Sailing Around the Southern Tip of Baja to Mazatlán!

We left Bahia Santa Maria and were actually the last sail boat (of the cruisers we knew) to leave this beautiful bay.    Cinderella and Colmena left two days earlier.   

Here is Colmena with Hannah and Kevin aboard.

Cheeky left hours before us in their 23 foot sailboat.

Finally, it was our turn to leave this beautiful spot.  We were expecting this to be a two to three night and 3 day sail if things went well.  It was 200 nautical miles to Los Frailes which would be our next planned stop.  

As usual, there were wonderful sunrises and sunsets.  Do we ever tire of them?  I do not think so.  It is a highlight of being out at sea, as the sky is so expansive and the sunsets, sunrises, moonrises and stars are all so much more vivid and splendid.  

I take the helming job very seriously.  Sometimes it comes easy and then other times it is very difficult.  That is when I have trouble keeping Malo on her course.  Any small movement of the helm usually results in a large swing in our direction.  When my mind starts to drift, I will suddenly find I am 30 degrees off course.  Crazy.  I am actually trying Dan’s technique of helming with my shins and legs and light finger pressure, as it seems a bit easier to control the amount I move the helm.  That is only good in lighter winds however.  Always learning.  We had some incredible sails down the coast though. So much more enjoyable than when up north and it was so cold and the swells were great. 

The wind was 7 - 10 knots and Dan thought it would be perfect conditions to put the code one genneker up.  We sailed that for a few hours and it did give us 50% more boat speed.  It is a tricky sail to use though, and I found myself not wanting to helm as I feared I might wrap the sail around the jib forestay and that would not be good.  So. I just let the auto-helm steer the boat.

We had plenty of time and good conditions to enjoy the sail, take naps and read if possible.  

Eventually we passed the southern most tip of the Baja Peninsula where Cabo San Lucas is.  Stopping here was not in our plans, as we’ve heard it can be a rather expensive port as well as a touristy area.  We sailed on by, but I was able to call a few people as we finally had some cell service.  

Here are the famous rock outcrops off the entrance to Cabo San Lucas.

We also took a dip in the pacific to cool off.  We were tied to the boat however and it was during a calm period. NO sharks were invited on this swim.

Things were going pretty well.  The winds were light and got lighter.  Evening was approaching and we figured we would be out at sea a third night because we were not going to make Los Frailes.  As the winds became calmer, and we were only 1/2 mile from shore, Dan decided to start the motor to get us away from shore.  Two tries and no luck.  The engine would not start!  We had another 30 minutes of day light and then it would be dark.  Something had to be done fast.  Dan said we are putting the dinghy in and towing Malo farther out to sea.  So we worked quickly and efficiently to haul the dinghy onto the foredeck, inflate the dinghy using our jumping cables, pump and batteries, dropping her into the water and putting the 10 horsepower engine onto the dinghy.  Dan then tied the dinghy to the side of the boat and towed Malo away from the land.  We continued until we were 5 miles out where we were in a safe position.

We spent two night on the crossing across the Sea of Cortez.  When I was on watch, there was little wind and I could hear the breathing of large animals, which I assumed to be whales.  Not a lot of their backs were showing, and yet I could hear a large breath every so often, and I saw no sprouts of water.  Perhaps they were sleeping I do not know.  I would try to see them and shine a light and then it went under ever so quietly.  It was actually pretty spooky and I was on high alert.

The moon was pretty full for both nights, which made for a wonderful night sail. I really did enjoy the night sailing when the moon was out.  It was magical.

During the daytime, the white fluffy clouds were most stunning. We had wonderful winds once the wind started blowing.  Often we were traveling 7knots and Dan called this run the "7 Knot Express".  We were moving at a great clip.

We saw dolphins which are very hard to photograph.  I will put this movie of them swimming next to the boat, but I am not sure it will work in this blog.

Of course we had terrific sunsets and sunrises.

We finally came close to Mazatlán. There are rock outcrops in front and if you look closely there were many high-rises in the distance.  This is a big city for sure.



As we sailed closer, this interesting rock came into view. This is called Isla Creston and there is an El Faro on top which means lighthouse and our anchorage is located behind it. It is not an Island any more however, as a road was built connecting the island to the mainland, which is what made the harbor we anchored in.

We are anchored in the Municipal Anchorage which has many very large ships, cruise ships etc passing right near our boat.  This shows you the size of one of the ships. You can see the tug boats that guide the ship into the harbor. Our sailboat is the one farthest out.

Another cruise ship passing our boat in the harbor.

On the day we arrived, Dan and I took a walk and this is a beach very close to our marina.  It was so hot, we actually jumped in for a short dip.

We heard that the best way to get to the historic town was to catch a taxi or what they call a "Pulmonia"  (I probably do not have the correct spelling).  They are open car taxi's ( like a golf cart) and are everywhere.  It is really a great way to get around and very easy to flag down.  



We took a ride to check out the historic district and we came to this park downtown.  We walked around some, but did not stay too long as we were both pretty beat after our four day passage. 



This was the gazebo downtown.

We are going back to the boat now for some rest.  Another blog will be coming along.