Baja sailing - Turtle, Santa Maria, Magdalena Bays and Cabo

We left Turtle Bay two and a half weeks ago. We caught a good weather window with good wind and seas. The trip took forty two hours of mostly sailing. We had some excitement on the second night. While on his watch Jeffrey got to see the brightest and largest meteor in his life. It was so bright he thought it was a night flare of the military type also there was a full moon and clear skies. Just a hour before that he was almost hit in the side of the head by a flying fish. It flew by his head and hit the back stay then the water.

We arrived in Santa Maria Bay at sun up and dropped the hook. We slept for a couple hours and began to set up house. The anchorage had a couple boats in it two of which had young girls. One was Phoebes age the other a little younger. They got to play for two days and all got along very well. That night five of the boats had a fire on the beach and Jeffrey got to light off some fireworks he had been saving for a few years. It was great fun for us and the bugs, we were ate alive.

The next day we did some beach combing for shells and such. The beach was full of sand dollars, scallop, abalone,and many we didn't recognize. We have been following the coast of Baja for a few weeks and this was the best anchorage that we have had. So much so that we spent eight days there while waiting out a group of boats in mag bay.

By now we were running low on meat for our meals. Not to worry though the fishermen were willing to barter or outright sell their lobster. We were able to get 23 lobster for pesos, d cell batteries, and snicker bars. Our total cost was about forty dollars. The bay is also a shrimping area and for a plate of Pattis cinnamon rolls we were given about 15lbs of large shrimp.

We had a system move in from the south east and had to escape some major fetch. We hauled up and took refuge in the south end of the bay with one other boat. At about one am the next morning the wind clocked around and by two we were in swell and fetch again but were able to sleep till daylight. With the daylight we moved back to the north anchorage to endure two days of southerly swell. lucky for us the wind was from the north so we hobby horsed as the swell deminished.

On monday we moved to Magdelana Bay and spent three days in man of war cove. Waiting for a good window to head to Cabo we went to the fishing village and did a few hikes. One to the grave yard. So many children and hardly anyone over sixty years old. On thursday we left in the early morning for Cabo, Jeff had called ahead to see if we could get a slip in San Jose Del Cabo at the new marina and was successful.

Twenty nine hours on the iron in a large west swell and no wind. The new marina is real nice but not complete. It is mostly stink pots as the draft of sail boats limits the avalibility of slips. Our slip in one boat from the end tie where the marina owner has just moved his 100' power yacht Super.
He is the brewery owner of Corona and other brands of beer. He came in last night for the grand opening party this coming Saturday, The President of Mexico is also supposed to be here for the do. We wont.