La Paz to Los Frailes, Baja California Sur
11/25/2003 - 12/10/2003
Beautiful statues decorate the malecon (waterfront promenade). Hurricanes Isabel and Marty did not appear to damage the statues.
La Paz
Other than Cabo San Lucas, the cape of the Baja is unexplored territory for us. The western cape includes the popular resorts of Los Cabos and the historical village of Todos Santos. The eastern cape starts in the north with the city of La Paz and works south to include Bahia de los Muertos, Bahia de Palmas and Bahia Los Frailes.
A myriad of expectations for La Paz filled our heads. Fellow cruisers rave about the town. Photographs of hurricane damage are vivid in our memory. Anticipation of reconnecting with friends builds as we proceed down the channel toward the marina and anchorage.
La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur, is a significant port and resort city. Although not as well known as Cabo San Lucas, La Paz offers the benefits of a modern city along with the quaint aspects of smaller Mexican resort towns.
The English translation of La Paz means "The Peace". This was hopeful naming given attempts from various countries and pirates trying to profit from this area. The U.S. Marines occupied La Paz during the Mexican-American War. In 1853, American William Walker and about 50 of his hired guns led a failed attempt to annex Baja California as the new Republic of Lower California. He attacked La Paz (without the consent or support of the US government), and though initially successful, was eventually driven back and out of Mexico.
With Whisper tied up to the dock at Marina Palmira and no pirates in sight, we began exploring La Paz.
The long malecon suffered significant damage during Hurricane Marty. Repairs to the malecon appeared to be well on their way to completion.
This remnant of a boat cabin-top destroyed in the hurricane was one of the few left to cleanup. With over 100 boats damaged or sunk in La Paz in late September, the progress of the less than two month old cleanup effort is impressive.
Dick and Dotti on Dunamis showed us the highlights of La Paz including the Playa Coral restaurant.
A tour of the docks of the marina allowed us to reconnect with several sets of friends.
Dick and Dotti on Dunamis shared the woes of their engine -- which recently suffering a "diesel runaway". Robin suggested putting out an APB on the runaway, but then learned that this type of runaway was not something you wanted back. The engine oil leaks past the piston rings into the firing cylinders, the engine RPM's climb without control, and the whole thing comes apart from the inside-out -- the metal to metal melts, then seizes. Not good. Their new Kubota engine will arrive and be installed in early January.
Gary and Lois on Texan and Earl and Maria on Dos Brisas recounted their experiences weathering the two summer hurricanes. Tim and Karen on Sogno d'Oro gave us the scoop on this year's Baja Ha-Ha. Lee and Pat on Toucan showed us the damage to their boat from Hurricane Marty.
Earl and Maria's boat Dos Brisas shared the same dock with Whisper back in the Bay Area. After cocktails on Whisper, we enjoyed a great dinner of Chinese food.
Gary and Lois on Texan joined us for breakfast. The main anchorage is in the background.
Chartering a sailboat or a catamaran from The Moorings in La Paz is a great option to see the spectacular cruising grounds outside La Paz.
Spending Thanksgiving with friends will be a great treat. With the big Thanksgiving Potluck only two days away, we decided to bring cornbread as a side dish. Not realizing that cornmeal is not common in Mexico, this proved to be a bit more of a challenge than expected. The big grocery, CCC, in La Paz is amazing. Shelves stocked with uncommon Mexican items such cheddar cheese, Ghiradelli chocolate and Wheat Thins caused much excitement. With all necessary ingredients for cornbread in the basket except for cornmeal, the search began. As we searched for cornmeal, an American stopped us in the aisle asking if we spotted brown sugar. "Nope, no sign of brown sugar. Have you seen cornmeal?" With every likely aisle scoured and refrigerated items starting to coagulate, Robin pushed the basket to the checkout lane. As Duncan paid the bill, Brown Sugar Man ran up to us. "Guess what? I found brown sugar and CORNMEAL! Aisle 4, left side, bottom shelf." Robin ran to Aisle 4 and bought four boxes of cornmeal. Let there be cornbread. Four tasty batches of jalepeno cornbread accompanied us to Thanksgiving dinner.
A potluck Thanksgiving dinner was hosted by Marina Palmira. Eight delicious turkeys, lots of side dishes and tons of delicious desserts satiated everyone's appetite.
An unconventional palm tree Thanksgiving table was a perfect setting. Counterclockwise from the tree/sign-post -- Dick and Dottie on Dunamis, John and Christy on Finisterre, Gary on Texan (hey, where's Lois?), Robin on Whisper, and Irish-crew-guy from Dephinus.
Lois' birthday celebration at Paradise Found Yacht Club gave everyone an excuse to eat pizza and ice cream. Check out the birthday girl eating a banana split.
Exploring La Paz on foot over the next few days allowed us to walk off a few calories from a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner. With one holiday over, focus shifted to the next holiday -- Christmas.
We received news that our friends Mike and Tracy on Morning Star would not make it to Zihuatanejo for Christmas. About this same time, we started to feel rushed -- worried that spending five weeks south of PV might jeopardize the plan to get Whisper and crew ready for the South Pacific. With all the variables compiled and analyzed, we decided to proceed to Puerto Vallarta for the holidays and stay in that area until the "Puddle Jump" in March/April. We realize no matter where we spend January through March, it's all fun!
