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When we realized we weren't going to have a building permit on San Juan Island by the end of December, we cancelled our plans to go there and made new plans with Peter and Meredith to go sailing. We wanted to go somewhere new; none of us had ever been to Baja, where the sailing and scenery are supposed to be wonderful. Also, it's very pristine and isolated -- no beach bars or other boats in the coves. |
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We flew to LA and then to La Paz and got there around noon. We checked out our provisioning and blew into town to see if we could pick up Meredith mix and some gin we could count on. By the time we got back, it was too late to get to a cove so we spent the night in the marina. Meredith sips her first Mexican gin -- Oso Negro. |
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Peter and Hawk tend the windlass. It usually worked. Peter figured out how to make it go the last day, when we couldn't make it wake up and we were contemplating 200 feet of chain. |
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| Hawk and Peter dress for dinner our first night out at Ensenada Grande. Such a beautiful cove! Baja is known for beautiful sunsets. We saw a lot of them! Stowaway is a 39 foot Beneteau with three cabins and two heads. We used the extra cabin to store junk and spent almost no time below. It was in the 70s, usually high 70s, every day. |  |
| The cactus plants were everywhere, so many different kinds. They looked like they were arranged by a landscaper on those beautiful pink rocks over such green green water. |  |
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We all jumped into the dinghy to explore the coves. |
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The rocks are so amazing. So is the water, and a great temperature, too. |
| And these little crabs were beautiful, too. They had blue bodies but orangey-red claws and legs. |  |
| Some shots of Stowaway. She is a good boat. |  |
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We spent a lot of that day snorkeling and sunbathing. Meredith and I sat on the beach for a couple of hours. A dive boat came and got Peter and he swam with the sea lions around the corner. There were beautiful fish to watch, too. Puffer fish, whenever we put the swim step down. |
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I swam from the beach to the boat, trying to get some exercise. The water is so clear and clean and warm. |
| Hawk starts the engine at sunset so he and I can go out and take a look at the small cruise ship that anchored out from us in the cove. And also sneak a look at which British royal might be aboard the Swan anchored in between. We were also hoping the cruise ship might sell us some Meredith mix, we couldn't get it in La Paz. We settled for Controy and brandy. Ugh. |  |
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Another unreal sunset behind Stowaway. |
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Another shot from Ensenada Grande at sunset. |
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So we got up early to go to San Francisco island (and those lobsters) and got about an hour out from Espiritu Santo and the engine died. It seemed to all of us that it had just run out of diesel, although the dial said full. We called Moorings and put the sails up in a gentle southerly that pushed us toward the island. The mechanics got to us about 4 hours later with 20 gallons of diesel. That was the problem! The gauge wasn't reading right and the didn't do the backup check on the tank before sending us out with about 3 gallons. It could have been a problem, we were lucky! |
| Hawk gets ready to anchor in front of the little island village, and we went ashore. There are about 90 people living there. But no lobster for us! We had shrimp and scallops instead. So hard! |  |
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We checked out the cactus forest on the next island, which was huge and varied and very interesting. Then we went back to the cove on San Francisco island and got a bite on the third try in a very weedy cove. |
| The cove was wide and ringed with a beautiful sandy beach, protected from all directions but the west. So, of course, a westerly sprang up in the middle of the night. Our neighbor dragged down on top of us, we didn't drag but because we were only about 100 feet off of a lee shore, Hawk did anchor watch in the cockpit until the wind shifted to a northerly. |  |
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We put all our sails up the next morning to run down to Espiritu Santo again, without realizing that a real northerly had sprung up. It was blowing a steady 20-25 with much stronger gusts, a ride that Meredith took in her life jacket down below. |
| We made it back to Ensenada Grande, which had good protection from the north and west. We did get some pretty serious gusts in there that night, though, and I noticed we were dragging at around 3 am. We all got up and re-set, putting out a lot of chain. We were fine. This picture of Hawk's bottom is at Calete Lobos, our last cove, when he tried to reach the can of barbeque lighter. This scene was pretty funny until I realized that Hawk couldn't reach the can and I had to climb in there to get it. With success! |  |
| Another sunset. Calete Lobos. |  |
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Back in La Paz, we celebrated Peter and Meredith's 21st anniversary by going out to dinner at this restaurant. A singer serenaded us with Besame mucho. It was a really really good trip. |
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