M/Y Mary Ann

As calm and perfect a day (and night) running as one might hope. Almost nothing to see at night, fortunately, and little more during the day. A few whales, but that's about it. We're on the hook now in this rather desolate bay that provides one of what are said to be two good anchorage rest stops between San Diego and Cabo San Lucas, but it's 26', seems reasonably well protected, and not crowded at all so we're ready for a solid night of sleep. The harbor is surrounded by barren hills and there is a small village at the foot of the bay.

A peaceful day in a following sea, bright sunshine, almost no breeze. Since leaving Sidney last September we have never taken any spray over the bow. How’s that for calm seas? We’re running at 1250 RPM making 10.0 knots over the ground and 9.2 through the water. Fuel consumption is 16 GPH, a little better than previously as I search for the best combination of speed and fuel consumption. This is definitely a 10 knot boat as cranking the engines up to 2350 RPM only gives another six or seven knots and the fuel consumption goes up well into triple digits.

We hauled in here yesterday about 1530 after another overnight run of 250 Miles. All calm water and uneventful, although it does seem at night in the pitch blackness as if we were hurtling uncontrollably through space, even at a gentlemanly ten knots. Of course you can’t see a thing ahead of you with your eyes so it’s then that I remember the stories about boats running into cargo containers that have fallen off ocean freighters.

We had a final tiring overnight run from Mag Bay to Cabo San Lucas without incident, following a super brightly lighted large motor yacht most of the way as he slowly pulled ahead of us at a speed differential of one knot. Before dropping out of sight however, he was gracious enough to point out to me that I had no running lights and, upon being advised that both were burned out, gave me some gratis and unsolicited counsel about carrying spares.

We managed to drag ourselves away from Cabo this morning and in a way it was kind of a struggle because we had all of the creature comforts of home at the Marina Cabo San Lucas. But the open road calls so we hauled away at 0830, spending the first twenty minutes trying to get the recalcitrant Glendining power cord retractor to retract the power cord, but it finally saw the light and let us depart.

As you see, we have moved. I was right about the anchorage being suspect. We were in 11 feet by afternoon today as the wind shifted from northerly to south and picked up to about twenty knots. So we were dragging in the sand apparently, even though I had 125 feet of chain out in 23 feet of water. We moved to a spot along the beach more protected from the southerly winds, but the wind shifted back so now we no protection from winds from either direction. That’s the kind of day it’s been.

The wind died down in the morning so we left our anchorage and headed north around the foot of Baja. Seems like we should be heading east, but north it is and away we went, logging a gentlemanly 10 knots in flat seas while burning about 18 gallons per hour. I gave the port generator a chance to behave, but it flipped me off and wouldn’t take a load for even an hour so I guess I have to find somebody that can fix it in La Paz. I really don’t have a clue what is wrong with it, but the engine is running fine so it’s probably some little electrical foul up, I hope.

It is 1800 hours here in the Bay of the Dead and the three of us contemplate: “Should we take the shore boat into the secret restaurant that we discovered this afternoon or should we dine on the boat?’ It shouldn’t be a tough decision. The Mackerel Perfecto that we served just a few days ago, we have renamed Mackerel Imperfecto. Before five bites had been consumed the fish had become the kind of leftovers that one does not save and so we chucked it into the sea.. Its school companions residing in the freezer soon joined it.

Interesting day, if you like being bounced around like a basketball on a three sided court. We were at the bar of the new restaurant at Muertos (now renamed Bahia de Suertes) watching the Weather Channel last night and saw a big high pressure cell that seemed to be bringing weather joy over Baja like a down comforter in a Swiss winter so we left that relatively snug spot at 0900 and made our way north around the corner of Baja.

Report from Captain Mary Ann—February 18,2003—La Paz. Here we are in a slip at Marina Palmira and a little less than two miles from the malecon and the downtown anchorage. We would have preferred to be right in the center of the city at Marina de La Paz but they had no room for a ninety foot boat. Anyway it will only take us a couple of minutes to take the shore boat into the city and, from all we have heard, we should consider ourselves lucky to even find a dock spot without reservations.