Cabo

We set out from Magdalena Bay with wind in our favor and it was glorious. We had wind for the next 20 hours, our longest stretch of decent wind. The wind has been our greatest disappointment on this trip. It seems like we either have too much or not enough wind. In the beginning we were always having too much and now on some of our passages we have had none. How can the Pacific Ocean be flat like a sheet of glass? I had no idea, I assumed there would always be waves and at least some wind. At least on this passage we sailed much more than we motored. I did have a little anxiety about this stretch as we knew that there was nowhere to duck into if we ran into problems or bad weather. On the second day of our passage we noticed that the barometer was dropping and then a large line of clouds formed. We were heading into a front. We put 2 reefs in the mainsail as the mainsail is extremely hard to reef at sea in bad weather, so we always try to reef early or in calm weather. The front seemed to hold and, so we managed to avoid encountering it out at sea. We did manage to get slammed by the front just as we were making final approach to Cabo. The winds off the Port side began to drop and soon there was no wind. Just as suddenly as it dropped off that we began feel the wind shift to the starboard side of the boat and go from 0 to 15+ knots and the rain began to fall. There I was sitting in the cockpit with camera in hand to capture the grand entrance into Cabo when the rain began to pour down, and visibility dropped to nearly nothing. The fishing boats and pangas were everywhere and Dave had to pick his way very carefully to the anchorage. It took us awhile to choose where to drop our anchor. The anchorage area sits on a shelf at the edge of a 2,000-foot-deep underwater canyon. You set too close to the edge of the shelf and your anchor can slide off and too close to shore and you could ground during low tide. The winds kept blowing us off but finally we were able to set anchor right out in front of the hotels and resorts on one side and a Princess Cruise ship on the other. It took a while for the rain to pass but when it did, the colors were spectacular. The water is a stunning turquoise blue green color and so clear you can see the bottom 20’ down and fish darting around. After the clouds parted, Gene and Kathy dashed over with their dinghy and we headed in to Cabo. We found the dinghy dock and were overwhelmed by a most horrendous odor. The recent rain had overwhelmed the sewer system and sewage was flowing out of every manhole cover. Not to be deterred we continued our adventure ashore. As we picked our way from one dry patch to the next we got roped into a timeshare scam with the promise of each couple making $200. We had to meet at 8:30 sharp the next morning and give up an hour and half of our time. We found a place to get some tacos and WIFI. Tacos for nourishment and WIFI so I could make contact to assure our safe arrival. Cabo is very touristy and not very authentic however we had outstanding service and food wherever we went. Back to the boat to get some sleep and prepare for the next day…. the timeshare seminar (eyeroll) and Walmart (double eyeroll….my eyes may have gotten stuck back there for a minute).
Gene and Kathy picked us up at 0800 sharp and whisked us away for our timeshare adventure. We arrived and the story we were given the previous day had changed a bit. We were ushered into the hands of another fellow who changed our cover story again. We needed a cover story because you can’t participate if you are not staying at a local hotel and friends can’t attend the same seminar so these handlers (I will call them for lack of a better word) created these cover stories for us that we had to keep straight, or we would not get paid for our time. By the time we were placed in the taxi, we were on our third cover story and we were beginning to wonder what on earth we had gotten into. We arrived at the property and it was legit, and it was stunning. The person who took us on our tour was personable enough and not terribly high pressure, so it was relatively painless but by the end it was kind of mind numbing. The tricky part came at the end when we were collecting our cash and had to remember the names of all the people and keep the cover story straight, but we did manage to survive and did get our $200 cash. The last person that we spoke with was so surprised with the rain, she said that it only rains 6 days out of the year and she looked at me and said, “It’s your fault, you must have brought it from Seattle”.
