Down the Baja – Turtle Bay to Cabo

That trip down from Bahia de Tortuga to Abraojos was the biggest weather Asunto has been in yet. We had wind holding steady at 30 knots and gusting higher, and the sea were consistently 15 feet. Assent was amazing. We were flying downwind on the poled out genoa, hitting 11 knots as we surfed down a wave.  Inside the movements were so balanced that I was shocked when I finally had a moment to pop my head out and see the waves towering behind the stern. Rogue waves would occasionally crash into the cockpit from behind, soaking anyone in it. Everything was pretty salty after that trip. We arrived in Abraojos 3 hours ahead of schedule. Awesome.

Hard to capture the size of waves

Abraojos translates to ‘open your eyes’; so named by the Spanish explorers who found the point scattered with reefs and other obstacles. We anchored in the bay over a sandy bottom and were surprised at how little swell there was, considering the size of the waves overnight. After landing Otto on the panga beach we walked the town. Abraojos was lovely, it clearly had some tourism and American dollars. The town is close to the whale lagoon, where the humpback come to birth, as well as some great surf break, and the American influence was evident in the small store, where the carried a selection of gringo products. We headed out to the point for a walk and had a nap in the sand, trying to sleep of some of the night before.

Asleep ashore

The wind picked up again the next afternoon and the swell did too. It is a very common weather pattern around here to have a strong afternoon land breeze. We headed off to San Juanico and arrived early morning. I will always remember it as the place Fynn became a fish… but it was also where we had a perfect dinner out at El Burro. I probably could have stayed here… but it was time to press on. We had also lost most of our wind, which meant a long motor overnight to Santa Maria. We anchored in crystal clear water and enjoyed the mile long beach. The water was unseasonably warm, a trend this year. At dusk we did a sunset sail across the bay, knocking off 8nm for the next day. Originally we planned to spend a night or two in Mag Bay itself, but after reviewing the anchorages we decided to skip it- the closest anchorage was 10 nm from the entrance.

Southern Baja

With a 180 mile trip to Cabo we didn’t need anymore miles. Santa Maria to Cabo would be our longest family leg yet, an expected 36-48 hours. One of our biggest concerns was actually Kyber. He hates having to pee on board and will just stop drinking water. To prevent him from becoming dehydrated I feed him bowls of water with a bit of rice at the bottom, had him like the cooking pot filled with water and soaked his food in water as well. This ensured he had enough to drink and sure enough when he finally had to pee badly enough he did the deed on deck. The trip down went off without a hitch, we were able to sail a fair bit on the spinnaker, which kept our speed up in light winds. We ended up dropping the hook in Cabo around midnight after only 36 hours.

Long motor sail drift to Cabo

So happy to get to shore for a real pee