San Diego to Mazatlan
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| On the first leg of our new voyage, Dakota Rose travels from San Diego to Mazatlan, Mexico. We first stop in Ensenada, where we spend a weekend at the Hotel Coral and Marina with family, then set off, planning brief stops in Turtle Bay, Magdelena Bay and Cabo San Lucas for rest and to take on fuel, if it's available. |
We're allowing a little less than two weeks for this 900-mile leg of the trip. It promises to be a rigorous
undertaking, mainly because the west coast of Baja is mostly undeveloped for the 675-mile stretch between
Ensenada and Cabo, with few decent anchorages and even fewer services.
Starting out in San Diego, Steve will be joined for the San Diego to Ensenada run by Dianne's brother Tom
Nelson, Tom's friend Russ Winther and Steve's great friend Capt. Pam Lendzion. Pam, from St. Augustine,
FL, will be remembered fondly by our loyal readers, as she figured prominently in the success of our
previous voyages.
undertaking, mainly because the west coast of Baja is mostly undeveloped for the 675-mile stretch between
Ensenada and Cabo, with few decent anchorages and even fewer services.
Starting out in San Diego, Steve will be joined for the San Diego to Ensenada run by Dianne's brother Tom
Nelson, Tom's friend Russ Winther and Steve's great friend Capt. Pam Lendzion. Pam, from St. Augustine,
FL, will be remembered fondly by our loyal readers, as she figured prominently in the success of our
previous voyages.
Tom and Pam will return home by car from Ensenada, riding with Dianne and the kids, who will drive down for the weekend on
Friday, March 2. Also driving to Ensenada will be Steve's friend from Coronado, Jim Mebust. Jim, a noted tri-athlete (mountain
biking, canoeing and karaoke), will crew from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas, a much-needed extra set of hands, eyes and ears on
this long stretch.
Ensenada
We left San Diego at 0800 on February 28, on the tail end of a storm that passed through the night before. With 20 knot winds and
15 to 20 foot following swells, we made it to Ensenada in only 9 hours, on a very chilly day. We checked into the Hotel Coral Marina,
where we've spent time before.
On Thursday morning, I (Steve) took a taxi to the Customs and Immigration Office to clear in. I brought Russ's and Jim's passports
to get their tourist cards, having been assured by the staff at the marina office (as well as prior experience with this task) that the
captain of a vessel was authorized to do this on behalf of the crew, without the crew being present. Apparently this rule has
changed ... or, the Customs clerk on duty chose to ignore it ... because I was turned away and told to return later in the day with my
crew in tow.
Which I did, with Russ along, but I couldn't of course bring Jim 'cause Jim was still in San Diego. I thought about having Tom pretend
to be Jim, but Jim is far too distinguished looking in his passport photo to pull this off. So, I explained (argued) the situation to the
clerk, who passed the buck to his supervisor, due to arrive in 15 minutes.
Forty five minutes later the supervisor arrived, and after a discreet 15 minute wait while he had his coffee, then flirted with and
escorted a secretary to her car, I approached him. After the obligatory scolding and harrumphing, the situation was taken care of ...
for only a $40 "tip."
Now legal, we repaired to the downtown to take in the sights.
Friday, March 2. Also driving to Ensenada will be Steve's friend from Coronado, Jim Mebust. Jim, a noted tri-athlete (mountain
biking, canoeing and karaoke), will crew from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas, a much-needed extra set of hands, eyes and ears on
this long stretch.
Ensenada
We left San Diego at 0800 on February 28, on the tail end of a storm that passed through the night before. With 20 knot winds and
15 to 20 foot following swells, we made it to Ensenada in only 9 hours, on a very chilly day. We checked into the Hotel Coral Marina,
where we've spent time before.
On Thursday morning, I (Steve) took a taxi to the Customs and Immigration Office to clear in. I brought Russ's and Jim's passports
to get their tourist cards, having been assured by the staff at the marina office (as well as prior experience with this task) that the
captain of a vessel was authorized to do this on behalf of the crew, without the crew being present. Apparently this rule has
changed ... or, the Customs clerk on duty chose to ignore it ... because I was turned away and told to return later in the day with my
crew in tow.
Which I did, with Russ along, but I couldn't of course bring Jim 'cause Jim was still in San Diego. I thought about having Tom pretend
to be Jim, but Jim is far too distinguished looking in his passport photo to pull this off. So, I explained (argued) the situation to the
clerk, who passed the buck to his supervisor, due to arrive in 15 minutes.
Forty five minutes later the supervisor arrived, and after a discreet 15 minute wait while he had his coffee, then flirted with and
escorted a secretary to her car, I approached him. After the obligatory scolding and harrumphing, the situation was taken care of ...
for only a $40 "tip."
Now legal, we repaired to the downtown to take in the sights.
At the Marina Coral
Downtown Ensenada
Dianne arrived on Friday evening with Maddy, Maddy's friend Lisa Reilly, and Jim. We all squeezed into Dianne's brand-new Mazda
CX-9 for a short ride to the Punta Morro restaurant, on a bluff overlooking surf breaking on rocks, for Tom's birthday dinner. For
presents Tom got a large, oak bookshelf from Russ (by proxy only, the actual piece of furniture being too big to bring with us and
hide on the boat), a shirt from us, and a ceramic cow dressed as a traditional Mexican dancer (a "flamencow"?) from Pam.
