June 15 -16, 2012: An early morning departure was in order again Â... yuck! But at least Dick & Bob let me go back to bed after we got safely underway. Once I can get over my early morning stomach woes, I usually can do reasonably well at sea. This passage was 169 nautical miles and we did it in 28 hours averaging 6 knots. What a nice change from our bashing earlier on this trip. By going to San Benitos we had a nice angle to cut across the large span of water as we worked our way to Ensenada.

Our watches have been 3 hours on and 6 hours off which allowed for good sleep time. Dick has been a great help to have along. It makes a big difference on the fatigue factor. We have several days of good weather so we want make tracks.

We stopped at Bahia Colnett for about six hours to shower, eat and rest for awhile. We decided to bypass Ensenada and continue on to San Diego, about 120 miles from Colnett. We can get there in 20 hours and arrive mid-day on Sunday. That gets us ahead of the anticipated weather change.

Bahia Colnett 30° 57.814N 116° 16.813W

June 14, 2012: The Baja Bash fleet was leaving at first light this morning to move north. Three boats decided to pass Cedros Island on the east side and anchor to position themselves for the next jump across a large bight of water. We took west side of Cedros and worked our way up to San Benito's Island 56 miles to the north for our jump off point.

It was another long day pushing against large swells, wind waves and wind on our nose. Once we arrived I was not pleased with the looks of the anchorage. Large kelps beds lay across the entire area and you could see the swells rolling in. We did have a whale greet us, along with a large colony of sea lions barking away to their heart's content.

I couldn't believe there was an actual fishing community located on this desolate island out in the middle of nowhere. The citizens of Mexico have a very hard life Â... and the fishermen are amazing.

San Benitos Island 28° 17.909N 115° 34.592W

June 12 - 13, 2012: The weather wasn't looking so hot and neither were the seas so we decided to hang out a couple more days here in Turtle Bay. We were invited along with the rest of the cruisers in the anchorage for a yellow fin dinner prepared by Ruben & his wife Anabelle, one of the local fuel providers. He really enjoys the cruisers and has built a nice restaurant overlooking the bay. Couldn't ask for a better deal, he provided transportation to and from his place, gave us a bottle of wine to take home and the meal was only $150 pesos including food & liquor. We enjoyed the company of 12 other cruisers while dining family style; it was a fantastic evening showing Dick some Mexican hospitality.

Wednesday I booted the boys off the boat to make a garbage run and stretch their legs. Beside I wanted them out of my hair while I prepared a couple more dinners and breakfasts. I got no argument out of either one since they knew it was a way to keep their bellies happy while underway.

We have been watching the Horatio Hornblower British Naval series which has added some entertainment to our evening hours. One night we had the benefit of our boat rocking in the waves and the wind howling outside just at the same time the sailboat in the movie was experiencing the same conditions. It quite eerie!