Full Circle

Just a quick note that we have made it back to Punta Mita.  One year and seven months? in the Pacific...  Feels good to have come full circle and be anchored in front of my favorite surf break.  Tired from our two night passage from Cabo, will post pictures and more soon!

In and Out of Cabo San Lucas

Anchored in Cabo San Lucas
Location:  22 degrees 53 minutes North, 109 degrees 53 minutes West

Famous Cabo Arch

Phew, what a crazy place.  We sailed in on Friday morning, to be greeted by what seemed like hundreds of sport fishing boats just around the corner from the anchorage.  At first looking in the binoculars we weren't sure what we were seeing, but little by little figured out it was a whole bunch of fishing boats just sitting around.  Thought maybe it was a 'day after Thanksgiving' tradition, party kind of thing (at 9 AM tho?), but apparently it's everyday here.  The boats that sailed in yesterday morning reported seeing the same phenomenon.

Fishing boats on the horizon

To get anchored, we had to motor around the cruiseship and dodge the fishing boats and jet skis and parasailers crowding the bay.  For two days we had cruiseships anchored right by us...  but sunday and monday were relatively quiet with no cruisehips in port. 

One of several cruiseships we've shared the anchorage with at Cabo!

It's quite the party town, luckily we chose not to pay $100/night for a marina slip, which is surrounded by the nightclubs that go all night!  The pirate party ships that come around the anchorage were entertaining, we managed to sleep pretty well despite the music they blare.   Looks like this will be our last stop on the Baja -- winds are looking favorable for crossing the Sea of Cortez over to mainland Mexcio so we're planning on taking off tomorrow.  Heading for Punta Mita directly unless the winds try to push us in another direction.  Should arrive in Punta Mita on thursday or friday!

Hangin' with the locals in Cabo!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday November 22, 2012
Location: 23 degrees 27 minutes North, 110 degrees, 46 minutes West
About 2/3rds of the way to Cabo San Lucas from Bahia Santa Maria

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone from out here offshore of the tip of the Baja Peninsula! We almost left Bahia Santa Maria on Tuesday late afternoon, but after poking our nose around the corner to find no wind and flogging sails for half an hour, we turned back and reanchored in beautiful Santa Maria Bay. We were especially glad we turned back after seeing some intense lightning storms offshore that night! Wednesday we were faced with the go/stay decision, and decided to go, pulling our anchor yesterday around 1pm. Last night was uneventful, just full of sail changes and and the wobblies as we made our way downwind to Cabo. Today we celebrated with a stove top stuffing/chicken bake and some mashed potatoes, and yummy pumpkin muffins! Not the full deal, but enough to make it seem like a holiday at sea. We expect to be in the anchorage at Cabo San Lucas tomorrow (friday) morning, and imagine we will be overwhelmed by the tourist extravaganza there. It will be quite a change after three weeks on this desolate coast. As if a signal to what is to come, we were passed by two huge cruise ships late last night...

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Bahia Santa Maria

Anchored in Bahia Santa Maria
24 degrees 46 minutes north, 112 degrees 15 minutes west

You know we're out there when we just realized that Thanksgiving is this week. I had thought about it once or twice, but hadn't checked the calendar to see if it was this week or next… Well, looks like we'll probably either be (a) still here anchored in Bahia Santa Maria, (b) in next door Magdalena Bay or (c) en route to Cabo San Lucas for Thanksgiving. Bahia Santa Maria is a huge bay, just on the coastal side of another LARGER bay, Magdalena Bay (commonly referred to as 'Mag Bay' by cruisers). Both have lagoons/estuaries that run far inland. The first day here, I kayaked up the mangrove lined lagoon with our friends off the boat Balance. We saw lots of birds, and dodged the pangas heading up the lagoon to the fish camps where they stay and unload their catch. This must be a very productive lobster area judging from all the lobsters in the pens up in the lagoon. Tons of them. The fishermen stop by the boat looking to sell or trade their lobsters. Tim and I haven't gotten any yet - we've been happily eating lots of fresh fish. But one boat traded a snickers bar for a lobster tail, and another boat got 10 lobsters for four AA batteries, and a couple cervezas. Granted they're not huge lobsters - mostly it looks like the tails are 3 to 4 inches.

We scored on getting some fresh Wahoo and Yellowtail from a boat that pulled in yesterday. We had seen them surfing the point so we went out to say hi and check the wave out in the afternoon. They had caught lots of fish on their way down, and wanted to make room to catch some more fish on their way to Cabo. So while we didn't catch the good surf, we're now set with enough fish for several days of yummy meals! The tide was pretty low, so it was hard to sit where you needed to take off on the wave - too many rocks around. The tides have been over six feet lately with the new moon, so it can really make a difference. So Tim caught two waves, but I wasn't getting near! It was ok with me though, since we'd already caught a bunch of fun waves at the lagoon entrance in the morning. I had some really long rides, which meant really long paddles back out. Combined with kayaking the day before, and surfing again for several hours this morning, my arm muscles are very sore! Feels good to have the exercise though. Today's surf session was fun with the three guys from the other boat, and one guy from another boat, so it was a good little pack out there, and plenty of fun little waves to go around. Tim is still hoping to catch some larger waves out at the point here, and we'll be keeping an eye on it.

