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2: baja-haha :
day11: no wind, finish
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Nov 9, day 11: No wind, all motoring, arrival at Cabo San Lucas, El Squid Roe party
Will was back up at midnight to take over from the "all night" crew, who were happy to be relieved. Staying up all night watching movies with friends is easy, it's a little harder sitting out in the open cockpit, talking quietly, the motor purring away underneath you, surrounded by the dark night and bright stars. Eyelids get heavy.
With the two delicious tuna we lost fresh in his mind, Will read our "Cruiser's Guide to Fishing" book from cover to cover by the light of the moon and the GPS chartplotter. We were motorsailing at what seems to be our cruising speed, 6 knots, occasionally dodging other boats doing the same.
In the middle of the night, halfway through the book, Will heard a 'bang' from the shock cord attached to our best lure. He hurriedly pulled in the line, but whatever had hit the lure had ripped it off the monofilament line. It was gone. Much cursing occured. Casual reading became studied analysis. The fish would pay.
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Beautiful ocean sunrise
Briana takes the helmWhen Briana came up to the cockpit at 5:30AM for her turn at the helm, she didn't get a "good morning," instead her greeting from Will was, "Dude, we're declaring war on all fish!" Talking excitedly about lures and hooks and weights and monofilament and gaffs and fish bonkers, Will was more than a little excited. He was quickly relieved and went to bed, dreaming about fish.
Briana and Sean brought us closer to Cabo, dodging a cruise ship and the sportfisher boats that were zooming around like mad, lines streaming from huge spreaders. We sailed over one of the underwater mountains Cabo is famous for - where the sea goes from more than 2000ft deep to less than 60ft deep in a small little area - and saw hundreds of birds, tons of dolphins, some seals, and at least fifteen sportfishing boats clustered around that one spot.
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First mate Sara
Will continues to studyThe fish were listening to our plans and were smarter than we were: along with twice escaping from our hooks yesterday, and stealing our best lure during the night, they didn't make a single attempt on our other two lures. Maybe it was all the fancy equipment the fisherboats surrounding us had, but we were spectacularly unsuccessful in catching dinner in fish paradise. We saw fish jumping out of the water all day!
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Briana lost in thought
Sapphire blue water and Cabo FalsoBy 10AM that morning, we could see the white sand beaches and turquoise water of Cabo Falso, the point at the end of the Baja peninsula. Cabo proper is still an hour or two around the corner, but the sight of land was an aphrodisiac. We were almost done the Baja-Haha!
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Crazy sportfishing boats
Cabo San Lucas comes into sightWe finished just before noon. We had motored so much it wasn't like finishing the first leg, the feeling of success was hollow, but we were all looking forward to the epic party scheduled for later tonight. We had made sure it wasn't postponed on the morning VHF net! No way we were going to be surprised again.
We pulled out the guidebooks and tried to figure out where we were going to stay for the next few days. Getting a slip at Marina Cabo San Lucas was totally out of the question: they wanted something like $140/night for our size boat - that's more than four times what we paid in SoCal! That $140 didn't even get us a slip, it bought us the right to 'raft up' with other boats. We could be three boats from the dock! CRAZY!
We found what looked like a good spot to anchor - for free. Suckers.
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Sara looks through our guidebooks
Sara and Briana on lookout detailThe last few miles into Cabo were .. how should we say it? .. disappointing. Huge McMansions perched on the cliffsides, gigantic stucco condos and hotels, multi-million dollar fishing boats. Crazy money. After our no-cost traverse down the peninsula, returning to 'civilization' was a bit shocking.
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Mansions on the Cabo cliffs
Zillion-dollar boat with hotel/condo backdropWe passed the famous Cabo Arch on our way into the bay, and debated heading in to the fuel docks to get diesel. It was now almost 3PM and hundreds of fishing boats were going into the harbour under full steam. We decided to head straight to our anchorage and get fuel later; we had been warned that sportfisher guys are territorial and pushy around fuel docks.
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The famous Cabo arch
Sportfisher boats heading into the harbourWe anchored with thirty-odd other boats just off the beach, in about 25-ft of water. We were close enough to the beach that we could dive on our anchor and possibly swim to/from shore, but far enough off that we weren't affected by the monster waves generated by the big swell.
While diving on the anchor and ensuring we could leave the boat without worry, we discovered our proximity to one of the jetski rental zones. Jetskis can be fun, sure, but they couldn't be more annoying to tired yachtistas trying to enjoy a quiet afternoon with a slow swim around a buried anchor. Dodging 1000-lb water-bourne missiles piloted by idiots just sucks.
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Wanderlust crew head into town
Dorado decoration on iron fenceWe chilled for the afternoon and were primed and ready for the party that night. We took a panga in to shore just after the sun went down and spent two hours exploring Cabo San Lucas. It's official: we all prefer the dirty 'authentic' Cabo found six or seven streets away from the waterfront, way past the glitzy marina boardwalk and the row of waterfront bars.
But alas, we weren't immune from Cabo's bar charm. After a few drinks at a more muted neighbouring bar, we jumped into Cabo Craziness and went into El Squid Roe, the official Baja-Haha party spot. It was packed with boaters, most wearing Haha gear of some kind. Thankfully we had left it all back on the boat.
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The one, the only...
...El Squid Roe dancefloorWe drank waaay too much. We danced everywhere, including on tables and on a small stage in the middle of the dance floor. Will took off his shirt; the management made him put it back on. We drank on. We were dancing fools.
getSnippet430('106'); ?>Sara was accosted by an amorous dancer who wouldn't take no for an answer; he was 'bounced', and Will almost got tossed too. We drank more and more. It was a wild night.
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Sara and Briana get down
Sean makes a new friendWill and Sara left before 2AM, but Sean and Briana elected to stay behind and enjoy just a few more drinks and dances. Unfortunately they missed the last panga back to the anchored boats - the water taxis only run late on Fridays and Saturdays. With no other options, Sean and Briana went back and closed El Squid Roe at 4AM, then slept the remainder of the morning on a park bench where the panga guys would arrive the next morning.