Saturday, May 21, 2011

0605, Sat, 052111. Waters were fairly calm so we decided to take a nice ride around the bay of Balandra. The last time Sue and I had done this it was low tide so we couldn't go into the back section very far. This time we had a little more tide in our favor so we were able to get clear to the back by tilting the engine at a higher angle giving us about a foot of draft. The bay goes a lot further back than we thought. What you see from a distance is simply a sand peninsula with more water behind it. We could see fish darting around as we skimmed along the surface, but as we toured the wind picked up. By the time we got back to Neos we had a rough time while getting the dinghy back on board. By that time it was afternoon and time to get out of there anyhow. With just the jib out, no motors, we sailed along at just under five knots with the wind at our backs for a great sail right into La Paz.
Along the way we were surprised by a couple of mid sized whales. We were about a hundred feet from shore when these two youngsters started jumping out of the water right next to us. How kewl is that. We told Jim that we had planned it that way and were lucky the whales co operated so well. What a sight.
Coming into the entrance to the long channel of La Paz harbor is a dock for large ships to unload or load oil. The entrance is just around the nose of these big ships and our arrival was just as the big ship was getting ready to move on. We made it past in time and headed down the slot to our anchorage.
Good thing it was the last night for cards. Jimbo took the last win. I guess we could be considered gracious hosts. Jim's last night on board was absolutely flat so we got a great night's sleep…..more later..

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