Rounding the Baja Cape at Cabo San Lucas

November 4-5, 2022  

At 08:15 on November 4th, as the wind gusts were finally dropping below 30 knots, we pulled up our anchor, raised our sails, and sailed out of Bahia Santa Maria.  We had a beautiful day of sailing, downwind with about 15-25 knots of wind.  It was perfect.   

Early in the morning we spotted our first, for sure, turtle sighting, and after that it felt like almost non-stop turtle sightings. 

We kept a running tally through the day and counted up to 22 before the evening.  It was so cool to get to see so many turtles.  For some of them we only saw the tops of their shell as they rose over the swell off to our side, but others were much closer and would lift their cute little heads to look at us before diving down.  

As evening approached we saw a mysterious fin cut across in front of our bow.  It swam out away from us before turning back and coming towards us.  Several minutes later, as Jason was reeling in our fishing rods for the day, Jason saw it following the lure behind the boat.  We imagine that it was a type of shark and are happy that it did not bite on our lure, as we did not want to deal with a shark on board. 

That night the winds gradually changed direction and by sunup we changed our sails to be on a beam reach.  With the swells still coming from behind us, and now with a steep wind-created chop coming at us from the side, the sea state became very uncomfortable, but we were happy to have the wind to be able to keep sailing.  As the day progressed, and the closer that we got to Cabo San Lucas, the wind slowly died away and as evening approached we were motor-sailing towards the cape. 

We rounded the cape and passed Cabo San Lucas just as the sun set on November 5th. 

From the water Cabo San Lucas looked like a beautiful, coastal, tourist city that almost looked European with the houses and buildings lining the beautiful cliffs. 

We probably passed the harbour at one of the busiest times, as there were at least 20 boats out for evening sunset cruises, and as soon as the sun had set they all started to make their way back into the bay, as we sailed on into the night.   

When we had rounded the cape the wind picked back up and we were able to sail for several hours, and within a few nautical miles of rounding the cape the sea state changed dramatically.  It settled to what felt to us like calm.  It was the calmest water that we had travelled on since leaving BC; the continuous motion from the swells of the open Pacific was gone.  Everything on board, from preparing food, to eating, to walking, to using the bathroom, suddenly got easy.  Apart from the warm air, as we travelled along through the dark, it almost felt like we were back on the inner coast of BC.