Ten miles south of Isla San Martin lies another of the many capes that protrude from the northern Baja coastline. Cabo San Quintin protects a large (roughly 4 mile by 2 mile) bay and provides a good anchorage protected from the brunt of the northwest waves.
When the swell is large enough, however, waves wrap around the tip of the cape and break off a point just past the entrance to the bay, aptly named Punta Entrada. The act of sweeping around the point dissipates a lot of the wave’s energy, but what’s left is very “clean” – just a solitary wave coming from a single direction without any cross chop. If the wind is also light so that the wave stays smooth and glassy, even small waves of this sort can be fun to surf.
Lucky for us, the wind stayed light. The waves off the point were very small, and we had a great time surfing. The water was a warm (for us) 70 degrees, and it was crystal clear – the shadow of the wave raced across the bottom just ahead of where the wave broke. Madrone floated patiently at anchor just outside the break, and her crew enjoyed the surf session with no one else in the water, or even on the beach, or even within sight.
