Ophelia Offshore

With the little remaining time we had in the Sea of Cortez, we decided to take a ~two week trip north of La Paz. There was a southerly coming, and we planned to sail it as far North as we could, and then we’d work our way back down to La Paz.

I got a bit of a cold as soon as we departed, so rested and didn’t do much on the sails besides nap and snack. Winds were on and off so we had a mix of sailing and motoring. The hills turned into mountains, and I found myself constantly reaching for the camera to capture the growing splendor.

Our first night was a quick stop over in the small anchorage of Rincon surrounded by steep cliffs. We pulled in at night after dark, checking our location off the MFD, tablet, Jesse’s cell phone, my cell phone, the depth reader, the radar, and by standing on the foredeck with our 1000 Lumen spotlight. When the anchorage goes from hundreds of feet of water directly into sheer cliffs, redundancies are nice. After dropping the anchor without hitting a cliff wall, I noticed some little shrimp/fish in the water were attracted to the light and we pointed it next to the boat for a few min. A boil of these little shrimp/fish built up with so much activity it was coming out of the water. Then we’d switch the light off, wait a few min, and when we switched the light back on there were big fish trying to eat the shrimp that would scatter as soon as the light came back on. The Sea of Cortez continues to impress us with the scale and abundance of life all around.

In the morning, the sheer magnitude of the cliffs we were anchored in-between was stunning. I tried to get some shots with the Fuji, but didn’t have a wide enough lens to even begin to get it in frame. Jesse’s drone got it done though.

With me under the weather, Jesse sailed all day to Punta Colorado. We got lines in the water, but no luck on catching any fish. We were surprised the new daisy chain cedar plug lure we had been told was excellent for tuna wasn’t producing any results. Our #1 fishing influencer, who happens to be a 13yr old boy we met in La Paz who is sailing around the Pacific with his family, had promised us the daisy chain cedar plugs don’t miss. Under his advisement we had immediately gone out to a well stocked fishing tackle store to acquire this specialty lure before departing. When we pulled in the line at the end of the long day the mystery was solved – there was no lure left. We’d lost our magical lure. The visions we had of pulling in monster tuna so big we had to hoist them on the halyards began to dim in our hearts. Suffice to say as a boat will be moving to the more secure Improved Clinch Knot going forward.

The Punta Colorado anchorage has a magnificent little mountain capping the eastern edge of the anchorage and we enjoyed two quiet days at anchor in this peaceful spot after our long sails. We spent the days perfecting our pancake recipe, polishing stainless, practicing guitar, cleaning the hull, and enjoying some excellent swimming and napping.