Cabo San Lucas to Mazatlan

Dec. 4 to 8th we spend in Cabo the 8th we head for Punta Los Frailes, we spend a couple of days here with the gang, beach party, snorkling, diving fishing, you know same old, same old.


Depart Los Frailes on the 10th headed for Mazatlan. Mazatlan 168 miles, we leave at 16:00 sail that night, next day and arrive at the old Hbr and drop hook at 03:00.

We anchor a little close to the entrance as the harbour is crowded and wake up at dawn to see cruise ship go by.










Mazatlan - pool side visitor















Myah and Steve trying to converse in Spanish. Neither one of us is doing well.





























Steve & Linda relaxing after 2700 nautical miles.


End of another day!

Last leg to Cabo San Lucas

Dec 3 2007 - I think a couple of us are leaving today to Cabo San Lucas 160 miles away. I slowly start raising the anchor gazing at all of the stars just after 5:00, what a gorgeous night, stars are out in full force, sliver of a moon, all of the boats with ther anchor lights on. We motor out of the bay, I look behind me and there are nav. lights on all over. Looks like everyone is on the move.









Fishing boats in Bahia Magdalena. Start of a beautiful day.


By the time we leave the bay there 10 boats doing the last leg. "My Wind Song" - cs33-Nanaimo,"Paesano"- catalina 38-Nanaimo "Misty Michael" - custom power boat 48', Nanaimo,"Tender Spirit"-34' westsail -Alaska these boats all have 2 people aboard around our age.

"Malachi" - 48' Tayana-Maple Ridge, "Shambala" steel boat about 40'-Australia, "Hannah"- 43' Mason-Seattle, "Maryke Violet"- 40' wood schooner-Powell River,"Aquarelle"-35' Niagra - Nanaimo, these boats all have kids on board that range in age from 8 yrs to 16 yrs old


Shambala flying her spinnaker beside us. Shambala is from Australia, 3 yrs into their trip. This year they have sailed from Japan to Alaska and down the coast to sail with us. We flew our spinnaker from 10:00 to 20:30 hrs.



Landscape in the back ground has been the same all the way from Ensenada.




Dec 4 2007 - Cabo San Lucas, we made it.









Lovers beach, Cabo in the background. We anchor between the shore and two cruise ships.

Bahia Santa Maria & Bahia Magdalena

Nov 28 2007 - after sailing all day and night we arrive in Bahia Santa Maria. This picture is outside of the bay.

We spend a couple of days here. The ham weather guru is forcasting a small tropical depression heading our way so we decide to move to man-o-war cove in Bahia Magdalena, about 20 miles away. On the way over I catch a couple of tuna. Everyone is tired of tuna, can not even give them away any more, so I let them go.

We are saftly anchored and carry on with beach parties, exploring the lagoon, diving, snorkling etc. Storm is forecast for two days away.

Bahia Santa Maria very large bay with mexican navy at the south end. We anchor in the north end. Some of the girls take a panga ride into town with the port captain, they love it. We have 12 to 14 boats in this anchorage with us.

The storm finally arrives Nov.30 winds hit 30 knots in the bay with 4 to 5 foot waves rolling in. Well anchored 250' chain in 30' of water but not nice. Some boats take waves over there bow in the anchorage. The night is pitch black ( town shuts generator off ) and there is a mayday call on the VHF. 32' motor boat ran aground about 12 miles from us. After many hours on the radio for the people off of "Paesano" the navy pulls the people off of the rocks late in the night. Both people are all right but the boat is lost.

This picture was taken a couple of days later as we are headed out of Bahia Magdalena. The power boat is still on the visible on the rocks from a mile away.

Turtle Bay to Bahia Santa Maria

We stayed in Turtle bay for a couple of days. Turtle bay was a small run down fishing village. The bay had red tide so we did not swim there. Topped up our fuel and we raised anchor on the Nov. 23.

Bahia Asuncion was our next stop, the water was clean and the town was nice. Stayed here a couple of days and then headed south to Punta Abreojos. This is the area were all the whales come to have their calves. We are hoping to go on a tour of Laguna Ignacio to check out the whales.

