Maybe today is our real departure, sailing south from Santa Rosalia after three years in the Sea of Cortez.
Heading out of Puerto Penasco just ahead of New Year’s had been more a hasty escape than setting off on an extended cruise. We headed 20 miles south, anchored by a seal colony to celebrate and have a couple of days to get the boat organized.
Then, two nights and two days got us to the next port down the Sea of Cortez, where we plugged back into shore life to get more work done. We found the small marina full of old and new friends so settled in easily. We even bought Nico a bike.
Santa Rosalia with its historic mines and friendly people will be one of our favorite memories to bring home from Mexico.
There was so much to explore and discover in the old port.
This was our third visit and we met local families again we had gotten to know previously. We celebrated Marea’s birthday with what seemed the whole marina. And of course Nico cheerfully welcomed a new boat child that arrived a few days later.
Now, with a few days of reassembling the boat, cleaning, packing up and getting shipshape, we are ready for the long haul to Banderas Bay, taking us out of the Sea of Cortez and across to the mainland, 590 miles South from here. But now it is time to find new adventures and get ready to start crossing the Pacific in less than two months …
Of course we are still packing up unfinished projects to complete, even after working full time on New Life jobs in the marina, but that’s boating, so better get used to it, we tell ourselves.
At the marina in La Cruz we will find other boats preparing for a Pacific crossing as well as more kids boats with playmates for Nico. Marea can finish the wind vane. I can get the Lithimum Iron batteries integrated. And, we will be out of the chilly Northerlies that have been unsettling us every week or so with short breaks, just like winter South Westerlies in New Zealand.
Going down the coast with long day sails of up to 12 hours, we will be revisiting familiar anchorages and new places to first reach La Paz in a short week.
There will be a subdued Northerly blowing all week to take us down but before heading out to cross to the mainland we will wait for a good weather window in a sheltered bay south of La Paz. And we still want to dive the Cabo Pulmo marine park at the tip of the Baja peninsula. And there is this group of islands along the way which has been called the Galapagos of Mexico. So much to see, so little time …