Cerralvo
Channel
Sea of
Cortez
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| Maz to La Paz, pg 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| About the time I think there's nothing short of insanity to justify this lifestyle, something remarkable happens. After a few hours sleep, I stepped back into the cockpit and confronted a changed world. The sky, the sea, and the silhouette of the Baja Peninsula in the distance were all in shades of soft blue and white, as if we were on an enormous arctic lake. We were back in the 'miraculous air' of Steinbeck's description, and even the sunlight shone blue. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Southern Sea of Cortez | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Although the sea was smooth and clear, perfect for spotting animals, we saw little all day other than several bluish fins which we believed to be those of Blue Marlin. I did see a turtle, resting incongruously on the 'icy' surface, but he spotted me too, and immediately tucked his head in, making himself invisible, of course, so he didn't count. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Invisible Turtle | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As the soft blues of the day turned to the cobalt blues of evening, we reached the anchorage at Los Muertos, and set the anchor in the large, quiet cove just before sunset. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Los Muertos Anchorage | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Saturday morning we left Muertos on calm, windless seas under mostly grey skies. Our change in course to Los Muertos meant that we would have to motor north through the potentially tempestuous Cerralvo Channel. This channel lies between Cerralvo Island and the Baja Peninsula, and though it is only about 20 miles long and 8 miles wide, it is known for its strong tidal currents, and frequently has some of the worst weather conditions in the entire region (as it did a week ago); but we have never seen it anything other than calm, and, though we know it is tempting fate, we have come to refer to it as the Cerralvo duck-pond. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The weather in the channel was, again, unremarkable, and we were most of the way through when Mike spotted a whale. He had just identified it as an Orca when the water along the edge of the island, about a mile in the distance, exploded with hundreds of dolphins jumping frantically and swimming rapidly south in a line as far as the eye could see. It didn't take us long to figure out that the Orca's were chasing the dolphins. We saw a whale burst out of the water and splash back down again several times. Mike assumed it had caught one of the dolphIns, but I saw no evidence of such thing, and am convinced that all the dolphins got away and none of the whales went hungry. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As we sat idling in the middle of the channel, the frenzied mood calmed, and a small group of five Orcas, four adults and a baby, approached. Frenzy resumed as we attempted to steer the boat and take pictures, but the whales stayed for several minutes, and at one point, the baby came out of the water right next to the boat, and then jumped again a few feet away. Whew! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Orcas Cerralvo Channel Sea of Cortez |
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| We arrived at Marina Palmira, La Paz, at dusk, assigned to the same slip we were in two months ago. At least Lucy will know where to find me. (Apparently Lucy is doing fine, but she has become rather sociable and is well fed by many boaters. Unfortunately, she is also lazy and gets little exercise, so recently when a flock of similar geese flew by, she attempted to join them but couldn't keep up. There is just no humor in that kind of irony). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fun Fact: Did you know Orcas are dolphins, not whales? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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