We decided to make the jaunt down the the end of land on the Baja peninsula known as Cabo San Lucas. It was a 45 mile, all day hop but it was not without highlight reel worthy events. More on that later. We left Frailes around 6:15am and for the first hour it was flat calm as we motored south. At about 8am we had a nice breeze from the north come up that allowed us to turn off the motor and sail nicely downwind, wind on wing, with the drifter (the new 112 sail) and the main. Around noon or so the wind switched rapidly from a northerly to a southerly but we continued sailing along nicely,pointing instead of running. We probably sailed for about 4 hours when the wind picked up drastically and headed us. So we took down the drifter and put 2 reefs in the main and aided our progress with the motor going directly into the 18-25 knots of wind and chop toward Cabo. Just about the time I was complaining to myself that the wind always comes from the direction I want to go...enter the highlight reel...lol
Ok, here is another situation where my words can't remotely come close to explaining the actual experience so I will give you the basics and you will have to use your imagination or watch the Discovery Channel to really get an idea of what we got to see. I spotted a whale blow off in the far distance ahead. A couple of times we saw the splash that follows a breach but it was probably mile or more in front of us and didn't last long before we saw nothing. About a half hour later we had a mother humpback and her calf within 100 yards of the boat. They seemed to be going the same direction we were but off to the starboard so I turned their direction to see if we could get closer without them diving deep out of sight. The little guy seemed pretty excited to be traveling with some some new friends and began to breach numerous times with mom at his side just cresting her back out of the water and spewing salty air out her blowhole. Within 5 minutes both whales were RIGHT next to us! Like sometimes as close as 20 or 30' off of our beam. Junior continued to impress with his aerial display, mom content to be at his side rolling her back above the surface staying close to her playful calf. Ok...this went on for about an hour...NO...I'm not exaggerating! Several times we had to adjust course because they veered in front of the bow, a half boat length away, and we didn't want to hit them. Some big pirate ship with a boat load of tourists saw the action and came over and joined us, the whales between the two boats. Honestly, one of the most amazing things I have ever seen and BY FAR the best whale encounter EVER aboard the Liahona. Wow. We have some amazing videos and pics for proof of our encounter. ha. Look for those to be posted up on Marne's FB page when she gets back to Oregon in a few days. On a lesser note but still awe inspiring, we had a group of maybe a dozen dolphin visit us along the way before we saw the whales.
Currently we are anchored out in the bay in Cabo San Lucas with the party hotels on the beach and a monster cruise ship anchored about a 1/4 mile behind us. Great day, one to remember. Ciao for now!
Bret and Marne
SV Liahona
Clint - I wrote you a personal email about arrival and also something I need. Let me know.
Karla, Aven and T3 - OMG! You would have died to see these whales and we were there traveling buddies for over an hour!
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