Logs & Stories - February 2002

February 27th - On passage near Cabo San Lucas

(Email from Bill & Karryn via Maritime Mobile Radio Service)

We passed Cabo this morning, but after finding the dock prices a bit high ($77 a night) and no response on the mooring buoys, we decided to head north Southerly winds were a deciding factor as well. I could barely hear the weather this morning on the Chubasco and Baja nets, so it was a bit on faith that we kept on. The sailing is lovely (full main, heavy number one), the sun is hot and if the weather holds for traveling north we may reach La Paz sometime late tomorrow.

Karryn

February 26th - On passage to Cabo San Lucas

(Email from Bill & Karryn via Maritime Mobile Radio Service)

We left Bahia Magdalena this morning at 0645, and have a nice WNW breeze at the moment. I expect in several hours (while it's still daylight), we'll reduce sail for the evening. We should reach Cabo, weather permitting, sometime during daylight hours tomorrow.

February 25th - In Bahia Magdalena 

(Email relay from Ron and Fran Fryer)

We're still anchored in Bahia Magdalena, off the village of Puerto Magdalena. We are planning on leaving here for Punta Belcher tomorrow; it's only about an hour away. If the weather is ok, we'll leave very early Tuesday morning for Cabo San Lucas. We're all well and doing fine. On Friday, I was conned, a la Tom Sawyer, into painting new registration numbers on a fishing boat (a panga, pronounced 'pahn-gah') for Lupe, who spoke almost no English. Well, not exactly conned, I just didn't realize the extent of the numbers and that they went on both sides. However, I ended up with help in the form of another woman cruiser, and the two of us spent over an hour penciling or painting numbers, giggling over our experience, with a number of men, children and dogs watching las dos gringas locas. Lupe, whom we had met earlier in the Capitan del Puerto's office, tried to pay us in cash for our efforts. Of course, we wouldn't hear of any payment (the experience was payment in itself), but the local gringo cruiser (who had played the role of Tom Sawyer) told him we would take fish (for me) and lobster (for the Canadian cruiser). So last night we dined on my fresh fish reward with another cruising couple.

February 24th - In Turtle Bay (Bahia San Bartolome)

(Email from Bill & Karryn via Maritime Mobile Radio Service)

We're at anchor in Bahia Magdalena, right off the village of Puerto Magdalena. We motored to the entrance of the bay Wednesday from Bahia Santa Maria, then had a lovely sail upwind. We started out in almost no wind with a full main and the blade, then ended up with a single reef and luffing slightly in the puffs. A truly wonderful sail, and the water was flat! Seeing whales all the way was a added bonus, although Bill got a bit nervous when they were close to the boat, as they're bigger than the boat.

We are planning on heading south to Cabo, possibly leaving tomorrow early. We're hoping to be able to get up to La Paz before Yvonne has to leave for the States, but, like all cruising plans, it depends on the weather.

The previous passages (Oceanside - Turtle Bay and Turtle Bay - Bahia Santa Maria) were fairly windy, particularly the end of the first one. It could have been worse -- a boat anchored in San Carlos had wind speeds of up to 70 knots Sunday a week ago, and ended up cutting the two anchors they had out and running out to sea. I think we had steady high 30's and 40's with gusts in the 50's in the last hours before arriving in Turtle Bay. The trip to Santa Maria was much more civilized; I suspect we had nothing over 25 knots.