January 8, 2010 - La Cruz

January 7, 2010 – underway to La Cruz,

One night down and one to go. It was not as bad as I had feared. That was probably because Earl did most of the watching. I tell myself that is okay. It is only proper since a) he is the man¸ b) it is really his boat and c) I need more sleep. We took naps, but mine were significantly longer than Earl’s. There was very little traffic to keep us occupied. Earl amused himself using the spotlight to light up the flying fish. I preferred to look at the stars. There were so many showing last night that they actually look ‘thick’. I mean I had the sense of depth, that some stars were nearer than others. Finally at 5 am Earl called it quits, left me in charge and went downstairs to sleep. That only lasted till about 8. He admits to being a little tired and has agreed to go take a nap.

We are still fighting a leak issue. We now have a leaking connection under the ice maker. Earl thinks that he probably caused it, pulling or pushing the hose while looking for the cause of the first leak. The solution will apparently involve moving the frig again and replacing the hose fitting. In the meantime, if we turn the water off, which is not very convenient, there is no leak. However, we have found that by sticking a sham wow around the hose fitting and leaving it hanging down into a bowl, it serves nicely as a wick and most of the water is collected in the bowl.

This afternoon, while I was downstairs taking a shower, there was a explosion. Earl’s first thought was that I had done something, till he realized that the top had come off the cupboard below the ice maker. I came upstairs to find an unhappy man taking the cupboard apart. Water from the leak had dripped on one of the life vests stored in the cupboard and had detonated the automatic inflating device. It filled the cupboard and we could not get it out without getting to the valve and partially deflating it. Earl had some extra gas cartridges, so he replaced the used one, and then managed to set off the new one. Oh well! We have now decided that we should disable the automatic set off on the vests. Earl will explain the safety issues to those interested. From now on, we will need to pull the tab to inflate – just like on a plane.

We have been visited by boobies. They rather liked our boat and, having landed, were reluctant to leave. Two of them settled on the radar and proceeded to crap all over the top of the boat. Earl finally chased them off with a broom. The boobies like to sit on things. In fact, Earl has seen several of them resting atop turtles on the surface. I imagine they crap on the turtles too.

As forecasted, the weather has gotten better and better. There is only a very small swell now. The water has returned to the deep ocean blue color. It has also warmed considerably and is 6 degrees higher than when we left La Paz. The air is much more humid. I guess we are leaving the Baja desert environment.

We are about 20 miles from the Marias. This is a group of islands which are apparently used by the Mexicans as a prison. We need to maintain a certain distance from them, which is too bad since Clark said they were a wonderful place to snorkel.

January 8, 2010 – approaching Banderas Bay

We were treated to one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen last evening. It was like fire and almost impossible to really capture with the camera. We watched in awe.

The second night was interesting. Earl watched until 11 while I slept. Then we both were mesmerized by the dolphins and flying fish. Earl had the flood light on and we could see quite a ways. There were many dolphins, almost continually in sight, marked by phosphorescent trails. They were feeding on the flying fish. Once in a while we would see a turtle go by. Earl went to bed for a couple of hours. The water continued to warm up. The evening was not clear and off in the distance there were flashes of lightening, not surprising given the muggy air. Around 3, Earl took over, and I went down to nap. I woke around 5 when the engine slowed down. Coming up, I asked Earl what the problem was. I was a little disturbed to have him tell me he did not know where we were. The radar showed that there were large masses about 4 miles ahead. The chart and plotters did not. Nor had we expected to see anything there. But, we have had issues with Mexican charts before. Finally, with an eye on the depth, we decided to resume our course at half speed. Within a few minutes the wind picked up with gusts up to 35 and we found ourselves in a steep chop and driving rain. Mystery solved! They have serious rain clouds and storms in this part of the world. Daisy and I left Earl at the helm and went back to salon and a rather bumpy nap. We are now about 10 miles out. It is not clear, but the storm has passed. The air is slightly less muggy and a warm 78 degrees – two degrees less than the water which has continued to warm.

I am ready to be at the dock and the boat needs a thorough cleaning – at least inside. I think the outside should be pretty good.

