The Baja Smash

"They" call sailing North from Cabo San Lucas the Baja Bash because it is notorious for being an awful stretch of sea to get through, usually with 25 knots of wind in the teeth, with the swells to match. There are people who have sailed around the world and said that the Baja Bash was easily the worst part of their entire trip. Going South, however, is not so bad. Especially for us, it has been really easy. Although we have had a lot of South winds, both the wind and seas have been relatively calm. This is in part due to the fact that Dad saw a weather window approx. 12 days ago, and we took advantage, even though it only gave me 5 days to make the transition from being a college student/teacher to a sailor bum, so to speak (or whatever you want to call a 22 year-old tagging along to cruise with her parents).

This transition has been both easy and difficult for me. I went from interacting with 100+ people every week: students, professors, friends, house-mates, random people at parties- all the people you would expect in a college atmosphere- with particular emphasis on the fact that about 98% of them were my peers. This number of people to interact with (aka friends) has been drastically reduced to 2: Mom and Dad. And because I beat both of them so badly at Scrabble last night that number is dwindling around the zero range (just kidding).

In all seriousness, this is serious. Aside from the fact that over the past 4 years I spent a total of, maybe, 5 months with them? Now we are together, within 50 feet of each other, 24/7. This might freak a normal person out, and sometimes it freaks me out, but it is all part of the adventure. And adventures are not always fun. On the other hand, that I do not have any obligations except to do cockpit yoga with Mom every day, no peers to hang out with (yet), and do dishes occasionally, this is awesome! No papers to grade, no lectures to attend, no phone calls to answer (which goes both ways, I suppose)... It is really a radically different lifestyle. Sometimes fun, sometimes scary, sometimes aggravating, and (quite often) kinda boring.

Baja California is one of the most rugged and remote parts of the world. Aside from Tijuana (which is not really Baja) and Cabo San Lucas (the tourist trap that it has become), Baja has one of the lowest population densities in the world. Yesterday Mom, Dad and I (duh, who else?) went for a hike from Bahia Santa Maria to the other side of the lagoon to see the ocean. It probably looks really cool on Google Maps. While we were hiking up the lagoon we came across little patches of fishing village- if you can call a few plywood huts and lines strung up with fishing net to serve as both fish and clothes drying racks- a village. What I am trying to convey is that we are out in the middle of nowhere.

Today we sailed to Mag Bay (Bahia Magdalena) and took a walk on a deserted beach where the only sign of life was the remains of an old whaling station, which I guess is more a sign of death and decay than life. On the beach we found the skull of a pelican and two dead sharks. Actually, they were only shark heads, and let me tell you, those teeth are SHARP. Hopefully that is the only time I will ever touch them.

Alas, the most rugged and remote part of the (Mexico) trip is about to be over, as tomorrow we head for Cabo!! Yes, the tourist trap, that will have things like: cell service, a marina to stay in, reliable internet, supermarkets, (hopefully) more cruisers that I can make friends with, and civilization in general. We do have about 30 hours of sailing to do before we get there, but no problem! I will be so stoked to have other people to talk to (although don't get me wrong, M and D are great company), and just mayyyybe, a surf spot with a few other people out. Never have I had the problem of a spot being too uncrowded, but I have not seen another surfer in almost two weeks. Dude, my surf lingo is drying up.

Ok! Enough. Drop me a line, let me know you are out there, remind me that I do have more friends than my parents!!
-----
At 12/28/2010 3:06 AM (utc) Rutea's position was 24°34.51'N 112°04.12'W