Windy and Warm in Baja

No more Cold California for us, we made it to Baja.

La Ventana - After a 2-day drive from San Diego to Baja we arrived in La Ventana, the wind mecca of Baja California Sur, so Tom could get some kiting in with friends Nancy and Rob (s/v SHINDIG). We found a great little campground close to their rental and right above the beach with an excellent launching spot.

Rob and Nancy in front of their wonderful rental, Casa Baloncillo, named after some cool little birds that perch on cactus spines.

Some strong northerlies arrived in La Ventana just a few days after we did. They blew constantly day and night for several days. Tom had to jump a barbed wire fence and erect a tarp windbreak to keep our tent from blowing inside out. 

Home sweet tent. Check out Tom's windbreak behind the tent.

The La Ventana Classic kiting competition was happening the weekend we arrived. The 25+ knot northerlies created some gnarly shore break which challenged the competitors.

The competitors who survived entering the shore break got to contend with some strong and gusty winds.

The La Ventana Classic benefits the local schools and the festivities include local singing and dancing performed by the kids, raffles, parties, and dances. Some kids participated by painting the official LV Classic bus.

I think the theme for painting the bus is "Anything Goes".

Rob (s/v SHINDIG) rippin' it up on a perfect kiting day.

Home Base, La Paz - After a week of camping we (as in Sylvia) were ready to move our home base over to La Paz. Our friends Lola and Manny referred us to a terrific apartment above our old marina (Palmira) that we could rent for just a month. Good price, terrific view, and a really cool dog to play with. Score!

Tom with our landlord Teddy

We spent the month of February socializing, celebrating birthdays and Valentine's Day, and spending time with friends we had made during our three years in La Paz.

Decorating for the annual Valentine dance.
(Heidi, Suzanne, Dianne, Sylvia, Sharon)

Mmm...wine and chocolate sundaes! We really missed our friends in La Paz.
Lola, Conchita, Rob, Sylvia, Tom.

Before we headed back to California we wanted to visit our friends Kitty and Joe (s/v TELITHA) whom we had met our first year cruising. They were in San Carlos, near Guyamas on the mainland, working on their boat that had been damaged in a hurricane last year. Tom did some sleuthing and found out we could drive north to Santa Rosalia and take an 8-hour car ferry across the sea of Cortez to Guaymas. After a few phone calls he made reservations for us and the Tundra to leave on the next Friday morning ferry.

Just another spectacular sunset from our apartment balcony. 

We said goodbye to our friends and to our apartment with its magnificent view, and left on Thursday morning for our 7-hour drive north to Santa Rosalia. Our friend Terry from s/v CETUS hitched a ride with us as far as Puerto Escondido, just south of Loreto.

We stop for breakfast at our favorite carnitas stand in El Centenario. Sylvia and Terry with the staff of Carnitas Puro MIchoacan. SO delicious. 

Bad News - When Tom called the ferry office to confirm the reservations he was told that conditions in the sea were too perilous (high winds and big waves) for the ferry to run so our Friday reservation was postponed to the following Sunday, and perhaps even Wednesday! 

Tom and Terry in Puerto Escondido. The anchorage is well-protected so it appears deceptively calm. It was actually extremely windy just outside the anchorage.

After we dropped Terry off we talked about what to do. If we were put off to the Wednesday ferry that would be too late, as we were planning to leave Mexico around that date. Should we bail on the plan and head straight over to Scorpion Bay on the Pacific side of Baja for some surfing and camping? We decided we really wanted to see Kitty and Joe. When we called them to tell them the news they said they would extend their stay by a couple of days and urged us to give it a try, so we chose to be optimistic and keep our fingers crossed that we would make the Sunday ferry. We continued driving north to Loreto where we would somehow entertain ourselves for a couple of days.

Would we get on the Sunday ferry? And if we did get on the ferry what would the conditions in the Sea of Cortez be like? We'd heard horror stories about being on the Baja ferries during nasty weather.

We would know in two days.

ALBUM: Windy and Warm in Baja