May 18, 2020
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| Last Sunrise |
This was the day I would leave my home
in La Cruz and I wasn't happy about it. I got up to take one last
walk around the marina. I didn't have much time for chipping lime
off the shower floor because I was due to meet Magic Carpet
at the fuel dock at 10:00 to move my gear aboard. I needed to do a
final load of laundry. Cherie gave me a ride. We were there, but
they texted me to say they'd be an hour late. We went back home and
returned at 11:00.
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| House in La Cruz |
I hung my laundry
out to dry, made the bed, and covered it with plastic. When the
laundry was dry, I stowed the few clothes I had washed in the
clothing bin and stowed that away. I spent the next few hours madly
finishing the previous week's blog post and managed to get that off
before I was summoned to the boat. It was a rush job, but I was
relieved to have it done. I would not have enough internet to post
again at least until we reached Ensenada.
I met
Leslie at the VIP lounge where she was hanging out with our friend,
John Ryan, of Nakamal. Jack
joined us shortly thereafter. The other two crew members, Sean and
Samantha, had taken a walk around La Cruz. We waited for them for
another half and hour. Then we said goodbye to John and motored out
to Magic Carpet. The
dinghy was large and easily held the five of us, a pile of gear, and groceries. The davit system on Magic Carpet was
impressive. While Sean, Samantha, and I scrambled up the stern
ladder, the remote controlled winches on the davits raised that huge
dinghy with Jack, Leslie, and all the luggage to deck level with no
trouble.
We
stowed the groceries and I went forward to unpack. My stateroom was
quite luxurious. I shared my double bunk with my guitar, but had
room in drawers for the clothes I would need for the journey and was
able to stow my extra bag in a hanging locker. I had a fan, reading
lights, and outlets for my chargers. Aside from being in the bow
where I might get tossed around if the going got rough, it was a
great setup. I hoped that Magic Carpet's weight
would keep her from doing much slamming as we proceeded north.
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| My Stateroom |
Sean gave me a
beer. I was hot and thirsty and it seemed like a good idea at the
time, but made me sleepy and I was useless afterward. Leslie thawed
some tuna steaks and made rice and salad and Jack grilled the steaks
to perfection. The table in the main salon was large enough for us
to maintain social distancing. I still wasn't happy about shipping
with strangers during the pandemic, but they seemed healthy and nice
enough.
We had
a bit of excitement, after dinner, as a small boat named Estrella,
dragged anchor and nearly
collided with our neighbor, Hobbit Feet.
No one was aboard Estrella. The
folks on Hobbit Feet finally
pulled their anchor and moved. Estrella's anchor
seemed to catch after that. Her stern was facing away from us and we
couldn't see the name of the boat or I would have gotten on the radio
and reported the problem.
I
helped clean up after dinner, but was ready for bed shortly
thereafter. The mast went through the partition between my cabin and
Leslie's and something, which I later determined was the main
halyard, was banging against it as the boat rolled. That woke me a
few times, but I slept well enough.
May 19, 2020
I got up about 6:40
to catch one last La Cruz sunrise. Sean and Samantha were sleeping
under the dodger, so I sneaked past them and out to the deck to watch
the sun rise. When the colors faded, I went below to write.
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| Sunrise in the La Cruz Anchorage |
We hauled the
anchor and motored out of the anchorage just before 9:00. The sun
was already warm and we had scrambled eggs with ham for breakfast.
Seas and wind were benign and we made about six knots as we headed up the coast past Punta Mita and out through the channel between the
point and the Tres Marietas. We were the only boat on the bay.
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| The Tres Marietas |
The day passed
uneventfully. We reached the Marias islands about sunset and Sean
made arrachera chili for dinner. It was quite tasty, but seemed like
a waste of good arrachera. It was, however, easy to eat which had
been his intention. While we never saw any of the wind that spawned
them, the seas grew steeper and steeper.
