| After 3 days in the ocean sailing in 35 knot
winds from Isla Guadeloupe, it was very exciting, and a relief, to see mainland Mexico
show up at the crack of dawn. Bahia Santa Maria was our first warm, sunny, and quiet
anchorage in Mexico and we stayed for six days. Six boats (5 Canadian, 1 American
host) celebrated American Thanksgiving aboard AEVENTYR with a turkey and
all the trimmings. |
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Six days later, well rested, we sailed to Bahia Magdalena. Stayed in Mag Bay only for a couple of days before leaving for an overnight
passage to Cabo San Lucas on the tip of Baja.We did not go ashore in Cabo, but left at the
crack of dawn the following day for Los Frailes anchorage 40 miles up the coast of Baja on
the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortes). The wind picked up late morning to a strong
northerly with short choppy seas that made for a very uncomfortable passage. |
| Continuing north towards La Paz we
stopped for one night in Ensenada de los Muertos and one in Puerto Balandra bay. Puerto
Balandra (11 miles from La Paz) seemed a nice calm anchorage when we arrived in the
afternoon, but turned into the anchorage from hell that night. The winds increased from
the north and a heavy ground swell came into the anchorage. At first light we (and every
other boat in the anchorage) up-anchored and got into La Paz by 0900. |
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La Paz is a port of entry and so we had to clear
in with Migracion, Port Administration, and Port Captain. Migracion required clearance
papers from Mag Bay, a receipt from a bank for a tourist visa fee, the visas we picked up
in San Diego and passports. They forgot to stamp the three copies of the clearance papers
and we walked two miles to the Port Captain before finding out that our papers were
incomplete. It took us four hours, and several miles of walking before we got properly
cleared in.
We stayed in La Paz thru Christmas, shopping, sightseeing, getting used to Mexican
ways, visiting with fellow cruisers including several Canadian boats and generally hangin'
out, as they say. The local museum was interesting, however our Spanish is too rudimentery
to understand all the explanations. The Aztec calendar was brought here from a long way! |
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Christmas in La
Paz was celebrated with several friends we made along the way. The crews of
CHIQUITICA, SHADOWFAX, TETHYS, WHITESHELL and YEHUDI had turkey
dinner aboard WOLF WILLOW. |
| New Years eve was spent in
Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida with WHITESHELL, YEHUDI,
and WOLF WILLOW . At about 8:00 P.M. local time we met at the beach, lit
a campfire, and started celebrating by toasting Newfoundland's entry into 2000 at 8:30
P.M. local time. We returned to WHITESHELL just before midnight to
open the bubbly and continued toasting Y2K arrival in each North American time zone ending
with B.C. at 1:00 A.M.local time. The plan for the next day was to meet on the beach at
noon and have a polar bear swim. Well, nobody showed up. It took a while for any of us to
start functioning properly. |
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| It was time to move on. Crossing the Sea of Cortez and cruising the West
coast of Mexico from Isla Isabela to Tenacatita. |
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