January 5, 2010 - Los Muertos

We are on our way to La Cruz, just north of Puerto Vallarta. It feels good to be off cruising again. This morning before leaving La Paz we took on some fuel. Price was about $2.68 per gallon, which seemed good to us, but I don’t know how it compares to current US prices for marine diesel. Muertos is about 50 miles south of La Paz. We had 20 mph winds most of the day and some pretty good chop on the way down. The boat rides beautifully, but Earl did not feel he could fish. If he caught something, he would have to drift to bring it in and he felt the seas were too rough. We will certainly have plenty of time. Our current plan is to go directly across the Sea of Cortez and south to La Cruz, just north of Puerto Vallarta. It is a little over 300 miles, so it will be two overnights of running with just the two of us (unless we can convince Daisy to stand watch in turn.) It may be an experience that we choose not to repeat.

We are anchored near a boat, Companera, from Bear Valley AK. They took off for the beach in their dingy. Hopefully we will get a chance to chat with them before leaving tomorrow am.

I bought a Telcel aircard and am delighted that so far we have pretty good coverage on the way from La Paz and here at anchor. It will be interesting to see how far out it lasts.

January 4, 2010

Girls in La Paz - Kasey, Elora and Meaghan

On December 26, the six boys were all at the boat at 8:50 for the 9 am departure. (They are after all Earl’s progeny – never late for a boat cast off). I told Daisy she was in charge and left to play with the six girls. From what I have been told, the fishing trip was great. More than enough fish for eating, 3 or 4 dorados and other fish for excitement which were released or self released. Jamie apparently spent half the night catching fish in the blue lights. There was apparently some serious card playing, no doubt with Daniel as the instigator. Somehow everyone found a place to sleep. Stuart shared our bed with Earl. Earl said he was a little uneasy sleeping with a man from California, and John was not happy being under Jamie in the pipe berth, but apparently it all worked out. They watched a whale breach completely out of the water, had a visit from a pelican that wanted to stay, and saw some very large porpoises, which Earl says are different from any he has ever seen. We will need to do some researching.

For my part, I had a wonderful couple of days with the hen party. On the 26^th, we took a car ride south to Todos Santos on the Pacific side of Baja. We had lunch at a beach about 10 miles south of the town. It was a beautiful day and we ate and drank and watched the surf. The waiter recognized me as the matriarch, referred to me as Mama and gave me the bill, while all the guys nearby had their eyes on Meaghan and Kasey. The food was lovely and we all agreed it was well worth the trip. After lunch we went shopping in Todos Santos. This is a lovely little town, about 17,000, with a reputation as something of an artists’ colony. The town is definitely set up for tourists – all the prices are in dollars and a bit on the high side – but it is several cuts above the usual tourist shopping. The girls got to try out their bargaining with some successes. Teri got some beautiful pottery for less than half the price she had initially been given at another shop– very impressive. The big attraction was silver jewelry. I think between them, the ladies touched every piece in town and I think everyone got some. We drove home to an early dinner and a chick flick at Teri’s. The next day we split up. Teri, Kasey and Meaghan went to the Costa Baja beach club to catch some rays and chill. Heidi, Elora, Becky and I did some more shopping in La Paz. This time it was definitely not touristy. We went to the dollar store and the municipal market with all of the locals and had a good time seeing more of the real Mexico. The major purchases were three pairs of croc knockoffs, which cost about $10 each. We met the rest of the sisterhood at CostaBaja for lunch. Elora decided that this was what she had been looking for and wanted to know why they had not been staying there.

On the 28^th, the young took off to Todos Santos and the Pacific shore again. Probably not the best day to visit the beach since we actually had some significant rain – rare in Baja, but the kids apparently had a blast, running through the surf in the rain. Earl and I spent the day in quiet, which was fine after several days with the kids.

All of a sudden, it was the 29^th. Jon and Stuart and their families were leaving the next day. Their visit seems to have flown by. We all met for a final evening at the condo that Stuart had rented. It has a spectacular view over the city. Stuart ordered in pizza – a challenge as the woman who took his order did not speak English. Whatever he said was apparently appropriate, because the pizza arrived and was good and the quantity ample. We enjoyed the sunset and each other.

Before leaving on the 30^th, I took Teri and Becky to my favorite pottery place, Ibara. The only problem there is deciding what not to buy. I keeping looking for excuses to go, and I never come back empty handed. I think the boat will eventually be filled with pottery.

We gave ourselves a treat for New Year’s Eve, Jamie, John and Elora came and spent the night with us. We had a wonderful time. The kids are wonderful dinner guests these days since they are never too full to eat a little more. We played cards and Phase 10. As usual, I did not last till midnight, but apparently the fireworks were great and the noise deafening. I slept through it all.

