I had a few more days of fun in Mazatlán. I went to the old part of the city in the evening to dine and then partied in Plazuela Machado. I ate at a courtyard restaurant with a harpist playing music. In the plaza, multiple restaurants had music and people were dancing. I got absorbed into a group of Canadians who were a lot of fun. All in all it was a lovely evening.

I went to the Soriana Supermercado to get a few provisions. The night before I left I made a big pot of pasta to have reheatable meals on the passage. The next day I went for a walk around the harbor with a group of regular walkers, said goodbye to my friends, checked out of the marina, got my zarpe, and headed out of the harbor.

Immediately upon leaving there was a bit of breeze. I put the sails up. However the breeze was coming from the direction of La Paz. It was going to start out a beat.
Starboard tack had me pointing out past and south of Cabo San Lucas. I tacked on to port a couple of times to try to get some northing and discovered that my tracks showed that I was tacking through about 110 degrees. Either the boat was not pointing very high or I was fighting adverse current. So I stayed on starboard tack for about 100 miles out into the gulf before flopping over again to port tack. I kept hoping that I would get lifted on starboard (meaning the wind would shift right allowing me to point more towards my destination) but it did not happen.

It was a long journey. I sailed into the night all of the next day and night. On the second day in the afternoon the wind freshened to the point that I put the first reef in the mainsail and then the second. I sailed that way for most of the night and in the wee hours of the morning the wind lightened a bit and I went back to using the full mainsail. I was making very slow but steady progress towards Cerralvo Channel that leads into Bahia de La Paz. In the morning the wind died to the point that I elected to motor for a while. This gave me a chance to charge the batteries and run the refrigeration.

I thought that this was the lull in the wind that had been predicted before I left, but in the afternoon it came up briskly and I raised the main with both reefs in and the jib partially rolled up. The good news was that I was now headed for Cerralvo Channel. However, I was dead tired at this point.

I elected to head for Ensenada de Los Muertos (yes, Cove of the Dead). It was a beautiful and peaceful cove behind a point that protected it from the strong northerly winds and waves. As I entered the bight, there were splashes in the water off to starboard. At first I thought I was coming upon another family of dolphins, but as I got closer I realized that these were some type of fish jumping completely out of the water and making a loud smacking sound as they reentered the sea. It turns out that they were rays. I anchored about 6 pm and had dinner and a glass of wine. And then slept the sleep of the dead.