Tuesday, April 15, 2025 -La Paz
Over the next week or two, I’ll be posting about a trip I took to the Gulf of California back in April, as I did research for a historical novel about Carol Steinbeck, the first wife of John Steinbeck.
Like many travel journals, it is a collection of maps, words, photographs and drawings, but it is also the story of a boat, a famous book, and the fascinating woman who inspired my trip.
The Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez and the Vermillion Sea, is one of Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystems. Teeming with marine life, it was once nicknamed the “Aquarium of the World” by oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.
In April of 2025, I was lucky enough to set sail on the Gulf, taking part in a once-in-a-lifetime trip aboard Uncruise Adventures’ Safari Voyager. For ten days, we traveled alongside the newly restored Western Flyer, following in the footsteps of the famous fishing boat’s 1940 biological collecting voyage.
(If you compare the maps, you’ll see that while we retraced much of the 1940 route along the Baja peninsula, we didn’t cross over to mainland Mexico.)
If you’re not a marine biologist or an avid reader of California author John Steinbeck, you may never have heard of the Western Flyer or “Sea of Cortez- A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research,” the book that made the boat famous.
According to Penguin Random House publishers, “The collaboration of two friends—one a novelist, one a marine biologist—produced a volume in which fascinating popular science is woven into a narrative of man’s dreams, his ideals, and his accomplishments through the centuries.”
Biological, philosophical and often funny, the original edition of Sea of Cortez includes a thick phyletic catalogue at the end which details the extensive collection of tidepool animals gathered by Steinbeck’s crew of seven in 1940, as they made a biological exploration of the Gulf’s intertidal species. Here’s a wonderful short film about the voyage, narrated by Nick Offerman and produced by the talented storytellers at Soulcraft Allstars.
In the narrative portion of the book, Steinbeck writes from the perspective of a collective “we,” which clearly includes him and his co-author Ed Ricketts, a marine biologist and early ecologist. He names four other crew members, Tiny, Sparky, Tex and Tony, but neglects to mention that there was also a woman aboard the Western Flyer during their six weeks on the Sea of Cortez.
The expedition’s seventh crew member was Steinbeck’s first wife Carol, a smart, beautiful woman who swore like a sailor, had a razor-sharp sense of humor, and loved books and red wine. According to Tony Berry, the boat’s captain, she was a helpful crew member, and was always the first person aboard the skiff to go collecting in the tide pools with John and Ed. He also recalled that she was “good” about seventy-five percent of the time. There was trouble brewing on the boat, and Steinbeck would leave Carol for his Hollywood mistress a year after they returned from their famous trip.
Carol was John Steinbeck’s primary sounding board and editor during the most critically acclaimed years of his writing career. Not only did she help Steinbeck come up with central themes for his books, but she also came up with the titles for his novels “Of Mice and Men” and “The Grapes of Wrath.” She left no written record of her time aboard the Western Flyer in 1940, but her name is frequently mentioned in the other crew member’s oral and written accounts of the trip.
Rose Berry, Tony Berry, Carol Steinbeck,
John Steinbeck, Tiny Colletto (photo from the Martha Heasley
Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies- San Jose State University)
I relied on these recollections as I embarked on the adventure of writing a historical fiction novel about the 1940 expedition to the Sea of Cortez, from Carol’s point of view.
My research began in late 2020, when I traveled to the Monterey Peninsula to visit the extensive Steinbeck collections at SJSU and in Salinas and see where Carol lived, worked and played. In 2021, I took trip to the Sea of Cortez. But the last puzzle piece fell into place when I learned that the Western Flyer had been pulled up, rotting and covered in barnacles, from the bottom of a harbor in Anacortes, Washington and was being lovingly restored by Chris Chase and his team of shipwrights as a research and education vessel.
It was amazing to be on the Monterey pier when the Western Flyer returned to the peninsula in 2024. Watching her motor into the harbor, cheered by hundreds, was magical, and I finally got to tour the boat I’d been writing about for four years. I sat on Carol’s bunk, ran my hand across the table in the galley, and walked the decks I’d been writing about. But the top (flying) deck that Steinbeck wrote about so lovingly was roped off, as was the fish hold, which was being transformed into a science lab. I longed to see what it felt like to be aboard the boat when she was out at sea.
And so, when the opportunity arose to join a group of scientists and artists and Steinbeck experts and enthusiasts aboard a boat sailing alongside the Western Flyer upon her return to the Gulf of California, I leapt at the chance to see the boat in action as I immersed myself in nature and Steinbeck lore.
Tuesday, April 14, 2025 (Embarkation at La Paz)
After flying into San Jose del Cabo on Monday, we (my husband Ken and I) took the Uncruise shuttle across the peninsula on Tuesday. The Baja California desert is spectacular, and we spotted several crested caracara falcons sitting atop enormous Cardon cacti as we made our way to La Paz, where our maritime adventure would begin.
Once famous for its beautiful pearls, La Paz is a picturesque seaside town, with whales splashing in the harbor and a palm-lined beach promenade featuring beautiful sculptures. Steinbeck and his crew stopped in La Paz back in 1940, and John’s short novel “The Pearl” was likely inspired by a story he heard there. While anchored in the harbor, Carol reportedly jumped off the boat to swim and ruined an expensive watch John had given her.
It thrilling to see the Western Flyer and Safari Voyager tied up at La Paz’s city pier as our bus pulled into town. After meeting up with the boats’ crews and our fellow passengers, we set sail under the setting sun, champagne in hand.
Coming up next… Snorkeling and tidepooling at Punta Marcial.