Wow, another two weeks have sped by! We spent the first week making our way from Cabo San Lucas to La Paz – a distance of 148 miles- enjoying three different anchorages along the way. The past week in La Paz has been jam packed with chores, paperwork, friends and enjoying the offerings of La Paz and nearby sights.
We enjoyed several sessions of snorkeling with beautiful and plentiful fish and were amazed by our swim with whale sharks. We are beginning to understand why Jacques Cousteau, the famed french naval explorer, famously said that the Sea of Cortez is ‘the world’s aquarium’.
Cabo to Los Frailes – a blown jib and inflated life jacket
Our first leg was 45 miles from Cabo San Lucas to Los Frailes. We were one of a few HaHa boats who braved the 15 to 20 knot upwind breeze – or so the forecast predicted. We had been warned about the steep waves with short periods that can arise during northerly winds in the Sea of Cortez. We thought, “We’re used to short steep waves in the Straight of Georgia… and, they can’t be any worse that upwind rounding of Diamond Head in Oahu in Hawaii against the current.” So we set off. Everything was great for the first 20 miles and we enjoyed good upwind pace on relatively smooth seas. Then both wind and waves increased. And the folks who passed along the information about steep seas in the sea of Cortez were right – the waves were steep and short, and surprisingly large. Humbled again (as I’m sure we will be time and again which the sea has a way of doing). We longingly looked behind us and thought of what a delightful downwind sail this would be. It has been some time since we’ve had to sail upwind!
Then the wind began to increase and Slingshot went off a wave. Gavin said, “Oh – we’ve just blown the jib- lets furl it in.” What?! Our new (to us) beloved carbon jib that had been used for a mere few days aboard a Transpac 52 blew out its seam. Luckily we have a much stronger durable dacron jib which we know have loaded on to our furler. We probably should have reduced sail earlier and our heavy boat was too much for the light racing jib. I am going to miss that nice flat shape!
Gavin rigged up our storm jib and we had a triple reefed main (yes Jer and Don, we actually put a third reef in!) as we beat into the wind and waves and saw a steady 32 knots of apparent wind. While setting up the storm jib Gavin took a wave over the bow and his life jacket inflated – at least he was in shorts and t-shirt in nice warm water.
We were happy to arrive in beautiful Los Frailes in the early afternoon. Then we enjoyed a couple of days of snorkeling, bird watching, hiking and exploring the beautiful anchorage. We were pleasantly surprised by the clear water and abundance of fish. Nathan almost disappeared in a huge school of hundreds of large sized fish that swam on either side of him.
It turned out that our decision to leave Cabo wasn’t as bad as we thought as the wind ended up rocketing through Cabo with folks at anchor getting seasick and the Port Captain closing the port due to high winds and swells. We are still on the edge of the open Pacific, we reminded ourselves.
Los Muertos, Ballandra Bay and the famous ‘mushroom rock’
We had an enjoyable sail to Los Muertos, where we spent two nights and enjoyed snorkeling and exploring the sandy beach. Then we woke and left for Ballandra Bay before sunrise. We motored in glassy calm waters passed La Ventana – a well known windsurfing, now kite surfing spot that Gavin and I had spent time at 20 years ago when we drove down the Baja with our windsurfing gear. It was amazing to see the development on the shore – buildings and several more houses; so much more development than when we had camped on a near deserted beach at La Vantana so many years ago! As there is no protected anchorage spot near La Vantana, we continued on to Ballandra Bay.
Ballandra Bay was beautiful – several white sandy beaches, clear bluish green water, great snorkeling. We loved it. It is also home of the ‘mushroom rock’ that tourists and folks flock to all day long. Despite being busy during the day, the pangas and day visitors left in the evening and we enjoyed an uncrowded anchorage with ourselves and a handful of other boats. The next day we head to La Paz as there was a final Baja HaHa Welcome to La Paz event that evening at the La Costa Restaurant that we wanted to attend.
La Paz – a challenging, busy fun week!
We enjoyed a full week in La Paz. Some highlights were:
Welcome to La Paz BaHa HaHA party – we all enjoyed connecting with more folks from the HaHa rally – with so many boats we are still meeting new people we hadn’t met before. We all enjoyed dancing to the band and the kids enjoyed running around with friends and dancing to the Mexican band.
