Arrived at Ensenada de Los Muertos

When I woke up at midnight Arnold told me that we were north of the latitude of Ensenada de Los Muertos and we should tack. We soon tacked and because the wind and sea had moderated I rolled out the entire headsail. Soon it was sailing as good as it can be if you are beating to weather: apparent wind of about 14 knots, seas not breaking, the boat smoothly heading for the target at 5.5-6 knots; and all under splendid moon light. We had tacked at 31 miles from the bay, giving us the prospect of dropping anchor not long after daylight.

I had my plan but nature had its own. At 4 AM the wind dropped and backed to the west - right on our nose. Sailing on a starboard tack was out of the question because it would place of SE of our destination when the expected north wind came after dawn. Sailing on a port tack was an option but we did not really need to go further north. So at 4.30 AM I hove to with the bow pointing to the north and went to sleep. I woke at 5.30 AM to see that all was in order and we were drifting north at the rate of 1.5 kt. I decided not to tune in on Amigo net at 6 AM because I had a pretty good idea of what to expect from the wind and in any case we were already committed.

At 7.30 AM I was up and soon had the boat sailing to our anchorage against a weak wind from the starboard. Arnold soon woke up and took over the watch and I went back to sleep. Two hours later I woke up to find that the wind had improved and we were sailing directly for the anchorage,

At 1 PM we dropped all sail and motored into a wonderful large shelf of sand and dropped anchor in 7 meters of water about 400 meters from shore at 23N59.3, 109W49.6. We had excellent shelter from winds from an arc of NE to NW to SW. This was definitely a top anchorage. We had take 28 hours to make the 47 mile upwind sail. There was one other sail boat in the anchorage: "Joy of Life" from Alaska that we had seen in Bahia Los Frailes.

The cruising guide describes Ensenada de Los Muertos as a "planned resort community" with a small luxury hotel, golf course, and 5000 ft paved airstrip. When I first looked at the hotel through binoculars I thought that it was a mosque then I remembered the strong moorish flavor of traditional Spanish architecture. There were dozens of luxury houses along the hills.

According to the cruising guide there is also El Cardon Tequila Bar & Grill which serves beverages and "a variety of Mexican and American dishes." The restaurant also has wireless internet which may give us an opportunity to post some photos on this blog

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