After the Full Moon Party we left La Mona early the next morning and went to the village at Bahia de Los Angeles. We walked to the local tienda and bought veggies and a few other items, picked up a jerry jug of gasoline for our dinghy and left at about 2pm. Others decided to stay in town for the night, go out to dinner etc but we had been watching the weather and knew that a southerly was setting up to blow and we wanted to ride it up about 40 miles to Puerto Refugio. We've heard that Puerto Refugio is 'a magic spot' and we wanted to have plenty of time to spend there. Right now there are no hurricane threats keeping us around the safety of Puerto Don Juan and the next cruiser's party isn't for at least two more weeks...it's time to move north again. The first night out we anchored next to Isla Mitlan at the base of a huge volcano. We sat on the boat looking up at the absolutely treacherous trail leading to the top. No Way Jose. This morning there was no wind so we left Isla Mitlan under motor and rode the incoming current for several hours. You have to pay attention to tides in this area. Back down by La Paz for example, a big tidal range would be 2-3 feet. Up here right now we have 2-3 meters. Further north there are 20 foot tides so you have to be careful where you drop the hook or your boat might end up laid sideways on the ground when the tide goes out--that would be bad :) Also, with these bigger tides you want to be going in the direction of the tide, not against it. So, going with the tide and with a southeasterly wind of 15-17 knots forecast - we're on our way. We motored in very little wind for 3 hours and then at 11:30 the wind veared from a northerly direction to the forecasted southeasterly direction. And it started to build. We turned off the motor and we're sailing on a broad reach at about 6 knots with maybe 18 knots from behind. And the wind keeps on building. Now we're moving along at about 8 knots with 20-25 from behind. I tell Don I think we should reef. He says...no need...we're under control. The seas are now building and we've got 4-6 swells and they're getting steeper. I look at the speedo...we're moving along at 9.6 knots! That's the fastest I think we've ever seen in this boat. Finally I insist. Let's reef now! We roll in the headsail and turn into the wind so we can reduce the size of the mainsail. As we turn into the wind and face the seas...we see the true force of the seas we are in - 40 knots! The highest reading I saw was 46! That's alot of wind - maybe the most we've ever seen. We double reef the main and turn back towards where we need to go. We've only got about 5 miles left thank god. There's an inlet between two islands that lets you take a short cut into Puerto Refugio. We decide not to take the short cut and continue around the top end of Isla Meija to find some relief from the big winds and seas. As we turn to the right around the island instead of seeing fading southeasterlies we face a northerly wind of about 20 knots so.....we tack...weird. Well - it was quite a ride. We made it to Puerto Refugio in one piece. Buena Vista did great. Don and I know we have the skills to survive those sorts of conditions. We did, however, have a pretty stiff cocktail or two once the hook was down.