What Happened – Part 2

So what did happen?  Well, on December 11th we, Leo, Connie and I, left San Francisco loaded up with all our trading goods for Hawaii.  The first few days were normal coastal northern California sailing days i.e. foggy, moderate to strong north westerlies pushing us south along the longitude of 125 W.  Although we were holding on tight to manage all our duties we were at least going in the right direction with the requisite amount of wind.

So this is what sailing to Hawaii is supposed to be like?

As we made our way south, slowly leaving the coastline as it veers eastward we headed south looking and hoping for the north or north east winds to start that were to take us to Hawaii.  To cut a very long, 11 days, story short we continued south until the latitude of 24N.  Winds were from the southwest and west southwest and our land based weatherman from Port Angeles was telling us that there were ‘some’ tradewinds at about 19N.  We pounded on in our innocence but after 5 days of heading south and never seeing the odometer indicate we were getting any closer to Hawaii we decided to tack and head northwest.

At least psychologically we were going close to the right path.  However, with the wind increasing, the rig crashing and no promises of trade winds in the weather predictions we called in quits and turned to follow the wind to Ensenada.  After 3 days heading inshore the wind turned to the north/northeast making Ensenada impossible to reach.  So telling ourselves that there’s nothing wrong in a few months in Mexico we turned and headed to Magdalena Bay.

Finally a day of sunshine but Leo still has his poly prop on and we’re at 22 degrees North!

Finally anchorage and then on to Cabo San Lucas arriving on New Years Eve.  As we rounded ‘the arches’ we were greeted by 3 cruise ships, pangas, 2 ex Americas Cup boats, pangas, windsurfers, jet skis and to top it all off a whale cruising through the anchorage – what a zoo.  The last time we had been in Cabo was in 1983 and there was no marina and everyone anchored off the beach.  We thought we would treat ourselves to 2 nights at the marina at $140/night!  Yes, that’s right but…..

Inner harbour Cabo San Lucas

What a night to spend New Years Eve – 2 crew members who were two worn out by the attempted sail to Hawaii and went to bed at 9!  Ah well, I wandered around for a while and then lay in bed listening to the cacophony of sounds coming from the 12 odd bars that surround the inner harbour marina.  Nothing like karaoke mixed with mariachi overlayed by Mariah Carey.  Inner harbour Cabo San Lucas.