Forty-seven miles to go seven

by Tim · Published February 25, 2023 · Updated February 25, 2023

Our sights have been set on visiting Magdalena Bay for some time. It is known for the visiting whales, and the geography of the place looked like we could explore it for weeks. That was the plan, but we threw it out as usual. First, we had to get there though. From our last anchorage at Bahia Santa Maria, Magdalena was within walking distance. As the crow flies, it was well under 10 miles away. For us, it would take many more miles before we would arrive.

We hauled up our anchor just after first light. Immediately, the sails were up and we were slowly gliding out of our sheltered bay, back into the Pacific Ocean. Once clear of the mountain range protecting us from the wind, we picked up speed with the wind on our quarter. Eventually we would jibe, placing ourselves to point straight into the entrance of the greater Mag-Bay (as we began to call it). It was a perfectly timed jibe – no wait, we didn’t jibe at all, we tacked! That’s right. I talked Kerri into trying a 300 degree tack instead of hauling in all the sails for a jibe. During a tack, the wind gently moves the sails for you, which would be too violent in a jibe so we haul in all sails, jibe, then loose all the sails once again. It is a lot of work, while tacking is easy.

We sailed through the gates, with whales feeding all around, and into Mag-Bay where the wind would now be on our nose as we work our way up wind to Man-O-War Cove – our anchorage for a few days. The wind that was great for sown-wind sailing was now a bit on the frisky side for upwind, but that didn’t stop us. We spent numerous hours more heeled over 30 degrees, beating through the chop, and just having a good time. With two miles to go, we lowered the sails and motored in to where we dropped the hook. It was a total of 9 hours to cover 47 miles, two of which we motored, to travel seven from out last anchorage. We were tired, but it was worth it.

Whales!

Not a dry spot left on deck

Life on the heel

On a side note, after entering in the data to our sailing log, I notice that in just the five voyages we have taken in the 2023 calendar year we have already *sailed* more nautical miles then our entire sailing season of 2019… and 2020, and nearly half of all sailed in 2021 – a year we travelled all the way up to Alaska. The Pacific Ocean is so much more conducive to sailing then the protected waters in the PNW.

Our anchorage overlooked a tiny fishing village on shore. Said village came with a single restaurant, which we visited the very next day. It was all seafood, but even I wanted to try the grilled lobster for some reason. It was okay The breaded fish was better. We would hang out for a few days – seven actually – doing little. We hung out with boating buddies, sun bathed a bit, and went for a dinghy ride into the nearby mangroves. And, though we initially intended to stay and visit other locations in the area, the weather was calling. A great window to make the final overnighter to Cabo San Lucas had appeared and we wanted in. As it turned out, it was a good call. The Australian couple did what we were planning, saw no whales or anything of note over the course of a few days of motoring through uncharted channels.