August 23, 1997-The Lonely Coast

We are cruising the lonely parts of the Sea of Cortez now, north of San Carlos on the east shore.

Most boats cross over from the west side of the Sea of Cortez and head directly for San Carlos to haul out for the summer. There is a good facility there for taking boats out of the water and storing them and there are a lot of people who need a break from cruising. So San Carlos is the end of the line for many cruising boats. Those that aren't hauling out for the summer stay on the east shore, but we think they are missing some good cruising locations because beyond San Carlos there are a lot of beautiful spots and they are virtually deserted. We've been in 5-6 anchorages and this one, Las Cocinas, is the first one where we have shared it with another boat.

Here we found GISELLE, a beautiful boat with a couple from Australia, David and Gaye, whom we met last year in Bodega Bay before they bought their boat. (They were touring in an RV and had stopped by the marina where WINGS was moored to look at boats.) Mostly it has been long empty beaches with only the sound of the surf and the splashes of Pelicans and predatory fish to interrupt the silence. You can get up in the morning and take a swim without your swimsuit if you want. You can walk a beach for hours. The landforms here are rugged and colorful. There are rocks as yellow as cake batter and others as red as bricks. There are layers of gray and brown and purple and almost white. One beach is tan, another chocolate brown. The hills are green now since there has been some rain. Every gray dead bush in the desert has now bloomed with green leaves and lots of cacti have red flowers on them now, if you look close.

A few minutes ago two people came by in a Avon dingy and when I saw them I looked around for a yacht, but they said they came from a house on the beach. Robert and Marian, he's a retired fireman from Arizona who has a house on the beach up the coast. She's also a firefighter, but still working. Ten days at work in Arizona, then six days down here. She commutes 300 miles which includes the last 11 miles from the end of the blacktop road. They have a 4x4 in addition to the Avon. No electricity except solar panels. They live here year 'round and call people who only come for the winter "tourists". We met them because when they see a boat they like to visit and talk to people.

Yesterday we caught a Dorado, and today we gathered some of the brown clams the call "Chocolates" The seafood helps keep the food budget down. Tonight, after the sun gets low and things cool off, David and Gaye are coming over for a drink and a bite to eat. In a day or two both boats will continue on north. We may skip some of the coast north of here because it is just too desolate, even for us, and cross back over to the other side. We'll write more then, and send this if we ever get cell coverage again, right now it is pretty rare, you know..., no towns, no cell coverage.

Fred & Judy, SV WINGS, Sea of Cortez, Mexico

Esta Ton Shoreline, The Lonely Coast