Cabo to La Paz!

Cabo to La Paz!

As soon as the Puerto Capitan opened the port for departures after Tropical Storm Raymond roared by, we headed out to sea. Our original destination was a mere 15 miles (due to the later start time) of Puerto Los Cabos. However, the seas were still significant (BIG) and that port had not opened yet! So, we pushed on to Bahia Los Frailles at Cabo Pulmo. We arrived just before sunset and put out the anchor in a very rolly bay. The only other boat was National Geographic’s Sea Lion, a small cruise boat (maybe 30 passengers). The next morning we woke early (did we even sleep in the swells?) and put out a stern anchor to stop the crazy rolling.

As other sailboats joined us in the bay, I made reservations for us to dive Cabo Pulmo the next day. This area and reef were brought back to life by a combined effort of the local fishermen, conservation groups and the government. I had really anticipated a super cool dive on the reef and seeing the “Jack Tornado”   (2’ long fish in a giant school that spins like a tornado) Rays and other sea life. On a good day, I think the diving would be stellar. Unfortunately, ours was not a good day.

The dive boat (a 18’ open Panga) was almost an hour late picking us up. They also stopped at another boat to pick up 2 other divers; they were not ready and added to the late arrival to the dive site. The sites are regulated by rangers who strictly control the amount of divers, boats and timing. By the time we arrived, the Jack Tornado area had 3 boats and was closed to us… Ok, on to another cool area. 

The 2 other divers with us were a drama unfolding. The crew of his 50’ Jeanneau had left at Cabo so he picked up Lisa from another boat to crew with him. They both made it clear, in a half joking way, that they were “advanced” divers and that we better not screw things up or slow them down. (huh? They were the ones late…) As the dive began, both were having issues of ear equalizing and buoyancy management. We just went on our way with the guide along the reef; not seeing much in the way of critters but the occasional lobster and panting Morey eel in a crack. 

After the 1st dive, we had to drop the guide off and pick up another. To say the transfer of personal and tanks was a bit unorthodox would be an understatement. The captain drove the boat up on the beach, folks threw tanks out and new ones in the boat, picked up the guide and we were off. But during this time we saw how the pangas were launched. The panga is driven with a manly gunning of the engines on to makeshift trailers which are tied to pickup trucks with ropes. The trucks pull the trailer up on the beach and occasionally bury their wheels in the sand. More manly gunning of engines; this time the trucks. It all had the feeling of “hold my beer and watch this”.

The second dive went no better as the new guide now lost Lisa at the surface still working on her ears and buoyancy and Jonathan disappearing in the murky water to find her. Jeff and I patiently sat on the bottom for 10 minutes for all to regroup. Then on to more lobsters and the ever-present panting Moreys. Now, I don’t mean to sound jaded like I have hundreds of dives; but if I don’t see another panting eel for awhile, I’ll be just fine.

After the dives, we invited Lisa and Jonathan over. However, his wife,  who was to meet him in La Paz, put the kibosh on his new crew. They pulled anchor and quickly departed to drop her off at the next port. Such drama!

The next day we motor sailed to Los Muertos. Or Los Suenos (dreams) as the new resort likes to call it  - a bit of a marketing thing I think. We sat at the open air restaurant and had a great dinner. On the way out, I congratulated a young guy who had anchored next to us on his voyage. He was single handling his boat, Darwind, down from Seldovia, Alaska! We kept an eye on his boat that night as he was staying on land with his aunt who lived here. Super cool kid and you can follow him on: www.svdarwind.blogspot.com. We hope to see him as his plans are the same as ours!

The next day we  left early for Cerralvo Channel in ideal conditions. It was our first upwind sail in weeks and weeks - just perfect. This 25 mile channel has a bad reputation with winds and steep waves. For those boaters in the PNW, think Johnstone Strait. Within an hour, the wind went to zero; then changed direction to directly on the nose and increased to 25 kts. Yep, we were in for it then. No way to bail out and we bashed our way up for hours. Greenwater coming over the cabin top and even Jeff said “these are crazy steep waves!”  We rounded the top of the channel and had a beautiful anchorage in Caleta Lobos, just 6 miles from La Paz. 

