(Photos above show celebrating after arrival in Bahia Santa Maria, the view at the anchorage, and running south off the Baja coast.)

Bahia Santa Maria is a grand bay on the Pacific Ocean, most of the way down the Baja Peninsula. From the anchorage in the northwest corner you see the high peaks of Punta Hughes on the west side, the fish camp with the pongas, the long sandy beach with sand dunes behind to the north, the long isthmus to the west separating Bahia Santa Maria from Bahia Magdalena, and the peaks near Punta Entrada to the south.

I call Bahia Santa Maria grand because of its vast, wilderness feeling. Perhaps when the 150+ boat Baja Haha fleet stops here in the fall it may not have that feeling of wilderness tranquility, but it does with S/V Ubiquity sharing this vast bay with just one other cruising boat and the pongas at the fishing village.

To get here S/V Ubiquity sailed directly from Ensenda, traversing 565 nm over six days and five nights, the longest passage to date for Ubiquity's crew. The first and last days were light wind days, some of which we motor-sailed or motored -- slowly, to conserve fuel. In between were two great sailing days which sandwiched a surprisingly (to Ubiquity's crew) rough seas day. On the rough day we never saw winds into the 30's, and mainly winds were in the mid 20's, but the seas were confused and sometimes boarded Ubiquity's cockpit, soaking my crew three times. I fell down and hurt a finger. I eventually rigged Ubiquity to sail downwind with only the staysail, a configuration I had not used before for running. Running with only the staysail Ubiquity made about four knots and was more comfortable than running with the reefed headsail. But when the confused seas slapped Ubiquity on the side it still sounded like a canon shot when trying to sleep off-watch. I say trying to sleep, because in seas like that it is hard to jam yourself into even a tight quarterberth without rolling.

But the grand bay of Bahia Santa Maria is now healing the wounds of Ubiquity and her crew, preparing them for the last leg south around the end of the Baja Peninsula.

Note: Thanks to my friend Ed for the bottle of French wine, shown in photo above, that we used to celebrate S/V Ubiquity's arrival at Bahia Santa Maria.