Over the past 7 days we've been buddy-boating with Pythagoras, exploring 4 different anchorages (Balandra, Vee Cove, Isla Coronados, and Caleta Ramada). It's been great having another Christian family to share our meals and snorkel with each day. Besides having trouble with bees, we've been having a great time.

Puerto Ballandra: This is a mid-sized cove on Isla Carmen that is part of Baja's national parks. It has one shack on the beach made from scraps of a boat. There was a large motor yacht and two sail boats in the anchorage when we arrived.

Pythagoras was a racing vessel before it was turned into a cruising boat, so they always reach an anchorage before we do. Cruisers favor the south side of the anchorages because in the summer the wind is most often from the South, so when we arrived, Pythagoras was anchored in the south, along with the other two sail boats. We didn't feel that there was enough room there for our boat too, so we anchored toward the middle of the cove, near the beach.

Pythagoras pulled their anchor to re-anchor near us so the girls could swim to either boat. In the middle of their anchoring, I heard someone yell, "turtle!", then a splash into the water, then "throw me my goggles!" In her excitement to see the turtle more closely, Dawn jumped overboard before the boat was anchored. Casey and I saw a lot of fish off our swim step, so we jumped in the water and saw about 20 large, brightly-colored angel fish. This is very unusual, because we've only seen these beautiful fish in pairs previously. There was no turtle in sight. When we surfaced, Casey and I got an ear full because Sean said we jumped in the water too soon after anchoring and he was still trying to make sure our anchor wasn't dragging. I can't even imagine what kind of trouble Dawn got into for jumping overboard before the anchor was even set!

We looked at the position of our boat using our navigation software and noticed that it showed our boat in the middle of the island, on the land. This is due to the poor navigation charts, which are from the 1800's. We've been told that they are only accurate to within 2 miles, which isn't very helpful when you're just off the coast anywhere in Mexico. Reef and other hazards aren't usually marked either. We really are spoiled in the US with the chart accuracy and navigation and hazard buoys. It obviously hasn't been a high priority for Mexico to update their charts. This is why we rely mainly on several cruising guides (Charlie's Charts and Cunningham guides). But these have "not for navigation" is posted on each chart.

Most of us went snorkeling (Sean stayed on the boat to make sure the anchor didn't drag) and we saw lots of reef fish. We even saw an octopus and a small moray eel. Sean prefers hiking to snorkeling, so later he and I started off on a hike. Just off the beach, in the middle of a salt flat, we were stopped by an ominous sign stating that the area was protected and we'd be turned into authorities if we went past the sign. So we walked along the beach instead.

We approached the beach shack and noticed a sign posted on it that was in Spanish. Some of the words we could understand made us think it is provided for the local fishermen who are passing by. The only things inside were a few rough-looking tools and a rickety bed frame and table made from scrap wood. A cut log with a small piece of old plywood served as a seat outside under the "porch". There were two piles of old fish nets bundled up outside, where fishermen had left their nets ready for use when they returned.

Vee Cove The next day we motored to Vee Cove, a small, almost unnoticeable cut in the north end of Isla Carmen. The author of our cruising guide noted that he didn't anchor in this cove because it looked too small to safely anchor a boat, but later he did see another boat anchored in the cove. So I was a little nervous about fitting both our boats into the cove and thought that we could check it out and then anchor about a mile away in a larger cove if necessary. As we approached, we saw Pythagoras and another boat anchored in the cove that had steep cliff walls on two sides, angling together in a "V"-shape with a sand beach and dunes where the walls would have met. Pythagoras radioed us that they were too close to one of the walls and were going to re-anchor closer to the middle. Once they were set, we anchored out a little further, but still in the "V". It was the most beautiful spot we've been in so far and, even though we were squeezed in, we stayed for two nights.

As the waves beat against the steep cliffs around Vee Cove, huge chunks of the cliff fall into the sea and make a great habitat for reef animals. They also create caves along the cliff wall, some large enough to drive a dinghy or two into. We'll post photos as soon as we get a good internet connection. The snorkeling was the best ever here. We swam into caves and could hear disturbed bats squeaking at us. The contrast of being in the dark water in the cave and looking out at the schools of fish swimming in the sun-lit water was striking.

