After spending a fun week in Cabo, we pulled up our anchor and sailed 45 miles North to Villa Los Frailes. We checked the forecast prior to our departure and saw a 24 knot head wind but decided to go anyway. Bad idea! Because there was a head wind, we ended up motoring the entire 45 miles, the wind was blowing right on our bow, the waves were steep and often they were breaking over the bow and spraying us. We didn’t see any other boats the entire day until we got close to our destination. Out of the darkness appeared a small boat with 2 fisherman. It looked like they were catching squid. The waves were so tall the little boat would disappear behind each wave when I tried to locate them through the binoculars. I can’t imagine how frightening it would be to be in such a small boat out in the Pacific Ocean in the dark being tossed around by huge swells.
After 11 hours of beating our way up wind, of which 5 hours was in total darkness without a moon, we arrived at our destination. I was tethered on the bow with a bright light looking for shrimp traps or other debris in the water and Kevin was at the helm being guided to our anchorage by Navionics. It was a long day without any dinner. It was too rough to even think about preparing food. Lesson learned: when predict wind shows ‘red’ on the wind map, wait a day or two. Your schedule is not more important than your comfort.
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