May 9, 2010 - Heading North from Caleta San Juanico to Santa Rosalia

The afternoon that we left Escondido was beautiful, with almost no wind. The downside of these conditions was the heat, which seems to be increasing quickly. Although it was only in the high 80’s, it was more humid than in the past and even light clothing seemed heavy. If we are finding it hot now, clearly we would not enjoy the summer.

We wanted to meet up with some friends who said they would be in San Juanico. Since it was so pleasant, we bypassed Coronado and ran a couple of hours north to Juanico, arrive right about sunset. We were met by a very odd sight – a king crab boat, with small boats tied up to it. We felt like we were back in Cook Inlet, coming into to deliver a load of salmon at a tender. We later learned that the boat belonged to a NGO, maybe the National Geographic, and was doing survey work on large sharks.

Our friends were in San Juanico. We had first encountered the Black Dragon out of Vancouver BC in Fort Bragg where Tracy and her son Foster helped us tied up. Tracy, Steve and Foster came for dinner and we hit it off. Later we would run into them in Bodega Bay, San Diego and La Paz, from where they headed south to winter on the mainland. We had seen them leaving Escondido and finally were able to spend some time with them in San Juanico and catch up. Foster, who is twelve, has grown at least two inches since we saw him in La Paz in November and has become a good, if non discriminating, spear fisherman. His parents said they find some of the fish better than others. We invited them and the family from a sailboat called Evergreen for burgers and – big treat – ice cream. The couple on the Evergreen have a son the same age as Foster and they reminded me how much boys of a certain age can eat. It was fun.

That night we saw something new. With the lights off in the boat, we could see what initially looked like small lights floating in the water. It reminded me of lightening bugs. As they came by we could see that they were some type of aquatic bug that whirled around leaving circles of light around their track. We think that they were setting off the phosphorescence as they moved. It was fascinating.

The next morning early, we headed north towards Santa Rosalia. Earl has a fishing atlas for the Sea of Cortez which shows the places to fish. The trip was planned with them in mind, so we found ourselves 15 miles off shore. Interestingly, we found the water temperature out toward the middle of the Sea 4 or 5 degrees warmer than in bays close to shore. Apparently the first warm water must sweep up north with the current. With the warm water come the marlin and sailfish. We saw many of them. Sometimes they just lie on the surface with a fin in the air. Sometimes they jump, over and over, spinning. We fished all day on glassy seas. I lost two fish including a beautiful dorado which jumped and jumped for me. We did not manage to hook a sailfish, but we had one that chased our lure behind the boat for a good five minutes. It was a thrill. Toward evening we encountered a large number of porpoises going south. We ran through them for half an hour. Daisy was exhausted by the time we saw the last of them. By that time we were at the north end of Isla San Marcus which is about 10 miles from Rosalia. We anchored in a lovely cove on the west side of the island, north of Punta Piedra Blanca, where we were treated to one of the most beautiful sunsets ever.

Now we are headed into Santa Rosalia from where we will head north to Bahia Los Angeles. I am hoping to be able to skype from the marina since our phones don’t seem to work up here.