If you told me that mangrove would grow in the same area as Saguaro cactus, I’d would say “not”. But, what a unique landscape this small bay had with both thriving. A sunset walk on the beach and back to the boat for a good night of sleep.

We arrived in La Paz the next morning at Marina Palmira. Our great friends, Lynda and Bill, were coming down from their vacation rental in Loreto to visit us and another Canadian couple Betsy and Derek. We talked and talked and talked the entire day and evening; catching up on our lives. Such a lovely visit and we hope to see them again in February and then in Tonga later in 2020!

I’d often heard that many with dreams of cruising the world get stuck in La Paz and I can see why. It’s just so damn easy here. It’s a huge group of cruisers at 5 different marinas. They have a “net” every morning (radio show where you can find everything ever needed for a boat), events for cruisers, yoga, movie swaps etc… It makes living here so super easy… Many just spend the rest of their cruising lives in La Paz. Not our plan but we sure enjoy the place. Tomorrow, we head to the Thanksgiving Dinner with 150 others. Jeff and I volunteered to help set up and serve. Thank God they didn’t ask me to be on the “turkey stuffing” detail…

I had seen advertisements for Swim with Whale Sharks around the area and I’d seen plenty of Blue Planet shows on these magnificent critters. Oh yea - sign me up! So, we and Betsy and Derek, and a German tourist went out on the tour. It was one of the coolest things we have ever done! The juvenile males are only about 2 miles from DT La Paz in a tightly regulated area. Boat, captain and guide must all be certified and only a few boats at a time can enter the site.

These gentle giants are about 25’ long and have 3’ wide mouths. Although they are sharks, they are plankton eaters so no worries about bites. The boat nears them, you dive in with snorkel gear (no scuba or free diving) and start swimming around them. They are close enough to touch but that is not permitted. No rides or selfies on them! You have to maneuver in fins around them as they slowly turn while they feed. You would be on one side of them one moment and the next looking into their humongous gaping mouth. We swam with them for over an hour and never tired of admiring their beautiful spotted coloring or effortless swimming. We just keep saying “I can’t believe this - its so cool!” We made a quick movie on Facebook of the swim but below is a short clip.

Friday, we are off to Isla Espiritu Santo; a UNESCO World Heritage site and National Park. We’ll spend a week or 2 gunk holing  (hopping from anchorage to anchorage) around the different anchorages on this pristine island.

We wish all our family, friends and their families a super Happy Thanksgiving!

Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas and a change of plans - a bit long as we haven’t had any decent cell coverage for a bit!

“Clearing In” to Mexico is certainly made easier by paying a mere $60 to the staff at Marina Coral. They get your paperwork together and make sure all is in order - even establishing your own important looking, large manila envelope with just your paperwork and various sticky notes attached. Juan and Jesus drive you and the other cruisers in the marina down to the Aduana (customs), where you sit obediently until one of them calls you to the various windows to sign papers and pay money. There is the Tourist Visa window, the Port Captain window, the Temporary Import Permit for the boat window and the Aduana (Customs window). After a couple hours, you head back to the marina and wait for the final paperwork to be delivered. At first we were told 2 pm, then 3 then 4 which was eventually correct. I went up, grabbed the papers, said muchas gracias to Juan and Jesus and we pushed off from Ensenada 

While waiting, we hung out on Mazu - a well-maintained Outbound 45 with the most interesting crew. Three Mariners - no, not the baseball players! Much more interesting to us - they were retired ship captains and 2 were San Francisco Bar Pilots. They are headed south to La Paz where one of them has a winter home. They were great guys and we hope to see them further down the road.

After fretting about high winds all the time, we were on the opposite side of the spectrum. No wind…And, the ever-present big seas. So we motored… and motored… and motored…. Any wind we could find, we’d hoist the sails. Now, I don’t know what I’ve been doing there last 9 years of sailing in Puget Sound, but it doesn’t seem to be the same sailing. It’s been a steep learning curve as I learn the dance steps to working the foredeck in ocean conditions. The waves increase in size, it seems, every time I go forward. Being a tad slow in locking off a halyard, will have the wind cause mayhem; wrapping it around the top spreader. And, the 14’ boom bucks like a bronco in the waves before the wind fills it and brings peace.

