San José del Cabo

San José del Cabo (23.0619N 109.6761W)

Environmental conditions: Marina hot and dusty; water temp at the neighboring beach – perfect and necessary

Fridge temp: Perfect

Battery state: 13.0-13.2V (i.e., nearly perfect, despite too many low sun days)

Euchre score: Girls won first night despite being distracted by biting insects; boys may have won on the last night (Jody can’t quite remember)

Departed Cabo San Lucas around 1000 after a much needed few days of visiting with Courtney and Spencer, thinking we’d duck in at Playa Santa Maria, but it was a bit too crowded there. It was the first real sail to windward of the trip so far, but the wind was so light that is was quite pleasant and uneventful. We pulled into the marina at Puerto Los Cabos around 1530, but it was Dia de los Revolucionares and the marina office was closed, so we hunkered down at the fuel dock for the night and got eaten up by mosquitos. Dang it — Bitey strikes again!

It was a long stint in a marina, but Jody was gone for most of it (see next post “Mexico Hiatus”) and Rand was fighting off his second bout with the welcome-to-Mexico blues. He and the Advance Team did spend a lovely Thanksgiving together at a local dive (read: 5 star Marriott), complete with a swim-up bar that housed a few TVs, satisfying the NFL addiction. Once again though, U.S. prices for mediocre food. Meh.

Provisioning and laundry were extremely easy in SJDC — Costco, Home Depot, Soriana, La Comer, etc… There was the quintessential “old” SJDC with many gringo-ized restaurants, hotels, and touristy shops selling touristy stuff. It was surprisingly gentrified with a number of art galleries — and real estate store fronts. Money definitely influences this part of the peninsula as evidenced by the size of the boats in the marina; most were 50+ feet and there were very few sailboats, except the new 62-ft Lagoon catamaran. Sheesh.

Upon Jody’s return and a check of the weather (northerlies were already blowing, so La Paz? Not so much) the plan was to scoot outta there and head to the mainland with a quick stop at Los Frailes.