San Jose to Cabo San Lucas and Beyond

Sunday, 13 July 2014

Marina del Puerto Cabo near San Jose del Cabo is a beautiful facility but I was happy to leave. Every night, the wind fell off to nothing with the temperature hovering in the low to mid eighties. Hordes of mosquitoes buzzed about and feasted on my tender skin. The last night there was the worst. A little after midnight, I gave up trying to sleep either in the cockpit or in the cabin. They were about equally miserable. I gathered my shower gear and trudged off to the shower house in the hope that a cool shower would get me comfortable enough to head off to dreamland.

My keycard would not open the door to the shower house. It had been reluctant to do so in the past but in the end, it would give in and do its magic. Not tonight. I stood at the door for a full five minutes waving the card over the sensor at various speeds and angles – to no avail. Back to the boat I went, grumbling and still miserable, hot and sticky.

I think I finally fell asleep about 2 AM. I awoke a little after 7 AM feeling every bit as bad as I felt the other two mornings. In addition, my fingers were stiff and swollen. Who knows why? I don’t.

Monday, 14 July 2014

I dragged myself the mile around the perimeter of the yacht basin to the cantina adjacent the marina office. A glass of fresh orange juice (squeezed before my very eyes), coffee and a Mexican egg and potato burrito did a lot to improve my morale and wake me up.

I checked out at the marina office and mentioned that my key card hadn’t worked last night. They young woman I was talking to got a funny expression on her face that, combined with some remarks when I checked in, made me think that she had put the wrong expiration date into the system. Oh well! Nothing to be done about it.

Back at the boat, I cleaned up the dishes that had been languishing in the sink for the last couple of days then backed out of my slip. There was a light breeze blowing from just about the right direction for a change. I motored clear of the harbor, put up the sails and shut down the engine. Blessed silence and a cool breeze combined to make this a promising start.

The promise held through the day. The wind got light enough for a while that I had to hand steer but it kept coming from a favorable direction. As I drew near to Cabo San Lucas harbor, thunderheads were developing over the peninsula making me a bit nervous. The wind picked up a bit but held from the south-south-east. The breeze was coming in off the open Pacific Ocean and it was … COOL. I had been hoping for this – hoping that I would be able to sleep nights in my cool, comfortable bunk.

I sailed as close as I dared to the harbor entrance and started dropping sails. As close as I dared was not all that close. The beaches off Cabo were abuzz with parasailors, jet skis and glass bottom tour boats. I did not want to have to dodge them at the same time I was dropping sails, so I started a bit early. The thunderhead sent along just enough wind to make stowing the mizzen and the main a bit of a challenge. Then it just kind of evaporated and left me with only a gentle breeze as I was dropping the genoa jib.

Motoring into Cabo San Lucas harbor is an exercise in culture shock after spending time in La Paz and San Jose del Cabo. The harbor is jammed full of high end sport fishing boats. The harbor is ringed with shops and hotels. There are crowds!

Most disturbing of all – it was HOT! My hopes for a pleasant evening were fading fast. I got tied up at my assigned slip and walked about two blocks around the perimeter of the harbor to the marina office. The sidewalk was jammed with tourists – beautiful people on vacation and on parade. By the time I got to the marina office, I was dripping with sweat and feeling rather dispirited. At least the marina office was air conditioned. The gentleman who checked me in was courteous and efficient. It took no more than 15 minutes for the whole process. As part of the check in procedure, I was given an information sheet to fill out. I was dripping sweat so heavily that it was quite soggy by the time I handed it back.

Back out on the sidewalk, I decided to look for a place to eat – if there was something in my limited budget price range. One young man practically grabbed me by the shirt front as I walked by and began to extol the virtues of his restaurant. After looking over the menu and being informed that they had 2 for 1 beer prices at the moment, I decided this was good enough. On top of that, I got to sit in a partially air conditioned place. Helped by the two beers, a bottle of water and my dinner, I gradually cooled down. By the time I emerged from the restaurant and resumed by journey to the boat, the breeze coming over the hill from the Pacific was feeling almost cool.

