This week was Taylor’s Birthday!!! Celebration was very much in order so we provisioned and set sail for isla Ispirito Santo.
It is absolutely stunning. We spent one afternoon in a cove looking for a hiking trail and failed which was ok because it was 105°.
We spent the night at the partition between two islands where a thin straight divides the land masses at high tide. So we had a dinghy ride through the split and around both bays. In an hour we saw hundreds of sea turtles popping their heads up, looking at us and then disappearing. We didn’t get good photos but the experience was amazing.
Although the birthday dinner was fantastic, it was the day after her birthday that ended up being the best day ever.
Fried Cabrillo, kale and cabbage salad and truffle potatoes!
We left in the morning, and sailed through pods of rays jumping and slapping. We sailed past the sea lion island and enjoyed the scene of big groups of tourists floating around the sea lions. We sailed onward south and shortly we’re surrounded by thousands of dolphins. It was hot and we’re ready to swim anyway so we jumped in and swam with the dolphins. They didn’t let us ride on their backs but they swam around, and jumped and flipped. They gave Taylor a much better birthday present than I could.
La Paz is soo good to cruisers. Marina de la Paz in particular. They allow anchored boats to come in, use the dinghy dock, trash, and shower for a small fee. We feel like we have a little home base for free!
Scooter at our beautiful anchorage
Another cruising couple reached out to us via Instagram. Anyway we met up for drinks and hit it off. Luckily they’re very social and have been able to introduce us to almost everyone in the marina. They secured us a tour of the coolest boat, and introduced us to a pair of Swiss couples.
The tour of the Ocean Quest will be a separate post because I need to fully nerd out about it.
Just like that with the help of Muranda and Ben we have community and tons of friends!
La Paz is hot. It hits 100° most days and out at anchor we don’t have any fans, let alone AC. So we swim a lot. We rigged up our halyard to be a rope swing and have been having a blast every afternoon in the heat.
We got our sail to a repair loft and stitched our tear and tore a slight hole in our budget.
Our toilet clogged but not in the way you might think. The salt water intake was jammed. So I got the lovely job of disassembling our toilet, and guess what! We caught our first fish in la Paz!
This lil guy was exploring the wrong place at the wrong time, and met his demise.
We have a lot planned for the next month and a half between visitors and getting the boat listed, but we’re extatic to get to spend that time in La Paz.
La Paz is amazing. It’s a wonderful Mexican town full of life and tourism feels like the city’s side hustle instead of the in-your-face feel of Cabo.
Taylor took me for a tour of the marinas and the boats here are built different. They’re piled high with offshore necessities and are from far away lands.
We haven’t dipped into the touristy stuff aside from eating at some amazing restaurants. (Taylor ordered a whole octopus and it was incredible).
My octopus dinner
We settled into a marina to get cleaned up. The boat and the boaters got a shower and all scrubbed.
We met a hoard of sailors in the first few days. We’ve finally arrived at a cruising harbor and we’re immediately surrounded by boats from Canada, Europe and tons from the US. Stay tuned because the sailors we’ve met get even better in ‘La Paz part 2: life at anchor’.
Tay’s good at offering everyone we meet a beer and every now and then they take us up on it, and we get to hear lifetimes of sailing stories.
Every morning at 8, the VHF radio alights with the cruiser ‘net’ – an interactive conversation/radio show of new arrivals, questions, trades, and events for cruisers. The resources, the community, and the volume of sailors is awesome.
La Paz is also the first Mexican town we’ve visited to have a lively central market so I’m in heaven wandering around the stalls selling all sorts of anything edible. Grocery shopping has always been a favorite activity of mine and this takes it to a new level.
We spent four nights in the marina, more than planned due to my illness. Perhaps we got casual with bleaching our vegetables, or ordering cocktails with ice. Or maybe the luck ran out and it was simply my time to have the bug.
La Paz bay is similar geographically to San Diego bay, but the difference is you can anchor out for free so to save funds we’ll be spending our nights on the hook.
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.
She’s a good caretaker and could haul me to the hospital if needed.
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.
Aquaman is really bad
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.
She’s excellent at fish photos
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.
Here’s one. There were at least a few zillion.
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.
The rest of our time in Cabo San Jose we felt again like locals. We knew the marina staff, made friends with neighbor boats, and had three different sets of people in town to have dinners with.
Who wouldn’t want to be friends with this hot dinghy captain.
We even became friends with our Uber driver who gave us a free Spanish lesson! Then bumped into him again a few days later and had a chat and reviewed the forgotten lesson!! Shoutout to Angel for the best uber experience ever! We had drinks at the famous Flora Farms (a cool farm to table concept that’s become rich people paradise). Shoutout to the Nashville crew for letting us tag along!