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| Marina on Watch |
We started our
watch schedule at 21:00. Jack took the first watch until midnight
and Leslie relieved him. I had the 3:00 to 6:00 watch, so I went to
bed just after dinner. No sooner had I crawled into my bunk than it
became so rough that I could not sleep. The boat was slamming and
launching me into the air. I started to feel a bit queasy. I lay
there all night, needing to go to the head, but afraid to do so for
hear of getting sick. Our head was in the very bow of the boat and
was heaving madly. Fortunately, there were many good handholds.
May 20, 2020
I needed to relieve
Leslie at 3:00 and I finally gave up trying to sleep at 2:35. It
seemed like the swells were abating to some degree and I managed to
brush my teeth and get dressed without tossing my cookies. I did
not, however, feel great when I took the watch and I was very tired.
I could barely manage to stay awake.
Everytime I got up
to check the gauges or look at the radar, the cat would steal my
seat. We both preferred the windward corner next to the cabin top.
Ultimately, Sean, who was sleeping on the cabin top, stretched out
his feet and drove us both away. Marina hopped up onto the bed with
him and I was left to my own devices.
The last hour was
tough. It never really got cold, but I couldn't get comfortable and
didn't really want to for fear of falling asleep. I was nodding, as
it was. I had intended to stay up to watch the sun rise, but instead
went below as soon as Sean relieved me at 6:00. Samantha had been
ill almost from the start, had taken Dramamine, and was sleeping
soundly.
I went below and
lay down on the settee in the main salon where there was less motion.
The seas had continued dropping and I was able to nap until 9:00.
Unfortunately, when I went to put on my glasses after getting up, I
discovered that the hatch in my cabin had leaked and there was water
on the cabin top where I had stored my electronics. Nothing seemed
to be ruined, but I would need to sleep with my computer, tablet, and
phone as well as my guitar.
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| Sailing Under Autopilot |
I still didn't feel
very well, but managed to eat a hard boiled egg and a piece of dry
toast. I went on deck after breakfast. I felt fairly useless, but
did improve in the fresh air. By lunch time, I was up to eating a
mild sausage and a few baked beans. Then I took a moment to catch up
on writing.
I slept until
dinner when Leslie made fish, beans, and rice. I was a little
skeptical about eating, but it had calmed down enough that I was able
to eat without trouble. I stayed up on deck to watch the sun set and
then went below to watch a little downloaded Netflix before retiring about 22:00. It was impossible to sleep in my bunk
between the pitching and the noise from the boom above and water
sloshing against the hull. I took my pillow and blanket and slept on
the main salon settee. Finally, I got some sound sleep.
May 21, 2020
I took the watch at
3:00 feeling refreshed. The swell was much smaller and we were
making good time. We had made up all the time lost when we were
crashing into waves and still anticipated reaching Cabo in the
morning. I was quite comfortable in leggings and a light fleece.
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| Dawn at Sea |
Jack was supposed
to relieve me at 6:00, but our watches weren't synchronized and he
didn't show up until 7:00. I let it slide because I had intended to
stay up to watch the sun rise, anyway. Having slept most of the
previous day, I wasn't tired. Once the sun was up, I went below and
took a nap for a few hours.
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| Famous Rocks in Cabo San Lucas |
I got up around
10:00 when we pulled into the anchorage at Cabo. We motored around
for about twenty minutes, looking for a place shallow enough to drop
the hook, finally settling on a spot at the far side of the anchorage
from the marina. There were a couple of large dive boats anchored
and a number of sport fishers anchored near the beach. We were the
only sailboat. The beach was deserted. Cabo was obviously shut
down.
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| Entrance to the Cabo Marina |
After we got
settled, Leslie made bacon and eggs. Marina, the cat, who had not
moved for the previous twenty-four hours, descended from her perch to
check out the flying fish on deck, use her box, and then search for
food. She spent the rest of the morning hunting flies. I sent
off a few texts and then sat down at the table to write.
It was a lazy day.
I spent much of it reading a book about the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Sean and Samantha took the dinghy to shore out near the iconic Cabo
arch, but were summarily escorted back to the boat by authorities.
