11/28/2004 - View of Cabo San Lucas

For Jake's 35th birthday we splurged and booked a room for two nights at the Villa de Palmar. The hotel was in "swimming distance" from the Woodduck and we did just that, swam into shore, with a few things packed in a dry bag, and enjoyed life on land for a few days. It was a really nice treat.

11/24/2004 - Pictures... as promised... of 11 day trip from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas

Ensenada to San Benito (230 miles, took us 3 days)... Cathy at the helm on the last stretch to our anchorage in San Benito.


ABREJOS to SANTA MARIA (140 miles, 34 hours) (Average speed: 4.5 knots) We were also very glad the day we reached Santa Maria... as it was the first time in many days we found sunshine at the same time that we found "time" on our hands to take a sunshower and Jake got in a shave!


Santa Maria was our favorite anchorage going down the coast.


Picture perfect day of sailing the Baja coast... land in sight is a good thing, ha ha. This is what 10-20 miles offshore looks like, a safe distance for our coastal cruising.


After 11 days of sailing, dropping anchor, and picking up anchor again, we finally reached Cabo San Lucas. Cabo is yet another cruise ship destination and we arrived here the same day as the "Mercury" cruise ship (in distance).

11/18/2004 - Yes, we made it to Cabo San Lucas!

We are so happy to have made it to Cabo San Lucas. We arrived yesterday (Wed., Nov. 17). It took us 11 days to get here from Ensenada. We had wonderful weather, as we did not experience any storms or gale force winds. The weather, however, was not always optimal for sailing. We had extreme "absolutely no wind" and did a lot of motoring. At other times we had a large amount of wind, but not necessarily coming from the right direction. This proved to be a challenge, but Jake dealt with it by constantly fine tuning the sails to make the best of the wind we had. Jason handled the sails while I managed the helm and took orders from the captain on which lines to pull and when. We have lots of pictures to post but will have to wait another day before we can do so. Look for another entry tomorrow. We will be here in Cabo for at least 7 days, maybe more. We really like it here. It's beautiful and there are so many services here (everything) compared to what was saw going down the Baja coast (minimal to nothing). The Baja coast was beautiful and we stayed in some awesome and remote anchorages. We only went into shore once in eleven days (in Turtle Bay) to get gasoline. What we just experienced really spelled out what cruising is all about. We lived on our own supplies and had to depend on nobody but ourselves. Our provisioning thus far has been right on the money. We have not been without much, except maybe having a few more (anybody) of our friends and family along... oh yeah, and we miss cheeseburgers. If you don't have plans this weekend, come on down to Cabo San Lucas!!! Best way to reach is by email, no more cell phones. Just look for the Woodduck, anchored off the beach at the north end of the harbor. Jake's birthday is on Tuesday. We'll be having steak and lobster. Miss everybody.-Cathy

11/05/2004 - Cabo San Lucas here we come!

We are done with the paperwork here in Ensenada. They call it the paperwork dance--or cha cha. Two steps forwards, two steps back, a lot of smiling and saying please and oh yeah, paying fees too. We plan to leave Ensenada tomorrow (Saturday) morning. It will be approximately 7 days before we reach Cabo San Lucas and our next opportunity to access the internet and make phone calls. Here is a breakdown of mileage and safe places to anchor and rest between Ensenada and Cabo. We have a total of 712 miles to cover so when I say we should get there in 7 days that is under optimal conditions. It might take as long as two weeks. The bad thing is that we will only have radio and pay phones for our contact during that time. The good thing is that we aren’t spending any money while we are out sailing. Wish us luck and we’ll talk to you soon from Cabo.--cathy

Ensenada to San Quintin, 98 miles
San Quintin to Isla San Benito, 130 miles
Isla San Benito to Turtle Bay, 56 miles
Turtle Bay to Asuncion, 50 miles
Asuncion to Abreojos, 45 miles
Abreojos to San Juanico, 70 miles
San Juanico to Santa Maria Cove, 90 miles
Santa Maria Cove to Belcher’s Point, 23 miles
Belcher’s Point to Cabo San Lucas, 150 miles

P.S. Tommy, you asked for a map. Here it is...


P.S.S. Here is a picture of our boat anchored in Ensenada, next to a huge cruise ship.

11/04/2004 - Ensenada, Mexico

We arrived in Ensenada this morning, Thursday, November 4th. We hated to leave San Diego as we were really enjoying beautiful Cabrillo Isle Marina (and its pool and hot tub) and met some very friendly people and enjoyed the warm sunny weather. We decided to try sailing through the night to allow us to arrive at our new harbor with plenty of daylight. It worked out perfect. We had steady, light winds of 10 knots and only 3 foot seas which skipped us along at a good average pace of 7.5 knots per hour. We made great time and enjoyed sailing for a change instead of motoring. We left San Diego at 4pm and arrived here in Mexico at 7am. We climbed into the dinghy and went into shore to take care of the entry paperwork and made record time on that too. We were done by noon and back to the boat to catch up on the sleep we lost last night. Jake lost more sleep than I did, as I was able to catch 3 hours at a time before I took my shift driving. Jake on the other hand had too much on his mind so didn't have as much luck sleeping. We plan to do the rest of the trip just the two of us and hope that each segment will go as smoothly as this one just did. We will have cell phone service until the 10th of this month and then only emails after that. Adios! --cathy