|
29th January 2008 Bahia De Los Muertos, Baja, Bay of California, Mexico The passage from Mazatlan to La Paz during the winter season was never going to be easy, the north-westerly winds blow down the Sea of Cortez with only short breaks from November to May so a little planning was required lest we end up crashing to windward for the whole distance. We did some research and spent quite a lot of time listening to ‘Don’ the local weather guru, with this information we drew up a plan to sail north up the mainland coast towards Topolobampo and then cross the sea on a beam reach. By chance we discovered that there was an alternative destination to the south of ‘Topo’, Altata, a small fishing village with a ‘Bar’ entrance that had been achieved by numerous yachts of late. I was able to get the coordinates for safely crossing the bar and we decided to try and make this a staging post for our voyage. Round here at this time of the year, when its not blowing out of the north or northwest its calm; thus our trip as far as Altata turned out to be a mainly motoring job, whenever I thought there was enough wind to sail and turned off the motor this seemed to be a signal to the gods that calm was required. We arrived off the fairway at first light but this was also low water and probably not the best time to go in; the guide said there was twenty feet of water in the channel however we had been told that there was only ten by a yacht that had stopped there. At that time on a grey and cold morning off the channel buoys it didn’t make any difference as we could see large swells running in from the southwest and breaking right across the channel on our intended track. None the less, we made two attempts at the channel but gave up when the depth decreased to less than five feet under the keel and the swells were starting to break around us. There was a another channel marker further inshore that we could see bobbing about in the surf however I lacked the conviction to drive in at full throttle towards it; maybe the situation would have improved had we waited for slack water at high tide whatever, with winds forecast to increase in the next twenty-four hours I decided to abandon Altata and head for the Baja Peninsular whist the going was still good. It turned out to be the right decision as we had a nice light breeze most of the way across and were able to sail the whole way; with clear sky’s and an almost full moon, it was some of the nicest sailing that we’d had since Panama!! Early the following morning however the wind was more west than north and we were not able to point high enough to make even the southern end of Isla Espiritu Santo; so, with the outlook of imminent twenty knot winds from the northwest, we decided that it was best to fall off a little and get into Bahia de los Muertos as quickly as possible. By 0800hrs we were beam reaching at over seven knots and as the wind went up from fifteen to seventeen knots relative, the Light Weight Genoa was furled away and I hoisted the blade on the inner forestay. Speed was only diminished to six and a half knots so it didn’t take long to romp over the last twenty miles into the anchorage. Bahia de los Muertos was well used in the early 1900’s when there was Silver mining just inshore at El Triunfo and a railway carried the ore down to the bay where it was loaded on barges and towed away to the smelters. The ruins of the wharf are all that’s left of this operation but another major operation has now sprung up to take its place; after a brief period of peace and tranquillity, property developers have moved in, carving up the land and building luxury villas all over the headland that protects the bay. With the northerly wind blowing strong for most of our visit, the clouds of dust thrown up by these activities ashore engulfed us as they drifted down the bay: whilst this was not a great start to our Baja Cruise, the crisp clarity of the rugged mountains to the southwest contrasting with the forest of cactus plants on the low plain at the head of the beach gave us a promise of new and exciting things to come. It was certainly different from what we’d had in the passed few months, on our second day the wind was howling so strong that I became worried we’d be blown out to sea, the wind generator, which had hardly turned since leaving Panama, went into over-speed twice and I had to shut it down for fear of doing damage. Welcome to Baja!!!! We are now three thousand one hundred and thirty eight miles from the Panama Canal and six thousand two hundred and forty seven miles from Coan River where we launched in October 2006, just fifteen months ago. We have had no major failures and no major problems; I can’t say it has been great sailing as much of it seems to have been a struggle against light head winds and calms however we have seen quite a lot of Central America and have arrived in a cruising ground not often frequented by circumnavigators other than those from the west coast of the U.S. or Canada. Whilst this has added quite some distance to our voyaging it has cut down the distance we have to sail on our leg to the Marquises in the Pacific by almost one thousand two hundred miles. We believe that the rewards of what we have done so far and what we are about to experience in Baja will outweigh missing the Galapagos and all that it is famous for. With “Mr John VI”, I called at the Archipelago de Colon (Galapagos) in 1987 and whilst I did get to see some phenomenal wild life I did feel constrained by the regulations imposed on visiting yachts which require you to take a guide if you want to cruise around the islands; whilst this may work with a larger yacht and a full crew, it was not a viable option for a single hander with a ¾ Ton racing boat. Unfortunately, cruising requires some trade-off’s but I think we already covered most of what the Galapagos has to offer with our visit to Isla Isabela, which is one ‘neat’ place and the wildlife we got so close to in Costa Rica was also an unforgettable bonus; thus I’m happy that we are pursuing the objectives of this particular cruise, which is to see as much as we can whilst sailing only the shortest distances between points of interest. Of course we love to sail and enjoy our passages however I cannot understand those that charge around the world in just a few years (or less!) stopping at only a few places and seeing very little other than the ocean. With that said, we’re off, on our way to the next anchorage and our next adventure, to make new friends and accumulate great memories. Next Stop La Paz John & Paula |
 |
| It's 10 degrees cooler than Mazatlan and it was darn cold here! |
 |
 |
 |
 |