Author: sailawaysarantium

Wovser, another amazing day on the water! left Bahia Tortugas around 09.00 and by 09.30 we had wind in our sails. Pretty quickly we were surfing waves at 6 knots. Since we had not caught a fish yet, today was the day …. within 5 minutes the rod started jumping and I grabbed it, but wind also picked up and we lost our fish. Within another 5 minutes another fish was on the hook and we managed to slow the boat enough so we wouldn’t lose it this time. It took about an hour and a half of reeling it in until it was on our cockpit.

The rest of the sail was absolutely divine. We kept an average of 7.5 knots and hit 8.4 knots while surfing down waves…

Sun is setting earlier every night. Tonight sunset was at 17.50….

We just arrived to Asuncion in the dark… I’m excited to wake up and see what it looks like… Goodnight!

From sunrise coffee to sunset party🍹

The day was just just perfect! We left Isla Cedros, watching the tugs towing the salt barges into the salt refinery on the south entrance of the island. Wind built quickly and soon we were sailing at 7 knots, heading for Turtle Bay. Sarantium was surfing and keeping wind in her sails for the 9 hours it took to get to the entrance of Turtle Bay. The entrance was wide, however had some kelp that we managed to pick up with the hydro vane rudder. We also had to avoid a wreck in the middle of the entrance of Turtle Bay. According to our books the wreck was visible to the eye, but we couldn’t see it so we relied on our GPS and stayed clear of it. The wind continued to push us all the way into the bay and we could sail right to our anchorage. We noticed two sailboats, a monohull and a trimaran, and anchored close to them and at only 4 meters of depth. As soon as we had set anchor we jumped in the zodiac to go and find some fresh produce. We were both craving apples and orange, as we had been rationing on fruit. When we approached the beach two people were walking towards us and caught our beach landing. They welcomed us and invited us to join their barbecue with their families and friends. Turns out they were a family of four from Powell River, heading to La Paz and then will continue to French Polynesia, Hawaii, Alaska back to BC. Others were “trimaran Jeff” and his crew, a couple from Switzerland and Spain, and a few locals. We spend the evening exchanging sailing stories and sharing a meal of freshly caught fish. We also found a grocery store with fresh fruit and veggies. The perfect day❤️ really. The anchorage is quiet and still so I’m hoping to sleep well! Good night from Turtle Bay… half way down the coast of Baja!

Early rise and looking at online wind prediction… looks good! From Isla Cedros to Turtle bay, it’s about 50 nmiles so the 10-15knot winds should push us there in 12 hours.

Coffee first..

As the winds sweep over then island of Cedros, and its’ mountains, wind can hit 40 nautical miles per hour on the islands esast side. So, as Cedros provide protection from the north westerlies and the westerly swell it does very little to protect from the land created gusts. With that in mind we realized that we had to go “into town”. Cedros, the island’s village has a small harbour with a breakwater protecting from the swell. Unfortunately, the harbour is very small and Sarantium needed more space to swing than the harbour, with its’ boats, could offer. We tried to put out enough chain without hitting other boats or the breakwater, but we didn’t hold anchor. We decided to an hour outside of the breakwater in the lä of the wind.

Starving and tired, we decided to go ashore to find food. The small village had a few grocery stores where we found eggs, potatoes and an onion. No fruit😔 we walked by a restaurant where we ordered a large burger and fries… I had been dreaming of eating a burger for some time now and I felt like I won the lottery.

Today, I have report arrival at the El Capitan’s office, as Cedros is a port of callI’m hoping to explore more of this volcanic island.

As the night was a bit rolly, Sarantium needs to be moved towards shore and more inbehind the breakwater!

Checked in, bought groceries, wandered around and now it’s time to go snorkeling…

We knew wind and waves were forecasted to be of decent speed and size. According to my garmin GPS inReach weather report, wind was upgraded to 21 nmiles NW and 7 feet wave height, 16 seconds apart. At times I was reading gusts up to 28 nmiles, and when we needed to reef our mainsail and pointing up wind we had 31 nmiles on the nose. Yikes, that’s more than we had anticipated. As well, waves seemed taller and less than 16 seconds apart. Needless to say, it was a lively sail through the night. Since we are two people sharing the helm, we took three hour shifts through the night. Presently, we are three hours away from Isla Cedros and our anchor on the east side to hide from swell and wind. Turtle Bay will have to wait!

…foggy Quintin in the bay of Santa Maria. Most anchorages along the Pacific side of Baja are fairly remote. Bays are quiet, full of seals and sealions and very few boats. This makes it easy for coming in to anchor late at night. Sun is now setting around 18.00, so evening sails are in the dark, and we rely heavily on radar, AIS (automatic identification system), chart plotter, and depthsounder. The radar picks everything up, including seals that pop up and disappear on the screen when motoring in. Also, studying the paper chart, ahead of time, in a good idea. Seals are welcoming us every evening when setting anchor. They come right up to the boat and are quite talkative and swirl around stirring up the phosphoresence.

Yesterday’s sail, was slow as wind was less than predicted. We kept a steady pace between 3.5-6 nmiles per hour. And once we turned into a bay wind typically ease and motor comes on. Last night we lucked out, wind picked up in the bay, so we could sail in close to our anchorage.

Today is predicted wind between 18-24 nautical miles per hour. This is perfect as we need to get to Magdalena Bay or Turtle Bay. This is typically a 2 day sail to cross Magdalena Bay, so we will prep for a night-sail. Cedros Island is on our way, which makes for a good stop on our way. We are hoping to be there for ”Day of the Dead”! But first coffee!

🥰

What a day… sailing south, on a beam, gentle following sea and with fishing rod ready! Stay tuned!

Not quite sure where we’re headed but south is a good direction for now! It all depends on the wind.

Wind delivered! Sarantium sailed for 12 hours at 4-5 nmiles per hour. The self steering did the work and I read, cooked, watched whales slap their tales and tried to catch fish, but no luck! We pulled in at Bahia Colnett in the heavy fog and dark. Seals welcomed us with coming right up to the boat making beautiful art with the phosforesence (Sp?)

We left Ensenada a day late, as I discovered three bolts had wandered out of the gooseneck of the boom vang again. So with help of a friend who had the tapping bits needed, we drilled slightly bigger holes and inserted larger bolts. We stayed another night, showered, withdrew some more Pesos and enjoyed another morning in a quaint coffee shop five minutes from the marina. We untied the dock lines, backed out of the slip and motored out of the channel, in dense fog. Luckily the harbour was quiet. Within an hour we raised sails and sailed towards the islands outside of Ensenada, Isla Todos Santos. We had read about fish farming on these islands, so we were prepared to see some structures. Unfortunately, Isla Todos Santos was surrounded by fish farming equipment and it would be too difficult to find an anchorage. Se we decided to head south and find the next bay, Bahia Solidad. It looked open to swell, but since we were expecting Zero Wind for the next 48 hours, we decided to check it out. We motor-sailed in and found a absolute gorgeous bay and an empty anchorage. This remote bay and its beauty makes me look even more forward to this journey I have set out to do. The red and grey rock… it’s like I’m on the moon. All I hear is the waves crashing on the beach. I’m excited to go ashore to see where the small road leads, look for plants, sit on the beach, swim and breath and take it all in!

So exploring land proved to be tricky. The beach is a surf land, which was fun and wet. Getting off the beach was another story. It took some careful planning. Good thing we were prepped for a swim.

Water is warm….

Feels so amazing to get off the dock!