Winter Sailing Vacation
Faced with the prospect of some chilly winter weather (at least chilly in Texas meaning 45°-50° at night and
65° during the day) my friends and I planned a trip to Mexico for some sailing instruction. I found San Carlos Sailing School by surfing the internet and figured it would be a great place for us to learn the basics of sailing. Many years ago I had taken three levels of sailing instruction in San Francisco at OCSC and had a wonderful experience. However, many of my skills have gone unused on a freshwater lake over the years. I wanted to take lessons which would serve as a review for me and bring two of my friends up to a level where we could all enjoy coastal cruising in the gulf coast area. My friends had been with me a few times on my trimaran, and I felt we could all improve our skills and have fun.
As it would be winter time we chose San Carlos Sailing School and made our reservations for the end of January. However, while watching the internet weather and after exchanging some emails with our sailing instructor I realized that San Carlos was approximately on the same latitude as San Antonio and the possibility of cold weather was present. San Carlos Sailing School only trains from the end of October through the first of June, as the weather is most windy then. We bought some warmer gear, made our airline reservations and started the countdown until our trip. Finally our departure date came, we left and flew to Phoenix, and then to Guaymas on America West. After a short taxi trip to San Carlos we were settled in our motel. Our instructor, David Baraff met us in the afternoon, gave us our sailing manuals, and walked us around the marina. San Carlos is a beautiful area which hasn’t been discovered yet by the hoards of American tourists which are common in so many other Mexican cities such as Cabo San Lucas. However, it was usually easy to find someone who spoke English and we felt very comfortable. Food was fantastic and we enjoyed sampling various types of tequila.
The first two days covered the basics, and we sailed on an O’Day 25. David Baraff was very adept at recognizing our varying skill levels and taking us from where we felt comfortable into the next level. He had a good sense of humor, and his encouragement and coaching allowed us to progress fairly quickly over the basic concepts. We covered the material in the basic keel boat sailing ASA course. It was fairly windy, sometimes too windy to go out and receive the full brunt of the waves past Playa Algodones. This was a beautiful beach, where they filmed the movie Catch 22.
We had discussed crew overboard concepts before we left Texas, but we had not practiced. However, we were comfortable with our boat, handling skills, and looked forward to the opportunity to practice. David talked about the concepts, and then we threw over the life ring. We had ten out of ten successful pickups! We had come to feel quite comfortable with the boat and the whole crew overboard process just fell into place, especially under the artful coaching of David.
After two great days of sailing it was time to go onto the next level. We went shopping, picked out our food for our five day live aboard cruise, and had our last “shore meal”, Tuesday night. We left Wednesday morning for the second part of our sailing instruction, aboard a Cal 34 named Free Spirit.
We left on the Cal 34 from a different marina, and were soon in the unprotected Sea of Cortez. It was quite windy, and so we needed to depower from our genoa to a jib. I said, “I will be glad to do it…but I need the tether.” It was a quite an experience with the boom plunging up and down and the 25K wind blowing across the foredeck. David was by the mast giving instructions and shouting encouragement all at the same time. I knew I had to do it, but it was nice to have him nearby, right there, talking me through the various steps. Certainly it was harder to change the foresail in this boat than it had been on the O’Day 25. The wind and cold weather made it more exciting, interesting and challenging. That night we anchored at Playa Algodones, and saw the first of our great sunsets. Neal cooked spaghetti and meatballs and we knew it was good because we could see the tongue prints on the plates. The following morning we got up, had a leisurely breakfast and headed back to the Sea of Cortez.
As we were working on basic coastal cruising we practiced reefing, and heaving to which certainly was a great skill
to know when it was very windy. The second night we stayed at Bahia San Pedro, sharing the anchorage with a boat from Canada, and a boat from Germany. After we were anchored we noticed that the metal fitting holding the boom to the mast had been bent up. Apparently the upward pressure from the boom vang had been too much and the force pulled out the screws holding the track to the mast. I was pessimistic we would ever get it fixed, and wanted to start on it right away to see if we could make any progress. David in his calm and relaxed manner said “It’s getting dark, nothing we can do tonight. Let’s tackle it in the morning.” Of course that was good advice, and was a good lesson for me and my rampant impulsivity.
