Hola! Now Let’s Explore…..

We are now off to explore Mexico….as 2 huge cruise ships arrived to Cabo San Lucas…Dakota and a few other boats decided to leave. We tried to hail the Port Captain to checkout…5 times, and once in Spanish…..but no answer. Dave even went to the Port Office but they were too busy with the cruise ships….so off we went anyways. We are heading to La Paz, with a few stops on the way.

Our first day was a 42 mile motor/sail in smooth seas. We ran the watermaker- it works but there must be a micro air leak somewhere along the intake tubes because I had to bleed the air trapped in the filters every 15 to 20 minutes. Hey….it works and we’ll find that leak when we are settled somewhere for a bit. Our first stop was a nice scenic bay called Los Frailies and as we arrived to the bay we passed a few humpback whales feeding. We are following the wind predictions and so this was a one night stop for us, and early the next morning we headed out for another 46 mile motor/sail to Los Muertos. We stayed one night here, not even going to shore and left in the morning with the prediction of 10 knot winds from the north (on the nose) but the winds topped off at 27 knots and the seas were uncomfortable and building….so we turned around. We had a great sail back to Los Muertos and anchored back where we started.

The next morning we decided to go to shore to go snorkelling, and met up with the few sailers who stayed in the bay. They all saw us return and decided not to go out to try going north themselves…good choice! We had a few days here basking in the sun, snorkelling, and met up with all the arriving boats in the wonderful restaurant here. We had a table of about 20 sailors all chatting and trading stories of adventures….Fun times.

Finally the day arrived with very little nothwinds and all the boats decided to leave that morning. So, with the accompaniment of about 12 other boats, we set off to get to La Paz. Somewhere along the way, I was aboe to contact our friends on SV Jubel and they were in a small anchorage on Isla Partida- just out of La Paz….we didn’t even have to alter course and headed straight there to meet up, while the rest of the boats headed to La Paz. I’m glad we did! This anchorage was magical- great snorkelling, wonderful beach and so secluded. Getting together with Kyle and Leah to catch up was so much fun. They left Victoria last year and had so much information to give us on where to go and what to see.

Too soon our fresh food had run out and really needed to get to La Paz to shop and to find a dentist. It was only a 3-4 hour sail to the city and we radioed the Port Captain to request entrance ….he answered right away. We anchored just near the marina and was told to keep the anchor chain scope close to 3:1 or 4:1 (about 60 feet of chain) and keep plenty of distance between the boats. We found out why the next day….when the large part of the tide started, all the boats swung erratically on their anchors…it’s called “The La Paz Waltz” and it’s real! We moved when our neighbour boat swung to about 5 feet from us and he refused to shorten his anchor scope (he had about 125 feet out). So we pulled our anchor and went to the other side of the bay and found a spot near the mangroves. Once here we did have to move one more time, but only about 40 feet and we then found the perfect spot. Nobody swing near us and over on this side it was a bit further to dinghy to the marina, but we were more protected from fetch and wakes from other boats, the dolphins swam around our boat every night and we got to relax and stop worrying about hitting other boats. So…this is where we stayed for almost 3 weeks.

We played tourist in La Paz and explored much of the city on foot…which included a 10 km hike to Walmart (with an Uber home). We found the English bookstore (bought a few reference books on reef fish), the old churches, a great dentist, nice little restaurants and other touristy stuff. While here we also joined Club Cruceros, a sailors club attached to the Marina, that has a daily 8 am net on the radio, a coffee get together every morning and where we met so many interesting sailors and old sailors that gave us tons of information about La Paz and Mexico.

Alas, our time here was coming to an end and we were itching to get going back to a secluded beach. We headed out on a hot, sunny day, and while I monitored the watermaker, Dave sailed us back to Isla Partida, but to another bay- Colet Partida….a gorgeous bay with wicked sunsets.

We stayed in this bay for a few days and got to meet a wonderful family on a catamaran called SV The Mob….a Canadian/Aussie mix family with 3 very active boys. It’s pretty cool when you meet people and you feel like you’ve known them for a long time and you feel very comfortable just sitting chatting. We had some sot, sunny days here but the beaches were not only very shallow but very mushy to walk on shore. Next, we headed just a few miles north to a bay called Ensenada Grande, still on Isla Partida, and it turned out to be more spectacular than the last anchorage. But….because some really wicked north winds were coming in the next few days we made the decision to head north again…we are aiming to get to Puerto Escondido for Christmas…so north we go!

Next blog post will take us up the coast to some spectacular anchorages (no I haven’t got tired of saying spectacular yet!) ….and do we make it to Escondido in time for Christmas? Or do we get stuck in a gorgeous anchorage not wanting to leave? Stay tuned! Cheers!