Sailing Log from the Sea of Cortez – Part 5 • Jumping Ship & on to Guaymas
As the journey continues…
Voyage aboard the sailing vessel Defiant seeking fun in the Sea of Cortez. With a first leg goal of Guaymas, where some additional refitting will be done to the boat, the Defiant continues in a multi part literary adventure in the Sea of Cortez.
by Capt. Tom
With an urgent request from my crew, we sailed silently north in the darkness under the lightest of breezes. It was a new moon night and the stars were the only light in the sky and the Milky Way was a slash of brightness overhead.
Unless you have ever sailed off-shore or visited other locations near the ends of the earth, it is hard to imagine a sky without light pollution from the towns and cities we have built. It was so dark and still as the sails hung limp from the mast and the stars reflected in the Sea. You could not see your hand in front of your face, but you saw where your hand was not, in the glow of the sailing instruments. We were the only boat to be seen, that doesn’t mean we were the only boat out there.
On several occasions I have run across a variety of vessels running dark in the night. Most of the time I have found them to be pangas out fishing. Every once and a while you run across a larger vessel like a shrimper, running dark. But when the radar contact alarm sounded this night, it was for a mega yacht heading south at 22kts. The vessel passed within 50 meters of our stern, without alerting course or responding to our hails at what must have been near flank speed for a ship that size. The only way to have missed seeing a 54 foot vessel standing over 60 feet in the air is to be asleep at the helm. But where ever that yacht was headed, he was headed there in a hurry.
The wake from the ship tossed things around below a bit, including jostling Innamay awake. She came staggering up the companionway and without a word, just embraced me with a warm ‘just got outta bed’ hug. After a brief and terse conversation about our interaction with the yacht, I got another hug and about an hour of silence, as she starred off into the night.
I stillness was broken as a breeze freshened from the SW and began to finally propel us toward our Loreto destination. Breezes from the SW are common in the spring and early summer months and are caused by the difference in temperatures between the Pacific Ocean, the land mass and the Sea of Cortez. This being mid November we were fortunate to be getting this push. You could smell the dust of the land in the air. With just three miles of fetch between us and land for the Sea to build we had good speed and smooth seas. With 50’ of waterline we quickly achieved hull speed of 9.5kts.
The total darkness was now broken by the luminescence of the Sea. At the bow where the waves fell away from the sleek lines of the boat and in our wake, where our speedy passage left the little animals in a tumble as we passed. The first words to break our hour of silence were “Wow, look!”
Video from the Loreto Aquatic Refuge |
You could see them coming about 100m off in the night. Grand trails of tiny lights in the sea as a pod of dolphin zigzagged their way toward us. And like torpedoes from a lurking submarine, there was no doubt they were headed RIGHT for us. As most sailors know, dolphins seem to find fun in riding the bow waves and they have been doing it for centuries. These dolphin were slicing through the night waters, perhaps they too enjoyed creating these glowing trails in the Sea.
As they passed the boat they would roll to one side, as if to get a good look at us as we looked at them. You could see every detail of their sleek form as they flashed you what could best be described as smile. They road the bow wave for about 5 minutes, taking turns, dropping back then shooting off forward into the night. As we rounded the point and Loreto came into view the dolphins gathered into formation and shot off northeast into the black Sea, leaving playful trails behind them.
After all the excitement May opened up and explained that her uncle would be waiting for us in Loreto and ‘family business issues’ could mean that she would have to leave our little voyage of adventure.
We would have made Loreto before dawn, and I don’t care for anchoring in the dark, particularly somewhere I have only been once before. So we sailed on a little too far north and enjoyed cutting through the waves to a spectacular sunrise. We came into Loreto on a close haul. By this time May had become a proficient sail handler and we must have looked sharp as we furled the three sails, deployed the anchor and spun to a stop off the municipal docks.
