Sailing Ensenada to Bahía Asunción

Our longest trip to date! We left Friday morning, sailed all day Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, finally anchoring on Tuesday. We saw one more sunset than in our predictions, but avoided pretty much any motoring, instead contenting ourselves with some very (very) light-winded overnight sailing. Charles got extra seasick days 1-3, probably exacerbated by his recent food poisoning in Ensenada, but it was still a really lovely trip.

Left the dock at Ensenada Cruiseport Village at 10:30 on 10/28, anchored at Bahía Asunción at 13:06 on 11/1. Just shy of 100 hours on the water.

Day #1

We left the dock with 81% battery on our 48 volt bank, and 97% on our 12 volt, carrying 140 gallons of water in main tanks + 15 gallons in on-deck tanks. Having AIS was fun, several sailboats (also with AIS) were leaving Ensenada at the same time as us, and it was fun to track their progress through the night. We had Starlink on, in its mount and underway for the first time. It generally likes to point north, so since we were headed south, it was very unobstructed. Easy for me to stay connected and do some remote work, until I got a little green. We put up the drifter for a nice stable course, Charles made pesto pasta and roasted veggies for dinner, then as the sun set moved to just genoa. I took first watch, Charles did dishes and then got some sleep. It was a particularly rolly evening with a short swell period, but we had good wind and made 4-5.5 knots SOG during my watch. Some shooting stars and bioluminescence. Charles’ watch was about the same, and he went through early morning.

Day #2

This was Roll Day – there was not a position in the swell+waves that had us stable, regardless of what sails we deployed. So we pretty much hunkered down and accepted the roll. The wind speed picked up towards the evening, and we were getting up to 7 knots speed over ground. We kept shorter watches, trading off for outdoor naps as we were both fairly ill, until late afternoon. I did a longer shift, then Charles did the overnight. Conditions were intense at first, but things started to chill out in the early morning.

Day #3

I woke up extremely refreshed – having slept inside from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. – a whole new person. Soaked beans, did dishes, and then took over for Charles. It was a surprisingly cold morning. We found 4 squid on the deck! In the rolly-ness of the previous evening, it seems like we got a wave full of squid over the deck, and did not see them until they had already desiccated in the midmorning sun. Charles got a good, long afternoon sleep, but woke up still sicker. Still, he’s a trooper and kept regular watch. Frustratingly, the drifter’s ATN sock ripped in mid-afternoon, so we were down a light-wind sail until we could resolve it.

Towards the end of the day, we saw Isla San Benitos, our first land since the night of Day 1. Popped out the pressure cooker for black bean soup with avocado, lime, cabbage, and tortillas. This time, I did the overnight watch. Largely quiet, but with dying wind, so a lot of small maneuvers to keep a good course and some speed.

Day #4

Recovery day! Charles was finally excited about food again, so we stuffed him full of beans, dolmas, plantains, and anything else that smelled good. With him feeling better, we were able to work on the ATN sock and get it repaired. Unfortunately, the chart plotter just…. died. Just completely dead. We power cycled a few times on the device and at the electrical panel, checked our fuse, changed it just in case, checked our connections, got the multimeter out. Everything was working like it was supposed to, but the device just would not power on. We obviously had backups – Navionics on Charles’ phone and plenty of paper charts – but WTF.

We got Starlink powered, called Raymarine, they walked us through all the steps to check, and yep. Chart plotter multi-function display just toast. Nothing we did wrong, no real explanation, just a “sorry for your loss.” Ugh.

At least the autohelm and other instruments were still working, meaning we had our GPS position and did not have to hand-steer until our next stop. We strongly considered stopping at Bahia Tortuga, especially with predictions for minimal wind over the next 24 hours, but the Baja Ha-Ha was supposed to arrive within 2-3 days and we did not want to be in the way (or be the broken boat show).

We embraced the light wind and settled in for a really nice day. I kept up the cooking to keep Charles from re-getting seasick, and he did the overnight. Pretty quiet, other than one big, bright boat that seemed to be approaching us, but fortunately did not.

Day #5

An absolutely superb day for sailing. Good wind, favorable direction, warm but not punishingly hot. It was almost lovely enough to keep sailing south, but we were both ready for a break, a shower, and a good night’s sleep.

There was only one other boat in the anchorage area, lobster pots galore, but there was plenty of room for good anchorage. We anchored further west and a little inland from the other boat. We ate some lunch, relaxed, and I did a few hours of remote work.

In the late afternoon, a dinghy came to visit from the other boat – a local guy named Larry, from Bahía Asunción. Super nice, excited to practice his English (just like I was to practice my Spanish), and really interested in our electric motor. We invited him in and showed him some of our systems. He tried one of our American beers (Simpler Times Lager), which he described as weird and strong on a call to his wife around sunset. He invited us to Día de Muertos with his family the next day, which we instantly accepted.

After sunset, we showered, had an easy dinner, and fell asleep.