Here is a shot of the almost full moon still shining brightly well after sunrise on Tuesday, September 13.

Christi thinks that on Tuesday, our friend, Chris, had an angel watching over him and protecting him. Eric thinks that Chris got lucky with a chain of fortuitous coincidences. 

Thanks to the hurricane on Thursday (September 8), many roads were washed out and the stores were unable to get shipments. On the radio net on Tuesday morning, someone announced that one of the stores in The Village had eggs. We made an impulsive decision to go buy eggs right then. We quickly got the dinghy up and lifted anchor. Much to our surprise, a tiny octopus was attached to the anchor! 

It was a short one-hour ride to The Village. As we were nearing the anchorage, we saw our friends on the catamaran Basik were also heading in. We’d met the family on Basik in Santa Rosalia. We hadn’t mentioned their boat’s name, but we’d mentioned the dad, Teal, and the daughter, Emma. 

Basik was making a strange trek. We were wondering what was wrong when they called us on the radio to tell us there was a whale shark in the area and to proceed with caution. 

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to us and Basik, our mutual friend Chris, on Avalon, was in the general area. We’d talked about Avalon extensively while we were in Santa Rosalia, since their son, Brett, and Keith were connected at the hip. While we had been friendly with all the cruisers in Santa Rosalia, Basik, Avalon and Kosmos were especially bonded since we each had kid(s) aboard. 

Avalon was en route to Puerto Penasco (the northeast corner of The Sea of Cortez). When Chris heard us on the radio, he decided to change course to The Village so that he could see us and Basik. He figured he’d rest for a night and then continue north. Chris radioed us that he’d be at The Village in about two hours. Keith was disappointed to hear that Chris was alone; Chris’s wife and kids hadn’t accompanied him. 

We entered the anchorage very, very slowly, with Christi sitting on the bow, watching to make sure we didn’t hit the whale shark. We anchored, got the dinghy down, and got ready to go to shore. As we were leaving Kosmos, Avalon called on the radio to tell us he had an issue and he was pulling into the anchorage that he happened to be passing right then to fix it.

As we were coming into the shore, we saw that three guys were repairing one of the boat ramps, which had been damaged. The men didn’t look like official employees; our guess was it was fishermen fixing the ramp so they could get back to work. The other ramp appeared to be intact. 

Guillermo’s had a pile of debris, mostly foliage, that had been raked into a corner, but otherwise looked to be intact. 

The road looked like it had more sand and potholes than it had last week. In the far corner of the lot behind Guiilermo’s, there had been two boats that had seen better days. Today there was one sailboat and a pile of charred ash. 

At the cross street behind Guillermo’s, we could see there were several military Hummers and a crowd of people a little ways down the road. Later, we found out that the military was distributing supplies. 

Last time we’d been in The Village, we’d been in a huge rush. We hadn’t paid close attention to the surroundings, nor had we taken many photos, so it was hard to figure out how much damage there was. But we think it wasn’t too bad overall.

Unfortunately, the internet was still out in town, so no one in town could take credit cards. Since we had no clue when credit cards and ATM cards would work again, we decided it was best to conserve our cash and only bought the most basic necessities. 

Concerned that Chris may need help, we hustled back to Kosmos and called him on the radio. He did need help. We stowed the dinghy, lifted the anchor, and headed over to Ensenada el Quemado, which was southeast of Puerto Don Juan. 

Ensenada el Quemado was a lovely little anchorage. We dropped anchor next to Avalon and got down the dinghy. Eric went over and helped Chris make his repair. Eric said that Chris could have managed alone, but it was easier with two people. And less scary to have someone else around. 

Chris gave us some fish that he’d caught and Christi made dinner for everyone. Since the moon didn’t rise until later in the night, we sat outside and stargazed at the amazingly bright stars. When the moon did finally rise, it was so bright that the stars nearly disappeared.

All in all, everything turned out fine and we had a lovely visit. But had the sequence of events happened differently, Chris’s situation could have been very different! Had Chris not made the snap decision to change course, he wouldn’t have been near a safe place to stop to make the repair. Had we decided that buying eggs could wait even an hour or two, there wouldn’t have been the radio call with Basik that prompted Chris to change course. If the whale shark hadn’t been in the bay, there wouldn’t be the call with Basik.