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Punta Abreojos

Anchored behind Punta Abreojos, mid- Baja 

In English, the name of this anchorage means “open your eyes”.  No kidding!   First we had to identify the surface level rocks about a mile offshore of the point, then there were two “bajo” or low spots to try to avoid although you can’t see them.  On top of that, there were hundreds of fish pots to weave through as we motored into the anchorage.  Since leaving Turtle Bay, we’ve had some company.  Four other sailboats and two motorboats all left the same morning as us.  Three of the sailboats ended up alongside us in Asuncion Bay the first night and last night in Punta Abreojos.  We’ve gotten to be friends with the folks on the boat Balance (Nikk and Jan) from Portland, and had them over last night to share a fish dinner of the Mahi we had caught the day before.  They are on the same path, heading south to Banderas Bay.  It’s a different experience having a boat nearby to chat with on the radio and visit with at night!  Kinda fun for a change—we’ve never done the *buddy boat* thing, where boats plan to cruise together. 

Anyhow, after years in Punta Mita, where our morning entertainment was to listen to the ssb radio nets and get the weather reports, we are finally seeing all the places that they would give weather reports for – Cedros Island, Punta Abreojos – these were common names to me, but I had no idea where they were on the Baja.  Now I see why the weather could be especially exciting around here.  Luckily we’re in a really calm weather window, and our problem has been not having enough wind, and having to motor to make the anchorages before dark.   We filled up on diesel in Turtle Bay, so we have enough to get us to Punta Mita, should need be.  But we’re going to wait a day here in Abreojos for the wind to hopefully pick up a bit tomorrow so that we can sail more than motor!  We were thinking of heading to Bahia San Juanico today, which is the famous Scorpion Bay surf break, but since there is no surf forecast for a while we’re giving it a pass.  We would have to add an extra overnight passage to stop there, and it just doesn’t seem worth it.  So tomorrow (Thursday) we’ll head off for Santa Maria Bay, just outside of Magdalena Bay.  It’ll be an overnight sail, arriving there late in the day Friday.  

Turtle Bay exploits

The search for surf continues.  While our surf guidebook did not make Turtle Bay sound like one of the better spots along this coast – there was some swell hitting, so we found someone to take us to a nearby break.  Of course this entailed getting up early to meet Ivan, the surfer/guide, at 7AM.  We were told it was about a 20-30 minute drive, so Tim had a hunch that it must be a beach break in the bay we had sailed by two days earlier.  After meeting Ivan’s friend Christian (fellow surfer) and loading up his sparkly red PT Cruiser (is this really the car you want to go on a surf exploration trip in?), we headed off through town over to Ivan’s house (or fish shack) to grab Ivan’s board.  There we also met his pit bull, who was friendly until all of the sudden... when he started growling at me Ivan told us the dog was *loco*.  Tim quickly told me to get in the car!  

Ivan, Tim and Christian checkin the surf.

Unfortunately we had forgotten to bring the surf racks in from the boat, so the boards were strapped to the roof with the rubber leashes that we use to tie the boards to our ankles – we hoped they would survive whatever bouncy roads we covered unscathed.  Then off to the edge of town, then driving across the airstrip, past the lone little 4 seater plane that comes every few days, and into the dunes.  The dirt tracks through the dunes and hills looked pretty well used, and obviously this was at one point the town dump.  Lots of glass bottles were everywhere alongside.   Ivan told us that there were lots of whale fossils back in the dunes there.  Upon arriving at the beach – it was a point break outside of the beach break – but it was super windy, so didn’t look like much fun.  Christian warned that the current could be bad there – that’s why he didn’t like to surf there.  So we headed back to town to surf the in-town break that had been working the day before.  Rather than take us the way we came, Christian took a ‘shortcut’ that entailed driving along the beach for a few miles.  A very scary few miles– Tim was convinced we’d end up stuck in the sand, and you could see in Christian’s face he shared that concern!   Finally he found the exit trail and mad a hard turn up into the dunes – over a big bump and we were safely back onto harder packed sand.  Phew.

