[CKF Info] [Paddlewise] Mexican expedition crosses by kayak the Sea of Cortes in Baja.

[MJKory at aol.com]

Great trip report Rafael, thanks for sharing your experience. I especially  
like the idea of bringing along a cook! Now that's the way to go kayak camping! 
 
Mike Kory
 
 
In a message dated 4/23/2008 2:30:09 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
silidriel at prodigy.net.mx writes:

It was  done. After some months planning finally a group of 8 Mexican
kayakers did  the crossing of the Sea of Cortes, from Bahia de Kino in Sonora
to San  Francisquito in Baja California Norte.



Among those, 3 did the  four laps, in spite of the very heavy weather
encountered on the second.  Three did three laps and some of the other. Two
did less than three laps.  The Mother Boat assisted those who did not finish
a specific section. There  were One Caribou from Current Designs, two
Veracruz and three KANIK from  Mayan Seas (Mexico), one plastic Tempest 170
from Wilderness Systems and  one foldable Feathercraft.



We chose to cross through the  Islands of Tiburon, San Esteban, San Lorenzo
and Finally Baja. One Island  each day, taking shelter after noon from
growing winds and waves.

We  picked up the lowest tidal motion days, when the Moon is in the  growing
quarter, and were able to appreciate how really rough it can get in  full or
no moon and bad weather.



In order to get there 4  travelled by plane. Two came to my hometown of
Queretaro by bus and then 5  of us (our cook included) drove for two days to
Kino, with the camping  stuff, cooking pans and kayaks.



The weather predictions through  Weather Channel and Mexican official navy
and electrical utility were not  good enough to really show what was going on
locally. We had better luck  with

HYPERLINK  "http://www.buoyweather.com"http://www.buoyweather.com



that was  very accurate for the day and the next, but highly inaccurate for
the  following days, when we had no way to check the weather  forecasts.



Pictures at  HYPERLINK
"http://community.webshots.com/user/cayucochief"http://community.webshots.co
m/user/cayucochief



Expedition  started on Friday April 11, 6:30 AM and no fishermen dared to go
out that  day. Our captain thought we were not going out and overslept, but
we  started paddling and he had to come to the launching place and  put
everything on the boat and start following us.

That first day we  paddled about 4.5  hours with heavy wind and waves up to
4- 5 feet and  breaking, against us on our front right quarter. No chance to
get under the  sprayskirt to get energy bars, or anything, just holding the
paddle,  drinking water of the camelbag or getting something you might have
on the  PFD pockets. Two kayakers climbed on the boat. We struggled  hard.



I had a bad experience and learned a lesson. My Gatorade  was in front of me
and when I tried to drink from it, I found out that it  was sealed and needed
both hands to open the lid and remove the paper  cover. No chance, one brace,
bottle gone. So for more than 4 hours only had  water, and after that I was
cold and stiff, with nobody to raft with for  eating or getting some energy
food. Things like that I suddenly go over in  a silly wave. Try to roll and
fail twice stiff as I was, wet exit and Jose  comes and holds my boat without
emptying it, and I climb and pump water out  and keep going cold and hungry.
Water was cold (60F maybe). I paddle for  another twenty minutes or so and
then a weak sculling and I go over again  on my right side. I do my Mexican
Rescue Technique with expertise and  there I am sitting on my kayak after a
paddlefloat reentry and roll and  paddle transversal placement with the rope
attached and free hands. As I  start bailing out Jose and Ricardo come and
give me some Gatorade, a  chocolate bar, a cereal energy bar, and I retake
the paddling with good  pace and balance and reach the island like new.
Nobody else capsized there  or anywhere in the trip.



One kayaker had a foldable  Feathercraft kayak wide and heavy, very stable
but hard to paddle against  waves. The guy had a very heavy paddle and he was
a hero withstanding all  that with such slow, heavy and hard to handle
equipment. He was always the  last to arrive but with good spirit.



