Bluewater Coastal Cruising: Leg 16: Bahía Santa Maria to Cabo San Lucas

Saturday December 11, 2021

Bahía Santa Maria

Departed Bahia Santa Maria 0445 to take advantage of early winds and arrive in Cabo mid-morning. Sailing fast with the new asymmetrical chute up. Going 8-11 kts surfing down waves. Wow! =150 miles to go@

Leg 16

Departure Time: 4:45am local time Saturday December 11, 2021

Departure from: Bahía Santa Maria, Baja California, México

4 souls aboard

Lawrence Kerver

Gloria Vilchez

Andrew McMullin

Ryan Bernhardt

Destination: Cabo San Lucas, Baja California, México

11Dec approx 1:30pm PST:

Got an Iridium Go Satellite phone call from Lawrence. Everything is fine. Day is beautiful. Sunny and rolling seas. They have 8-10 knots of wind and wish they had more. Going slowly about 3-5 kts. Heading to Cabo.

Liz

Sunday December 12, 2021

...sailed through the night and aiming for Cabo today...

Good morning sunshine!! I like mine sunny side up please!
Andrew cooking in the galley around 7am

View of Baja and the sunrise off Bluewater's port side...
...while Andrew is cooking

8:25am 12Dec
Sailing fast with the new asymmetrical Spinnaker (chute)

12Dec 9:30am PST email from Lawrence (with photos!):

Buenos dias!

We sailed through the night going 5-7kts with just the full main up. Very early the wind died so we are now motoring the last 25 miles or so to Cabo. All the marinas are at capacity and there doesn't seem to be dock space anywhere. We will get fuel, water and try to replace the batteries and see if there is any marina space available up in La Paz. If not, we will be heading directly over to Mazatlan. There is a strong N wind blowing down the Sea of Cortez. There are about 8 huge dolphins swimming with us right now and the water is much warmer. We got into a new current and the water is now 80.8F and crystal clear.

Here are some photos of the giant flying fish and squid that have boarded during the nights. Andrew cleaned up the fish and roe, but the squid were a bit too baked in the sun before we found them.

I'll send a few more pics in another email.

Flashback photos - Date stamp Sunday morning Dec 5 (so Leg 13)
Andrew on Bluewater's bow with Flying fish and squid

Close-up view of Flying fish and squid on forward trampolines (nets)

Sun baked squid hitch-hikers!

Flashback photo - Andrew cooking up breakfast on 5Dec
If you look closely, you can see the filleted Flying fish (to the left of the bacon)
and Andrew is holding fresh fish roe (eggs) which I'm told were delish!

Wikipedia says: Tobiko (とびこ) is the Japanese word for flying fish roe. It is most widely known for its use in creating certain types of sushi.

And a subsequent email from Lawrence came 12Dec 9:40am PST (with more photos!)

We flew the screacher, then the asymmetric spinnaker, then the symmetric spinnaker going DDW. We sailed fast until the wind died early. We are motoring on both motors now to get into Cabo to the fuel dock in time.

Symmetric spinnaker going dead down wind

Whale Breach!

Sometime around 11am Lawrence texted photos/videos of a whale breaching! I tried to guess the type but deferred to Andrew who thinks it's a Humpback Whale. Lawrence exclaimed that it just breached like this about 25x. See videos below for a breach x2:

Ryan port-side, approaching El Arco (The Arch of Cabo San Lucas)

Rounding El Arco, Cabo San Lucas

Gloria on the bow with El Arco in the distance after Bluewater rounded the Cape

12Dec 12:31pm PST Text from Lawrence:

1330. Anchored off beach in Cabo. Among about 10 other sailboats.

Bluewater checked in safe & sound @ Cabo San Lucas!

Approx Arrival: 12:31pm PST / 1:31pm local (Mountain) time Sunday 12Dec 2021

Duration of Leg 16: Somewhere around 32+ hours

Bluewater anchored, Bahía San Lucas (Cabo Bay)

Bluewater (presumably) anchored, Ryan on the stern

L'o Agua and Lo dining in Cabo

Monday December 13, 2021

Cabo San Lucas

No words from the crew today - they must be resting and making future plans....

