Our second leg from Turtle Bay to Bahia Santa Maria was 225 miles, took about 36 hrs and went well with some great downwind sailing in 10-15 kts and relatively flat seas. We caught our first yellowtail after only 30 minutes of trying and had it cleaned and on the BBQ inside of an hour – yummy! We’re definitely feeling the southern influence with daytime temps in the 80s and water temp ~75 degrees.

Skid is loving it! He gets endless miles of beach, few leash restrictions, lotsa swimming and other dogs to play with and plenty of attention everywhere we take him. Not to mention 24/7 with his main peeps.

Bahia Santa Maria is a large, beautiful bay with only a few isolated fish camps in residence. After learning from the Pangaeros how to navigate the surf breaking over the bar, we explored the estuary by dinghy and went ashore at the fish camp. The locals here are very friendly; I just wish I’d paid more attention in Spanish class… Later we saw a whale inside the anchorage swimming between the boats and the beach. It seems like we keep bumping into Nature at every turn out here. Yesterday, the locals pulled recruits from neighboring villages and threw a big fish fry/beach party for our fleet which was a lot of fun. Wendy also identified the local school teacher and made a small donation of school supplies and a soccer ball for the local kids. I don’t know where she’s squirreled all this stuff away on the boat, but apparently we have an inventory of soccer balls amongst other things  We left Santa Maria at dawn this morning and are motoring in a flat calm for Cabo San Lucas 175 miles away, hoping to whistle up some fair winds.