We got up this morning in Bahia Asuncion unsure whether we would make another leg of our journey north or sit tight and get some rest. Asuncion is a lovely bay with a plain but very sweet town, and it would be nice to visit it again as we did on the way down. Plus, we'd been traveling hard for a week.

But in the morning the weather forecast looked good and we weren't too tired, so we raised the hook and headed out. We're glad we did make the trip today, for these fifty miles were certainly the easiest and pleasantest we've experienced on the trip north. Our engine rumbled along at its usual cruising pace, but the weather was benign and perhaps we had a favorable current, so somehow we were able to make 5.2 knots for 10 hours today, probably a record speed for the boat. This is hardly the Baja Bash we'd dreaded.

Coming back to these ports feels like a homecoming. A year ago, Turtle Bay seemed like a dusty outpost: Arriving just after sunset this evening, we remembered the fist-shaped mountain to the northeast, and the lazy-looking navigation lights on Punta Sargazo (Kelp) and Punta Azufre (Sulfur) at the bay's entrance. Seals and dolphins splashed a greeting, and again the bay was thick with cormorants, gulls and pelicans. We looked for the radio towers in the middle of town, and the green boats of Servicio Anabel, the more reputable of the fuel dealers. Familiarity blunts the edges and at the same time makes the place seem sweeter.

We'll spend a couple of days here, changing the oil and refuelling and repairing the HF radio. And resting up for the next step, 300 miles to Ensenada.