Sea Days 26-27 11/29-11/30/2016 Bahia Magdalena to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico​

We were so relieved to have a couple days at anchor in Mag Bay. The rest was greatly needed from the incredibly confused seas. When the waves are coming from what feels like every direction and the boat is relentlessly rocking in all directions, pure fatigue from simple movements becomes an issue. A simple potty break can top 20 minutes if you have to remove outer weather clothing and replace it after using the head. Cooking can be nearly impossible. We figured out that sleeping across the V-berth was the best way to go and we were able to get better rest.

The seas coming out of Mag Bay were still pretty confused, but once beyond the shores a ways it was much smoother sailing. Several hours out, glad to be moving towards our meeting point again, Otto had trouble and flashed an error message. Then Tim noticed that Otto’s motor was super hot to touch. Uh oh…that error message meant complete drive failure, Otto was dead. Our options: Claude, the windvane as long as the wind held, or hand steering. We used both methods. Hand steering is very tiring because every wave can take you off course. We had Claude working for us and Tim and I strategized on how we were going to get through the night. We sure hope we can get a replacement in Cabo San Lucas, but chances are slim.

Our strategy was to start resting right away, we would get in the v-berth ready to sleep and set the timer for 2 hours, then get up and put ourselves back together for our next shift. That would have us each on the helm for about 2.5 hours before we had relief, but at the same time we were able to sleep in good chunks. We were still motor sailing for most of this trip.

Tim was pretty tired on the night shift around 0100 so he set up our Watch Commander that alarms every 12 minutes to help you stay awake. (Thanks to Kurt & Katie for telling us about this in Morro Bay.) Tim carries a pretty big load when these kinds of things happen. I don’t have the kind of endurance that he has, but he was on the edge with this run. I was down for a morning sleep between 0800-1000. I awoke to the funniest sight ever of which no pictures exist except the ones in my mind. I thought Tim had totally lost it, or he was desperate for his shift to end…the sight of Tim moving around in the cockpit, stripped down to his underwear happy as a lark, as Claude steered the boat, made me laugh pretty hard. (Tim did have his lifevest and harness on.) The truth was he started the watch in cold weather gear, now it was about 85 degrees!

As we rounded the corner of Cabo Falso and began to see the rocks of Cabo San Lucas, we got camera happy. It put new wind into our physical bodies. The color of the water was amazing! We came into the bay and anchored near Steve and Janny who had already been in Cabo for a whole day plus. We were so very glad to be at anchor again so we could get some real sleep. We could see our anchor on the bottom 18 feet below as the water was so clear! This is quite the place! Cabo baby!

There is a saying, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans for tomorrow." So the plan was to go from Turtle Bay to Cabo San Lucas. The first morning was beautiful smooth sea, no wind and visits from pods of dolphin. We had our coffee on the bow, enjoyed the sunrise, it was very pleasant. 

Later in the day when Lynette was sleeping while off-watch, I saw a flash from a flying fish and then noticed more flashes underwater. What unfolded was pretty astounding, we had dorado, tuna and other fish all swimming with the boat. Hundreds of them on each side. You could see them over 100' out on the port with polarized lenses. We got our fishing licenses, but Lynette was sleeping and I did not know where my lures were packed away. I went down below to see how sound asleep Lynette was, and she did no budge. So I decided to just enjoy the moment. The fish stayed with us for over an hour and when Lynette got up, I asked her to just look out over the rail on the port side. Hundreds of fish swimming with us. So I got all I had which was a couple of pink spoons from catching salmon in WA. 5 seconds after it hit the water, fish on! Out goes my line and snap! I have a deep sea rod and reel with 30 lb test line. Wow, those are big fish. I heard they liked big flies, so I had the biggest fly from my river fishing gear. 5 seconds in the water and boom! Fish on! I fought this one longer with a lot less drag. It went on for about 15 minutes when the line went slack and when I reeled in the hook was straightened out. OK, last pink spoon with a big hook and a few minutes later, fish on! I fought it for about 20 minutes and had Lynette slow the boat down by trimming in the main sail. She got the net and we landed an 8 lbs Frigate Tuna. See the pictures for details. 

