Southern Crossing II
12 March 2009 | 23,59.4 N, 109,49.6. Cove of the Dead
Hola, Amigos, Eventually a 3 y/o needs another balloon, eventually a 12 y/o has to go to Disneyland, unfortunately a teenager never needs a BMW, and eventually you just have to DO the Crossing. After reviewing several Baja weather sites, looking at www.wetsand , (a great surfing web site that told us that the swells we were concerned about were from Chile and Polynesia), having other cruisers show us their weather charts, listening to other cruisers who were leaving, we decided at 8:30 AM to go. Not the earliest departure because it would take us an hour to get ready and not the best conditions but the Crossing was doable.
If we had not left then we would have been stuck in that beautiful resort, leisurely reading a book while lying by the pool, taking afternoon siestas and the having margaritas in the hot tub. Instead we opted to bash into NW winds, be sleep deprived, and go on the wagon. These thoughts gave us some insight into our friend's opinion of our decision-making abilities.
We were going to be going NW. The winds and the waves were coming from the NW. This trifecta leads to you bashing into the seas. Our salon looked liked a disaster with books and charts scattered along the floorboards. We were going much slower than we usually go but we needed to somehow increase our speed so we would reach landfall before dark the next day. On this crossing you head up a little more north than you want for 24 hours so you can head west the last 12 hours. At 7:30 AM we changed course to 270 degrees and started to enjoy ourselves. We had to reef our sails as the winds built up. The more we reefed the faster we went. Blue skies, blue water, nice seas and we were going like a bat out of hell. The navigation computer showed that our estimated time of arrival went from 10PM to 7PM. Sure enough we saw the sunset and we dropped our anchor in Ensenada De Los Muertos (Cove of the Dead). Sounds like an ominous place to spend the night. Silver was loaded to barges in this cove and the barge's heavy anchors were called muertos or "dead men". Developers did not think that Cove of the Dead was conducive to selling lots so they tried to change the name to Bahia de los Suenos, Bay of Dreams.
In two days we have gone from a tropical paradise to a desert paradise. What a difference 2 days and 200 miles make. We had a wonderful night's sleep and want to take our dingy to shore to eat at the Giggling Marlin Bar and Yacht Club so will stay at least one more day here before going north.
Buenos Suenos to you until we Blog again.
The Merry Lee