Author: Neil Scheuerlein

We got up had breakfast and did our devotions using Morning Mercies for today. Renee’ sewed and I read for an hour or so. We then went snorkeling pretty good.

Last night as we went to bed we had pretty much decided to leave at first light. The next anchorage we want to get to is Ensenada del Muretos It is about 45 miles north.

We stayed as the water was a lot calmer than last night as we went to bed. The water next to the beach/rocks is pretty clear and the snorkeling was pretty good. We are back at the boat, getting lunch, not sure what the plan of the day is for the rest of the day.

We went ashore and hung out in the shade. There were six of us, Josh and Cozette (Merry Lee) Jeff (Lost Pearl) us (Make Me Laugh Again) & Jordan (Kirah) just enjoying the company being effectively the only people on the beach. The gorgeous view, weather and just being there.

Before sunset Renee’ and I headed back to the boat, put the kayak away, and started the generator. Went through our evening routines and we will head to bed shortly.

We did not get anything for each other for Christmas, and we will be traveling all day tomorrow. Renee’ has a roast, I expect that will be dinner Thursday night when we are not traveling. It is a 45 mile day tomorrow, which is about 10 hours.

We checked out of San Jose Del Cabo, along with Merry Lee, Lost Pearl and Polaris a (Passport 40), we talked at the Port Captains office for a bit.

The captain of the Passport 40, (James) talked about having sailed from Washington, and when they checked with their insurance company when they were in Ensenada got cancelled for leaving without telling the company. Currently they have Liability insurance only, and are looking. They spent a lot of time in Sausalito working on the boat, and at one point he had a medical issue due to not enough water, and got a trip to the ER out of it. In any case they are here and going up into the sea of Cortez. He talked about having to add a bow thruster, and the only one that would fit/work on his boat was a bolt on below the boat (the head is in the way for cutting a hole in the bow and mounting it through the boat). He also talked about having to replace his holding tank. The forward head was originally the only head on the boat, and the tank was poorly designed and no longer functioning, he replaced it and now has a 6 gallon holding tank for that head. The aft head did not have a holding tank and they added one to it, also a 6 gallon tank. All in all not much holding tank capacity. He also had a folding bicycle which appeared to be pretty handy for getting around.

In any case, the four boats left the harbor with the Lost Pearl being the first one out. The other three of us sort of hung together and motored up the coast, there was very little wind, and no particular rush, as where we were all headed was Los Frailies, about 30 miles or 5 hours or so away.

We anchored about 3:30 with about 7 boats here. Polaris elected to sail/motor on through the night. Probably just as well, as the anchorage is pretty full. We found one spot that was about 100 feet in front of Lost Pearl, who was anchored in 30 feet of water and the point that we passed was 100 feet deep. The shelf here is pretty narrow, and the canyon (submarine) is pretty steep.

Renee’ and I went for a swim, air temp is in the high 70’s low 80’s and water temp is warm. Very comfortable to swim, but a bit rougher than we really like. Also, pretty murky, so the snorkeling was not very good. This is too bad, as the snorkeling here is supposed to be pretty impressive. Bummer. Maybe tomorrow?

The hills behind the bay are very green.

Jordan from Kirah (he was parked next to us in the last marina) came over this afternoon and we chatted for about 2 hours. We invited him to stay for dinner, but he was in a kayak and wanted to get back to his boat before dark. He has had a rough trip getting this far. Short story pieces (no details):

1. He spent the night in jail in Ensenada

2. His engine would not start, had to get pictures of the manual on troubleshooting

3. Got 4 miles out of that bay and had kelp wrapped around his prop and had to dive and cut it off (oh yeah, he is sailing by himself)’

4. Carried Jerry cans for fuel several miles up the beach until a local gave him a ride (this was with one of the buddy boats he was with)

5. There were other things that had gone bad, but those were the highlights.

We are planning spaghetti for dinner, then we will probably play cards then bed. Currently we are thinking about snorkeling about a mile north of where we are, but we are still thinking about it.

Some of the views along the way around Baja California

This is out of order, but I don’t know how to fix that….

We had a quiet day, chatted with one of our sons, figured out what was going on with posting pictures and posted some from the last month. Went into town and walked around, I spent a bunch of time on the phone with my Uncle, brother and mother, and we went to Walmart for some supplies.

It really pays to shop around. A 12 pack of Modelo (beer) at the nearest store to the boat is $25 US, but at walmart it was 170 pesos (about $9 US). Well worth the trip.

Jeff in the Lost Pearl was in a slip on the same dock as us, but he moved out and is anchored near the beach. Josh and Cozette were across the marina and have moved to the Marine Group dock (he used to work for them in San Diego) and. We delivered cookies to Jeff when he was here.

All in all a quiet day. These are good!

We got up and had showered, while it is nice to not use water on the boat, and the stalls are big and in very good condition, the water only gets warm. Oh well, you can’t have everything.

We used Uber to get to the church, it was a Calvary Chapel with a bilingual service. The music was all done in Spanish, and the message was delivered by the pastor who was fluent in both English and Spanish. He did an excellent job of going back and forth and keeping both groups of people up to speed on what his message was. We were expecting a Christmas message, but this particular pastor is not convinced that Jesus’ birth happened in December or that we should be celebrating it the way that we do. He is particularly unhappy with how commercial it has become.

The message was on Hebrews 12:22-24. With a reminder that we (Christians) are to be in the world, but not of the world, we are to take Jesus and the message to those we meet, we are to remember that we (all humans) have to believe and ask Him into our hearts. This is the promise of eternal life. We cannot get there by any works of man. NO ONE, not even Mother Theresa will be allowed into heaven based on what she did here on earth. But, more importantly, the thief on the cross next to Jesus got to heaven based entirely on asking Him to remember him (the thief) in heaven.

Josh came over and banged out the prop on the outboard. We must have run aground somewhere, but not very hard as only two blades were slightly bent and the shear pin was still ok. Anyway, it is in better condition now, and I still have a new prop to install another time. While he was here, we gave him some cookies and invited them over for cards. They declined, but posted a picture of the cookies on Facebook.

The rest of the day was again pretty quiet, we walked through town, had lunch and took the bus back to the boat. The bus costs 12.5 pesos, and an Uber was $3 US. Neither of which will break the bank. Once we were back on the boat, we relaxed and took naps.