A good overnight crossing is a pretty boring, uneventful (i.e.: having good weather, calm seas) trip, although a little entertainment never hurts. During our 28-hour crossing of the southern Gulf of California from Mazatlan to Los Muertos on April 17-18, we picked up a hitchhiker.
About 40 miles west of Mazatlan, around dinnertime, a little warbler flew aboard. He looked rather disheveled and tired. He stationed himself under the dodger and near to the companionway hatch. He proceeded to fall asleep soon after sunset (it was a quite bright, full-moonlit night).
By daybreak he awoke and started to move around the boat, out forward to the deck, and back around the cockpit. We found some crumbs to put out for him (which he nibbled on) and he found water (concendensed from the humid nighttime) to drink on deck.
Within a few hours of dawn he made some exploratory flights away from the boat, and returned about three times. Finally, about 40 miles from the East Baja cape (Los Muertos) he flew away for the last time. We hope he made it to shore or where-ever he was going!
