Our run from Turtle Bay to Bahia Asuncion on the 20th was our shortest so far, only about 50 miles and 9.5 hours. It reminded me of sailing along the south side of Santa Cruz Island. The seas were about 5 feet at a moderate distance and the winds for the entire day were light 5 to 7 knots from W/NW, which put the wind mostly at our stern or aft quarter. With not enough wind to fly our spinnaker we were motoring the entire day while watching the Baja Coast go by us.

While motoring there is less to do than under sail. The person on watch is watching everything, where we are going, looking for kelp and lobsters floats to avoid as well as watching the instruments and making sure the engine is running correctly. What has been interesting for me is watching what we all do when off watch. Of course we talk with each other about almost everything under the sun, but that doesn’t take the entire day. Bobbi and Terri like to reading during off watch. Bobbi will also play spider solitaire when off watch. Jay and I tend to watch the boat sail through the water. Through out the years I have been sailing, I have always enjoyed gazing out at what is ahead of us while letting my thoughts wander through most any subject. I have begun to call it “My Sailing Zen” and will write more about it in a latter post.

Dolphins! Jay shouted. One of our favorite parts of sailing is seeing the marine life that is all around us. We all looked up and saw had of us a large pod of dolphins swimming toward us. There well over 100 dolphins coming and it was a phenomenal sight to see. They were swimming fast and many of them were jumping out of the water as they were coming closer to us. They must have been chasing some food because they swam right past us and continued on their way. Usually they will come and swim along side us and in our bow wake for a while. On the cruise so far we have seen dolphins once or twice a day and have see whale about three times. The further south we go the more whale sightings we will have.