Tuesday December 14, 2021

Rancho Tierra Sagrada (near Cabo San Lucas)

A Cabo Adventure!

Beautiful! Macaw Parrots and Love birds😘
Nice shoe pairing as well😉

Gloria and Lawrence - Ready for adventure!

A Saharan adventure in the Sonoran desert? I hear they are the same latitude...

😗

💋

Say🧀 Click 📷!

Wednesday December 15, 2021

...Cabo San Lucas

15Dec 8:17am PST email from Lawrence:

Great stuff Liz!

We are totally having too much fun down here. The camel ride was great and we bought the photo package so we have drone video and tons of great pics. They had many different guides explaining the history of the local area, native/endemic plants and animals, types of cacti and which ones you can use for hydration. Also how to make tortillas from corn kernels and the cool volcanic rocks they use for essentially a mortar and pestle and table. Very fun people and very educational. In fact, a toast (salud!):

We are still searching for any open marina and I'm now considering having her hauled out in La Paz and kept on the hard while we fly back to FL for a month or 6 weeks. I can service the motors and have the bottom painted as well.

Hope everyone is great! Can't wait to visit soon.

15Dec 8:51am PST email from Lawrence (with photo!):

Hello again,

Several of the anchored boats have stayed here the whole time we've been here and many have come and departed. There has typically been one or 2 cruise ships here and although I did not get a photo they swung around on the anchor and were very close to us. A bit unnerving to be that close to a 1000' ship that's 12 stories tall. I think Ryan or Gloria got a photo when one of them was right close.

Cabo Cruise Ships
Bluewater is anchored on the far right in the photo

Thursday December 16, 2021

Cabo San Lucas

Friend Michael flew into Cabo today for a few days of fun in the sun.

Ryan, Andrew, Gloria (reaching in the dinghy) and friend Michael who just arrived

Fun spot with a spectacular view!

Sunday December 19, 2021

Cabo San Lucas

I had a long conversation with Lawrence today about the Spectra water maker, the batteries, friend Michael's visit (fun!), Gloria's birthday and marina space available in Mazatlán. Never a dull moment!

Using the water maker for the first time (a few days ago) was exciting although they encountered a cracked Tee pipe almost immediately and couldn't find a suitable replacement in town. Luckily, Lawrence crafted a repair using epoxy and a tube clamp and it works like a charm.

Testing water salinity, PPM meter

Pressure in the system and water production meter

Cracked 'Tee' in the system

Cracked 'Tee'

Lawrence's epoxy and tube clamp repair

Now Lawrence is running the Water Maker for the 2nd time and it's slick. It's cranking out crystal clear water. They've now produced 60 gallons of water. I think they had used Bluewater's 100 gallon supply down to 20 gallons which they transferred to the sun shower before making water into an empty tank. It sounds like the new system is working well. I learned all about the core strainer, the pre-filter (5-20 micron), the carbon filter, the 3000 psi Clark pump between the membranes, the brine discharge, the PPM (Parts per million) particulate meter sample equivalent to Evian, etc. If I heard correctly, the output is 65 liters per hour so somewhere in the neighborhood of 18 gallons per hour of the elixir of life (water). Exciting stuff!

And ever since emerging from the fog of the previous Legs and now with full sun on Bluewater's solar panels in Cabo, the batteries are charged up. Even with the fridge and freezer and the Water Maker all drawing power, the solar panels are charging the batteries. Good stuff.

The water temperature is a pleasant 82 deg F which sounds mighty nice but it isn't friendly conditions for the anchor bridle which is now green with algae.

The weather has been honkin' down the Sea of Cortez with regular 15-20 knot winds and higher. It looks like a calm weather window is in the forecast so Bluewater may be underway soon. Stay tuned...

Monday December 20, 2021

Cabo San Lucas

As if we weren't jealous enough already....

SNORKELING DAY!!!!

We had a great time snorkeling. They gave us a full tour around the famous 'arch' and 'lands end area' with all the cool sandstone rocks. Lot's of sea life out there. I did take my underwater camera but didn't have much luck with the videos because I need to be more steady with it. We snorkeled all over with tons of fish.

Here are a couple pics.