Now we were on the South  East tip of the Island and had to go to the South
West end. ( 4 miles). No  big deal, protected by the island from the NW
winds; but reaching the West  end it was impossible to go around the tip to
our camping place. Wind was  sending heavy breeze and waves looked huge and
powerful. Nobody could go  through and we had to paddle back to the South
wall, where we picked up a  place to camp, but the Mother boat could not dock
there or anywhere around.  Our only option was to get on the boat, with the 8
kayaks and travel some 3  miles to a shallow place with  nice shore and a
half built shelter  with brick walls and metal roof. There the wind would
roar and scream but  we were pretty well covered. Sand was soft but nobody
could place their  tent and so everybody camped inside the building. I was
the only one  camping outside. I rather have soft sand for my bones and free
air away  from building scorpions and spiders. But, I had to put anchors to
my tent,  that was flying  like a kite. The first night it moved with me
inside  foot and a half towards the water, in spite of anchors.



Our  cook prepared a fantastic meal with fish and shrimp and rice and soup,
that  we did really enjoy. Some beer here and there and maybe a little
tequila,  since things looked like no paddling the next day.



Saturday 12.  Our SPOT watchers must have been surprised to see the points
steady. No  paddling that day. Visits to the inside of the biggest Island in
Mexico,  where we could see traces of Deer and Cimarron Goat, and on the hill
some  jackrabbits. Evening superb dinner with 2 pounds of lobster for each.
The  head in a soup and the tail Termidor style, unbelievable dish.  On  this
second night the side walls of my tent hit my face right and left as  the
wind shook it like a palm tree leave.



Sunday 13.- The  Mother boat went out of the shelter and then told us that
the weather was  very bad out there. Wind stopped blowing after 2 AM, and
they knew  thingswere going to be rough. But. We were not ready to stay
there for  another day. We were running out of a vital surplus, you  guessed
right  beer.    So off we went, and as soon as we  made the turn towards
open water and seeing far away the next island (San  Esteban ) wind and waves
started hitting. Immediately three kayakers  climbed on the boat and 5 of us
started paddling. After one third and more  than an hour and a half of 6 foot
waves coming in two directions and heavy  wind, I estimated that conditions
were worse than the lap before and that I  might face the same or worse
situation after two or three more hours. So I  called the boat and climbed
up, assuming that the others would follow, but  they were determined and kept
on going to the amazement of the crew. At  times I thought that kayakers were
doing better than the boat, that would  climb a wave and the bow would fall
more than 9 or 10 feet with a big  crash, and a maneuver to pick up the next
slightly sideways to avoid those  big bangs. The same thing remained for
three more hours, until two yakers  hit the Northern part of the island,
scared to death after a big shark (3  foot fin they said) passed by them, and
another paddler, disoriented hit  the southern tip. We told them to reunite
somewhere close to the center  where there was a good shelter for the boat.
The three paddlers were  Horacio, Jose and Velis, all from Veracruz. That
afternoon we also had a  great meal with Lisa eggs, Sierra fried fish, rice,
apples, bananas, and  the last scarce remnants of beer and tequila. The
second Island (San  Esteban) had no big game. Only scorpions, snakes, and
ants and no moskitos  (much wind). No shore (only big and small  rounded
beautiful stones  all over, and some beautiful shells of different sizes and
species).   Walking some 600 feet on stones there was a sandy flat section
with cactus,  where we could place our tents, and sleep.



Monday 14.- Change  of Strategy.- Weather improved, nice night sleep with
less wind. So we  paddled to the third island but with some thoughts to get
there only as the  leg end but to camp elsewhere. You see, the next stop was
Baja, and  somebody thought that we might find beer there, and so we should
go on the  Mother Boat, after reaching San Lorenzo, sleep in Baja, get what
we needed,  and do the last leg backwards, and then climb on the boat in  San
Lorenzo,  and go back to Kino on the same day. We had planned well  on water
and food, and we were OK, and we thought people would drink  nothing until
the end of the journey, but the heat under the sun, the  exercise and the
long waiting in the afternoon called for one or two beers  and so we needed
to replenish.



