This is my first attempt to post a blog entry to SailBlogs via SSB radio and email so I shall wait until later to add further comments about Ensenada. We are 400 nm south of Ensenada, 260 nm north of Cabo San Lucas (at the southeast corner of Baja) and almost half of the way to La Paz. Our latitude is just south of Miami, FL, and it is finally starting to feel comfortable at night in the cockpit without a hot-water bottle�...thank goodness!

Although we are not indulging in a full turkey dinner today, Randall had made sure that we did not miss out on his favorite seasonal meal. After visiting a supermarket in Chula Vista with tape-measure and oven dimensions in hand, Randall found a small enough turkey which he cooked-up with all the trimmings on Monday (Nov 18). The ensuing turkey soup lasted until our first night at sea after leaving Ensenada so despite its diminutive size, the bird served us well. It is relatively calm and we are motoring at the moment so I am baking a cherry-pie as our treat to mark Thanksgiving Day. We had pumpkin pie last week and being a rather fluid filling, it might have slopped over the sides if I had tried to cook it while underway.

Having left Ensenada mid Sunday morning, we sailed towards the SSW for the first two days of our passage. On Monday evening, within sight of Isla Guadalupe (an island 140 nm offshore that served as a global refuge for elephant seals and Guadalupe fur seals during their near-extermination by fur-hunters), we gybed and have been heading SE ever since. As forecast, the wind died mid-morning yesterday and we expect to be motoring for another couple of days but hope to be able to sail around the south end of Baja. With fresh north winds predicted in the Sea of Cortez over the weekend, we may have to shelter in an anchorage until they die down but we are grateful that, so far, our objective to get to La Paz by December 6th still looks possible.

We have seen plenty of dolphins but few whales. Even though this should be when gray whales are heading to their calving sites along this coast, we have probably been too far from the coast to meet them, having stayed at least 40 nm offshore in very deep water. Thankfully, the only boat issue (so far) was on Tuesday when a loud thumping noise started in the mast. It was worst when we pitched in the waves (the bow going up and down) and all we can suspect is that the tube that confines most of the wires running up the mast has partly broken loose from its attachment inside the mast. Sounding like an erratic beat of a big bass-drum, Randall worried that this would make sleeping impossible in our lee-cloth inside the main cabin right next to the mast. However, I surrounded the mast with cushions, life- jackets, and pillows and this has deadened the noise enough that it is no worse than all of the other creaks and groans that the boat produces when bouncing around in waves. If he is correct about the diagnosis, we will have to try to fix this in La Paz but this will not be an easy problem to resolve more permanently. In the meantime, in the middle of the main cabin, it looks as though we have installed a rather strange Christmas-tree that was designed for a store that sells soft furnishings and bedding!