I am now well into the Pacific. I am heading a little further west to clear the Alijos that lie well off the Baja coast. After I clear that tomorrow morning I should be able to make a much more direct course for Isla Guadelupe and the turn to San Diego.

I was very grateful for today. I am talking happy beyond words. Why? The last three days have tried my patience and my nerves. I sat on the border of giving this thing up last night and then today came.

Three days ago I struggled to get past Cabo Falso and into the Pacific proper (at least for the direction I needed to go. I tacked out and It was taking me more to Acapulco than California. I know. On the Clipper router you usually give some northing to get out far enough to pick up the wind to head north. But this was like going backwards. I finally gave up an put on the motor until I pickup up wind going my direction.

That didn't take long and as soon as I cleared Cabo Falso I found wind taking me west. This wind built and soon I was pounding along banging into the waves. I soon had to put in a reef in the main sail and not long after I took in a bit of the jib to settle her down. This still kept us going a long at 6 knots and a motion that was not very pleasant. With the wind a confused sea had come along for the ride. Waves were coming from every angle causing the boat to buck around like a rubber duck in a bathtub with an over excited infant. Hey but I was moving and I had heard it was rough around that cape, so no problem.

The next day came along and poof nothing. I sat there in a glassy tube of water. To keep my company was the banging of the sails as the remainder to the chaotic swell kept the boat rolling. So I set about cleaning up and sleeping (all hard to do when the boat is moving around to much). But after several hours of this I was complaining. "Come on, where is that wind you predicted NOAA. You remember 10- 15 knot out of the North! You know that's what you had been putting on those weather faxes. Now come on and deliver." I complained aloud. Still no wind.

Some hours later, before night fall, The wind set in. At first it was just what was predicted 10-15 out of the north. As time went on that quickly changed. Soon It was blowing out of the North East and had quickly risen to, my guess, 30-40 knots. The seas quickly built with the wind. Since the wind was cross to the standard pattern it setup a big cross sea swell. They soon looked huge and menacing. I went from having all hatches open to having none open. I had started to take seas over the deck and did not get to some of the hatches quick enough and took a little water below. Only enough to get some stuff wet, but annoying all the same. I kept on for several hours of this, but the boat was taking a beating and so were my nerves. I was not so sure it was a good idea to keep on as the boat was getting hit pretty hard by some big waves that would hit us directly on the side. I chose to Heave to. This is all about getting the sails to counter each other causing the boat to heal slightly, create a slick and cause the wave to slide by harmlessly.

I had done this in less wind but never in conditions like these. I first tried to sheet the main in and pull the tiller over, so that the boat would crab walk along. But she would do fine for a moment and then would cross through the eye of the wind. I next tried to pull out a little jib and back wind it to the main . This worked for a moment but was letting the boat fall off to much before the main would catch, so we were picking up too munch speed before heading back into the eye of the wind. Suddenly I would look out the companion way hatch and would would be falling off on the other tack. I would have to jump out and reset. More than this the motion was still pretty rough because we were making to much headway. Finally I let out about half the jib and back winded it near the main sail and drew the main sail much harder. Suddenly all went calm or basically calm. I went below, lay down and tried to rest. I was not going to get going until that wind passed.

Around sunrise I looked out and the wind had backed down. The seas were not small, but they also were not menacing. I went about setting sail. I kept trying to set the wind vane, but we would just keep turning. Then I realized that the arm from the vane to the oar was not connected. I do not know if it just had unscrewed or had been pulled out from the crazy waves as we lay hove to, but it wasn't attached. I hove to again and set about fixing it. I was very thankful that I was able to screw it back in. Once back together and set it continued to work perfectly.

The day turned out to be a perfect day of sailing. The wind calmed down until we were gliding along at 4.5 knots with a gentle breeze blowing between 5 and 10 knots. This day made up for yesterday. Last night I was done. Heaving to was a smart move, but today was a day to be grateful for and I am very grateful for it.

I sit here now at 4:40 Pm having just dropped the hook in a good but motion filled anchorage of Los Muertos. The day for me started at 2 am. Not because it had to, but simply because I woke up and could not go back to sleep. So instead of sitting there wishing I could sleep I got up, cooked breakfast and got moving.

