Cruise Log #33, Santa Rosalía to Gonzaga Bay

SolMate's route from Santa Rosalía north to Gonzaga
Bay, back and forth, around and about searching for wind and avoiding bugs.

For the 80-mile passage from Isla San Marcos to San Francisquito, we raised anchor at 4AM just as the moon rose. By sunrise we were already sailing well north of Santa Rosalía, in company with our favorite camera crew on Nakia. We both pulled into San Francisquito just in time for happy hour.

SolMate against the morning sky, sailing north from Isla San Marcos to San Francisquito.

How many pictures of SolMate sitting in pristine Baja anchorages can we take?

Puertocito Enmedio, little port in the middle, and SolMate in full cruising regalia,
both awnings set up like a Conastoga wagon, creating full shade, comfort onboard for man and beast.

...and how many pictures of His Highness?

Even an awning won't
convince a panting cat he's cool.

One of the reasons we'd set our sights on Refugio was to visit pelican rookeries. Turned out we ventured only as far as Isla Partida to locate the fat, furry-looking things. Hiking up to the summit above our anchorage, we stumbled upon a rookery full of fledglings. Their nests were tucked in amongst the cactus, right on the ground. That brought a halt to our hike. The fledges couldn't fly, yet - we didn't want to disturb the waddling land birds.

Stubby-winged fledgling pelicans in their rookery high on a hill
on Isla Partida, not even within walking distance of the beach.

We finally arrived in Refugio a month later in the breeding season. Most of the pelicans had left the nest and either waddled down to the water, or awkwardly flapped there. From our vantage point up in the nesting area we could see young pelicans practicing their flying, swimming and fishing techniques at water's edge.

Beach in the west bite of Refugio, populated with the class of 2006.

Although we discovered thousands upon thousands of nests in the rookeries above Puerto Refugio, the little guys seemed to suffer quite a significant attrition rate. Many never made it, and the ground was strewn with little bodies begging the question, was that normal, or is something wrong?

Natural selection in Refugio?

Returning to BLA, we discovered we needn't have roamed so far for our wildlife fix. Right there in the southern anchorage at Ceilidhville, Brydes whales swam within inches of our boat, a shark hunted not far off, and a bold osprey landed right on our bow pulpit.

Our osprey visit was exciting for all the crew. Just as Stan and I were sneaking up on him with the camera, whispering such things as, "My, what big talons you have...and what a sharp beak you have..." we discovered You-Know-Who slinking up from behind. Gale was sure he could take that osprey. Stan dropped the camera and waved the osprey off before our delusional hunter received the surprise of his life.

Osprey on SolMate's bow, way out of Gale's league -
that's a one-inch rail those talons are wrapped around!