November 2022 – Long Beach, CA to San Jose del Cabo

Well, we are terrible bloggers.  This blog entry is going to capture the last four (!) months on the boat – lol!  It’s been a tremendous experience, and I’ll try to sum up as much as I can.

For much of September and October, we spent our lives immersed in boat projects in Long Beach.  I worked away at boat school with the girls and Jeff worked hard to complete our many boat projects – solar panels, lithium batteries, and a watermaker, oh my!   During this time we also celebrated both of the girls’ birthdays.  For LouLou’s we went to the Battleship Iowa, which was a great day out.  We also had a birthday party at Chuckee Cheese – very fun!  For Josie’s birthday, she went to a pop up video game cafe and an escape room with her friend Ellie.  Can’t believe both of the girls are getting so big!

Around the beginning of October, Jeff’s mom, Diane, was hospitalized due to throat cancer.  She had a major operation to remove a tumor.  Fortunately, she is on the mend now, but the road to recovery has been quite long.  This time was a challenging one for us as we tried to get the boat ready to set sail and manage to have time with Diane as she was undergoing surgery and then recovering.  

On October 18th, we finally cut lines and headed first to Avalon and then to San Diego.  Our friend Kenji, who would return as crew for Baja, joined us.  Avalon was a great first stop for us, having been a family favorite destination over the years.  It seemed like an easy way to cut ties, but not be too far away from home.  We ran into another family sailing (SV Eventide) to Mexico while we were there and the girls had a great time hanging out with some fellow boat kids.  We also did some lovely snorkeling off the Casino, including LouLou’s first official snorkel! 

After two days in Avalon, we set off around 10pm for our first overnight passage towards San Diego.  It was a beautiful, calm night and it went very smoothly.  We arrived at the San Diego Harbor Police Guest Dock around 9am the next morning.  What an amazing sight!  We truly enjoyed our time in San Diego – just a gorgeous city.  We got to know many other sailing families, many who were getting ready to do the Baja Ha-Ha.  We also finally finished our solar – battery installation with the help of Mike from Makaboatworks.  

While in San Diego, we enjoyed our time on Shelter Island.  LouLou and I spend lots of time at the playground.  We went to the USS Midway and the Maritime Museum.  I also took the girls to Point Loma National Monument – a spectacular park.  During this time, the boat was torn apart as we were quickly trying to finish our boat part installation.  Also, our crew of Kenji and our nephew Satchel arrived.  We capped it off with Halloween and then set sail to Ensenada.  

One note is that we ended up not participating in the Baja HaHa, after having signed up for it months earlier.  There were a number of factors that influenced our decision, including it leaving on Halloween – a real problem for our kid crew – and not having all the boat projects quite finished.  Another major issue though was the length of the HaHa passages, the first of which being three nights at sea.   This seemed very long for us, especially having just completed so many boat projects, and we felt that taking our time down the Baja Coast was a wiser decision.  I’m glad we did.

Ensenada was our first stop.  We left on November 1st.  It was an exciting overnight sail from San Diego with our new crew Kenji and Satchel standing watch.  It was a bit blustery and rolly leaving San Diego, but it calmed down a bit as the night progressed.  Crossing into Mexico and seeing the lights of Tijuana shining on shore seemed like quite a feat.  We were all very happy and excited to see our dot on our navigation chart cross over the imaginary border line. 

We arrived in Ensenada in the early morning, entering the harbor on the tail of a huge cruise ship.  Arriving in Ensenada was interesting because we didn’t have any reservations.  It is very busy that time of year and we knew that just arriving would be the best bet.  But we still didn’t know exactly where to go.  We first headed to Baja Naval and tried them on the radio, but it was quite early so no one was answering.  So we next headed over to Cruiseport Village and found a long “guest” dock to come alongside to as we figured out where we would stay.  Cruiseport was very accommodating and we were very happy to stay there for three nights.  This allowed us to check into Mexico and enjoy some time visiting Ensenada.  It was quite blustery and cold while we were there and we were excited to set sail further south.  

