Steve
03/24/2011, Bahia Los Frailes

We're still here waiting out the norther, the wind was slightly calmer yesterday and the temperature warmed back up. We may be able to get going tomorrow, we'll see, we don't expect to many people to feel sorry for us being "stuck" in this beautiful place, besides we really don't have to be anywhere until April 3 when I pick up Shaybo at the La Paz airport...it will be really good to see her again and give her a big hug. Yesterday Peter and I walked to the Regional House restaurant, a nice little place in the middle of nowhere, the Bartender was a guy from San Diego named Pablo, he came down here on vacation and was asked to watch the restaurant for a few days while the owner went to take care of some medical condition, that was 5 weeks ago and Pablo is really pissed. We also walked around the camp ground that is on the beach and met some of the people camped out here, most are Canadian.
The crew is holding up really well, we seem to have formed a sort of bond or mutual respect for each other, sailing down the desolate Baja coast together definitely builds character and is something that most people will never do.

Comments [5]

Steve/sorta calm for now
03/23/2011, bahia Los Frailes

Los Frailes is a medium sized bay which "offers good protection from north winds", yesterday we had sustained winds of 15-20 knots and wind chop of a foot or so in this well protected bay. As we gazed out beyond the protection of the point into the Sea of Cortez, it resembled a raging river, Peter and I put it in the range of some of the class 4 rapids that we have both run on rafts. The current weather guess is calling for this to last until Saturday.
Yesterday we all stayed on the boat, we read, we napped and we studied our spanish. Si Bon's anchor is now pretty well dug into the soft sand bottom and other than looking around occasionally to check our position and ensure we're not dragging anchor, there's not much to do.
Today we're going to put the motor back on the dink, which the crew affectionately now calls Bon Bon, and go in to find the camping kayak fisherman that warned us about the wind. This dude, John, has lived on this beach for something like 10 years, sleeping on a cot and fishing for food. I want to pick his brain about the wind and about fishing, there is also some sort of restaurant in the area that we want to try to find...and I might ask John to join us in gratitude for saving our sorry gringo asses.

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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.

Comments [2]

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.

Comments [3]

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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