We knew the sunrise would be a sign of degrading weather, and it did. The wind picked up and clouds rolled in by nightfall. After 12-14 hours of constant rolling, with the wind behind and large quartering seas, rolling of 15-20 degrees each way gets exhausting. A moment came at 3am when Lynette was on watch, the winds were shifting quite a bit. The autopilot was set to adjust to the shifts. We had the jib poled out and a preventer on the main to ensure we did not have an accidental jibe, which can be very dangerous. Tim was sleeping down below when the boat came off a wave and spun around 180 degrees, The combination of the wind shift and large waves got Lynette totally spun around and disoriented. So we got it back on course but quickly realized the increasing winds and confused seas were going to put us in for a very long sail. We decided to head for Magdalena Bay to hide from the wind, get some fuel and sleep. That was about 7 hours away. Then our autopilot did a few crazy things where it lost course. We knew there was something strange at about 127 degrees magnetic and had planned to recalibrate the compass before we left San Diego, we decided that it was fine and continued on; that was a bad decision since the course to Magdalena Bay was about 127 degrees. We had to hand-steer in very rolling conditions for about 3 hours. We have a video here to show you what we were dealing with. We were able to get the autopilot into the wind-steering mode and leveraged the wind to keep us on course; what a relief. ​

We ended up getting in as the wind was really building. We read in Charlie's Charts about the bay. "It's well protected from all wind directions except SW" Well, update Charlie! We were getting pounded with a Northerly trying to get to the "protected" anchorage, it was a 5 mile stretch of open water which allowed about 2 foot, steep waves to build, at times stopping us down to 3 knots. Finally we got to Man-O-War cove and anchored there with very windy conditions. We were fried and ready to sleep. 257 NM in the books for the last 48 hours. 

After a whirlwind day in Ensenada where we pulled in about 0700 and were at the marina office to start the immigration process, the marina provided a guide and translator who took us from one window to another, we had all of our documentation together thanks to our friends. We had the port authority to pay for entry, the government, then our boat had to get registered to import goods, called a TIP, then we got our Visa's and paid for some more fees. Then we were done but needed to get our fishing license. The way it works if you have fishing gear on the boat then you need a license for each person on board. Finally done by 1pm. We took a short nap (I think) and then it was off to get fuel for the next leg. We grabbed several jerry cans and carts from the marina, we were told it was only a few blocks away, we got to the Pemex and they did not have diesel, the guy said it was five lights down the main street. That was over a mile up and over curbs on dirt sidewalks and past a horseback riding stable. Then that station did not have diesel either, but for sure the few more blocks they have it. So now loaded with 15 gallons of fuel we head back to the boat, over curbs and holes etc.

We set off about 1630 with our friends headed South. This leg was over 290 NM down the North end of the coast of Baja to a quaint little town of Turtle Bay. We made pretty good time of 2 days and 2 hours, averaging about 5.8 knots. This was our first multi-day journey, we were on 3-hour shifts starting at 1900-2200 with Lynette on the helm, then Tim would take over till 0100. Once you get into the rhythm it works really well. 
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We arrived after dark in Turtle Bay, we had two choices, have Steve and Janny guide us in or keep going to the next bay 40 miles down. (You never want to enter an unfamiliar port after dark.We heard a story of someone losing their boat and everytihng on it a few weeks prior in this very bay by coming in after dark.) Steve's VHF radio failed on the first night and we lost contact with them. We hailed them many many times with no avail. Thankfully, we did have our Delorme InReach explorer satellite tracker that we could send text messages to their phones, but there was no service for the majority of the two days. Finally we got a response back from them that they were anchored in Turtle Bay and for us to proceed. When we got within 2 miles, we were able to get them on their handheld radio and they guided an exhausted couple to raft up with them on Thanksgiving night. We had a brief meal of Turkey and stuffing and crashed by 2200. 

The next morning was glorious and the bay was teeming with action, shouts of joy from a distant fishing boat hauling in their nets for a big catch, the pelicans came to their aid. We needed to get fuel and a little project of getting the AIS installed. We purchased a colision avoidance system called AIS, but did not have a chance to install it before we left San Diego. So Steve came to Tim's aid in wiring the system up with a temporary solution. The system broadcasts our boats location, speed and direction as well as receives other ships information to us. We can then hail them by name to discuss the crossing situation. By the end of the afternoon, we had victory. So with that, we set off at about 1600 for Cabo San Lucas. We decided to just get into the groove and do the 600 miles all at once in about 4 days. The wind was predicted to be a brisk 17-20kts from the North, so a straight shot down the coast with the wind at our stern.