Since Cabo San Lucas we have sailed to the most beautiful ancorages of the trip so far. we left the rocky rolly ancorage of Cabo on January 21 and headed around the cape to a bay called Los Frailies. It was a beautiful sail untill the last fifteen miles when we rounded the cape and were headed straight into the wind. Welcome to the Sea of Cortez! Ever since that day we hae been doing more tacking and beating into the wind then ever. THe fot five mile trip took a grueling 19hrs before we reached the ancorage. We had had a few instances with our engine dying due to what we thought to be dirty fuel so we were careful to wait untill right when we entered the anccorage to turn it on. We tried starting the engine three times but each time it hiccuped and refused to start. And so began are first wxperience of sailing onto the hook at night in a new ancorage. IT went beautifully and Brandon did an amazing job timing it perfect. Los Frailies ended up to be absolutley beautiful we spent the next five days diving, hiking, having bonfires on the beach and of course working on our engine. We ended up determining the problem was that the fuel intake is located right at the bottom of the lowest part of the fuel tanks so any sediment in the tanks or the fuel gets trapped right their and was blocking fuel getting to the engie. We did some adjustments and were back in buisness with in a few hours. We loved Los Fralies but after five days we decide it was time to move on. Our next stop was Bahia de los Muertos. WE were running pretty low on food, water, and clean clothes so we were happily surprised when we pulled in to the bay and saw a restaurant. Many of meals were spent in that restaurant sipping on margaritas and eating fish tacos. We were still traveling with all the same boats that we were with since Bahia de Santa Maria and it was lots of fun to have so many friends. We Left Bahia de los Muertos on February 1st and headed for La Paz. Their were high expectations for all of us considering most of the boats wew were traveling with had baot repairs to do and that none of us had any food water or clean clothes left. We left Bahia de los Muertos in the afternoon with our friends on a westsail 32 "Attu". It was a great sail untill the sun went down and then we wnded up motoring the rest of the night untill we anchored and Ballandra bay which is about ten miles south of La Paz. That night we were rewarded with the best sunset and full moon rise of our lives. THe wind had died and the sea was completley still making it feel like we were on a lake and the whole sky turned a million colors of orange and red. we were sailing right inbetween an island and the main shore so we had mountains on wither side of us so just as the last flashes of the sun dissapeared behind one mountain the full moon was rising over on the other side. It was magical.
THe next morning we pulled up the hook early and left the ancorage of Ballandra bay for La Paz. WE anchored out and took our dingy into the marina for our first real showers in a month. It was much needed and deffinatly deserved. We had an early dinner at the restaurant in the marina and then went to back to our boat. It was so nice to be in a place that was so baoter friendly. Everything was so acessible and convenient. The next few days consisted of laundry, grocery shopping, email and phone calls and of course fish tacos and pacificos. La Paz is a great city and it was really nice to be on land. WE are currently in our first marina since we left Santa Barbara. WE came to Marina de La Paz to wash off our boat and fill up our fuel and water tanks. It is really nice to be here and we are just a few boats away from our friends Ivy, Maverick, and Attu. When we pulled in we saw our neighbor Steve's boat from santa barbara here. He had come down for the Baha ha and left it in the marina. Motoring throught the marina was a really weird feeling with many boats that we recognized from santa barbara and the majority of the boats being form california it kind of felt like we were at home. THe marina has been great though.Our boat is all cleaned and provisioned and ready to go explore again. We can only afford one night so we are off today to go explore some islands that are about 25 miles off La Paz, Isla Espirito Santo and Isla Partidad. We had a huge feast on Ivy last night which was lots of fun and now it is time to say are good byes at least for now to all the friends we have made. THey will all be leaving in the nex few weeks in the same direction so we will meet up again down the way.