San Jose del Cabo 1 Feb 08

OK, OK, I know…I can’t go from daily updates to nothing…it starts to freak out those who care! I’m so sorry…we’ve just been enjoying everything here and I haven’t had any ‘down’ time pretty much the entire time! Michael & I have been nice and lazy today though and are checking off our chores.

We arrived in Cabo on Tuesday, the 29th after a 24 hour passage from Magdalena Bay. Hey! We made it down the coast – woohoo!! We left the anchorage in Magdalena Bay about 9:45am on Monday and arrived in Cabo approx 10am Tuesday morning. EZ Lady left about 3 hours before we did, and a powerboat, Seabird, left about an hour earlier. It was a very bad, very rocky rolly passage and we were glad to round the corner into Cabo. We had 4-8ft following seas with 2-3 ft windwaves and extremely sloppy. The wind was between 18-35 knots the entire night coming also from our stern so the boom flailed from side to side all evening, making the passage a working one trying to control the boom all evening. Our autopilot had a tough time keeping up with the incredible movement of the swells & wind and we had a couple hard accidental jibes, one breaking a shiv on our mainsheet block. We’ll be able to get it repaired and it shouldn’t chafe between here and there, so it’s not a huge problem. But the plastic block hit hard on a metal winch….and the winch won! It was nice having recognizable lights on the horizon to follow while we are night sailing. We had about 5 large ships – cruise ships & tankers that joined us on our passage, one passing within only ½ mile! Michael said it was close enough for him to see people in the portholes…haha. I’m finding I really enjoy night sailing and am attempting to find a new constellation every time we are out in the evening. My favorite constellation has always been Orion, the sun god, and just below his feet is Lepus, the rabbit and just to the east of that is the bright star, Sirius. I’ve also found Gemini (my sign) which is also to the East of Orion. I’ve been shown Cassiopeia, but can’t seem to identify it myself yet.

We are staying in San Jose del Cabo, not Cabo San Lucas. San Jose del Cabo is located approx 15 miles east of Cabo San Lucas and we’re staying at a new marina here called Puerto Los Cabos. The marina is very new, only about 20% completed, which is why we show up on land on our position reports! The marina is very nice and we’ve been enjoying water & electricity being piped into the boat, not worrying about having to make it. No generator time and no watermaker time! And there are nice hot showers! Jim Elfers is the Marina manager and has known Michael for some time while we owned the Chandlery. The rates at a marina in Cabo San Lucas are high – approx $250/night – NOT including water & electricity…way outside our price range. Since the marina here is still under construction, the rates are much more affordable less than 1/3. Our buddy boat, EZ Lady is also here as well as a boat we met in Turtle Bay, called Someday. We’ve also met a group on a catamaran called Beach Access, Monica, Rebecca, & Paula that are also cruising down the coast. It’s been nice to meet & chat with everyone! Everyone has their own horror stories!

Our first afternoon/evening here we took a taxi into town and wandered through the town. We met a really interesting guy, Darren McDonald, who owns a pottery shop in town with his wife called Necri. We chatted with him, visiting his business, had a shot of tequila together (only in Mexico!), and are enjoying his homemade hot sauce. We had a fun evening and met some wonderful people in town. The next day we took the taxi into Cabo San Lucas. Chad has spent lots of time in Cabo so he took us on the ‘tour’ of the town. The next day we went grocery shopping at the Mega – a huge mega grocery & department store and we stocked up on lots of goodies. That evening we were all a bit tired but Thursday is the day that San Jose del Cabo ‘comes alive’…we had met the owners of the Baja brewing company restaurant/bar and they highly suggested we come in town and check it out. Every Thursday, they have an art walk in town through about 18 art galleries. The art was incredibly beautiful – from paintings to pottery, sculptures to candles, you name it…there was everything. We had a great evening and ended back at the Baja Brewing Company for the evening entertainment. Again, on our trip we’ve met such wonderful people – last night I spoke to a rancher from Idaho and a physician from Cabo San Lucas in town. I was told that Cabo has grown 17% a year for the last 5 years and they estimate that everyday, 75 people move to Cabo. Wow!

Here's some photos - of the beach we visited today, of Michael & I in front of the harbor entrance, & of the plaza in town.

San Jose del Cabo is a beautiful town of about 100,000 people. We’ve only scratched the surface of the town, but don’t have time to spend here. Chad is flying back to the states on the 6th so we’ve got to get him to Mazatlan! While we’re in Mazatlan, we’ll be treated with Carnaval, which is a big party time in Mazatlan. Check out this website… http://www.carnavalmazatlan.net/-c2.php You can click on the ‘English’ hyperlink in the upper right hand side of the screen. There are two parades through town – one on Sunday and the other on Wednesday. We’ll be in town on Sunday early morning and I hope I can convince the guys to go in town for it! We’ll miss the big firework display as we’ll be on our way. We have spent some time in Mazatlan before, on a vacation with some great friends of ours, Scott & Liz who were cruising down the coast 3 years ago and just missed Carnaval by a couple days. So we’re looking forward to getting there. As luck has it, Scott will be in Mazatlan a few days later and we’re looking forward to seeing him.

It’s finally warmed up to an acceptable temperature and is about 75 degrees during the day with lots of sunshine. The evenings still get chilly, but we’re OK with that. The water temps are still chilly – in the 61-65 range. But at least we’re in shorts & tank tops instead of layers & layers of warm clothes. This morning I woke and ran around the marina, over to the beach, up the side of the mountain, etc. I had a great time and really miss my daily exercise! Today has been our ‘down’ day and we’ve been busy doing chores, walking the beach, checking out the other side of town & back at the boat catching up on e-mails, did a load of laundry, & updated the slog! We have met so many fun, interesting people and yesterday I was able to ‘chit-chat’ with 3 other women and it was GREAT!! No men in sight…we just talked for hours.

Oh, before I forget – there is another boat out here, Beach House, a catamaran who also has a website and is posting updates – you can check them out at http://www.svbeachhouse.com/. We met them in Magdalena Bay and we’re hoping to catch up with them in Mazatlan. They stayed in Mag Bay for a few more days to catch the whale festival & hold out for a good weather window.

We’re heading for Mazatlan tomorrow morning – it’s another 25 hour passage so we’ll leave here about 9am and should be there in the late afternoon. We had to wait out a weather front that brought big seas & winds to the ‘Southern Crossing’ area. The powerboat we met in Mag Bay, Seabird, is also heading over tomorrow as well as the group from Someday, so at least we’ll have lights to look at on our way over!

So that’s the scoop. Again, I’ll be better at updating…sorry! More to follow…
Rene

{GMST}023|03.00|N|109|40.00|W|Puerto Los Cabos| San Jose del Cabo{GEND}