Saturday morning was our planned departure. While we slept, though, a Santa Ana condition roared in, bringing 30++ knot winds
from the south and southeast and lots of fine, desert dust. The Port of Ensenada closed, and we decided to wait this one out rather
than risk playing bumper boats in the marina trying to leave. We left for points south at 0800 Sunday morning.
CX-9 for a short ride to the Punta Morro restaurant, on a bluff overlooking surf breaking on rocks, for Tom's birthday dinner. For
presents Tom got a large, oak bookshelf from Russ (by proxy only, the actual piece of furniture being too big to bring with us and
hide on the boat), a shirt from us, and a ceramic cow dressed as a traditional Mexican dancer (a "flamencow"?) from Pam.
Saturday morning was our planned departure. While we slept, though, a Santa Ana condition roared in, bringing 30++ knot winds
from the south and southeast and lots of fine, desert dust. The Port of Ensenada closed, and we decided to wait this one out rather
than risk playing bumper boats in the marina trying to leave. We left for points south at 0800 Sunday morning.
Ensenada to Mazatlan
We made this trip in three legs. Running down the coast of Baja we motored the entire way at low RPMs, to conserve our fuel, and
used varying combinations of sails whenever possible to pick up a knot or two of speed. In doing so we averaged a little over 5
knots. We went southeast in a series of straight shots between the major points of Baja, keeping our distance between about 5 and
50 miles offshore as the coastline cut in and out. We wanted to stay far enough out to avoid kelp, which we mostly did. We left
Ensenada with three other boats headed south, but lost sight of them before the end of the first day and saw very little traffic the
rest of the trip.
The exception to our "mostly" happened with Steve on watch, at about 0400 Tuesday morning, as we were rounding the southwest
corner of Cedros Island. Steve ran us right through a thick kelp paddy. A long strand fouled the propeller and almost stalled the
engine, and a leaf got sucked into the engine cooling water intake, cutting off the flow. We were able to clear the prop wrap through
judicious backing and forwarding at low RPMs. We then shut down the engine and were able to clear the intake clog from inside the
boat by opening the strainer, sticking a smaller hose as far down the intake hose as we could, and blowing. Hard. Which also
spewed water all over the inside of the engine compartment and Jim's cabin, but it saved someone from having to go snorkeling in
the dark. We were underway again in 20 minutes.
Although we initially had planned on stopping in Turtle Bay, since we'd lost a day at our start and Jim needed to make a flight out of
Cabo on Sunday we skipped this first stop and sailed 4 days straight to Bahia Santa Maria, a stopping point just north of Magdelena
Bay. After a day and night resting in a very windy anchorage (too windy to launch the dinghy and explore), we set out on Thursday
morning for the 160-mile, 30-hour run to Cabo San Lucas, arriving on Saturday mid-day.
We anchored just outside the entrance to the inner harbor and marina, about 25 yards off the beach. We took advantage of the fact
that Russ was down to his last Marlboro to send him ashore in a water taxi with four empty diesel jugs and instructions to bring them
back full. Cabo was packed with cruise ship tourists during the day and springbreakers at night. The good news was that Russ felt
right at home wearing his black knee socks with his flipflops; the bad news is that the anchorage was overwhelmed with jet skis,
water taxis, excursion boats, parasailers and so forth.
We sent Jim off to the airport on Sunday after emotional good-byes (most of the emotions being Jim's, who would have preferred
staying to going back to a backlog of root canals and gum-scraping). On Monday we went off to the Port Captaincy to clear in and
out. We were a little concerned about Jim's lack of presence given the problems we'd had in Ensenada, but here things couldn't
have gone more smoothly. We arrived at the Capitania a little before its 0900 opening time; the officer pulled up 5 minutes before
the hour and had the window open early; we accomplished the paperwork and were on our way 5 minutes after the hour, with no
fees or "tips" asked or offered. Wow!
Wanting to escape the cruise ship and spring break crowd by going to Mazatlan, we (Russ and Steve) left on our final, 190-mile sail,
almost due east across the mouth of the Sea of Cortez, at 1000 on Monday, and arrived at the Marina El Cid early afternoon on
Tuesday. We would have had a straight shot from our anchor point to the marina entrance at Mazatlan except for the need to steer
around the two cruise ships parked in Cabo Bay; how uncourteous for them not to move for us. Those same two ships passed us
during the night, beating us to Mazatlan; we shouldn't have let them know we were leaving.
The trip was uneventful until the very end. The entrance to the marina is between two rock jetties, about 30 yards across, and there
was a light surf breaking into the channel. Just as we entered a charter fishing boat came roaring by at full speed, missing us by a
few feet. The violent wake broached us in the narrow channel, and we missed hitting the rock jetty by about 20 feet. Needless to
say, we weren't sleepy when we docked. In fact, his racing adrenaline may account for why Russ fell into the drink as he stepped
onto the dock to tend our stern line. His trip to the doctor the next day to have his [banged] foot looked at, x-rayed, bandaged, and
to get a systemic anti-inflammatory shot in the butt cost him a whopping $67.50.
