Heading down the outside of the Baja coast – Part 2

So apparently the email notifications haven’t been working for months, and I just found out so will hopefully fix soon!

The stretch from Turtle Bay to Santa Maria had been pretty awful the last time I had done it, so I was hoping for an easier passage. Luckily, that’s just what I got!

Things got off to an inauspicious start when the throttle cable immediately snapped as I powered up the engine to leave Turtle Bay – luckily it was just at the end of the metal connector and I was able to bodge a replacement and get back underway. As I raised the sails I discovered some small squids that had managed to fling themselves aboard on the last passage and had been hiding in the sail folds – they smelled just wonderful at this point.

The sail was pretty uneventful – light winds most the way which was honestly a relief after getting the piss knocked out of me on the previous passage.

Saw a lot of dolphins which was lovely and the usual humpbacks

I also caught TWO YELLOWFIN TUNA!!!! I’d be trying to catch these for years and finally got two on at the same time.

I also got a lovely Mahi

Santa Maria Bay was lovely, and we chilled out there for a couple of days. I took my drone I’d got in the US Costco for it’s first, and as it turns out last, flight.

There was a bit of wind when I took off, and I had it in ‘beginner mode’ which limited the speed so it gently got carried out to sea. Whoops.

Santa Maria to Bahia Magdelena was a short but fun ride – sailed most of the way and then the last part was a 10 mile beat up towards the anchorage. Sooner and Quinn crossed and criss-crossed – I held my own for a while, but it takes me a while to tack by myself with the 145% genoa (it gets hung up on the inner forestay) and flying the staysail simultaneously doesn’t work close-hauled (the extra drag outweighs the additional power) and so Quinn pulled ahead. On the plus side, them getting into the anchorage before me meant I got to tie to them for once and avoid having to pull up the anchor (using the manual windless takes ageeees).

We stayed there for a couple of days, Cass going to the small fishing village while Holley and I practiced free-diving and coming back with a gift of twenty six lobster tails and a couple pounds of fresh tortillas. Needless to say, between that and the Mahi/Yellowfin we ate extremely well over the next week.

The trip down to Cabo was exciting – there was nice wind for the first day or so and the most ridiculous fishing I’ve seen – I had 5 mahi on within 30 mins and landed 2 – putting the rest back as I had no more freezer space and pulling the lines in. I had a big school of them following the boat, looking beautiful as they flashed colours. I had friends coming into La Paz so it was good timing to get a nice feast for everyone.

Towards the evening, the wind started to pick up and built through the night. This time I reefed early to avoid a repeat of last time and had a fairly rolly yet fast trip down on a broad reach. Quinn headed in closer to shore than I did and got kicked around a fair bit more, possibly because of the land effect of the waves off the shore.

Cass and Holley were going to stop in at Cabo to try to beg a shower off someone and get water and I was tempted to stop in as well, but rounding the corner of the Baja I saw literally dozens if not hundreds of vessels coming out of the port for a sunset cruise while blaring reggaetón, which was enough of me to decide I wasn’t quite ready for civilisation after all! As we rounded the SW corner of the Baja, the wind went off as if a switch had been thrown, so waving goodbye to Quinn I switched the motor on and dodging boats, headed up to Bahia Los Frailes, arriving at around 2 or 3am.