We hauled up the anchor at 7:10 am on Monday and were underway to Los Frailes which is about 45 miles up the coast by 7:20 am. There were three or four other boats also headed out ahead of us. We stayed about three miles off-shore following the coast with the wind directly behind us. The 10 miles of shoreline between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose Del Cabo is lined with buildings, mainly hotel and Condo developments.  As we passed the lighthouse near Cabezza Ballena we waved to Ken and Nancy who had come to see is in Cabo on Sunday morning although they probably could not make out our boat.  The sea and sailing were smooth with a slight swell and 5-6 knots of wind. The cruising guides said this part of the coast was protected from the north winds that can, at times, howl down the Sea of Cortez uninterrupted for hundreds of miles. Once we cleared this section of the coast, we would see how things would change.

We began to feel the effects of the wind and swells between Punta Gorda and La Fortuna. The wind increased to 12-15 knots and the seas picked up with short, sharp 6 foot swells. This combined with a 180 degree wind shift meant we were now plowing directly into headwinds with the boat pitching heavily throwing seas off her bow and occasionally slapping down hard into a trough. There is a shallow area between Punta Gorda and La Fortuna which is popular with the locals for Gringo fishing trips.  As we passed many of these small boats, we wondered how the people who had hired the boat for a day’s fishing were doing in these very choppy conditions.

There also appeared to be an issue with GPS in this area. I noticed that according to the plotter, we were approaching the shore; but I could see clearly, we were at least three miles out. Eventually the GPS told me I was driving the boat along the coastal road! For the next 10 miles or so, the GPS played tricks, sometimes I was on land and sometimes at sea. It would give me position shifts of up to 10 miles in a matter of a second or so. The GPS coordinates were just as crazy. When I plotted them on the chart they concurred with the ships plotter; we were sailing down the highway. This could have been quite disconcerting at night as there are few visual signals by which to take bearings in this area.

We slogged on all afternoon beating into the weather, finally seeing our destination in the distance. One sailboat, a Swan 44 which was going faster than us passed close by and it was interesting to see the boat pitching heavily just like us with spray billowing out from her bow and water flowing back to the cockpit.

Los Frailes is quite a prominent landmark and appears as a big hump of rock. After an afternoon of being on a hobby horse, we finally pulled into the then calm waters behind the Los Frailes headland at about 4:30 pm and anchored in a clear sand bottom at 4:45 pm. It had taken nine and a half hours to do the 48 miles; not bad considering the rough conditions.

There were at least 15 other boats at anchor and only a few more arrived after us. It was nice to be in calm conditions, ready for a good night’s sleep. We did discover later that many boats that left somewhat later than us, had turned back because of the sea conditions.