La Paz to Puerto Vallarta

We set out early in the morning so that we could to a hike on Isla la Partida, which is part of the national parks of Mexico. We arrived and anchored in a sheltered bay on the north side of the island that afternoon.

Kayaking to a bay on the north side of Isla la Partida

Isla la Partida, part of Mexican National Parks

We made it to shore

View from the beach

After Justin changed the zinc on the propeller, we took the kayak into shore,  intent on doing the hike marked on the national park map.  Trails in Mexico turned out to be a little more rugged than the standard trail in Canada.   So we didn't get as far as we intended.

Are you sure that's the trail?

Well, let's try it!

We left the bay at sunset with just  enough time to swing by the nearby sealion islands and take a look. 

Returning to the boat at sunset

Boat at sunset

Kayaking back to boat

Approaching the islands off of Isla del Partida

Seallion Island off of la Partida

Listening to the sealions

We sailed for the next day and a half, getting to Puerto Vallarta quicker than anticipated due to great wind allowing us to do 7 - 8 knots most of the leg.

La Paz

We anchored the boat just outside the marina in La Paz, and we used the dingy to travel back and forth between the marina and boat.  This means we only had to pay 15 Pecos a day to use the dingy dock, which significantly reduced our costs.

A visitor while we were at anchor

Dingy dock in La Paz

We then had a lovely dinner with Mom and Da at the marina  restaurant and wondered around the waterfront.

Dinner in La Paz

Mom and Da had to fly out the next day from San Jose del Cabo, so we rented a vehicle for the day.  The drive was approximately 2.5 hrs each way as we took the more scenic route, which turned out to be more beautiful than expected.   Based on what we had seen of the Baja coast to this point, we expected dry desert dotted with cacti, which we did see at first. This soon changed to winding roads through green hills and then into mountains, river beds, and cliffs dropping off to the sea.

En route to San Jose del Cabo

Desert outside of La Paz

The mountains on the east coast of the Baha

Mom and Da

River bed

Vada went home to Cape Breton with Mom and Da.  We had decided to do this because of the logistics around taking a dog through customs so many times in such a short period just really wasn't practical.   Vada was also starting to mind the heat.  Given that Vada's temperature of choice is about -15 degree C, we had anticipated this, but hadn't expected her to struggle so early on.  It's going to be really hard for me to go the next 6.5 months without my girl.

Last day with our girl

Justin and I returned to La Paz, stopping in Los Berilles, a seaside town, for dinner.  We took advantage of having the car and picked up groceries that night once we got into La Paz.

Dinner in Los Berilles

Drive back to La Paz

The next morning,  Justin and I went swimming with whale sharks, which was totally amazing.   The whale sharks were adolescents,  and as such were only about 10 meters long.  However 10 meters long seems plenty big enough when they're only an arm's length away from you.  This definitely was a top experience of our trip so far for both Justin and I.

About to go swimming with the whale sharks

We spent the afternoon at the marina restaurant snacking while doing our laundry and updating facebook / our blog with the marina WiFi.

We intended to sail out that night,  but we were pretty exhausted.   So we stayed the night at anchor and set out for Puerto Vallarta the next day.

Cabo San Lucas to La Paz

We arrived in Cabo San Lucas to be greated by a beautiful sunrise and gorgeous rocky gliffs.  After fueling and docking,  we did what anyone would do who were deprived of civilization for a week.   We sought out food and drinks.

We made land!  Lunch at Senor Frog's

Mom and Da weren't sceduled to arrive for a couple of hours,  so Justin and I set out to do errands and laundry.  The laundry facilities just happened to be beside a pool with WiFi.   Not too shabby!

We got to meet Allyson's  Aunt Steph and Uncle Dave, who went out of their way and really made our time in Cabo San Lucas special.  They took us on a tour of parts of the town we wouldn't have been able to see otherwise.  My parents sat in the cab of truck with Dave and Steph,  while the youngings  (Justin,  Allyson,  Steve,  and I ) sat in the box as per Mexican "tradition." Dave and Steph also took us to Walmart for supplies,  which cut down significantly on our prep times.   They also had us over for a lovely dinner.   We couldn't be more grateful for their generosity to fellow Maritimers.