We ate at El Marinero Borracho ‘The Drunken Sailor’ (shoutout to Dave & Christy for the fun send off dinner) and enjoyed some dinghy rides among the big yachts. I’m not sure if the nearby hotel beach is public, but we rolled up on the dinghy and were welcomed with open arms to a queen sized bed under a palapa, so we took advantage of a nice beach day.
Lot’s of large yachts to look at
We bought fish from a local panga and grilled some delicious Sierra filets and had a few more rounds of fish tacos.
Our fish bartering skills need honing My knives are honed perfectly even though Taylor doubted the need for the sharpening kit.
Shoutout to Chuck and Kitsy for the incredible fish knife!!
We also prepped the boat for departure, fueled up, and tucked in for a last marina night for a while.
It was a 4 hour motor up to Cabo San Jose, and it was awesome. We saw 8 whales breaching and slapping their tails and playing. It was incredible.
We felt very whalecome here
Once in the marina, Dave and Christy picked us up and took us to their house for dinner. We met them two nights earlier when they complimented the mullet and ended up chatting all night. They’re working remote due to Covid and decided to move to Mexico. We had a great dinner and super fun evening.
The next afternoon we walked the half hour into town to explore. We wandered, shopped and made friends with the tequila tasting bartenders, (they were selling the cheapest beer in town to lure people in).
When we were getting ready to walk back, we decided some elote would make the walk better, but didn’t have any small bills and he couldn’t make change. So we went to a nearby restaurant for change. Then the night took a turn. We met a group of 5 women on a girls trip from Nashville, who loved the sailing story. They took us in and invited us to dinner with them, their treat. As soon as we sat down it was go time! They ordered a feast of the chef’s choosing, hired the band to play at our table all night, ordered round after round of double margs, and started dancing. 5 hours later, we got our corn and walked home.
In the excitement We also made friends with a couple from Seattle who are considering becoming liveaboards. He came over the next morning to see our boat and ask questions. We didn’t make it far into the questioning when we got a text from our friend Julio. Julio is a yacht captain we met while clearing customs in Ensenada. He is permanently based in this marina on his boss’ boat and invited us all over for a tour and drinks.
So we spent the afternoon lounging on a yacht drinking beers, and making friends. What a wild 24 hours.
We got a slightly different perspective of Cabo’s tourist area.
Surrounding the marina is a large sidewalk that makes up the heart of Cabo. It’s full of people selling boat trips, hats, shirts, jewelry, and advertising restaurants. My long hair and my beautiful wife, we were pretty recognizable and I got some fun nicknames from the vendors.
Jesus was the most common, my Viking friend, Tarzan, Aqua man, and my personal favorite: Tom Hanks….you know when he’s running all over the country.
Fair.
We had to do laundry after being out for 2 weeks but the laundry was about a mile walk around the boardwalk. Each sales pitch was met with sorry were just doing laundry. They’ve gotten a lot of excuses but that had them taken aback. They apparently didn’t see us hauling the bags the first time, and each time we went to switch a load we walked both ways empty handed. So 6 miles later, every vendor recognized us and our questionable excuse.
The final walk back to the boat with laundry bags in tow was triumphant. Vendors cheered, laughed, offered to help carry the laundry, but with our excuse confirmed, we became friends with everyone.
Then came the haircut. The mullet gave everyone a new feature to comment on and I felt like a hero walking down my street. I also learned that the Mexican ‘hick’ population is bringing the mullet back and they call them zarigüeya, which means opossum.
Living on a boat in the Cabo San Lucas marina is a bucket list item I didn’t know I had. It’s like parking an RV in time square for a week. Sure it’s loud but it’s where the action is. Our boat was the only one in the marina that didn’t come and go 4 times each day, with a new fishing group or bachelor/ette party.
A fellow Montanan’s boat, Denny Washington.
We explored, ate tacos, and set to fixing the boat. We attempted to re-epoxy the handrail and it was mostly a success. We put forth our best effort at repairing the sail, but our 1930’s sewing machine wasn’t up to the task. The sail will have to remain in its wounded condition until a professional can tend to it in La Paz.
Our community has been amazing in supporting us and surprising us with blessings from afar. Thank you to everyone who sponsored a meal or a drink. We feel so so loved and also so so fat. But very happy either way.
A special shoutout to Hailey and Kyle for using hotel points to put us up at the Cabo Inn for 2 nights in the honeymoon palapa. We had the whole top floor to ourselves, a comfy bed and a warm shower…and surprisingly few walls – which made for an awesome experience.
The pinnacle of our time in Cabo was to fulfill the destiny of my hair. I started growing it before we had ever set foot on the boat, with the intent of not cutting it until we succeeded somehow in the sailboat journey. So Cabo being our southernmost stop, it was time. Taylor got out the scissors and set to work on the best haircut of my life.