Back in town, they toured us around a bit, and helped us search out a part for our Yamaha outboard.  After stopping at four outboard mechanic shops (luckily Christian is a mechanic so knew where to look!), we lucked out and found the part!  Then we stopped to check the surf and the tide was still to high, so we headed home with plans to meet up later at the surf break.  By the time the tide dropped an hour or so later, it was Windy windy!  But we gamely got into the dinghy in our wetsuits with our boards and headed over to surf the little point break right behind the boat.  Ivan was in the water and coached us (and the four local boys learning how to boogie board) on where to sit to catch the little baby waves that only came through every 15 minutes or so…  Needless to say, Tim caught one ankle biter, and I caught none, but did get a chill that turned into sniffles and a cold for the next day. 

So much for surfing on the Baja so far!  We’re hoping maybe there will be a bit of a swell this weekend and we’ll be in a good spot to catch it.   

Otherwise, we had some excitement the first night we were anchored in Turtle Bay.  After seeing a somewhat scary looking small dark blue/black motorboat with a cabintop cruising the anchorage and approaching the two powerboats anchored behind us, we wondered what they were up to.  The boat had no ensignias, and we could make out the name La Nira on its side.  After visiting the two powerboats, the boat seemed to head back to its mooring.  We thought no more of it and headed down to eat dinner and head for bed.  It was well after dark, and Tim was already in bed, when we heard a voice outside calling us to come out.  It was that same scary looking boat.  They were not holding onto the boat, but were alongside and spoke no English, but asked for our “papels”, our paperwork.  I tried to speak to them to figure out if they represented the port capitain, but they said no, and just kept repeating wanting to see our paperwork.  Finally Tim went below to get his folder and handed the clearance paper from Ensenada to them.  They pulled away, and one of the two young men took the paper inside the cabin.  They were dressed in pants and t-shirts, nothing official looking about them.  They said they were the vigilancia for the pueblo.  Which didn’t have any specific meaning to us – and they seemed more like the pirates that we should be protected from!  After a minute, they came back alongside and handed back the paper and thanked us and wished us good night.  Very strange and unusual.  The next day we heard from others that they were trying to sell them candy and potatoes, one powerboat said they had asked them for tshirts, all weird stuff.  But the locals at the fuel dock confirmed that that was the vigilancia – they are checking for lobsters, abalone, and pirates (drugs).  Why would two unarmed men be sent out in a small cabin cruiser to harass sailboats after dark?  It made no sense to us.  Still doesn’t.  And for the next two nights in Turtle Bay, I woke Tim anytime I heard a strange noise – scared that someone was trying to board us! 

Little sleep and Lots of Excitement

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Anchored in Turtle Bay, Baja, Mexico

It’s rarely a dull moment here on Midnight Blue.  After leaving the lovely San Quintin bay, we did a couple of day sails to anchorages down the coast, first stopping at Punta Baja. 

San Quintin Estuary and Volcanic Cinder Cones

After a fairly windy night at anchor, the next morning while on deck stretching, some fishermen stopped by to chat – it turned out to be the same guys that had stopped by in San Quintin to try to sell us lobster or urchins.  At first they asked for handouts – cerveza, soda, candy (a request from the youngest fisherman on board).  We handed over three cervezas, and then had a nice chat about where they lived and how now was the good time for getting urchins because they are in high demand in Japan in December for some Japanese fiestas.  

Punta Baja fish camp -- not an easy launch spot!

Next, we headed on south to our next anchorage at Bahia San Carlos.  It was a good sail and the wind really picked up as we headed in to the anchorage just before dark.  After passing several fish or lobster pots as we headed in to the bay, I was nervous about our plan to depart the bay in the middle of the night under darkness.  But Tim was not, and figured out the reciprocal course to follow so we’d be safe.   To get to our next planned stop on Cedros Island was more than a day sail away and we didn’t really want to do a full overnight trip if we didn’t have to.  So we got up and underway by 2:30AM, under light wind conditions, and a nice bright quarter moon.  We had to motor sail for a bit that day, but by afternoon the winds had filled in and we were flying as we approached the north end of Cedros Island, just off the coast. 

We were just making it in before dark, and were a bit uncertain as to where the *good* anchorage was.  We chose a spot and had to get right in near the beach for it to shallow up to a good anchoring depth for us.  The beach was lined with sea lions barking and basking, and little ones playing in the shorebreak.  Several came out by the boat to check us out.  Didn’t get any photos of the sea lions that night, because I figured I’d have time in the morning to do that sort of thing… Wasn’t meant to be though!

