This post is not chronological, but I wanted to post something to provide a current update.
We left San Diego on October 28, sailing (OK, motor sailing) to Ensenada, Mexico. We have a third crew member that joined us in San Diego for this next leg.
We’ve been staying at a marina here, preparing for the next long trip south down the Baja Peninsula. We’ve stocked up on food. Done a few more boat chores and projects…some planned, some not planned.
Tomorrow, November 1, we leave and head south. (As always, you can follow our track here.)
We’re doing this trip with a rally, the Nada Baha. In a normal year, there is a rally called the Baha Haha. It’s a group of upwards 200 boats that somewhat make the trip from San Diego to Cabo together. There are organized stops along the way, and various activities and discounts associated with the rally.
This year due to COVID, the rally was cancelled. Instead, an unofficial rally is taking place, organized by one of the Baha’s regular administrators, and there are about 50 boats making the trip.
We elected to start from Ensenada so we could do our check-in to the country here instead of waiting until Cabo to do all the paperwork.
Once we leave Ensenada until we get to Cabo, we’ll essentially be “off the grid” without cell phone coverage. We will have our IridiumGo satellite receiver so we can download weather updates, send and receive text messages and send and receive basic email. If we have to, we can also make a satellite phone call.
The first stop is Turtle Bay (Bahia Tortugas), about 300 nm from Ensenada. We expect it to take just over 2 days. We’ll be there for about 2 days, then begin the next leg to Bahia Santa Maria, a trip of about 200 nm. We’ll again have a couple of days before the final leg to Cabo.
Our plan is to spend the balance of November until late next spring (May/June 2021) in Banderas Bay (where Puerto Vallarta is). Then begin sailing north up the Sea of Cortez.
There is so much to see and do in the SOC, we plan to spend at least two years.