We entered this lovely harbor last night after being blown around all day. Luckily this is a sailboat and we could make use of the wind, or we'd still be trying to get in! For the sailors out there, we had a double-reefed main and a hankie jib to keep her on her feet and make some time. The coast here is rugged and has many submerged rocks waiting to disembowel an unwary mariner. It was somewhat nerve-racking to work our way around the hazards with questionable charts. Let's hear it for forward-looking sonar!

We dropped anchor in the Ellipse, an amazing, elliptical-shaped harbor that provides ideal protection. While it's blowing like stink out on the Mar de Cortez, it's calm in here. It's the best "hurricane hole" in the entire sea and we'll stay here another night, at least.

We all gobbled burgers and cold beer last night: what a bunch of Gringos! It sure tasted good. The rest of the crew got a bath but I had boat watch and had to settle for a cold-water shower this morning. We figure the water is solar-heated, so no sun overnight means no hot water in the morning.

This morning, we arose early and I ferried everyone to the dinghy dock where a taxi awaited us with Nestor at the wheel. What a great guy! He spoke little English, but was knowledgeable about the area's history. We jabbered the entire time, and arrived at Aguila, the bus terminal, so that the Caplans could procure tickets to La Paz. We put them on the bus and continued to tour town, enjoying a local favorite for lunch, stuffed potato: papas relleno.

We toured the old Mission here, reputedly the first, but actually the second. The city of 15,000 has 2000 Gringo living full or part time. The city has a European feel to it when you're in the city center, with its main plaza and tree-lined streets. The city had hired a lot of street cleaners, mostly women, who keep the place spotlessly clean. They also hired a LOT of police! There were municipal police everywhere. All were kind and helpful, but there was no mistaking the wear on those pistol handles: the hand-rubbed luster of much use.

We toured around the town until our scheduled meeting with Nestor for our trip back to Puerto Escondido. We jumped into the dinghy for the trip back to the boat and promptly got the propeller caught on a line that I had carelessly left in the water and broke the shear pin. With that, I rowed us to the boat.

"This won't take long", I said, words that returned to haunt me. The shear pin replacement that I thought would make short work of the problem refused all my efforts to insert them in the propeller hole made for it. After some careful measurements, I realized that the replacements that I had were all the wrong size! Damn! The four replacement that I had depended to work, were too large.

Discouraged, I turned to food and liquor. I'll wait until tomorrow to find replacements.