Steve and company came for lunch on the 2^nd before their flight at 3. Jamie insisted that he was going to lose his passport so that he could not go home. That would be okay with us. It seems very quiet without everyone. It was a lovely vacation, but went by far too fast. Now we are left with nothing but other old fogies like us.

Tomorrow we will finally leave La Paz for a while and do some cruising. We intend to head south toward Puerto Vallarta. It is down in the 60’s at night now, so Earl thinks it is time to look for a warmer climate. Hopefully the north winds which have been blowing most of the last month will take a hike.

Christmas, 2009 - La Paz

The kids arrived over the course of several days, and, because of them, it feels like Christmas even in the warm weather. The first bunch, Steve’s, looking weary from a 12 hours trip from Anchorage, and Stuart, Teri and Meaghan (looking delicious in her 20’s style straw cloche arrived together. We all scattered to do some shopping and met again for dinner at a Mexican place which was recommended by one of the locals. It was good, but I was afraid that John was going to fall asleep in his shrimp soup.

A couple of days later, we took the Alaskans out on the boat for the day. It was a glorious day, well into the 80’s and not a cloud. We went to Espiritu Santo Island, to San Gabriel Bay. This is a huge and very shallow bay. One can stand in waist high water quite a ways out from shore, perfect for people not too confident of their swimming skills. We had it all to ourselves. We all played in the water, kayaking, snorkeling, beach combing, swimming and just enjoying one another. Finally we went back to the boat, tired and sunburned, to hamburgers and the boat ride home.

The next day, we took Stuart, Teri, Meaghan and her friend Kasey out to a different beach on the same island. It is called Bonanza. Again, we had it to ourselves, and we all had a mellow time although it was not as beautiful a day. It is pretty amazing that just a couple of hours from La Paz one can find such solitude. Stuart caught two fish, both Sierra Mackerel and we made ceviche.

Last night, Christmas Eve, we spent at Stuart and Teri’s. They have rented a large place nearby that has plenty of space for everyone to sit and visit. The deck is huge and overlooks town and the bay. Last night the locals were partying – lots of loud music and firecrackers. We were also partying and had a wonderful time. Today we will go back there for a non traditional Christmas dinner and, no doubt, lots more jokes and laughter.

Tomorrow Earl will take the boys – Jon, Suart, Steve, Daniel, Jamie, and John – out for a couple of days of fishing. The ladies will be left on shore with cars and credits cards. I think we will be able to amuse ourselves.

December 18, 09 - Costa Baja Marina

I left Earl for a few days. I don’t know everything that happened in my absence, but Daisy got stung by a bee and Earl got some type of intestinal bug. Obviously they need a mother around. Earl blamed his disease on food he ate downtown, but I have my doubts. I got sick as well within a day of my return without the assistance of eating any locally prepared food. Hopefully, that is all now behind us. Christmas is suddenly here. La Paz is all decked out with lights and Xmas trees which seems incongruous to me in the Mexican desert environment. There are Santas wandering the grocery stores and the Xmas background music, usually Feliz Navidad, is ubiquitous.

I flew back into to Cabo San Lucas instead of La Paz. The difference between the two destinations is apparent even on the plane. The La Paz flight is a small plane and the passengers are quiet. The flight to Cabo was a party, all the more because I had been upgraded to first class. There was lots of drinking, laughing and calling back and forth across the aisles. I had decided to take a bus to La Paz. According to information on the web, that would be about a 2.5 hour ride and the buses left every hour or so. Our plane arrived around 1, so I had hopes of being back at the boat by 5. It turned out to be a learning experience. First, the airport in Cabo is crawling with people to ‘assist’ you. I mentioned I wanted to go the Aquila Bus Station in San Jose, and before I even had a chance to look for a cab, I found myself sold a bus ticket to the bus station, for more money than I thought the cab was supposed cost. (Not that it was much either way.) I sat on the bus for 30 minutes while it filled up, and we finally took off, with the first stop being the liquor store. Most of the passengers, almost all US, got off and came back with open beers and bags. The next stop was the bus station. Only three of us got off, as the bus apparently makes the rounds of all the hotels, which takes Lord knows long, but the passengers, well lubricated did not appear to care. They were already on vacation. Once at the bus station, the next challenge was communicating. There was a bus at 1300 and one at 1330. The man at the counter was very sweet, but spoke almost no English and I was flustered, since he seemed to assume that I was paying for the other two people who had arrived from the airport with me, so I did not ask the most important question, which was not ‘when does the bus leave’, but ‘ when does the bus arrive’. It was a pleasant, and very slow trip, though various villages, back streets, traffic jams and even one fiesta. I assume the bus has regular stops, but apparently they are willing to make additional stops for grandma or who ever, as needed. I finally arrived at the bus station in La Paz at 7. I suspect that the 1330 bus was an express that would have been faster. The fastest service is apparently the Peninsular Executive, which was also listed on the schedule. They apparently run every two hours and are nonstop to La Paz from Cabo and San Jose. If I fly into Cabo again, I will call Peninsular first and find out where and when to take the bus to La Paz.