We made chicken
fajitas for dinner and then all watched the movie Maiden,
which I had wanted to see. I went to bed shortly thereafter and
tried to watch a little Netflix, but I kept dozing. I wasn't sure if
I had watched parts of one episode or two when I finally turned off
my tablet and went to sleeep.
May 22, 2020
I woke up at 7:00
to a bright, sunny morning. I got up and drank a cup of tea with
Samantha. The others were still asleep. Leslie got up for a cup of
coffee and then returned to her cabin. I played with my phone until
the battery ran down. We turned off the inverter at night, so I
couldn't charge while I slept. Two hours later, the men were still
abed. I was starving, but knew we had planned a pancake breakfast.
I sat down to write to amuse myself.
Sean and Samantha
made a pancake feast with pancakes, bacon, fried bananas, and
strawberries. It had been worth the wait. We lounged most of the
rest of the day. I spent most of the afternoon reading a book about
the 1918 influenza epidemic. It was late afternoon before I got a
break in the music long enough to practice the guitar. Sean and
Samantha went for a cruise in the dinghy and came back with ice
cream.
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| Deserted Beaches in Cabo |
We made another
feast for dinner. We had steak, shrimp, salad and mashed potatoes.
Sean and Samantha are good cooks but no one knows mashed potatoes
like Americans. We had to intervene in order to get (almost) smooth
mashed potatoes with plenty of milk and butter. I had insisted on
peeling the potatoes or there would have been skins fouling the
mixture. It was funny how invested we were in getting those potatoes
right.
We watched the
movie Seberg with dinner and I did the dishes. We had used
nearly every cooking utensil in the boat and I could barely fit them
all in the dishwasher which we were using as a drying rack. The
dishwasher used too much water to run where we didn't have ready
access to fresh water.
After the movie, I
retired to my cabin and scrolled through the two episodes of
Outlander that I had dozed through the night before. Then I
read a chapter and went to sleep.
May 23-24, 2020
As usual, I was the
first one up. I boiled water and made a cup of tea. We didn't make
a big production out of breakfast but, after I had eaten my yogurt
and granola, others kept cooking. I ended up having an egg, bacon,
and leftover pancakes, as well.
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| Sailing Away from Cabo |
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| Bay Where We Couldn't Anchor |
After breakfast, we
decided to motor five miles down the coast to anchor in the bay where
we had originally intended to stop. Upon closer examination, the
cove appeared to be very shallow and the rocks that appeared on the
chart were not visible, which did not instill us with confidence.
After enjoying a lovely cruise under clear blue skies, we turned
around and returned to our anchorage in Cabo.
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| Iconic Arch in Cabo San Lucas |
I ate an apple with
cheese for lunch and was quite satisfied until Sean handed me a bowl
of chili with a tortilla. It was delicious, but then I was stuffed.
The sun was starting to get to me, anyway, so I retreated below to
write in the shade.
We barbecued ribs
for dinner but were afraid we wouldn't have enough. Just to be safe,
we cooked a package of sausages. Leslie made cole slaw and I made
pasta. We ended up with enough food for three meals. After dinner
we watched Brad Pitt in Ad Astra, a movie that we all found
extremely slow.
Sunday was just
another day at anchor in Cabo. The big excitement was that we were
given permission to shower. It was cooler than usual, so it wasn't
until 15:00 that I got up the nerve to swim. I don't like being
salty, so had waited to swim until I could shower. The water was
cooler than I would have liked, but not horrible. It was probably at
least 75 degrees. I did a couple of laps around the boat and then
hauled myself up the rope boarding ladder and lay in the sun,
reading, until I dried off. I didn't want to drip salt water all the
way to our head in the bow. When I was dry, I could finally take a
shower. It was cold, but at least I managed to wash my hair. I felt
human again.
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| The Resorts Were Ghost Towns |
Sean made some meat
sauce and we recycled the pasta from the previous night and continued
to work on the cole slaw. After dinner, we started watching The
Terror, a series about British explorers seeking the Northwest
Passage who became trapped in the ice. It made us feel rather
frivolous to be concerned about being trapped in Cabo.
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