On Thursday, January 19, the little sliver of the moon was again in the east as the sun rose underneath it.

We left for shore at noon. Our plan was to walk over to the ferry terminal to catch the 1230 bus. As we pulled up to the beach, a man walked up to us and asked how we liked the Torquedo electric motor. He and Eric chatted for a few minutes. Then Christi said “We don’t want to be rude, but we have to leave. We’re going to the ferry terminal to catch a bus into town.”

And the man said “Would you like me to give you a ride into town?” We took him up on his offer. His wife was waiting in their van. It turned out they were former cruisers. And they also went cruising with son, who was a teenager at the time. They eventually switched from traveling via boats to traveling via a camping van.

We wound up having lunch with them at the restaurant across the street from the skate park, called Claro Fish, Jr. We all liked that place. The food was good, the portions were generous, and prices were reasonable. Here was the coconut shrimp plate, served with rice and salad.

After lunch, they dropped us off at the grocery store. After grocery shopping, we took an Uber to Marina de la Paz to visit with Oceananigans for a few minutes, then summoned an Uber home. This time, our ride was accepted in less than 10-minutes. 

After we got back, we got the dinghy up and started getting Kosmos ready for sea. It was another stunning sunset.

On Friday, as soon as we woke up, we finished getting the boat ready to go. We pulled up anchor just as the sun was about to peek over the horizon. 

It was a 3-hour ride to Ensenada Grande. While we did have head seas, the swells were small and there wasn’t any wind chop, so the ride wasn’t too bad. Here is a shot of the Forbidden Anchorage that we took as we passed by.

When we pulled into the southern anchorage, there were four other boats already there. We knew three of them had kids; several of the kid boats had planned to converge here. We anchored in nearly the same spot that we’d been in last time we’d anchored in the southern cove. As soon as Kosmos was situated, we got the dinghy down. Eric and Keith immediately went to shore with some of the kids. At first they went to the big beach to the east.

They weren’t at the beach for long when Eric noted that the tide was going out and there was a very real possibility that the dinghies would get stuck. So they moved to a little beach that was tucked between a small canyon along the southern wall of the anchorage.

The kids climbed on the rocks for a while.

They also played in the shallow water. One of the kids spotted an octopus. The octopus tried to hide by crawling under a rock. The kids rolled the rock over for a better look, and they accidentally rolled the rock onto Keith’s foot. The rock had barnacles on it, and Keith got a nasty skin tear from a barnacle. Keith and Eric went back to Kosmos for first aid. 

Upon arrival at Kosmos, Eric noted that the chain was pulling strangely and that Kosmos had drifted into shallow water. We could see that there were rocks in the sand, and Eric suspected that our chain had gotten wrapped around a rock. We re-anchored a little farther west in water that was a little bit deeper. These cays were shallow; it was hard to find deeper water in the areas that were sheltered from the winds.  

Later in the day, Keith hung out with one of the boys, first at Kosmos, then at the boy’s boat. Erin Skye arrived. The Mob and Moin notified us that they were on their way, but wouldn’t arrive until after dark.

At sunset, the five-families who were already there all converged on the beach for a little get-to-know-you social. It was another beautiful sunset.