The voyage from Ensenada to Cabo

11-8-20 We left for Cabo about 12:00 midnight from Ensenada. This voyage will take about 12 days depending on weather conditions and stops along the way. We try to travel under calm conditions of course. We are on this voyage with new friends from N76 Seacret (Jeremy and Hilda), N60 Last Arrow (Vince and Linda) and N50 Vagabunda (Jim). All boats are Nordhavn yachts, and we all met at the Nordhavn party in Ensenada. We are enjoying our travels with these wonderful people who share the love of boating and adventure, and of course safety in numbers! We traveled through the night and arrived at our destination, Bahia San Quintin (Turtle Bay). We did have some big swells that made it challenging, especially overnight. What makes this voyage challenging is the fact that there are no marinas, just open sea the whole way down. We anchor in protected bays along the way. The bays are sometimes calm and sometimes not. So some nights can be a bit uncomfortable with a boat rolling back and forth. But some nights we are traveling all night like last night. In these cases we switch off taking naps so someone is always looking out. When we do anchorages it can be challenging getting the dogs to shore. Three of the four boats have dogs. If it is choppy its hard to land the dinghy with the waves crashing in. I went to shore with our friend on Last Arrow so Murf could run around and relieve herself. There was no town, just a long beach. Poor Murf has been holding it while the boat is moving. She was so happy to experience land!

 11-11/12 We left for Cedros Island at 9:00 am which will be an overnight voyage (since there are no protected bays in between). Estimated time of arrival is 5:00 am. It was a difficult night with big swells and choppiness. By the time we reached Cedros we decided to go a bit farther to Turtle Bay (another 5 hours). There wasn’t a good place to anchor and it was windy and dark. The ride over to Turtle Bay was pretty calm. We arrived about 11:30 am and kayaked to shore with the idea that we would find a place for lunch and a beer. Ha! This was our first experience with a remote Mexican town and it was very desolate and run down. A nice, local Spanish speaking guy followed us around trying to lead us to a restaurant which after about 20 minutes we found. But it was inside a small brick building and didn’t look very appetizing, so we ordered 2 Tecates for $1 each and drank them outside. Back to the boat for lunch!

Murf outside the ONLY restaurant at this anchorage!

11-13 We left at 7:00 am for Bahia Asuncion. With all of our extra time on the boat with absolutely no service, we listen to the news via satellite radio (and music), clean, play with Murf, and try to workout. This mainly involves push-ups, sit-ups, pull ups from the crane, and stretching. It is a bit of a challenge to keep in shape on these voyages but a great time to be isolated due to COVID-19. I don’t miss the daily wearing of a mask! You may wonder why it takes so long to move down the Baja coast. Think of it like this, it is the same pace as jogging down the coast! We travel about 6.5-7.5 knots. When we arrive at an anchorage without a town, or with not much of a town, our evenings consist of making dinner, reading and watching a stored movie from a hard drive. Remember no internet so no Netflix! :(

11-14 —11-16 Punta Abreojos (Scorpion Bay) Arrived at 4:00 pm and took Murf to the beach. On our landing our dinghy almost capsized as the waves came in stronger than we anticipated! This town is a bit more civilized, and has some small grocery stores and a few restaurants. We spent a few days here to rest up. We went to dinner at El Burro the first night. Hilda on Seacret has been a Godsend. She is fluent in Spanish so she plans outings and talks to the locals to make it happen. Because it is a bit tricky to dinghy in at night, she talked to some local fishermen to pick us all up in a Panga, which is what they call the small fishing boats down here. They are fiberglass, fairly large and have powerful motors. They are simple but can go pretty fast and far into the ocean for fishing. So we all piled in and went to shore. They pull us onto the beach with wheels. We jumped off and jumped onto the back of a pick-up truck to get to our restaurant in the dark along dirt roads. What fun! Our restaurant was an outdoor place and it was very cute. We had great margaritas and great food really cheap! The tortillas here are different than in the US. They are much thinner and browned a bit. Much better in my opinion.
The next day Darryn and I went running on the beach barefoot, which we really enjoy. Murf likes it too. We walked the town a bit and stopped into a grocery store to get some vegetables and salt. What we have learned is the stores do not have fresh veggies most of the time. There weren’t any here. The stores are very sparse.  We found salt and an onion which we were grateful for! (Darryn also bought pork rinds which are popular here). In the evening we did the Panga trip again to another dining establishment. It was outside and near an RV park. The TV was on and the Vikings were playing! And the commentator was of course speaking Spanish. Interesting how we can be in a remote town in Mexico and see our hometown team! 

Our new Nordhavn friends...

