Well this has been an interesting week but more on that in a bit.
Our last post had us in Cabo San Lucas. After a week split between anchoring in the bay and tied at the dock it’s a toss up as to which is best. They both have their pluses and minuses. Anchoring in the bay provides the breeze, the clear water and the sunsets, these are the pluses. All the traffic from the resort boats, the occasional rolly night and having to dinghy into town are the minuses. Oh yeah and one night they decided to have a massive, fireworks display at 12:30 am. We awoke to this explosion and blast of light through the windows of the boat. After discovering that neither our boat nor the boat next to us had blown up, once the heart started beating normally again, it was kind of cool to watch the fireworks from the deck of the boat.
Staying in the marina on the other hand, gives you easy access to everything, secured mooring with no worrying about anchors dragging – the pluses. It is an expensive marina, there was no breeze and we were close to the fuel dock, so every morning the fishing fleet would fuel up starting at 5:30 am -the minuses.
After a week though, it was time to move on. We knew better weather was headed our way but decided to leave a day before. We should have waited. While not unsafe, we had an uncomfortable ride into the winds and waves as we headed for Los Frailes. We didn’t make it. We bailed out at San Jose Del Cabo and spent 2 days at anchor in the harbour waiting on the good weather to finally show up. While here we met up with several other boats from the HA HA that made the same choice. We all toured the town, checked out the artist’s market in the city square (Centro) and had dinner at a small authentic Mexican restaurant where we enjoyed a very good meal.
While we were in San Jose Del Cabo we had some Wi Fi and a windows update automatically downloaded. More on that later.
A short, day sail from San Jose finally gets us to Los Frailes. A large bay with crystal clear water. We anchored in 17 feet of water and it’s the first time I have been able to look over the bow and see the anchor chain lying along the sea bed and follow it to the anchor buried in the sand. The next morning, we were on our way to Bahia Los Muertos. It translates to “the Bay of the Dead” but its much nicer than the name implies.
Los Muertos has a huge beach with a resort at one end, they serve up a nice cold margarita. The bay has a new name amongst the real estate developers ”the Bay of Dreams”. There are plans in the works for a resort around a new golf course. We could only spend one day in Los Muertos but will be stopping in again before we head across the Sea to Mazatlán. The warm water here made it the ideal spot to do the cruisers equivalent of mowing the lawn and we scrubbed the waterline of the boat to remove the sea weed growing there. This bay is also a prime example of why you have to pay attention to the less than reliable charts for Mexico. According to my electronic charts we and all the other boats anchored around us are on dry land!
We are up early the next morning to start the long day sail us to La Paz. The cruiser’s head quarters for the Sea of Cortez. We are planning on staying here for a week to take care of a few small boat chores, but the computer became the all consuming fix.
You see when the update was downloaded, it apparently fixed an issue I wasn’t even aware I had and at the same time completely wiped out all of my WiFi and blue tooth ability to connect. No more internet, email, weather downloads, at all. Nothing! We have become very used to being able to pull up weather charts and GRIB files to get a picture of upcoming conditions. Not to mention email communication with friends, family and service suppliers. Oh yeah and the bank account too.
It’s taken 3 different people to have a look at the computer before it was decided that the fix was to wipe the machine and reinstall windows. It fixed the issue but now I must reinstall all the various different programs we use. I’m not a computer expert and I don’t understand why; if a program is on the computer why can’t it stay on the computer or be backed up in its entirety? So, when we have issues like this it doesn’t become a 2-day project to reinstall the programs and data. To me it’s the equivalent of taking your car in for an oil change and having to reinstall the stereo, and seats and then put the tires back on before you can use it again.
We were here for the Nov 20th Revolution Day celebration. A national holiday and a reason for a large (2 hour long) parade along the Malecon. It appeared as though, every school and organization had representation. We were hot standing and watching. I can’t imagine how hot some of the participants would have been marching and dancing in their costumes. We have walked and explored the Malecon, Centro, Mercado and may other areas.
If the weather looks good a couple of days from now we will likely be headed up to some of the Islands and bays north of here before we head across the Sea of Cortez for Mazatlán.