After Sarantium sails past Cabo San Luca and towards sea of Cortez on a beautiful, close haul (wind on the nose) in the Gulf of California, Sarantium turns North. She sails into the Sea and we continue to have light northerly winds on the nose. We are pleased…and decide to bypass the beautiful anchorage, Bahia Los Frailes. This bay has a gorgeous sandy beach with some new quaint homes on it. The bay also have a giant rock that provides divers with a wall to explore, according to the Cruisers guidebook: Sea of Cortez.
While sailing by the bay I did think I might regret my decision to bypass it. But I could always visit here on my way back. Then shortly after my decision, I see Mantas jumping out of the water, playing. This was a first for me. Never before, had a seen this in real life. I am not sure I knew that Mantas jumped out of the water. What’s next? Whale sharks? Nope, just flying fish and dolphins!
We continue towards la Paz taking turns at the helm. We’re down to three hour shifts now, as we are pretty tired, EXHAUSTED in fact. I head to bed and wake up two hours later by the gyb sail being taken down. I stick my head out of the cockpit and see and feel a strong wind and us hardly moving. It’s too windy for the direction of the boat and wind combination. We try and balance the sails and try to go down the wind a bit more. Giant waves are appearing on the nose and we are now acting like a giant teeter totter. Our options are to either do a giant tack across the sea of Cortez, and then tack back in 10-12 hours to gain any distance at all. Or we need to go and find an anchorage close by. All the anchorages are too exposed to northerly winds so the closest is Bahia Los Frailes. We turned the boat around and headed south around 0400.
We arrive in two and a half hours in beautiful Bahia los Frailes and I think “things happen for a reason” sometimes. I’m still exhausted… breakfast and bed!
Just woke up, so let’s go and explore…😁🐋
Sailaway Sarantium 