June 5, 2010 Sunday

We left La Paz yesterday around 2:30. We really enjoyed it there and have made a lot of new friends. Lots of them have gone north, to the US or Canada, for the summer, a few will stay in La Paz and the others are going to spend the summer in the north Sea of Cortez. It will be fun meeting up with them. They tell me that there are lots of "noodle" parties. Everyone brings their foam noodle and then sets around in the water having snacks and drinks enjoying the break from the hot weather. I'm looking forward to swimming in the Sea.

We got new batteries put in before we left. We replaced 3 4d size batteries with 8 golf cart batteries. It took more time than we expected. The batteries were a little too tall for the space. By taking out the battery boxes and attaching the restraining straps to the hull and drilling indent holes on the under side of the floor we were able to get them in. They sure work a lot better. No more alarms going off in the middle of the night!!!!

As we left the wind was beginning to 'freshen'. We put up the sails and had a wonderful sail all the way to Espiritu Santo and Puerto Ballena where we anchored for the night. It is so much quieter away from the city and you don't have the swells from the panga drivers going by all the time.

We sailed at about 6 knots all the way. There were two wonderful sights on the way. The first: we came to a pod(herd) of dolphins. There were so many you couldn't count them all. You could see them all the way from the tip of Espiritu Santo to the top and it was at least 100 yards across. I don't remember ever seeing so many at one time. They were all sizes and were jumping out of the water, swimming and playing. So much fun to watch, we hated to have to cross their path. They seemed to enjoy the boat going across and used it as an obstacle to play around.

Later we saw a bunch of birds flying over an object in the water. There was a ring of them floating that seemed to be encircling something. From a distance we couldn't see what it was for sure, but saw some splashes. As we got closer we realized it was a seal splashing around in the water. We pulled out the binoculars and were rewarded with the sight of a mother seal giving birth. It was awesome. The birds seemed to be there in awe and to give support. As soon as the pup was born the birds took off and mama and baby we're not visible as much. It was a very unexpected sight as I thought that this was the wrong season for that.

As we were in the anchorage there were gusts of wind in the otherwise calm night. It was really funny how the wind would really blow for 10-15 seconds and then stop. It would blow again in 10 - 20 minutes. We went out side to make sure everything was alright before going to bed. There wasn't a moon out and the lights of the city were obscured by a bluff. The stars were so bright against a jet black sky. There were so many of them. Looking down we were surrounded by luminescence in the water. At first glance you might think it was just the stars, but it wasn't. There were more flecks than there were stars in the sky. When the breeze would pick up a little there were even more. I felt like I was surrounded by stars. Everything was so peaceful. What a wonderful ending to such a wonderful day.

Thank you Lord for such a wonderful blessing and all the ways You showed Your love for us today. Please be with all of my family and friends. May they too see and feel Your love for them.