I had hoped to go out to the islands for a couple of days this week. It was not to be. For one thing, there seemed to be quite a long to do list of little jobs. For another, we had our first experience with the sustained north winds that can come up in the winter. It was probably not terrible conditions compared to some we have been in up north, but we have gotten pretty used to flat water.

We have bought a new weather machine, a serius. We are hoping that it will give us more detailed information for the Sea of Cortez than we have been able to get from the sat. phone weather net. As usual with electronics, we are missing some cable to complete the installation, so we will have to wait until Stuart brings it with him on Saturday when he arrives. We are looking forward to seeing Teri, Meaghan , Steve, Heidi, Jamie, Elora and John tomorrow. As I mentioned, the plane flying into La Paz is small, and apparently half the passengers will have the same last name. Meaghan’s friend, Kasey, and Jon, Becky and Daniel will be arriving a few days later. I am sure they are all ready for vacation in the sun and we are ready for a vacation with them.

We decided to rent a car for the time that the kids are here. Renting a car is not quick thing here. I don’t believe I have ever seen so much paper work. We were very fortunate in getting a nice new car from National. Some people we met here were not so lucky. The car they rented came complete with spiders which bit them. Then came the fun part – driving in La Paz. The main roads are not bad, but most of the rest seem to lack street signs. Instead, at almost every corner, there is an ALTO (stop) sign, usually hidden in the trees. Judging from the local drivers, a stop sign here is merely a suggestion. At the most, people seem to simply slow down a bit. It is a little scary.

We spent most of yesterday trying to track down a leak in the water system. We started getting water dripping in the engine room after the boat was washed down in San Jose del Cabo. Earl thinks that one of the guys must have sprayed water up the vents in the stack, some of which found its way inside. The water gradually dried up, until the day before yesterday when Earl was filing the water tanks, it suddenly started dripping again. We tore the boat apart, emptying refrigerators and moving them. The boat is put together like a jigsaw puzzle. You can get behind and under things by lifting or unscrewing panels. Earl chased waterlines all around the kitchen area. After making a huge mess, he determined that we did not have a leak, but that some of the water which had come in in San Jose had been moving again. We are pretty sure that it was following the course of a green wire which carries the lightening ground from the mast to the bottom of the hull. So it turned out to be a wild goose chase. On the bright side, Earl knows more about his boat then he did before, and we have clean refrigerators.

We had a lovely couple over for drinks and chili last night. They are on a sail boat and came down as part of the Baja Haha. They were from Ventura California, but sold their house two days before they left, so their boat is now their home. They are off tomorrow for Mazatlan for a month. We hope we catch up with them sometime along the way.

Today is Earl’s birthday. We will celebrate by doing a little exploring by car and no boat jobs.

December 1 - Costa Baja Marina, La Paz

We had a couple of days with the Scarboro’s in La Paz before they left on the 18^th. We reacquainted ourselves with La Paz, explored the Municipal Mercado, and two grocery stores, one small and one (CCC) very large. At the smaller store, we were buying tequila. We had an enormous and baffling choice. So I asked an older gentleman who was shopping what he could tell us. Bottom line, it did not sound as if he had ever had bad tequila. We bought his recommendations, one of which was his every day tequila and one which was a slightly more expense brand. So far, Earl has not had any comments.

