Coming to America!

April 25th, 2011


Finally, an update from Tom aboard Caprice as she makes her way from La Paz, Mexico to San Diego, California!

Just the facts I asked for and promised I would embellish and elaborate into a continuation of the tales of Caprice! I’ve done my best and hope all you fans of Caprice and her all-male crew will enjoy!

Caprice is underway from the CostaBaja Marina at 12 noon on April 12th, 2011 for the short trip to Calera Partial, an anchorage between Isla Del Espiritu Santos and Isla Partida where we spend the night. In the morning we move Caprice closer to a reef where Dan snorkels and returns to the boat with a broad-faced grin regaling us with tales of the myriad of colorful and unusual fish he saw! After the stop for the snorkel opportunity we motor Caprice around to the north end of Isla Partida and then head south to Cabo San Lucas. We head for an overnight stop at Muertos, but if conditions are good, it’s straight on to Cabo San Lucas. Caprice is anxious to get going on the long trip north and her crew is willing to make her happy!

Hooray… we catch two beautiful yellow fin tuna so you know what we are having for dinner this evening – the freshest fish possible!

We motor all night and arrive at Cabo San Lucas at about 9am Thursday morning and start the process of officially checking out of Mexico. Practical issues include topping off with diesel and filling the food larders with marvelous provisions from Costco! We will overnight at the Cabo San Lucas Marina, where we stayed last November upon completing the Baja Ha Ha!

Next stop: the Mexican Immigration Office! We stroll to the official site armed with our passports and Caprice documentation. We are curious as to how this process works… when we arrived with the Baja Ha Ha group, officials met us on the docks and processed everything easily and quickly. Now, we are on our own!

Upon entering the office we see 35 to 40 other needy people waiting for help… so we sit down and wait… Fortunately, we have Enrique with us. He approaches one of the officials and chats away with him. Soon the official has his supervisor at hand and the thought of guards quickly approaching with AK47’s crosses my mind… but hooray, all is well. The supervisor takes our papers and passports and returns shortly with everything ready to go! He shakes our hands and wishes us a good/safe trip back to San Francisco. It appears that all the other folks in the immigration office are there for something other than leaving Mexico in a sailboat. Back to Caprice with a skip in our step as one major hurtle is successfully completed. Next stop: COSTCO! Enrique and I gather our shopping bags and walk a few blocks to catch a bus to COSTCO to provision the boat for the trip to San Diego (8 pesos for the bus ride while the cab back with the goodies is 200 pesos… a peso is approximately 12 to the dollar.)

Off we go, departing Cabo San Lucas at about 7:30am the next morning and are now slogging our way north in 12 to 15 knots of wind right on our nose.

We are hopeful that the winds will die down in the afternoon but alas at 3:30pm they are blowing 15 to 18. We are running at 2800 rpm on both engines and only driving the boat at about 5 knots putting us a bit behind our projected time lines! But as we know, this is sailing and time lines are for people who are working! Today we catch eleven fish but all are shakers.

Saturday Morning April 16th and we are sailing toward the entrance of Bahia Magdalena or Mag Bay as it is affectionately known to sailors and locals. We will pull into Puerto San Carlos to fill the diesel tanks for the trip to Turtle Bay. As a result of the heavy winds on our nose we are consuming more fuel than we anticipated. We plan to purchase four additional 20-liter fuel containers so that we have sufficient backup to make the trip to Turtle Bay and further North should we experience more of the adverse wind and current conditions.

We arrive at the entrance to Bahia Magdalena and motor 20 miles up the channel to Puerto San Carlos where we anchor off the port in about 20 feet of water. The wind is blowing hard, so we decide that Dan and Enrique will row ashore in the dingy while I stay on Caprice should she drag anchor. Off they go! In time the intrepid crew makes it to the shore only to be greeted by a guard. I watch them through a pair of binoculars and it appears that there is some problem with them landing where they are. But Enrique with his command of the language saves the day and they are allowed to proceed. After disappearing into the buildings, 3 hours pass before I see them again. Needless to say I was thrilled when they reappeared! Long story short, they eventually hook up with the right guy after several disappointments with the local officials and purchase two 60-liter fuel containers. Dan rows back to the boat while Enrique continues to work with the local official to obtain the much-needed fuel. We move Caprice to the pier and side tie to a rusty old fishing boat and a hose is carried over to Caprice! We load fuel into our tanks and containers. And as we say aboard Caprice when things are going well: Hallelujah!!! We thank everyone that is involved and of course everyone gets the appropriate tip!! Caprice is underway and heading down the channel for the open sea as we continue our voyage north! We are on our way to America and looking forward to it greatly!

Stay tuned for more Adventures of Caprice and her all-male crew!