For all the wind the day prior, at 2 am the seas were glassy calm. With the Iron Spinnaker on I motored my way out of the anchorage and out of the La Paz area. As I turned the Scout Shoal I got my first breeze and quickly set the sails. We were off at a quick 5 knot clip. I know, you can run faster than that. Still it was good. It also lasted all of about 30 minutes. then the slat-Bang set in. We would roll, the sail would flop and then back slat-Bang! Over and over, but I wanted to sail not motor so I hung in. I caught another small breeze for about 5 minutes and then nothing. I sat there spinning around till I was facing the direction I had just come from.

After a while I noticed another sailboat coming toward me. The pressure was on. They were motoring, so I couldn't just sit there. I had to through up the Iron spinnaker again. I motored for a couple of hours until the wind set in. This time it went well and we made it to just past Punta Arena De La Ventana were once again another sailboat overtook me under power. All I could think was, "if your going to motor when you have wind. Why don't you have a power boat instead of a sailboat?" I will not have that problem. Not because I am against motoring, but from the simple fact that I can't carry that much fuel and this boat sails better than it motors.

Tomorrow it is off to Los Frailes or further. It all depends how the winds treat me.

I sit here in Marina Palmira in La Paz, completely exhausted. I have been running the check out gauntlet. First find the Port Captain. The office is located on a back street in a neighborhood. It wasn't really all that hard to find but it did set the stage for the day.

I arrived at the office and said in my horribly broken spanglish that I wanted to check out of the country. That was the first in a series of blank stares I would receive today. "Yes, I do want to check out," I would state after the look.

"Are you going to stop anywhere," they asked.

"No, not until I reach San Diego," I quipped back and then the shuffle of people would start until the one who knew what to do would be found. This was the actual port captain who quickly drew on a map all the establishments I would have to go to. First ATI, then Migarcion (immigration) and last the health department.

All went along fine until the health department. I arrived at the place the port captain had circled on the map. I received those same blank stares and then a rapid fire discussion would ensue between the people with me standing there with my own blank stare. After the conversation a man asked me to wait while he made a phone call. He came out with a different address and off I went again.

I walked through the doors of the health department, which was not more than two blocks from the port captain. A nice gentleman took me down a narrow hall lined by work stations. One of the women working in this area told us that the doctor we needed was in Mexico City and was in trouble. She asked me to wait a minute as she went to talk to another person. She came back and in broken English that made my broken Spanish seem all the worse, and told me that the doctor who could stamp my form was in a meeting and would be back in 30 minutes and that I could wait if I wanted to. 30 minutes turned into an hour, then into an hour and fifteen. This set us to 2:15 and the port captain closed at 2:30, so I ran out the door to try to see if he could stamp my form without the health department.

The Port Captain looked at the form and said that he could not put his stamp on it without first getting the health department. My time line to leave in the morning was quickly falling apart. I explained that I really needed to get going in the morning as I was running out of time and money, but he had to have that stamp. So off I went again.

I arrived at the health department and was told that the doctor would be back at 4 Pm. It was 3 PM at the time and so I asked again to confirm he would in fact be there at 4 and I was told yes. I went to get some food and quickly consumed so me overpriced food on the Malecon (prices can easily be the same as the States if you go to the tourist areas). At 3:30 I was done so off I went and thought I would just see if the doctor was back. To my happy surprise he was there and I had my stamp.

Now it is off to Port Captain's office at 8 am and then I can leave.

I do not want to say in any way that any of the staff I worked with today were not polite and professional. Everyone did there best to help me. I think that they do not do this to often, as most people check out of Cabo, but I do not want to go into that port and incur more costs. if all goes well I should be heading out by noon tomorrow.

The repairs from the damage caused by Hurrican Odile and a lacks yard have been repaired. It was a lot of stress and long days to do all the rigging and change us from a keel stepped mast to a deck stepped, but all is done. We took her out for a sea trial for four days having a good beat to windward heading out to Espirtu Santo. After spending two days there we headed out to Isla San Fransico. Wind speeds were good and we pushed her pretty hard at about 30 degrees off the wind. The next day we headed back and a southerly wind had set in so we beat back to Isla Partida. All of this wind work was good since going home to California will be all to the wind. This also gave me confidence in the rig and that she can stand up to the challenge.

Now I wait for next week and the beginning of the return home.