We get to Cabo in plenty of time, but we can't keep track of time

Huge thanks to Tom for continuing the blog posts while we were underway, using SailMail and SSB radio waves! How cool is that?

You already know that much as we adored Ensenada it was time for us to depart. Tom wanted to stay a bit longer but I was ready to leave, so we had a democratic vote. The girls, Cinnabar and I, won and so we left on our weather window of three lovely days, begining 16 Feb, and a slight threat of getting pasted on day 4.

Sylvia and Cinnabar win the vote and leave Ensenada.

Warning: If you are a sailor you might want to skip this next part in orange because you already know how this all works.
Some people have asked us what it's like to do a 4-day sail, aka a "passage". What do we do all day? Do we stop at night? Here are the basics of how we made the passage...
1) Standing Watches - someone has to be up all the time, 24/7, to monitor navigation and keep an eye out for other vessels, whales, kelp rafts, etc. During the day we mostly did 4-hour watches. Tom would be up for 4 hours while I napped/slept/rested, then I would be up and he would go down to rest, and so on. At night we found our watches had to be slightly shorter, and 3-hour watches were better for us. The On watch would keep an eye on things as mentioned. The Off watch would rest, check navigation, rest, prepare meals, rest, read, etc. And rest. During my On watch I would do the following every 30 minutes - stand up and do a visual 360, turn on the radar and check for boats or anything else that might be in the vicinity, check the GPS and paper charts to confirm we were where we wanted to be and going where we wanted to go, if the engine was running check the oil pressure and temp, check the battery voltage to see if we need to recharge via engine or genset. Additionally, we always kept an ear open to listen for any new sounds that might indicate a problem somewhere. Tom allowed me to have the sunrise watch, my favorite!

Sunrise Day #3

Every morning after sunrise I would do a walk/crawl-around to make sure everything looked OK, no loose screws or pins on deck (!!!) and to toss the occasional suicidal squid back into the water. Tom spent a good deal of his off-time inspecting equipment and performing minor repairs.

One morning we gybed into about 50 whales, mostly mothers and calves, that we swear had not been there minutes before. We had to thread our way through the pod so as not to endanger them or ourselves.


Tom threading the whale pod needle. Wish we had pics of the whales!

So yes, you have to pay attention all the time.
 
2) Steering - We mostly steered by setting a course and letting our W-H Autopilot (Wil Hamm) handle the driving. Sometimes we would put the autopilot on standby and hand steer just to amuse ourselves. On the last day our autopilot couldn't handle the higher winds and steep, lumpy wind chop and Tom hand-steered for the last few hours. Using the Autopilot allows us to hunker down under the dodger to stay out of the wind and nighttime/morning dew. We can control the Autopilot from this position with a remote control.
 
3) Food - Even though we waited for our calm weather window you never know if things will get lopsided due to unexpected winds or lumpy seas. To prepare for this I made a big pot of tasty meat and bean chili. (Thanks for the recipe Dina!) Night #1 was Chili Mexican style, with salsa, cilantro, cotija cheese, tortillas. Night #2 was Chili American style, with grilled cheese sandwiches. Night #3 was pasta tossed in a chili-like bolognese. Night #4 was a suspiciously-chili-like curry soup. Thank goodness there was no more Chili left after that. We also keep a big bowl of healthy and not-so-healthy snacks handy. Lunches are usually some sort of sandwich, sometimes cold and sometimes grilled. Breakfast is usually cereal, instant oatmeal, fried egg sandwiches, and/or fruit.
 
4) Drinks - We drink plenty of water, juice, and the occasional soda. We usually don't drink alcohol on passages, but since the weather was so calm we treated ourselves to a Tecate with dinner each night.

Ooh, I feel so naughty!

Hot drinks are a luxury, no, a MUST during night watches. Years ago I bought a restaurant style pump thermos that keeps water hot all night long. We heat the water and fill it up at sunset. That way we can have hot cocoa, tea, cider, whatever we want, during our night watches.
 
5) Showers - Sorry, we are sailors and can't always manage to shower every day. That said, nobody likes to share a boat with smelly sailors, so we have lots of baby-wipes that do the trick for a few days at least. Cinnabar has a shower so after we dropped the hook in Cabo we treated ourselves to our well-deserved HOT water showers. Heaven!!

I think that's it for the sailing questions. Please feel free to send any more queries our way.

So far we love Cabo San Lucas. Like Ensenada it has terrific food and wonderfully friendly people. And the air and water temps are much warmer. We finally feel like we are on vacation.

We discover Cabo's only brewpub, Baja Brewing Co.

Just In Time: We had a rather weird first day, however. It seemed that wherever we went businesses were closing early, happy hours ended early, everyone in the marina office left early. We even went to a movie and the ticket vendor tried to talk me out of purchasing tickets because the movie had already started. I tried to explain to him (in my bad Spanish), that the previews were always at least 10 minutes and it was only 10 minutes after the hour, now sell me the tickets! He shrugged and did so. Well, Tom and I were somewhat baffled by the movie, how could we have missed so much in just the first ten minutes? This sad tale of confusion continued the rest of the night but I think you get the idea.

