Sunset seen from CELESTE’s deck, Espiritu Santo, Sea of Cortez
It was hard to tear ourselves away from the beautiful bays and empty hills of Espiritu Santo island, but with summer (and hurricane season) approaching, it was time to sail back out of the Sea of Cortez and complete the final preparations for our Pacific Ocean crossing!
Since we’d been back in Mexico on the boat (after being away working for a few months), we had found the wind patterns pretty much the reverse of what they’d been in the winter. Back in February, we had made an upwind passage from San Jose del Cabo up to La Paz, fighting the strong north wind that prevails at that time of year. By May, we encountered frequent dead calms during the day and strong southerlies at night. This meant that we would be fighting headwinds again on our way south to Cabo (at least during the nighttime part of the passage). CELESTE sails pretty well against the wind, but headwinds make a passage longer (literally – you sail twice as many miles over ground to make the same distance good, as opposed to being able to sail straight on course with a favorable wind), so when we got a forecast for a calm day and night, we decided to swallow our sailing pride and make tracks to Cabo – we’d lingered long enough if we were going to the South Pacific that season!
Our route down Baja and up the Sea of Cortez (February) and then return to Cabo (May)
We left Espiritu Santo around mid-morning when the night’s Coromuel (strong SW wind) was starting to die down. At first we were sailing close-hauled and fast down the west side of the island (which was the windward side in that wind). By the time we reached San Lorenzo Channel (between Espiritu Santo and mainland Baja), the wind had died to a complete calm. We furled the main and jib and turned on the engine for the putter south.
Approaching San Lorenzo Channel as the wind dies
As the sun was setting, bathing the desert hills in golden light, we caught a faint zephyr of wind, just enough to fill the sails. We decided it was too good a photography opportunity to miss – perfect evening light, flat water, CELESTE ghosting beautifully along. So despite our total novice drone-flying abilities, we decided to give it a go and try flying the drone from the moving boat! It was, um, stressful!, but we got some stunning shots and managed not to lose the drone in the ocean! Phew!
Sunset off Baja
After that rush of adrenaline, it was time for dinner and then setting the nighttime watch rotation. A peaceful night, a hot and calm morning, and then the wind filled in from the northwest for our last 20 miles. So we enjoyed some great sailing!
And we got the boat speed up enough for our fishing lures to attract a big wahoo! Yay!
Seth with the wahoo!
By late afternoon, we were turning into Cabo San Lucas. We had chosen to go there instead of back to San Jose del Cabo because fellow sailors in La Paz had told us that marina slips in Cabo San Lucas were a lot cheaper. (Obviously we could have looked this up on the internet to make sure, but we had no reason to suppose they were wrong and, considering how expensive San Jose had been, we assumed they were correct. Always bad to assume things!) So in the interests of saving money, we had decided to endure the noise and frenzy of the famous spring-break-type resort town instead of returning to the relative quiet of upscale San Jose. Needless to say, Cabo was a real shock after the empty, peaceful bays we had come from!
Fancy a pirate ship booze cruise? Cabo San Lucas offers two! (And a whole fleet of other booze cruise boats… Bit of a shock after the empty desert islands of the Sea of Cortez!!)
Well, it turned out our informants were wrong…. The marina was just as expensive as San Jose! Oh well, we kept our stay very short – just long enough to visit Costco for a final provisioning run, to clear Immigration out of Mexico, to stock up on fresh fruit and veggies, and to take on final fuel and water.
In the end, it all turned out fine, as Cabo was quieter than usual at that time of year and we were positioned at the very end of the Baja peninsula to start our ocean crossing – a psychological boost at the very least. 🙂
Then we were off, across the big blue Pacific!
It’s been a while since I wrote about our first experience sailing in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, when we made the upwind (slog of a) passage from San Jose del Cabo to La Paz back in February of this year. So that was 
