SV Solitude

Back in U.S. Waters

Solitude and crew left San Quintin at 5am on day 12 for an overnighter to Ensenada. The windlass made a comeback and is working again after drying out yesterday, we will have to take it apart when the boat is back in L.A. and we are due for a new windlass. It was good news that Jim did not need to haul our 56 lb Rocna anchor and chain up by hand. They are staying closer to the coastline on the way up to Ensenada and starting to benefit from the protection of Point Conception, a headland that reaches out into the Pacific just north of Santa Barbara, CA, that forms the start of the Southern California Bight continuing down to San Diego, CA. The conditions for their sail today are easy breezy. There’s a photo here of our Mexican flag, which was brand new when we hoisted it up the rigging just one month ago and has been shredded by the winds coming up Baja over the last two weeks.

Final Push. Heavy Weather Sailing.

Day 8
Solitude and crew left Asuncion at 4am for Bahia Tortuga. The sea state was like a pond for their eight hour motor sail. They were anchored and topped off with fuel from a local delivery panga by 1:30pm. There are six other sailboats and three sport fishing boats in the bay with more boats coming in. It seems all are watching the weather and getting ready to make this last push up to Ensenada. The crew is not getting off Solitude today and will rest up to be ready to pull anchor at 2am. They made a dinner of chilorio (if you know Chata, you know), sautéed with potatoes, onions and peppers on flour tortillas; a combination we learned from a local woman in La Cruz last season. It is tasty!

Middle Bight

Jim and crew woke up in Bahia Santa Maria on the morning of day 4, savoring how good sleeping in a still bed feels. Although Jim has come down with a head cold, he’s feeling on the up and up. The winds in the anchorage were gusting to 30 knots and so they waited to refuel from the jerry cans. They made breakfast and waited until 10am when the winds calmed a bit. There were two other boats at Santa Maria, an Island Packet we’ve seen before and a sport fishing boat we’ve seen in the La Cruz area.

~ Adjusting to Pacific Swell ~

We are so grateful to have found two friends (of friends) to help crew on Solitude for the trip north with Jim to bring the boat back to Los Angeles. Due to the likely chances of severe and possibly prolonged seasickness, we agreed Lorin will forego this part of the trip. The “Baja Bash”, a well-known route amongst cruisers, is typically 1-2+ weeks of bashing against wind, waves and currents between the area of Cabo San Lucas, B.C.S, Mexico and San Diego, CA heading north. We are treating this more as a boat delivery to reposition Solitude back to our homeport and less of a pleasure cruise.

Final Preparations for the Trip North

The trip back to La Paz from Agua Verde consisted of quick hops to Los Gatos, Isla San Francisco, and Partida; all places we have been. We didn’t launch the dinghy in Los Gatos, we only stopped to make some miles and lessen the travel time to Isla San Francisco the following day. We had a work meeting over Starlink from the anchorage and continue to be impressed by the Starlink connection; it’s better than our wifi at home. We had a nice surprise that afternoon from a local fisherman when he delivered lobster tails to our boat that he pulled from the rocks along shore minutes before. We watched the full moon rise over the Los Gatos anchorage that evening and listened to another cruiser on an Island Packet (IP420) nearby play an acoustic guitar.

Bahia Agua Verde. Oh my!

We had a shorter day up to Agua Verde with little wind and calm seas once again. The spectacular mountains around Agua Verde, green waters, options for hiking, snorkeling, and other activities, as well as a tienda to top off provisions and three, small palapa restaurants make this anchorage a popular spot. We found a protected area in the north lobe tucked behind a reef, a swims-distance from the beach. We launched the dinghy right away to check out the anchorage. As we headed into the main beach, we saw a dark mass in the water and were alerted from shore that there was a whale shark only 4’ from the beach. We slowed down to check out the shadow and sure enough, it was a juvenile whale shark and it swam right up to our dinghy. Our first whale shark! We were ecstatic. We could not believe the sighting or how curious the shark was.

Calm Seas

We left La Paz and motored across the Bahia de La Paz to Partida, north of Espíritu Santo. We were here last year. This was a great first stop to get some miles in, make water, and test out Starlink in our first remote location as we are not using the Irridium Go this season. We had calm winds so did not do much sailing but it was a very pleasant first day on the water. Once the anchor was down at Partida, we started making water and jumped in for a swim. Three hours later the tank was full, we barbecued, and soaked in the bliss of being back out at anchor. During the night we woke to a sea lion taking a loud breath at our stern and coming around to rub on the anchor chain.

Roadtrip! Driving to the Boat.

We have a shorter cruising season this year with hopes to bring the boat back to the U.S. before summer. We decided to drive down to La Paz rather than fly so that we could bring supplies and see more of Baja from land. We left the first week of April and stayed overnight in Yuma, AZ the night before crossing the border. It was less than an hour drive to the Calexico/Mexicali east entry and we were there at 7am. We went through the border inspection where they checked our truck and some of the bins, asked if we had guns or drugs (which was “no” to both), and were told to park next to their trucks while we got our temporary visas. The whole process took less than 30 mins and we were back on the road cruising down highway 5, one of the two main roads on Baja running north to south. Most all cars we passed headed back north were from Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and a few Iowa plates. Highway 5 is an easy, two lane road and was in great condition. We were impressed.

Solitude is a Beast. No Engine Needed.

We wrapped our minds around turning back to La Paz and that this could potentially be the end of our cruising season. That is just the deal with life on a (sail)boat and in the end we love it all, including backtracking. There are many boating resources in La Paz and it’s really the best outfitted area for repairs in all of Mexico. We checked PredictWind – not that it matters apparently – and planned to pull anchor from San Evaristo in the morning.

A Sailor’s Plans are Written in the Sand at Low Tide

The next four anchorages we visited were incredible, one after the other, all remote and each very unique.