Sunrise on Tuesday January 10

In the morning, Eric was sore from the inverter project. We added bleach to our water tanks before we topped them off, which is something that needs to be done every few months when consistently making your own water. We also turned our big freezer back on, which had been off since well before we’d left for San Diego.

We went to the boat store to replace the fuses that had been used yesterday, then went to the grocery store to stock up on frozen foods. After unloading the groceries, we returned the car, then worked on getting Kosmos ready for sea. So much stuff had been pulled out since arriving in Marina Costa Baja that it took a very long time to get the boat ready to go.

In the evening, we went to dinner with Saphira at the Beach Club, one of the restaurants along the beach in the resort. Rather than take the dinghy across the marina, we walked along the dirt path between the highway and the canal. This is a shot of the inner harbor from the path.

Here is the beautiful pool that overlooks the sea. The resort charges the marina tenants $25.00 per person per day to use it, so needless to say, we haven’t used it.

Sunset

A shot of Kosmos taken as we walked back. Kosmos looks like a dinghy compared to that enormous sailboat.

The 3/4 full moon was high in the sky and shining brightly while the sun rose on Wednesday, January 11

We spent the morning doing the last minute “get ready to go” stuff. When the marina office opened at 0900, we returned the marina keys and set off for Ensenada del Candelero to meet Saphria and three kid boats. One boat was the other family that we’d met in Bahia Falsa before leaving for San Diego, called Moin. The second family we’d met briefly when they had come into the fuel dock for fuel, called The Mob. The third family we hadn’t met yet, called Erin Sky.e

When we set off it was a sunny, cloudless day with no wind and calm seas. At 1120, out of nowhere, the wind made a dramatic jump to 9-knots on our nose. From there, the wind speed slowly but steadily climbed to 15-knots. Fortunately, we were already protected by an island, so we didn’t experience any uncomfortable seas until the very end when we poked out from behind Isla Ballena and darted into Ensenada del Candelero.

We dropped anchor at 1230. Saphria was already there. The kid boats filed in shortly after. The wind was screaming, with consistent 15-knot winds with gusts to 30, making it a little tricky to get the dinghy down. Eric put out a flopper stopper.

Pretty much as soon as everyone was situated, one of the sets of parents took all the kids to shore to play hide and seek. Keith went with them. The remaining adults went to Saphira for happy hour. Keith had a wonderful time with his new friends onshore. Eric and Christi had a wonderful time getting to know all of our new friends. Here was the sunset, taken from Saphira

It was a cloudless night. Since the moon wouldn’t be rising until later in the night, at our bedtime the stars were abundant and shining brightly against the dark sky. After being in cities for over a month, it was nice to be able to enjoy the stars again, especially on such a spectacular night. Unfortunately, the wind was a bit chilly, so we weren’t outside for very long.