Yesterday started calm and worked itself up from there. The morning was almost calm and we were subject to the land and sea breezes that develop during the day.

I swam to shore on Monday afternoon. It is really one of the first times I have actually swum in the Sea of Cortez. The water was at just over 70 degrees so it was still quite chilly. I had to keep moving to stave off the chill. Once I made shore, I walked the sandy/rocky beach and warmed back up. Tracy jumped into Puff(always the smart girl--why swim in cold water when you can boat?) and came ashore with a life preserver and line. We tied the line to the life preserver and I snapped it around my body. Tracy powered up Dragon and off we went dragging me behind Puff. I became a roving submarine scanning the sandy floor looking at all the fish and shells. I had used my mask and fins to get ashore so I had them to use as I was getting dragged around our little cove. It was lots of fun to see everything and not having to work at it by swimming.

Back to yesterday. With it being so calm on Monday night, we had left the tarps up to cover Zephyr. Tuesday was forecast for "land and sea breezes". It means that where we were, when the land heats, it draws air off the water and creates a Southwest breeze toward the shore. As the heat of the Sun gets less during the evening, the air and wind reverse and it goes away from the land making a Northeast wind. No "real" wind was forecast. By 1300, the wind was just beginning to pick up and come out of the West to Northwest with some out of the Southwest just for fun. By 1400, we were up to about 15-18 knots straight into the cove. That put Zephyr on a lee shore--the shoreline was behind us and if the anchor dragged, we could end up on shore--NOT where we wanted to be. So down came the tarps and we stowed stuff on deck and below deck and got ready to sail back to Bahia San Pedro since the winds would push us right along. By 1500, the motor was started, the anchor pulled up and off we went out of the Las Cocinas. The swell of waves was running at just over two feet with the occasional three footer thrown in for fun. Once out of the cove, we rolled out the Genoa and pointed Zephyr Southeast toward Bahia San Pedro. If you have been following our blog for a while, you know what happens next. That's right, the winds started to die!!! We rolled in the Genoa and put up the Main sail and then rolled out the Genoa again. We have to roll in the Genoa so we can bring Zephyrs bow into the wind to raise the mainsail. It's really tough(darn near impossible) to raise the sail any other way than that. Once the mainsail is up, out rolled the Genoa again and off we went down wind blazing along at a whole 2 knots!!! WOW!!! After 30 minutes, we knew we wouldn't get to Bahia San Pedro till long after sunset. So with the wind dying around us, we rolled in the Genoa again, moved the main to midships and started the engine. Off we went at a decent 6 knots toward San Pedro. At least now we would be there by 1800. As we neared San Pedro(right out side the cove) the wind started to pick up(go figure huh?) and by the time we rounded the North point of the cove, we were back in 15 knot winds!! Mother Nature is so the practical joker. We found another sail boat at anchor, near to where we had first anchored when we got here a few days ago. We dropped our anchor near to where we had moved to the first time at 28 03.405N 111 14.763W. With the wind blowing, it pushed Zephyr backwards and quickly set the anchor nice and tight. We were in for the night. One of the guys on the other boat(a Hunter 40 we think) watched us as we went about setting Zephyr up for being at anchor. I put on the anchor snubber(a long line that attaches to the anchor chain and a cleat on deck to take the stress off the windlass) and let out about 20 feet of line. There was no snubber on the Hunter(yeah, we spied on his boat too). They just had the chain to his anchor dangling off the bow of his boat. We put sail ties around the mainsail to keep it nice and tight to the boom so it doesn't blow around on deck. His main rolls into his mast for storage. Nice feature until it jams and you can't get your sail in(in an emergency) or out when you are ready to sail. We do it the old fashioned way. It stows on the boom and is ready for raising when we want it too. It take a bit more work but nothing can go wrong. Once the sail was tied down, we were set for the night.

When we listened to the morning net on our SSB, we had learned that the space station with the shuttle attached was to "fly" down the Sea of Cortez shortly after sundown so we made sure to be on deck to see the show. Sure enough at about 1950, along she came out of the Northwest heading Southeast like a slow arrow. When you are out here, you'll take about anything for entertainment. We even stopped dinner so we could be outside to watch it. There was supposed to be a "flash" for one of the Iridium satellites as it changed it mirrors alignment shortly after the space station went by, but we never saw it. Oh well.

The winds continued till the middle of the night when they finally died down. It came back this morning by 0800 and are still blowing nicely. The DuoGen is spinning nicely on the stern. The other sailboat left at 0600 and headed North around the point right into the wind. Don't have a clue where they are going but they will be fighting the wind the entire way there. There are three panga fishing boats on shore with them going in and out during the day. One stoped by an hour ago and offered to sell us some lobsters. We are trying to get rid of what we have on board in our stores so the last thing we needed was more food. Today, maybe more swimming in the afternoon. We will see what happens as the day progresses.