Cabo San Lucas to La Paz

Hello everyone

We are about to leave Marina La Palmira in La Paz and this is my last project before we untie and head out to Isla Espiritu Santo. My apologies for the lack of photos, but the internet here just will not allow them to upload.

We have been enjoying ourselves for the last few weeks on all the beautiful beaches from Cabo San Lucas to La Paz. We visited Bahia Los Frailles and gorged ourselves on sun, snorkelling, kayaking and swimming. The water was perfect for swimming and was an amazing clear blue green. We stayed there for 2 days and then moved up the coast to Puerto Los Muertes de Ensenada. We stayed for 2 days and played on the beautiful beach there as well. There was a restaurant at this bay which served up all the traditional Mexican food so we took a few breaks from the galley and let somebody else do those chores!

Next we headed up to La Paz for Carnaval and to witness the renewed wedding vows of our daughter Amber and her husband Cory. They have been married almost 10 years and decided to renew their vows during their visit. A picture says a thousand words and when the internet will allow me, I will post some photos. Needless to say, the bride was gorgous, the groom was smitten and the setting was beautiful. With a minister from the "Church of What's Happening Now", a professional photographer, a commandeered mandolin player and the rest of us, the ceremony was touching to witness and an honour to be a part of. Afterward we enjoyed an authentic Mexican dinner complete with a sombrero wearing singer belting hispanic melodies!!

After a few days in La Paz sightseeing and enjoying Carnaval we went back out to visit a bay called Ballandra. In our guide book it looked very beautiful and we did not want to pass it up and it was only a couple of hours from La Paz. Cory and amber and Taylor only had a few days left of their holiday and we needed more beach time! Ballandra turned out to be as gorgeous as the book said. We played around there for a couple of days and then back to La Paz for the end of Carnaval. This year the Mexican people are celebrating their 200th year of independance and that was the theme of this year's Carnaval. I will share pictures when I can; the floats and costumes were amazing and everywhere there was music, music, music!!

We leave La Paz today to head out to Isla Espiritu Santo to meet up again with Misty Moonlight and then continue our travels north. A lot of the islands are all protected parks. We plan on going to the Loreto area and investigate the islands around there. After that; who knows? If anyone wants to join us , there is an airport in Loreto. You can phone us at 612 152 5724. The cell phone seems to work most places. Anyhow folks, the lines are tugging, it is time to get away from dock and onto more adventures!!

Blog ya later!

Did I mention that the girls had a few boat troubles? Well, it kinda goes like this...
Electrolysis had ravaged their prop shaft strut and the shaft came loose just south of Turtle Bay. Blake and I gave them a tow into the bay and gave assistance where we could with the repair. When they were removing the strut from the boat to fix it, a little more bad luck came their way. The bearing that holds the shaft in place kinda fell out and sank to the bottom. While Blake and Sarah rebuilt the strut with spare pieces of steel from the Nordic and the use of a shop in town, Irene (along with some local lobster fishermen) dove for the missing bearing. Kinda like a needle in a hay stack but luck was with the girls and one of the divers found the bearing. Not a dry eye in the house!! About the time the bearing was found, Blake and Sarah had finished rebuilding the strut and the repair was able to happen.

With the help of a local fish boat, Misty was lifted out of the water and Irene, Liz, Sarah and Blake completed the repair.

Happy team after all repairs were made and we were leaving Turtle Bay bound for Magdalena Bay

Nothing like a little bakery stop after a lengthy underwater boat repair

Bahia de Tortuga (turtle bay)
We stayed here for 3 nights.

Side streets in Turtle Bay. Population here is about 200 people

More Turtle Bay.

San Quintin Bay

My birthday party

Even with the storm raging outside, the birthday must go on!!

From left to right: Sarah, Me, Liz and Irene. Our friends from Misty Moonlight.

Blake out in the storm that struck us for 3 days in San Quintin Bay. We clocked the wind at 44 knots. Quite exciting and just a little stressful....

Beautiful San Quintin Bay with out the storm. Looks just a little different....

Sandy beach, warm sun and a gentle breeze; sighhhh........
During our stay here (four days) we saw humpback whales continuously. San Quintin lagoon is one of many lagoons along the Baja where the whales come annually to give birth to their babies. They travel over 1500 miles to come here. It was rare to not see a whale and they were so close to us we could smell their breath - pretty stinky!!

Baja pictures

Hey everyone - finally some photos to go with our journey. We started fishing as soon as we were in Mexican waters and were rewarded right away with this guy. Not sure what type of fish this is but he sure was tasty!!

Ensenada was the first town in Mexico that we visited. We signed into the country here and stayed one night before heading out to San Quintin Bay 110 nm to the south.

Just some of the beautiful seashore down the Baja peninsula.