Passage: Los Frailes to Ensenada de los Muertos

Passage: Los Frailes to Ensenada de los Muertos
Travel time: 25 hours plus 7 hours hove-to awaiting sunrise
Average speed: 4.15 knots
Approximate mileage: 47-nm as crow flies, but 100-nm tacking directly into 15 knot winds
Engine hours: 0
MVP: Mr. Mahi who donated himself to our first attempts at self sufficiency

We had planned to leave Los Frailes just before sunset but upon returning to Tao from our “town” excursion, we could see out to sea there was absolutely not a breath of wind. So, change of plans, we got the boat prepped to sail, watched the Manta rays dance and flip their goodbyes to us and caught 6 hours of rest. We awoke at midnight and sailed off our anchor about an hour later in the pitch dark of the new moon with stars ablaze. We headed directly offshore on a beautifully fresh breeze with flat seas having had no time to build. After getting the boat settled into passage mode, Shawn took watch and Chris hit the sea berth to catch some sleep before the next big day of upwind sailing.

The sun rose beautifully, we listened to the weather forecasts, and switched watches. We’d been heading offshore about 20-nm to the central Sea and tacking back to within 2-nm of land, cruising along at a clip above 4 knots, but slowly inching our way north up the coast. Close to mid-day, when we were both on deck and far offshore, we realized that there was a fish on! Chris had set up a hand line (4-ft ½-in bungee attached to our life line stanchion, with 30-ft 3/8-in dock line attached with an Ashley bend, plus 60-ft of 100-lb test mono filament and 6-ft of stainless leader, ending with a green squid and single barbed hook;Thanks to all of you who have helped us with fishing). Shawn took over the boat and Chris hauled in his first fish, a beautiful 20-lb male mahi mahi. We had been well prepared from asking everyone what to expect, but it was still a very emotional experience for all involved. Chris did an amazing job of cleaning him on the high side of the boat underway and Shawn turned on the refrigerator so we could keep the precious meat fresh to share with our friends at anchor and did some 5.12 climbing moves in the galley to cook fresh rice while heeling 25-degrees close-hauled in 15 knots of wind and 4-ft seas.

It turned out we weren’t going to make it to the anchorage by night fall, so we radioed our buddy boat Pisces who had gotten there a day or so previous so they didn’t worry. Both they and Cats Paw assured us that this was a very easy anchorage and were willing to help talk us in under the cloak of night, but since there was no pending emergency, we decided to be conservative and settled in for another night at sea. We reached a few miles off our destination about midnight and hove-to for the rest of the night, watched the anchor lights of those already comfortably anchored in our destination and awaited sunrise. Eight hours later we sailed into our current home; a big spacious beach lined anchorage, waved at our friends, set the hook, put up the hammock and took a nap.

Ensenada de los Muertos is about 60 miles south of La Paz and we have enjoyed much time here (nearly a week?!). We spent two days hunkered down in its safety as 40 knot winds blew over and sand blew off the spit of land we’re anchored behind. Since then, we’ve snorkeled in nearby coral reefs, made an exciting trip to town with Julia from Pisces to do a mini-provision and socialized with the young lively crowd we’ve found (Pisces, Cotton, Kaalelewa, Andiamo). It’s fun to meet others in the same part of their lives and who understand and have even chosen similar sacrifices that we have. With many shared meals and beverages, we’ve heard and shared many exciting sea-stories, eaten very well and (Shawn and Julia) are practicing bread/tortilla making skills. Still, as does everything, it requires a balance as it is easy to fall into the social scene, forget to look around, get caught up trying to make everyone else in the anchorage happy, and lose sight of our own vision(s). We’ve just listened to the weather (which tends to take up the entire morning) and are leaning toward starting preparations to weigh anchor tomorrow and find another new beautiful home in the next few days. Until then, we’re going to enjoy being here in this amazing place with our new cruising family.

Bahia Santa Maria to Cabo to Los Frailes

Passage: Bahia Santa Maria to Cabo San Lucas
Travel time: 51.25 hr
Average speed: 3.8 knots (5.1 day-1 and 2.5 day-2)
Approx. mileage: 172 nm
Engine hours: 0.75 (because of Cabo craziness)

Passage: Cabo San Lucas to Los Frailes
Travel time:17 hrs
Average speed: 4.9 knots
Approx. mileage: 43 nm straight line plus at least 15 (more?) extra miles tacking upwind
Engine hours: 0