One truck and eight people, no worries.  Best way to see Mexico right here.

Our lovely dinner at Dave and Steph's

The next day, we introduced Mom and Da to sailing.

Mom and Da's first sail on Just Dreaming

The Captain at the helm with his first mate

Mom and I up on the bow

Leaving Cabo San Lucas

Da at the helm at we leave Cabo

Mexico didn't let us down and provided lovely sunsets for Mom and Da

Sunset

After we exposed Mom and Da to a night voyage (yes thay did night shifts).  We put anchor down in Cabo Los Frailes.  Justin went snorkeling while I relaxed with my parents.  Mom and Da treated us to a lovely dinner on the boat.   We caught up on sleep and spent the next morning on the beach.

Beach in Los Frailes

Beach in Los Frailes

We set out for another 24 hour stint of sailing.  This time we had 20 knots of wind and we were pounding into the waves, which was a bit more exciting than my parents had anticipated.  But they were troopers.

Da helping Justin take the dingy motor off the dingy and store it away before we set sail

If we're up on deck, Vada is up on deck

We then made anchor just outside of La Paz in a little bay off an Island called Isla del Espiritu Santos, which is part of the national parks system in Mexico.  We made several trips to shore the night and next morning, either via kayak or dingy.

Isla del Espiritu Santos

Kayaking to shore

Our sunset in Isla del Espiritu Santos

We then had gentle sailing weather to end our last leg as we sailed into La Paz.

Kicking my parent's butts at cards

San Diego to Cabo San Lucas

We had the delight of sharing the trip from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas with Allyson and Steve Mantey.  Allyson and Steve fit right in as part of the crew and helped out significantly.   Our shifts on watch were cut in half from two 6 hr shifts to two 3 hr shifts per day.  Allyson is also quite the  cook and spoiled us with delicious meals throughout the trip.

The crew for the leg from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas enjoying one of the many great sunsets

One of the beautiful sunsets

Vada in her favourite spot

Thanks to Allyson for this photo.  We don't get many pictures together on the boat.

Steve and Allyson have their own sailing boat and we're keen to learn as they plan on making a similar voyage.

In less than a day after leaving San Diego,  we stopped in Ensenada to do customs.  Customs took most of the day.  However,  we did manage to run a few errands (beer run), grab some tacos, and run into some fellow sailors from the Vancouver area.

Leaving our mark in Ensenada

Beers, after hours of getting through custums

We made day stops in Turtle Bay and Baha Santa Maria.  We managed to end up on the wrong side of the bay in Turtle Bay and ended up sharing a few beer with local fishermen.   We didn't have any Spanish and they didn't have any English.   But we did have a long old conversation with one of the fishermen.   Justin,  Allyson, Steve, and I just had different interpretations of what the gentleman fisherman was trying to tell us.  Baha Santa Maria was even more interesting as the waves to shore were quite big and the currents quite strong.   The four of us,  plus Vada,  on our little tender surfed a wave or two into shore.  Then on our way out, we had to pound directly into the waves,  which meant we were submerged one moment and airborne the next.

Enjoying Baha Santa Maria after our interesting trip to land

The boys, most likely talking about sail boats

We also got to experience the super moon while traveling down to Cabo San Lucas.  This meant that every night was super bright leading up to and following the super moon.  The moon would rise each night, blood orange and looking more like a sun rise than a moon rise in the photos.

A couple days before the super moon

Super moon rising

For the most part,  we had beautiful, easy sailing weather from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas,  with only a few intermittent spurts of no wind.  We saw lots of dolphins and even a few seals, including one huge sealion, who jumped onto the wharf on which we docked in Ensenada and who Vada tried to stare down.

Good sailing weather

All crew up on deck

Ally getting in some yoga

And this is what my dinky camera captured.  Imagine what it was like in real life!

Vada was always where the action was

Ally trying to capture our last sun rise together on the boat

Ally treating us to some delicious breakfast

Justin and Steve as we come into Cabo

Justin at the helm as we make land

Vada excited about making land