Log of SV Wendaway

We’re here … in Mexico! Arrived San Carlos (in state of Sonora) January 1, 2008. Our little old Beemer just hummed along the whole 2222 miles. Amazing considering she was absolutely jam-packed plus had two large duffle bags tied on top of the trunk! It’s great to have a car here for now, but we’ll have to find storage for it when we leave San Carlos.

I’m starting to feel settled into this new life. The boat feels more spacious than I had envisioned. We spent the first week figuring out where to stow all that stuff we brought. After filling most of the many storage compartments, we (especially Mark) had a hard time remembering where we’d put things, so we had to go back and make an inventory of each storage area. Mark is quickly discovering the value of organization and putting things back where they belong, something I’ve been trying to convince him of for years!

Our sailboat, SolMate, is quite beautiful. She’s a cutter, which means she has one mast with two sails forward of the main sail. I’m on a steep learning curve in terms of sailboat terminology …. all those ropes are called lines and sheets on a sailboat, not ropes, and there are a lot of them! SolMate has a very pretty (we think) old-fashioned hull shape with a big round rear-end … er, stern. Mark just had the deck and teak rails re-done, so the boat is looking very spiffy! I’ve been scraping paint off and polishing the stainless steel fittings just to add to the effect.

We’ve got a great slip at Marina San Carlos with bathrooms and hot showers at the top of the dock. The showers are much appreciated because we don’t have one on the boat. Mark just finished rigging up a shower to use in our cockpit, but it’s a bit exposed for using at the dock!

As I was saying, Marina San Carlos is situated at the bottom of a 1500-foot high, spikey, red rock mountain called “Tetas de Cabra” or “Goat’s tits.” It is a landmark for mariners from miles around. The land formations in this part of Mexico are quite spectacular with many caves, rock spires and faces, spikes, and reddish soil with several varieties of cactuses and avalanching scree.

Just after we arrived, Mark’s brother and wife, Neal and Ruth, came to visit from San Diego. We sailed up the coast a bit to a lovely bay where we anchored for a couple of nights. Humpback whales had been sighted in the vicinity, but we only saw a few of their water spouts. The bay is just off San Pedro Island, a biological reserve. Most of the islands in the Sea of Cortez are biological and scientific reserves and Unesco heritage sites.

Yesterday, Mark and I took the boat out on our own for the first time. The winds were predicted to be 5 to 10 knots, but wouldn’t you know it, once we got out there, it was more like 20 to 25 knots. Not that big a wind, but big enough for our first solo. But we raised all the sails (Mark doing the raising and me at the helm) and headed on out. SolMate really rides the waves well and feels very safe, even when tipped over 45 degrees! Mark was ecstatic at how well the boat handles and her speed for a heavy sailboat. I was somewhat uncomfortable, but not terrified! We discovered what needs to be better secured inside the boat for riding the waves. One shelf of books was dumped and drawer of canned food slid out of its moorings. We anchored out in Martini Cove overnight (and did I need a Martini!) as it was low tide when we came back in. There’s not enough water in the marina at low tide to get the boat to our slip! We discovered this the hard way (so to speak) on our first return, hung up on the bottom about fifty feet from our slip! We ate our shrimp dinner and waited for the tide to come in!

All in all, life feels very relaxed here. Don’t HAVE TO do anything; I can read all day if I want (if I can resist getting caught up in Mark’s long to-do list. He hasn’t totally lost his type A personality). The weather is warm but not too hot. In fact, when the wind’s blowing, which is most afternoons and in the morning and evening, it can be quite cool. We even had to buy a heater for the inside of the boat. (I know … waaa, waaa.)

Radio and TV has been replaced by “the net” each morning at 8am. All the local yatistas get on the VHF with reports on the weather, tides, arrivals and departures, things for trade, requests for assistance, and a guy at the end with a goofy saying or what he calls a “joke”. I’m starting to get the hang of saying, “copy that”, “roger this”, “SolMate standing by on one six”.

We’re very excited because Simon is coming down at the end of the month. Our current plan to to sail for Mazatlan while he’s here. Will keep you posted!

Love and miss you all, Wendy

Our maiden voyage! Here we are at anchor at sunset in Bahia San Pedro just after we arrived at the end of a 15 mile sail.

Leaving our berth, getting out of the harbour, and raising the sails for the first time was a bit hair-raising. Good thing Neal and Ruth – Mark’s brother and my sister-in-law – and very accomplished cruisers – were with us to make sure we didn’t come to grief!

The trip took about 5 hours – which sounds like a long time to go 15 miles but we did a very long tack out into the Sea of Cortez and then a tack back to get into the bay. The wind was blowing about 15 knots which created choppy swells about four feet high. But our beautiful valero (Spanish for sailboat) handled the seas effortlessly and gave us a lot of confidence in her.

Mark wasn’t too seasick either!

Bahia San Pedro is a beautiful, perfect crescent with red rock cliffs rising at either end. We took the dinghy into the beach and beachcombed the shore.

We watched a longtailed jaeger, an osprey fishing and small grebes diving.

The sky at night was so full of stars that the celestial bowl was completely illuminated, despite the absence of a moon.

Watching for humpback whales, we sailed home in a thick fog.

Click on the images to see full size photos or you can see more here.

It was the most unexpected end to a great trip to Bahia San Pedro…just five feet away from our slip at Marina San Carlos, we felt a soft bump and then nothing. An exceptionally low tide meant that we were stranded a few feet from our home berth just as the light was fading in the western sky.

Neal and Ruth and the regular SolMate crew acted with amazing dispatch and rustled up a shrimp and crab dinner right in the middle of the roadway whilst we waiting for the rising tide to float our ship.

Pictures and recipes coming pronto!

After twenty-two hundred miles and 46 hours of driving, we arrived safe and sound in San Carlos the first day of January 2008. We now have to find a place to stow all the stuff we have brought down.