The refreshing breezes in Sweet Pea Cove, on Isla San Marcos just outside Santa Rosalia, was a respite from the blistering heat and we were sad about ending this cruising season in San Carlos. There were days where it’s so hot and the freezer so warm that we just wanted to go into a marina, check into a hotel, bask in air conditioning and down ice cold margaritas, but we were still enjoying ourselves. It’s been amazing exploring Mexico, enjoying the sea, and getting outside of our comfort zones. It’s been ten months since leaving San Francisco and we’re still excited about continuing this experience. There’s still so much more to explore.
We had to carefully time our Sea of Cortez crossing to minimize the risk of getting caught in a storm in open water while still arriving in San Carlos in the daytime. This meant getting up at around 1am to check if there were any developing storms on the mainland that were going to make their way west towards Baja. The first time we tried to make the crossing we didn’t like what we saw on EEBMIKE.COM and aborted. This turned out to be a good thing as a couple of hours later the winds and waves picked up considerably at Sweet Pea Cove. We went through our routine again the next night and this time there wasn’t any significant activity on the weather radar.
Although we were very careful about planning around the weather for the crossing we and the boat were strangely unprepared when it came time to go. The sea has been remarkably glassy the past couple of months but this night we had lots of swell. Sam went without his seasickness medication and threw up all over. I forgot to stow things away in the oven and our pizza stone broke. We were both cranky from lack of sleep. When we finally pull into Marina San Carlos in the middle of the afternoon we were exhausted and both ready to go right to bed.
We knew San Carlos would be very hot. I mean, we were told, but wow, it’s really really hot here. Plus, we’re at a marina and marinas are hotter than anchoring out, where your boat always points to the wind. We managed to go five days without air conditioning before our boat neighbor knocks on our hull, calls us outside and yells, “Get in my truck. I’m taking you to Home Depot to buy an air conditioner!” Thank you Dan from m/v Island Time! Using some trash bags and the box it came in I constructed an enclosure for the AC to funnel cold air right into the middle of the cabin. What a difference it made!
Our time in San Carlos before our trip to the states hasn’t been just confined to staying inside our boat. We volunteered for kitchen duty at a kid’s camp helping out local kids, we checked out the restaurants nearby (actually kind of disappointing for the most part as San Carlos is geared to gringos), and who am I kidding, we basked in air conditioning on our boat!
Juniper will be in San Carlos until the middle of October. We’ll be leaving the boat here in the marina, flying back to the states, and coming back and readying the boat before we start cruising again.
Until then, hasta luego!