Cruising is sometimes exciting, sometimes scary, sometimes fascinating, and sometimes very, very relaxing. Our passage from Cabo to La Paz, with stops at Bahia los Frailes and Ensenada de los Muertos was the latter.
The seas were light, as were the winds, and all legs of the trip were in daylight. So no stress.
Frailes had swell coming from the South, generating a constant rolling the entire time we were there. Normally, rolling is a bad thing, as it makes it harder to do things aboard, even as simple a thing as walking in a straight line. But this rolling was both very gentle and very regular. So it felt like there was someone singing a lullaby quietly in the background. It made it very easy to sleep, even when it wasn’t bedtime, and just generally made the whole stay feel very dreamlike.
Perhaps the only source of tension during the passage was anchoring in Frailes, which was very crowded (around 35 boats) when we arrived. Most of those boats were Ha-ha boats, including several with people we know. We found a spot a little closer to other boats than we like, but workable. However, the next morning when we woke up, every boat around us but one had moved on, and we had lots and lots of space. We did wonder if it was something about us that drove them away, but we didn’t complain.
We dug out and inflated the kayaks for the first time ever — they came with the boat, but we had never used them before — which was lots of fun.
We woke up the next morning to find a rather large power boat anchored in the bay. They stayed the day and then moved on. We’re not sure, but we suspect that’s a water slide sticking out the back.
Ensenada de los Muertos, our next stop, translates to Bay of the Dead. We’re not sure what the history of the name involves, but don’t worry: the local developers have renamed the bay to Bahia de los Sueños, or Bay of Dreams. How’s that for rebranding?
Another Island Packet 420, Reality Check, anchoring not far away, in time for this sunset photo op:
Muertos has a very accessible beach (no breaking waves to get you soaked), with lovely white sand, and a resort that includes a very good restaurant. If you eat or drink in the restaurant, you can use their other facilities, like the pool (with water slide).
And inside the restaurant, on the second level, is an extensive model train set. You can’t run it, but it sure brought back childhood memories. If I remember my model train gauges correctly, I’d say it was OO gauge.
We had lunch with cruisers from Epiphany, Cravn Wind, Redeemed, and C.A.T.* The restaurant was planning a Thanksgiving dinner for the 22nd, and some of the other cruisers decided to stay for it. But we wanted to get on to La Paz.
Muertos is one place we’d like to return at some point.
*: C.A.T. had been planning to sail directly, overnight, to La Paz. They noticed our mast in the bay at Muertos, and called us on the VHF just to say “hi.” We told them it was a great harbor and they really should stop for a while. We thought they’d continued on when they suddenly showed up at the restaurant just as we were eating lunch. They later said the tacos were great, it was really nice to get a good night’s sleep. We played sea tag with them the next day all the way to La Paz.
