The Sweet Spot

Posted on June 6, 2019 by Melissa

Back in the Sea of Cortez, we are finally finding our groove. Yeah, it’s been awhile since we felt this way. We are in a nice routine of relaxing over breakfast in the morning, then getting our snorkeling gear on and spending a few hours exploring reefs. Hot afternoons are spent below in the relative cool of the cabin, eating late lunch and examining the photos we took that day. We play our version of Exotic Fish Bingo. I just love sitting down with our field guides and a batch of photos fresh from the camera! We are such nerds. I always feel a little light headed and giddy when I discover I’ve seen a new fish.

“Look, Honey! I think this is a Glossy Blenny! I’m calling it! I’m marking it down!”.

“Oh yeah? Well I’ll see your Glossy Blenny and raise you one Zebra Moray Eel! Who’s winning now?”

I absolutely love this part of cruising. Even on a bad day, a day of snorkeling is better than just about anything except maybe French Toast.

My work station. It feels a little like being in school and having homework that you love.

One of our favorite snorkeling sites is the bay of San Juanico. Huge pinnacle rocks standing in the north part of the bay offer refuge to myriads of fish and other salty beings, offering hours of snorkel play. Most boats tend to anchor up near those rocks, protected from most wind and swell. This year we decided to explore the southern half of Bahia San Juanico. Imposing rocky sandstone and volcanic guardians stand over the entrance to the southern most anchorage in the bay. Under the sea these rocks are completely encrusted with hard and soft corals, sea fans, anemones, and tiny fish. The colors are true to the spirit of Mexico: bright pinks, purples, greens, reds, oranges and yellows pop out from the more muted tones of the rocks and sand. It’s a psychedelic visual feast and I have trouble tearing myself away from the rocks; there is so much to see.

Rocky guardians where the great snorkeling is found.

Yes, the month of June is definitely the sweet spot here. The weather is heating up, but that means the water is heating up, getting clearer, and the sargasso weed is dying off, exposing the bottom and its creatures beneath it. The nights are cool enough to sleep. Alas, that will not last forever as summer approaches. Temperatures of 98-100F are predicted next week. So for now we are enjoying our time.

This deluge photos show the true, unaltered colors under the Sea of Cortez. Can you blame us for wanting to hang out by the rocks?

Orange cup coral

Those sea fans!

What are these white feathery things? They are everywhere.

More sea fans.

Let’s take a break and talk about our cunning plans for the coming months. We’ve had so much flexibility it’s almost like we didn’t have a plan, cunning or otherwise. But we do have goals. They involve a trip to see Mike’s mom in Tennessee, a trip north to Washington to see our family there sometime in the near future, and a visit from Andrew and Jill in October. In the short term we are crossing over to San Carlos to visit the Brownlows from S/V Slow Motion before they leave for the summer. We’ll retrieve our car over there and hopefully it will still run after sitting in the lot since December. We are still making decisions about the timing for a haulout in Puerto Peñasco and how to get both our car and our boat there at the same time. We plan to leave the boat in Marina Real, San Carlos, for the few weeks we are gone to Tennessee. We think it will be safe from tropical storms there. Right now we have so many balls in the air we are kind of waiting for some to fall into place naturally.

Back to the soothing world underwater now because part of the stress of cruising is having a ton of goals but no solid plans. It’s a blessing and a curse. That can be said of many things.

Oh, and there’s a good possibility of a Pacific Crossing next year. Lots of things need to fall into place and there needs to be no interference from the Universe for that to happen. We are practicing non-attachment to outcome on that because at this point it’s a goal, not a plan. We throw ourselves on the mercy of the Universe and its ways and work our end of the agreement to make it happen.

I need a guide book to invertebrates. See the nudibranch?

He’s called a Mexican Barnacle Blenny, but I call him cute! So many of these little guys!

Redside Blenny

Not a great quality, but here’s a Carmine Triplefin (I think) for you. Along with his friend the barnacle blenny.

Currently at Bahia Santo Domingo, we travel today back into Bahia Concepcion to our favorite spot at Playa el Burro. Here’s what we saw there last year. Will we see another one?

FYI, I’m using a fairly inexpensive Olympus Tough underwater camera. I’ve been pretty happy with it, considering it’s pricepoint and how easy it is to use. I actually like it for carrying around daily. If we make this Pacific Crossing thing happen, we’ll buy another one for Michael. He’s been using his old Nikon Coolpix underwater camera and the quality of the photos with this Olympus is much, much better.

S/V Galapagos, standing by on channel 22a.

No Words

Posted on May 24, 2019 by Melissa

There are literally no words that adequately describe that feeling when you slip into the cool water at the end of a long day and realize a ‘bucket list’ experience is unfolding around you. Awesome? It’s overused. Fantastic? Trite. Thrill of a lifetime? Yawn. I’m not even going to try.

We had sailed from Isla San Fransisco over to San Evaristo and dropped anchor as the sun was starting to get low in the sky. The water looked tempting so I got my snorkel gear on and slipped into the sea for a refreshing swim. Underwater it seemed a little darker than I thought it should be based on what I had observed from the deck of Galapagos. Anchored by some tall rocks to the west, I thought maybe the sun was already casting shade onto the water near the boat. I was wrong.

As I swam toward the stern of the boat I realized that what I had thought was the shadow of rocky cliffs was actually moving. And it was coming toward me. The shadow was huge, dark, and undulating and my adrenaline gave a big shout out to my brain. “Shit! What the hell is that?”. There’s that brief moment of almost-terror when you are faced with something as yet unidentified under the water. Especially big stuff. Big dark stuff.

