Author: abbylnicholson

250 n.m. south of Turtle bay is Magdalena Bay. We anchored in Man of War Cove for a few days rest and to wait out a predicted tropical weather depression, later named Raymond. Magdalena Bay is huge, 25 miles NW to SE and 13 miles E-W.  The bay is rimmed by 2 elongated islands, Isla Magdalena and Isla Santa Margarita. Our anchorage was inside Isla Magdalena and the village of Puerto Magdalena, founded in 1871.

The town of Puerto Magdalena consists of around 50 buildings and dirt roads.  Prominent in the village is the desalinization plant, church, preschool, Port Captain’s office and Harbor Light, a restaurant Mira Mar, and large 3-sided concrete frames, perhaps hurricane remnants. 

Our first night at anchor we were invited on Gitana N55 for Dorado, freshly caught on the cruise from Turtle Bay.  The Nordhavn Taco Runners had temporarily split up; those that preferred to travel only during the day and those who preferred to travel all night with the weather and arrive at the new anchorage in the mornings. We traveled with Red Rover and Gitana as the overnight cruisers. The fish was delicious!

The weather had been sunny and in the 70s. By Tuesday afternoon (we departed Turtle Bay on Sunday), the Taco Runners were reunited with the arrival of Partida, Last Arrow and Igloo. Not only did all the Taco Runners arrive in the bay but so did about 130 Baja Ha Ha sailboats! The Baja Ha Ha is a two-week cruisers rally from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico that takes place every fall. The lights on the sailboat masts in the evening were brighter than the village of Puerto Magdalena. 

The restuarant Mira Mar is only open on Wednesdays so we inquired about “reservations”. They were planning fish tacos, served as a buffet with rice, slaw and a couple of toppings at 4pm.  There were so many cruisers at the restaurant and it was fun to meet and talk with the Baja Ha Ha rally sailors.  

Interesting, the Baja Ha Ha leaves from San Diego and do not check into Mexico until Cabo San Lucas, 183 n.m. south of here at the end of the rally. To leave Mexico, you must first check into Mexico as we did in Ensenada.  It appeared (from radio communications) to be a bit of a problem for some Baja Ha Ha cruisers who were needing to return home. The Baja Ha Ha schedule was delayed and some crew were planning a panga lift to Puerto San Carlos to check in, then a bus to Cabo San Lucas to catch flights.  Sounded like quite an adventure, considering our location and the language! Two of our Taco Runners, Gitana and Last Arrow also headed out early to Cabo San Lucas.

The five remaining Taco Runners spent 6 more days in Magdalena Bay waiting out the storm which arrived Sunday morning, very early. Epoch pitched with the other boats in the bay for the next 32 hours, bow and stern, up and down.  The anchor held through sustained winds of 20 knots with gusts over 30 knots and rain. We had discussed a storm party on Red Rover for Sunday afternoon; however, it was too rough in the bay to travel in the dinghies.  Scott and I entertained ourselves watching movies and reading.

While at Magdalena Bay, we enjoyed the beach, collecting shells and watching the puppies play.

We shared another dinner at the Mira Mar with the Baja Ha Ha left-behinds (around 20 sailboaters that decided to stay in Magdalena Bay).  They renamed themselves the Baja Yee Ha!  

And we celebrated Mike’s birthday (Partida) on Red Rover with caribou tacos made by our Alaska friends on Igloo, “Beat’s me” black bean salad, fixings and a delicious fruit crumble. 

Our last night in the bay, I was anxious to get traveling again!

