Puerto Los Cabos to Bahia Los Frailes (Nov 13-15, 2011)

We motored from Puerto Los Cabos to Bahia Los Frailes. Our AC battery charger was still not working and we needed to charge our batteries.   During most of the passage the wind was on our nose at 12-14 knots. We arrived at the bay at 2:00PM. Eight or nine sailboats boats were already anchored in the bay, including seven Baja Ha Ha boats and the mega yacht with the helicopter.

s/v Pearl from Olympia, WA (Bob, Sharie, Sydney, Annie, Salty (the dog)

Mega Yacht with helicopter (landing on deck).

S/V Bella Star was 10 miles behind us as we made our way to Bahia Los Frailes. After we anchored, I called Bella Star on the VHF to tell Aaron and Nichole that the bay was beautiful and the water calm hoping that they would decide to make a stop here. They thanked us for the information but continued on to La Paz, saying they’d stop here on their way back.

Weather changing, storm moving in

It was really hot that afternoon, so Cindy and I got our snorkeling gear together and jumped off the back of the boat to cool off. Alex had a cold and decided to stay on board and sleep. We were anchored in 25 feet of water and I could see our anchor chain clearly from the surface. I dove down to the bottom to see how the anchor was set and was happy to see it had dug into the sand clear up to its shackle.  While we were swimming around the boat a couple from s/v Maura’s dream paddled over to us in their kayak to chat for a while. Later, we climbed back aboard Cool Breez’n and watched the helicopter takeoff and land from the deck of the mega yacht. We lounged in the cockpit for a while, and then Cindy began to cook spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner while I wrote an update for our blog. 

During the evening the clouds continued to thicken and the winds picked up. Before going to bed I took the precaution of putting the wheel back on the binnacle and putting the key in the ignition in anticipation of heavy winds and rain that were forecast. At eleven o’clock I got out of bed and brought my pillow and blanket up to the cockpit to try to sleep. It was too humid and hot in the v-berth. I just began to doze off around mid-night when the much anticipated rains began. Within an hour it was raining so hard I couldn’t remain in the cockpit without getting soaked and the winds had increased to 20 knots. Cindy woke about the same time I did and started to close the ports and hatches to keep the rain out. She told me I was getting wet and should get below.  I tried to get back to sleep but couldn’t. I woke up and sat in the cockpit for a while to see if the anchor was beginning to drag.  The boat closest to us appeared like it had drifted closer to us but after a while I convinced myself that it had not and went back to bed.

In the morning I woke by 7am, tired but still could not sleep any longer. I wanted to see if the rains would turn the desert green. It took about a day for green to begin to appear and by the second day Cindy said the mountains looked like they were covered in “green velvet”.  We noticed that the mega yacht sailed south and a few sailboats had left heading north to Ensenada Los Muertos or La Paz: six sailboats including ours remained.  

As the morning wore on we pumped up the dingy to see the fish camp and go snorkeling. We felt like we were really getting into the part of the Sea of Cortez that we dreamed about: warm temperatures; clear blue water; white sand beaches; and very little development.  Another wonderful day in the tropics!

La Playa

One of the many fish camps along the coast

Rugged mountains and wide, empty beaches are a common sight

The night before leaving Bahia De Los Frailes (Bay of the Friars) we had pork chops, cuscus and cactus for dinner. After eating Alex worked on his algebra homework while Cindy and I had a glass of wine. Later that evening I heard a dull thump against the hull and grabbed a flash light to investigate. I couldn't see anything that might have made that mysterious sound but I did see several bright blue trumpet fish swimming at the surface. As I looked deeper into the water the light revealed bigger fish swimming below. One fish was about a foot long with large bright, luminous eyes that looked like the headlights of a car.  I called Alex on deck to show him all the fish around the boat. He and I spent the next half hour searching the water for denizens of the deep.  After a while I got tired and went to join Cindy in bed: Alex remained on deck. When Alex came to bed he thanked me for showing him the fish. It was a good evening and one that we’ll remember for a long time.

Cabo San Lucas to Puerto Los Cabos (Nov. 12, 2011)

We left Cabo San Lucas at 9:00AM on Sunday with the intention of cruising to Bahia Los Frailes but soon realized we left too late to make our destination while it was still light. We decided to stop at the new marina at Puerto Los Cabos at 12:30PM. Last April, on our exploratory trip to the Baja, we drove past this marina on our way to the airport but didn’t have time to look it over. As we guide our sailboat past the jetties at the mouth of the entrance, a Mexican Navy boat passed us as it headed into the marina at high speed. It was a modern military style patrol boat and not the usual modified fishing boat or panga. Alex told me not to turn too close, he thought it was really cool.

