Whale....little black dot by the other boat.....some photog I am....

We left Frailes on Saturday, Nov 12 at 7:50 am heading to Los Muertos. Nearby is a marine preserve reef that we were hoping to snorkel, so we were really looking forward to spending a day or two in this bay. The resort, we heard, had a pool and a restaurant that welcomed yachties and there was a funky cantina on the other end of the bay. Our log shows that we arrived at 2 pm after a great sail with following winds and seas for the second half of the trip. We immediately launched our dinghy to explore...it was a bit rough, but we were hoping that it would lie down like it had in Frailes the previous night.....Not So! By the time we made a quick tour of the bay, didn't even go on land, it was getting dangerous to get back on the boat! That fast!
It turns out that everyone was caught off guard. Boats who had their dinghies already shipped, pulled up anchor and started the parade of boats going anywhere else. Like the night before, the waves were coming into the mouth of the bay, so instead of protecting us from the waves, we were all in danger of being washed up on the beach..... Then the wind changed, so that it was holding the boat so that the waves were coming at us broadside and violently rolling the boat from side to side. Not fun..... of course things were flying off the shelves down below, and we tried to relocate everything to a safe place, but still had some casualties... (Don't worry Jess, the Scurvy Be Gone didn't move an inch..Wilson, however, leaped to the floor). The chatter on the radio told us that everyone who already had their dinghy aboard was heading out, and those of us with it in the water, had to wait it out. We got lucky and as the rollers began to take a rhythm and subside a little, we were able to time the waves, get the outboard onto its perch and haul up the dinghy. Anchor came up easily and we were off for anywhere else. We heard later that one guy actually broke his leg trying to get his anchor up on the bow that was rising and falling into the waves. (We should see him tonight, crutches and all, and I'm sure he won't pay for a drink!!!!)
At 9 pm we put up the usual "vertical Dacron stabilizer" and headed for La Paz. That entailed going through two narrow-ish channels and around 4 corners. (We basically made a big U Turn). Cape-Effect winds around the corners registered up to 25k so I'm told. (I told Paul not to tell me at the time and he told me anyway...) We just kept reducing the "stabilizer" to keep us as comfortable as possible and motored into La Paz at first light on Sunday morning, Nov 13.
So 7:50 am to 7 am is pretty much a 24 hour travel day. We were pooped, but happy to be at the Costa Baja Fuel dock. We relaxed for a couple of hours until someone came to work to check us into the port, and headed to our slip. A brief nap worked for a while, but sleep really came as soon as it started to get dark, which is about 5:45pm around here.
We've since moved to Marina Palmira and contracted for a slip here until Dec 15th. La Paz looks like a nice place to explore, 250,000 people and lots of history. There are some great island coves just north of here with snorkeling and another preserve. There are whale sharks out in the bay and you can take a dive boat, or your own dinghy to snorkel with them....they don't eat people, so we just might do that!
Five loads of laundry later, we're happy to be here with a bunch of other HaHa boats, many of whom are headed on to all sorts of different places. There's a party tonight, kind of a Welcome-to-La-Paz-all-you-Baja HaHa'ers and an Adios-to-all- those-moving-on. I think we'll go....


Trip Log : 1300.96 nm