Steve/windy
03/22/2011, Bahia Los Frailes

I checked the weather this morning and the guess was calling for 10-15 knot wind going up to our next anchorage, it would be on our nose but didn't look like anything we couldn't handle. As I was down below getting ready, some local dude who I had met on the beach yesterday, paddles up in his fishing kayak and tells us that he just came from around the point and we might want to wait a day or so, I told him I had checked the weather and it looked OK, to which he responded " oh, you checked the weather and everything looked good? then you should be fine". I think he was probably thinking "good luck asshole, I've been camped out on this beach for the past ten years, but your stupid weather guesser knows more than me" But instead he gave us some bait for fishing and with a friendly smile paddled away. About that same time a large catamaran, Santosha, that had been anchored next to us, and left in the early morning hours pulls back into the bay and drops their hook. Peter and I rowed over to Santosha and ask them if they had headed north, to which they responded "yes, and don't bother"
There is a weather pattern in the Sea of Cortez somewhat similar to a Santa Ana in So Cal, it's called a Norther...that appears to be what we have right now, the wind is howling at probably 20+ knots, there are now white caps in our bay, and we have decided...as recommended by the local camper/kayak fisher, to stay put.

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Steve
03/21/2011, Los Frailes

As any fisherman (which none of us are), will tell you there is a reason it's called fishing, not catching. We've been trying our hand at fishing since we left Ensenada, and so far the only thing we've caught is a nice sized piece of kelp and a small piece of sea grass. Last night as Catherine was getting ready to prepare another gourmet meal for us, Peter and I decided to take the dink out and troll around the bay, we grabbed a couple of brewskis and headed out. Peter played out the line and we made a little wager, if he caught a fish I would do the dishes, if he didn't, he would do them. As we slowly motored around this beautiful bay, we looked down and saw phosphorescences, which look like tiny little lights, shooting out of the dinghy wake, we suddenly forgot all about the fishing as we spaced out at this amazing, tinkerbell sorta look, we were completely memorized by this VERY cool sight.
We got back to Si Bon and Catherine had now finished our dinner, a dish called Loco Moco, an Hawaiian dish that like everyone of the meals she does... seemed to taste better than the one before, Catherine's cooking gives the term "boat food" a whole new meaning, plus Peter had to do the dishes.
We plan to leave tomorrow morning for Ensenada de Muertos, a distance of 47 NM.

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Steve
03/20/2011, Bahia Los Frailes

Its amazing that I actually have internet access in this beautiful little bay, which is located almost at the Tropic of Cancer.
We left the Marina at Puerto Los Cabos yesterday at about 1045 and as predicted in all of my cruising guides, we soon began to feel the effects of the Sea of Cortez, we had the wind right on our nose and about half way here we ran into fetch, short, steep waves which have come down the 600 mile sea, we motored all the way and dropped the hook (anchor) at about 1645. On the way we witnessed so many whales that the yell from the crew "whale" became a common occurrence. Upon arriving is this peaceful anchorage we were at first treated to dozens of manta rays, many of them babies, flying out of the water as they played like little puppy dogs of the sea. As the sun started sinking the partially clouded sky started turning the most amazing colors any of us had ever seen, (and we've already seen many awesome sunsets), the entire sky put a show that you can only truly appreciate if you were here in person to witness. Just when it appeared that the sky show was about to end someone turned around and yelled "oh my God, look at that" and there was a full moon rising through the same light cloud cover that made the sunset so beautiful, it was like an encore of the heavens. We all marveled at how blessed we were to be here, a place that the word paradise doesn't even begin to describe.
I am currently not able to post pictures but will catch up when we have better internet service.

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Steve
03/19/2011, Cabo San Lucas

Yesterday Peter and I decided to catch a bus into Cabo San Lucas and check out spring break, it was really more Peter's idea than mine, but being an accommodating skipper I felt it my responsibility to accompany him...after all I did sorta commit to his parents, in a round about way, that I would keep us all safe. we walked into San Jose, caught a local bus to the main highway, then took another bus the 15 miles to Cabo. Spring break was in full swing and we settled into a huge palapa bar named Mango's...there was some dude that was MC ing different contests, there was a dance contest, a drinking contest and much to our chagrin a wet teeshirt contest, which I tried to be a judge of, but due to the fact that I didn't want to pay to be a judge they picked some dorky dude that was in bad need of a tan...the crowd and the girls were VERY disappointed that I got nixed as I definitely was more entertaining, bigger and better looking (but a lot older) than the dork. We stayed a little while longer before catching a bus back to San Jose to have one last go around of the town festival before we leave this morning for Bahia Los Frailes.
In hindsite I'm very happy that the very well behaved Peter was there to accompany me in to see spring break 2011

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Steve
03/18/2011, San Jose Del Cabo

We're still here at the Marina Puerto del Cabo, this is a fairly new marina that is part of a large master plan community, which is just getting started. The marina is about 15 miles from Cabo San Lucas and about 1.5 miles from San Jose del Cabo. We hope to be leaving tomorrow and begin anchor hopping up to La Paz, arriving in La Paz around the first of April. We've all settled in to the relaxed lifestyle here, where the weather is literally "perfect", not to hot, but nice and warm during the day and cooling off at night where you may need to throw on a light sweater or jacket after sundown. My friend Dan, from Sun Harbor Marina, on S/V Dazzler pulled in on Thursday on his way north after cruising in Mexico for the past year. Dan and I went to happy hour and dinner last night and I picked his brain for important cruising details.
I'm not sure about internet coverage between here and La Paz, so if I don't post for awhile you'll know the coverage was "no bueno".

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Steve, Sunny warm days..cool nights
03/17/2011, San Jose Del Cabo

When we arrived in Ensenada we were treated to the start of Carnaval, a celebration before the start of Lent. When we arrived at Turtle Bay we were happy to learn that this little town at the end of a 135 mile dirt road was for some reason selected as the site for Carnaval for the entire central Baja region. We knew pulling into San Jose that Carnaval was now over...but the ever partying people of Mexico also celebrate their towns patron Saints...and as luck would have it San Jose was just kicking up their Festival for St. Joseph (San Jose). Last night Peter and myself went to town, let me tell you that this was the best celebration so far, they have a rodeo, a cock fighting arena, and of course tons of food and drink. I know that this isn't going to go over well with some people, but we both had never been to a cock fight and part of the reason we are traveling the way we are is to be submersed into other cultures...and cock fighting is a part of the Mexican culture. So we paid our 100 pesos (10 USD) and settled in. Now I could start coming up with a bunch of sexual innuendoes about who had the biggest......well never mind, this is after all a family blog. The Mexicans do a lot of betting on the fights, but not really understanding anything about it we just made little bets between ourselves of a beer. Cock fighting is a pretty controversial sport (?)...but is it really that much more inhumane that shooting chickens up with growth hormones and packing them together in pens, and then slaughtering them? How about beefing up large men and then having them run at each other at full speed (football, rugby)? That said I don't think I will go to another cock fight, to me it was interesting to see once, but not really that entertaining, and we weren't sure if we should feel sorrier for the dead loser or the pretty messed up winner.
We've decided to stay in San Jose Del Cabo a couple of more nights before slowly working our way to La Paz to meet up with Shaybo and Bob the first week of April.

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