the canoe

Position: Anchored in Bahia Santa Maria

Rounded Cabo San Lazaro at sunup, going about 5 kts. We could see dense fog rolling out of the mouth of  Bahia Santa Maria, so we slowed down to let it burn off before entering the bay. After a couple of hours, we had about 150 yards of visibility, so we slowly rounded Punta Hughes and crept north into the bay. We groped about a mile and a half up the bay through the fog and got the hook down in the lee of Punta Hughes around 1030 hrs. A little while later the fog lifted and revealed the starkly beautiful bay stretching away to the east and south, and hills to the north and west. There are no facilities here except for a small Mexican fish camp. Bahia Santa Maria is known as a windy place and right now it's blowing about 25 kts. We'll stay here overnight, and leave around 0600 tomorrow morning.

Position: 25d, 25.9m N, 113d, 00m W
Course: 150d magnetic
Speed: 6.2 kt
Wind: 13 kt @ NW
Sea: 3' swell @NW
Sky: 100% clr

We've traveled 176 nm since leaving Bahia de Tortugas, average speed is 6 kt. Our positon puts us about 70 miles from Bahia Santa Maria and about 50 nm from the coast, a fairly lonely piece of ocean. Speaking of distances, here are some others, as the crow (or gull) flies:
555 nm from our home port of Long Beach.
235 nm from Cabo San Lucas
521 nm from Puerto Vallarta

Seen little sea life on this passage, except for the ever-present dolphins. Did see a long-tailed Tropicbird, the first of its kind to be seen on this voyage, earlier today. Sailing conditions are excellent, with a waxing gibbous moon high overhead and a solid breeze. We are sailing with a full main and #2 jib. I brought a spinnaker but it's not feasible to fly it with only one person on deck. So we're sailing hotter angles, keeping the apparent wind at about 120 deg. and jibing when it makes sense.

11-16-2010 1800 hrs.
Position: 27 deg. 06.5 min. north, 114 deg. 35.3 min. west
Course: 105 deg. M 
Speed: 5.8 kt
Wind: 13 kt @ NW
Sea: 4' swell @NW
Sky: 100% clear

Broad reaching under full main and #2. Early afternoon the wind built to 18-20kt and gave us a big push south. We are now headed southeast and will pass about 8 nm off Isla San Roque, then a few miles further, Isla Asuncion. There is a good anchorage in Bahia Asuncion, protected by the island. We won't stop there now but will when we come back this way next year.

We left Ensenada Friday morning, motoring in no wind. Our course took us southwest between Isla Todos Santos to starboard and Punta Banda, home of the famous La Bufadora, to port. Once clear of the island we caught a fifteen knot breeze out of the northwest and the Honcho headed south toward Isla Cedros, about 260 miles away. On the way we would pass well out to sea from San Quintin and the notorious Sacramento reef. Cedros lies at the southwest corner of the vast Bahia Vizcaino, just northwest of Punta Eugenia. The famous Scammons Lagoon is in the southeastern part of Bahia Vizcaino.  The lagoon is a breeding and calving ground for Gray whales which migrate annually from the arctic sea. In the winter the place is teeming with whales and while spectacular, it is not a good place for a sailboat. Scammon's Lagoon got its name from captain Charles Scammon, who discovered this breeding ground in 1857 and was the first to harvest the gray whale for its oil. On many maps the bay is called Bahia de Ojo Liebre.  Scammon and other whalers set up shop in the lagoon and over the next few decades nearly drove the grays to extinction. In fact, by 1900 they were thought to be extinct. Think of the David Crosby/Graham Nash song, "Wind on the Water". Fortunately the taking of grays was banned and their population has rebounded, and now thousands of them make the annual trek along the Pacific coast to breed and calve not only at Scammons but in many of the bays and inlets along the Baja coast and Sea of Cortez. We'll see lots of these animals as we cruise south from here.

Anyway, we passed about 60 miles out from Scammons lagoon, and to westward of Cedros Island and tiny San Benito Island as well. Turning southeast we rode a strong wind and rolling sea toward Turtle Bay, arriving at 2:00pm after sailing a distance of almost exactly 300 miles, taking a little more than two days.  This place got its name for the large number of sea turtles that once used it for the same purpose as the Grays at Scammons, only the story ends differently. There are virtually no more turtles left in Turtle Bay.

Here in Bahia de Tortugas we took on fuel, had a nice lunch at Enrique's, wandered around the dusty town of 4,000 and generally lazed about for a couple of days. Rested and ready, we'll leave this afternoon for Bahia Santa Maria, 225 miles down the coast.

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A fine example of a luxury sailing yacht, about 65' long. Probably here to serve out its year out of the states to avoid taxes. This is by far the nicest sailboat in the harbor.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of this Nordhavn 63. Also new and likely serving its year out of the States. Nordhavn's have a well deserved reputation as very capable long distance cruising motor yachts.

Had a nice sail down from Long Beach. Mostly light air all the way. Got a bit of rain twenty miles out, but, all things considered it was a near perfect ride. Yesterday I wandered around the marina looking for interesting cruising boats to write about. Unfortunately there was only one to be seen, and I already know all about the Honcho. There are quite a few cruising sailboats here, but they all look like they've been here a long time and their owners have no plans to leave anytime in the foreseeable future. Both the boats and their owners look pretty old and kind of scruffy...I fit right in!

The weather forecast is for warm temps and fair winds,  so the Honcho will be out of here in a couple of days.