The trip down from Ensenada to Cabo was about 800 nautical miles and 3 weeks of sailing. Here’s a little taste of the journey:
Hundreds of miles of open ocean…
And a few animal sightings:
- Hundreds of seals on a beach on Isla San Martin (and then watching us from the breakers once we got too near and they headed into the water)
- Whales breaching out of the water near Cabo (plus about ten other whales along the way down)
- A huge pod of dolphins skirting our bow and playing in the water near us for several minutes
- Two sea turtles that we almost mistook for kelp (good thing either way we would try to avoid running over it)
- Osprey soaring overhead with nests on top of the all light posts
- Giant colorful pelicans diving for fish and waddling around on shore
Hundreds of miles of desolate coastline…
And a few little villages:
- Bahia Tortuga, where we got to be the very first taxi ride for an old man who took us to a gas station on the edge of town after the one that we went to first had run out of gas.
- Abreojos, where we tried to get a whale watching tour but discovered after getting up before dawn to get a ride to another town that the season hadn’t yet started for it.
- Puerto San Carlos, where we grounded the boat and broke the weather vane, but managed to find every hardware store in town and get some things fixed as well
Hundreds of miles of wind and waves…
And a few other boats:
- Fishing pangas that gave us rides to and from our boat when we got near towns
- Sailing vessel Calypso, where we spent Christmas with some fellow cruisers on their boat while waiting out a storm that prevented us from going further
- A shrimping boat that we tied up next to in Puerto San Carlos and crawled over to get to and from the dock
As I got on the plane to head to Austin for a bit, I couldn’t figure out if I was supposed to be leaving the real world for a vacation, or heading back to the real world from a vacation. I guess it can be a little of both at each place, maybe.