A beautiful sunset photo taken from Whisper's Cockpit is only marred by this little boat in the way. Kidding. This beautiful yacht is the Ozark Lady.
This is either a cruise ship or a ferry passing outside of Bahia Ballandra. Ferries travel between La Paz and several cities on the mainland.
Moving Down the Cape
Final preparations for departure included checking out, topping off the water supply, filling up the fuel tank and checking out of La Paz. Done. A beautiful relaxing sail from La Paz to Bahia Ballandra took about four hours. Normally, this trip is a 2 hour sail. The sailing was mellow and beautiful, so we sailed past the bay and back to extend the sail.
After settling in to the anchorage, we sat in the cockpit and enjoyed watching boats pass by the bay. Bahia Ballandra was just an overnight stop to allow us enough time the next day to sail to the next anchorage 50 miles away. Fifty miles at five knots of boat speed takes about ten hours. We use five knots as an average speed when calculating how long it will take us to get somewhere. The five knot average speed allows us time to sail even if the wind is light.
To get to Bahia de los Muertos (Muertos) from Bahia Ballandra, most boats pass through the infamous Cerralvo Channel. This channel is infamous due to its very unique winds. Winds can be light everywhere and the Cerralvo Channel acts like a funnel to create its own strong winds. Usually the wind funnels from north to south with is the direction we plan to head. This is good news for us. Around the corner from the bottom of the Cerralvo Channel is our intended anchorage, Bahia Muertos.
The morning greets us with no wind. Hmmm... we wonder what the channel will bring. At first, the only thing the channel brought was wrap-around swell from the northeast -- and no wind. Motorsailing lasted until about 1 o'clock. After 1PM, a nice breeze pushed us down the channel. At the bottom of the channel the wind reached 25 knots for about 30 minutes. Just after we reefed the main, the wind died again. Of course! We finshed up the day by motoring into the anchorage.
The popular Giggling Marlin restaurant is a welcome sight for the galley wench (aka Robin).
Bahia de los Muertos translates to Bay of the Dead. The "dead" refer to reported giant buried anchors called "dead men". Stone remnants of a wharf and warehouse from Spanish silver mines are visible on shore. A marketing guru must have realized the branding issues with the name of the area. Now, people are referring to this bay as Bay of Dreams.
"The Giggling Marlin" restaurant/bar of Cabo San Lucas fame opened a restaurant on the shores of the bay. A planned 2000 acre real estate development for the area looks interesting.
Bringing some of the night-life traditions from Cabo San Lucas to sleepy Muertos seems a bit ironic...
...yet there are party people wherever you go. This waiter is pouring tequila down (or is that up?) this guys throat. As in the photo (left), "life imitates art".
Quads appear to be the popular mode of transportation for the area.
Whether people live in homes or RVs on the beach, stay at the nearby Las Arenas Resort or rough it at the windsurf camp, most people arrived to The Giggling Marlin on quads.
Windsurfing and mountain biking opportunities abound in this area. The typical strong north winds, the 6000 foot mountain range, and the curving shoreline -- make for world class windsurfing according to a batch of wind surfers we met at The Giggling Marlin.
New friends Ursula and Erhardt on Azimut pose for a photo with a gorgeous sunset in the background.
One of the many pleasures of the cruising lifestyle is meeting people from different places. Most of the people cruising in Mexico are from Canada and the United States. In Muertos, an exuberant woman named Ursula rowed up to Whisper. After an interesting introductory conversation, we later joined Ursula and Erhardt from the sailboat Azimut at the restaurant. They started cruising from Hamburg, Germany over ten years ago. Besides Mediterranean and Caribbean cruising, they sailed through the St. Lawrence seaway visiting all the Great Lakes except Lake Michigan. From there, Azimut was trucked to Seattle and then cruised Canada and Alaska. In the spring, they plan to head to the South Pacific. We hope to run into them again in the South Pacific this summer.
The original plan was to stay in Muertos for just a couple of nights. Between eating out, enjoying the view, snorkeling and relaxing, we stayed in Muertos for five nights. Snorkeling in the bay treated us to views of Moorish Idols, Butterfly fish and lots of fish we had not yet seen in the Sea of Cortez. What a great anchorage!
Los Frailes means the Friars. Can you see the profile of shale slabs looking like friars climbing at an angle? If not, have another glass of wine and try again.
A lively downwind sail from Muertos took us 50 miles down the Cape to Los Frailes. Just north of Los Frailes is Cabo Pulmo. Cabo Pulmo is the only coral reef on the west coast of North America. A reported 220 species of colorful tropical fish hang out on this reef. Diving on this reef has been a desire since we arrived in Mexico. Duncan tried to contact a dive operator numerous times to no avail. Optimal conditions for diving occur in June and July. The dive operators must take a vacation in December.
We decided to snorkel at Los Frailes to get a taste of what diving on the reef could bring. Several large schools of medium size fish and some colorful fish greeted us on the snorkeling adventure. The snorkeling seemed better in Muertos than in Los Frailes. We are disappointed the conditions weren't right for a trip to Cabo Pulmo.
After a couple of days in Los Frailes and a decent weather forecast, we chose to hoist the anchor and head south toward the mainland.
This rare Moorish Idol explored the Frailes reef with us.
This fish camp appears to be very active. The area between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz is renown for its sportfishing. This fish camp probably supplies lot of fish to the markets of La Paz and Cabo San Lucas.