Jeff has risen to a new level of infinite patience with me on my steep learning curve. He has to, of course, as he is a bit stuck with me as crew. Each day we pick a new sailing subject to practice. With a lot of new sails and equipment on the boat, its nice to have the time to run through the steps and refine their use.

With no wind for a couple days, we started the ad nauseam fuel calculations. You know the type: If a train leaves Chicago at 60 mph and another train leaves New York at 70 mph, will Salpare make it to Cabo with no wind? We are happy we look like gypsies with 11 additional jerrycans of diesel! We passed Turtle Bay and stopped 50 miles south of it at Asuncion. We had reached the 150 hour oil change time on our beloved Yanmar and stopped to do the change. Ah, Spa Day for the engine. We also got a good night of sleep together in the same bed!

The next leg brought us the wind we had hoped for and more. As it picked up in mid afternoon, I went to the foredeck to ready the main. The motor was still running and I heard a very loud groan/moan. I, always the Debbie Downer, immediately thought we had wrapped something around the prop or the engine was in trouble. I looked behind the boat and 2 gigantic humpbacks surfaced in perfect unison 15’ behind the boat. The sound was theirs. THOUGHT-I-WAS-WAS-GONNA-DIE! They were soon joined by a pod of bottlenose dolphins. These suckers are big! They look like torpedoes as they speed towards and around the boat in the Gatorade blue water. Perhaps, they hear my shrieks of excitement and think there is one of their own aboard. The “Flippers” seemed to be hanging out and feeding with the humpbacks and I could almost hear Sir David Attenborough’s voice “is this opportunistic feeding or do they just enjoy each others company?” I’ll take the later as we all hung out for about an hour.

The winds on the second leg were definitely higher as the last night of 3 brought storm squalls and 25 kts of wind. Again, the seas just build so high as there is unlimited fetch. They were roaring all around us the entire night. They subsided a bit as we neared the Cape but then built again with only 15 miles to go. Rounding a Cape is always a crapshoot for weather. Earlier in the day, the electric autopilot had made some struggling noises, so we shut it off and used the Hydrovane. As the winds died, it was handsteering (ok, truth be told I use my foot to steer wile in the Captains seat)  for the last 4 hours of my watch. With no wind, it wasn’t tough to do. I was steering like this when the winds at the Cape hit. A call down to sleepy Jeff and he came up to help with the rest of the watch as wind and seas again built up. During these last few miles, we also started hearing a high pitched whirring sound. Like metal grinding on metal… we would have to explore that mystery in Cabo.

We arrived at Marina Cabo San Lucas and were met by the professional and friendly staff. This harbor is Las Vegas in Mexico. They seem to think that all Americans do is drink and eat. Well, the tourists certainly lived up to that from what we could see and hear! Staying at this harbor is a bit like living in eternal spring break - but with older people. We were off to the yard to see about options for figuring out the weird sound. Sorry if you are not a boater, this part may be boring. Long story short: a haul out showed nothing wrong with the prop/shaft area. It must have been a slow day because we had 3-4 mechanics and the manager on board trying to figure out what made the noise. I felt like I was on Car Talk as I described the high pitched sounds over and over to them. They really went above and beyond to figure this out. In the end, they tracked it to a new vent put on a hose from our packing gland (shaft seal thingy) that didn’t vent… I called the mechanic in Gig Harbor who did the work and he said “oh yea, I just talked to the manufacturer about that and yep it makes a high pitched scream when not vented - but you’d have to be in really big seas for that to happen”. Sigh… Cracking the valve a bit open did the trick. 

Now a day to replace our steering cables (makes life easier for our autopilot) and then off to the Sea of Cortez.

Another quick update and a change in our plans!

As you may have noticed, we have had a pretty intense schedule for the last 2 months. In order for us to get to Panama and then to visit the Galapagos, we need to keep moving every 2-3 days. Going to the Galapagos adds 2500 miles to our trip. Most folks doing this are either coming through the Canal from the Caribbean or spend an extra year in Mexico and Central America. At this pace, we only have 10 days in the Sea of Cortez. Too crazy!

