Turtle Bay

Bahia de Tortugas, Baja California Sur. On the charts, it's called Puerto San Bartolome. To cruisers, it's simply "Turtle Bay". The trip here from Ensenada took us 49 hours, and was about 290 miles. Leaving Ensenada, we were visited by several Blue whales, and two of them got to within 50 yards or so from us. They are huge, and graceful, and their spout is like a "V". They are a heck of a lot bigger than this boat! We motored away from Ensenada into a direct headwind, having to go west to get out past Punta Banda, at which point we turned to the southeast and set sail. We motor sailed for a few hours, and then were able to shut it down and let the wind take us. The wind was forecast to be light, but it freshened to 15 - 20 knots and seemed to stay that way all the way here. At one point during one of the nights, I saw it hit 29 knots, and since I was steering the boat, Teri came up to help me reduce sail somewhat. With moderate swell and steep wind waves, it was actually a rather rough 2 days.

The Mexican coastline is very scalloped, and about 100 miles south of Ensenada we left the coastline and took a direct course to pass just to the west of Isla Cedros. This course took us quite a ways offshore, and for the first time I was able to look completely around the boat and not see land. It was also amazing to go for a day and night without seeing any other boats! With the wind blowing up pretty good waves, we made good time but I was very aware that we were on our own. In addition to the isolation, there were also all the warnings that the charts are not totally accurate and some of the coastline was last mapped by the U.S.S. Ranger in 1890 -1892. To drive the point home, the first afternoon out of Ensenada we sailed past two haystack type rocks that were not on the charts! So getting offshore further was good, because the water was charted to be about 7000 feet deep. 

We sailed down the west side side of Isla Cedros, and after clearing it by a good margin we turned southeast again, rejoining the coastline at Punta Eugenia and continuing another 20 miles or so to Turtle Bay. It was morning, and the wind was blowing briskly from the northeast, so it was on the beam or forward a little to close hauled. It was my watch, and the autopilot was doing a great job of driving the boat, so I was kicking back and trimming the sails for maximum speed. I was over 7 knots for a long time, which was perfect because it was fast enough to convince a Yellowfin Tuna that the cedar plug we were towing was its next meal. The handline went tight and I yelled "fish on!" and pulled it in. Ed estimates that it was about 20 pounds, and it was a beautiful fish. In all the excitement, I did not get a good picture of it. Ed filleted it immediately, and we had fish for three days! Too bad we don't have any wasabi aboard!

We had met several cruisers in Ensenada who were heading south, and many of us left there on the same day. I'm happy to report that they all arrived here, although some of them took considerably longer than others. Today most of us got together on the beach at a small place that is run by a guy named Rogelio. He has a little snack bar and happens to sell cerveza for 15 pesos, and it didn't take long until we had quite a party going. It was fun to get to know some of the other people who are doing the same thing as we are, and compare stories about the trip from Ensenada. Many are from the Pacific Northwest. 

SEVERAL DAYS LATER: Well, it's Monday morning, and the storm has passed. We moved to the south side of the bay in advance of a storm, and had a windy but not too rough ride. Those who stayed on the north side reported 6 foot waves breaking, and a local sailboat actually sank. The top of the mast is still sticking up out of the water. We are gathering last minute provisions, and plan to leave this afternoon. We only have 75 gallons of water capacity, and ran out last night. This morning Ed had Enrique bring 50 gallons, and we poured a 7 gallon jug that we had aboard in the tank too, so we have 57 gallons in the tank, and our reserve is empty. So, we are leaving with about 70% of our capacity - not sure about the wisdom of that, but it'll be interesting! In the meantime, I'll be fishing and sailing.

We checked out of the Bay Club Marina on Monday, the 1st of November. Moved the boat about a half mile to the "Police Docks". Because there is no place that anchoring is allowed (during the week), we took a slip there. Met some other boats who were also about to head south, and talked about the weather forecast that included Santa Ana Winds gusting to 70 knots. We decided that we were far enough south to be safe. 

Ed got up at midnight and got under way. When my watch started at 0300, we were in Mexican waters. Tijuana was astern and the Islas de Coronados were coming up on starboard. The wind was on the stern at about 5 knots, so we were motoring. Within a half hour, the wind began to freshen, and soon we had enough to get over 6 knots. The motor pushes the boat along at about 5 knots, so another knot is a 20% increase! Seas were gentle, and the autopilot was doing a fine job of driving the boat, so I was able to move forward in the cockpit and play with sail trim and look at the sky and ocean. It was a moonless night, but with fog forming and a kind of haziness that limited visibility to overhead. I saw a lot of falling stars, and the reflection of Jupiter on the water was amazing.

 On Teri's watch before my next one started, we were beam reaching on a starboard tack. The wind was light, but out of nowhere it started gusting to 28 knots. Teri has that kind of luck; not enough wind for awesome sailing, punctuated by "what the hell was that" conditions! We were about 5 miles offshore, and it was katabatic wind flowing out of the huge Guadelupe Canyon. We got a little thrill out of that and both sails got reefed for a little while! 

My next watch started at 1000, and again the wind built, so I shut down the engine and sailed the rest of the way to Ensenada. I love it when I have full sails up, 15 to 18 knots of wind on the beam, and 7 knots over the ground! Don't think it's quiet, because at that speed there is a lot noise as the boat hits waves. In fact, the wind pushes up these little (sometimes huge) waves, and then they fizzle and reform, and they do not die quietly. So even without us there, would it be noisy? If a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one there to hear it, did it make any sound?

The approach to Ensenada was uneventful. We are at a marina called Baja Naval. It is nice, and very close to downtown Ensenada. After clearing customs, Teri and I walked for a while, and got a couple of margaritas for the walk back to the boat. It's kind of fun to walk around with a margarita in a styrofoam cup, and these were excellent! Upon returning to the boat, we ran into our neighbors on s/v Eagle, Tom and Jeanne. We had talked with them on VHF several weeks ago after leaving Monterrey, and we had met them in San Diego. Since Teri had a lasagna in the oven and we had just bought some fresh bread at the panaderia, Teri invited them over for dinner. They brought a salad and a bottle of red, and of course I had opened a large bottle to start breathing before they arrived, so we had a feast! I very much enjoyed the evening with good food, good wine, and getting to know this wonderful couple!

Today the three of us walked into town and had a taco and a cervesa for lunch. Muy bueno! They are forecasting gale force winds tomorrow, so we are staying put until after the system blows through. In the meantime, we'll keep enjoying life here in Ensenada! Hasta luego!