Ensenada
First order of business when arriving into a new country is to clear in at an official port. For us, this was Ensenada. We opted to moor at the Cruise Port Marina as they provide an agent to help with the necessary paperwork and drive us around to the different buildings where we were issued our Temporary Import Permit (TIP), customs, and immigration. Once that was finished, it was time to find the $1 fish tacos and beers! As it turns out, they’re everywhere. One particularly good find while wandering around town was Bar Andaluz, located inside a historic missionary building and creator of the original margarita! Although that’s disputed with a nearby bar that also claims the same, Bar Andaluz makes the better marg. If visiting on a Wednesday as we unknowingly did, margaritas are two for one. From here, we set of to sail the Baja Peninsula.
Bahía Tortugas
The Baja Peninsula has the best fishing we’ve encountered. Not an hour out of Ensenada, we hooked our first bonito, and the following day our first yellowfin tuna! With a full freezer and fish on the dinner menu for the next few nights, we stowed our fishing pole ‘till we needed more. Perfect time to arrive in Bahía Tortugas and hang out for a few days.
Bahía Tortugas (Turtle Bay) is a small fishing town with a large, protected bay that makes for a calm anchorage in almost any weather. This was our first taste of the remote anchorages of the Baja Peninsula and a great place to spend a few nights.
While at anchor, we witnessed some of the most impressive acts of nature with thousands of seabirds and hundreds upon hundreds of sealions engaged in a feeding frenzy all around our boat and throughout the large bay. Check out this Instagram post for a video of the encounter.
Bahía Santa Maria
We mentioned the cruisers rally called the Baja HaHa in the previous post and how we wanted to stay ahead of them… well they caught up with us. Within just a few hours, our anchorage with 3 boats now had 300. The sleepy fishing town vibe instantly changed to a music bumping, all out drinking party. Our sailing schedule now lined up with that of the HaHa, so more of the same followed us down the Baja Peninsula, but not all for the worse. We met some of the cruisers and made friends along the way as we now were in the pack headed to Bahía Santa Maria.
In our minds, Bahía Santa Maria has been the king of all dinghy surf landings. We’ve yet to come across larger waves breaking on the beach that pooped us twice (this means a wave filled our dinghy with water) and nearly flipped us once. Unfortunately others were not as lucky, and some dinghies succumbed to the wrath of the monstrous waves and the riders went for a swim. The challenging landing was worth it with miles of sandy beach for a much-needed stretch of the legs and a party ashore organized by the HaHa rally. For those not willing to brave the surf landing, local pangas would pick boaters up for a small fee and show off their local skills in repeated landings ashore.
Cabo San Lucas
Our last stop on our way down the Baja Peninsula was Cabo San Lucas, marking an impressive 2,500 miles sailed since we left Seattle. We rounded the picturesque point and dropped the hook out in front of the lively hotels. We stocked up on groceries (Uber makes the cruiser’s life much easier) and topped off our diesel before heading further around the southern end of the Baja Peninsula. The diesel is dyed lime green in Mexico!
Good job getting to Mexico. That trip can be really rugged. I hope the rest of your trip can go as smooth as the first leg. When do you plan on starting your cross ocean trip?