The Great Boating Adventure (4)

Part 4 – Mag Bay to Cabo San Lucas

We had a great time in Mag Bay but it was time to keep moving, the first overnight voyage of the great boating adventure was an unremarkable success. The boat ran just fine, we took turns, and nothing exciting at all happened. Well, it wasn’t as bland as that, but looking back we wondered what we were so nervous about. We had a great time in Mag Bay but it was time to keep moving.

As we left Mag Bay, Mike took the first shift as captain, and I fooled around with books, fishing, and working on my tan. I napped a little but didn’t really “sleep”. I took the beginning of the night shift from 6 pm to about midnight. As darkness swept in a full moon rose on the horizon, so at least it wouldn’t be pitch black. I thought I might get to see more stars, but the light of the moon dimmed them. The dolphins were feeling especially playful during the night. I strained my eyes to watch the black shapes jump out of the water and splash back in. Speaking of splashes, algae at night is beyond cool! Some algae glow in the dark! When I looked out the door down at the water, our bow wake glowed. As the water tumbled away from our boat, it stirred up the phosphorescent glow of the algae. A few of the dolphins that had come close to us, I could see the glow on their wakes and splashes. It wasn’t really bright, and if you blinked you may miss it, but it was neat and helped the time pass since it was dark enough not to see anything else. We mainly wanted to keep our eyes open for fishing nets or other vessels. Other than not being able to see distance, it wasn’t really much different from our day trips. Mike kicked back, showered, and slept a little. At midnight, I woke him up, I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore.

We passed Cabo San Lucas as the sunrise lit up the sky. We were on our way to the Marina at San Jose del Cabo. It was supposed to be less expensive for fuel and slip rates. According to the book it had everything that Cabo San Lucas had. Well…that’s what it will be like when it is BUILT! After an already long night we went an additional 2 hours south and 2 hours back north to Cabo. Oh boy! Mike was not too happy about that! But in the end, he said” it’s an adventure!” We got into Cabo and went to the fuel docks, no bargains there. We decided to get a slip for one night. It will be the first marina we’ve been in since we left Ensenada, and we looked forward to all the amenities. We also wanted to go to Costco and didn’t want to have to dinghy back all those supplies. The locals were very nice, the marina is lined with restaurants and a few shops. We stood out like a sore thumb in the marina, million-dollar fishing boats and fancy yachts filled the other slips. We thought we looked like the Beverly Hillbillies, but the locals said they thought we looked more like Gilligan’s Island! HA!

After the first night, we moved out of the marina and into the anchorage right outside the harbor entrance. The tourists on wave runners and the pangas (Mexican boats) being used as water taxis kept the anchorage waters stirred up. During the day the boat would really roll around. Going into the mouth of the harbor was always an adventure in itself. I think it was unspoken law that said you must enter the harbor at full speed. Those folks are nuts! But we never did get tipped over in our little dinghy. Although on one memorable trip we did catch air and almost lost Mike’s wheelchair from the wake waves. We only have a little 4-hp outboard on the dinghy, so we can’t outrun any of the swells or wakes.

The Baja HA HA is a boat rally that starts in San Diego on October 30th and finishes in Cabo. There was an estimated 180 boats in the rally this year (2006), and they began showing up yesterday. We went into town for laundry and lunch, when we came back out to the anchorage, we had trouble finding our boat amidst all the sailboat masts. WOW! It was pretty cool to look at but it seemed to me that some of them were anchored way too close to each other. We were given enough space and didn’t worry about anyone “swinging” into us. It was an interesting lesson; you can be anchored so closely because everyone turns and swings around the anchor the same way at the same time.

I think the most exciting thing in Cabo was that I asked for and understood directions all in Spanish. No English! We were looking for the Port Captain’s office and needed to buy a set of hair clippers for Leroy we were able to communicate and understand directions for both. We had both been working on our Spanish, and it finally paid off. Cabo is a very nice destination for tourists, sport fishers, and shopping for cruise ships. It was definitely different from any of the other places we had stopped thus far.

We left Cabo on November 10th, headed for Los Frailes. A nice little anchorage to rest before starting the “Southern Crossing” which is the crossing from the tip of Baja California (across the entry to the Sea of Cortez) to Mazatlán. The anchorage was nice and calm, while waiting for Jim and Steffi I threw a line out. I caught a fish, have no idea what it was, but way too small to eat, so he got thrown back. We will be parting ways with Jim and Steffi here, at least for a while. While we head across to Mazatlán, they’ll head up into the Sea of Cortez and explore. They have really made the trip a lot of fun, and we hope to see them again in our travels!