We have made it all the way down the coast of Baja and are now anchored in Cabo San Lucas. It has been quite the journey down here and we are happy to be in warmer weather and water.
We left San Diego late at night on Dec. 28. We were not expecting to leave untill the next day but we met two boats next to us that were leaving for Ensenada so we decided it would be nice to leave with them. It took us two days to get t o Ensenada and with it being our first real overnight trip on Gaviota we were releaved and excited to enter Mexican waters and get a good night sleep. We got in on New years eve and went to bed at about seven o'clock. We awoke at midnight by more fireworks than we had ever seen in our life. We poked our heads out of the front hatch to see thousands of fireworks going off all over the city. It looked and sounded like we were in Baghdad. We spent the next few days in Ensenada meeting lots of people, eating fish tacos and checking into customs. After about two days we had had enough of the big city and pollution and were anxious to get furthur down south and explore. We left by ourselves for Isla Cedros with a few other boats scheduled to depart the next day. This mellow three day sail turned out to be a crazy experience. We had little to no wind the first night and most of the second day. At about the time we were going crazy and begging for some wind we were pleasantly rewarded with about ten knots out of the north west. The wind slowley kept building to about 15-20knots for the next few hours and we were doing wonderful sailing. We had made contact with another boat while we were out their "Momo" and were following behind them and doing periodic check ins on the radio. By dark the wind had picked up to 25-30 knts and the seas had deffinatly grownd to 15 ft or more. We had only a douple reefed main up and were going 7kts. WE were both a little scared now that the weather seemed to be building and it was dark out. By ten o'clock the wind was blowing 35-40knts the seas were 20ft and we had all sails down and were still going 7knts. It was pretty terrifying for us considering we had not done much heavy weather sailing on Gaviota yet. We talked to the other boat "Momo" quite frequently and although they were far away it was comforting to know that someone was out their wiht us even if they couldn't do anything to help us. The weather and conditions continued for three more days and we were blown right past Isla Cedros and Turtle bay. On the fourth night at about 10 0'clock we anchored up in Bahia Asuncion and literally collapsed. After four days of little to no sleep or food we were delerious. We slept and woke up to a great little village. We only spent about two days in Bahia Asuncion but it was nice to be in a quiet village anchored up. We had deffinalty been initiated into Mexico to say the least!
Our next destination was Bahia Santa Maria. This leg was a lot smoother. With calm seas and a nice breeze we sailed most of the way with only a few hours of motoring. It was amazing the wildlife we saw on the way. Their were breaching whales, hundreds of dolphins and sharks everywhere. Brandon caught a mako shark and a few other small fish all which we put back in the ocean. We entered Bahia Santa Maria after two days and anchored up under a beautiful orange and pink sunset. We ended up staying in Bahia Santa Maria for 4-5 days because it was so nice. The first morning we woke up we looked out our window to see another Downeast 32 with a surfboard on deck. We ended up becoming good friends with the couple on board. Johnny is from London and Lindsey is from Iowa and they are bringing the boat down to Costa Rica where Johnny plans on living,kiteboarding and working for a while. Their boat is not quite in top notch condition. They have no electricity, a broken engine, no way to heat water and only a hand held VHF. They are trying to get to La Paz where they are going to do major work. WE take our hats off to them for doing the trip with what they have. In Bahia Santa Maria we had pangas that came to our boat every morning and we traded them baby clothes that I brough along from Heidi for Lobsters.They were so happy to have the clothes! Every day we went on hikes and swam in the water and every night we had dinner parties with the four other bats we had becme friends with and feasted on our Langosta! Our next stop was Magdalena Bay. We once again had great wind and made it their in just a few hours. On the way Brandon Caught the so called fish of his life. It was a 40in yellow tail and we had enough fish to last us a month. We ended up sharing the fish with the whole ancorage about fifteen of us that night on "Momo". It has been really fun meeting all the people that are cruising. Everyone is so different but so nice and generous. WE spent one more day in Magdalena bay but were not that impressesd and it was still pretty cold. It started raining on the second day and we decided to leave the next morning for warmer weather. It rained for the next two days consistantly but we did not mind to much because the wind was also blowning a consistent 15-20 knots and pushing us right where we were headed. Cabo San Lucas! We are now in the touristy and expensive city of Cabo. We walked around the town yesterday and were confronted numerous times by people who wanted to take honeymooners to lovers beach. We informed them time after time that we were not honeymooners but it didn't seem to matter they were persistant on selling us something. We didn't spend to much time in town because it is so expensive. We are anchored right outside of the harbor by a big white sand beasch with the rock arches right of our port side. We took our skiff over to what they call "Lovers beach" and swam and walked around, it was really beautiful. These huge granite rocks jet straight out of the sand it is really wild! We ate the last of our Yellow tail last night so now Brandon is on the hunt for the next fish! Their are supposed to be some fun surf breaks right around the corner so we plan to leave tomorrow and head up twords a place called Los Frailies. We are both itching for some good surf! La Paz will be our next big stop via numerous dive and surf spots.We are very greatful that Gaviota is doing so well. Besides a high seas fuel filter change we have had no problems with her! Knock on Wood! We miss all of you and love getting emails from you. We would love to have anyone come visit so stay in touch!
Gaviota!
Brandon and Jamie