We counted 9 sailboats in the marina, 7 flew the Baja Ha Ha pennant from their spreaders, including s/v Deep Playa and Maura’s Dream. Deep Playa is from J-dock at Shilshole Bay Marina in Seattle and are friends of Aaron and Nichole (s/v Bella Star). We had to stop at the fuel dock while the harbor master assigned us a slip. A very large yacht was tied up ahead of us: it had a helicopter on the upper deck and some kind of speed boat sticking out of the stern and a twenty foot fishing boat with 3-outboard engines tied up to its side. It’s amazing that people have that much money to spend on their toys. We were assigned a space on the end of L-dock in the heart of the marina. Another sailboat was already tied up but there was there was plenty of room for us too.

Construction was not finished on the marina: the road was unpaved around half the marina; the bath houses were not built, temporary trailers were used for bathrooms and showers. The landscaping that was completed was beautiful and displayed art work of a famous female Mexican artist of the early twentieth century, but I’m sorry to say I don’t remember her name. There was a bar that served tacos and nachos next to the office and a store that sold dolphin souvenirs. Some of the piers were arranged to hold penned in dolphins, and a company was charging tourists to swim with the dolphins. We thought that was horrible for the dolphins and were very sad to see that practiced here. Cindy and I had a few beers after checking in while Alex worked on his homework.

That evening I made cheese burgers and beans for supper and we went to bed early so we could get an early start the next morning. In the morning Cindy noticed that the mega yacht with the helicopter had already left.

   

Cool Breez'n Sailing Under Spinnaker and Main on the Pacific

Cool Breez'n sailing a spinnaker off the Pacific  coast of Baja California.

Another view
Photos curtesy of s/v Camanoe. Thanks Stephanie !

Escape from Cabo (Nov 3-12, 2011)

As we approached the southern most tip of the Baja Penninsular we saw the rock pillars and arches that are recognizable around the world as the icons of Cabo San Lucas.

Arch at "lands end" the southern most part of Baja California

 Rounding the point we were suddenly in the mist of a different world: cruise ships; jet skis; para sailing boats; glass bottom boat rides; beaches lined with hotels and crowds of people with the busy resort town behind. As different from the Mexico that we had been travelling as you could imagine. The only constant elements were the arid climate; friendly Mexican people and deep blue sea. We motored past the harbor entrance and closer to the shore where the Baja Ha Ha boats were anchoring. The Ha Ha organizers were assigning slips in the marina according to the order that boats sighed up for the Ha Ha. We were #104, and had little chance to be assigned a slip in the Los cabos Marina. As we prepared to anchor we heard that a slip might be available in a smaller marina that the Ha Ha organizers were not assigning slips in. I quickly called the marina on channel 88A, and reserved a slip. We wouldn't have to stay on the hook while we were in Cabo.

Time went quickly while we were in Cabo, but we never felt really relaxed here. Too much noise, congestion, and activity.   

Baja Ha Ha Party at El Squid Row

After 7 days we finally left Cabo San Lucas. We were obliged to stay longer than we wanted to complete repairs and wait for delivery of detailed Garmin Mexico chart data from West Marine International. Not all went according to plan. The autopilot was still broken when we left Cabo San Lucas and we had to cancel our order for Mexican chart data because West Marine couldn't ship it in time. But we refused to stay any longer in Cabo!

When we first arrived at Cabo San Lucas we stayed two nights in a marina that was next to a small Mexican Navy base. We rented a large slip for $240 dollars a night, then had to find one or two other boats to share the slip and cost. Luckily, we were able to find other boats to share the cost both nights. On the second night, Larry and Nelda on s/v Diamond Girl took us up on our offer to share our slip, and they were kind enough to give us 40 gallons of drinking water that they made using their reverse osmosis water maker.

One of the best deals we found in Cabo was laundry. We dropped off a large garbage bag full of dirty laundry at the marina office and the next morning picked up our laundry; cleaned, dried and folded for only $20. Water taxis were also readily available and cheap. We were able to go to town and the beaches by hailing a water taxis from the fuel dock for only $2 each. On our second day in Cabo we attended the last Baja Ha Ha party on the beach at Cabo. It was fun talking to the other Baja Ha Ha sailors while drinking many cool Pacifico cervezas and eating pork tacos, beans and rice.

