November 11, 2011

Los Frailes is a very popular bay for cruisers. During the course of the day the anchored fleet grew by at least 15 boats. It felt like we were the center of a bull’s-eye as boat after boat came alongside to anchor. We had been planning on leaving early this morning and as the anchorage grew more and more crowded that idea was solidified. It is one thing to share a secluded spot with a few cruisers that are of similar interests and keep to themselves but it is an entirely different thing to share the spot with a bunch of rowdy people that turn the site into a playground.

Yesterday started off with the normal routine of coffee and breakfast. Another Whistle Wing classic- pancakes and bratwursts. Interrupting the routine was a visitor from a boat that had come in the day before. His name was Christian. While I was walking along the beach I noticed that a boat was coming in to the anchorage under sail instead of motoring as all the other boats do. The skipper deftly handled his 27 ft. boat, dropped sails, and set his anchor. Our visitor was the owner of the boat. It turns out the guy was right around 30. He had gone to Sehome High School in Bellingham. One of my high school’s rivals. He has spent the past few years sailing all around the west coast and heavily modifying his modest boat. He came on board to take a look around and visit with us before he went on his merry way touring the other boats. There were definitely some odd personal characteristics that made it apparent he had been out “single-handing” for quite some time, but overall he was a great guy and knew a lot about sailing.

After breakfast we decided that since we had not gone for a run the day before, it was time to shake out the blood sludge and stretch our legs. Mike and I let Joe walk ahead of us as we dried off our feet and got our sneakers on. We set off at a very stately pace and noticed that instead of just walking along, Joe was jogging for a couple of hundred yards and then walking to recover and starting to jog again. At our laid back pace that was something akin to a speed walk, Joe was easily keeping his lead. Half a mile later Mike declared that he was going to walk and that I should just go ahead and run to my heart’s content. That was a funny statement because we all know how I am allergic to formal exercise. I like to work out by doing activities and not just torturing myself by pointlessly running in circles. Normally I would have been content with just stopping to walk and socialize but at this point I really wanted to do something, anything, physical. So I picked up my pace and ran past Joe informing him that we would all reconvene at a hotel that was about a mile and a half up the beach on a point at the other end of the bay.

We all met on the beach and decided to go explore the abandoned hotel. It turns out that it was a seaside escape for American fishermen that came down to fish during the day and then recline in opulence at night. The place looked like it had been abandoned for several years and there was a solitary groundskeeper working quite hard to keep up with the maintenance. The hotel consisted of multiple cabins that were linked by pathways. Each room had a fireplace, kitchen, bathroom, and two rooms. The cabins were in fact fully functioning houses that many people would kill to own. With the permission of Juan we toured the facilities and walked the grounds. There were orange and lime trees, fountains, outdoor showers, and even two foxes that were living in one of the rooms. They promptly bolted as soon as they saw Mike’s ugly face.

After exploring we set off back to the boat. I decided that I might as well complete the jog and took off at a run while Mike and Joe opted to walk the distance back to the dinghy. Since I arrived earlier than they did I was going to go to the granite cliffs that border the weather side of the bay and do some bouldering. Laura must have replanted the climbing bug in me because I was really excited to have some time to do some natural outdoor bouldering. As I was walking in that direction I was stopped by two women that were sitting on the beach enjoying a couple of cervezas. I got to talking with them and they informed me that they were staying at one of the incredibly nice haciendas that we kept noticing each night because it was lit up like a nightclub.

I mentioned this fact to the ladies and they laughed. Apparently all the other sailors that they had talked to over the course of the day had mentioned the same thing. They thought that they were being very economical and only turning on the bare minimum of lights because the place runs off of solar power. It was a brief glimpse into the differing lifestyles that Americans have compared to Mexicans. All the other homes that are occupied in the area clearly only had one light on at any given time, if that. It also struck me that even a few weeks out on a sailboat alter one’s perception. What we looked at as a huge luxury from a distance on the boat, they thought was roughing it. I wonder how much my perceptions will change at the end of this trip and I try to acclimate to life on land.

These women were on a week-long vacation from the Seattle area and in fact they had both gone to Western Washington University in Bellingham (Two small world encounters in one day). It seems like a lot of people are trying to escape the rain and cold of the Pacific Northwest and spend some time in the tropics. One husband managed to rent the house from his boss. It is a sort of corporate vacation home that employees rent for a pittance. Their husbands were out on a guided fishing trip with one of the locals. I mentioned something about how I had been hoping to go spear fishing but when I went snorkeling the other day there weren’t any fish big enough to bother. Apparently the bay was so dead because a red tide had ripped through only a few weeks earlier and it had only been in the past few days that the feeder fish were starting to come back. Therefore it would take a little bit longer for the larger fish that are worth spearing to come back. Their husbands had to go all the way around the point and out into the sea if they were to have any luck. I guess red tides have a major impact on the local economies because I have heard over the VHF mariners nets where the red tides are and where to avoid. We got to witness firsthand the drastic effects they have.

Upon returning to the Whistle Wing we went about preparing lunch and then swimming and showering. Then we did some reading and napping. Life is difficult. Then the boats started pouring in to the bay and we decided that our time in Los Frailes was at an end. We left around 5:30am today before any of the other boats could get in our way, follow our lead, or even be awake to bother us. It was like cats stealing away in the night. After we got past the point the wind came up and we set sail. The wind chop had pretty much died from the previous blow and we managed to run off 8 knots continually for a few hours in 12-14 knots of wind. Then it started to shift, become variable, and then die. We were back to motor sailing for another few hours. But fortune favored us in the end and it picked back up and we were able to sail right up to our new anchorage in a small bay right outside of La Paz. The name is quite ominous. Ensenada de los Muertos.

Contrary to the name however, it is a delightful and beautiful anchorage. The only problem is that all the boats from Los Frailes followed us later in the day and a few others were already here. They are all from the Baja Ha-Ha so the radio chatter is incessant. It makes falling asleep difficult when various people decide to have prolonged conversations on the channels that we have to monitor. What should be a comfortable anchorage for 10 boats is now filled with about 30. If the people had similar interests, were fun, or were younger then it would be a great thing. But now I just look at these cruisers and am annoyed with their pretentiousness and irresponsibility. I can’t wait to get away from the Baja Ha-Ha crowd and enjoy uncrowded anchorages, sailors that are adventurous, and a younger crowd. That being said, the Sea of Cortez affords a great opportunity to snorkel, dive, and fish and I am certainly not taking it for granted.