First of all, you can see that the seas had while we were in Asuncion were nothing to worry about. Try as I might I could not get the photo loaded onto the last blog. I have had fairly good luck blogging from Mexico but there have been challenges, and now it seems I am limited to what I can do online, beyond editing words once I upload the post to my website. Anyway, it was a nice place to be while waiting for the winds and seas to lay down.

We did dinghy ops in Asuncion twice with success. The towns on the Baja Peninsula aren’t big. It is always a surprise to see just how large the town is when we start stretching our legs, walking around. We saw four tiendas/markets in Asuncion, and we wonder if there were more. A lady in one shop told us there are about 4000 residents. The guys are good at timing the waves, and this time we left the wheels up, so no catching a wheel when we needed to be motoring away.

One personal comment about my last blog: No one commented on our dowsing in red tide. Sniff sniff – I expected many notes of condolence. Either I did a poor job explaining what happened or you all have had worse. Come on – really? 🙂

We left Asuncion a couple days ago, at first light, and came directly to Turtle Bay.

It was a good ride compared to some of the other voyages we’ve had lately. Large swell, with a long period – meant that we coasted up over the swell, as it slid down under us.

We were within five miles of Turtle Bay when this whale came along – not very close, but I managed to get a photo. This is a very large whale. We think there may have been a baby, too, but we only got one brief glimpse. They were traveling faster than us!

Wind started up just before we got into Turtle Bay, but we were in before it got uncomfortable for voyaging.

Voyaging rule – always refuel on arrival. Never wait for later, as plans change as the weather changes, and waiting for fuel to depart is “against’ the rules. We use Reuben with Annabell’s panga to refuel. Reuben generally has a slightly better price. He is also a very nice man and we enjoy visiting with him. He will help boaters anyway he can if it is in his power. All that said, Reuben was nowhere to be seen! We called and called and no answer. The panga was not in the bay, the building was boarded up, and so we had no choice but to go with the competitor. About three hours after refueling Annabell’s panga came into the bay offering fuel.

There was a big swell in here upon arrival. In fact, Enrique’s fuel dock was anchored out in the bay, and his gangway was bouncing in the swell. He led us to his fuel panga out in the bay and we refueled from there. We rolled some at anchor, but it settled down and isn’t too bad now. However, no one is trying to take their dinghy ashore. Enrique’s panga is doing taxi service. It means jumping from the panga to the first step on a metal gangway – a rather high step from my viewpoint. I passed on that acrobatic event. Bruce and John went ashore to do light provisioning of fresh fruits.

We believe we see our weather window back to Ensenada. There are more than a dozen boats, here in Turtle Bay, waiting for this same window. I heard one boater say they have been waiting here for over a week. It will be an interesting voyage. We found ourselves “out there” by ourselves for much of our voyaging this season. Now there will be a flotilla. Mostly sailboats, we are the “slow” motor boat that will be faster than the sailboats, and there are a couple larger yachts that will blow by us all. All of us, with one mission – get back home to the USA.

We expect to depart Turtle Bay Friday morning, do a short voyage of about 50 miles, which will reduce our trip to Ensenada by about seven hours. We will then be prepositioned for our Saturday run to Ensenada. We will get underway from North Cedros, on Saturday, and do our last overnight voyage, if all goes as planned, on the Baja Peninsula. Commonly referred to as the “Baja Bash”, this year, it truly earned its name. Meanwhile – we are still Cruising in Mexico.