San Diego to Mazatlan from Scott's eyes
23 November 2011 | 23.16N 106.29W
Sunny Mexico
We left San Diego with a cold front approaching and had to beat into moderate winds, as the front approached all we could see was a black wall of rain squalls coming at us.
Entering the gloom we beat thru the extra wind when the rain hit as hard as I have ever seen anywhere, it was so hard that it knocked down the waves and soaked right thru all my rain gear.
After the front passed we got the heavy NW wind shift I was counting on and really started to smoke down the coast. On our second day out we logged 209 NM and a top surfing speed of 15.8.
With diminishing winds we sailed into Santa Maria Bay and after 3 days at sea, dropped the hook and got some glorious sleep. Our extremely fast passage left us ahead of schedule enabling us to take a lay day and work on some projects around the boat. Santa Maria is a large sandy bay surrounded by 3000 ft mountains, we all climbed them last time with Nate going all the way to the top. Sailing out at the crack of dawn in very light air we passed Magdalena Bay where the humpbacks winter and give birth to there calf's. I was bummed to have to motor most of the night but at dawn a nice Sou-westerly came in and we started close reaching straight for Cabo San Lucas. Now as we were hitting 8-9 knots we were able to make up time and anchor in the crystal clear water of Cabo just before sunset.
We spent most of the next week (12-19th) doing the resort thing with our friends Dick and Ann Tracy in their beautiful timeshare laying in the pool, snorkeling, eating out and generally being the gringo tourist. It was a good thing we were able to spend most of the day off the boat as the bay is very exposed and rolly, but the worst problem is the jet-skis, pangas, tour ship shuttles, water taxis, and fishing boats turning the bay into a dishwasher of waves and noise.
We left Cabo with a light wind forecast but there was a nice little breeze as we started our 199 NM sail to Mazatlan. As predicted the wind disappeared over night and we had to motor for 10 hours. Morning the wind filled in and we sailed to the coast very fast but our landfall was late and we finally anchored off a small outlaying island at midnight. The next night was very windy and very rough so in the morning of the 21st, we motored into the marina and met up with our friends on Grace, Panta Rei, and Ponderosa, all from Seattle. We will be here about a week then back to the Sea of Cortez for some lazy anchorages.
Fair Winds
Capt Scott