Cabo was fun while the Baja Ha fleet was docked in the marina with us but it got old really fast after they left. Music from the night clubs surrounding the marina blasted us from 11PM until 4AM, then at 5AM the guys working on the sport fishing boats started working, and of course they couldn't work without loud music and constant yelling half way across the marina. That gave us about 1 hour of peace and quiet every night. You could imagine how quickly we tired of that! After the boats returned from a successful fishing trip, they'd clean the fish and throw away the carcasses into the water next to their boat. If we were lucky the sea lions and pelicans would eat the carcasses right away; if not a carcass would remain floating too long and it would begin to rot in the sun and warm water, making a very unpleasant odor. Luckily, the sea lions and pelicans didn’t miss too many scraps.

We enjoyed watching the sea lions play with their food and dog the fisherman for scraps. When a sea lion had a large carcass in his mouth he would swim in to the middle of the fairway and swing the carcass over his head out of the water. Sometimes he would throw it across the water, only to attack it again. Pelicans were ever present during this sea lion eating frenzy, ready to grab any scraps that were torn from the carcass as it flew through the air. Pelicans didn’t always wait for scraps of food though; often they would climb onto the stern of the fishing boat and beg for fish. On one boat we saw several pelicans steal bait fish from the live well while the fisherman was looking the other way. When I tried to photograph this covert activity, they stopped what they were doing and acted like innocent creatures.      

Pelicans moving in on a fishing boat that just returned from sea.

Pelicans sitting above live bait well, waiting for a chance to grab a mackrel.

In the inner harbor of Cabo San Lucas, vendors of all sorts line the plazas surrounding the docks, pestering tourists constantly: selling Cuban cigars, silver, massages, whistles, dolls, hats, ponchos, pottery and other trinkets. Alex said that the silver vendors also tried to sell him drugs. In fact, there was a shootout in Cabo a week before we arrived after the Navy arrested a drug dealer and in retaliation the drug dealers assassinated the Chief of Police. Then the Navy sent the Marines to capture the heavily armed drug dealers and a shootout ensued. One soldier and one drug dealer were killed. The news reported that Cabo was locked down for a while after the gunfire. I am happy to say that we were not there at the time, we only read about it.

Daytime temperatures of 95 degrees were typical for early November and many nights were hot with little wind. Nether Cindy or I wanted to cook, so we ate out every night. While the restaurants weren't extravagantly expensive we paid at least $65 for dinner for the three of us: Margaritas and cervezas included. Alex liked the restaurants in Cabo because they served him cerveza without asking for proof of age. In fact all of Mexico is like that. He's not going to like the return of "blue laws" when we return to Seattle. We had enchiladas, tacos, fajitas, and a kind of Mexican stew that was very good. We also tried a cactus salad and found it to be “muy bueno”.

Cabo is a good place to provision cruising boats with food, beverages and other essentials. We refilled our larder for the next half of our voyage. We found Costco, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot nearby to the marina and taxis were easy to find for the trip to and from the stores. Unfortunately, marine supplies are very limited and what they have is almost exclusively for sport fishing boats and not for sailboats.

While in Cabo I continued to work on our autopilot. Cindy and Alex decided to skip this activity; instead they took a water taxi to the arches to go snorkeling. I remained aboard and managed to get the hydraulic part of the autopilot working by adding 3 cups of hydraulic fluid to the unit and bleeding the air out of the system. It appeared to work fine when I tested it out of the boat, but the motor and solenoid heated up more than I thought normal when I connected it to 12 volts of current. After I installed the unit back in the boat and switching it on, the autopilot reported a different error on the display: "trip". The auto pilot computer detected higher amperage draw then was normal. By isolating the motor and solenoid, I discovered that the motor was the culprit. Now I'd have to wait until we get to La Paz before I could find a shop to rebuild the motor. By this time I was dripping in sweat, filthy and very disappointed.

Craig adding hydraulic fluid to autopilot.

At this point I thought I fixed it...later I learned differently.

