Sunday November 4, 2012
Anchored at San Quintin, Baja, Mexico
Here a recap of our stay so far in San Quintin. This is a beautiful area - a large bay - 30 miles across, with a large estuary/lagoon in the corner where we are anchored. The first afternoon here we spotted whales in the bay and I watched them for an hour or so - they were pretty mellow, about a mile or so from the boat, surfacing every so often. Hard to identify them - first we thought they could be humpbacks, but they were more subdued, smaller, and not as pronounced of humps on their backs, so I'm guessing they could be grey whales? We really need a better whale identification book. Early the next AM (Tim and I were still asleep in the v-berth) a loud thump awoke us… I poked my head out the hatch to see what it could have been and heard the whales spouting just off of our bow! I think they could have run into the boat, or at least our anchor chain. Later that day we found a more probable explanation - our bbq propane tank had fallen over - that would have made a loud noise for sure!
We later saw the whales up close in the lagoon while we were exploring. They were two medium size whales with lots of barnacles, giving them a lighter appearance from afar. We putted around for hours in the dinghy, birdwatching and fishing. Success with both, saw an osprey and lots of ducks, grebes and shorebirds and also caught a bunch of foot-long fish (probably grunions?) that we let go. Back at the boat that afternoon, the whales surfaced just off the boat - one about 40 feet away and one just 5 feet from our bow! Close enough for a real good scare!!
One reason we're staying put here is to get some maintenance done - we had two winches fail on the way out of Ensenada, so it's time to clean all the winches, which is quite a chore. We've done the four main cockpit winches so far and will work on the mast winches next. They were quite full of crud and in need of some tlc so I'm glad we're taking the time to do this now.
This morning after being surrounded by fog for hours, when it lifted, I went ashore to climb around on the dunes. There is a dirt bike track on the desolate point out here doubling as a trail, so I climbed up to where I could get a glimpse of the ocean on the outside. I realize how little time I've spent in the desert, so it was a new experience for me - much hotter on land than on the boat! Neat to see what type of vegetation can survive in these harsh conditions. Since we weren't sure if we were leaving today, I just had time for a quick walk, but I could've easily spent the day onshore exploring. And if the wind doesn't pick up for a few days I may get my chance. We're hoping to be able to sail down the coast rather than motor, so we're thinking we may wait till there is a good wind forecast to make our next jump.
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