Category: 2025 Season 6

We arrived about 11:30, and dropped anchor. We had a few things to take care of, coordinating repairs to the topping lift, and fixing the water and oil leak on the engine, and also paying for our slip in the marina in La Paz. So, after lunch we got on the phone and got those things scheduled and paid for. Part of this included looking at the weather and what we had to do to get to the marina. So much for saving some time getting to Baja!
So, we went 20 miles less in our crossing (about 4 hours), and tomorrow we have to get to Los Muertos about 44 miles north of here. Oh and the wind is supposed to pick up a bunch and it will be coming from the north. So, we looked it over and elected to get up at 2 am and get underway by 3. Oh Joy!
We are pretty beat today, and are not doing much of anything. Mostly resting. Tuesday will be traveling to Los Muertos, Wednesday will be our rest day at Los Muertos, Thursday travel to Balandra (a small bay near La Paz) about 45 miles. Friday morning we will move from Balandra to Costa Baja the marina in La Paz to arrive by 9 am. Then the work starts. We will get to church in La Paz on Sunday.

We got up at 5 am for a planned departure of 6 am and were on time. We checked out with traffic control and left the area. The first half of the day was spent motor sailing, and going pretty fast for us 7 knots. Then mid afternoon, the wind got uncomfortable and we were also headed straight into it. This slowed us down, quite a bit. Our original plan had been to go to Los Muertos but somewhere mid day we looked at the weather and decided to cut 20 miles off our trip and put the angle to the wind at a better spot for getting some help with the sails, and a slightly less ugly ride.Sounds good huh? Well check tomorrow’s post for the result.
In any case, the crossing was 170 miles, and less than 7 knots it took from 6 am Sunday to 11:30 Monday to complete.
We elected to pay for off shore access to the internet with Starlink, our normal fee is about $85 USD per month, but that does not include off shore access. We opted in and used the internet to watch and listen to a sermon on Sunday and to make some calls etc. At the end of the trip we opted out to turn it off and used 17 GB of data.
Overall the crossing was as bad as any of our crossings. We have had some better, and some worse. At least neither of us got sea sick this time (both of us have on the same crossing). This was only 2 days with one overnight. The last time we went north a friend: Robert Griffith, was along and we crossed from further south San Blas to Los Muertos about 270 miles, with two overnights. That trip was not as “bad” for the weather, but long, and that takes a bunch out of everyone involved.
When the wind started to die down, we still had to deal with the waves they created and finally about daybreak the “waves” were gone and we just had swells to deal with, they were coming from the north and we were headed west, so the boat was really rolling a lot. As a result virtually anything that could fall did, since some of the waves came over the bow, the deck in the salon was wet from the leaks around the mast. All in all and uncomfortable trip.
We alternated getting naps (or at least laying down and trying to sleep) with two hours on and two hours off.

This was a pretty quiet day, we slept in and missed the local net. Had our breakfast, and did our bible reading. Reneé did some baking and I cleaned up the mess in the engine room. We have a very small water leak (sea water from the raw water cooling system) and an even smaller oil leak. What makes these two bad is that I can’t find either one. The oil leak is the kind where if it was on your car, you would park in the street, or maybe put a pan under it and live with it. It is one or two drops every couple of hours while running. I had a mechanic look for it and he did not find the oil leak. He did find one of the water leaks, unfortunately not all of them. So, what happens is that the oil leak drips on to the oil absorbing mat I have under the engine. No problem it shows a drop now and then. BUT, now the water level rises up to the oil absorbing mat and gets it wet, this spread the oil all over the mat. Now it is a mess. Both of these leaks have to be found and fixed before we can hope to sell the boat.

Another thing that we had to look into is our internet. I noted that on our trip up to Mazatlan, we were about 20 miles off shore and our internet (Starlink) turned off. Well, we did not like that but were unsure how expensive it would be to use it while roaming at sea. I had heard some horror stories about how expensive it was. So, I did some investigation. We currently have the Mexican Roaming plan and after converting Pesos to Dollars it costs us about $85/month. This is unlimited and typically has 70-150 Mbps download and 10-20 Mbps upload speeds. Well, we can “OPT IN” for data roaming on the ocean for $2.24 (approximate after converting Pesos to Dollars). We use about 15 Gigs of data per day. So, we are looking at about $30/per day if we opt in. This is something we only need for a few days per month, for example our crossing to Baja starting tomorrow, and taking us about 35 hours (or two days). We will also want it when we are crossing from Refugio on Isla de La Guardia to Puerto Peñasco and the reverse times on our way south. I am think maybe 9 or 10 days between now and mid May when we get back to Puerto Vallarta. We discussed this and elected to OPT IN for those times.

After lunch we took the dinghy down and went to the dinghy dock and walked to the store and a gas station to get 2 cycle oil for the outboard. When we got back we FaceTimed with Kyle and family.