We also checked out the Marina La Paz. It is very different from Costa Baja and in many ways nicer. Costa Baja is pretty swanky, with lots of locals cleaning boats, many of which are unoccupied. The marina is part of a resort development and has excellent security and a purified water system. It is a ways out of town, but there is a free shuttle every couple of hours during the day. It also has the advantage of being right at the entrance into the bay and therefore about 1 hour nearer cruising waters. Marina La Paz has a long history here and is much beloved. It is in very good shape, closer to down town, significantly cheaper than Costa Baja and mostly filled with smaller boats. There is a lot more activity on the docks than at Costa Baja. The downside, the security is far from reassuring and the water is not really potable. It is also definitely not a hurricane hole, having been wiped out by a storm in recent history.

At the Marina La Paz we had the good luck of running into our Canadian friends that we had met in Fort Bragg. They were on their way south for the winter and will be back in La Paz in March and promised that we would get together then.

We took off on the 19^th for our first cruise of the Sea of Cortez. Our first stop was at the nearby Island Espiritu Santo, which is ringed with beautiful anchorages, all with sand beaches. It is only a couple of hours for us from La Paz. We expect to spend a lot of time in the next few months around this island and its neighbors. Then we went up the Isla San Francisco to an anchorage called the Hook, again an easy run morning run from Espiritu Santo. For the first time in a while, the water was choppy. We had gotten lazy and were completely unprepared for anything other than smooth waters and had not put things away. We broke a decorative dish we had just bought in La Paz and got salt on the boat. I guess it was a day for screw ups. I did a bad job of tying up the dingy after Earl took a ride and we saw it drifting away. Fortunately, another boat, the Kismet, rescued it for us. The hook at San Francisco is almost too perfect to believe. It is a large crescent shape with a beautiful sand beach and aqua colored water. It is perfect for swimming and kayaking.

We continued on north through the San Jose Channel. On the west side there is the Sierra de la Giganta which is red rock, reminiscent of what you would see in the Grand Canyon or the Southwest. It is strange to see it in conjunction with the beautiful blue water. The red rock makes for spectacular sunrises and sunsets. We ran 54 miles north to an anchorage known as Aqua Verde. It is popular and having been there we can see why. A sailboat, the Last Resort, which had been moored next to us in Costa Baja and which we had been running into on the way north was anchored nearby and we invited them to come for drinks. Dick is a cancer survivor and has a website which has inspired a number of others cancer victims. We bought his book and have been enjoying his history.

The next day we looked into Port Escondido which is an extraordinary natural harbor, and then went across the way to another lovely cove on Isla Danzante. Having satisfied ourselves that we could explore this area for a long time we turned south, first to a little community of San Evaristo and then returned to the Hook for Thanksgiving which we celebrated without turkey or TV. It was wonderful. We spent a couple of days there kayaking and snorkeling. Finally we pulled anchor and headed for Isla Partita just north of Espiritu Santo. On the way, Earl caught a dorado which was beautiful (and apparently very tasty) and lost another fish. Again we anchored in a beautiful spot. However around 5 the wind came up and Earl decided that he did not want to rock and roll all night so we pulled up the anchor and headed toward La Paz. It was a pretty chopping ride with the wind from the south west. It is hard to find good shelter in a SW wind here. We finally anchored in cove behind Isla Lobos where we had stayed with the Scarboros. It was quieter than outside the cove, but the boat bucked all night. In the morning we found the anchor was really dug in.

Returning to La Paz, I wondered what the most important discoveries were that we had made. The first is perhaps that this is a beautiful place to cruise, with almost endless beautiful anchorages. The next was that the Mexican charts for the area are not as precise as the ones we have at home. They are fine for the big picture, but not very much use close to anything. The plotter which shows our position from GPS has us routinely riding right over islands. It means we are learning new ways of navigating, using waypoints that we input with lat and long rather than just drawing in a course using the mouse. In the future we will input a number of these in our furuno plotter before leaving on a cruise. We are also very impressed with the cruising guide which we had purchased for the Sea of Cortez. It was written by a young couple and they have done a beautiful job of establishing GPS locations for anchorages and hazards, as well as doing a great job as a travel guide to the Sea. Another discovery is that our cell phones with Verizon are really not useful outside of La Paz. Our friends on the Last Resort had service with ATT which has partnered with Telcel here. They had good service. I will look into switching from Verizon at the next chance I have. I really don’t like being quite so cut off. We have the sat phone for emergencies, but it is just not the same as normal cell phone service. We also had the opportunity to check out a couple of small communities, Aqua Verde and San Evaristo. Both are fishing villages. Water desalinization has been a god send to communities like these. I wonder what they did for water before. We visited the small tiendas in each village. They are very small and very sweet. They have small supplies of canned items and some fresh vegetables and eggs. Nothing costs much. Another discovery is the extraordinary productivity of this sea. Every night we turn on our blue underwater lights and watch the fish and pelicans come. The pelicans tantalize Daisy as they dive under our swim step to catch fish which are incredibly thick. The boat basin here at Costa Baja also reflects the incredible fish population. Even during the day we feel like we are in an aquarium.

