Featured writer: Marie Nicole

Actually it wasn’t red. It was blue. And since I’m confessing to lying (kind of)… Crossing the Red Sea?  I don’t even know what that means! It was the Sea of Cortez.

We need to fire the ship's photographer.

Our trip took us from Mazatlan, Mexico to Baja California South, Mexico (contrary to popular belief in my family – Baja is NOT in California, no I don’t know why it’s called that, yes it’s confusing, yes it’s in Mexico, ok – I’ll tell them you said that).

Unlike motoring, sailing often decides where you go specifically depending on how the wind blows. With winds coming from the South-West – the direction where we wanted to go – it looked like we may end up in La Paz or even further North from there. Although a detour in La Paz would be cool (my bike is locked up there, plus I’ve got mail waiting for me) it would be a 4-5 day detour. More or less.

At our time of departure, our GPS told us it was approximately 200 miles to our destination with an ETA of 26 hours. The GPS doesn’t adapt for speed modification and wind shifts. Stupid machine. Plus it doesn’t even know how to spell Mazatlan (Mazatlkan?) It was depressing when after ooh-ing and aah-ing before our first sunrise with close to 24 hours into the crossing to have the GPS tell us we had 36 hours to go!

Leo, Captain of the boat and of my heart (I’m so tacky I should work for Hallmark) appointed me in charge for the first day. It was my duty to maintain our speed and direction and react when the sails started to flutter in the wind. I immediately accepted the challenge and kindly reminded him that I was also the ship’s Director of Communication which also included being ships’s writer, photographer, blogger and head of all social media activities. I was after all already quit busy. First he snickered. Then he dozed off.

1st mate with the skipper sleeping in the background.

I took my new role very seriously. I positioned myself to maintain a good view of the ocean before me. Made sure I was comfortable enough to not get numb nor fall asleep. In case he asked, I took a picture of myself proudly taking on all extra responsibilities. This is serious proof that he can rely on me and depend on me when he needs to rest.

For many reasons, I feared this crossing. I was shaking all morning prior to leaving. But look at me now. Brave. Confident. In charge. Smiling away all my fears. Plus I was reading a really good book from an author I did not know (until I found the book – obviously), discovering new authors to love gives me the giddiest of sensations!

I saw the first sea turtle. As it bobbed along our boat I debated if this was newsworthy of waking the Captain from his deep lip fluttering sleep. My head went from the turtle to Leo back to the turtle as I pictured the discussion as to why I chose to wake him up. And then I kept my mouth shut.

Image pulled from a video clip

Until I saw the DOLPHIIIIINS! Hundreds of them. They surrounded us. They jumped around us. They taunted us with their spots and their bottled noses. Apparently they love to swim with the bow of the boat. I sat in the pulpit and filmed them. I was so tempted to jump in… They swam along us for nearly an hour. As we both stood there clinging to the head sail, the waves were hitting us head on. The boat pointed upwards as it climbed over the 6′ wave then dove into the water. And the entire time, the dolphins stayed with us. It was so exhilarating.

And then we looked at our GPS confirming we still had over 24 hours to go.

All in all it took us 38 hours to cross the sea. We witnessed 2 sunsets and 1 sunrise. We crossed hundreds of DOLPHINS, 4 sea turtles (one of them may have been ran over by our boat – no pictures due to laziness), and 1 shark (no pictures due to quickness of the entire event). Our crossing ended in San Jose del Cabo – a suburb of Cabo San Lucas yet  4 hours sailing time away from Cabo.

Sunrise over Southern Baja California

I woke up after a deep 4-hour sleep. Wanted to check on our anchor and go back to bed. But when I saw this – I couldn’t sleep anymore. I am looking forward to more of these perfect crossings.

Read more from this author at: http://mycyberhouserules.com/