A note on sailing the west coast.

Upon leaving San Francisco, we encountered 27 knots of wind while heading out the gate.

Then, upon crossing the finish line of the Baja Haha, a couple miles short of Cabo Falso,

or "false cape"; itself approximately 5 miles from Cabo San Lucas, we ran into strong head

winds. Winds of about the same velocities as those we encountered while leaving S.F. Somehow it

seems fitting that we had to fight our way out of San Francisco Bay, and then

fight our way across the threshold, into the Sea of Cortez.

On a lighter note, upon rounding Cabo San Lucas, Music has now sailed the entire west coast of the 48

contiguous states and then some. With having done the race around Vancouver Island, Music

and I have have sailed approximately 2000 nautical miles of coastline from Port Hardy, above Cape Scott at the

northern tip of Vancouver Island to Cabo San Lucas. En route, the strongest winds we've encountered on any

stretch of this trek were about 35 knots. And, these were found on both the west side of Vancouver

Island on the leg from Winter Harbour to Ucluelet (sp?), and on the leg from Cape Mendecino to Point

Reyes during my delivery of Music to San Francisco from the Pacific Northwest.

While other stretches of coast can be notoriously rough, Music was lucky to find only light winds.

Just one example typical "rough" conditions, can be found on the stretch of coast from Point Sur, just south of Carmel,

to Point Conception, just a little north of Santa Barbara. Here, strong winds and rough seas are the rule rather than the exception.

Nov 14:

By my reckoning we are now officially in the Sea of Cortez! The last 5 miles or so of our

route were at a compass heading of about 335M (magnetic) which means we are officially

inside the Sea of Cortez. From this afternoon on, if we head due west we will hit land.

No more open sea to the west, at least for a while.

We left San Jose del Cabo at about 9:40 this morning and dropped our hook in Bahia

Los Frailes (Bay of the Friers - that's right, Bay of the Monks) in about 35 ft of water

at 15:15. It is the first time on this trip we can actually see the bottom and see our

anchor - Yeah!! We think we'll be here for about 3 days as Pulmo Reef, the only coral reef

in the Sea of Cortez (according to the cruising guides), is just around the corner. We plan

to do some snorkeling and hopefully get in a dive or two before continuing up the

sea toward La Paz. - Please keep your fingers crossed for us. While we wanted to do some diving

in the Channel Islands and perhaps Catalina on our way to San Diego, time and circumstances said No!

As for the weather, it turned out that staying those few extra days in San Jose del Cabo was

the right call! Upon anchoring here, some folks from a nearby boat dropped by in their dingy and

reported that they wind conditions of 20 knots 2 days ago, and 30 knots of wind through the

anchorage yesterday. I hate to say it, but I've got to turn off the computer now. It's time to

drop the dink (dinghy) in the water, and... Ahhh, but then come appetizers, brie and French Bread!

Cheers, John