Next on our to do list was a dash to Walmart. Armed with a stash of cash and a list we took a taxi to Walmart. I broke down and bought a Mexican phone just to give me a little more contact with family and friends. The phones we left the states with were not compatible or able to be upgraded for use outside of the states even though we were led to believe that they would be. Everyone who knows me will understand how painful this experience is for me. I hate changing phones and will only change phones if forces to even if I don’t like my phone or if it is not even working well. I had decided to get the same brand that Dave got in Ensenada just so he could help with the set up. I went to the kiosk and pointed to the Moto phone. I asked if I could get service today and she said no. I pointed to the Samsung since Dave had one of those in the past and again she said I could buy the phone but again no service. I asked if it were possible to get a phone with service that day. She explained that they have different people who are trained to activate service on each brand and this day, the person working today activates the LG phone. Sigh…. I know nothing about LG but I was determined to have a functioning phone so LG it would be. The girl at the kiosk spoke English, the person activating the phone spoke not a single word…. heavier sigh…. Walmart, technology and language barrier this was not shaping up well but in the end, I did have a phone with service and she had kindly switched the language to English when she was done. Tuck that away for later frustrations. I found the rest of our group, the carts were full and I headed to the exchange to get some pesos. There were 2 windows at the exchange and I was the only one there at first but during my transaction a man came in and went to the second window and asked to exchange some dollars for pesos. My head snapped around, I swear I knew that voice. It sounded exactly like Vin Diesel he asked how much he could exchange and when I turned to look at him I swear it was him. The lady on the other side of the window was confused by his question. He pulled out the biggest wad of money I have ever seen in my life and held it up and asked again how much he could exchange. There was a pause and she told him $500. He peeled off $500 and it didn’t even make a dent in what he was holding. Since I am never lucky enough to encounter movie stars, I then decided he was a drug dealer…yikes! I avoided all further eye contact and hustled out of there as fast as I could go. Mad dash back to the marina, piled all our plunder in the dinghy and back to the boat. Just as we were stepping onto the boat it starts pouring rain again and hailing. We heard reports of flooding in town but an hour later the clouds rolled away, and the sun came out in all her glory. Back in the dinghy and back to town. We had stumbled across a rib place the day before in our wanders and wanted to find it. We found it, they were cleaning up after the rain and not open yet, but they found us some dry seats and toweled off a table. We were the only table in there all night. The service was amazing, and the food was the best I have eaten I think since leaving the PNW. From there we headed to the beach about a mile away meandering through back streets and businesses until we finally got there. As it turned out getting there was the easy part. Getting back to the dinghy turned out to be quite the challenge because we were on the beach side of the resorts and they wouldn’t let us go through their property without being a guest. We skirted through one wedding and got escorted back to the beach and in the end had to walk the entire length of the beach to the breakwater until we got to a sidewalk that would then lead us around the other side of the resorts until we got back to the dinghy dock. The night ended with the great Cord Caper. Dave and I have music on our old iPods and somehow managed to get rid of all but one of the old charging cords and after much use the cord failed. Dave tried to repair the cord but was unsuccessful. Kathy found out that we no longer had music to listen to during our passages and came to the rescue by offering to share her cord with us. We had the charge cord during the last passage and needed to give it back, so she could charge her iPod. Unbeknownst to her, I found one of the old-style charge cords at Walmart and bought one, so she wouldn’t have to share any more. Dave decided to mess with her a bit and found our old cord which had been all cut into pieces when he tried to fix it. When we got to the boat Dave slipped Gene her intact cord and gave Kathy the shredded cord. Gene sped off in the dinghy and she was left holding a charge cord with only one end. She was less than impressed at first until she realized that she had been duped. We all had a great laugh at her expense and I am pretty sure this war is not over.
The next day dawned beautiful. I pumped up my paddle board and puttered around on it…. I need lots more practice, but I am so glad I got it. The next activity was snorkeling. They have an area cordoned off just for snorkelers. We gathered our gear and off we went. I don’t know what I was expecting but my expectations were clearly too low. It was so breathtaking that I nearly cried. It is peaceful, and the colors are brilliant right out of the National Geographic. The highlight for me was spotting a Moorish Idol fish with its brilliant yellow and black markings. I went twice, and I could’ve gone again and again. I am hooked.
Cabo is a pretty amazing place. It is also known as Land’s End as it is the very tip of the Baja and it is the point where the waters of the Sea of Cortez mix with the Pacific Ocean. It is very dramatic, but it is also highly exploited. It is a party, cruise ship, and fishing destination. The thumping music every night really gets old. There are dozens of water taxis racing around from dusk until dawn leaving behind sloshing wake, and the tour boats with their blaring music that doesn’t match anyone else make this a cool place to visit but not a great place to stay. Every bar and resort on the beach has their own music and several have DJ’s, I can almost recite the one DJ act word for word after hearing it daily. I guess all good things come to an end and when the fun wears off, it is time to move on. We spent the next day relaxing and getting ready for another passage. The weather looked good, it looked like we would have some wind and would get some sail time. The last thing to do was grab some fuel and then next stop will be La Paz. We had planned to be in La Paz for a couple weeks through the holidays while Sierra comes to spend Christmas and New Year’s with us. I miss the girls so much. It is the hardest part of cruising.