We left La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, near Puerto Vallarta, on a Wednesday morning and arrived in Cabo the morning of Friday. This was my second two night passage being the only other crew besides my skipper and captain, Larry. We had to wait about a week for a two day window of light air.
Larry takes good care of me on these passages. He sets up the sails and says “Here’s your course, don’t hit anything." That was downwind. Upwind, I prefer he takes the jib down so I don’t have to monkey with it. I am too chicken to tack it or furl it alone at night, in breeze. I think however next time we need to do either of those tasks, I will have Larry stand by while I do it to gain confidence.
The winds were fair and mostly on the nose and with a small swell. We saw a little sea life such as cute little dolphins hunting and various turtles. The only whale we saw was while exiting Banderas Bay. We were contemplating turning off the engines and just sailing. Then the whale breached...I said, “No, let’s keep the engine on. I want them to know we are coming.” Near Cabo we scared the flying fish right out of the water. This time, only one jumped up on deck....found way too late, about 48 hours later, hidden by the cleat on the deck.
Our watch schedule is three hours on and three hours off. It seems to work well for us. After being really tired the first night and struggling to stay awake, I concentrated on getting the maximum sleep in my off hours as possible. It worked and the second night was much easier. After these two nights, I am much more comfortable with the radar, the chart plotter and navigating between them.
Yesterday I went and checked into the Port Captain and cruised by Telcel to check on our telephone and internet balances. Because we need access to the internet for the best weather sources as we head north, we want to be sure we don’t use it up too fast. There are no places to add more time once we leave here. We found when we had engine trouble last summer, having a phone was a huge help. So we think of these things as safety items as much as convenience.
But the point of that story above was to make mention of how disconnected cruisers can become. I passed a Sports Bar/Restaurant and thought, “Oh, maybe Larry would like to watch a game!” So I tried hard to think of what season it was....backed up....what month is it??? Later that day Larry said it was January. Having had a couple hours to remember what month it was....I said, “Larry! Its April!” We laughed.
Cabo is surprisingly clean and devoid of stray dogs unlike La Cruz. There must be some kind of rule against loose dogs. On the other hand, I have been a bit apalled by the American’s and their dogs. On two occasions, we have been at a restaurant and a stupid American has their teacup Westie or Chihuahua sitting on the table or with paws on the table. Just incredibly awful manners. The two little Westies barked if their owner did not feed them some of her food. It was annoying. Larry wanted to bring Rocky to show them how a good dog behaves.
We hiked up to the Finisterra Hotel to see what the water and wind looked like on the Pacific side. The marina is nestled in on the Sea of Cortez side, safe from the strongest winds.The cape at the end of Baja California is called Cabo Falso and the winds at capes are very strong. Yesterday was no exception. White caps and wind were about 20 knots. (shudder shudder). Larry says, that is why we are waiting here honey! So....we will see how the weather window shapes up. Could be Thursday when we head north. Last night the winds whipped up and the wind in the marina this morning is 20 knots. Wonder what it is over there, outside! Next stop Bahia Santa Maria, 172 miles to the north, just outside Mag Bay.
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