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Published: January 7th 2010
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Bahia Magdelena to Cabo San Lucas
We left Mag Bay at 0700 to start our follow the coastline and anchor off a beach plan, instead of doing the recommended sail night and day till you get there plan. The first day, January 2, we motored out of the bay and down along the coast of Isla Magdelena, at the southern tip of which I took a picture of the lighthouse. About 1330, I caught the most beautiful fish, it was gold with black stripes and Brian says it is a Dorado. We had it for dinner. Bien. The coast here is pretty rugged, and pretty empty. No towns, no villages, no lights, no nothing. We anchored just off of what the chart called Estevo Nuevo Rancho, but no rancho was evident. At about 1600, we stared looking for a sandy beach to anchor off of. It was a little rolly, but not as bad as others we have been in.
The next morning we up anchored and motored till about noon, when the wind came up enough to fly the spinnakers. It was while we were doing this I noticed the reflection of Ansa's spinnaker off the ocean's surface; I
thought it a little artsy, so I have included a photo. We also saw some whales breaching and tried to get photos, but they were a long way off. I took the best one and have included it here. The coast continued to be empty, empty. The only signs of human life were the commercial fishing boats anchored about, probably a couple dozen of them in all. At the end of the day we found ourselves another little beach to anchor off of. I couldn't find any feature on the chart to name this place.
On Monday, Brian caught his first Dorado (see photo) after losing the battle a couple of times. These fish really put up a fight. They jump up out of the water and shake their head back and forth trying to get rid of the hook, sometimes successfully. Brian had one big Dorado on the deck of Echo, but before he could move toward it, it leaped up off the deck, spit out the hook, and jumped overboard (really). We had good sailing this day, with a nice 15kt land breeze that pushed us at 5 to 6 kts on a close reach. Some of
the best sailing we have had, with fishing thrown in. We anchored this day in near Boca de Palmerita, which is about 8 miles north of Todos Santos (of Hotel California fame).
Tuesday morning as I was having toast and tea and looking at the beach, I noticed a group of small rays racing along the edge of the beach and jumping up into the air. There were about a dozen of them and they would jump two or three feet high out of the water and then bellyflop down, only to do it again and again. I've seen a lot of nature videos, but I've never seen this kind of behavior before. There was absolutely no wind this day and we just motored along. We were getting close to Cabo and wanted to arrive early in the day, rather than late in the day, so we chose to stop early, about one o'clock. We anchored just north of Pozo de Cota off this long beach with a lot of sand dunes. We found we had a lot of company in the form of a large number of Americans buzzing around on the beach and the dunes in ATVs.
Odd after all the emptiness. The water here is 77 degrees and the air temperature is in the low eighties. Very pleasant. We had a relaxing afternoon which was enlivened with the appearance of another group of jumping rays. This time they were closer to us and I took a short video of them, so you don't think I'm making this up. Sorry about the low quality of the video ( I took it with my still camera) and the jerkiness (I was having a hard time keeping them in the field of view).
Tomorrow, Wednesday, January 6, we will finish our voyage to Cabo. It took the Baja Ha Ha folks about a week to do what we have spent more than a month on (we left San Diego on December 2), but we have seen a lot more of Baja than they did. We plan to stay in the Cabo area for a couple of weeks, resting and doing some boat improvements. On January 11, my daughter Sarah is flying down for a weeks visit. It'll be very nice to have her here. Eventually, we'll be heading up to La Paz for awhile, and sooner or later,
across the Sea of Cortez to the mainland of Mexico. Brian and I have learned a lot on this trip and are thankful that it has been so uneventful. We had good weather or just stayed in port if it looked like it might get a little dirty. We are fortunate that we have no schedule, so we can pick and choose when and where to go.
Arrived in Cabo San Lucas about noon today, Wednesday, January 6. Cruised into the harbor and took on fuel and water. I checked out the marina slip rates; there are two marinas here, one wanted $180 a day, the other $135 a day. Brian and I decided to pass, so we went out into the bay and anchored off the beach. Broke out the dingy and went ashore to have a late lunch at a the Tobasco restaurant on the beach. Ate enchiladas and drank beer until the sun went behind the hill and it got to cool for T shirts and shorts. The beach is chock a block with American tourists and the bay is very busy with annoying and obnoxiously loud jet skis. This place has all the usual beach
tourist stuff, vendors all over the beach, banana boats, para sailing boats, dinner boats, sightseeing boats, glass bottomed boats, even a submarine. It was very pleasant to have lunch on the beach and just row a hundred feet out to our boats. It's very scenic here, so I have attached a few photos of the local scenery. Needless to say, we are happy campers.
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Terry Downs
non-member comment
I'm watching!
Hi Dave, I thought I'd let you know that I am faithfully reading your blog. It sounds like the perfect adventure! I saw some of what you saw but not nearly as much. I am envious, to say the least. I hope you guys are having the time of your life. I can't wait for the next series! Please do keep in touch.--Terry