splendid isolation

Cabo Frailes

Well my logbook starts back up at 1/16 so its missing 6 days without writing after we pulled into the bay. Our first day would have been 1/11 and the wind was still blustery from our exciting sail up. And from each day on it just got stronger and stronger. There were 9 of us boats anchored in Frailes for over a week of winds that never went under 25kts in the bay. 2 days of full gale in the bay. 45+kts. We’d never seen anything like this. Relentless winds. We chose to not launch our dinghy and stay confined to the vessel incase we got dragged out to sea. Which was well over 50-60kts with huge swell. As im typing this the southern part of mainland mexico is going through this weeklong hell wind. We let out 260ft of line in 28 ft of water. Thats about a 9:1 scope. Hurricanes are a 10:1 scope. It felt like we were in an earthquake on a subway in grand central. Endless quivering, rattling, “tacking” on anchor, tugging, bobbing. Well that raised our comfort threshold quite a bit. We had visitors, from other boats most of the days. Played cards, made food, watched movies, and just chatted the days away. Anything to keep everyone comfortable and our minds off the weather. Some of the boats had SSB radios and would give a weather report every morning. 1/17 A few boats tried to leave and had to come back it was still not good out there. One boat went out with a ripped mainsail and didn’t know how to use their jib? Stuff like this baffles me, and is completely dangerous. Theyre comment on the radio was “well I guess if its still whitecapping out there than we shouldn’t be sailing” DUH. A couple days later they tried again and made it. We decided to stay put until a complete change of weather had been made. And patience paid off. Frailes turned into a beautiful bay. 1/20 Two food trucks came, one on Friday and one on Sunday. Which was nice because the closest town was 5 miles away and didnt offer much. We spent a few days beaching it and exploring. At night there were thousands of red eyes in the water as far as you could see around the boat, creepy. I caught one, I think they were ladyfish? Also caught some triggerfish and made beer batter! We went into the town of Cabo Pulmo which has one of only three living reefs in north america. We got internet and was able to talk to our families after almost two weeks of no outside contact. Our boat truly is splendid isolation in times like these. 1/23 we pulled the anchor up at 4AM. I woke up every hour before we left, calm wind, bright moon, clear sky. As soon as we leave, clouds and pitch pitch black. We motored out into the darkness with only 2 stern lights of other boats to follow way off in the distance. The sun came up a few hours later and we hoisted our sails, en route to Bahia de los Muertos, 47 miles north.

the drawing at the bottom with the different scopes. normally we're the first 2, this time we were past the 3rd one. the more line out, the better angle for tugging.

she loves the sail bags

triggerfish

breakfast sausage sailboat style! pretttttty close dad.

beer batter triggerfish with that soy dipping sauce recipe that i have in the food post.

ants carrying a moth

espi mountain climbing

yes there are scorpions here

claires most adorable french toast breakfast

ladyfish? notice the creepy red eyes. 1000s of these around the boat.

kettlecorn! and mom i put that cheddar cheese powder on it.

chillin hard

i wonder why our sail bags have so many holes? piña?

hiding inside. sorry no pictures of the worst of it, but we were occupied.

after the dust had settled

solo sailor came in from a night on the water in that wind. all sorts of broken equipment. side tied to another boat, passed out, woke up and left the next morning? some people just dont think.

food truck!

cabbage and potatoes

with ny strip!

claire is definitely the little chef

omelet

stirfry

mini pancake for piña

another fish taco dinner!

bean dip and spicy mayo. we may be stranded for two weeks but we are far from starving.

some of the cabo pulmo reef

click that to learn more

finally civilization! margaritas please

not our usually pick up when it comes to hitchhiking but it worked.

we made friends in town and brought them back for a campfire on the beach

San jose part 2

1/ 6 out in the anchorage with piña. Pretty weird being anchored out there without claire on the boat, bobbing around. ‘sweet dreams’ was anchored close by so they kept me company. Out there for a few days on the boat alone I noticed things. For instance one day the wind switched at 12:40 from off the land to off the water. On a boat you notice this immediately because the bow faces the wind, tension on the anchor line. So you swing a full 180. Then like clockwork exactly 6 hours later (tidal?) 18:40 on the dot I swung right back around and the wind switched back off the land. 1/10 claire’s back in mexico! We left port at 8:00 after refueling. It was calm, no wind. We did see the marching of the elephants way out on the horizon. should have known from that what was lying ahead for us. 10:00 we got the jib up for a little while, then the wind died again. So we motored on for a little while, which turned into bashing into some moderate swell. Which turned into stronger winds and bigger swells. We were going head on into direct wind and swell. Very annoying and difficult. The boat kept trying to turn around when the winds picked up over 25kts and the swell a good 4-5 ft and short periods. We had no choice but to hoist the jib back up and go for it, no turning back! We were in for a full day of tacking back and forth up wind. Full sprays into the cockpit. It felt like sailing a sabot with someone throwing 5 gallon buckets of water on us. This is what makes our parents proud and the trip worth it! While all the other boats are cruising by with their dodgers and fully enclosed “greenhouse” cockpits. Probably wearing pajamas and sipping tea, who knows. At least we can say we’re doing it after a full day sail like that. Especially when we pull right up next to everyone in the anchorages. We’re beginners, broke, and young. We like it this way, kind of. We got the anchor down at 18:00 at the northern end of Bahia los Frailes. Which has a 800+ ft underwater canyon running down the middle. Pretty sketchy to drop an anchor off that shelf. But we’re so small we can tuck into spots that other boats can not.