Follow The Horizon

La Paz has me, and it won’t let go! This place is great. Very chill, with an active cruiser community. 8 am, 6 days a week there’s the cruiser’s net on chanel 22. It starts with medical emergencies and ends with a buy and sell.

We had two stops on the way from Cabo. We had planned to stop at Los Cabos as well but as we neared the marina the wind was a nice beam reach, and we were sailing beautifully. Naida and Vortice were up ahead heading for Los Frailes, and Alma Feroz was just coming out of the marina to head around as well. Chris called the marina to to see if there was a penalty for canceling, which there wasn’t, so onward we went.

A hour later we regretted out decision. The Sea of Cortez is a large body of water, and it doesn’t take much wind to whip up a short, steep swell. We buried the bow of the boat regularly, and we learned what it means to bash. At one point we were surrounded by humpback whales, and I took the boat out of gear until they gave us some room. Off we went again, then off our starboard quarter there was a loud boof sound as whale surfaced behind us. From it’s trajectory it would have swam right under our boat! I think they were messing with us.

Los Frailes is a beautiful anchorage. A little rolly a times, but well protected from the prevailing north wind. The snorkeling was great with lots of colorful fish, and amazingly a hard coral reef. We had a couple of beach fire evenings and margaritas thanks to Cory. One of the nights a volunteer from the turtle rescue came buy with a Rubbermaid container full of freshly hatched baby turtles he was about to release into the ocean. We were admiring the beautiful little animals when he started passing them out! I’m not sure he should have done that, but Chris was enthralled.

After a few days we moved on alone to Bahia Los Muertos. A nice calm anchorage with a great restaurant overlooking the bay. It was just a quick overnight then on to La Paz.

Chris will be flying out in a couple of days for some home time. The stress of the trip down the coast built up to the point where she feels she needs to get away from the boat. Even the chill of La Paz can’t get rid of the stress she feels.

I’ll be taking on crew and carrying on to Mazatlan once I get my fill of La Paz. I hope to pull up the anchor before the barnacles start to grow.