Our first destination down Baja was San Quintin.  IT was another overnight ride, bringing us in in the early morning.  I was especially excited for San Quintin because it seemed like our first truly “out there” destination.  I had also spoke about it many times with a former student who had a home there.  It sounded beautiful and we were not disappointed.  San Quintin is a very wide, open, shallow bay ringing with volcanic mountains.  We anchored the boat early in the morning and enjoyed the day swimming, fishing, and getting some rest.  Josie, Kenji, and Jeff went to shore, managing the first dinghy surf landing of the trip, and managing to get some awesome photos of the enormous sand dunes.  Satchel caught the first fish of the trip, a skipjack right at anchor We made ceviche and tacos for the rest of the day – delicious!

We left San Quintin at sunrise the next morning and headed down the coast for our next major destination, Turtle Bay (a.k.a. Bahia Tortugas).  This was a major crossing for us, as we had to go well offshore as we crossed over to Isla Cedros.  I was definitely a bit nervous for this one!  Fortunately, other than a bit of rolling and a bit of an issue with the autopilot that happily resolved itself, all went well.  Isla Cedros was a magical sight when I woke up to take my watch that morning, tall mountains illuminated by the full moon and early morning light together.   

Around this time, we noticed early the next morning we were only making about 3.5 knots while we were motoring, when we normally make at least 6.  This made me think that we must have caught some kelp on the prop, so we decided to head into Cedros Town to anchor, rather than push on to Turtle Bay.  Kenji radioed to the Port Captain, asking in Spanish for permission to enter the harbor.  Once permission was granted, we entered and dropped the hook.  It was a beautiful sight – a small, colorful fishing village clinging to desert hills.  I dove under the boat as well and we had picked up a ton of kelp.  We all really enjoyed this stop and would have liked to have stayed another day or two, but the weather did not look great so we decided to push on towards Turtle Bay the next morning.

We had a fabulous flat sail across to Turtle Bay, catching a few more tuna on the way.  It was thrilling to finally enter this enormous bay that we had heard and read so much about.  We dropped the anchor close to the precarious pier and I got to cooking up the fish Satchel had caught – catch and cook!  We spent several days resting and recuperating in Turtle Bay.  It was a lovely town, with a few markets and restaurants.  The little church here was beautiful – as was the one in Cedros – overlooking the bay.  Some highlights of Turtle Bay were exploring the deserted beach just north of the town and going fishing in the dinghy for rockfish.  Satchel caught TWO and we had beer-battered tacos for dinner – the best so far of the trip.  

After five days in Turtle Bay, we headed south to Bahia Asuncion, a fishing village about 60 miles down the coast.  This was a nice change because we could manage it in one day, rather than overnight.  This stretch was the fishing bonanza of the trip; we caught over 10 tuna, one weighing close to 20 pounds.  We only kept two, and even with those we were overloaded with fresh fish.  It was poke bowls for lunch, ceviche for snacks, and tacos for dinner.  Super delicious.  We arrived in Asuncion around sunset and dropped the anchor, happily near two other kid boats we knew.  

Asuncion was one of my favorite stops along the coast, but it was a bit bittersweet as well because we had to say goodbye to Satchel.  He was flying home for Thanksgiving.  We definitely missed him when he was gone!  After he was safely on his way to the bus stop,  we spent the rest of the day hanging around La Bufadora, a small hotel run by a Canadian woman overlooking a gorgeous rocky beach.  She let us do some laundry and I raced a bit getting it to hang dry before the sun went down!  As the laundry dried, we walked along the beautiful beach road to get some lunch in the town.  Later that night, Josie got together with some of the other kids her age and enjoyed some much needed kid time.  

We left Asuncion after two days, heading out in what turned into a bit of a wind storm.  The wind really whipped up the sea and took us a bit by surprise.  Fortunately, it calmed down after about two hours or so.  After this we headed offshore again towards Bahia Santa Maria.  This was another long, overnight passage, but things went relatively smoothly – although we did notice the alternator belt was fraying a bit(!).  Entering Bahia Santa Maria was a gorgeous sight.  The water entering the bay was crystal clear and we could see right to the bottom, with gorgeous green kelp and schools of blue fish floating below the keel.  We tucked into the bay near the fishing village.  

