Here I sit in Ensenada after a combination of 18 days at sea and at anchor on the Baja California coast.

All and all, the trip up to San Diego was pretty uneventful. I had to pay back about 3000 miles of crew time I owed my friend Chuck. This trip took a small chunk out of that. We were bringing the boat back for a refit after having spent 7 years in the Sea of Cortez. We had, at most, 24 hours spread through the trip of 25 knots. Never did it reach the 30 knot mark like it did last June. Last June we had 30 knots for probably 10 % of the trip. This time most of the high winds was the result of the point effect which you experience at most of the anchorages along the way. It varies, sometime you get it and some times you don’t. Just about the time you’re within 5 miles of the point you start to notice it and it just builds. We had this happen at Punta Abreojos, Cedros Island, Punta San Juanito and Punta Baja. Cedros was to be expected as just about every time I have been past the island it’s been blowing at the point. This time it was a bit different in that the wind shifted so that we were actually on a broad reach all the way to Punta San Carlos.

We departed La Paz on March 1st and did a straight run to Cabo San Lucas and topped off the tanks. We did a quick trip to the market and took off. We rounded Cabo Falso in the early afternoon and picked up a one knot current on the nose. That stayed with us all the way to Punta Colonet. We had a pretty easy time of it and were about to pass Bahia Magdalena (141 miles) but one of the reef cheek blocks let go on the main so we pulled in to fix it. We lashed the main down to the boom and rigged an out haul, reset the sail and took off and 14 miles later passed Bahia Santa Maria (14 miles).

We crossed the bite to Bahia San Juanito (91 miles) for our first real stop. The wind came in pretty strong but not nearly as strong and last June. No wonder the wind surfers love that place. We got half a night sleep and took off at O dark thirty and stopping at Abreojos (65 miles) for the night. That 65 miles took us 18 hours due to the even higher then expected current. Abreojos means “watch your eyes” so you had better be on your game. The reefs in the area are not to be taken lightly. Due to the reefs we needed the light so it was not such an early start for Bahia Asuncion (65 miles). We went inside the reefs which saved us some miles and gave us some protection from the swell.

We passed Hipolito ( 30 miles) but the engine quit. I put the boat on an off shore tack while Chuck checked out what had happened. The usual. We had picked up the muck at the bottom of the tank due to the rough seas and fouled a filter. He had that changed, the engine started and on our way in 20 minutes. A few hours later we arrived at Asuncion where we got stuck for two days. That was OK because we got some Internet time for Sail flow weather and I found a woman to do my laundry.

We left Asuncion and headed for turtle Bay (46 miles) for fuel and found out the bad news that Rubin had died two months ago. His son, Ruban Jr. is now running the fuel barge Annabel so we were still able to pull up to one of the two moorings and take on fuel. Ruben Sr. did a great job providing an alternative to the to the old ways of contaminated fuel and shot gallons of the brothers Enrique and Ernesto. I just hope Ruben follows his fathers example. Anyway, we departed Turtle Bay after only an hour on the mooring and headed through the Dewy channel and up the leeward side of Isla Cedros (48 miles). As we approached the end we started picking up the wind and with it the seas. We took some pretty good ones over the bow with twenty five knots true and decided that it wasn’t worth it. We turned back for the N/W Harbor on the end of the island and got the hook down two hours after dark. Now, I don’t like to go into harbors at night as a general rule but we had the anchor way point from last year and our radar was working well so we went on in. We got the hook down in 17 feet of water on exactly the same spot as last June. We were taking 20 to 25 knots in the anchorage but we were holding well. That’s pretty good because the bottom is Sh&T. The good side is that if you drag, you drag out to sea.

We took off around midnight when the wind dropped and stayed in the 15 knot range for 30 minutes satisfying our 30 minute wind rule. We broad reached all the way across the bite to Punta San Carlos (75 miles) with a good swell angle and arrived in the afternoon just in time for the winds to pick back up for us.

We got another early start for Punta Baja, we passed inside the Sacramento Reef (15 miles), passed Isla Geronimo and it’s good anchorage (5 miles) on our port and got the hook down at Punta Baja (10 miles), again in the afternoon with 25 knots coming at us over the low point. We had been following the coast to beat some of the current so that when we changed course to cross the bay towards the point it took us directly through a huge kelp forest. Unfortunately, it was one of the biggest I’ve seen in a long time. We fought our way through cleaning the bottom and getting the the knot meter to start spinning again which was good. The bad side is that we picked up the skin of a dead fish in the basket and the engine started to over heat just as we cleared the last of the kelp. Chuck cleared the fish and we motored the next few miles into the anchorage with the engine running fine.

We departed Punta Baja at 0500, passed San Quentine (27 miles) passed Isla San Martine (10 miles) on our port and kept going. We were planning to stop at Punta Colonet (30 miles) but the weather was so good we kept on track right on into Marina Coral just north of Ensenada (65 miles). We kept counting down the miles, 200 miles to the Jacuzzi, 100 miles to the Jacuzzi, 50 miles to the Jacuzzi! We spent the 88 dollars for one night on the dock but plan to leave after a nice dinner at the hotel. We needed the Jacuzzi and also we need to wait out the afternoon winds as well. Tonight it’s off to San Diego (65 miles). The forecast is for light, going lighter. Yippee!

***********************************
My apologies to Steve on Brendon if this doesn't read well due to the breaks I inserted.

Fair Winds.