Hard to believe we are as far South as we’re gonna be for a while now. It has been a long journey, and now we start to sail East, then North. Bloom has grown accustomed to the wind at her stern and following seas. These next legs will prove to be different.
Ruby, enjoying the sunny journey
We left mid-morning to make the short hop over to San Jose Del Cabo to the Los Cabos Marina. We made reservations ahead of time, so we had a slip reserved for us and there is nowhere to anchor in Los Cabos. The marina staff were friendly and helpful, grabbing our lines when we pulled in and driving us in their golf cart to the marina office to check in. (The marina office is located on the opposite site of the guest dock) Los Cabos Marina is a gorgeous and very spacious marina, mostly full of mega yachts that are constantly being polished. Rates are reasonable (at least, compared to Cabo San Lucas) and we were charged $50 USD a night to tie up. This does not give you access to power or potable water, however. We had to rely on our solar panels and bought a couple of jugs of potable water from the store across the street. (90 pesos per 5 gallon jug and you get 70 pesos back when you return the jug). You do get access to their showers, which was wonderful- great facilities and very clean. If you have laundry though- you have to drop it off at the office and they bring it back to you to pick up the next day. Not super convenient, so we opted out and I did a small load by hand and hung everything on the lifelines to dry.
San Jose Del Cabo’s Marina (Los Cabos Marina)
Within walking distance, there are several little restaurants and some small shops. We were able to pick up a few staples like avocados, tortillas, limes, etc. before heading out to Los Frailes. We also went twice to the restaurant across the street called ‘Chip’s’. The couple who owned it were very sweet and the food was great. Highly recommend! A fantastic beach on the West side (where you see ‘Sculpture Garden’ on the map above. Beautiful, long beach with white sand and an estuary in behind as well.
We also walked into the historic downtown one day, which is about a 40-45 minute walk from the guest dock. If you don’t want to walk that far, you can take a cab from the marina office, but it is a bit pricey- $20 USD. We explored the town and eventually walked to Walmart to get some groceries before hopping in a cab back to the marina (these ones you are able to negotiate a bit, so we took the cab for $15 USD) San Jose del Cabo is a booming little town. Very cool history and architecture, and is full of tourists who visit from the neighboring town of Cabo San Lucas.
Historic part of downtown San Jose Del Cabo
After three nights here, we were ready to start heading North and very excited that our next stop would be Los Frailes (pronounced FRY-LACE). Los Frailes boasts the only living hard coral reef in the Sea of Cortez and is supposed to be a snorkeler’s paradise. It was about 30 nautical miles from Los Cabos to Los Frailes, which was an easy day sail, although we didn’t get enough wind to do anything more than motor sail. When we got to Frailes, we inflated the paddle board and kayak for some adventuring on shore the following day. We had fantastic weather and there were fish swimming under the boat! We spent the day paddling around and Carson discovered that he liked using the boogie board as a kick board. We relaxed and explored and had an awesome time! We touched base with a friend of ours up in Port Angeles via our Delorme InReach to tell him we planned to stay in Frailes a few days and then would push north to the next stop. He is very well versed in weather and advised us that if it was him, he’d leave that night and night sail up to the next anchorage (Ensenada de Los Muertos) because if we didn’t leave, the weather coming in would surely leave us stranded in Frailes- a place with no restaurant, no wifi, no cell connectivity and no groceries. No bueno.
So, as reluctant as we all were to stop our fun in Frailes, we started packing everyone up and squeezed in a quick snorkeling journey as we really didn’t want to miss it. So glad we did as it was a plethora of gorgeous fish- some of them huge and so neat to see the hard coral as well.
As soon as the sun was getting lower in the sky, we pulled up Bloom’s anchor and headed North into the night.
Connectivity: Los Cabos Marina says that they have WiFi at each dock, although we were not able to connect to it, even with our booster. The cell reception is fantastic here, however so you can get online that way. Los Frailes has absolutely no connectivity whatsoever. No WiFi and no cell connection. We were only able to communicate via our Delorme inReach while anchored here.