Here we are on the Pacific Ocean 28^oN, 55^oW anchored on the east side of Isla Cedros, a big volcanic rock of an island (21 miles long) in Mexico. We are traveling as the Nordhavn Taco Runners with Alison and Kevin on Red Rover N55, Lisa and Alec on Audrey Mae N57, Jeff and Shannon on Igloo N47, Mike and Elaine on Partida N46, Hugo, Michele and friend Hugh on Gitana N55 and Linda, Vince and friend Sam (Slowboats.com) on Last Arrow, N60.  It is sunny, temperature is in the mid 70s, about 4 knots of wind in 46 feet of water. It is amazing to me that we are on the Pacific Ocean and the boat is not moving. Just a gentle sway.  We are not in a protected bay or cove, instead anchored inshore about a quarter mile from the island, on the Pacific Ocean. This Pacific Ocean is far different than the Pacific Ocean on the Washington and Oregon coasts where we cruised in 6-8 foot waves at 10 seconds or 9-11 foot waves at 8 seconds. I do like this Pacific Ocean in Mexico!

Shortly after we arrived at our anchorage, with limited sleep having traveled all night from San Quintin, the water toys came out! Dinghies, SUPs, kayaks exploring the shore of Isla Cedros. Eventually, everyone seemed to gather (unplanned) at Red Rover’s swim deck.  Pent-up energy released! People and puppies all having fun, swimming, jumping off the flybridge. The sun was shining and the margaritas were flowing!

After a good night sleep, the following afternoon we congregated on Epoch for a fish fry and birthday party.  The fish were caught on the way to Isla Cedros.

Three Pacific Bonitos, one on Red Rover and two on Epoch. And I think all the boats caught Skipjack Tunas which we understand are not great eating fish so they were released.  One of the Bonitos were made into Poke Bowl (Hawaiian appetizer of raw fish) served with tortilla chips.  The other two Bonitos were either grilled or baked in three different marinades.

We had 16 celebrators on Epoch (a new record!)  Many side dishes were brought over by dinghy; bean dip, ceviche (fresh raw fish cured in citrus juices), rice, green broccoli salad, black bean quinoa salad, caribou with honey mustard dip, Bannock (still warm from the oven). 

Scott poured his famous Benton City Coolers! 

Brownies and Klondike bars for dessert and a candle each for the birthday couple on Igloo!  

We finished the evening with dessert Tequila, a combination of Sex Appeal Cream de Coco al Agava and Milan chocolate tequila, served very cold! Yumm!

Bahia San Quintin was our first overnight as the Taco Runners, a 15 hour run (110 n.m.) from Ensenada. We left Ensenada in the afternoon, traveling overnight so we could arrive at the anchorage in daylight.  The bay is a 5-mile-wide crescent shaped anchorage south of a 10-mile-long sand bar.  The bay is open to the ocean. This is important to know because to get to the beach on the dinghy, we had to “land” the dinghy through the ocean surf.  Charlie’s Charts (a cruising manual), page 18 states, “Landing a dinghy through the surf can be hazardous, few cruising sailors have found it necessary to do so in the US and Canadian waters so it is a technique that will probably be learned in situ.” 

Scott was well prepared and had installed Beachmaster wheels on our smaller dinghy. The wheels can be folded down to allow for easy maneuvering of the dinghy once on the beach. The technique of beaching a dinghy through the surf requires waiting for a slack period in the incoming swells and then quickly accelerating forward past the breaking surf zone. This also requires quickly pulling up the outboard motor before/while beaching the dinghy and expediently getting all crew out of the dinghy before the next incoming wave crests. Yikes! Right?

We were ready for our first beaching. On our way to the beach we met Alison and Kevin in their dinghy with their two puppies, Zoe and Max coming back from the beach.  How’d the landing go?  Their story of beaching their dinghy with the pups was both informative (for me) and entertaining, sort of.  They were wet, Zoe was wet and looked a little perturbed, and poor Max was wrapped in a towel shivering! They had overturned during their beach landing and overturned getting back out to the bay but were in good spirits, as they always are!  To say the least, I was apprehensive and a little scared! I quickly tied everything down in the dinghy and without a word or preparation, Scott floored the motor and we beached! Yay! We pulled the dinghy up the beach and had a nice walk finding sand dollars and enjoying the sunshine. Then it was time to get back out through the surf.  We were successful, but the last incoming wave that hit us was so enormous that the dinghy went airborne bow up about 6 feet!  Gasping, I found that I was still in the dinghy and when I looked behind me, Scott was there too with a huge grin.  All good.

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