MAGICAL MAG BAY

Sailing down the coast between Bahia Santa Maria and Bahia Magdalena was a joy. Running under the main and genoa in a comfortable swell, we caught our first Bonito shortly after departing Santa Maria, followed over the next 45 minutes by another six; all released as “not big enough” as, frankly, we’d become fussy thanks to the Bonito bounty we’d experienced down the Baja California coast. Just an hour after our first catch we landed our seventh, sufficiently large Bonito, and with dinner secured put the lines away. That freed us up for wildlife watching, luckily, as not long after the fishing lines were stowed we had dolphins leaping by to starboard, immediately followed by a Grey Whale about 200 feet away, also to starboard, then another couple of Grey Whales passing us on their way northward to port.

Not much later we were sailing into Mag Bay at last, making slow progress in lumpy waters with a strong ebb tide set against the wind. At just a couple of knots over ground we had a lot of time to look around the entrance to the bay, and immediately started seeing whale activity. A lot of whale activity. Over the next half hour, we conservatively estimated we must have seen at least 50 whales with spouts, breaches, flukes and fin-waving all around us, some so close we could see the individual barnacles on them. It was quite the welcome! As we left the whales behind us, we had a nice close-hauled sail northward towards the channel entrance leading to Puerto San Carlos, but with the sun getting low and not wanting to enter the channel in poor light we decided to drop anchor at Puerto Magdalena, a small town at the northwest corner of the bay. This was to become our home base for the next 3 weeks.

After a quiet night on the hook, we called the Harbor Master in Puerto San Lucas to ask about checking in. We were surprised when he advised that we should not go up the channel to the port but catch a panga from Puerto Magdalena. Thus informed, we went ashore to explore Puerto Magdalena – a modest fishing village by the beach with a couple of restaurants and a small tienda (store). We had lunch and cervezas at one of the restaurants (we were to come to know them both well) where we met the local schoolteacher who connected us with Augustine, a fisherman who agreed to take us to Puerto San Carlos the next day. We stopped at the second restaurant too, thinking to spread the word about the dinghy. We met a couple of the local charter guides including Juan, who was to become a friend and great help to us over the rest of our stay. Everyone was concerned to hear of the theft of our dinghy and said they’d put the word out. We emphasized we’d provide a “no questions asked” reward for its return. Despite the loss of the dinghy, we’ve loved meeting the locals in Mexico so far; they’ve invariably been friendly, kind, and helpful – and patient with our efforts to speak Spanish.

Augustine picked us up at 8am the next morning for the hour-long ride up to Puerto San Carlos. It was a fun, hair-streaming ride at over 20 knots, with a bonus seeing a couple of whales just outside the channel entrance. Arriving at San Carlos and viewing the anchorage, we were glad to be based at Puerto Magdalena; Puerto Sa Carlos is an industrial waterfront focused on the port and pier, with an open, windswept anchorage in narrow channels that did not appeal to us at all. We were dropped off at the beach and made our way into town and to the municipal police station. What followed was comedic, mostly entertaining, and somewhat tested our patience. The young female officer at the desk phoned her superior who was out of the office, and a little later a 4WD patrol vehicle pulled up; we were soon explaining our loss to four officers using our limited Spanish, a few words of English, and quite a bit of Google Translate. They were quick to realize we needed a police report for our insurers and assured us they’d look around for the dinghy. We had a laughable interaction getting our full names written down in the right boxes on the form, signed them based on our Google translation, and, after contributing a small amount of cash “to buy poor locals a meal” (we know what that meant), accepted a ride to the municipal attorney’s office to submit paperwork so that we could get the dinghy back if it was found. They were out for lunch, so after having lunch ourselves we returned, submitted the forms and were done – in all of about 5 hours. We bought some groceries and made our way back to Augustine’s panga for the return ride to Tino Pai.

Needing to wait for any news of Pudge from the police or the reward offered locally, over the next week we explored the local area by land and sea. With the loss of the dinghy, we were limited in range to our paddleboards, paddling ashore to follow trails up to the hilltop cross overlooking the town and bay, explore the coast northward towards the mangroves, and wander through a dry wash over the peninsula to the Pacific coast. All of the hikes offered magnificent views, with the ubiquitous local whales swimming by. We also paddled our boards across the bay to the mangroves, where we admired the many fish and bird species living in and around the dense plants. After each excursion we’d reward ourselves with cheap tacos, tostadas and cervezas at one of the restaurants.

Possibly the highlight of our stay was a trip with Juan out to watch the grey whales we’d seen when sailing into Mag Bay. After a 45-minute ride in his panga we arrived at the bay entrance, and there they were. We watched them swimming around for a while, including some energetic mating activity, when we were approached by an adolescent whale who spent several minutes rubbing itself against the panga and getting petted by us. It seemed to particularly like having its barnacles scratched! We agreed that the whale felt pretty much as we’d expect, with cool, rubbery skin. Mag Bay is one of the few places in the world where whales initiate interactions with humans, it was a truly amazing experience. Continuing to watch the whales among the small fleet of pangas, we were again lucky enough to be approached by another whale, this time Andy nearly lost his cap when the whale spouted – a damp and hilarious moment.

As the fortnight mark in Mag Bay approached we realized that Pudge was truly lost to us, and we submitted our insurance claim and arranged for a replacement inflatable dinghy and outboard to be shipped down from the States. They’d take a couple of weeks to arrive; our friends Rick and Rich had kindly offered to receive these for us in Cabo San Lucas, so we had a timeframe for our next move down the coast. By now it was early March and, as the whales started to move northward on their annual migration to Alaska, we too were feeling ready to move on.

First though, we welcomed the arrival of Jim and Stephanie on Cynthia Anne, having had their own adventurous voyage down from Ensenada. We enjoyed catching up with them for a few days, including another trip out to watch the whales, and made plans to head south together to Cabo San Lucas, our final leg down the west coast of Baja to Los Cabos and then, at last, the Sea of Cortez!