Isla San Francisco is where cruisers go to take pictures of their boats in the Sea of Cortez. Seriously.

Not only is it a gorgeous curved beach with a hook at the Southern end, there is a convenient trail to a ridge overlooking the entire bay so you can get a good angle on your boat, floating serenely in the perfect colors of the water. Here is the classic picture:

Here is the perspective from another ridge:

We waited out a Norther here. Northers are storms that funnel through the Sea of Cortez. The term is loosely used for any system that blows hard from the North.  IslaSF was as good a place as any to wait it out, probably better than most in the area. Good holding, loads of room and even in the heart of the blow we could still land our kayak on the beach so we weren’t stuck in our boats the entire time. We were glad to not be in the La Paz anchorage during it.

We were there 6 nights. We hiked everywhere we could find a trail,examined the salt ponds on the island, Carol attempted some kiteboarding (too gusty) and we socialized with a number of boats also waiting out the winds, including the ones we arrived with (thank you Orcinius for the lovely happy hour).

Happy Estrellita.

We did it. We signed up. Pacific crossing – here we come!

The Pacific Puddle Jump is a rally in only the loosest sense of the term. They have no dates (of departure or arrival), no ports (of departure, arrival or in between), and it is free. Latitude 38, who sponsors the event, has a good description.

If you go to the Pacific Puddle Jump main site you will see a Wauquiez Pretorien in the banner image (at the top). This is not us, but Piko, who crossed this last season and is currently in New Zealand.

Why sign up? Our main reason is that they negotiate a deal with an agency which allows boats (for a fee) to avoid posting a bond in French Polynesia. This bond is the equivalent of airfare back home for each person and ensures that we don’t become a burden on their society. If we become indigent, they ship us out with our own money. For various reasons, it is (apparently) a pain in the arse to post and retrieve your bond and the agencies essentially promise to pay for you if you become indigent – accepting the risk for you.

A secondary reason is that it is fun to announce your intentions, watch your name get added to the list and to see the list of your cohort growing.

WEST!

After Playa La Bonanza we went to La Paz. I’ll write about La Paz more later because we’ll be spending a fair amount of time in that city over the next few months. In fact, these recent posts are going up because we have returned to La Paz for our second time and enjoying the wifi we can get here.

After La Paz, we sailed again in company with Camanoe and Navigo back to Isla Espiritu Santo, to a bay called Candelero where spent a bit of time snorkeling (good but surprisingly chilly for the area) and explored the short hike (lovely with lovely views, but short).  

Here we had Bella Star over for a farewell dinner which transitioned into an “all boats at anchor invited” party aboard Estrellita including music, dancing, glow sticks and at least one wardrobe malfunction.

Not every boat feels like they've made it yet. A number of our friends are less impressed with the desert landscape, or wish for more heat, or still feel like they are missing that elusive something that will make them feel like they have finally arrived. It's an interesting diversity that reminds us of how differently each person sees each anchorage.

Some of it is the circumstances of course (weather and wind contribute to the comfort of the anchorage and its temperature), but I think a lot of the contentedness (or lack thereof) is each boat coming to terms with what it is that they are looking for in their new cruising life. What do we want out of an anchorage? Out of a country? How hot is good hot? How hot is bad hot? It's a time of transition for a lot of the people we meet and for ourselves and it is interesting to watch each of us find ourselves in the midst of it.

We were looking, it seems, for the amount of heat that would make outdoor activities fun all of the time...for our personal heat-comfort levels. We want to hike in comfort, to swim in comfort, etc. For now, we have it. The winter in the Sea of Cortez will become cooler, hopefully not too much cooler this year as it varies from year to year. Our bodies will acclimate and we expect that we'll crave more heat at some point soon, just in time to head into the inferno that is the South Pacific.

In addition to emotional transitions, there has recently been a divergence of paths among boats that have been traveling within hailing distance for months. Many of the boats that were Southbound from WA/BC/OR met up with boats in California, and continued down with them into Mexico, yo-yo'ing with each other around the tip of the Baja and up to La Paz. Now, some boats are headed to the mainland, some staying in the Sea of Cortez. Some plan an extended or permanent stay in Mexico. Some are heading South to S America and/or the Panama Canal and some, like us, plan to head West. The packs are splitting up.

We said a particularly sad "farewell" to Aaron and Nicole on Bella Star (although, with all of our plans in transition we may very well see them again for another farewell – hopefully my liver will have recovered by then). It was our first painful cruising farewell, to fast friends whom we will watch carefully as they choose a different cruising path. From Little Star to Beautiful Star, fair winds and following seas.

There are at least three ways you get water inside of your boat. Salt water is the bad kind ;)

We get fresh water from rain coming down through the mast from holes at the top of it. Not much, not a big problem because it goes into the bilge and we pump the bilge dry regularly to keep the boat smelling less like...a boat.

The worst part of living aboard in British Columbia for me was the last kind of water - condensation. Our breath, our cooking, our dish washing, all created moisture which condensed against the cold fiberglass hull. This meant that the hull side of every locker was beaded with moisture which quickly became mildew and anything touching the hull joined in the mildew party. Many areas of our boat do not drain so we would also have the delight of little pools of stagnant water which had to be sponged out and bleached.

We were told that when we went South this would go away and joy, oh joy, our hull is dry. I am appreciating every day of this winter which does *not* involve scrubbing out a locker or locating a surprise batch of mildewy goods or throwing yet another possession away that was lost in the battle.

We're enjoying the islands around La Paz for a few weeks and so the next round of photoblogging catch-up will be a few weeks away.

From Isla San Francisco in a dry boat, wet only from swimming, Livia & Carol