La Paz, Balandra, Los Muertos, San Jose del Cabo

This marks the beginning of the end as far as I'm concerned.  We left Marina Palmira in La Paz late in the day, headed for Balandra.  The coromuels have been starting early and blowing hard all night lately.  We got to Balandra, took a wonderful spot up close to shore and protected from the coromuel winds.  Sure enough, it peaked at 27 knots that night and was a bit unsettling.  In the morning we waited until it died down, around 11:30a.m. and set off for Ensenada de Los Muertos.  The wind was nice, 12-14 knots so we sailed until it shifted and then motored the rest of the way.  Arriving late, it was a bumpy anchorage with the wind and waves entering dead on.  Oh well, we need to stop and rest a bit.  No going ashore as the surf is large here due to south swell and winds. 
  Next day off we go to Bahia de los Frailes, about 46 miles away.  We got there at 4:45 p.m. and decided it was a bit rough to anchor with a huge swell and wind, so off to San Jose del Cabo.  Our new destination was several hours away, we hoped to arrive at 9:00 p.m.  The wind shifted to astern at 20+ knots and the swell was from both directions with a 10' swell coming on the nose from the south, and wind swell from the north.  Needless to say, it was uncomfortable, not scary, but the biggest swell of this trip, and very jumbly.  We arrived at about 9:15p.m. and used the iPad to navigate into the harbor.  The charts we normally use don't have the marina as it is very new.  Weird that the ipad does, but thank heavens as it's dark and we don't know the entrance at all, and... the swell really is 10'!  We've been watching the waves crash on the beaches and it's very dramatic with the wind coming from the opposite direction, the spray is like an offshore.  Kind of disconcerting though as we need to get close to shore to find the entrance to the marina.  The ipad was, as the Australians say, spot on.  It guided us right in with GPS and showed us entering the jetties and then I could use the spotlight to find the docks on this dark and moonless night.  It was a HUGE relief to find a marina security guard to show us our slip, tie up and be done with the bouncy seas for the night.  I rather thought we might be stuck out there as the swell might be too large to enter the harbor. 


Our last Balandra sunset



Scenes that I'll miss.

    Waking up in the morning found us in a beautiful new marina with clean docks and a nice breeze to cool us off as we put the boat back together, which includes:  mainsail cover on, jib stowed, sunshades deployed, clean head and check in to the marina which means a dinghy ride across and find the office.  This is much different that in most of our marinas, not any cruisers here with which to socialize.  I called Jay Swigart to let them know we arrived, as we hope to see Penny and Jay before they leave.  From here, we are waiting for the winds to let up on the outside of the Baja, at least down to 10-15 knots or so, and then we'll head to Magdalena Bay and eventually home.  I am hoping that we get to see a bit of the bay before the weather window opens up as we skipped it on our way down.