Author: Neil Scheuerlein

We went to the beach at the arches on the point for Cabo San Lucas. Wow! What a crowd! I don’t mean the people, the water taxi’s had a steady stream of 2 or 3 boats dropping off and picking up all morning. The designated swimming area is pretty small, has a sand bottom and a roped off area to keep the swimmers in it. Outside of that area is where the glass bottom boats go to take those who pay for it to see the fish around the rocks. But it was still pretty nice. Of course I lost my keys, they were on a float, so one of the boat drivers picked them up. Took about a half hour of waiting for them to come back around once I figured out what happened, and talked to someone who knew who had them. Anyway it ended pretty good.

Later we went into town to check out, mail a package and get dinner. The six of us crowded into our dinghy and headed ashore. Once we were ashore, Renee’ headed to the post office, and I headed to the port captain to check out. Got almost everything done and then he asked for … the document that shows we don’t owe anything. Normally if you go to a marina, you get it from them, but we are anchored out, so I had to go to the Port Administration office. Good news: the Port Captain closes at 8:30, bad news the Port Administration office closes at 4pm, and is about a half hour walk from the Port Captain. Worse news: it was 4 pm almost exactly when I got there. Yup, we will be back when they open at 9 am tomorrow.

So, off to dinner. We (Renee’ and I) found a nice fish restaurant a couple of blocks off the main drag, and had shrimp cocktail, and then lobster and scallops and Renee’ and a marlin quesadilla, with Modelo Negra. Which I don’t thin we have found at a restaurant or store since Ensenada.

Finally everyone back together again and off to the boats in the dark. Found out that that our handheld VHF radio has a light feature that allowed us to have a light for the way back to the boats.

We have reservations in San Jose Del Cabo for a slip for a couple of nights starting tomorrow. That will be different, as we have not been in a slip since Ensenada about 6 weeks ago.

Josh came over at 8:30 and started in to cleaning our boat and checking/replacing zincs. He found the port side bow thruster was loose, and yes we need zincs for it. He tightened the bow thruster, installed a shaft zinc and I have the bow thruster zinc to get new ones in town (if I can find them!)

We are going into town to check in, and go to one more marine store. If they don’t have what I need, then I will order the parts and have them delivered to Bob and ask him to ship to us somehow.

Well, that wound up being a long day ashore. We had lunch together, then spit up. The four of them went to Walmart, we went looking for the Harbor Captain to check in, then the last marine parts store and a bank.

Harbor Captain, good news/bad news: checked in (Good), have to check out to go to San Jose Del Cabo. (Bad).

Marine store, good news/bad news: bought new anchor shackles (good), bought a new stern light (good) bought floating for keys, (good), did not have zincs for bow thruster (bad), prices were EXTREMELY HIGH (BAD!)

Bank, good news, got pesos!

Hung out at the bar by the dinghy dock. Chris from the Ikigai (post break up) showed up. We headed back to the boat about 4:30, had dinner and ran the generator. Quiet end to this long day.

We went ashore, had lunch, walked to a couple of marine stores and finally took the bus to the Costco. It looked just like one in the states, except prices were in Pesos. Did our shopping, and then took an Uber back to the marina. Back to the boat past the cruise ship that had come in. Water was VERY rough!

Renee’ put the Christmas lights up, and after dark we took the dinghy out and got pictures. Then we went to bed, and did not sleep very well. Like I said the water was VERY rough.

Finally about 8:30 we anchored in Cabo San Lucas about 100 yards off the beach. Now it is time to get some sleep. I will post this and the previous stuff a bit later. Renee’ went right to sleep, but I was tortured by a fly, and had too much coffee last night. So an hour and a half later here I am typing up what is going on and posting stuff to our webpage.

We had a very quiet day, did not go ashore. We went snorkeling, checked out the condition of the bottom of the boat, found the anchor and had dinner and went to bed by about 7:30. About 9 pm I heard a text come in on Renee’s phone and found out that Josh and Cozette were coming in. I communicated with them on the radio for a few minutes, turned on some lights to help them find their way, and then went back to bed.

The rocks in front of Cabo San Lucas

We got under way at about 6:30, still dark, got to watch the sun come up, and had to deal with some current at the mouth of Mag Bay. Would have been nice if the timing had worked out to give us a push instead of holding us back. We got out 3 miles and dumped the holding tank, then started the water maker and a load of laundry. We have 24 hours to go on this heading. There is no wind (<5 knots, from the port bow), so we have the mainsail up and are motor sailing. We are going about 6.5 knots speed over ground. Listening to Christmas music. Renee’ is napping.

We are still motor sailing. True wind is abut 12 knots, but is from directly astern. Apparent wind is about 7 knots. This is not enough to move our boat. We have gone about 65 miles roughly 1/3 of the way. It is hot, the sea is fairly flat. Pretty dull stuff today.

Well, a bit later, as in after dark. I was getting ready for a nap, we were having issues with the radio, Bluetooth, and cell phones, and so I rebooted the radio. So far so good. Unfortunately I dropped my life jacket/harness by the DC circuit breaker panel and …. bumped the breaker for the chart plotter/radar. OOPS! No control, about 15 minutes later, chart plotter/radar and auto pilot are communicating again, and we are back on course. Renee’ is driving/watching etc. I lay down and take a nap.

A couple hours later, I am driving and Renee’ is sleeping. I take a look at the depth gauge, we are 18+ miles off shore, the chart says 2700 – 3000 feet. BUT!!! Our depth garage is at 50 feet and gradually getting lower. I called Renee’ back on deck to help me watch as we slowed down to about 2.5 knots, and the lowest depth I saw was 10.8 feet. The swells there were pretty strong. We turned west and went slow and eventually got back into deep water.

A couple of hours later, Renee’ was driving and I had just gone down to sleep, and we repeated the previous paragraph, with the shallowest being mid 20’s. This one was on the chart, but said that it was about 55 feet deep at the shallowest! We were originally going to miss that one, but when we changed course for the first one, wound up going right over this one.

We listened to a sermon from North Coast given by Chris Brown on the rich young ruler, the blind beggar and the chief tax collector. Bottom line out of all this, we are called to be servants, not to be served.