Puerto Los Cabos to Bahia Los Frailes

05/18/2016

Puerto Los Cabos to Bahia Los Frailes

Hello everyone. It’s been a while since I took some time to sit and write a post. At the moment we are sitting at anchor in a beautiful spot called Bahia Los Frailes. This is our second day here and we’ll probably spend a couple more days here.

What a relief to finally be away from Marina Puerto Los Cabos near San Jose Del Cabo where we spent the last month. It was nice to explore the town there, meet some cool new people, complete some boat projects, and celebrate Katie’s 40th birthday with her parents but it was definitely time to move on. Two good reasons for getting out of there were getting away from the mosquitos (we couldn’t enjoy sitting outside at night because of them) and getting out of the heat. It was getting so that it was difficult to sleep comfortably because it was so hot even at night. So we cast off the dock lines and headed for Bahia Los Frailes.

Here is a list of the stuff we worked on while we were there.
Project Status
1 Varnish wood in galley Complete
2 Install fresh and salt water foot pumps Complete
3 Install top opening hatch screens Complete
4 Apply fresh coat of Semco to exterior teak Complete
5 Fix fan in cabin Complete
6 Seal inside top of fridge and freezer Complete
7 Fix light in batter locker Complete
8 Trouble shoot fridge compressor overheat issue Complete
9 Purchase and add additional refrigerant to fridge compressor Complete 10 Fix issue with head stay roller furling Complete
11 Re-bed glass in portlights Complete
12 Painting the anchor chain Complete

The trip from Marina Puerto Los Cabos to Bahia Los Frailes was approximately 28 nautical miles. Normally this would have been about a 5 hour trip but the wind didn’t want to cooperate that day and blew straight out of the direction we needed to go. Since we can’t sail directly into the wind we had to tack and head offshore several miles a couple of times to get an angle on the wind that would allow us to sail toward our destination. This turned a 5 hour trip into a 7 hour trip instead. This wouldn’t have been a big deal except that it changed our arrival time from 7pm to after 9pm which meant we would have to approach the bay and drop the anchor at night. I don’t normally like to approach an unknown bay/anchorage at night, but we reviewed the cruising guides we had and determined that the risk was low so we went for it. When we arrived there were already three other boats in the anchorage so we picked a spot a safe distance away in about 40 feet of water and dropped the hook.

The next morning we noticed that a large power boat that was here when we arrived the night before had left. So we pulled up the anchor and moved the boat in closer which gave us better protection from the wind and swell. It was a beautiful day and we decided to just relax and enjoy the scenery around us from the boat for the day.

Today we woke up, ate breakfast and decided to jump in the water to do some cleaning of the hull to keep the marine growth from damaging our paint. During this exercise I noticed a couple of tiny crabs that had taken up residence on the attachment point for our Hydrovane rudder. I brushed them away and didn’t think much of it as I finished the job. About thirty minutes after I got out of the water I was feeling what felt like water draining from my left ear but each time I checked I didn’t see or feel any water. This kept happening for about another 30 minutes and then it dawned on me that maybe one of those tiny crabs decided that my left ear was a good new home after I evicted it from the Hydrovane. To see if my hunch was correct I asked Katie to put some rubbing alcohol in my ear thinking that if the crab was in there it may flush it out. After the rubbing alcohol was in my left ear I started hearing a gurgling noise thinking that this was just the alcohol making its way into my ear. To be sure I turned onto my left side to let it drain out. Once I did this I heard the gurgling again and then checked to see if the alcohol had drained. When I looked down I was staring directly at the culprit. A tiny little crab that was most likely wondering what that nasty substance was that we had just doused it with. My reaction was to simply pick it up and toss it overboard not surprised that I was right once again. Katie’s reaction was something like, “what the ##??!!, that would totally freak me out”. Now I guess I can say that our boat has a clean bottom and I found the cure for getting crab (singular) in Bahia Los Frailes ha ha.

Well that’s enough for now. Time to blow up the inflatable paddle boards and head over to explore the beautiful white sand beach that lines the shore of this beautiful place. We’ll post some pictures once we get to La Paz in the next couple of weeks where we can get a good WiFi connection.

Peace

Captain Mike.