Loreto doesn’t really have a decent anchorage, which is why most cruisers chose Bahia Escondido over being closer to town. Holding isn’t that good and it drops off quickly. We were just settling in to down some coffee after a busy night of sailing when Innamay exclaimed, “Crap, there’s my uncle.” With black pants, black shirt and gold chains her uncle looked like a character from a Quentin Tarantino flick.
With brief introductions I was dismissed by her uncle saying, “Would you excuse us a moment please.” After a brief, quiet but demonstrative objection by May, she asked me to return to the boat to get her things for her. Half way back to the boat I glanced back to see 
May wave and get into a big black Yukon. That was the last I saw of Innamay. I received a text message to hang onto her things and to see her in La Paz. By the time I got back to La Paz a few weeks later her apartment was empty, the cell phone was disconnected and even her Facebook page was gone. I never did ask what the family business was.
So, now I’m single handing again, with the longest leg of the trip in front of me, except for my Labrador Abby. Single handing doesn’t bother me; I’ve been doing it for decades and thousands of sea miles. I had single handed the boat from Paradise Village in late October from PV to La Paz. It is not the ‘alone’ but the extended watches that bother me and I would be coming into a commercial port after a 36hr stretch when I reach Guaymas. So I set sail for Isla 
Carmen to catch some shut-eye.
Carmen is a beautiful island with dramatic landscapes and rugged hills. My attraction to Carmen had always been a wreck of a tug on the SE side of the island. With two full dive tanks on deck and a wreck below it was hard to put aside thoughts of a dive. My dive bunny (no misspelling) had departed and although I’ve done some questionably insane things before, diving a wreck in 60-90’ of water alone was not about to be one of them.
I hung out at Isla Carmen for three additional days. I deployed the dingy and explore the west side coves and rugged shoreline of the east side. There is a small encampment near the of salt ponds now used for a Big Horn Sheep hunting outfit that takes exclusive clients to the island. I also used the time to make a few repairs to the engine.
I could get sporadic cell coverage on Carmen and after a few days of rest and good weather forecasts I set sail for Guaymas. A little sour from the departure of my crew, I found this leg of the trip to be a chore. But with favorable winds on a close reach I knew I could make good time and add another 125 nautical miles under sail to my sea log.
Right out the shoot as the sun came up, I rounded the northern tip of Carmen and I was doing hull speed. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was to be a personal record for me in distance covered during daylight hours. I set the hook in Guaymas just 13hr and 38 minutes later. I had averaged 9.2kts over 125nm!
Defiant was once a spectacular vessel, but the 5 years she spent in PV unattended did not do her any favors. More than 50’ of teak deck was in a sad state, two of the four brass cowl vents had been stolen and she could use a fair amount of attention to much of the exterior. The mast should be pulled and since the previous owner was deceased and no records were kept, I planned to replace the standing and running rig before going off-shore. I was fortunate that the vessel had never been broken into and below deck was immaculate. Well, except for the dysfunctional engine. We replaced the engine in early January while the boat was on the hard. I had hoped to make it to the Bandaras Bay Regatta, but that’s how boat work often goes.
With all this work needing to be done and one boat already in the Sea of Cortez I have explored options on transporting the boat to the Caribbean side of Mexico. Subject to a future article I found land transportation within Mexico to be quire affordable compared to the option of using the Panama Canal. Transporting the boat to Galveston would save me a few thousand miles, but in turn cost a few thousand dollars in additional fees. The next adventure may be sailing across the Caribbean to my friends boatyard in New Orleans later this spring.
I returned to La Paz in late January and resumed my habitation in Magotia. It had been a fabulous and successful journey. We had seen almost everything the Sea had to offer, in weather and wildlife. Whales, dolphins and sharks were all part of the log and would long last as outstanding memories of wild adventure in the Sea of Cortez. You should try it some time!
From the decks of SV Defiant – over and out.
Authors Note:
Vessels of Panamanian registry which has certain tax and insurance benefits. (as well as not flying the stars and stripes in certain parts of the world) For futher information on flagging your vessel under a wide range of different countries see http://flagsofconvenience.com