Leg 6: Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas

The "Baja bash" is what sailors call the upwind slog from Cabo to Ensenada — notorious, uncomfortable, to be avoided if possible. We did it the right direction.

We left Ensenada on November 23rd with a NW forecast and didn't look at land again for a week. The Baja Pacific coast is one of the emptiest stretches of coastline in North America — no ports of refuge for 400 miles below Ensenada, just desert cliffs and open ocean. You go offshore and you stay offshore.

The swell was 5–8 ft from the NW the whole run, and the wind stayed in the northwest quarter. We surfed. The boat hit 9.7 knots on a wave off Punta Eugenia — the trip's top speed, still stands. Bahía Magdalena came and went as a smudge on the radar; we decided to skip it and push for Cabo. Cabo San Lucas materialized in the dark on November 30th, the arch just visible at the tip of Baja.

Top speed: 9.7 kts (trip record) off Punta Eugenia · Best 24h: 156 nm

Distance: ~700 nm · Time underway: 7 days