After a great time exploring new anchorages, heading North for the last month, it came time for us to turn the bow South and start making our way back to Mazatlan. There is not real sense of urgency - yet - but the official start of hurricane season on June 1 is ever present in our mind. The first thing in the morning on the first of the month we are not suddenly going to be faced with a storm of biblical proportions. Even if an early hurricane were to form, the trend in the early summer is for storms to head offshore, not towards us in the Sea of Cortez. But, I'm not a big gambler and intend to have Speakeasy and her crew tucked away safely in Mazatlan. I'm sure that our insurance company would concur!

So, with that in mind, we left Bahia Concepcion a few days ago and were rewarded with a great north wind as we headed south. We've sailed so little this season that we thought we may not even remember which lines to pull. But, with a little bit of grease (beer) things went well and we barrelled south in 15-25 knots of wind. One interesting thing about this enclosed sea is that the waves come up fast and are very close together. Even with the moderate wind, it was a bouncy ride, even for a catamaran.

We sailed till early afternoon, covering just under fifty miles at an average speed of about 7 knots. We did peak at nearly 9 knots, but about that time I put a reef in to settle things down a bit.

Our stop for the night was tucked in behind a large volcanic rock called Pulpito, "The Pulpit." It did a great job of sheltering us from the seas, but not the wind. It really howled in there, but with no seas it was very pleasant. The next day we headed to shore, following a steep path up to the summit of the 500 ft pulpit. The views were outstanding, especially from the sheer cliff over the anchorage. Lose your hat here to the wind and it was gone forever!

Back down on the beach, Baja continued to offer up incredible geology. Here, in the cliff of El Pulpito is a thick vein of black shiny rock, more akin to glass than rock. I am told that it is obsidian. At the base of the vein we found large, round chunks of the obsidian glass on the beach. They were light but incredibly hard and it was very tough to break them. Of course, we salvaged a few chunks for the boat which is continually sinking lower into the water with its load of shells and interesting rocks.

After a couple of nights at El Pulpito, we headed south, sailing once again in a north wind. This time, the wind and seas were more moderate so we put up the spinnaker instead of our main and jib. For the next several hours, that one large, colourful sail pulled us south towards our new anchorage with hardly an adjustment. I could get used to this! On this day we covered just under 30 miles and anchored at Isla Coronados, an anchorage that we visited on the way North with our friends on "Adesso." With eight boats sharing the anchorage the last time, on this afternoon we were all alone - a definite sign that the cruising season for the year is quickly waning. That was yesterday. Today, a couple of other boats joined us so we don't feel like the last boat out here anymore.

Today was a typical cruiser's day at anchor day. We enjoyed coffee in the morning and ate a light breakfast. Then, we watched as hundreds of bees on deck sipped on the morning dew. It is very dry here and there are no sources of water on the island. The honey bees come out at dawn and look for dew wherever they can find it. I guess that they have learned that boats are a great source of dew as they seem to find us pretty quickly! Although it was a bit intimidating, the bees had no interest in us at all, they just wanted to moisture. We have already learned to keep screens closed when the bees are about. They would be just as happy in the kitchen sink as with dew on deck. Once one finds the water, hundreds quickly follow.

After breakfast, we went for a short hike around the island and stopped to check out the nesting gulls, some with chicks and some still with eggs. Of course, the gulls were not that impressed by our visit, constantly circling, while taking turns to dive bomb and yell at us. Dee reminded them that they shouldn't build their nests so close to the trail!

Back on the boat after a few hours, we both hit the water. my job was to change the prop zincs and clean the bottom, while Dee got some additional exercise swimming around the boat. The visibility here is the best that we have seen yet. The ocean floor about 20' away is crystal clear. It felt more like we were flying than swimming.

If you count them, that was two major activities for the day! Since we normally only try to do one thing a day, today was monumental. I'm now lying around the boat with a cold Pacifico beer in hand. Dee is reading her cookbooks and planning another excellent meal for the evening.

Although we are both looking forward to spending the summer months on land in Mazatlan, it is going to be hard to beat the lifestyle of living on the boat, especially this last month in Baja.