La Paz to San Jose del Cabo

Finisterra's route from La Paz to San Jose. Ensenada de Los Muertos is to the right of the "286".  Cabo Pulmo is the easternmost point on the peninsula.

Finisterra departed La Paz on the morning of May 30th with the temperature hovering at 92 degrees and about three knots of wind out of the north. The plan was to transit the San Lorenzo and Cerralvo channels in daylight and anchor at Ensenada de los Muertos around sunset. The forecast was for northerly winds and a nice 12 knot wind arrived around noon. We had been motoring until then and I was about to set the mainsail when the breeze veered northeast, then east and settled at southeast...exactly the direction we were headed. On top of that, once in the Cerralvo channel, we found ourselves bucking a southeast current of about a knot. So I left the mainsail on the boom and we settled down to a long motor to Los Muertos.

We got the hook down around 1730 and had time for a sunset swim in the 85 degree water. We were up well before dawn the next morning and were underway by 0430. Our next destination was Los Frailes, where we hoped to explore the coral reef at Cabo Pulmo. This reef is the northernmost coral reef in the eastern Pacific and is now a Mexican National Park. You can learn more about it at www.cabopulmopark.com/thereef.html

Cabo Pulmo National Park

Unfortunately the unfriendly southeast wind continued to blow and brought with it a hefty south swell, making the anchorage unsuitable. So we reluctantly continued on toward San Jose del Cabo, where we planned to stay until a good weather window opened for us to work our way around Cabo San Lucas and northward to Bahia Santa Maria on the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula.