Our first Northbound days in 2021!
This week I finally succumbed to the dreaded montezuma’s revenge (or some violent variation). I spent 36 hours as sick as I’ve ever been.
I did my best to survive while my body tried to expel everything I’ve eaten this decade.
Taylor was fine so luckily I had a caretaker.
We left San Jose del Cabo at dawn and had a 9 hour motor to Los Frailes. We could’ve sailed but are still ginger with our wounded sail.
Los Frailes was incredible. The anchorage marks the South end of the only coral reef on the North American pacific coast. We attempted snorkeling for the first time but having no idea what to do, we didn’t come up with many tropical fish sightings. We instead enjoyed a movie on our back deck and got ready for a early morning departure. This anchorage also marks the first time we’ve gone North since September when we pin-balled around San Francisco Bay.
The next leg was 8 hours up the coast. We kept motoring and caught a black skipjack tuna. Our fishing guidebook says they ‘might be edible starving on a deserted island’ but John Steinbeck in “The Log” says they’re a flavorful fish so we opted to trust him.
When we pulled close to the Los Muertos anchorage we saw tons of fish jumping and splashing everywhere. When we got close we saw hundreds of bat rays dancing and playing. Their leaps out of the water are the most fun, cute, and impressive thing. They can jump over 10 feet above the surface, they flap their wings violently when they ‘fly’ and then crash down to the surface and repeat.
The anchorage was very rough. We got our first taste of a Coromuel. Basically the Pacific is cold, and the Cortez is warm so the wind rips across the Baja to balance out. Every night till August we’ll have enough wind to last a Dutchman a week.
On the bright side, the water is bath temperature, so the next morning we took a dip in crystal clear water to wake up, and sailed North!
On the sail North we hooked another black skipjack, and despite Steinbeck’s inaccuracy, we kept it for dinner. They’re a harsh fishy fish and although tolerable immediately, are not storable even a day. Taylor loved it.
In the mid afternoon we saw the most incredible 10 minute scene of my life. We saw the water sloshing about a mile away, but upon arrival the pod of 10,000 dolphins churned the sea into a part circus, part washing machine, part Disney movie. We saw a lot of dolphins along the way, and we saw a big pod at Mag bay but this was absolutely 100 times the size. It was miles of splashing and dancing and underwater squeaking.
We pulled into our anchorage at Ballandra and shared the bay with a well known billionaire’s yacht. How do we, out of money, running on fumes, get to share a view with a billionaire?
We’ve also crossed the tropic of cancer twice now, and have sailed 5000 miles. So we celebrated the line with a very small sip of rum. (It was mid morning, very hot and we were already dehydrated) and we’re planing on celebrating the 5k mark with the traditional swallow tattoo. Highest bidder gets to pick the location.
We spent 2 nights at Ballandra which gave us a very full day of exploration. We saw the mushroom rock, the worms Steinbeck keeps talking about, the snorkeling spots, and most importantly the giant beautiful turquoise sand bars. We swam with sea turtles, and flew Troy’s drone, and promptly went to sleep exhausted.
The next day we arrived. We sailed into la Paz. But not before seeing one last slap happy gray whale sloshing about.
Upon entrance to La Paz harbor we were greeted by 20 dolphins forming a tight escort around Scooter. They sailed us into our destination with a regal dignity.
