Crossing the Sea of Cortez

On November 14 we sailed out of Los Frailes anchorage, heading for Mazatlan. The weather predictions called for moderate conditions. Within a couple hours of leaving it was clear that something more was going on. Dark clouds appeared from the north, and the winds picked up to about 20 knots. We saw rain squalls approaching and dark patches of rain ahead. We tried to steer between the squalls. "Go toward the light," Claudia said. But the rain eventually caught up with us. It was a torrential. We huddled under the dodger and let the autopilot steer. As the winds picked up we were heeling so far to starboard that one of our kayaks, which was in a rack outside the starboard lifelines, was hit by a wave and jarred loose. The bow of the kayak was tethered to the boat, but the stern banged against the side, bouncing up and down in the waves. I went forward and had to lasso it like a cowboy to bring it under control. At that point, we put a second reef in the mainsail, which stabilized the boat. We went tearing along, making over 7 knots, with double-reefed sails. As the seas grew choppy, I fell off the wind to give us a better angle on the waves. I was worried for a while that we'd end up in Puerto Vallarta rather than Mazatlan. Eventually the squalls passed and the wind moderated, but we had a fast trip across the sea. We reached Mazatlan 30 hours after leaving Los Frailes. There we radioed Marina Mazatlan. They assigned us a slip and we entered the marina through a narrow channel. As with the previous overnight passages, we were pretty tired when we arrived. We didn't realize that cruising would be so rigorous, or so exhausting.

Here is a picture of the marina.