11-17 This was our last day in Scorpion Bay. Hilda organized a fishing outing for 7 am. So four of us loaded onto a Panga with two locals (the same ones that drove us into town the last two nights) and went out far into the ocean and caught a ton of fish including Bonita  (a small tuna), Sierra (similar to mackerel) and Durado (Mahi Mahi - see photo). The Mahi Mahi were harder to catch and out further. While we were out we saw a HUGE grey whale jump completely out of the water, not too far from our Panga boat! It was unreal! Something you see on the Discovery channel! It was fun reeling in these fish. Our guides were really nice and one spoke a bit of English. He brought us breakfast, which he called a burrito, but it was a type of beef jerky wrapped in a tortilla. It was good! In Mexico the burritos aren’t huge like they are in the U.S.! The fish has been so delicious here. We purchased spiny lobster from some locals, we ate our fish we caught, we ordered fish at the restaurants, and our friend Vince (Last Arrow) gave us some yellow tail that he caught while we were on our voyage down to this bay. Its fish heaven here!

Darryn catching Dorado (Mahi Mahi) and the Panga boats that are used for fishing...

11-18/19 Left Scorpion Bay last night at 10:30 pm to ensure good weather. We drove through the night and arrived at Bahia Magdalena around 4:45 pm. It was a bit of a rough ride with strong winds and swells which makes it hard to do anything onboard. But we did see a bunch of dolphins and whales! The shoreline was rocky but beautiful. Mag Bay is a very small fishing village with one restaurant, if you call it that. It is an outside place where you can order a beer and some basic food. The owner is quite friendly. I think this might be an extension of his home. The beach here is more rocky. The bay is HUGE with other yachts and fishing boats anchored here. This bay is known for good fishing as it is very big and calm. There is a town about 15 miles away. Hilda worked her magic with the owner of the restaurant who took us over in a Panga. Once we arrived a few local taxis picked us up and drove us to a restaurant on the beach for lunch. Afterwards we stopped at a market that had a limited (but better) supply of vegetables so we picked up a few. That evening we went to our beach to join a few Youtube Fishermen who were sharing their exotic fish catch with us for dinner. They are evidently very successful fisherman that fish all over the world, and want to tell anyone who wants to hear about their adventures. They talked and talked and talked. Then it got political so we needed to go home! (Yes the fish was good).

11-20/21 Today we took our boat out to a sand beach that was beautiful. We took a walk, laid out, snorkeled, and swam. It was delightful! We ended up at the same beach for happy hour with our friends the next evening to see the sunset. The sunrises and sunsets are beautiful here! We are spending five days here so we can have the calmest weather possible before our 27 hour voyage to Cabo. Its a time to rest up and enjoy the calm and beautiful bay. We did a hike the next morning. We hiked up into the hills which were steep and prickly. Murf got some burrs stuck in her fur but she managed to dodge the cactus pretty well! It struck me how much garbage is thrown out into nature here. We found old rusty mattress frames, bottles, and many other types of garbage. Huge tortoise shells too. What I have learned is that most underdeveloped countries burn their garbage, usually at night. You can smell the smoke after sunset.

View of bay from our hike and a bay sunrise...

11-22 Tomorrow we leave for Cabo. So today was spent getting the boat ready for our long voyage. There aren’t any anchorages from here to Cabo, which is why we need to do a 27 hour continuous passage. We spent the day getting the boat ready and resting. We made time for a quick swim off the boat and enjoying the sun on the bow of the boat. We ended the day with one last happy hour at the “restaurant” with our friends and the dogs.

11-23 Left Mag bay at 7:00 am in the fog. I have learned that fog is a good indicator of good weather for the day. It was an active day for sea life on the water. We saw a few sea turtles for the first time. Did you know that they are the only remaining dinosaurs? True fact! We also saw some dolphins, and three whales jumping out of the water! One jumped out fully, we could see its entire body! So fun to see this a second time(saw one on the fishing trip a few days ago)! Since it was calm we were able to get some stuff done on the boat (laundry, cleaning) and did a workout on the bow and fly bridge of the boat in the sun. We both had to take naps to prepare for our overnight shifts. We have absolutely no bars of service, so we aren’t getting any texts or the limited emails we can normally get. Murf tends to sleep most of the day when we are under way. She doesn’t eat much either, like she is preparing for not relieving herself. We take her out but she doesn’t like to go when the boat is moving :(

11-24 Arrived in Cabo! Such a pretty sight coming around the Baja Peninsula at sunrise. Saw more whales jumping too. Back at a marina, went to breakfast with our Nordhavn friends and celebrated our arrival with a few mimosas. It feels so good to be here!

We have friends down here that we met in Dana Point, Dawn and Tom. We realized when we met that we would be in Cabo and the same time. They are staying in the actual town of Cabo and we are up by San Jose in the marina. They drove up and we went to dinner in San Jose. We love the town, so many cute restaurants, shops and art galleries. We had a fantastic dinner! 

The marina here is quite nice with restaurants on the property. As much as we enjoyed the remote areas it is nice to get back to civilization. Time to settle in for a few weeks before heading back to Minneapolis to close on our house and spend time with the kids.