Cabo was lovely when we woke up, the arches were glowing in the sunrise and the beaches and hotels were quiet. This quickly deteriorated into more and more chaos. Out came the jetskis and the pangas loaded with tourists, then the party cruises ad the music blaring from the beachfront restaurants. The Bay turned into a mess of waves and chop, and by the time the cruiseship had dropped anchor beside us Cabo and turned into a weird mix of college frat party and luxury goods.

Mmmm pizza

That night the tropical depression off the southern coast of Mexico officially became Hurricane Sandra, the lastest hurricane on record since 1949. It’s projected path had it heading north, brushing the tip of the Baja and turning inland. We were anchored on the tip of the Baja… and had 4 days before Sandra was due to arrive.

Ominous sunset

This was all new to us. We had never been in a situation where we had to make these kinds of decisions before. Where should be go? Where would be feel safest if Sandra hit as predicted, which was winds 39-70knots on the southern tip of Baja and 10-30 further north by La Paz. Our first decision was to head the 15nm to San Jose de Cabo where Dennis was on Ultregra. Dennis is also from our marina in Vancouver and we had travelled much of the Baja more or less together. This reunion in the overpriced marina at San Jose de Cabo proved very helpful. It was great to discuss options and pros and cons with someone else. We also found it interesting that other boaters in the marina were completely unconcerned with the weather forecast. However they were all experienced hurricane boats and this wasn’t their first rodeo. Regardless, you can only ever make the best decision for yourself and your situation. We decided to make the 130nm trek to Marina Fortune in La Paz. This would put us out of the high wind zone while still being were we want to be.

In the end Hurricane Sandra dissipated over sea and we never had so much as a wisp of wind. It was good practice though for us to go through the motions and make the decisions.

Some facts on Hurricane Sandra

• On Thursday morning, Nov. 26, Sandra became the latest Category 4 hurricane of record in either the eastern Pacific or Atlantic basins.
• The previous latest Category 4+ tropical cyclone in either the eastern Pacific or Atlantic basins was Hurricane Kenneth on Nov. 22, 2011.
• Sandra also became the strongest hurricane so late in the season.
• Only three other eastern Pacific storms have formed later in the calendar than Sandra in records dating to 1949.
• Hurricane Sandra became the second-latest-forming hurricane on record, behind Hurricane Winnie in 1983.
• Sandra failed to break the record for latest landfalling Eastern Pacific tropical cyclone on record. According to hurricane specialist Michael Lowry, the latest eastern Pacific landfall on record was (and remains) Tara on Nov. 12, 1961.
• The previous latest major hurricane in either the central-eastern Pacific or Atlantic was an unnamed storm in 1934 that remained a major hurricane into Nov. 23.
• Sandra became the 30th Category 3+ tropical cyclone of 2015 in the Northern Hemisphere, far exceeding the previous record of 23 such storms in 1997 and 2004.

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