Cabo San Lucas

~ March 14 - 22, 2019~

Los Cabos

So every cruising guide celebrates the arrival at Los Cabos and multiple organised cruises race down the Baja Peninsular only stopping at a few safe harbours and ending at Los Cabos.

Some say that you have finally made it to some where fun to spend your money. Others congratulate you and state that it marks an exciting memorable experience as you had made the journey as far down the Baja Peninsular as you can and soon you will be moving on to new adventures.

For us it had come a little too quickly, we were in need of fresh supplies and internet so Ashley could continue working. We had spent XXX weeks coming down the peninsular and could have spent twice that. I feel like the Journey down the Peninsular was the first time we had had enough time to slow down and cruise. The places we visited were amazing and there were so many more we would have liked to stop at.

Los Cabos is made up of two "Cabo's", Cabo San Lucas which is where we visited and San Jose del Cabo about about 15 miles further south. They both have history dating back 100's of years. Supposedly in the late 1500's Dutch and British Pirates used this area as base to attack Spanish Galleons sailing back from the Philippines to Acapulco before the Spanish settled the area to protect water supplies at the lagoons. Much later in the 1970 the Mexican Government funnelled a bunch of money onto the Baja Penisular building an airport between the two and Los Cabos the tourist towns were born. This transformed the quiet fishing towns into huge resorts, sports fishing and shopping areas, comercial fishing has practically disappeared.

So the overnight sail was uneventful, but we were able to make good progress down towards Los Cabos. As the sun rose though the wind started to drop out the swell was becoming confused.

About 10 am is when we saw them, the wind had dropped out completely a charging fleet of stinkpot powering towards, our cell phones started bleeping. With about 8 miles still to go, the evidence of Los Cabos had appeared.

We started the engine so to keep the sails from flogging in the wake from the Sports fishing boats that were arriving on the sea mount we were passing. With no wind and current against us we decided to motor the rest of the way into Cabo San Lucas.

About an hour and a half later we were rounding the Cabo Falso and El Arco which Cabo San Lucas is famous for. This is where the traffic real began, apart from the 40 or so charter boats buzzing about a Cruiseship was also leaving the bay and heading north.

We safely negotiated our way in toward the beach and the resorts, finding half a dozen boats anchored out. We found a spot as close as we could to the inner harbour but we were a fair way down the beach and dropped the hook.

It was a big change, imediately being thrown into the chaos of Cabo. The were Jet skis and tour boats all over the place. We weren't sure if we would be happy here, our friends from Alsaka on Vegabond Dos had arrived a few days before us and had decided after reprovisioning to head on the following day.

We were just happy to relax that evening with glass of wine and a good meal and enjoy the spectacle.

The following morning we moved to where the Alaskans were anchored a couple of hundred yards from the Cabo San Lucas harbour. We are still not sure whether the move was a good idea or not as some of the following photos will show. Whilst we were now much closer to the port where would have to go to reprovision etc, we were also very much amongst the spectacle. Pangas and jet skis would cruise past us every morning and afternoon and if the wind was right then the tour boats would also come between us and the beach.

We ended up spending a full week here before we were ready to leave. Repovisioning was not super easy, we ended up having to go out to a walmart to find a full size grocery store, all the ones around the habour were small and expesive, tailoring more towards the tourist.

Ashley after visiting Starbucks for internet was able to find a couple of good local Mexican cafes with good internet.

We ate out only twice, we thought the food quality was really poor. Maybe its just the locals in the small towns cook more authentic food.

And we took a few days to relax and take it all in, visiting El Arcos and the beach at the ended of the point. It was quite a mission to take a little dinghy through all the tour boat traffic and wakes, but it was well worth it the snorkelling was good and the weather was finally warm.

It was time to leave. With an early departure we would be heading up into the Sea of Cortez and back to cruising life. Or was it...

We had a few friends sailing in the Newport to Cabo race who we were hoping to see whilst we were in Cabo but there had been no wind so we had given up hope of them ever arriving and were moving on from the bright lights and noise.

At 4 am we get a text.

"Just a few hours from the finish now, are you guys still there". Evelyn

So we didn't leave that day, or for the next 4 days.

We went into meet up with a couple of San Fransisco people, and ended up being adopted by the Hana Ho crew. We very much appreciate the invite by Owner and Skipper Mark Dowdy to join in the crew activities. So we spent a few more days hanging out with them and doing what should be done in Cabo, drink beers and relax followed by relaxing pool day thanks Mike and Dorothy.

And after relaxing with some friends and seeing some more of Cabo it was time to leave Cabo San Lucas behind and around and head up the coast into the Sea of Cortez.