Rapturous!

Dawn in the anchorage
It was cold when we woke up in the grey before dawn. Long ago we packed away our sleeping bags and now just use a sheet and light blanket at night. Greg, as always, woke early and made coffee. I didn't wait for him to deliver my coffee with his customary, "Your Majesty." I wanted to watch the color steal across the water in this new location. The cockpit cushions were wet with dew, clammy on my bare feet.I grabbed the fleece throw rug and wrapped myself tight. The boat rocked gently, barely a stir of wind. The coffee was so good!

Huevos Rancheros for breakfast. The pinto beans that I had bought in the mercado in La Paz were soaked last night in the pressure cooker stored in the aft head. This morning I put them on high pressure for 8 minutes with half an onion, bay leaves, black peppercorns and two New Mexican red chiles that I had been hoarding. 8 minutes was far too long. These beans were harvested this season and they hadn't sat around on the shelves getting old. I ladled the mashed beans into my iron skillet (trying to get the minerals missing from our desalinated water), added leftover salsa, a handful of frozen roasted poblano Chiles and the scrapings of the insides of those cooked red chiles. When that came to a boil, I broke two eggs into it and covered the pan. With two warmed corn tortillas that I had watched being made, this vege- rich breakfast did not need cheese. Yum, energy for the active day ahead of us.

We had inflated the dinghy at Muertos and towed it to Los Frailes so we just needed to lower the outboard. The Bay was quiet and there was no wind so it went pretty smoothly with only one banged thumb. We packed money and cameras in the dry bag, found the snorkeling gear and headed to the beach. Landing and launching the dinghy is always an adventure. This time the landing went well, helped by the minimal amount of surf. Just off the beach, Greg gunned the engine and I hopped out with the painter (bow rope). Using the wavelets we pulled it just out of reach of the water. Then Greg heaved up the stern and I pushed the wheels into position. Unfortunately, the sand was so fine that the wheels just buried themselves providing little help. Finally, panting, we got the dinghy above the tideline and we could leave it to stretch our legs on the 2 miles of beach.

On the way we passed a fenced area where small piles of sand were labeled with dates on white crosses. It looked like a macabre pet cemetary on the beach complete with vultures perched on a nearby palampa. These were turtle nests presumably dug up and moved into this fenced area to protect the eggs and hatchlings from predation. Just north of the Bay is a National Marine Park. The fish and wildlife spill over into Los Frailes. There are fish camps squatting on the beach littered with fish heads and skeletons. The vultures and gulls looked sated and couldn't be bothered to move for us.

After our walk, it was time to get back to the boat. Intrepid South Africans are going to laugh when they read this. The tiny surf had grown while we were walking and the tide had fallen so the beach shelved pretty close to the sand. To launch the dinghy we had to turn it bow to the waves, push it beyond the break zone and deep enough to lower the engine. The only problem was the shelf dropped about 4 feet so I was swimming at the bow before Greg could get in to start the engine. BTW, our outboard has been giving trouble lately and doesn't start reliably. My solution was to swim around to the stern and hold the dinghy pointed into the surf while Greg clambered onboard and wrestled with the engine. Dumb idea EXCEPT that the surf was only about a foot high so I looked like superwoman. Greg abandoned the engine and paddled like crazy beyond the break zone. However, I was still on the beach. I stuffed my sandals, sunglasses and hat into various pockets and swam out in my clothes to the dinghy. One more massive heave to get myself into the dinghy and we were home free.

We needed lunch after all that exertion! We had leftover shrimp saganaki that I'd planned to have for a dinner when we did the overnight crossing to Puerto Vallarta. But it wouldn't last since we had tarried two extra days so this was fast, easy and delicious. Then, siesta and off again to go snorkeling.

It was getting to be late afternoon so the light was not great for snorkeling. We saw large rockfish which we don't see often but not many small iridescent fish and some Coral but nothing spectacular. The water was cold so we didn't stay long then back to the boat for a fresh water shower off the transom.

Now we had to pack away the dinghy for the voyage to PV tomorrow. This involved hoisting the outboard out of the dinghy using our Mcgivered block and tackle system. Then, using a Spinnaker halyard, we hoisted the dinghy onto the deck battling the wind that tried to blow it over the other side and deflated it. We removed the floor boards the pull it up vertically so we can wash it down using the salt water pump in the anchor locker. We rolled it up and put all the parts into two big sunbrella bags that get lashed to the deck.

Sunset is about 6:00 pm and the light fades fast leaving no time for Captain's hour.. We'd already eaten well so dinner was tofu stir-fry with noodles using up most of the fresh veges. We also broke out a bottle of nice Italian Pinot Noir.

By 8:30 the dishes were washed and the anchor light was turned on. The boat was prepped for an early morning departure and with no Internet to distract us, the eyelids could not even stay up to read. Cruiser's midnight is about 9:00 pm and I'm not sure we made it.
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