Vaction 11/00: Sailing in the Sea of Cortez

Sailing in the Sea of Cortez

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Where were we?... see a map... Who are we?... see a labeled photo

Sailing from LaPaz north and back

We picked up two 46' Beneteau sailboats provided by Moorings Charters in LaPaz, Mexico. There were 7 of us on one, 6 on the other. After a day in LaPaz, we took the boats out for 10 days of sailing. We headed north up the east coast of the Baja peninsula, stopping along the way to catch fish, explore the peninsula and islands, and just generally relaxing. Note: The photos on this page are small versions... if you want to see a larger version, click on the photo.

LaPaz

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Hotel in LaPaz... pretty cool place for $40 a night, a suite big enough for 4, with a kitchen.
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Charting the course. Since this was a "bareboat" charter, we navigate and crew it ourselves.
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The boats. We had the "Serenity" and the "Khetienn" (I don't know what "Khetienn" means... probably Nepalese for "man overboard"). Each boat had 3 staterooms and heads, and a large galley area. A couple of nice extras were an "autopilot" (like cruise control in a car, but it keep the boat on course within a few degrees) and an electric winch for the anchor.

Isla San Francisco

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A typical anchorage, but this one had a few hills to climb (which we always feel compelled to do, even on a "relaxing" vacation). It had a particularly nice view of the bay where we were anchored.
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The two hills were separated by a narrow strip of land that included some salt flats. There were some old evaporation ponds, that the locals used to use to make their own sea salt.
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Isla
SanFran

Cabo San Lucas

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Our condo on the beach
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Cabo is the one of the great sport fishing centers of the world. The entire bay was filled with charter boats. We chartered one for a day... don't ask how we did...
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"Land's End"... the very tip of the Baja Peninsula.
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Cabo

ATV's in Cabo, on the beach dunes

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The most dangerous part was riding through town to the beach dunes...
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The old lighthouse
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Diving

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The rocks where we dove (a sea lion rookery at Los Islotes) looked fake, like rocks Disney would have designed.
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We got to dive with sea lions. They're quick... tough to get a good photo.
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The sad State of the Arts in Cabo San Lucas...

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Misc. photos: Life on a sailboat...

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A dolphin (or dorado, in Spanish). We almost always had trolling lines while under sail. We had no shortage of fresh fish.
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Best Bloody-Marys I've ever had! I traded my fish cleaning skills for several during the trip...
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Cap'n Bligh at the helm.
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Cave where native tribesmen lived long ago. You could still see the soot marks, shell piles, etc.
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Shrimp trawlers. We sometimes were sharing our anchorage with 2 or 3
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Well, when you find a great big rock that looks like a chair, ya gotta sit
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We had Trick or Treaters on Halloween! We usually shared the anchorages with a few other boats. This family was one.
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Either the water's shallow, or John's more important than we imagined...
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John caught the biggest fish
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An entire boatload of trouble...
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These cacti were everywhere. They weren't saguaro, but almost as big.
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The End
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