Category: 2019-12 (December)

Well! That was quite a night. We checked our weather programs yesterday, and were expecting a fairly quiet night at anchor. Yeah… about that. Wind speed got up over 30 knots sustained, and waves in the anchorage (which is part of the Sea of Cortez, so typically smaller than ocean waves) were 4 to 6 feet, breaking on the bow of the boat. One of our buddy boats, Lost Pearl drug their anchor a couple of times. By the time he was done dragging, he had out about 300 feet of chain, and the rear of his boat was almost in the surf zone. He said his next option was to cut his chain, leave the anchor and chain and go to La Paz in the dark. All of our books on all of our boats, caution against going into La Paz in the dark. But it would be better than putting his boat on the beach.

I texted a question about this to PredictWind, as they are a paid weather source for us, and the response was enlightening as to how to get a better understanding of what they are telling us with the app and information. BUT, when I reviewed the info that I had downloaded last night, and compared it to what we experienced, there was nothing in the predictions that suggested anything like this. Nor was there anything that suggested that there was any uncertainty in those predictions.

At this point all three of our buddy boats are out on their way to La Paz (Lost Pearl, Merry Lee, and Kirah) as of 8:30, I got a report from them that wind speed out there is over 20 knots already. We will probably be getting underway to follow them shortly.

We got underway fairly early, and motored to La Paz. Along the way, Renee’ made some phone calls and got us a reservation at Marina Cortez on C dock. Some good some bad about that:

1. Yes it has water

2. Yes it is a floating dock

3. No it does not have power

4. Yes it is about a 1/2 mile to walk from the boat along the dock to the gate (no, I am not kidding, I measured it with Google Earth at 2,100 feet!).

5. Yes the bathrooms are about a block away from the gate

6. Yes the bathrooms are on the second floor, and to get to the stairs you have to walk the full length of the building.

7. But the best part…. the price! $200 US per week. Consider the marina we stayed at in San Jose Del Cabo was $1700 per month, the bathrooms were marginally closer, but still quite a walk.

We went for a walk around town this afternoon, Ok, not really around town just down the beach street. Found a microbrewery/pub that sold Baja Brewing company beer. Very good! We are going to look for it in the local grocery stores/liquor stores.

We have about had it for today, I will catch up on my posts for this blog and go to bed.

We are at Puerto Balandra On the approach to La Paz. We motored up here from Ensenada de Los Muertos. The books said expect a south bound current, up to 2.5 knots, and winds funneled from the north, so we only did an overnight at Los Muertos. We will save that for another visit. The snorkeling was supposed to be good at both ends of the beach there.

We checked the weather late yesterday, and it said today would be mild to no wind, with lots of wind Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and the next calm day would be Monday.

So, we left at 6:45, and motored up. There was a little wind, but not really enough to help us move. We got here at 2pm.

So far, where we are right now (Puerto Balandra) is probably the best spot we have been to. White sandy beach, clear water no waves, and water temp just a bit cooler than we would like. Renee’ and I snorkeled about 1/2 way to the beach, and decided it was further than we wanted to swim back, so we turned around and went back to the boat. The water is very clear, and the bottom is sand. There are lots of tourists here, a bunch of Panga’s running them in and out, but not as bad as we had at the arches in Cabo San Lucas.

We have talked about staying here until tomorrow, which would put us in La Paz on Saturday. We plan to anchor, (I think there is a fee to anchor in the harbor).

We got up at 6 am, and under way by 7. We had breakfast and did our morning devotions using Jesus Calling, as we did not have internet access.

It was a bad day for sailing, as the wind was coming directly from the direction we wanted to sail, and until about noon it was only about 10 knots, with occasional bouts of 12 knots for just long enough that it looked like we could tack and take advantage of the wind, but then it would die back down to 7 or 8 knots. Then around noon, the wind started to pick up, and went straight up to about 17 knots. But the waves came with it. Pretty soon it was just miserable so we reefed the main, put the jib away and powered through it. Eventually getting to where we planned on being Ensenada de Los Muertos (cove of the dead, maybe?). We anchored in about 25 feet of water on the west side of the anchorage with 7 other boats already here. We were in by about 3 pm.