Punta Abreojos has a reef and lots of rocks around it so we ( at this point there are 5 boats in our group) all navigate carefully. Most of us have different chart plotters which show or do not show all of the rocks. Some boats go wide and some don't. We also have to negotiate lobster traps. Next morning a panga is going around selling lobster. In our mixed spanish he asks for smokes, sorry and then asks for candy. We put 3 handful's of candy and a couple of bars and pass them over. Grande, grande they say with a smile and they hand us a bag of lobster, and they are off.

We open the bag and there are 5 lobster inside. They were good!!!

We were anchored a mile from town were we would catch a panga ride to the whale grounds we all raised anchor and moved. There was 15 knots of wind and we ended up drifting onto a lobster trap. Dropped the hook again, freed ourselves and we were off. Coming around the corner to the town an other boat is leaving. We learn that there are no whales down yet and no tours. What to do??? There is wind and time is a ticking so we all turn and head to Bahia Santa Maria, 132 miles away. So much for rest.

Ensenada to Turle Bay

Malachi heading south. Nov. 17 2007 we anchor behind Punta Colnett. Anchorage is open to the south and west, some swell but not too bad.






Nov. 18 we anchor in San Quintin Bay. Heavy swell 15 + knots of wind in the early evening.
Two nights earlier there were two Canadian boats anchored in the bay. As the story goes a whale started to rub up against the first boat, a large power boat called "Misty Michael". Then the whale goes over to the sail boat "Paesano" and rubs up against it, then it swims away. Later on in the night the whale comes back to Paesano and starts rubbing again harder this time. Now the boat is rocking back and forth the whale is moving closer to the rudder so they start the motor thinking that might scare it away. No luck, so they get out a spot light and shine it on the whale, no luck there either. Now they are starting to get pretty scared, as they are only anchored in 14' of water and did not want the whale to get tangled in the anchor chain or cause damage. Next they tried hitting the water with a paddle, ah ah that seems to work the whale swims away, but turns around and charges the boat at full speed, stops short of the boat and then swims away. Holy $%@# is that close.
We leave San Quintin at 07:00 am heading for a long leg to Turtle Bay 135 nm away.
We motor and sail that day/night and through the next day, passing Cedros Island in the afternoon. We are hoping to arrive in Turtle bay before dark but no luck, we anchor in the dark at 19:00 hrs. That ends that day.


East side of Cedros Island. Desert landscape. Cedros ships sea salt throughout the world.

Nov. 15 3:15 am - Leave San Diego for MEXICO!!!!

We untie our lines and are heading south to Mexico with our good friends on Malachi - Tayana 48. Linda at Ensenada Mexico. Some of the many dolphins that we see along the way.

2:15 - Ensenada, we hurry up to the immigration to clear in. Everything is in one office, and both of us clear in under 2 hours. Some of the cruisers have taken over 6 hours to clear in.

We stay for 2 days, christmas is around the corner and we still have 1000+ miles to go.

We leave on Nov. 17th

Ventura to San Diego

Nov. 7 we leave Ventura in the night after staying at a great Yacht club. Very nice people, make you feel at home. One night free moorage and the rest at a good rate.
Had a great visit with Patty, we went out to the stables and seen all the preperation for the horse show. If you think boating is expensive take a look at horse shows. Need to spend more time with Patty touring the shows.
We are off to Avalon on Santa Catalina island. The navy is out playing "war games - this is warship 083 ", give me a break, as we shake our heads. We tie up to a mooring ball in Avalon, which costs us more than any place else we have been at. Toured the town the next day, everything is closing up, the tourists are going.
Nov 9 depart Avalon and heading for our last stop in the US. - San Diego. Decide to anchor in Mission bay 20 miles north of San Diego. Very nice bay, just like being at home, no swell.
Nov 10 arrive at San Diego at the municipal docks. This is were all the Canadians are, flags all over the place. We meet lots of people that we have been crossing paths with down the coast.
The next few days are busy preparing the boat for the crossing into Mexico. Food, fuel, fishing licence clearance papers etc. We are ready for MEXICO!!!!!

