We last reported that we planned on heading out of San Diego bound for Mexico on Sunday January 30, but the weather forecast wasn’t favorable so we delayed until Tuesday. On Monday Virginia took our van to Long Beach to her parents’ home and returned to San Diego on the train. That night we treated ourselves to dinner at the Boathouse restaurant in the marina.

We had been in San Diego for about 3 weeks and during that time had finished some major projects such as SSB radio and watermaker installation, but we also spent considerable time packing everything into the boat. Dennis, the master packer, did an amazing job and we were able to fit our full size mountain bikes, a cart to pull behind the bikes, some beach chairs, nearly every tool Dennis owns (including all his power tools) as well as several other items we had considered ‘luxuries’ that we might have to leave behind. And it is all stowed – not a lot of clutter on deck. We have an extensive inventory list that we need to get into Excel so that we can find things as we have them stashed in every nook and cranny on the boat. During that process of sorting and packing, the boat looked terrible for a few days with all our gear piled up on the deck. Thank goodness we had such nice weather those three weeks to allow us the luxury of keeping things out in the open allowing us to concentrate on the projects. Our ‘neighbors’ were probably happy that the “trailer trash” boat finally cleaned up.

We headed out Tuesday morning at 11:00. We had 10 knots of wind out of the southeast and managed to sail for a few hours. We headed further offshore where the weather grib files we had obtained via email over our radio said we would have better wind. We found more than enough wind and got a lot of practice reefing the sails. Running the reefing lines back to the cockpit worked perfectly again and again and again. The plan was to sail overnight to Punta Baja. But following the wind took us quite a bit offshore and as the wind was from the SE and against the swell, it made for very sloppy seas and the distance to Punta Baja became quite unattractive. So we didn’t try to make that and headed instead forPunta Cabras. A pod of dolphins and four spouting whales welcomed us as we approached the anchorage Wednesday at 14:00.

We were in an unfamiliar anchorage with wind blowing just shy of 20 knots so we set the anchor alarm on the GPS. It awakened us in the early morning, but all was OK. We had our wind generator on overnight and realized that it was a good warning tool for increasing winds…another new sound to get used to, but it’s not annoying.

Thursday, February 3 we did some projects in the morning including repairing the guard around the bow light . It had broken loose and instead of guiding halyards and other lines near the main mast away from the light fixture, it was gathering them all in. It caused a bit of trouble when taking down the spinnaker the previous night out to sea. This was the first time Dennis climbed the mast in an anchorage – thankfully a calm one, but still a challenge. At 11:00 when we were ready to pull up anchor two fishermen approached us selling lobster and abalone. We declined, but it was tempting. We were able to sail most of that day. We must already be adjusting to the cruising life as we have decided that we will just take short hops down a couple coves rather than more overnighters (the fact that evenings are dipping into the 40’s made the decision quite easy). We arrived at Punta Colnett around 17:00.

Friday, February 4 next stop was to be San Quintin at 9:45. Dennis set up the fishing gear, but we only caught a banana peel and some seaweed. It gave us practice on how to handle the boat if we ever do get something on the line. We had calm seas and mild winds so had to do a lot of motorsailing that day. We spent time working on our Weatherfax – we are determined to figure it out and get it working, even though we’ve been told it is a museum piece. San Quintin is a huge bay and we had the place to ourselves. We arrived around sunset and anchored off the Hotel La Pinta, where we dropped off Greg J. a few years ago on one of the Baja Bash trips. It has been cold, very cold, since we left Santa Barbara. We are wearing long underwear, neck scarves, gloves, and multiple sweatshirts/jackets day and night. We are anxious to get to warmer weather! But the anchorages have been calm and we’ve been sleeping soundly.

Saturday, February 5 we spent time checking into some of the southbound radio nets (Chubasco and Baja nets) before heading out. We planned another short hop to Punta Baja. We motored most of that day, only sailing, with spinnaker up, for the last hour or so. The variable wind and wind direction has motivated us to try a variety of sail combinations utilizing the new inner forestay and mizzen staysail stay. Dennis is anxious for that day with the wind on the beam at around 10 knots when he can fly all five sails together. Again, we had the anchorage to ourselves. It was a bit rolly, but Dennis’ homemade flopper stoppers really calmed down the boat motion. We were determined to learn how to post position reports onto our website from the radio and did so that night.
Sunday, February 6 we awoke to fog. We waited for it to clear before heading out. We planned another overnight trip down to Bahia Tortuga (Turtle Bay). We have stopped here on our three Baja Haha trips and we are looking forward to visiting the town again, including our favorite restaurants. Favorable NW wind allowed us to sail ALL DAY Sunday and most of the night. It was wonderful and took our mind off of the fact that we weren’t hosting or attending a Superbowl party. It was a much milder night trip, no reefing required. We saw the sunrise over Cedros Island. As we passed Pt. Eugenia, the sea was teaming with wildlife. Sealions were frolicking and jumping out of the water; a big gathering of floating seabirds took to the skies as we motored through the center of them and settled back down behind us; huge dolphins swam and jumped alongside the boat and at our bow as we entered Turtle Bay. We could hear music playing from shore and it was warm! We’ll stay here two nights, visiting an internet café in town tomorrow so we can post this blog.

If you place a question/comment on this site that desires a response, we will try to review them when we have access to the Internet and add a section to our next update that addresses them. Otherwise you may just contact us through our current email (sbmesasailor@gmail.com: Dennis or sbmesafirstmate@gmail.com: Virginia).

We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves and starting to unwind.