It was clear that the bees were tasked with keeping Vee Cove a secret. The attack on our boat was under way. A mosquito was bothering Dawn the night before, so I gave her some Avon Skin-So-Soft to use as a repellent. Dawn was happy because it seemed to work, it didn't contain poisons, and it smelled good. I usually have a "just ignore them" attitude with bees, but when one stung my arm, the battle was on! I sprayed the Skin-So-Soft around and in our kitchen sink and on me to repel the bees. Water is what the bees were after, but they also seem to be drawn to me. The "repellent" actually drew the bees. We think it may have been the sweet smell. We put up all our screens, which severely inhibits the airflow through our boat. As the boat heated up, I set out to kill the bees that were now trapped inside the boat. It was too hot to wear more than just my swimming suit to protect my skin, so my fly-swatter strikes had to land on the mark. We counted 36 dead by my hand and I found another 15 or 20 that had drowned in a pan in the sink.

When we went snorkeling, the water was thick with small jelly fish, so before we all jumped in, we had Tara put her arm in the water to make sure they didn't sting. I was proud that she was so willing to sacrifice for us. Lots of people wear lycra suits so the jelly fish can't sting them. We've decided that, until it gets unbearable, we won't do the lycra as it's not comfortable to wear.

We saw a 4-foot moray eel swimming freely in the water, a rare sight as these animals are normally quite shy and hide in the rocks. A couple of large lobsters hid in the rocks in a cave. We saw several dolphins out about 50 feet and we could hear their sonar squeaks under the water. We saw lots of new sea life that we hadn't seen before, many of which were not even in our "Sea of Cortez Marine Animals" book. Before we went back to the boat, we caught a jelly fish to look at through our microscope. It was neat to see it pulse. When the pulsing got weak, Casey rushed it to the swim step and let it go.

Casey, Darby (10 year old from Pythagoras) and I took the dingy and went fishing, but all we managed to catch was the eye of an old-looking puffer fish. The girls teased him with their squid lure as he came to the surface to take a nibble and giggled as he followed it whenever they pulled it away.

The kids decided to make dinner for everyone and we had wonderful Olive Garden alfredo and chocolate peanut butter brownies.

Isla Coronados Coming into Isla Coronados is a bit tricky because it has shallow but navigatable channel between the island's reef and an off-shore reef (and, again, the charts are not accurate). Once inside the large cove, we dropped our anchor in 14 feet of water. This is a bit shallow for us (our keel draws 6 feet), but we decided the sand bottom wouldn't do any damage if we came into contact with it at low tide.

All of a sudden, we saw a dark area next to our keel and thought it was a rock. But it seemed to be moving slowly, so I then thought it was a shadow from a small cloud. As we looked closer at it, we realized it was a huge swarm of black rays. When they flapped their wings, we'd see a flash of white from their under sides. It was beautiful. We all have the image of Steve Erwin's final fate with the tail of a ray, so we were nervous about going in the water. Casey and I were too hot to contemplate it much, so looking off our swim step to make sure the coast was clear, we jumped into the slightly cooler water.

Because of the all-sand sea floor, the snorkeling wasn't very good here. but the white sand beach had several palpas for shade. We dinghyed to shore and spent the day lounging and playing on the beach. The kids caught 65 baby clams and put them in a Frisbee with water and sand. They named each clam and watched them crawl around and dig under the sand.

Dawn (and her two daughters, Danielle and Darby) speak Spanish quite well, so when we saw two fishermen leaving a palapa to go back to their boat, Dawn asked them if they had any fish we could buy. They opened a large ice chest full of trigger fish and asked how many. We agreed that two could provide a nice meal for our families. They were going to give them to us for free, but since they brought them to my boat I gave them 4 regular-sized Hershey bars from my stash in the refrigerator. They seemed happy. I hate filleting fish!!! But guess who got to do it? At least I didn't have to kill it. I shouldn't complain though. Dawn breaded and cooked the fish and made a rice dish. We had a great fish dinner that night.

Sean and Dale (dad on Pythagoras) stayed behind to fix Dales outboard motor handle that had broken in two. The fix, which consisted of cutting, bending and then bolting a metal T-square to the handle, works great - but looks bad. Dale calls it "Franken Handle."

