18 January, 2007: We departed Cabo San Lucas early in an attempt to go to Los Frailes, about 35nm around the corner of the Baja Penninsula. Everything was going well, we were motor-sailing in smooth seas, and light wind, at a fairly good speed until about 20 miles out we saw a line of wind just about where we would begin to turn north. We battened down the hatches, reefed the main, and got ready for some strong wind. It hit us like a brick wall! 5 knots became 20 knots in about 100 feet. It wasn't too bad, so we continued on, but the seas began to build and the wind kept increasing until we were beating into 30 knots and 6-8 foot short choppy wind waves. We were still making progress and had covered another 3 miles in the last hour. The wind continued to pick up though and so did the seas. Another hour (and 2 miles farther) we gave up. The wind was 35 knots on the head, and the seas were peaking out at 8-10 feet! The boat would go vertical off every third wave, come crashing down, and stop dead! So we turned around with 9 miles left! All the way back to Cabo. As soon as we turned around it was a nice sled ride at 8 knots until the exact same place the wind had picked up, where it died. Oh well! No damage done except a few gallons of Diesel burned.
14 January, 2007: The good news is that we changed the oil in the dingy engine! The bad news is that the reason we did that is yesterday while going ashore in Cabo San Lucas we miss-timed our surf-landing and flipped the dingy. A full load, two people, two dogs, and one 2 hp Honda engine. The dogs thought it was completely normal, swam ashore and immediately ran off chasing a bunch of birds. This left us to haul a flooded dingy out of the surf! As to be expected there was a small audience who immediately offered their unsolicited advice: "You know the surf is a little smaller over there", and "You should have waited for a smaller set of waves". Right, thanks!!! That's just what I want to be told after doing a 360 degree roll and getting soaked to the bone! I would have NEVER figured THAT out!!! (I wish sarcasm could come through more strongly in print)
Anyway, it really wasn't too bad, the water wasn't very cold, and miraculously we were able to find Saesha's glasses in the surf! The engine was a different story, we opened it up, got the salt water out of the cylinder, changed the oil, and ran it for a bit, but it still acted a bit funny. So today we completely dismantled it and found oil in the centrifugal clutch (that's like finding oil on your brake pads in your car... not good). We cleaned everything up, and it's working like a charm now.
We chalked it up as just another part of cruising. Sorry no photos this time.
11 January, 2007: Still in Cabo San Lucas. We'll be here at least through Sunday for the matinee movies at 28 pesos (about $2.80 USD). Most everything else is close to US prices here. A propane fill is looking like $15 USD! The most we will have ever paid. Oh well, we gotta eat! At least it's free to anchor!
10 January, 2007, Tuesday: Well, we were not able to fill our propane, so we're down to the dregs, maybe 3 more days. We could have gotten it filled in San Carlos, but it would have involved having the tank taken to the city of Constitution, several km away, and three days or so. So we pulled the hook and took off for Cabo San Lucas! The 29 hour trip down was fairly pleasant. Not an ounce of wind, so we motored for all but 4 hours, and with a one knot following current covered the 170 nm in record time. The air was warm, even at night, and we crossed the Tropic of Cancer (entering the "tropics") at around 10pm. We took turns sleeping on deck and driving and pulled into Cabo San Lucas at around 9 am today. San Lucas is just like they say, a big resort town built on the beach. We're not complaining though! It's great to be in a place that has internet, music, big grocery stores, and endless beach entertainment. The water is clear, and almost warm enough for a swim, but we're sissies when it comes to cold water, and 73 degrees just isn't cutting it!
In flight entertainment: Scrabble in the Tropics
Entrance to Cabo San Lucas
Sea Heather dwarfed by our anchorage buddy MV Mercury of Celebrity Cruise Line (Paul did a Port State Control boarding back in his Coast Guard days of this vessel in Alaska, 3000 nm away!)
7 January, 2007, Sunday: The little sailboat that could. We decided that we would go to San Carlos again today. Yes, again. Originally we wanted to head down to Cabo San Lucas but the weather was supposed to be nasty.
The guide books tell you that the route to San Carlos is twisty, poorly marked, shoal, and not recommended. Well, on the 5th we decided we needed some propane, and our families would appreciate an email, and Saesha had a college application emergency, so off to San Calos we went from our nice little anchorage at Magdelena. It turned out that the channel is extremely well marked (although it differs by as much as 1/4 mile from the chart), has two turns in it, and is wide enough and deep enough that two super tankers can fit through it side by side. The anchorage at San Carlos is not supposed to be well protected from the wind, which it wasn't, but windy anchorages don't really bother us because we have a wind turbine that cranks out a lot of power when the wind is blowing (so we can watch movies and listen to music!). What none of the cruising guide books mention was that there is a 2 knot tidal current that flows right through the anchorage! I'll put that into perspective if you're not a sailor. A car cruises at 60 mph, a boat cruises at 6 mph. So try parking a car in a parking lot that's moving 20 mph! Now don't get me wrong, anchoring in a current isn't that big a deal, we've anchored in almost 4 knots of current in the past. The problem was that in this case the 2 knot current was against the 20 knot wind. This meant that at about sunset the boat started twisting in many strange ways on the anchor. We tried to set two anchors which added the benefit of a twisted mess of anchor rode. Next we pulled the second anchor up and somehow it came untangled, probably by dislodging the primary anchor! We drug anchor towards shore for a bit, then pulled up the primary anchor and decided to head back down the channel to Magdalena. Luckily we had marked the exact location of all the buoys on our way in and had no problem driving back in the night. It was a 'sell-the-boat' day.
So now we're back! There's no wind, the sun was out all day, the current is still here, but no big deal. We went into town, bought goodies hugged our first Mexican palm tree, and found out where we can fill propane. Jorge, a fisherman, let us tie our dingy up to his boat where he could keep an eye on it at the pier for a Coke. Life is good. It's a 'keep-the-boat' day.
1 January, 2007, New Year's Day: Happy New Year!!! At midnight we were in position 26 deg, 30.695' N, 113 deg 23.881'W and reefing our mainsail to handle the increase in wind to about 25 kts. What a way to bring in the new year!
Bahia Santa Maria was a welcome refuge from the long overnighter from Abreojos. We suddenly felt like we had finally left the Pacific Northwest and arrived in Mexico. The sun was out, the anchorage protected, the water crystal clear and almost warm enough to swim in without a wetsuit, and we were able to go ashore easily and have a nice long hike.
Some Bahia Santa Maria scenes.
In Bahia Santa Maria we also did some minor repairs to remove some arms and legs growing from our electical panel.
Going back a bit, we left Bahia Tortuga early in the morning on Dec. 27th, traveled 58 nm and stopped at Bahia Asuncion. We didn't go ashore to the town of Asuncion because the wind picked up to gale force again and we were took chicken to climb into our tiny dingy. We spent the next day hanging on as well.
On the 29th we left for Abreojos with favorable weather, traveled the 56 nm and stopped at a nice fairly decent anchorage tucked behind a bite of land east of the town. We went ashore and took the dogs for a walk.
Then on the 31st we left for Bahia Santa Maria.