American Thanksgiving Potluck – delicious and fun to share in an American tradition with our American friends – it had a Mexican twist with a pinata that a friend’s boat made for all the kids
Soccer, sandcastles and sundowners on the nearby sand dune provided a great space for the kids to play on a few afternoons and some great exercise in the soft sand for all of us.
Revolution Day parade – a colourful, boisterous half day parade along the Malecon with all of La Paz out to either participate in or watch the parade. We chatted with the kids about the differences of this parade from our annual neighborhood parade back home in Lynn Valley
Field trip with friends to nearby mining town El Triunfo where we walked the grounds of a deserted mine and learned the history of the mine and small town. Picturesque and interesting busride through and outside of Le Paz to get there and return.
Swimming with Whale Sharks!!!
Our morning spent swimming with whale sharks was amazing. They feed in the warm plankton rich waters near La Paz and we joined a small group in a Panga with a guide to enter the protected whale shark area and take turns with the giant, gentle plankton and small animal feeding sharks. They ranged between 15 to 20 feet long and were feeding at the surface. We followed the guides’ lead and jumped into the water with our snorkels, taking care to not touch the animals and stay a safe distance away particularly to the powerful tail region. Their white spotted skin lit up under the sunlit waters and it was mesmerizing to watch them so close. Nathan, Gavin and I each had several turns swimming alongside these magnificent animals. Nathan and Gavin got a good look into one shark’s huge open mouth and came eye to eye with the gentle creature. Julia chose to stay in the Panga and got good views of the sharks as they swam near the Panga. It was a day to remember and I’m so glad we had the opportunity to do this.
Two long days of paperwork and Slingshot is now officially checked into Mexcio
Our first order of business in La Paz was to finalize our paperwork to ensure that Slingshot was legally checked in to Mexico. It wasn’t as smooth as we would have hoped, but we are now legal and thankful to have completed the checkin process.
In Cabo we tried to check the boat in but because we didn’t have our ‘temporary import permit- TIP’ for Slingshot (no office in Cabo to obtain this) the Port Captain didn’t stamp our paperwork. Since the nearest Banjercito (military bank to pay the import fee for the TIP) is in La Paz we decided to complete that paperwork in La Paz.
The TIP part of the process went smoothly – a morning bus ride to a nearby town outside of La Paz to the Banjercito and friendly staff had our TIP completed smoothly and we were back in La Paz by early afternoon.
The Port Captain checkin, unfortunately, took us a couple of days and a number of trips back and forth across La Paz as we tried to complete additional requirements requested by the Port Captain. These included a second trip to immigration which we were later informed by immigration was unnecessary, and then a health checkup by a physician to confirm we were all not ill. Finally success – we’d checked all the boxes and received the needed stamp to checkin Slingshot.
Our lesson learned – Use a paid agent in Cabo for the Port Captain’s office if you don’t already have a TIP! Friends did this and they obtained their Port Captain stamp without any additional steps and they did not have a TIP! I think the Port Captain’s office was well meaning but we presented an unusual situation which created in some additional hurdles. The kids did so well through all of this.
Where to Next?
We are looking forward to cruising the beautiful Sea of Cortez. It is regarded as one of the top cruising destinations in the wold and we are excited to explore the new anchorages and towns. Our internet reception will be spotty to non-existant due to the uninhabited nature of the area we are heading to. We will try to send updates regularly but there may be some delay.
Hello SV Slingshot. I am a friend of Bernie’s from Seniors Cycling. I learned of the pre trip preparations etc during our rides starting Sept 2017. I am quite enjoying your blog.
Thank you. Safe travels.
Cheers
David
“GeMara”
1986 Hunter 34
Coal Harbour
Hi David – we’re so glad you are following along with us! Thank you for reaching out.
Gavin and family, this is Wolf from Lobo del Mar, your former boat neighbour at Jericho. Great to hear you are fulfilling your dream.
We did the same sailing trip in November, 2011 on a Sabre 45 (Howard & Lynn Bradbrooke are the owners) from San Diego to Cabo to Los Trailed to Mazatland, then from PV to Zahautenay.
Enjoy your cruising in Mexico. We will be in PV from January 1 to March 31 staying in the old down. If you need some moorage suggestions let me know.
Hi Wolf – wonderful to hear from you. We will be in PV around the same time. Leaving Loreto today and are starting to head southbound. We are planning to be in La Cruz from Xmas time on. We’d love to have you aboard for a drink. You can send us an email to svslingshot@gmail.com with your contact info. Cheers, Gavin and Jenn