As it happens I did not get eaten by a great kraken. Instead I got a good 45 minutes swimming with hundreds of Mobula rays! And even better, Mike saw them, grabbed his snorkel and got in, too. So we both spent a surreal almost-hour swimming with these graceful creatures who couldn’t have cared less they were sharing their sea with us. I had my camera and even though the water had a lot of particulate and the sun was low in the sky, I got some acceptable, even spooky, images to help us remember this very best of evenings. Shock and awe, folks. Shock and bloody awe.

This one has a Remora riding along.

Spoooooky Mobulas!

I’m calling this Outer Space Mobulas.

Formation Mobulas.

More spooky Mobulas

While the Mobulas were the star of the show, here are a few more photos from San Evaristo and also from Isla San Fransisco, where I finally saw Conger Eels! Known as Cortez Garden Eels, these were another species for my Sea of Cortez Underwater Wildlife Bingo card. Take a look at those faces!

How fish look underwater at dusk.

Isla San Fransisco, Conger Eel

Those faces!

Mike and the Half Beaks at Isla San Fransisco

Resident Sea Turtle, Isla San Fransisco.

S/V Galapagos, Standing by on Channel 22a; back up in the Sea of Cortez where the weather is fine, the humidity is lower, and the snorkeling is way better than the Pacific Coast. Making our way north to Puerto Peñasco and still deciding our plan for the next year.

You Wanna Iguana?

Posted on March 14, 2019 by Melissa

Just a quick update to give me an excuse to post photos. We are living marina life for an entire week. The last time we were on a dock was two days last December. We finally made it to Paradise Village Marina near Puerto Vallarta, where we were hoping we could live the good life: the life of laying around by the swimming pool and ordering Happy Hour drinks. Alas, that has yet to happen, although we did get one evening of pool and hot tubbing.

While enjoying the pool we had a short conversation with a woman who was sipping on a frosty pink concoction she called a Miami Vice. She had two of them because she ordered during two-for-one happy hour. Mexico loves it some two-fer deals when it comes to alcohol. So she was holding one in the swimming pool while the other awaited her attention on the table. I’m pretty sure these were not her first drinks of the day; wink wink, and we both said silent prayers that she would keep her drink in her cup as she paddled around. We asked her what was in them and she had no idea. But she knew she liked them and highly recommended we try one. I guess that’s good enough. According to our new friend, we had just missed happy hour. She was having a good time so I imagine we’ll hit up a happy hour or two once we get all our work done. Talking to pleasantly drunk people in the pool: it just doesn’t get better than that for free entertainment.

This is the river where the marina is located. This water is deceptively still looking. It took us three tries to get into the slip due to current and wind.

Paradise Village is a resort and everyone here is on vacation. Everyone except the cruisers that is. So it’s pretty interesting in terms of people watching and we had a great visit with a few people sitting in the hot tub with us. It may have been my imagination that the woman next to me moved over just a bit when she found out we lived on a boat. When she asked if we had brought the boat down from Washington, just the two of us, and I said, ‘Yes’, she just shook her head and looked away. I think she just didn’t know what to say. Sometimes I feel that way, too, lady so it’s okay. We know we’re weird, believe me.

Anyway, this place is like a cruise ship on land. This kind of resort takes the term ‘one stop shopping’ and cranks up the volume full tilt. Right here on the property you have your room, entertainment, food, swimming pools, spas, the beach, massages on the beach, craft vendors, even an American style shopping mall (such as it is), and unlimited bars. It’s kind of like being at Disneyland, only without the rides. For me and Mike, it’s like visiting an entirely different country. It’s not quite Mexico, and it’s also not quite any other country either. Anyway, after our dip in the pool and our hot tub visit we were ready to get back to the boat, so we decided to take a pass on ‘Western Night’, (complete with barbecue ribs, a mechanical bull, some kind of western town mock up that looked like a movie set, and a live band). I’m sure it must have been a real hootenanny.

How I wanted that water slide with the big teeth to be open! Alas. But the hot tub is in that cave in the back. Pretty cool.

Anyhoo, we have been working pretty hard since we got here; gearing up for journey south. My first effort has been cleaning all the upholstery on the boat. It was getting annoyingly salty, which means it never felt dry. Now we are working on cleaning the deck. Unlimited fresh water with decent water pressure? I haven’t seen such a gift since, hmmm. I’m trying to remember. Marina Real up in San Carlos was rationing water when we were there in December, so we had it for one day and the pressure was not great. Puerto Escondido had water back in the spring, but again, not much pressure at the dock for some reason. So we are giving the boat a good scrub, hitting the stainless with vinegar, and generally doing some much needed house keeping. Honestly, unlimited fresh water is such a treat. I can’t wait to have a full water tank again.

Meanwhile, this evening we went on a little foray up the river in the dinghy; looking for crocodiles. There are signs everywhere warning you not to swim in this river (as if I would – no thanks) because of crocodiles. But I’m beginning to wonder if these are mythical crocs because we sure haven’t found any. There are plenty of places around here under the mangrove trees that look just right for a croc to haul out onto the bank, but nada. Still, we saw literally hundreds of the crocodile’s smaller cousin: iguanas. I am not exaggerating. The trees were filled with iguanas of all sizes laying around on branches trying to blend in. I was in a moving boat, but I did manage a few portraits. Their expressions are fascinating but I’m still hoping for crocodiles while we are here. Enjoy.

Hard to imagine, but this is just a representative tree of hundreds of trees filled with iguanas. Who knew they were so big? They are like small dragons.