I leave tomorrow for a quick trip to New York. I hope Earl does not get into too much trouble in my absence.

November 16, 09 - Costa Baja Marina, La Paz

On November 12 at the San Jose del Cabo Marina, we spend the morning at the dock. Earl had decided to get the boat washed. A small army arrived at 7:30 and went to work. They even took the cover off the dingy and washed the inside of it. They swarmed over the boat for 3 hours, leaving it looking beautiful. The cost was $60 for a job we could never have done ourselves in less than a week. When we left it was already noon and many of the boats that had taken off to go fishing that morning were already on their way back in. We found out why. Less than 2 miles from the marina we had two dorado on at the same time. Clark’s was the larger, probably about 30 pounds. Earl insisted on keeping both of them – eyes bigger than stomach issue. We now have considerable fish in the freezer. From now on, I will be a little firmer about the release part of fishing. However, I have to say, having had the opportunity to pull in one of the fish, that the catching part is great. We also have Clark’s great ceviche recipe which all our guest will have an opportunity to enjoy.

That night we anchored at los Frailes. It looked like a beautiful beach, but we did not put down the dingy, just sat and enjoyed. It is around the corner from a national marine park, Cabo Pulmo Marine Park, which has a large coral reef and is much loved by divers.

The next day, the 13^th, we had a lazy day going north to the Bahia de los Muertos to anchor. This is large lovely bay. There were probably 25 sail boats there, a portion of the Baja Haha fleet, but there was plenty of room for all. The real estate developers have been busy here and there are a number of very large houses and one resort on the bay. For development purposes, they have changed the name to Bahia de las Suenas (Bay of dreams). Whatever the name, it is a lovely spot. As has become our habit, Earl turned on the blue underwater lights at dark. Boy did we have a fish show, a school of 10 inch fish, which sort of put us off swimming for a while.

That night the wind came up from the Southwest. This was our first exposure to the Coromuel, an evening phenomenon in the La Paz area. Based on the radio chatter, some of the sailors anchored near us, found it intimidating. They agreed that a northern, expected later in the week, had come in early. I am not sure how they got there in the face of a SW wind.

That day, the 14^th, we took off and headed north. We had a bumpy ride to start with. We went through a narrow pass between the Isla Espiritu Santo and the Baja (Canal San Lorenzo) and then headed south toward La Paz. We stopped about 15 or 20 miles from La Paz at a charming little cove behind Isla Lobos. We had it pretty much to ourselves other than a sail boat anchored in another arm of the cove. The water was so clear that we could see our anchor on the bottom. Joan and Clark took a dingy ride. Earl and I rinsed off the boat. The water is very salty here and the short time we here in bouncy water had left a considerable deposit on the boat. We could brush it off with our fingers and Joan and I were tempted to scrape some off into bags and present our friends with bags of sea salt. Afterwards we all went for a swim – it was wonderful. After dinner, Joan and I went in again, without suits, and it was delicious. I had my first experience with phosphorescence. It is very cool. When you move your arms and legs through the water, you can see little flashes of light, like 4 of July sparklers. It is very cool. We were a little melancholy that this was our last night anchoring out with the Scarboros. Our trip from San Diego has gone too quickly. Clark, Joan and I went for a swim the morning of the 15^th before heading for La Paz. It was so wonderful that we did not want it get out. Clark especially loves swimming in the sea, and it will be awhile before his next opportunity.

By noon of the 15^th, we were tied up at the dock in the Costa Baja Marina, and at the end of the journey part of our trip. From now on we will ‘cruising’ with much less of a fixed target. We splurged, eating out both lunch and dinner. For lunch, we ate at a lovely little open air place on the beach. Dinner we took the shuttle bus into town and had dinner at Las Tres Virgenes, a charming restaurant in the courtyard of an old building. Heavenly!

Today, the 16^th, Happy Birthday to Brian. We are off to check out the Mercado later and replenish our veggie supply.