Location: Approaching our anchorage at San Benedicto Island, Socorro/Revillagigedos, Mexico
Comments: I am back at the helm of the Nautilus Explorer after a month off, and loving it. There is lots of interesting stuff happening shoreside in our tiny company but it’s always a really great feeling to get back on the boat, cast off and head for sea. All the projects and stuff that I didn’t finish are…well…not finished and my greatest apologies to those whose emails I wasn’t able to return before sailing.
Our anchorage at San Benedicto Island is still 4 hours ahead of us and it’s been a gloriously smooth crossing. The sea conditions on the open ocean crossings to Socorro/Revillagigedos are usually pretty good with average wave heights of 4 – 6 feet. Sometimes the seas are worse (which a stabilized steel small ship like the Nautilus Explorer handles very well) and sometimes the sea conditions are flat calm. This is one of those very fortunate times when it is very calm and the boat is barely moving at all. Couple that with an amazing sunset and life was pretty darn good today.
Last night was quite special as it was our very first departure from the brand new marina at Puerto Los Cabos in San Jose del Cabo. Actually, describing this mammoth construction project as a “new marina” does not do it justice at all. We’ve been watching the construction progress with great interest over the last 2 years.
An enormous flat of sand and scrub was staked out well inland from the existing beach and then excavated to quite a depth. To gauge the size of this 1100 berth marina, just imagine scratch building a basin larger than the entire harbour of Cabo San Lucas. It is huge. Sea walls and pilings for the docks were all put into place well before any flooding was done (the height of a piling in a dry basin is quite something by the way when you see it planted in the ground like a flagpole).
The constant stream of enormous dump trucks, gravel trucks, excavators and backhoes was quite bewildering last year when we were still loading our guests off LaPlaya (the beach) inside the new breakwater. The basin was finally flooded, the sand beach excavated to oblivion and the harbour was open.
So it was truly something to tie up to a dock there for the first time last night. Quite a thrill actually. And years from now when the harbour is bustling and as busy and crazy as Cabo San Lucas, we’ll be able to say “we remember when we were one of the very first boats to ever use this harbour.” Dang, I wish I had taken more pictures.
–Captain Mike
Weather: Easy crossing with 2 – 3 foot waves and a very low swell, broken layer of mid-level clouds, air temperature in the mid 80’s, 10 knots of wind from the north (which is quite unusual).
Water: Water temperature and visibility unknown but the water colour is very BLUE and we’ve seen lots of flying fish and dolphins