It was blowing about 15 knots that night and I woke up at 5 am, just after low tide, and noticed that our depth was 6.2 feet. Since low tide had already passed at 4:45, I didn't wake Sean up.

We could get cell-phone service in this anchorage because it's near Loreto, so I called my mom and sister. They had watched a TV special about great white sharks and had worked themselves into a panic about us swimming in the Sea of Cortez, where apparently there are lots of great whites. I told them we'd be careful, but there's no way you can stay out of the water.

Caleta Ramada That morning we left for San Juanico. The wind started to pick up to around 20 knots and we had the roughest seas yet in the Sea of Cortez, with white caps and lots of bouncing around. The Pythagoras kids rode on our boat this leg of the trip and they all watched a movie. Tara got sea sick and had to come up into the cockpit. Our dishes flew out of the cabinet and one of my Corel bowls broke to bits. The anchorage we were headed to was about 4 hours away and when we got there, the 3 boats that were anchored there rolling with the waves. Dawn called one of the boats on the VHF and they suggested we go around the point to a more protected Caleta Ramada anchorage, which we did.

Dale took the kids to the beach to play while Sean and I worked on a few boat things and relaxed. At the beach, the kids made a hot tub and a couch out of sand and took a short hike.

We're now out of fresh meat, bread and veggies, but fortunately Dawn is a master at making nutritious and tasty soup or stews - apparently out of thin air. She has vegetable protein that takes the place of meat. We drag a line with a large squid lure behind our boat to try to catch fish when we move from one anchorage to another, but have had no luck yet. Now that we're out of fresh meat, I've got to get more serious about catching fish. I'm going to change the lure when we leave here to see if another one works better.

Yesterday we hung out on our own boats until about 4pm. We all ended up on our boat, snorkeling around to try to find a butter knife and pan handle that had fallen overboard while washing dishes on the swim step. Casey found the best shell yet, a murex, and decided to keep it even though it was occupied. In the past, we had never kept an occupied shell. Although she pressed me to tell her if she should do it or not, I made her make the decision by herself. "I'm keeping it," she said. Darby was on her side because the shell was so beautiful. Tara and Danielle were on the animal's side, "At least put it in a bucket of sea water while you decide!" Casey and Darby discussed the gruesome details about how to get the slug thing out of the shell. "Let's get a knife and cut it out," Darby said. But, with the prodding of the pro-slug kids, they decided it would be a cruel way to kill the animal. "Let's just boil it in a pot of salt water," Casey said. But I didn't want a pot of boiling water in the boat during the hottest part of the day. They finally decided to just set it out in the sun for a while to see what happened.

Wanting to see if we should move to the original anchorage we had planned to stay in, the boys (Sean and Dale) got out their tennis shoes and water bottles to take a hike across the peninsula to the original anchorage we had planned to stay at and made the mistake of asking if anyone else wanted to go. The six of us girls decided we would. After about 45 minutes of getting ready, taking quick salt water baths, getting dressed, combing hair, brushing teeth, and going back to Pythagoras twice to look for snacks and drinks, the end of getting ready to go was still not in sight. The boys were getting a little irritated. All they wanted to do was go for a hike! Since we had two dinghy's, I said they should go ahead of us. They didn't wait for me to ask them twice, instantly leaving in the dinghy. We finally made it to the beach to begin our hike after one more trip to Pythagoras.

We hiked to the other side and found a beautiful, very large cove that was not very well protected from the waves. We had heard on the radio that the three or four boats that were anchored there were using their flopper-stoppers, metal wings set out off the side of the boat to minimize the side-ways rocking of the boat. We decided the cove we were it was much smoother and we were thankful to be there. We sat near the edge of a high cliff and ate our snacks as we took in the beautiful view. We met up with the boys, who took a different path, on the way back to the beach.

After burying a dead bird and sea horse on the beach and making tomb stones, the kids collected fire wood for a beach fire. When we returned to the boat to make dinner, Casey's shell animal was still alive and squirting water. Casey couldn't stand it any longer! She took a picture and then threw it back in the water. At the beach fire we had a great time telling scary stories and stories about our lives