Dawn on Wednesday, December 31

This morning, we were awoken at 0600 from radio chatter. When Eric turned on the internet (when we’re at anchor, we turn Starlink off at night because it’s a power hog), he saw an explosion of What’s App chatter amongst the flotilla group. “The La Paz Waltz” had made the boats in the anchorage move oddly in the night. We’d first heard the term “The La Paz Waltz,” in Baja to describe when boats didn’t move in unison because the wind direction conflicted with strong currents — some boats moved with the wind, others with the current. The boats in the anchorage reported they had abnormal tracks around their anchors and several had come disconcertingly close to hitting one another – within 20 feet! Tiki Tour moved to an anchorage a mile away. Two of the boats went to join the other half of the group in Big Majors. Zimovia stayed put since they were now alone and there was no one to hit them.

The wind had shifted from west to northwest. We were only 120 feet from the rocks onshore, so we were a little concerned about hitting the rocks should we drag. Eric hopped in the dinghy to scope it out. He saw that the sand gradually sloped up, so if we were to drag, Kosmos would ground in the same before we hit the rocks. We were relieved to know that we were in a safe spot.

This anchorage was calm when there was no traffic, but when fast dinghies went by, it was rolly. And there was a lot of boat traffic. We’re guessing the traffic was abnormally heavy because it was a holiday. Eric put out a flopper stopper to mitigate the wakes they created.

Once all the children had finished their school work for the day, Zimovia picked Keith up and took him to the sandbar near where Tiki Tour had anchored. When they left, Christi had been in the middle of cooking. When she finished, Eric and Christi joined them. It was another cool day. Christi and Eric wore sweaters and were glad they did — Christi would have been cold without one. 

It was a long ride in our slow dinghy, but it was scenic. Here were a few shots taken along the way. Looking back at Kosmos and the resort she was anchored near.

An outlet to the ocean

Another resort island

The sand bar was nice.

Broader view. Tiki Tour told us there used to be a swing here, but it was gone now.

Some of the kids and adults had made impressive sand sculptures.

The kids had a blast playing in the water.

The adults hung out and chatted.

As the tide came in and the sandbar shrank, we had to move the dinghy a few times.

Here were a couple more shots of the scenery between the anchorage and the sand bar. We weren’t sure if this was part of the same resort or a different resort from the one pictured above.

The same outlet to the ocean as above, just taken from a different angle.

Yesterday, when everyone was discussing where they had wanted to move to for New Year’s Eve, the boats going to the remote anchorage had planned to have a party for the kids on one boat and a party for the adults on another boat. However, we were now down to three boats and they were spread too far apart to safely navigate to one another after dark. The evening plans were canceled. The sunset was blocked by cloud cover as it went behind the hill.

Dusk

Christi chose to go to bed at as normal instead of staying up to ring in the new year. While getting ready for bed, she dropped her plastic top retainer into the toilet. Eric tried to fish it out with a snake that had a hook, but to no avail. He also tried to suck it out with the vacuum. We turned off toilet and taped it shut so it didn’t accidentally get used. 

Eric also went to bed as normal (he usually stayed up later than Christi). Keith stayed up and played D & D online with some of his friends and went to bed at midnight. Someone shot off fireworks at midnight, which briefly woke up Eric and Christi, but they quickly went back to sleep.