We have looked at the weather and the books on the next passage to La Paz, and we will probably take off at first light to get through on Thursday, we may stay in an anchorage outside of La Paz tomorrow night, so that Renee’ can investigate (via internet and phone calls) where we should go in La Paz. It is a solid 12 hour day from here to La Paz, and we would rather anchor outside, and go in during the morning hours anyway.

We got up had breakfast and did our devotions using Morning Mercies for today. Renee’ sewed and I read for an hour or so. We then went snorkeling pretty good.

Last night as we went to bed we had pretty much decided to leave at first light. The next anchorage we want to get to is Ensenada del Muretos It is about 45 miles north.

We stayed as the water was a lot calmer than last night as we went to bed. The water next to the beach/rocks is pretty clear and the snorkeling was pretty good. We are back at the boat, getting lunch, not sure what the plan of the day is for the rest of the day.

We went ashore and hung out in the shade. There were six of us, Josh and Cozette (Merry Lee) Jeff (Lost Pearl) us (Make Me Laugh Again) & Jordan (Kirah) just enjoying the company being effectively the only people on the beach. The gorgeous view, weather and just being there.

Before sunset Renee’ and I headed back to the boat, put the kayak away, and started the generator. Went through our evening routines and we will head to bed shortly.

We did not get anything for each other for Christmas, and we will be traveling all day tomorrow. Renee’ has a roast, I expect that will be dinner Thursday night when we are not traveling. It is a 45 mile day tomorrow, which is about 10 hours.

We checked out of San Jose Del Cabo, along with Merry Lee, Lost Pearl and Polaris a (Passport 40), we talked at the Port Captains office for a bit.

The captain of the Passport 40, (James) talked about having sailed from Washington, and when they checked with their insurance company when they were in Ensenada got cancelled for leaving without telling the company. Currently they have Liability insurance only, and are looking. They spent a lot of time in Sausalito working on the boat, and at one point he had a medical issue due to not enough water, and got a trip to the ER out of it. In any case they are here and going up into the sea of Cortez. He talked about having to add a bow thruster, and the only one that would fit/work on his boat was a bolt on below the boat (the head is in the way for cutting a hole in the bow and mounting it through the boat). He also talked about having to replace his holding tank. The forward head was originally the only head on the boat, and the tank was poorly designed and no longer functioning, he replaced it and now has a 6 gallon holding tank for that head. The aft head did not have a holding tank and they added one to it, also a 6 gallon tank. All in all not much holding tank capacity. He also had a folding bicycle which appeared to be pretty handy for getting around.

In any case, the four boats left the harbor with the Lost Pearl being the first one out. The other three of us sort of hung together and motored up the coast, there was very little wind, and no particular rush, as where we were all headed was Los Frailies, about 30 miles or 5 hours or so away.

We anchored about 3:30 with about 7 boats here. Polaris elected to sail/motor on through the night. Probably just as well, as the anchorage is pretty full. We found one spot that was about 100 feet in front of Lost Pearl, who was anchored in 30 feet of water and the point that we passed was 100 feet deep. The shelf here is pretty narrow, and the canyon (submarine) is pretty steep.

Renee’ and I went for a swim, air temp is in the high 70’s low 80’s and water temp is warm. Very comfortable to swim, but a bit rougher than we really like. Also, pretty murky, so the snorkeling was not very good. This is too bad, as the snorkeling here is supposed to be pretty impressive. Bummer. Maybe tomorrow?

The hills behind the bay are very green.

Jordan from Kirah (he was parked next to us in the last marina) came over this afternoon and we chatted for about 2 hours. We invited him to stay for dinner, but he was in a kayak and wanted to get back to his boat before dark. He has had a rough trip getting this far. Short story pieces (no details):

1. He spent the night in jail in Ensenada

2. His engine would not start, had to get pictures of the manual on troubleshooting

3. Got 4 miles out of that bay and had kelp wrapped around his prop and had to dive and cut it off (oh yeah, he is sailing by himself)’

4. Carried Jerry cans for fuel several miles up the beach until a local gave him a ride (this was with one of the buddy boats he was with)

5. There were other things that had gone bad, but those were the highlights.

We are planning spaghetti for dinner, then we will probably play cards then bed. Currently we are thinking about snorkeling about a mile north of where we are, but we are still thinking about it.

Some of the views along the way around Baja California