Waiting for Joe
07 December 2012 | City of Peace La Paz
Gabriellas G-Pa
I wrote this once already this morning, but my Banda Ancha was so slow uploading it, it disappeared. A notice will come up after so much time, then it gives me 3 minutes to close down. I added the photo then clicked to uplaoad and it was so slow, it did not go through....I'm not too happy.
anyway, I finished installing my dinghy davits and now have to find the right pick up points. I spliced the cable to my wind direction/speed transducer and climbed the mast and installed it and the new tricolor navigation light. Everything was working great and I was getting ready to leave Guaymas. My Guaymas sweetheart Ariana took me to lunch and we had a nice time chatting. Then Horacio and his family took me to a great steak house that I didn't even know existed in Guaymas. The steak was the best steak I have ever had in Mexico and the steak house was a genuine Norte Americano style steak house.
As I was getting closer to leave, I was super anxious, kinda like when I first left Rio Vista for the big retirement/cruise. After 6 seasons you would think that I had it all under control. I bid farewell to my friends at Singlar and set out at about 10:30 am for an overnighter to cross the Sea. The winds were averaging 15 to 20 knots(1 knot=1.2 mph) and peaking out at 25 knots. I was doing about 8 to 10 knots over the ground. In the middle of the night I noticed the new tricolor starting to blink on and off then completely going out. I thought maybe it came loose. then I saw the wires were real stiff as it looked like they were being pulled out. I was without navigation lights and was happy to know I was in an area that was not heavily travelled. I pulled into Loreto right at day break and decided to keep going because the winds were perfect for downwind sailing. I hooked up my banda ancha and went online to get a weather report and to do the Facebook thing. I kept going to Los Gatos anchorage and dropped the hook with my nice new anchor chain. It was too rolly in the anchorage to climb the mast to see what's up with the tricolor. The next morning I weighed anchor and headed for Isla Partida. I dropped the hook after an all day motor/sail in a very flat and peaceful anchorage. I climbed the mast again(I think I might be getting too old for this constant climbing) and found my light barely hanging in its stand. The cheap plastic ring that locks it in broke. So I taped it tight to get it to hold the locking on the light. The next morning I motored into La Paz Bay and found a nice spot to drop the hook and decide whether I'm going to wait for my friend Joe, who is coming dow the outside of Baja from Rio Vista. I might be here for a week or leave tomorrow because of weather. The picture is a drawing that Zada, the coolest cruising kid in Mexico and the recipient of my Jelly-Bellys drew for me.