Finally Finish the Outside Passage: Cabo San Lucas

Only dead fish go with the flow

Collective Evolution 

Land's End on the way in

Over 1,100 nautical miles later, we are finally here. Not finally as this is a great destination but finally as in it is the end of what they call the “Outside Passage” ending by rounding a cape. Rounding capes is always interesting (and has a special name: cape effect) as many of you have heard of Cape Horn and others and this one was no exception.

Weather projection first spoke of only 15 knot winds but the closer we got to the cape, the higher they went. We hit our first 25-30+ knot winds and Déjàlà took it in stride (not sure we did as well as she did even though we felt really safe aboard). We weren’t so worried about the winds around the Cape as long as they would die down long enough for us to find safe anchor which is just what happened.

At some point in our first night from Santa Maria to Cabo, as I was trying to bring down the mainsail I heard the weirdest sound and thought some of the pulleys were stuck or needed oiling. Mike had heard the same thing but we just couldn’t figure out what it could be so we stopped looking for the culprit since everything seemed to be working fine. Later we realized it was a white crane like bird (too dark to tell for sure and we were at least 25 miles from any land). That bird just wouldn’t leave the boat. We had to keep pushing it away from the spreaders, the radar or the deck. I have never seen a bird so intent in making a moving sailboat their home (as well as leaving many ‘calling cards’ on the deck, the solar panels, the mainsail, etc).

During the day just as the clouds were breaking up a bit, we saw some very large fish (marlins?) playing around. Several of them, anywhere from 40 to over 200+ pounds were jumping very high out of the water, rolling, splashing, etc, new thing for us to witness. At first we thought they were dolphins but as we got closer, we realized they looked quite different. This area is known worldwide for this type of fishing.

After speaking with old salts (people who have been sailing the outside passage for 30+ years), they seemed to agree that it was a bit crazy for us to test an electric boat on such a rough and long passage. They seemed quite taken aback that we had only been doing this for 6 weeks.

Cabo is definitely a TOURIST area. There is nothing real Mexican about this place – it rather looks like the picture perfect representation of a timeshare town. Took pangas to/from town and visited around a bit. Had tried to dinghy to the marina but found no place to dock = that ensures all panga drivers extra work and keeps the economy going… Buying some groceries, updating this blog, checking emails and weather to see how soon we can leave as this is not a comfortable place to anchor. Jet skis zoom by the anchored boats all day long like mosquitoes on steroids, then you have water taxis ferrying cruise ship tourists around, gigantic cruise ships anchored close by with motors and machinery running all day long, fishing boats, dredgers, music party boats, sunset cruise boats, etc. From the beach side you have loud speaker music until the wee hours of the morning. The marina is extremely crowded and mostly for large (I mean very large) yachts.

Water temperature is now around 75 degrees – can’t go wrong with that! All lily-white tourists in bikinis and shorts enjoying nice weather (not sure it’s fair to end this post on such a visual)……..…