(Before our next trip we need to spend some time "Russ-proofing" Dakota Rose. If there was anything that could be head-butted,
banged-into, scraped-against or pinched-between, Russ found it!)
Total distance travelled from San Diego: 952 nautical miles.
We made this trip in three legs. Running down the coast of Baja we motored the entire way at low RPMs, to conserve our fuel, and
used varying combinations of sails whenever possible to pick up a knot or two of speed. In doing so we averaged a little over 5
knots. We went southeast in a series of straight shots between the major points of Baja, keeping our distance between about 5 and
50 miles offshore as the coastline cut in and out. We wanted to stay far enough out to avoid kelp, which we mostly did. We left
Ensenada with three other boats headed south, but lost sight of them before the end of the first day and saw very little traffic the
rest of the trip.
The exception to our "mostly" happened with Steve on watch, at about 0400 Tuesday morning, as we were rounding the southwest
corner of Cedros Island. Steve ran us right through a thick kelp paddy. A long strand fouled the propeller and almost stalled the
engine, and a leaf got sucked into the engine cooling water intake, cutting off the flow. We were able to clear the prop wrap through
judicious backing and forwarding at low RPMs. We then shut down the engine and were able to clear the intake clog from inside the
boat by opening the strainer, sticking a smaller hose as far down the intake hose as we could, and blowing. Hard. Which also
spewed water all over the inside of the engine compartment and Jim's cabin, but it saved someone from having to go snorkeling in
the dark. We were underway again in 20 minutes.
Although we initially had planned on stopping in Turtle Bay, since we'd lost a day at our start and Jim needed to make a flight out of
Cabo on Sunday we skipped this first stop and sailed 4 days straight to Bahia Santa Maria, a stopping point just north of Magdelena
Bay. After a day and night resting in a very windy anchorage (too windy to launch the dinghy and explore), we set out on Thursday
morning for the 160-mile, 30-hour run to Cabo San Lucas, arriving on Saturday mid-day.
We anchored just outside the entrance to the inner harbor and marina, about 25 yards off the beach. We took advantage of the fact
that Russ was down to his last Marlboro to send him ashore in a water taxi with four empty diesel jugs and instructions to bring them
back full. Cabo was packed with cruise ship tourists during the day and springbreakers at night. The good news was that Russ felt
right at home wearing his black knee socks with his flipflops; the bad news is that the anchorage was overwhelmed with jet skis,
water taxis, excursion boats, parasailers and so forth.
We sent Jim off to the airport on Sunday after emotional good-byes (most of the emotions being Jim's, who would have preferred
staying to going back to a backlog of root canals and gum-scraping). On Monday we went off to the Port Captaincy to clear in and
out. We were a little concerned about Jim's lack of presence given the problems we'd had in Ensenada, but here things couldn't
have gone more smoothly. We arrived at the Capitania a little before its 0900 opening time; the officer pulled up 5 minutes before
the hour and had the window open early; we accomplished the paperwork and were on our way 5 minutes after the hour, with no
fees or "tips" asked or offered. Wow!
Wanting to escape the cruise ship and spring break crowd by going to Mazatlan, we (Russ and Steve) left on our final, 190-mile sail,
almost due east across the mouth of the Sea of Cortez, at 1000 on Monday, and arrived at the Marina El Cid early afternoon on
Tuesday. We would have had a straight shot from our anchor point to the marina entrance at Mazatlan except for the need to steer
around the two cruise ships parked in Cabo Bay; how uncourteous for them not to move for us. Those same two ships passed us
during the night, beating us to Mazatlan; we shouldn't have let them know we were leaving.
The trip was uneventful until the very end. The entrance to the marina is between two rock jetties, about 30 yards across, and there
was a light surf breaking into the channel. Just as we entered a charter fishing boat came roaring by at full speed, missing us by a
few feet. The violent wake broached us in the narrow channel, and we missed hitting the rock jetty by about 20 feet. Needless to
say, we weren't sleepy when we docked. In fact, his racing adrenaline may account for why Russ fell into the drink as he stepped
onto the dock to tend our stern line. His trip to the doctor the next day to have his [banged] foot looked at, x-rayed, bandaged, and
to get a systemic anti-inflammatory shot in the butt cost him a whopping $67.50.
(Before our next trip we need to spend some time "Russ-proofing" Dakota Rose. If there was anything that could be head-butted,
banged-into, scraped-against or pinched-between, Russ found it!)
Total distance travelled from San Diego: 952 nautical miles.
| Some company headed south from Ensenada |
| "Catch what you want, but eat what you catch" |
| The severe landscape of the Baja Penninsula |
| Passing Los Arcos, the southernmost point of Baja, and entering Bahia Cabo San Lucas |
| It's a shame to see all the beachfront development going on in Cabo, with condos advertised for up to $6 million!! |
| Plenty of company along the way |