| March 15, 2003 Greetings now from La Paz, Mexico. We are enjoying very much our stay here in La Paz. It is a most charming, clean, pleasant town with a very warm, laid-back atmosphere. There is no begging, and one feels very safe. The promenade along the shoreline is just beautiful to walk along. The sounds of roosters and church bells wake you in the morning. It would be very easy to linger here a while � and many cruisers do just that. To recap from our last update, I must mention first more about our stay in Ensenada. To have been there on Carnival weekend (their version of Mardi Gras) was such an added bonus. The parade on Saturday afternoon, March 1, was so much fun with lots of colorful floats and music. Quite a festive atmosphere! Then, in the evening, we enjoyed again their Carnival. It was much livelier than Friday night with lots more people and music and many couples dancing in the streets. A fond memory of mine will always be watching a group of 4 to 5 people move along the streets, one behind the other, keeping time to the music as they tried to make their way through the crowds. We departed Ensenada on Sunday, March 2, around 12:15 p.m. headed toward La Paz. The first 2� hours were spent beating hard to windward as we crossed the bay (Bahia de Todos Santos) from Ensenada in order to clear the outer point (Cabo Punta Banda). We probably took more water across our rails in these 2� hours than during the rest of the passage. Our passage along the outside of the Baja Peninsula (almost 800 miles in length) can be divided into three legs. Our first leg was from Cabo Punta Banda to Isla Cedros. After clearing the point, we had a most beautiful downwind sail for the rest of the afternoon and evening, even having at times 1 to 1� knots of favorable current. Were we moving! By midnight, though, we once again succumbed to motoring. It wasn�t until the next day, Monday, March 4, around 4 p.m. that we started to sail once more, and then we sailed for most of the rest of the first leg. The winds were pretty consistent, fluctuating between 8 to 13 knots, and thus our boat speed oscillated back and forth between 4 to 6+ knots. The seas were moderate, and at times we had a favorable current of � knot. The nights were beautiful, full of lots of stars due to the new moon, but since the wind was coming generally from the NW, it was quite cold. We sailed by the northern tip of Isla Cedros in the early afternoon of Tuesday, March 4. Because we were having such a great sail, we decided to go along the windward side of the island, thus hoping to keep our wind. The windward north side was steep and rugged with few trees on top. But, unfortunately, we lost most of our wind, and so had to motorsail in order to clear the southern end of the island before nightfall (the total length of the island being around 20 miles). (Note: If one ever looks at a map of the world, no matter how big or small, there is always one island that is shown along the western side of the Baja Peninsula, and that is Isla Cedros.) Our second leg was from Isla Cedros to Bahia Santa Maria. After clearing Isla Cedros, we also needed to clear Isla Natividad before being once more free of land. It wasn�t until around 1 a.m. on Wednesday, March 5, that we finally cleared that small last island. It ended up being a long night, especially for the captain, as there were many weather changes around Punta Eugenia � even had some squalls � plus no wind at times. But, by the time we were near Bahia Tortuguas (one of the anchorages at which we thought we might stop � especially if we needed fuel, and we didn�t), the winds were perfect, and so we decided to continue on. All Wednesday we sailed with winds mostly from the NW, 9 to 15 knots, with moderate seas. As the wind fluctuated slightly, so did the boat � and as we were sailing downwind that meant jibing about 4 to 6 times to keep us on track (quite a zigzag plot on the chart). Wednesday ended up being a gorgeous blue-sky day, and that night there were lots of stars out. Only 1 hour during the night did we have to motor. |
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