Santa Rosalia—Not

All the weather forecasters predicted an easy crossing on Thursday April 1st with light and variable wind until noon; then 5 to 15 kts from the southeast possibly building to 19 in the late afternoon.
So we left from San Pedro Bay at 1 AM with no wind and calm seas and an almost full moon shinning thru thin high clouds. About 15 miles into the trip the wind came from the northwest quickly increasing to 26 kts. Vagari was handling it well with one reef in the mainsail and no headsail but the crew was just hanging on. After a conference with Rhea and our buddy boat we decided to turn around and head for the marina. We would reach the marina at 10 AM vs. 4 PM for arriving in Santa Rosalia. We do this for pleasure and sailing wasn’t fun in those conditions. Our buddy boat had a minor equipment breakdown, which could be fixed in those conditions but would be an easy fix in port.

We were sailing almost into the wind going out but coming back the wind was nearly behind us. With large waves also behind us we had an exhilarating up and down ride. When daylight came we could see the waves approaching from behind. We had to look up to see their tops but before they got to us the stern would rise and we would slide downhill on the wave. When an unusually large one came toward us I ask Rhea to look at it. Se informed me that she was not looking behind us, period.

We arrived at 10 AM to find a sailboat aground in the entrance channel. They went aground at 3 AM but were pulled off on the rising tide shortly after we arrived. It was a nice day in San Carlos. I’m not sure everybody believed it was really blowing out in the center of the Sea.

This week is a very big Mexican holiday, “Semana Santa” or Holy Week. The beach towns fill up with kids and families camping on the beaches Thursday to Sunday when they all go home. The main street becomes impassable in the afternoon and evenings. I took photos of the local beach and will post it soon.