Cabo Los Frailes is our first real anchorage without the Baja Ha-Ha fleet, although we are sharing the anchorage with about 25 other Ha-Ha boats. The weather report is predicting a "Norther" in the Sea of Cortez with 20 knot winds between us and La Paz so Greg decides we'll just sit it out here until it ends on Sunday. The journey to our next anchorage is 47 miles and we do not want to have to beat into the wind for that distance. Otter doesn't do well nose to the wind. Too slow. I don't mind staying a couple extra days as this is a beautiful anchorage.

The beach runs about 4 miles from the Los Frailes cape back to the west. There is a small ridge along the back side of the beach on the east then an open valley in the middle and more ridges to the west with a few very nice houses spread out and a small hotel complex at the west end. In the middle of the beach is a fishing camp with a couple dozen pangas. The guide book tells us there is a RV camping area behind the fishing camp. Back behind all of this are mountains running along the west side of the valley. Everything is green which I didn't expect. I guess this is the end of the wet season and maybe by spring everything will be brown but for right now, everything is a lovely shade of green.

Greg and I get the outboard mounted on dinghy and away the three of us go to the beach for our first "surf landing". Because there is hardly any surf on this beach (today anyway), the landing goes smoothly. It's when we are leaving the beach that we have a couple problems. We didn't coordinate very well and we got some water in the dinghy and we all got a little wet. Good thing we had our cameras in dry bags. Anyway, we explored the beach looking for shells and walking barefoot in the water. Ummm.......We also walk back and up on the ridge to see what is behind. Actually the guys climbed up on the ridge and I waited below to see if there was anything worth climbing to see. There wasn't, just more ridges. We notice cow and horse manure in the ravine we walked in. There is a ranch a little farther back from the beach and the animals must wander down here on occasion. (The next day I saw a mare and her foal walking along the bluff eating.) Even though it is morning, it is already getting hot and we are soon ready to go back to the boat.

The sailboat Althea arrived the second day we were here. Shawn was sharing the same slip with us in Cabo. He comes over in his dinghy to visit. We had stopped by Red Sky to visit on our way to the beach, but have not really gotten to know any of the other Ha-Ha boats that are here. On Friday Shawn comes over again and takes Greg to the beach with him as he heard on the radio there was a truck selling produce and groceries at the fishing camp. The truck was gone by the time they got there but Greg did buy some fish from a panga for our dinner. Two red fish that we have no idea what they are but they tasted pretty good.

Saturday we were boarded by a park ranger who thank goodness speaks English quite well. He wanted to collect park fees of 50 pesos per person per day but was so apologetic about it I wasn't sure he would collect the money or not. I hadn't realized this side of the cape was also a national marine park. That is why there have been improvements made on the beach. The only living hard-coral reef system in the Sea of Cortez and only 1 of 3 such reefs in North America is located on the other side of Los Frailes rock. It is a very popular dive area and is protected by the Mexican government.

The north winds are subsiding so we are planning on leaving for Muertos Cove at 6 am Sunday morning. We have not been off the boat the last 2 days so even though this is a beautiful anchorage, I am ready to move on.