Wow Stuart! That picture and your description of a night on the Sea of Cortez just blow me away! Thanks gazillions! Wonderful!
I remember back in the late 80's I was living at Cabo Bello, outside of Cabo San Lucas, just as the town was beginning to build up. It was dark like that then at Cabo Bello, no light pollution to speak of, and one night/morning, probably about 4AM or so, I was having a cup of coffee on the patio enjoying the sight of the Milky Way and listening to the lapping of waves not too far away. And then a cruise ship appeared out of the darkness, moving toward the harbor in Cabo. It wasn't making a sound that I could hear, silent as a ghost, and lit up like a Christmas tree. The reflections in the water twinkled and flashed, and as you described it was so dark you couldn't tell where the water stopped and the sky began. So it looked like the ship was sailing down out of the sky. It was an eerie and beautiful sight, a bit disorienting, and it still gives me chicken skin when I think of it.
I love such dark nights, watching the movement of the stars, the occasional meteor, the quiet... Rocky Point should start an Astronomy Club...
Have you seen how lovely the dawn sky has been the last couple of mornings? The moon, Venus, Mars, Aldebaran-- the Big W-- Jupiter? Worth getting up early for, no matter where you live in the northern hemisphere.
http://rptides.blogspot.com/2009/07/morning-stargazing-in-puerto-penasco.html