Into Baja Sur
It was a wild ride down to Cabos. Speedy, interesting, inspiring and tough work as usual. But now step by step.
After installing the solar panels & testing the watermaker, we went two overnighters down south, arriving at the San Benitos. Wonderful. Rough. Lonely. Remote. Amazingly a fisherman told us in English the anchorage was not good. However, we stayed as the weather was nice and the scenery lovely. Next day we hopped into the dinghy to explore the beaches, as we knew there are elephant seals. After a short wild ride we decided to visit the village with it's handful of fishermen. Lucky for us, the English speaking guy was there and we got well instructed: we saw elephant seals, did a short but great hike and were happy to talk to the locals and to leave two floaters as present.
Then we headed in to Turtle Bay, where we met an Alaskan crew. We went with SY Merrion on shore, to explore and get a Margherita. They invited us for dinner and we talked through the evening. Then we sailed with them to Santa Maria. On the way they caught too many Yellowfins and brought us one. So I got a tuna preparation crash course. We had another lovely dinner with them on board Jade Akka and went on a short stroll into the wild and dry hills. Plants are armed to survive, moisture is coming in through fog only and villagers here only live on what the sea produces. It's a tough world they live in, but friendly they are anyway!
The next step for us was Puerto San Carlos to pick up Isa's dad. So we left SY Merrion after exchanging contacts. San Carlos is in Magdalena Bay, a whale watching place of the size of the San Francisco Bay. Only with maybe five- to ten-thousand people living in the area. While the whales kept distance, we got Sealowich on board before Ueli joined us (by then Sealowich had left our transom again). Ueli arrived without luggage, as the airline lost it under way. With a delay of a day and big help of the driver Alejandro Moreno (who brought Ueli from La Paz to San Carlos) and the Mar Y Arena Lodge we managed to leave. So we sailed the three of us down to Cabos. We had to motor a bit more than the days before, but speeds up to 8-9 knots under sail at night compensated for that.
Getting into Cabos we were slightly shocked. It's only hotels & villas, US-style. Loud and partying, money being the king again it's just a bit a shock after the remote sailing. Last to mention: we caught a Yellowfin ourselfes. After upgrading our gear in a super nice hardware, fisheries etc store in San Carlos, we hooked it just after leaving Mag Bay. It tasted wonderful, but was hard work to get on board and into the fridge :-) So, after sailing well fed, we are sitting now amid crusie ships, discos and multi-building-hotel-complexes, enjoying internet access!
Check out the impressions of the leg along Baja Pacific Coast.
After installing the solar panels & testing the watermaker, we went two overnighters down south, arriving at the San Benitos. Wonderful. Rough. Lonely. Remote. Amazingly a fisherman told us in English the anchorage was not good. However, we stayed as the weather was nice and the scenery lovely. Next day we hopped into the dinghy to explore the beaches, as we knew there are elephant seals. After a short wild ride we decided to visit the village with it's handful of fishermen. Lucky for us, the English speaking guy was there and we got well instructed: we saw elephant seals, did a short but great hike and were happy to talk to the locals and to leave two floaters as present.
Then we headed in to Turtle Bay, where we met an Alaskan crew. We went with SY Merrion on shore, to explore and get a Margherita. They invited us for dinner and we talked through the evening. Then we sailed with them to Santa Maria. On the way they caught too many Yellowfins and brought us one. So I got a tuna preparation crash course. We had another lovely dinner with them on board Jade Akka and went on a short stroll into the wild and dry hills. Plants are armed to survive, moisture is coming in through fog only and villagers here only live on what the sea produces. It's a tough world they live in, but friendly they are anyway!
The next step for us was Puerto San Carlos to pick up Isa's dad. So we left SY Merrion after exchanging contacts. San Carlos is in Magdalena Bay, a whale watching place of the size of the San Francisco Bay. Only with maybe five- to ten-thousand people living in the area. While the whales kept distance, we got Sealowich on board before Ueli joined us (by then Sealowich had left our transom again). Ueli arrived without luggage, as the airline lost it under way. With a delay of a day and big help of the driver Alejandro Moreno (who brought Ueli from La Paz to San Carlos) and the Mar Y Arena Lodge we managed to leave. So we sailed the three of us down to Cabos. We had to motor a bit more than the days before, but speeds up to 8-9 knots under sail at night compensated for that.
Getting into Cabos we were slightly shocked. It's only hotels & villas, US-style. Loud and partying, money being the king again it's just a bit a shock after the remote sailing. Last to mention: we caught a Yellowfin ourselfes. After upgrading our gear in a super nice hardware, fisheries etc store in San Carlos, we hooked it just after leaving Mag Bay. It tasted wonderful, but was hard work to get on board and into the fridge :-) So, after sailing well fed, we are sitting now amid crusie ships, discos and multi-building-hotel-complexes, enjoying internet access!
Check out the impressions of the leg along Baja Pacific Coast.