We have been having so much fun that our blog updates have fallen behind. We left you last heading out of beautiful Bahia Santa Maria. As whales waved goodbye with their tails we were reintroduced to the swell that we had been sheltered from. We cruised by Magdalena Bay in order to catch the last of the Pineapple Express (clouds that signify trade winds) for the first leg of our passage. Starting with 15-20 knots of wind, we decided against our drifter as we were moving nearly 6 knots under 100% jib alone. As we moved south, the sun set, planets rose, and winds mellowed as we watched the bling of passing cruise ships far off shore. As the sun peeked up behind the Sierra de la Lagunas the winds lowered down to near-nil. Up went the drifter and out went the fishing pole until we were becalmed enjoying the sun but waiting for the wind outside Cabo Falso. Through another star filled night we slowly made our way toward the southern tip of the Baja peninsula. As we rounded Cabo San Lucas under double heads'l it felt as if we'd left the wilderness of the Outside and found Disney Land. We were welcomed by two large anchored cruise ships, 6 parasailers, innumerable jet skis and water taxis, New Zealand and Australian America's Cup boats racing, and whale calls reverberating through our hull. So much traffic made us nervous enough to turn on our trusty Yanmar for the first time since Isla Cedros.

We found a safe spot to anchor, several hundred yards off the beach just inside the massive cruise ships and outside all the anchored sail and powerboats. We sat down to rest for a moment and a little power-boat-turned-clown-car dropped anchor 10-ft off our starboard bow. Mexican children spilled out onto its transom to take turns rounding our boat on one of two rented jet skis. Luckily just before sunset as we were trying to decide where else we could anchor, they pulled anchor and disappeared. We spent the next day touring the town away from the main drag. We rode Eeyore into the marina and found yummy street tacos, frozen tropical (and chocolate) drinks, a purified water store, and several little mercados. We picked up a little food that we could carry and some cold cerveza and headed back to the boat flanked by pelicans, with a stop at the now docked America's Cup boats along the way. We ate a grilled out amazingly fresh meal and then shared a box of vino tinto (red wine) with our neighbor boat Andiamo. We started the next day with a swim in 72-degree water, 10 degrees warmer than Bahia Santa Maria, and had a mellow day prepping the boat for our next passage.


We left Cabo around 5pm with the winds and a beautiful sunset behind the arch of Cabo San Lucas off our port quarter. As the stars came out and we made our way up the coast we enjoyed shoreside Carnaval fireworks as the winds veered. Soon we were fully beating into building wind and 5-ft seas with a very short period (4-sec) which felt quite different than 5-ft 12 sec at our back that we had become accustomed to on the Outside. Welcome to the Sea of Cortez! It must be called "beating" into the wind because your boat bashes up and down while heeled over 20-degrees. We decided if we ever buy another boat, we must have a sea trial beating into the seas of some size because we were able to find every leak that Tao currently has under these conditions. Nothing unexpected (we finally learned to plug the haus pipe with rags and put a lift in the bilge pipe which had initially caused our bilge to fill in these conditions) but our shrouds as well as our entire toe rail need to be rebedded. Put it on the list of boat projects. Chris was the rock star of this passage as he loved every second of tacking up into the building winds and seas through the night. Just after sunrise we could see our destination- Los Frailes ("the friars").

We sailed into Los Frailes, and what a sight to see. We were welcomed by about 10 friendly sailboats, including our long lost buddy boat Pisces that we have been looking forward to meeting up with again since Christmas in Cat Harbor. We toured the anchorage a few times and picked the biggest spot that we could find on the shelf and set anchor upwind of (and maybe a little too close but luckily they had assured us it was ok) Julia and Jacob on Pisces. Los Frailes has been amazing. The snorkeling is fascinating with a series of coral reefs just around the corner and schools of manta rays jumping and flipping 10 feet out of the air have captivated our attention. Plus this is our first taste of social life in the Sea as we shared tea-time, cocktail hour(s), and many meals with Pisces, Andiamo, and new cruising friends aboard Cats Paw. We're running low on fresh items as it is now day-31 since we left Newport Beach which makes creativity important for group meals and reprovisioning in our near future... Besides snorkeling and sharing amazing meals, we've also been busy scrambling up the ridge of the beautiful granite peak that is providing us shelter from the north winds here to find views of the reserve just north of here, taking walks ashore and finding a classic southern Baja half-completed-palapa-restaurante, and a definite highlight was a very adventurous sail on Pisces' 7-ft Fatty Knees sailing tender in 15 knots of wind. It only took us a second to plow the nose underwater and Chris was bailing the rest of the time as we laughingly tacked it back and forth across the bay (thanks for trusting us in it J&J!). We could spend ages in each spot as it's warm (which we love but long-haired-Grizzly's not so sure about) and sunny and there is so much to explore, but slaves to the weather we're planning on heading out this evening to avoid having to beat directly into big winds and seas that are forecast to pipe up tomorrow afternoon. Sorry for the long post, we'll try to keep up and look forward to adding pictures when we get internet in La Paz in a week or so. Thanks for continuing to check in on us...