Bahia Santa Maria was a lovely stay.  It was a flat calm anchorage and with gorgeous scenery.  The beaches had amazing beachcombing and we collected enormous shells. There are mangroves just north of the town and we attempted to dinghy into them, but we kept bottoming out, so we only peeked into the entrance.   We also went for a hike up the mountains.at sunset.  Jeff played a lot with his drone, his new favorite toy, during this trip.    Just beautiful.  

We headed out the next morning for Magdalena Bay, just a 20-mile or so hop south.  We tucked into Man of War Cove outside, again finding our Canadian kid boat friends.  We really enjoyed this spot.  The town was very very remote and ramshackle.  North of the town was a “glamping” camp, which was a great hike.  South of the town were more mangroves.  This time we managed to get the dinghies through, with the other two kid boats, and we enjoyed meandering through the gorgeous maze of water.  

After three days, it was time to head south.  We were starting to run low on food and it was getting close to Thanksgiving and Kenji needed to fly home.  This was an exciting run, because the next stop was Cabo San Lucas!  It was also exciting because Jeff caught a dorado (mahi-mahi) and Kenji caught a Spanish mackerel.  We had a ton of fish!  We sailed through the night, a fairly calm passage, and began to round the cape in the early morning.  It was an impressive sight to finally see Land’s End, the famous rocky arches that mark the entrance to Cabo San Lucas.  

Cabo San Lucas, the day before Thanksgiving, is a bit of a zoo.  We anchored beside an enormous cruiseship and a kajillion-dollar mega yacht.  Jet skis and banana boats were everywhere.  The water was crystal clear and super warm.  But it was also super rolly, so not the most comfortable anchorage.  Also, taking the dinghy into the marina was bananas – wake everywhere!  We got swamped and soaked at least twice.  Still – it was all pretty impressive and we were pretty proud that we had made it all the way down Baja.  

On Thanksgiving morning, we rented jet skis ourselves (joining the masses!) and Josie especially had a great time tearing around the anchorage.  We sadly said goodbye to Kenji afterwards.  He had been a wonderful, reliable crewmate all the way down Baja.  Thank you Kenji!  That night, we had a great Thanksgiving dinner at an Italian restaurant in town – Salvatore Gs.  It was delicious, and the perfect celebration of Thanksgiving.  

That night was the rolliest I’ve ever experienced.  Ugh!  So we picked up the anchor the next morning and headed about 20 miles to San Jose del Cabo and its lovely marina.  It’s a pricey spot, but it was a good place to resupply before heading towards the mainland.  San Jose del Cabo itself is a beautiful, artsy town, with rainbow colored papel picado flying everywhere.  The marina itself was great as well.  There were several small, very affordable restaurants/cafes right beside the marina.  The marina itself is ringed with a walkway lined with sculptures.  The whole place was lovely and very comfortable.  It was the perfect stop before our big run across the Sea of Cortez towards Mazatlan.

Overall, the crew has been excellent.  We honestly couldn’t have asked for better crew than Satchel and Kenji.   Thank you both!  The girls both handled themselves throughout the long passages very well.  While they did get a bit sea sick, there was really nothing major on this stretch.  Josie spent much of the time reading Rick Riordan on her new Kindle and LouLou listened to a ton of Audiobooks.  She also watched her very favorite Disney show, Weird But True.  Jeff was in his element.  He was reading, listening to podcasts, and making music the whole time.

Truthfully, I was the one that went a bit stir crazy on the long passages.  I finally had to download my own audiobooks to help pass the time. This REALLY helped.  Podcasts were also good.  So was fishing, although I was never all that lucky with the fish.  But I found it very difficult to get much sleep, between watchkeeping, anxiety, and looking after LouLou.  It was okay though since none of our passages were more than one night and I feel that I can miss one night of sleep without major consequences. 

Jeff and I both loved our trip down Baja.  We had worked so hard to set sail and it was magical. We both wish we could have lingered a bit longer on this portion of the trip.