We crossed the finish line at Cabo San Lucas at 0800 local Thursday and dropped anchor off the town at about 1000. We had a beautiful sail for 10 hours on Wednesday afternoon and into the evening with just the spinnaker up and pulling us along at sixes and sevens but by about 2100 the breeze had dropped away and we motored through the night and into Cabo.

What a difference Cabo is after Turtle Bay and Bahia Santa Maria! It's a beautiful town nestled in amongst the mountains at the tip of the Baja Peninsular. Lots of big condominiums, golf resorts etc. A long sandy beach with restaurants stretches from the harbour for about 4 miles and we are anchored off this beach in about 7 metres of crystal clear water with a temperature of 26 celsius. The air temperature is in the mid thirties so we are well into the warmer weather. This place is sports fishing paradise. The marina is full of American sportfishing boats and the smallest marina berth costs about AU$200 a night. A bit out of our league so we have chosen to anchor off.

We did the check-in formalities with immigration yesterday afternoon and wondered around town afer a long leisurely lunch at one of the many harbourside restaurants and returned to Volare for a fairly early night to catch up on sleep lost during the passage. Today (Friday) we completed some chores in the morning and joined the end of rally beach party for the afternoon and into the early evening where we did some further bonding with all our new found friends.

This rally has been great in that we have met lots of people, some of whom will be doing the Pacific crossing at around the same time as us and others, whom I'm sure we'll stay in contact with over the ensuing years. It's been a fabulous experience for Debbie's sister and her husband. Living and working on a yacht has been a new experience for them. We've caught lots of fish, seen some unbelievable sunsets and sunrises, drunk lots of wine, laughed a lot and generally had a great time.

We will leave for La Paz on Sunday. We plan to spend a few days getting up there (La Paz is in the Sea of Cortez to the north and on the eastern side of the Baja Peninsular) and then Milton and Gail will leave us on the 20th November to fly out to see a little more of the States before returning to Australia.

Thank you to all those who have posted comments on the blog site - it's great to get some feedback from time to time to know that someone is actually reading this journal. Salacia - it was good to hear from you. We followed your travels last year down from the Pacific North West and on the Ha-Ha before your rolly ride to Hawaii. We knew of Salacia when she was in Australia with her previous owner.

We had the opportunity of getting to an internet cafe yesterday and uploading a few photos for the gallery (including, by request a few of Debbie's crocodile wrestling manoeuvres at the kick-off party in San Diego) - not many because we ran out time but when we get another chance we'll upload some more.

OK that's it for now. I'm sitting in the cabin surrounded by laundry after the girls made a trip to the laundrette today.

We have just had a fireworks display off the beach about 200 metres from us. Life couldn't be more perfect...... ##

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