Cruising life is a slow life
10 January 2007 | Bahia Magdelena
Linda
We left Ensenada on the 31st of December and here we are 10 days later about three quarters of the way down the coast of the Baja, it is taking us longer to reach Cabo San Lucas than I thought it would, such is life cruising. Our first multi day stop was in a bay called bahia de Tortugas (Turtle Bay) Thursday Jan. 4, where we anchored off the shore of a small village. While there a gale came up and we were sitting it out waiting for the weather to turn when it only got worse and included a full blown sand storm. Impossible was completely covered in sand and grime, what we need now is a good rain shower to clean it all off. Finally on the Sunday Stan checked weather info. and realized that just south of this Bay the weather wasn't so bad. We left Turtle Bay in 30 + knots of wind, raising the anchor was difficult to say the least, was I feeling nervous or what! But sure enough not even 10 minutes out of the bay the seas weren't bad and the wind was half what it was in the bay. We then sailed non stop for 2 days and 2 nights to reach Bahia Santa Maria. We did our first overnighter on the way to Turtle Bay and this last trip was our second. Not so bad for me as I'm a night owl, so I did the 9 to 3 watch then Stan took over.We arrived in Santa Maria Bay at 0300 hours, making this our very first night anchoring experience. The brightness of a half moon and a clear sky helped with visibility, and where would we be without GPS (probably still at home). Managed to do some hiking while in Santa Maria Bay and Stan and the kids got their first swim in (more like just jumping in the water, climbing out and jumping back in). They said the water temps. were similar to Desolation Sound waters. Today we motored into another Bay, Bahia Magdelana, which is well know for the whales that migrate here every year at this time. Sure enough enroute we had 3 or 4 swimming along side our boat for awhile. At the same time we caught a fish. We think it was a yellowfin tuna, which was perfect for supper as we have run out of all fresh meats/ chicken etc. Planning on leaving early tomorrow morning and ETA for Cabo San Lucas will be early this Friday. This is my first attempt at posting this message remotely, via our Satellite phone. Hopefully it will work and you'll all be able to read it clearly. I won't be able to check it on the blog until we get to Cabo, I will also post more pictures at that time.