sent to me are limited to 140 characters, whereas I can send out 1000 characters. Doesn't seem fair does it? It can get confusing sometimes, leading to cut off messages. I can also do regular email, but without pictures, please! I recently got some pictures sent to me, and it took 28 hours of downloading just to get 4 pictures!

Returning to the world of internet is nice. Good to make contact with people, and catch up on things that I missed. Happy Holidays to all of you, it's good to be back!

What a Difference a Bay Makes

One day later and we are tucked into a quiet bay, layers of clothing are being shed, the water is so calm and quiet we can hear people talking on shore 300 yards away. Santa Rosalia was windy and cold, Bahia Concepcion is quiet and warmer. We still have not been swimming, it is not quite that warm, but it is close.

Turn around point

The cold wind is blowing, temperatures are dropping, we are digging out all the warm clothing  we can find ( which isn't much) and coming to the decision that it is time for us to head south again.

Whale Sharks!

Swimming with a whale shark has been on my bucket list ever since I knew it was a possibility. Whale sharks are the largest fish in the sea, they can grow as large as 30 feet long. They are filter feeders and are very gentle. In La Paz, Mexico there are resident juvenile whale sharks that stay around for a few years. They are not as large as the full grown adults, but they are still quite impressive.

Musings in Nuevo Vallarta

We're meeting a lot of interesting people here in Nuevo Vallarta. Some around the marina and some as we find our way around town running errands. Most meetings come with the usual struggle to understand each other. We get into the beginning of conversations, but can't get much out of them because we only know enough Spanish to ask a question reasonably well without being able to then comprehend the response.

Attempting a post

We are currently anchored off of Isla Isabel, just below the mouth of the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. Calm and peaceful. Thousands of birds swirling around, Frigate birds, Pelicans and Blue footed Boobies. It is so pleasant to be out of the marina and to be able to jump into the clear blue water whenever we feel hit ( which is often!) Isla Isabel is much greener now than when we visited it in July. I wonder how many of the birds circling over head were the chicks we saw in their nests yelling at their parents to bring them food.
Tonight we head to the Bay outside of Mazatlan which we will use as a jumping off point to cross to La Paz. 15-16 hours to Mazatlan and then about 24 hours to La Paz.

Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.