Dolphins In The Sea of Cortez

The school of literally hundreds of Bottle Nose Dolphins astounded us as they came by one day in the Sea of Cortez
wingssail-Fredrick Roswold

June 11, 1997-Moving North in The Sea of Cortez

Today we sailed out of Agua Verde anchorage where we spent about seven days peacefully soaking up sunshine, snorkeling, and being lazy. Agua Verde is a beautiful spot surrounded by high rugged hills and great snorkeling reefs. We saw a big barracuda swimming near the boat (the water here is very clear).

There are a few homes here, one store, one resturante, and lots of goats.

Mexican Fish Camp

I dove on the anchor while Judy was backing down with the engine and I saw that instead of digging in our plow anchor was simply laying on it's side sliding along. We switched to our Danforth while we figure out what is wrong with our anchoring technique.

Steve, from SPIRIT, brought over his "Snuba" outfit, an inner tube with a small gas powered compressor on it and two long hoses. We dove down and cleaned WINGS' bottom and changed the zinc. Breathing with the hoses was easy, (they have mouth pieces). The little hand held suction cup handle and Scotch Pad work really well when cleaning the bottom of your boat. Then we went over to SPIRIT and did her bottom too. With a weight belt and 9lbs I could stand on the bottom of the bay and look up at the boat and two dingys. Captain Nemo!

There is a rock here called Solitaria which stands up a couple hundred feet but it is narrow and leans over like the leaning Tower of Pizza. From our anchorage it looked like a square rigged ship sailing into the anchorage with all sails braced taut on a bowline and the ship heeled over good. For the first few days I kept seeing it out of the corner of my eye and I had to take a second look each time.

I practiced with the spear gun but I hit nothing.

We went into the village, found the resturante and made a reservation for six persons for the next day and requested goat. They will only butcher one for a large party. It was delicious. (BofA people, please tell Beverly that goats here DO NOT have big brown eyes, so it is OK to eat them.)

A group of fishermen including four with snorkels and fins were searching a cove for sardines. When the snorkelers spotted them they signaled to the waiting panga which then sped over and encircled the school with a large seine net. One half an hour later they had dragged the full net up to the beach and dumped the sardines in to the bottom of the boat for a one way trip to the large troller off shore. Interesting.

We are now headed to Puerto Escondito, carrying mail from La Paz for boats there and I am waiting for a cell phone window so I can transmit this.

Fred & Judy, SV WINGS, Sea of Cortez

Heat in The Sea of Cortez

WINGS under full shade awning.
wingssail-Fredrick Roswold

June 10, 1997-From Baja

We are still here in lower Baja -- the cell telephone coverage is not very good here in Baja California, on the western shore of The Sea of Cortez, so you won't be hearing for us very often. We have been working our way very slowly up the coast from La Paz -- sometimes staying in one place for 3-4 days. This is the second time we have been into Puerto Escondido which is just south of Loretto -- there is a small trailer park near here call Tripui where we expect to have a mail drop. Don't know how long it will take to get here so we just go out to the islands for a week or so then come back into this bay and check to see if our mail has arrived, take on water, and then go back out again.

Anchored at Danzante

This is the last stop on this side of the Sea of Cortez that has good drinking water so we will be back into this harbor before we head on up to Conception or Bahia de los Angeles.Watering at Escondito We are liking the area despite the heat -- lately it has been 95 degrees during the day and only down to the 80s at night. To cool off we just jump off the side of the boat (up to four times a day) and at night spray ourselves with a spray bottle and lay under the fan that is directly over our bunk. We have six fans in our boat. Almost anywhere we decide to stand or sit we can direct a fan right on ourselves.

There are a lot of cruising boats out here -- we are rarely the only boat in a harbor -- although we are almost always the only one sailing from one place to another. We spend a lot of time in the water - snorkeling, hunting for clams, scallops & fish. We haven't had much luck with the fishing but have seen some beautiful Dorado’s jumping across the water chasing smaller fish. Fred has a spear gun he has been practicing with but so far hasn't come up with any dinner. He has hit some fish but they took his spear, dove down and hid under a rock - then he had fun trying to retrieve his spear without drowning.
Cactus Forest
Waiting for a bus
Tecate Girls

Fred & Judy, SV WINGS, Sea of Cortez

Baja California, Sea of Cortez, Mexico

Bird life on the Baja shoreline
wingssail-Fredrick Roswold