STARTED TO MAKE TRACKS TO LA PAZ

We left Cabo San Lucas on Monday morning and had a very easy and relaxing motor trip 42 mile to Los Frailes. The wind came up from the SE about 1/2 hour before we arrived at the Los Frailes anchorage.There were eight boats already anchored for the evening. Los Frailes is the jumping off point for those boats sailing across the South Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan, 190 miles, or Puerto Vallarata, 260 miles.

The picture on the right is Los Frailes taken from the SE, about one mile out.

We anchored in 35' of water but the wind kept increasing as did the wind chop. The south Los Frailes anchorage is wide open to the SE thru West and is no place to be in a SE wind. We pulled the anchor after 10 minutes of bouncing and motored 3 miles around the point to the north anchorage. Several boats called on the VHF asking where I was going and why. I told them the barometer had dropped 3 mb in three hours and the clouds indicated a frontal passage would happen in the next 12 hours.

We found flat water, no boats, and only 1/2 as much wind on the north side of Los Frailes. Within two hours seven of the eight boats had moved to the north anchorage. The wind did blow 10 to 15 out of the south all night long.