So we did. All but one  paddled the 25 KM leg, on calm sea at the beginning
and some wind and front  left  quarter waves after half way, and we all
reached San Lorenzo. I  have to say that on moving the kayaks to and from the
boat, my skeg cable  broke and I didnt notice until I was in the wind. I
paddled the last half  mostly on one side doing all kinds of corrections like
leaning, edging,  long turning strokes, bow rudder, etc. I thought at first I
had water, and  moved the skeg lever but nothing happened. Of course, the
wire was broken  and it was hanging way out, and my leecocking was
bothersome. But just  served as practice and reaching the island I used the
magical duct tape to  keep it in the right place and no more problems.
Neutral boat from there  on.



On the Mother Boat to Baja I told everybody that San  Francisquito was a
Mormon town and no beer or liquor was allowed. They  stayed disenchanted for
half an hour until they started to cross knowledge  and reach the conclusion
that I was lying. Smiles started again. San  Francisquito Bay is as beautiful
as it can be with the typical Baja green  color water, and nice shelter.
There is on the outside of the little bay a  nice hotel with simple cottages,
a restaurant, some shelter, clean  bathrooms and a huge big glass door ice
machine full with all brands of  beer. We thought we were going to be ripped,
but each beer was less than 2  USD, and we only needed two or three each at
most, just to kill our  curiosity.



Again we had a superb dinner, washed ourselves,  played domino,  and rested.
We were allowed to camp on the sand and  use the facilities, for 5 USD each.



Tuesday 15.- Early launch  (6:30 AM), strong paddling, nice weather, and San
Lorenzo Island again,  with wind starting to build up a bit, and a beautiful
sight of a huge  humpback whale throwing a big, noisy vapor stream, every now
and then,  passing from North to South not very near ahead of us. Some of us
paddled  to it but others against. We were too far away to make  contact.



Finally we reached San Lorenzo, in a beach shelter  quiet, transparent,
clean, beautiful, where we gave the farewell to the  Baja Sea with some rolls
from Ricardo, Jose and myself. We waited for the  slow guys, packed on the
Mother boat and started back to Kino, and being 14  miles from Port the
engines failed and we drifted on the open sea waiting  for something to
happen, and calling on the again working cell phones and  boat VHF for help.
Our cook had a card under his sleeve. He told us to open  the ice box and got
some more fish, Liza egg cakes, apples, ham, boiled  eggs, etc, and we
enjoyed the last meal. Suddenly one of our kayakers  started messing with the
motors and cleared somehow the water hoses and  fixed the engine  heating
problem. Off we went and reached the Boat  house in no time. Packed
everything on the car and trailer and started our  journey back to Queretaro.



Mission  accomplished.



LOST OBJECTS.- The sea demanded its tribute. Two  VHF radios, one compass,
one wallet with money and IDs, a set of dishes  and forks and knives, a pair
of sunglasses, but nobody harmed or sick,  thanks God.



LESSONS LEARNED.-

Good planning is  essential. As Steve Mallard said. . The Sea of Cortes is a
place that you  can cross if you are lucky with the weather, if not it is not
possible. We  had the zero tides days and in some places we saw some
whirlpools of maybe  800 feet diameter. Eddies around islands can be very
strong. If you combine  full moon with bad weather it can be a very  nasty
place.



Better training is needed, with strength and  lots of confidence in self
abilities. I was humbled and realized that my  training had been very
comfortable and suitable for a medium complication  picnic, but this is more
serious. I am starting right now a new training  program, with rolls every 20
minutes of paddle, lots of work on low and  high braces,  and recovery with
hip snap, left roll to gain more  confidence on that side, etc. This combined
with a better technique to feed  myself while moving. Another very important
training is to do real camping  with the equipment on the PFD, etc to learn
how and where to store  equipment and food for quick removal, and to  avoid
losses.



No doubt, well try it again sometime next  year, checking other places of
Baja.



Thanks to my Mexican  colleagues for an unforgettable experience and my
sincere congratulations  to Jose, Horacio (70) and Velis for their
accomplishment on the second  paddling day.

Thanks also to our boat crew who were so professional and  safety conscious,
great help and great company.



Best  Regards,



Rafael

Mexico.







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