The next morning David and Neal fixed it well. David wrapped thick line around the metal track and then he and Neal put a screwdriver through one of the lines, gave it a 180° twist, tied down the screwdriver which maintained the lines very tightly. The repair seemed to be as good as new and lasted until we got back to port.
That night it was really windy and we let out a far bit of anchor scope. The wind was whistling down the canyon and in the late evening we were concerned that someone would need to be awake much of the night watching the other boats just to make certain our anchor wasn’t dragging. However, the wind calmed and we were all able to get some sleep. The next morning I got a chance to prepare my veggie and egg breakfast. I opted to do this and not cook an evening meal as evening meals are not my strength, so I wimped out and let the other guys do that. That night we stayed at Bahia San Pedro. We were tired but had had a great day. We reviewed our learning of the days, and came to enjoy the benefits of cruising life that evening while at anchor, good friends, and warmth of being in the boat, relaxation and tequila.
The next morning there was little wind, and then as the day progressed the wind totally died and the Sea of Cortez
was as smooth as glass. Very, very unusual and somewhat frustrating, but gave us an opportunity to do more course plotting and other various types of chart work, as required by our bare boat chartering course. We tried to sail, but of course, to no avail. Finally we motored into Caleta Venecia. We were the only boat there and noticed two pangas on shore. These Mexican fishermen had been out all day, and were camped on shore. David took a kayak to shore and after chatting with them for awhile, tried to buy some fish. These fishermen were very gracious and gave us approximately $30 worth of sea bass! They wouldn’t take any money. We cooked it in the wok with spicy vegetables and it sure was tasty.
The following morning the wind was back to its blustery ways and again we practiced person overboard drills and other elements of bare boat chartering. That evening we stayed at Caleta Amarga and got out the kayak again. Both Dan and I were unfamiliar with fishing, but I guided the kayak around the cove and Dan fished and actually we caught three sea bass before it got dark. We hated to quit, but it got so dark that I could not see to remove the hook from the fish, and I was not keen on handling barbed hooks after dark. Under the instruction of David we learned how to fillet the fish. We did learn that it is better to have a sharp knife for filleting and not a dull knife! After more salad, great sea bass and tequila the last day came to an end. This was the evening we broke out our cigars and all four of us enjoyed a rare leisurely smoke. This was not too typical for David, as his wife remarked when she looked at the pictures and said, “What you’re smoking one of those bad cigars?” After we took our written test for the basic coastal cruising component of our course, we drifted off to sleep.
The next day we headed back out to Sea of Cortez and sailed back to the main marina at San Carlos. When we returned to San Carlos marina, it was not only very windy, but also the lowest tide of the month. We decided not to go back to our slip but instead to tie up at the gas dock. It was my time at the tiller and the first time in I was too timid to get close enough to dock. We circled around, came back and tried it again. The second time in I was more gutsy, and we got close enough to secure the boat safely. That evening we were able to stay at a great condo named ----- ------ and after a time in the hot tub, a clean shower and shaving we rejoined David for a nice dinner at -------. That evening we reviewed our notes, and prepared for the bare boat chartering test. The following morning we completed the bare boat chartering test and we all passed. Following an uneventful trip back to San Antonio we returned to our daily jobs with great memories.
In San Carlos we certainly experienced all types of weather (from 25-30 knot winds with relatively large waves to calm seas.) David’s knowledge of the boat, the area around San Carlos, and his teaching skills made a fantastic combination. We all had fun, learned a lot and improved our sailing skills dramatically. We look forward to returning again and again to the Sea of Cortez. The pleasant evenings, preceded by beautiful sunsets to the west, the stark beauty of the desert to the east, fine food, being on a boat with good friends, what could be better (having women of course would be better), but sometimes just the guys take a trip! Future plans include training (Cruising Catamaran Course) and perhaps getting more familiar with the Baja side of the Sea of Cortez. I knew I had made a good choice for a sailing school when Dan and Neal said, “How did you find this place…how did you know it would be so great?”