The next morning we got up early because we had agreed to visit our waiter's English class as his "Show and Tell" gringos who would converse with the class. We dutifully showed up precisely at 08:00 only to meet him coming out of the classroom with a shocked look on his face. He told us it was 09:00, not 08:00, and class was over! We howled with laughter as we realized we had failed to turn our watches ahead 1 hour. We were in a different time zone! Stupid gringos!! We took Simon out for coffee and had a good time getting to know him better.

Simon forgave us for missing his class.

In Which I Become Familiar With the Mexican Medical System: Due to a (now I know minor) health issue that I needed to address we have stayed in Cabo a bit longer than intended. It's always scary to get sick in a foreign country, but the up side is that I have gotten a first hand education about the Mexican medical system. I am even more convinced that the medical insurance system in the U.S. is horribly broken. My first medical visit in Cabo was to the public clinic in town for a "consultation". For the high price of about $12.00 I got my numbered ticket and sat down with the rest of the unfortunates, most of them  children and pregnant ladies. From talking to some of the other women I found out that the Mexican government offers free health care to children up to 4 yrs of age, all pregnant women, and people over 60 yrs of age. There were also other tiers of free medical for those with chronic problems such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, etc.

There were two very young doctors assigned to consult with the patients. At first I was impressed by the one I was waiting for because he seemed to spend so much time with each patient. Then I started doing the math. After about 5 hours people were starting to get irate and the children were beginning to self-destruct. I ended up being there for SEVEN HOURS (until 7:00 p.m.)!


My view for 7 hours at the Cabo Public Health Clinic

I even got to try my hand at having a hissy fit in Spanish to the clinic administrator, for all the good it did me. I might have been there longer because some man without a ticket tried to push his way in before me but the nice lady next to me (who actually had the number before mine but let me go first because she had three kids) pushed me into the room in front of the interloper. Gracias Senora!! After all that the whippersnapper of a doctor told me I had to see a specialist. Lesson learned: if you can afford it avoid the public clinics. Try to go to a hospital or clinic with specialists if possible.

The only good thing about this is that we had walked by an intriguing restaurant once or twice that morning and ended up going there for dinner. Alcaravea Gourmet is now my new favorite restaurant. In the world. Our waiter recommended the fresh fish, Lenguado (Halibut), and his two favorite preparations.

Seared Lenguado in salsa of mushroom and fresh herbs, pesto and sundried tomato crusted Lenguado on fettucine.

Tom and I went for one of each and savored every bite. Our other waiter, Kevin, turned out to be one of the owners, the son of the chef. After such a screwed up day this delicious meal was a lifesaver. The wine was divine and the mixed drinks coming out of the bar looked amazing too. If we go there again I'm going to order one of their splendid-looking mojitos.

The next day we went to the marina office (5 minutes before closing), Maria the customer service rep found a specialist for me and I had an appointment just a few hours later with an Otorrinolaringologo (say that a few times!). Very clean, upscale clinic, super nice and competent doctor, high tech equipment, I was in and out in less than an hour. The doc even talked to Tom about what causes Surfer's Ear and how to avoid it. Cost for this extremely helpful visit was about $50.00. Well worth the money. Even with insurance I would have paid more in the U.S. If anyone needs an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist in Cabo be sure to visit Dr. Juan Portillo at the BlueMedicalNet Hospital and Clinic.

Four thumbs up to Maria at Marina Cabo San Lucas for helping me get medical help!
Four thumbs up to Dr. Juan Portillo, Otorrino/ENT specialist. You rock doc!


The Marina Cabo San Lucas is surrounded by nightclubs, bars, restaurants and party action that goes full force until about 5:00 a.m. Every night. There seems to be a bar for everyone. Last Sunday night Tom went on a mission and found a restaurant/bar that agreed to turn on the Academy Awards so I could get my annual fix. I was thrilled not to have to miss all the glam. When we got to Desperados Cantina they already knew Tom and ushered us upstairs and plopped us down onto a comfy sofa in front of a big flat screen TV. Blue Margaritas soon followed and I was in heaven. Poor Tom was nodding off near the end but he knows how much I love the Oscars. Thanks for taking one for the team Tom!

The marina is a trip. It's very deluxe and packed with fishing boats. Everyone stops to talk to us because with our tall mast and bright red hull we stick out like a sore thumb.

Cinnabar has a red power boat friend two slips down.

We have already been here long enough to make a few friends and run into people we know on the docks, along the Malecon or in bars.

You can see more pics of our trip down and first week in Cabo HERE.

I wish we could afford to stay longer. We are trying to decide whether to head up into the Sea of Cortez or blast across to the Mexican mainland. Stay tuned...

Another day in paradise.