Back at the boat, I was further encouraged. Not only was the breeze coolish, but it was blowing right into the cabin through the companionway and hatch. It was still pretty stuffy. I really would like to have taken a nap but it wasn’t cool enough for that yet. I picked up my current book and a cushion, found a shady spot on deck and proceeded to read for a while.

My slip is an end tie – meaning that it is at the end of the pier and I am, in effect, hanging out into the thoroughfare with an excellent view of the passing traffic. It was a constant stream of glass bottomed boats, other boats pulling strings of jet skis (apparently it was closing time for some of the rental facilities) and, of course, fishing boats. I got a lot of smiles and friendly waves from the bypassers.

The cabin is gradually cooling down. Already it is better than the best night in San Jose del Cabo. I can hope for a restful night. But hark! What do I hear? Oh yeah, loud music from at least one of the commercial establishments across the harbor. Somehow, I don’t think it will keep me awake for long.

I’ve done some online searches for grocery stores and found a couple of super market sized stores that look close enough that I can walk to them. I will probably have to get a taxi to bring stuff back to the boat. We shall see how that all works out tomorrow.

Tuesday, 15 July 2014

I went looking for the Mega supermarket this morning only to discover that it was nowhere near where it was shown on my Internet search. It was a good mile away from the expected location. After an hour’s shopping I left with four bags of groceries realizing that it would take roughly the rest of my life to lug them back to the boat. Apparently this happens fairly often at this store. There was a man stationed out front with a radio. In a matter of minutes there was a taxi waiting for me. That added seven dollars to my grocery bill but at least I have the groceries. Just lugging them the last two blocks to the boat was a painful experience.

By now, it was close to noon and the cabin interior was unpleasantly hot. I shifted some storage around and stowed most of the new items before fleeing the cabin. I still had a few items left to purchase. The map supplied by the marina showed a supermarket within a few blocks. I was pretty sure it would be a tourist trap kind of place – and I was right. AA batteries were $1 each. However, they did have Laura Scudder’s peanut butter. All I had been able to find so far in Mexico was Skippy’s which is not really peanut butter in my opinion.

I ended up paying a little over half as much for a partial bag of groceries at this place as I had paid for four bags at the Mega. I had the clerk put the groceries into my Target shopping bag and headed out the door. I hadn’t much more than gotten out the door when the straps on the bag broke. One of the three jars of peanut butter broke! Arrrgh!! I had other bags tucked inside the Target bag so I packed the remaining groceries into a new bag, notified the store clerks to come out and clean up the mess and started back to the boat.

It was still the hot part of the day and I was not looking forward to returning to the cabin. When another of the street hustlers informed me of the 2 for 1 beer at a sidewalk bar, I parked myself in the shade for the next hour and took my time drinking my two beers.

The cabin was still too hot for working so I picked up a book an planted myself on deck in the shade of the mainmast and dinghy where I read for the next hour. That was long enough for the breeze to cool the cabin to the point that I could take a short nap, then resume the job of preparing to start sailing.

Things are in pretty good shape at the moment. Tomorrow, I will be at the marina office at 9 AM to pay my bill. Then I go to the Port Captain’s office a few blocks away to start the process of getting my zarpe – my exit visa. I understand it involves visiting several offices separated by a few blocks so I don’t expect to get under way much before mid-afternoon.

If all goes well and I am under way tomorrow as planned, this will be my last blog post for the next 30 days or so. I will be sailing out toward Hawaii looking for winds that will let me get back to the SF Bay area without having to do much upwind sailing. I expect it to take 30 days plus or minus 10 days. I will, of course, be posting notices on Facebook via the inReach GPS tracker. You can also follow my progress by going to my inReach share page. Instructions are included in my bio on my blog.

Adios for now…