November 23
Sailing down the coast. We have 10 knots of wind most of the time, and from the aft quarter which is much better than what we have had most of the way, that is the wind dead behind which makes it difficult to get the sails to fill without them flapping due to the rolling of the boat caused by heavy swells. We had the fishing rod out the entire way but caught nothing. It is getting so much warmer, t-shirt and shorts all day and a thin cover at night. The Monitor wind-vane is working very well with the new pulleys I bought in San Diego.

November 24
A wonderful 15 plus knot breeze on the beam had Annita flying along at 7.5 knots, from 3 am in the morning onwards. How she loves a beam wind. We rounded Cabo San Lucas at the bottom of the Baja peninsular at 8 am and the wind veered in our favor so we continued reaching for another 20 miles towards San Jose del Cabo. Cabo San Lucas stretches for miles, houses heaped along the edges of cliffs, looking like they could topple into the sea at any moment. We were advised not to stop here, but continue up to San Jose which is a very attractive small town with an excellent marina.

One of the marina staff, in a smart brown uniform and a pith helmet, took our ropes and we tied alongside a Whitby 42. This center cockpit ketch is very similar to Annita. Dave and Doug, perhaps late 50s, are brothers and Skip an old school friend of Dave, the skipper. We had a jolly meal with the three of them at the "Drunken Sailor" a palapa style restaurant. Afterwards they came aboard and we introduced them to the 'Rusty Nail,' a mix of Drambuie and Scotch Whisky. They brought over a bag of ice, a novelty for us, as our fridge has been working less and less efficiently as the weather has become hotter.