Baja Bash

Another era over. Time now for the hard slog north to begin. The goal now is to get through Baja and get home. We were lucky enough to round Cabo San Lucas in calm winds, but from then on it has mostly been a bit of a pounding. They don't call this trip the "Baja Bash" for nothing. Winds are almost always from the North, and the most that you can hope for is that they are light so that you can have a calm motor sail. The book says the winds are supposed to lay down at night, but we have had several nights of building winds and seas. Nothing scary, but pretty uncomfortable - in the 25 to 30 knot range. We have the sails reefed down small in these conditions. The seas get pretty sloppy - up to 8 ft waves, and because we are bashing into it it is WET. The bow lifts up on a wave and plunges down, and if it hits the next wave just right the bow crashes through the wave, water cascades over the entire boat, and the front end of the boat from keel forward rises out of the water and thuds down again with a terrific jarring crash. Sleeping can be difficult, so we have been arriving in port a little frayed and grumpy. And some of the bunks are slightly damper, because the hatch seals are not what they used to be, and the pile of salty clothing grows. We are buddy boating with the Hoptoads, so we talk twice a day on the SSB, and bemoan our slow progress and make plans to truck the boats home from San Diego. It can be very slow going. We have to make tacks back and forth because the boat cannot sail straight into the wind, so our "velocity made good" is sometimes 0 knots, and often only 2 or 3 knots. This means we sometimes only do 60-70 miles as the crow flies in 24 hours. Think about that next time you sit in a traffic jam!

One calm refuge was Bahia Santa Maria. This is a huge bay, with nothing but a few fishermen. We were approached with offers of lobsters (tiny ones) in trade for cookies, coke and beer - none of which we had in enough supply to trade. Our last shop was a small tienda in Perula on the mainland. Our offer of tinned food was met with scorn. We managed a feast without the lobsters though, and with chilled champagne we helped the Hoptoads celebrate their circumnavigation.

Two hundred more miles of bashing brought us to Turtle Bay (Puerto San Bartolome). Once again, a wonderful,calm refuge. But a very depressing town. The fish cannery here closed four years ago, and since then, with no work, people have been leaving in droves. Many houses are boarded up, and the atmosphere feels hopeless. The bank has even left town. We arranged fuel from the local yacht entrepreneur Ernesto. On first encounter Ernesto seems crazy, and we have heard as much. He whistled and waved his arms frantically as we arrived, trying to tell us where to anchor - something we don't respond well to. And talks a mile a minute. He brought us big drums of diesel over in his panga, and with a little pump, and wires hooked up to our boat batteries he filled our thirsty tanks at about 50% more than the going rate. He is the only show in town though in fact the only show in a 500 mile stretch of coast, and a half hour chat as he tanked us up showed us that he was not mad at all - a pleasant encounter.

We have had some unexpected happenings while here. It is really a stop and rest and fuel up pit stop for yachts, and there is a fast turnover, and mostly you don't meet the other yachties. On our first night someone bangs on our hull at 3 AM. An English guy wants to borrow our dinghy to get himself and three other crew members off some yacht that arrived in the dark because the captain has become deranged and abusive. Neill is not inclined to leave the boat but gives moral support and reassurances and the offer to watch while the transfer to the beach is made, so the captain is discouraged from doing anything crazy. This takes almost two hours and four dinghy trips as they have a mass of gear. And each dinghy trip the guy comes by Margarita to touch base. It turns out this crew of four is filming a segment for National Geographic on whales, and the Captain has turned into a Captain Bligh, and they want out. We heard next day froom Ernesto that they got a ride out to a bus to Tijuana. Ernesto says he might crew for Captain Bligh now. We told him to watch out because the captain was crazy, and he just laughed and said, that's OK we're both crazy and I'll bring my gun! Could be quite a trip.

Also there is a 'Semester at Sea' tallship in the anchorage. We had heard them on the radio and tacked passed them in the wee hours one morning. The crew stopped by to be friendly and offered us a tour which we accepted eagerly. The crew consists of 17 college students, 7 paid crew, and two teachers. They do a nine week course from California down around to the sea of Cortez and back. They study marine life, see lots of whales, and learn how to sail a tallship. Our guide, Ben, gave an interesting tour - a big boat - 90 odd feet, but it turns out they look just as cramped and chaotic as ourselves, possibly even more so, and are probably even slower going to weather. And Ben had been in the middle of fixing the head! Some things don't change.

Now after buying a few basic supplies at the small store, doing another few buckets of laundry, and getting another list of fix it items checked off, after two nights rest we are ready to push on. Who knows - maybe it'll be next stop U.S.A. And we won't be trucking Margarita home.  Take care- Sarah