The Tennessee Tophat, the Kentucky Waterfall, the Missouri Compromise, the Neck Cape, Business in Front Party in Back, THE MULLET!
Within an hour of the haircut I had 15 shoutouts/compliments, and a couple rounds of drinks paid for. It was a great investment.
After a few hour rest at Bahia Magdalena, we roused at 5 and set off for Cabo. There was no wind in the forecast but that was fine by us. The morning was incredible. We saw more birds, dolphins and baitfish in the 30 minutes either side of sunrise than we’d expect in a lifetime.
The pacific was calm and skies were sunny so we lounged casually on the bow, and listened to audio books. Sunset brought fog and a windless wavy night.
We started seeing sea turtles! They are impossible to photograph because they’re skiddish and just under the surface but it’s the best confirmation that we’re nearly in the tropics.
Like I said, hard to photograph… so far
Wednesday cleared up and the morning was easy. Signs of civilization dotted the shore and eventually we spied bright green golf courses and massive resorts. As we got closer boat traffic picked up from 5 boats in 1000 miles to 50 per.
She’s just the cutest captain isn’t she.
The resorts are massive, modern and pretty cool lookin from the water.
We hooked a fish right outside the main bay but couldn’t land it. The price to pay for barbless hooks. We’ll settle in to the Cabo marina. Take a few days to relax and mostly to repair the damages incurred along the way and figure out what’s next. Hopefully lots of visitors in the Sea or Cortez. Anyone who wants to visit, we can promise good food, warm weather and refreshing water. Anytime between now and July 1st we can probably make work. We’ll be standing by our phones and planners.
Ok, these came out of order. It’s much harder on the phone to schedule posts so read this one first!!! Update: We made it to Cabo! A year ago we doubted our ability to make it to San Francisco and although it was a bumpy ride at times, and the schedule wasn’t ideal (financially) we’ve had a blast and are so incredibly excited to have made it this far.
Look out for emails the next 3 days as I’m gonna try to catch up on missed posts from the Baja stretch, WiFi pending.
In the mean time:
We spent 2 days in turtle bay. It’s a cute but dusty little town. The locals were very helpful, and presumably everyone knew of us as we were the only boat anchored in the bay. A man who spoke a few English words met us on the beach and offered to take our trash to his dumpster. He pointed us in the direction of the grocery store with a water filling station. En route a 12-ish-year old boy met us and offered to show us the rest of the way. We’re glad he did because it was an unmarked bright green building. Inside he helped us find the water spigot and offered a tour of the grocery store. We hauled our water back to the dinghy and strolled around town musing about becoming ex-pats in a cute town like this.
We were alerted to the carne asada tacos being served at 6 at a little restaurant and promised to come back. We took everything back to the boat and dinghied ashore again for dinner. The 6 o’clock invitation must have been cancelled because we were the only ones there. Taylor went rogue and got fish tacos which was wise. They were far superior to the beef. I suppose it makes sense in a fishing town.
Sorry the photos are of me…Tay’s better looking but also a more active photographer
The next morning we pulled the hook at first light and set off to our next stop. The morning showed us the calmest open ocean we’ve ever seen. So under sail, we decided to fish. We almost immediately caught fish and the fight was harder than usual because we couldn’t simply throttle back because the sails kept pushing us along at 5 knots. We hauled in a tuna! It was a bonito but unlike the ones off Catalina it was 12 pounds and 33 inches! We filleted the first fish and quickly caught 3 more. Taylor’s was a little larger but we had enough meat for days so we released the rest.
The last few hours into Bahia Asunción were great. The winds built to 26 knots gusting to 30 but since the sun was up and we were only a few miles from safe harbor we kept the sail up and flew into town with the boat heeled and waves coming over the bow.
Asunción protected us from swell and we made ceviche. The next morning we opted to delay our town adventure so we could sleep in and tidy the boat. The dinghy got a bath and a fresh coat of sunscreen. The dodger windows needed to be scrubbed and as always the boat needed to be put back together after a hard sail.
We were a little ripe after 10 days since our last shower so we jumped in. The water is still freezing. Here’s hoping that the next turn will bring warm water.
We’ve been using dr. Bronner’s soap since it sudses in saltwater and wanted to try to shampoo our hair. Unfortunately, we didn’t know the soap turns into wax in cold enough water so we were unable to rinse it out and ended up in a much worse situation than before. No pictures of this process as we were wet and flustered.
We had tuna steaks for dinner as a consolation prize. We tried dunking our heads in a bucket of slightly warmed water but are still rocking the mostly waxy hairdo.
The following morning we wandered the town, collected some essentials (tecate), got a wonderful lunch and some much missed WiFi.
If the weather holds we’re planning a 4 day sprint to Cabo.