Cindy and Alex returned to the boat about this time, refreshed from their snorkeling adventure. While I dripped sweat they told me about the clear and warm water, and the many colorful fish they saw while snorkeling. Cindy told me about an underwater statue that she saw and Alex added, “mom thought it was a scuba diver at first”…”she didn’t notice that there were no bubbles coming from his mouth”. I was envious and ready to dive into a cold beer at that point.

While my attention was focused on the autopilot, the AC Battery Charger decided to stop working. Luckily, we had a good alternator and solar panels so we really didn't need to charge the boat at the docks. I called the manufacturer to ask how to troubleshoot the charger, and they gave me some useful ideas: check wiring to batteries and check the 30 amp breaker on the charger. If the breaker wasn't working I could by-pass it or replace it with an external breaker. That fun activity will have to wait until we get to La Paz. Someone once told me that the definition of cursing was "working on your boat in exotic locations". I'm finding that to be very true.

Before leaving our family voted 2:1 to go to a hotel for a one night break from the boat (mine was the only dissenting vote). So with reservations in hand, we hailed a land taxi and headed for the Sheraton Hotel east of town. That afternoon we sat by the pool, swam, soaked in the hot tub and drank cervezas and ate nachos. Later, we showered and enjoyed dinner in our air conditioned room while watching a movie. In the morning we each took another shower (that was the biggest luxury!) and ate a leisurely breakfast while studying the navigation charts and the route to the next anchorage at Bahia Frailes.

When we returned from the hotel, we took another taxi to Wal-Mart for last minute provisions and filled the boat with 40 more gallons of water. The following morning we fueled up and took off for Bahia Frailes. Fueling the boat took longer than we expected so we didn’t get away from the dock early enough to make our destination, so we stopped 15 nm up the coast at Puerto Los Cabos marina for the night. From there it would be only 30 nm trip to Bahia Frailes

Last night at Cabo San Lucas

Bahia Santa Maria (Oct 31 to Nov 2)

Leaving Turtle Bay for Bahia San Maria

The voyage from Turtle Bay to Bahia Santa Maria was about 250 nm and took 3-days and two nights. The wind was light for much of this passage so we motored about two-thirds of the way. During this passage the VHF was lively with many Ha Ha boats reporting “fish on”; “landed dorado”; “5-foot wahoo caught”; “3 tuna on boat”; “boat looks like a butcher shop after cleaning all this fish”; and  “anyone wanting fish should come alongside our position is …”. This was the leg of our journey that Alex landed the 46” Dorado. One boat reported catching 3-tuna, 1-dorado, 1-wahoo, and several jacks and finally reported seeing a sea turtle. I called them back on the VHF radio to ask if they lost their way and were sailing in an aquarium!

Bahia Santa Maria

Eco-tourist hut on Bahia Santa Maria

Baja Ha Ha tenders line the beach during our beach party

Bahia Santa Maria is a very large bay with a very small fishing camp that maintains a primitive eco-tourist camp that consists of two very rustic cabins. Its very poorly maintained and not for the faint of heart tourist. The locals live in palapas (thatch roof dwellings) in the mangroves about a mile away. A shallow estuary and dry river bed lead from the shore to their tiny settlement. As soon as we arrived we inflated the dinky and put it over the side so Cindy and Alex could go for a walk; I was meeting “Doctor Electron” later so I couldn’t join them. Fisherman used their pongas here as water taxis just like they did in Turtle Bay, but we wanted the freedom to come and go as we pleased, so we inflated our own dinky.   The surf made landing the inflatable tricky: getting flipped over was a real possibility. I caught a wave as I drove the dinky in to shore and we all scrambled up the beach carrying the dinky with us so it wouldn’t get swamped by the next wave.  After dropping Alex and Cindy off I turned the dinky around and pushed it off into deeper water; jumping in at the last moment.  I thought I timed the waves correctly and started rowing out. As I turned to look over my shoulder I saw a 3-foot breaker about to break on the bow of the dinky. I pulled hard on the oars and the dinky drove right through the curling wave. The wave sent a cascade of water over my head and shoulders and the dinky got about 10 gallons of water in it but we made it past the worst part. I felt like a commando heading out on a mission. Of course Cindy and Alex saw the whole thing too. Alex said, “good thing dad is big enough to get away with that”.

La Playa  (the beach)

  

We arrived at Bahia Santa Maria on Halloween Day, and the dozen or so kids that live in the fish camp know well it was Halloween. The first children that we saw running up to us as we landed the inflatable asked us for candy. We felt bad that we had forgotten the holiday and had no candy to offer. The children offered to help us carry the inflatable back into the water, and after doing so we gave them each a $1 USD. Word soon got out and more children gathered around offering to help us in exchange for U.S. dollars. They laughed and giggled and then ran off to help some other sailors.

