Leaving Magdalena Bay brought mixed feelings. A sense of excitement for the new adventures ahead, combined with a heavier heart of leaving the comfort of our beautiful home for the last week.
The weather was excellent, with the usual Northerly winds coming up in the afternoon pushing us faster South. As often during this long trek southbound, we were happy to be going "downhill". Enfin would happily surf down some of the bigger waves, and I was able to adjust our speed to match our announced ETA of 15:00 the next day I had given to the marina.
In the afternoon, a huge pod of dolphins came up to us to investigate and play with us. They stayed with us for a couple hours, and we enjoyed their antics from the comfort of our fore deck, bringing drinks and snacks with us so we wouldn't miss any piece of the action.
Filming them and taking photos is always difficult, especially when one of them does some incredible acrobatic trick without any warning. That's what memories are for, and I know I will always remember a jump straight up in the air, feet away from us, followed by a magnificent back flip -full 540 degrees- reentering back head first in the water with almost no splash. Dolphins are so graceful.
Di and I took turn sitting in the bow railing. Once in a while a more inquisitive dolphin would swim on its back, or side, as to better watch us, making direct eye contact. Magical moments!
At the end of the day I took over Di's watch and prepared for the night. Winds and sea had come up a bit, but Di was able to sleep well and wake up rested for the next day.
I had planned rounding Cabo (the cape) at a good distance from shore, being wary of the famous fishing fleet operating out of Cabo (the port).
As it turned out, there wasn't much avoiding the fishing fleet: They were pretty much everywhere, and like most fishing boats out there, appeared to operate in a completely haphazard fashion.
Crossing ahead of us at 30 knots, only to slow down just after to reverse course straight into a collision course with us, with complete disregard for anything other than their fishing.
I've encountered such behavior around the world. It boggles me when they do it in front of Enfin when they could so easily pass behind us, but it astounded me even more when they did the same thing right in front my huge 135,000 MT bulk carrier!
The very ship I once slowed down to a controlled stop in 17 miles.
Di, very wisely, decided to wake me up at the first sign of trouble, so I only got a couple of hours of sleep after my night watch.
Luckily we were slowly approaching San Jose de Cabo's entrance. We were a couple hours early but I'd decided that since marina checkout time was 12:00 I would try our luck to see if our slip would be open at 13:00. It was.
San Jose de Cabo's marina, Puerto los Cabos, is a very modern marina built for mostly larger boats and yachts. It's not exactly on the cheap side, especially since they had no monthly rate available at this point in the season, but it is cheaper and quieter than further south in Cabo.
We had another 3 Nordhavns around us, and many expensive yachts everywhere, which explains in part why we found most prices to be on the "gringo" side of the scale.
We had planned Puerto los Cabos as a mostly provisioning stop, and for that it is the perfect marina. There are plenty of very good grocery shops just a short and cheap Uber ride away. We particularly enjoyed "La Comer" which both Di and I agreed was the nicest grocery shop we'd ever set foot into, whether in the US, France or anywhere in the world.
A mixture of Super Walmart and Harrods maybe? Huge with everything, and magnificent fresh produce and meat sections amongst the many aisles.
After trying the marina's local burger joint for a grand total of $120 for the 2 of us (no alcoholic drinks ordered!) we decided to forego restaurants and ordered take-away via Didi Foods. We got lucky to get our food as the entrance to the marina's various docks is a little difficult to find. The poor driver visited the whole place trying to find us, and I added an extra tip for his patience. It still ended up way better and cheaper than eating out.
Importantly for me I had ordered my new phone to arrive at the marina via Amazon. Thanks to the port office's cooperation and attention they were able to give the driver the one time password needed for delivery and I got my phone.
I'd drowned my previous one in Tortugas Bay. It still worked but an unresponsive touch screen meant I had to use a mouse to use it. In cooperation with an old and almost outdated backup phone, I could do basic phone stuff, but alas the more complex bank apps and verification systems just wouldn't cooperate.
Back in business: I now have a modern phone with all the necessary bands to travel the world and enough processing power to handle all my needs for years to come I hope.
A nice upgrade is that the camera seems to be a lot better. It responds faster, takes better photos, especially in low light. It is also supposedly water proof to 1 meter for 30 minutes, but I have no intention of testing that. Living on a boat, it's still a good feature to have I suppose.
Aside from provisioning and catching up with the world, we also made sure to rest and enjoy the area. Long walks around the marina for Princess, and peace and quiet for all of us back on the boat.
We indulged in a small luxury by hiring a 2 men crew to wash the boat. 40 feet isn't a large boat, unless you're washing, polishing or waxing it! Then it becomes huge. So when circumstances allow we're happy to get help.
Having spent close to a month away from a marina, it was grand time to bring Enfin back to its shining glory from the Ensenada polish and wax job, which the washing crew achieved in a few hours.
On the last day we had a power surge going through our electrical system: The marina had warned us there could be random disconnections since they were working on repairs and upgrades to their electrical system.
Normally electrical disconnects have no impact on us: Our batteries simply take over, just like when we are at anchor, then transfer back to the shore power when it comes back.
For some unknown gremlin reason, this time it fried our very old microwave. With plenty of large shops in town, I decided to take care of it immediately, so once Di was done with her provisioning list, I grabbed the same Uber we'd befriended from earlier trips and went to "La Comer" where I got the last of the unique model small enough to fit in our galley's cubby hole.
Mission accomplished, with not many hours to spare before departure.
Di's provisioning was quite a sight: She took 2 trips to "La Comer" with a long list derived from our food database. She filled up our large dock cart twice. A lot of work in the background to make this happen, and we'll now have plenty of food and will be able to eat like kings for the next month away from marinas. It's almost like we're becoming proficient at this cruising thing!
All in all, a good stop to replenish our lockers, take a break from being at anchor, and prepare for the upcoming trip.
We're in the Sea of Cortez for good now, and we're looking forward to having more anchoring options than during the long push South on the Pacific coast.
Next stop will be Cabo Pulmo National Park, famous for its incredible abundance of sea life, and for having the only reef on the Pacific East side.
I'm hoping there is some swimming, diving and snorkeling in our near future!