San Luis Obispo Bay to Ventura Yacht Club

We arrive in San Luis Obispo with 20 to 25 knots on our stern. Pull in and anchor for the night. We decide to leave early the next mornig so we can get to Santa Barbara ( 90 miles ) to see our daughter. At 1;13 we lift the anchor, and head out the forecast is for 20 to 25 knots with 4 to 6 foot seas. The first hour there is no wind but the seas are lousy, 4 to 6 foot at 4 seconds on the beam. We start to pickup the wind a little later and keep telling ourselves only 40 miles to go to Point Conception ( the most feared cape of them all ) Commen sense prevales and after a while we turn around and are anchored back in San Luis before day light.
We have a relaxing day, the weather is moderating and we head out the next mourning under heavy fog visibility 400 feet. A couple of hours out we pickup a non paying passenger a beautiful little neon bird with blue irradenesence wing tips, okay it was a brown chick a dee, but he was still lost in the fog. By early afternoon we have seen dophins and over 20 blue whales, very rare for this area. We have had our radar and chart plotter on all day and pick up a sail boat off our starboard side. We motor along until the wind picks up to 15 and we have a beautiful sail to Coho Bay. We invite the young couple over to our boat for happy hour ( we meet them at San Simeon ). And that ends another day.
Next morning we are off to Santa Barbara in the fog. Oil wells in the channel with lots of oil leaking all over. The water is flat calm and you can see our trail in the oil slicks, discusting.
We anchor outside of Santa Barbara, at least that is what our chart plotter says. Have not seen land for 4 days.
Pickup anchor and decide to head to Ventura for a couple of days and see if I can find my sister Patty. Missed my daughter by 2 days. Arrive at Ventura Yacht club at 14:00, very nice people helping us dock.

Heading south Oct 28 & 29 2007

We only stop in Half Moon bay and Monterey for one night, we need to make miles before the weather changes. Next stop is at San Simeon Bay ( home of the Hearst castle). We arrive late at night a drop the hook at midnight. Next day we are off to San Luis Obispo Bay.

Top picure is San Simeon Bay( Hearst Castle on top of the hill

Close up of the Hearst castle

Leaving San Francisco and heading south Oct 27

Oct 27 2007 - after nearly 2 months in the bay area we are ready to head south to San Diego. Zoe and Lucas are home a weather window has opened up and we need to meet my daughter Tammy and my sister Patty in the Los Angeles area. We motor out early heading to Half Moon Bay, and then on to Monterey.

Oct 2007 - a great week with Zoe & Lucas

Zoe and Luca visiting us in San Francisco for a week. Fun had by all.

A day sail to Angel Island Lucas was navigator when we went out sailing.

New Engine installed - Sept & Oct 2007

After a week in South Beach Hbr we thought it was time to anchor out at Sausalito to check out the sites. As we were motoring out of the Harbour our engine started making sounds that no engine should make. We had a couple of mechanics check it out and the long and short of it was that a new motor was needed.

We installed a Yanmar 54 hp with transmission, exhaust hose, shifter and control cables. Now almost everthing in the boat is new. We were lucky that the motor packed it in at San Francisco and not some deserted beach on our trip south. Ouch ! as Al Oliver would say that takes a few dollars out of the crusing budget.

Before I carry on with our trip the month that we spent in Sausalito we ran into a few interesting people. First off the crew at List Marine took us under there wing, ( the wives of the mechanics would ask how those Canadians were doing and would drop off treats ) The owner Tom took us to his home for food and drinks with his friend Vicky and Tom's wife Suzanne.

One of the characters that we meet was Suzie, mid 40's, she would row in every day and dock here dingy to go varnishing. One night after a few rums she was telling us that she had been anchored in the bay for 27 years ( no that is not a mis typing ). Although she said it was not all on the same boat.

Time is a ticking and we needed to be underway. So after a month in the yard we are ready to head out the gate. We stock the boat take her out for a few hours of running around the bay to make sure every thing is working. At the end of the day we notice a small amount of oil in the bilge, so the next day we take it back to the yard. After a few hours, we get the word that the oil leak is fixed, but there is a fuel leak ( a defective part). Unfortunately the only part is in the eastern US, and between not shipping it out on time and then sending it to the wrong side of the states we are in the yard for another week.

Now our daughter - in -law had to rebook her tickets from San Diego to San Francisco.

Sept 2007

We toured San Francisco with the crew for a few days and then they returned home. We relaxed at the South Beach Harbour and enjoyed their yacht club. We all enjoyed the sites, sounds and food that San Francisco has to offer.