We realized that we just blew by 800 miles of pristine pacific coastline to get here and keep that schedule. We had a long talk and decided to forego the Galapagos leg. That means we get to spend our winter relaxing more and really seeing the Sea of Cortez and depart from Puerto Vallarta in March for French Polynesia. Way more relaxed, way more fun. And, that’s the point of this! So after we leave Cabo, we will head slowly up the coast to Los Frailles, La Ventana, La Paz and Loreto. We now have the time to explore and enjoy!

Hola from Ensenada!

You have no idea how weird and crazy saying the title to this blog is to me! Jeff is probably getting tired of me doing a little dance and saying "I can't believe we did this!".

We left Oceanside and had a bashing good time (not!) heading to San Diego. What a long day... 15-20 kts of wind directly on our nose and steep wind waves. Now, they were nothing compared to the WA and OR coast but we were now lulled into the SoCal weather - warm, soft winds etc... Not that day. We only made about 4 kts/hour by motor of the 40 mile trip. Yes, that calculates out to 10 hours. And, lets not forget the GIGANTIC kelp bed around Pt. Loma that stopped our boat in its tracks. Surrounded by crab pots and kelp it took a bit to get out of the area.

Just as we entered the SD shipping channel, along comes the USCG joyriding in their fast moving inflatable. I kept driving and Jeff chatted with them. Which consisted of:
Coastie: where you coming from?
Jeff: Tacoma, Washington
Coastie: Cool. Where you going?
Jeff: Eventually New Zealand
Coastie: Really cool!
And, that was that - have a nice day.  Just when we thought we passed all the obstacles of the day, we were greeted by another US Navy inflatable with big guns! Apparently a sub was coming out and we had to stay away. Duh! Why don't those subs just go in and out underwater - isn't what they do?

Anyways, we kept motoring through the busy San Diego Bay, past the many, really cool Navy ships, across a shoal area with only 5' below our keel and ended up at Coronado Cays Yacht Club around 6pm. A long day but the greeting on the dock from my brother, Charlie and his wife, Darleen, was so worth it! I remember telling him 2 years prior that we would stop by and see them on the way down to Mexico. And, here we were!

The next 5 days were a fantastic mix of Charlie showing us the beauty of the SD area, running around and getting our boat chores done, eating in fantastic restaurants and spending great time with both of them. They were so super helpful to us by driving us around to all the stores as we provisioned for the upcoming weeks. We had a blast at the SD Zoo, The Hotel Del, Balboa Park, The Mission and San Diego Yacht Club. Charlie has been stationed around the world for most of my adulthood - he retired 4 years ago as a 3 Star Admiral. This was a really special time that Jeff and I had with both of them. Thanks so much guys!

We left SD Bay for Ensenada for an easy overnight sail. The light winds died after a bit and we slowly motored south. Slow was key as we wanted to arrive in daylight. We entered Ensenada at Marina Coral at 7:20am and made our way to the fuel dock. As we were almost there, out of the fairway barrels a big 60' powerboat that nearly hits us as he cuts us off to rush to the fuel dock ahead of us. Yes, assholes are in in all countries (he was from Marina Del Mar, US). We docked and made our way to the office. Jesus was super confirming that we had all the paperwork already sent to them for clearing customs. A fee of $60 is well worth having local assistance with the process. We both agreed that a bit of money helps ease us into the ways of entering and exiting foreign countries.

There are a few boats here from the Baja Haha (160 boats that travel together to Cabo San Lucas) but its a fairly quiet marina. Until 10 pm that is, when the kinda weird "outdoor nightclub" on the rock jetty gets rolling.I was dancing in the cockpit to their jams as Jeff just shook his head. But, I couldn't dance all that long and we retreated to bed finally with earplugs. Today we explored downtown Ensenada and picked up a few last groceries. A nice relaxing day before the push down the coast.

Tomorrow, at 8 am, we head for customs to do the bureaucratic dance! Then a 300 mile, 3 night passage to Turtle Bay. From there, its 250 miles to Bahia Magdalena then another 220 to Puertos Los Cabos (20 miles past Cabo San Lucas). That will probably be the next time I get enough good cell coverage to add another post.

Hasta La Vista!
Fran and Jeff