Isla San Benito Oeste to Cabo San Lucas ~315nm
We pulled up anchor in Isla San Benito Oeste on November 30th and headed for Bahia Asuncion by way of Dewey Channel which runs between the Baja mainland and a little Island called Isla Natividad. We entered the channel just before dark and it wasn’t long before we realized we had made a big mistake traversing this channel at night! The entire channel was a minefield of lobster pots and fishing nets. We have headsets that we use while anchoring so Michelle went to the foredeck with a spotlight to call out the hazards so Jeff could navigate around them. We moved at a snail’s pace through the channel and several hours later emerged into the open waters of the Pacific where such hazards are nonexistent; it was stressful and exhausting!
Once we were back into open water, we sailed the rest of the
night and into the morning with nothing but ocean in front of us. As the day
progressed, we experienced such amazing sailing that we chose to bypass Bahia
Asuncion and Abreojos. Instead, we decided to head to Magdalena Bay which is
about two-thirds of the way down the Baja peninsula. We flew our spinnaker for
about 70 hours during that time period. Aside from a couple of cruise ships, we
saw no other boats. We decided to try our hand at fishing during our sail and
tossed out the 130lb test monofilament with a cedar plug at the end. Within 30
minutes, the entire spool went careening across the deck and stopped when it
became tangled. At this point we had about 100 meters out! Jeff put on his
Kevlar glove and pulled the fish in. It was a beautiful yellowfin tuna that was
about 15-20 pounds. Since we’re not hunters or fishermen, we had no idea what
to do with it! We’ll spare you the gory details of our novice “dispatch” but we
thanked the sea for its bounty and proceeded to filet our catch. That night we
had seared tuna for dinner and it was delicious!
On December 3rd, we entered Magdalena Bay (“Mag” Bay) and set our hook north of Belcher Point just before 09:00 in front of a small panga village. Magdalena Bay is about the size of San Francisco Bay but it does not have the same world-class sailing. There are areas of shallows that need to be avoided and the terrain is generally high desert. We spent the day relaxing and planning the next leg to Cabo. After studying the weather, we decided that the best weather window required us to leave on December 4th. Ugh, we had hoped for a couple of days to rest but weather drives every sailing decision so we readied ourselves and the boat for a morning departure.
We pulled anchor at about 10:00 on the 4th and sailed toward the opening of Mag Bay. There is some turbulence at the opening to Mag Bay where the coastal currents meet the ocean tidal currents so we decided to use the “iron jenny” to get through this brief area of turbulence. Once we were a few miles from the opening, we turned south and set our sights on Cabo San Lucas, the southernmost tip of the Baja peninsula. We sailed under a full main and full Genoa. The wind was off our quarter stern and was reaching 25-27kt. The sea state (i.e., waves) was gentle rollers and we saw boat speeds of up to 10.8kt! It was remarkable to see the lights of La Paz (on the east side of the peninsula) casting their glow across to the Pacific side. At sunset, we crossed the Tropic of Cancer, the “most northerly circle of latitude on earth at which the sun can be directly overhead.”
As the day dawned, we discovered that we had 7 flying fish on the deck! Interesting fact: the famous captain, Joshua Slocum, who circumnavigated solo in the late 1800’s ate the flying fish that landed on his deck. They don’t seem all that appealing to us! We approached Cabo San Lucas surrounded by a large pod of dolphins and rounded the famous arches just before 15:00 on December 5th. We safely anchored about 15:30 and opened the bottle of Patron that we had been saving for this occasion! Cabo is a party city with cruise ships arriving, pangas zipping people out to the arches, jet skiers, and music from the resorts. There is a lot of energy there and quite the opposite of Isla San Benito Oeste where this leg started….an interesting juxtaposition.
We spent 3 days anchored in Cabo enjoying the clear water, a somewhat precarious beach landing at the arches in our dinghy, and some walking around town. We swam and soaked up the sun (yes, we dutifully and liberally apply the sunscreen!).
Next post – Adventure to San Jose del Cabo to spend a week with our children and north to the East Cape!
Sailing really IS a 24 hour-a-day adventure! The size of those Covid petrie dishes (cruise ships) is quite intimidating!
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