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!