Bash 2
06/25/15
The day began with clear skies and a light breeze. We all ran around taking care of last minute details. After returning my dock keys, we all bid a fond farewell to La Paz and Marina De La Paz. 20 months went by so quickly since I first arrived here. We stopped for fuel on the way out, filling our four 50 liter jugs in addition to the regular fuel tanks. We also discussed safety itemses such as man-overboard procedures, and the importance of safety equipment, especially wearing shoes on deck. We motored out of the bay and then past Isla Espiritu Santo before turning south towards Cabo. As we steamed over glassy seas down the channel that runs between the Baja peninsula and Isla Cerralvo, Mark remarked that we might see some whitecaps soon, because the wind funnels between the island and the peninsula. Sure enough, we soon had small but persistent wind waves with whitecaps. Thanks Mark! As I was moving about on deck I managed to kick some deck hardware with my bare foot! Injuring one toe and reinforcing my point about wearing shoes. We finally reached the end of the channel near La Ventana as the sun began to set. Shorty figured that this would be a great time to catch a fish, and was soon battling a small but lively marlin. The fish decided to break the line after several jumps, and swam off with my home-made lure in its mouth. It continued to give us a jumping demonstration as it tried to spit out the lure. Too fun.

As darkness took over, the wind laid down, leaving us with bumpy seas. We settled into a watch schedule, with two person teams, each team covering 4 hours of darkness. Shorty and Mark had the first watch at 10:00pm, which passed without incident. Billie and I relieved them at 02:00am, keeping watch until sunrise. Things were quiet for us until about 04:30am, when Billie spotted a dark line that might be a dolphin or whale. When I hit it with the spotlight it turned into a boat with no lights. Yikes! After lighting it up for a minute or so, someone onboard turned on a small light. The Mexican fisherman, or Pescaderos, are famous for being unlit at night, which makes standing a good watch all the more important. That was a close call.

06/26/15
When Dawn finally broke we had logged over 100 miles since setting out yesterday. Even though there was no wind, the seas were bumpy and confused, finally presenting the Pacific swell influence. (In the Sea of Cortez, there is no swell, unless wind generated). The boat motor has been purring the miles away, so I'm very happy about that. As we approached San Jose Del Cabo we got another fish bite. This time Mark did the reeling duty and it was I that lost the fish, a nice sashimi-sized Dorado. Oh, well. I managed to kick another piece of the boat bare-footed again. Same foot, different toe. Damn! Okay, NOW I will wear my shoes! We pulled into the Puerto Los Cabos Marina at about 10:30am, where we re-fueled and headed into our assigned slip. We tied up without incident and headed to the office to sign in. I tackled the first of my two projects for the day, which was to go up the mast to re-secure the radar reflector. That went off without a hitch, so we all opened cold beers and looked at the lovely area surrounding in this new Marina. While I was registering, Billie and Mark put up the big sun shade, that perfectly complimented the nice sea breeze blowing through the Marina. We all took a cab into town and ended up in a sports bar so that Billie could watch the women's World Cup soccer game. She is a former long-time player, and we all enjoyed watching the U.S. Team win. After a brief stroll around downtown San Jose Del Cabo, we returned to the Marina, much to the delight of hungry mosquitos. I was asleep by 9:00pm with plans to awaken and depart at 1:00am the next morning.