November 1st, 2011

Our trip from Bahia Tortugas to Bahia Santa Maria was fairly uneventful. Once again we were plagued with light winds and following seas. It is both a blessing and a curse. It really does make for very comfortable sailing and living conditions, everything is nice and dry and the boat only moves along one axis of motion instead of several. On the other hand it means that in order to get anywhere in an expeditious manner we are forced to either fall off the wind a bit and sail nowhere quickly instead of crawl somewhere slowly. Either that or we can make the decision to motor sail. So far we have struck a happy medium between the two but our next leg to Cabo will consist entirely of sailing with a plethora of tacking and gybing.

To make matters even more fun, on this leg of the trip our autopilot decided that it wanted to take an attitude with us and then quit altogether. This has happened before but normally we can use our wind vane and just steer off of the wind. Turns out that Mike had replaced the line with new stuff that was a 1/16^th of an inch too wide and it caused enough binding and chafing that in the light winds the wind vane was inadequate to steer the boat. That meant that for 24 hours we were glued to the helm, steering the whole way. It is true that in the days of yor they hand steered, but that is why we developed autopilot. Staring at a needle on a compass for 3 hours is a great way to go insane and start seeing things. But we made it into the new bay no problem and anchored around 1030.

In keeping with Whistle Wing’s tradition of anchoring toasts, we broke out a bottle of port and sipped a glass in the deserted bay under a canopy of stars. It is those moments that really drive home the fact that cruising is a great lifestyle. Sitting out with that type of scenery and laughing and shooting the breeze with the guys is priceless. It makes up for any of the struggles of a passage, erases any hard feelings that living under close quarters inevitably brings, banishes sleep deprivation for the half an hour libation, and it settles one’s soul.

We woke up the next day and after breakfast there were a few maintenance issues that had to be taken care of. The generator has been on the fritz because one of the parts has been in there, unchanged or cleaned for the past 2 decades. We took that off and cleaned it up and now the generator is back to its old reliable self. We also replaced the line on the wind vane so that we once again have redundant systems. Mike also troubleshot the autopilot and that appears to have grown out of its prepubescent attitude and is back in the land of the living. In short we have a return to normalcy on board the Whistle Wing. Once we finished the housekeeping chores, vacuumed, and got out the zodiac, Mike and I decided that it was time to conquer something. There are some cool tectonic mountains that drop straight into this bay so I suggested we go for a hike. Needless to say that this is Mexico and there are no trails or anything. The hike was strenuous and it was like climbing Mt. St. Helens where for every two steps forward you take a step back. The view over the bay and into Mag Bay over the tiny isthmus was priceless. Bahia Santa Maria ends on a beach isthmus that is connected to a mangrove estuary. The water flowing into the mangroves seems to come from some springs and tidal water because on the other side of the mangroves are sand dunes and a dessert that stretches for maybe ten miles before abruptly ending at the edge of Mag Bay. From our vantage point we could see all of this, plus all the boats that were coming in to anchor in the morning.

After that we went back to the boat to read, eat dinner, and then watch a movie. We then woke up today and got off to a leisurely start. We were waiting for a Mexican Navy boat to come into the bay so that we could check in with immigration and get our visas. We had scanned our documents and sent them to an agent several weeks ago so that the check in process would be seamless. Needless to say, this is Mexico. It was as if we had never done any of the prep work and Mike had to dingy back to the boat so that he could retrieve more documents. By the time we had everything we needed; immigration had run out of visas so we will have to jump through all the hoops in Cabo that we were trying to avoid. Oh well, it happens. At least we didn’t waste any money on the agent.

Bahia Santa Maria is not even a village. It is an outpost for a couple transient fishermen. It is beyond forgotten by Mexico. It consists of four pre-fab huts, and a couple of shacks made out of plywood and cardboard. The fishermen sell shark fin to the Chinese, flounder to communities in Mag Bay, and tuna to whoever will buy it. Locals that were present decided to throw all the Baja Ha-Ha cruisers a party. A band drove all the way across Baja Sur, from La Paz and Cabo, and set up their equipment and played for tips only. They had also requisitioned an entire Pacifico truck and had ice cold beers, margaritas, and some women came in and fixed tons of food that they were selling for $15 a plate. We did not eat any of it because that seemed a bit pricey but it sure looked tasty. Mike had previously gone back to the boat in disgust about the immigration so after about an hour of socializing we all decided to head back to the boat.

All in all Bahia Santa Maria has been fun. We got to do some physical activities, meet a few cruisers, see more of the local culture, and relax in a beautiful setting. It is a bit small however and I will be glad when we finally get to Cabo and I can get back into a big city and do some things independent of the crew. They are a great group of people but it is always nice to do my own thing. We will be anchoring out in the bay so that we don’t have to pay $90 a night for a slip in the new marina (and that is a huge discount, who ever said owning a boat was cheap). There was a cartel shoot-up in Cabo just the other day but as with anything in Mexico, tourists don’t have to worry as long as they are not mixed up in any of the narco stuff. It will affect us slightly only because a curfew has been imposed on the city, but it might be lifted by the time we arrive. It is the first and only isolated incident in Baja Sur that deals with the cartels, so it is good that we are visiting right now before it has the possibility of descending into the chaos that epitomizes mainland Mexico. I am excited for it. Stay tuned for further adventure