Local children playing

Cindy and Alex went for a long walk down the beach, toward the mangroves and away from the bluffs were the eco tourist camp was situated.  They returned with several beautiful shells (Murex, Conch, and Cone shells) and a skull that looked like it might have belonged to a wild boar. Later, we were told that the year before a sailboat with the Baja Ha Ha had sunk here during a storm. The wreck was somewhere behind the beach and over the sand dunes from where Cindy and Alex were collecting shells.  

I picked up “Doctor Electron” aka Allan from the boat he was crewing on and we returned to Cool Breezing to see what could be done about fixing the auto pilot. He climbed down into the engine compartment and checked the solenoid and motor while I pushed buttons on the autopilot console. His diagnosis was that the hydraulic system was probably fixed correctly. I asked him a few more questions about testing the unit and asked if we couldn’t fix it ourselves if we could fly him down to La Paz to fix it for us. He said he’d be happy to fly down. With work done for the time being, I offered a shot of rum to him for his troubles and he accepted the offer.

Big activities were planned for Bahia Santa Maria the next day. The Baja Ha Ha organizers were sponsoring another beach party. The fisherman’s wives were in charge of cooking for the 130 Baja Ha Ha boats that gathered in the bay, while the men folk took charge of serving the cerveza and running the water taxi service. A rock band from San Carlos had travelled over the rough mountain roads to this isolated bay to provide music for the fiesta. The residents of the fish camp caught the fish and did all of the shopping for food and beer, and they set the price for the food they served at $15 per person, plus $2 per beer. The band worked for tips and beer.  Everyone was happy with the arrangement. The food was good and the band was great. They know just what music these middle-aged sailors and beach party goers wanted to hear.

After everyone was working on their third or fourth beer we began to ask where were the bajos (bathrooms)? After searching around we found a small toilet building behind the camp that served this purpose. A few of the local boys decided to charge $5 for use of the bathroom, for which they would provide a bucket of water to flush the commode.  I saw one or two sailors take them up on their offer, but most refused to pay the exorbitant price and just headed to the bushes. Later, after many more cervezas were served, I saw one guy go behind a building where an old porcelain toilet was discarded and relieve himself at that convenience. I thought the sight was so comical, I lamented that I didn’t have my camera with me.

Baja Ha Ha Cruisers Partying

Most all the sailors who had not yet gone swimming did so at Bahia Santa Maria. The water was so refreshing and it was so hot on the beach. Some probably decided they could cool off and discretely relieve themselves at the same time. Sailors can be very innovative and tend to use their time as efficiently as possible.   

The Band

Alex at the party listening to music 

We had a great time at Bahia Santa Maria but it was time again to continue on our journey, so we said good bye to the friendly people at the fish camp and weighed anchor early the next morning, headed for Cabo San Lucas.  

Fishing Along the Way

Our first catch was made with the boat and not the fishing line we trailed behind the boat since leaving Seattle. When we arrived at Turtle Bay, I discovered a foot long flying fish on our decks. It must have flown onto our decks in the middle of the night as it was already stiff and dry when I found it. Too bad, it would have made a tasty breakfast.

The first fish we caught with our line was on the leg of our voyage from San Diego to Turtle Bay, it was a small Dorado about 2-feet long. The filets we cut from it provided enough meat for one good meal.  



Our second Dorado was hooked on the voyage from Turtle Bay to Cabo San Lucas. This fish measured 46-inches from tail to head, and kept us in fish tacos for many meals.  Alex claimed credit for catching this big fish as he was the one who pulled it in and gaffed it.

Cleaning big fish like this is difficult on a sailboat, fish blood and scales get everywhere. We had been using our deck wash to clean up after fileting the fish but we discovered that the deck wash hose that runs along the ceiling of our vee-berth ruptured while we were cleaning the big Dorado. Our mattress, sleeping bags and cloths stored in the locker below were all soaked.  We cleaned up the mess as best we could but had to sleep on a soggy mattress for two nights before docking in Cabo San Lucas were we could pull everything out on deck to dry it out properly. From now on we’ll be using a bucket to wash the decks!  

Turtle Bay Oct 27 to Oct 29..

