Nov. 2004 Turtle Bay and Bahia Santa Maria

Here we are in Turtle Bay. This is Kim and Linda (Endeavour) and another cruiser, Linda, on Entelechy. Turtle Bay is in the background, and the town, dusty and small, is located behind and just to the side of this bar. We had our first Corona in Mexico here. This is a rite of passage for all cruisers...I don't even like beer, but had one anyway!

Jan and Rich aboard Slip Away, our sister ship. Wow, what a great job they have done with their renos!

Ralph proudly displaying his first tuna! However, afterward was not such a pretty sight...the cook trying to deal with very rolly seas and a very bloody fish! We didn't know we were supposed to bleed this fish...seemed to be doing a damn fine job all on its own! Found what appeared to be a good recipe but, once cooked, it still tasted like tuna! Tuna should be in a sandwich or a salad...not a main course, in my mind.

All ashore for a pot-luck in Bahia Santa Maria. We had fifteen cruising boats attend this, both Canadian and US boats. No shortage of food or drink at the pot-lucks.
The pot-luck from above. Fortuitous is out there somewhere. We really enjoyed this place! Here, we traded with a fisherman. We got 4 lobster for 2 cokes, 2 pencils, some candy and a small stuffed toy. MMMMM MMMM GOOD!

These are some of the people we are travelling with. We sometimes leave a place together, sometimes separately, but we all seem to meet up again somewhere down the line. The people are the greatest!

Here I am trying to learn how to use the outboard. A tiller seems to be difficult for me to grasp...no pun intended. Pull left go right, pull right go left...what is that all about anyway!

Here we are off on another hike. This area is a small spit of land and on the other side is Mag Bay. We had to walk right through this little village, no way to skirt it. I felt a little uncomfortable, but there were no problems.
This is a tidal area. During low tide, it would be impossible to bring in the fish boats.

We arrived at the other side after quite a long, dusty, and hot walk. Time for lunch. Kim and Linda doing just that...what's with that hat, Kim?

Denis and Michele, on Aquastrian accompanied us on the hike. They are fitness nuts, but we managed to keep up with them.
This was our picnic spot...quite neat! You can see the wreck in the background.

After lunch we took a walk along the beach. We could not believe how many birds we saw!

There were several whale bones along this beach, and the remnants of a wreck as well.

This is a very, very rare "elephant cactus". Can you see it?

November 2004 Islas San Benitos, Mexico

This is about to be our first stop in Mexico. We are heading toward the Islas San Benitos. It was quite exciting for us to cross out of the US and into Mexico!

The proud captain! He has managed to get us all the way to Mexico!!

As we anchored here, we found a sister ship to Fortuitous. This is Slip Away. We discovered, later, that we already had seen this boat several years earlier in Puerto Vallarta. At that time, she had different owners and was called "Mine Too". Jan and Rich now own her and have done many renovations.

We travelled here with Endeavour (in the foreground) and Sol Mate (Stan and MJ) in the back.

There was a lot of seaweed in the anchorage, but it was quite calm and pleasant.

We all went ashore for a little look-see and a hike.

This is a haven for seals and elephant seals. They look like rocks, from the boat, but closer up look like slugs!

Contrary to popular belief, this is not me in the water! This is a female elephant seal. They don't have the same big nose as the males.

We did not see any male elephant seals. The elephant seals come here to mate and calf. The females arrive here first, and rest up for the arrival of the males, when they will be kept very busy! So, what else is new?

San Benitos fishing village. Very few people here, right now, as it is not abalone season. They come from the mainland, we think, and stay here during the season.

After a somewhat difficult hike...lots of loose gravelly soil...we reached the summit. Fortuitous and the other boats are below.

This is our first contact with the terrain of the Baja. Very desert-like. Lots of cactus and rocks, and very little else.

A tiny cactus just coming into bloom.

As you can see, not much vegetation at all! Looking off toward the other island.

Another closer view of the fishing village. We were surprised how little these people can get by with...not much in the way of modern conveniences. Electricity appeared to be from a generator.

November 2004 San Diego

We have now arrived in San Diego. It was not a pretty arrival. We had checked out the dock, all looked OK. Unfortunately, we had underestimated the current there and as we were about to enter our slip, we were pushed sideways and ended up at right angles to it. With a lot of help from our friends, we managed to berth with no damage. So, I decided to have my birthday so that we could all forget our docking! Wasn't that nice of me!

In truth, we had hoped to be in Mexico, for my birthday, but ended up in San Diego instead. Everyone decided to have a dock birthday party for me. As you can see, Kim and I are almost losing our eyebrows with the heat from those candles! And, I think there are only one quarter as many candles as there should be! That cake warmed up the whole dock!

This is Stan, from Sol Mate, along with Kim. They look so proud you'd think they baked that cake themselves...or maybe they've just had too much to drink...nah, that can't be it!

As we were leaving San Diego, a US submarine decided to depart at the same time. We were ordered to keep well away...like we didn't plan to do that anyway!! San Diego is a huge navy port so seeing these, and other warships, was a common occurrence. On our way into port, we were contacted by a "Warship" and ordered to change course to avoid it.

There she goes!!