Isla Salsipuedes — the far north of our Cortez expedition

2.7.2013 6:00pm

We enjoyed the hospitality from Dave and Bobbi so much that we invited them for a small outing on Gray Matter. Bobbi told me that they have never been to the north portion of the sea, the Midriff islands, the most remote and mysterious islands in the Sea of Cortez. I looked up on the guide book, Punta San Francisquito, an anchorage close to Midriff regions, has an airstrip. As Dave and Bobbi are both private pilots and have their plane here, a perfect plan is taking shape — We can run Gray Matter up to Punta San Francisquito, pick up Dave and Bobbi from their plane, and then enjoy 3 days cruising around Midriff together. I never thought we’d make that far north into the Sea of Cortez, but here we go.

We visited Isla Tiburon, the biggest island in Mexico, and then another day at Isla Salsipuedes. It is significantly colder up here, especially water temperature dropped to barely above 60F. Lucky for me, Bobbi loves to jump into the water, just like me. So the two girls jumped in for snorkeling and hunting. We harvested mussels, rock scallops and sea snails. Mark also did good on fishing — he traded four freshly-caught cabrilla from the local fishermen with four cokes. We enjoyed seafood dinner every night.

The tip of Isla Salsipuedes.

The skinny chain of Isla Salsipuedes, Isla las Animas, and Isla San Lorenzo.

We dropped off Dave and Bobbi at Punta San Francisquito after three very enjoyable days together. As we walked back, we saw three armed men standing next to our dinghy, two in military uniform. The head guy stopped us and inquired our intention in broken english. We told them we were here on vacation on our private vessel. They requested to check our documentation and inspect the boat. Well, welcome abroad then. Luckily, no surprises. They came on board for a light inspection, more for curiosity then anything else, and left. I was tempted to take a photo but decided not to mess with the military too much here. The language barrier probably did some favor there — if they had known we just dropped off two persons at the airport, they probably would not have let us go so easily…

Punta San Francisquito dinghy dock, our first encounter with the military.

Aerial shots of Gray Matter, courtesy of pilot Bobbi and photographer Dave.