The arrival of the Baja Ha Ha fleet in Turtle Bay is a big event for the villagers of this isolated town. Long before the feet arrived, cantina owners stocked up on cerveza and food for the sailors who would soon crowd into their small cantinas; fisherman scrubbed their pongas and prepared them for use as taxis to shuttle the sailors from their boats to the village and back again; the bait and tackle shop ordered extra lures and plugs for sailors intent on catching their next meal; children watched for the first signs of the fleet to arrive over the horizon. The villagers were in a festive mood.

We arrived at 3:00AM and decided to wait until daybreak to motor into the bay and anchor. While we drifted in the darkness we could see the mast lights of the sailboats that arrived earlier that day. Our plan was to first get a few hours of sleep, as we had just sailed three days and nights to get to Turtle Bay and then explore the village.  It didn’t take long for the first pongas to approach our boat inquiring “taxi?” taxi?”  We paid $2 each for the ride that left us off at the end of a tall dock with a really scary, patched together stairway that looked like it would fall apart in a minute.

The decking of the dock had the occasional man-size hole that would jettison you into the water below if you weren’t paying attention. At night it was really scary if you forgot to bring a flashlight as there was no lighting or railings on the dock. What the village lacked in infrastructure it more than made up in friendly faces and people that were eager to help you in any way they could.

It’s a mystery what drives the economy in Turtle Bay, other than fishing there doesn’t appear to be much industry. Mercados (grocery stores) and novelity stores (clothing stores) have few items for sale and lots of empty shelf space: what they have for sale is very basic. Everything in town is covered with a fine gray dust…houses, cars, fences even the dogs that you see everywhere are covered in dust.  Houses are very simple, and in need of general repair, many new buildings were started but never finished. Some houses have construction materials piled outside but work doesn’t appear to be in progress. My guess is that money that fuels the building is coming from Mexican’s working in the U.S., and it’s likely that the recession has slowed building in Turtle Bay.

The streets are all unpaved, and street lights are very rare. All us Baja Ha Ha sailors wonder through town night and day: shopping, exploring, “stretching our legs” after 3-days at sea. We see trucks carrying half a dozen teenagers in the bed drive by; groups of young people hanging out on the street corner or at the beach; Mexican Marines with M-16 pass by in opened pickup trucks too but we don’t feel uneasy or frightened.  To the best of my knowledge nobody in our fleet has had anything but good things to say about the villagers. One evening I stop to talk to a tall thin man that was making salsa at a taco and cervza (beer) stand on the beach. He looked out at all of the anchor lights in the bay and told me, “it looks so beautiful…it’s just like Christmas!” I thought, yes the boost to the economy made by our 160 sailboats was big enough to qualify as Christmas for many of the enterprising village people.

After the last sailboats of the fleet arrived at the anchorage and their crew rested we had three very special activities planned: a ball game ; a dinner at a very casual cantina; and a beach party.

The baseball game pitted us sailors against the Turtle Bay Little League. The little league team we played had won first place in their division for the entire Baja Peninsula. Of course the children defeated us quickly and with much laughter from the stands as well as the field. Much good will was generated by our defeat and the game helped the sailors and villagers get to know each other. We missed the game but heard all about it later.

After the ball game most of the sailors headed uphill toward the “large inflatable can of Pacifico Cerveza” for dinner and drinks. Yes that was essentially the directions the organizers of the event gave us, and we found it!  We scrambled up hill behind the cantina walking past fish heads that were discarded from the kitchen a few days earlier. This was the first time we met the other sailors in a setting where they all “let their hair down”, and the first time we had eaten the local food. The conversation was interesting but the food was rather plain.

The next day was the beach party and everyone was looking forward to it.  Local merchants set up a bar, and awnings. We setup chairs and volley ball nets. Everyone brought a dish for a huge pot-luck dinner. There was every kind of pasta dish that you could imagine, supplemented with fresh fish (tuna, mahi mahi, and wahoo). I’m sure we consumed more cerveze in one afternoon than the village drank in a month! A good time was had by all and then it was time to go, much sooner than we wanted to.

A few sailboats had to remain behind in Turtle Bay to fix mechanical problems that developed on the sail from San Diego. I reported earlier that our autopilot was repaired in San Diego. Unfortunately, the autopilot still did not work after installing it a day before we left San Diego, so we had to continue hand steering our boat all the way down the Baja Peninsular.