Approaching north end of Cedros Island

After a few hours sleep, the wind picked up and first I got up around 10PM to check around and make sure we hadn’t dragged anchor.  Then about ½ hour later Tim got up and stayed up.  Finally around 1:30am, we actually did start to drag anchor, so Tim got me up and we started the engine to take the strain off the engine.  We then decided the best course of action was to pull up the anchor and head out to sea.  Which was no easy feat with the winds gusting down the steep cliffs up to 25-30 knots, in near darkness.  As Tim pulled up anchor, he also had to run down below occasionally to flake the chain, since I couldn’t leave the helm to do it for him.  On his last time down to flake, I was trying to keep the boat into the wind, but all the sudden the depth sounder was coming up… from 30 feet to 20, then 18, 16, 15, and I think we may have gotten in as shallow as 11 feet before Tim came up and screamed for me to hit reverse!  I was so tired I was not aware enough to realize how close to the beach I was getting!!!  Wow.  That was a really close one.  Then as we pulled away from shore we saw a boat headed down the coast… spent a while trying to wait for them to pass us and even tried to hail them on the VHF to no avail.  Finally we headed back up the coast, into the wind to wait till they were past and then headed off the coast a few miles before heading back south to sail downwind in the windy conditions. We were both almost delirious after two nights of limited sleep. Luckily,we were able to sail most of the way to Turtle Bay, and arrived by early afternoon, greatly relieved to have the anchor down in one of the safest harbors on the Baja Peninsula.  We’ve been anchored here for 3 nights and will stay tonight then head out tomorrow.  Will have to write more about our stay here next posting!

Midnight Blue at anchor in Turtle Bay

Whales, Winches and Deserts

Sunday November 4, 2012
Anchored at San Quintin, Baja, Mexico

Here a recap of our stay so far in San Quintin. This is a beautiful area - a large bay - 30 miles across, with a large estuary/lagoon in the corner where we are anchored. The first afternoon here we spotted whales in the bay and I watched them for an hour or so - they were pretty mellow, about a mile or so from the boat, surfacing every so often. Hard to identify them - first we thought they could be humpbacks, but they were more subdued, smaller, and not as pronounced of humps on their backs, so I'm guessing they could be grey whales? We really need a better whale identification book. Early the next AM (Tim and I were still asleep in the v-berth) a loud thump awoke us… I poked my head out the hatch to see what it could have been and heard the whales spouting just off of our bow! I think they could have run into the boat, or at least our anchor chain. Later that day we found a more probable explanation - our bbq propane tank had fallen over - that would have made a loud noise for sure!

We later saw the whales up close in the lagoon while we were exploring. They were two medium size whales with lots of barnacles, giving them a lighter appearance from afar. We putted around for hours in the dinghy, birdwatching and fishing. Success with both, saw an osprey and lots of ducks, grebes and shorebirds and also caught a bunch of foot-long fish (probably grunions?) that we let go. Back at the boat that afternoon, the whales surfaced just off the boat - one about 40 feet away and one just 5 feet from our bow! Close enough for a real good scare!!

One reason we're staying put here is to get some maintenance done - we had two winches fail on the way out of Ensenada, so it's time to clean all the winches, which is quite a chore. We've done the four main cockpit winches so far and will work on the mast winches next. They were quite full of crud and in need of some tlc so I'm glad we're taking the time to do this now.

This morning after being surrounded by fog for hours, when it lifted, I went ashore to climb around on the dunes. There is a dirt bike track on the desolate point out here doubling as a trail, so I climbed up to where I could get a glimpse of the ocean on the outside. I realize how little time I've spent in the desert, so it was a new experience for me - much hotter on land than on the boat! Neat to see what type of vegetation can survive in these harsh conditions. Since we weren't sure if we were leaving today, I just had time for a quick walk, but I could've easily spent the day onshore exploring. And if the wind doesn't pick up for a few days I may get my chance. We're hoping to be able to sail down the coast rather than motor, so we're thinking we may wait till there is a good wind forecast to make our next jump.

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On our way!

Anchored at Isla San Martin (30 degree 29 minutes North, 116 degrees, 06 minutes West)

Well, we did it! We left Ensenada and are heading south down the Baja Peninsula! It's always tough leaving the safety of a marina and the new friends we've made. At least this time we know we'll see most of the folks again as they are mostly heading south and will come visit us in Punta Mita/Banderas Bay.

We had thought we'd just get out of the marina and head to some islands about 5 miles away in the bay, but there were so many aqauculture pens in the little bay that there was no good spot to anchor, so we continued out of the bay and sailed overnight to Isla San Martin. Isla San Martin is a small volcanic island, and we had a very comfortable night. We're just off the coast by San Quintin, a larger town where we hope to find a nice anchorage and surf break later today!

We were able to sail overnight with light 5-10 knots of breeze from the NW pushing us south, but then the wind died around dawn and we had to motor till nearly 3pm to get to the anchorage... just not quite enough wind to push this heavy boat along. When we hauled out they weighed the boat and it is 34,000 pounds!

Ok, just a quick note now to let ya'll know we're underway and we'll be checking the sailmail email... in most of the anchorages we should have internet/phone, but not all (like here). Thinking about all of you who were affected by Hurricane Sandy, and hoping all is well.

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