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January 7th-(Happy Birthday to my sister Sue!) What a nice day we had today. Since we have no schedule to meet, we were able to wait a few days for a nice South wind that allowed us to go North almost 40 miles today, up to San Evaristo without using the engine. Finally, we were able to just “follow the wind”. We left Partida (an island about 15 miles off of La Paz where we spent the night anchored in a lovely little cove) around 0930 and sailed on a nice broad reach with just the 130% jib. Ten knots of wind gave us around 4-5 knots boatspeed for most of a gloriously sunny and warm day. Large fish jumped all over the sea during the mid-morning-we’re not sure, but think they might have been Marlin or Sailfish. You’d see a huge flash of white water, then silver and blue shinning skin and another splash. One jumped right in front of us, but since I wasn’t looking in that direction when it leapt, all I saw was the subsequent splash of something very large. Wilson the wind vane steered the whole day, so we were able to lounge and just enjoy the trip (well, I did-Ann did some boat cleaning, did the laundry and took a sun shower). We arrived in San Evaristo at 1730, and anchored just in time to watch the sunset and an almost full moon come up over Isla San Jose about 5 miles to the East. We’ll probably spend a few days here to wait out some rambunctious “Northers” that are forecast for tomorrow and Monday (25 or so knots out of the North), then the more normal 10-15 knot North winds will fill back in and we’ll use them to start working our way South toward an eventual “jump” to Mazatlan-likely mid to late next week. By the way, for those of you who read Lattitude 38, your challenge is to find pictures of Ann and I in the January edition. We sent something in and while they didn’t pick up the blurb we sent, they did post our pictures eating at The Shack, in La Paz. Tomorrow we hope to be able to try out our new inflatable kayaks for the first time! Cross fingers and yes, I’ll take video.

So sad to leave La Paz, but exciting to move forward on our adventure.

Sad because of leaving all the great people we’ve made friends with over the past month or so. Adios, to our dock-mates; Terry and Heidi, Jim and Dianne, Rod and Jane, Bill and Katy, Gerry and Marilee, Ben and Ellie, Joe and Sharon, Kirk, Vicky, Don and Kathi, Lloyd and Colleen and Mike and Robin (who made us a great send-off dinner on their boat-many thanks). It is not easy to explain how a place (dock 3) can feel like home in such a short period – it’s got to be the people. Our apologies to all the others who we have met and have neglected to mention during our great time in La Paz. (Oh, and a special call out to Marina Palmira. Great job!) And what a great town. Wonderful, friendly people and unique experiences that we’ll remember forever. But, we’re also excited to move forward. We’re heading into new territory…well, in a little while. For the next week or so, we’re going back out to the islands to explore some more before making the crossing in about a week, over to Mazatlan and mainland Mexico. For the next week or so, we’re going back out to Partida/Isla Espiritu Santos, Isla San Francisco and San Evaristo, but this time without a schedule of having to “be” anywhere, anytime. We’re also going to try out our new inflatable kayaks 😉 So for now, it’s great to be back out at anchor with adventure waiting right around the corner. Today, we sailed around all day in La Paz Bay looking for Whale Sharks. No joy,; but saw a couple whales and some dolphins. For now (at 2000), we’re happily anchored over a sand bottom, in about 19 feet of water at Balendra Bay; a nice little cove with some beautiful white sand beaches. Just finished dinner of Sierra Mackerel that we bought on our last trip to Bravo Mercado yesterday (how I’m going to miss that place; you have to see it to believe it) with broccoli and rice which followed Charismas at sunset-of course. Now we’re just sitting and enjoying the gentle rocking motion at anchor. The moon is up and sparkling on the water. It will be full in just a few days. We have no more words to describe how happy we are.

Trying to catch up with our photos.  Here are photos of a trip we took out to the islands off La Paz in December with our friends Cliff and Leslynn, who came down to visit.

Cliff and Leslynn from the Bay Area joined us for a few days of cruising...

...and Mexican Omelettes were the order of the day before hiking...

...we took a hike on Espiritu Santo from the anchorage called Candelara...

...some cool rock formations....

...in a beautiful cove....

...and the view as we climbed just got better and better...

...and ending the day with a full moonrise.