Nov 14, 2012 Wednesday, Los Frailes, Baja California.

Finally it is time, we tack and head back to shore.  The motion is easier this way, but now we are only making 1-2 knots of speed.  I have been watching some lights in the distance for a while, thinking they are fishing boats.  Eventually I figure out that the flashing one is a shore light and we are heading straight for it, although it is still quite a way off.  We are 9 miles from our destination.  It is 3 hours till dawn.  We are going about 2 kts so that is about right, except that we cannot point in the right direction. We keep heading towards the shore, rather than parallel to it.  We are going to have to tack and head back out to sea again.  Don’t want to do that.  Finally we decide to start the engine and drop the jib.  It sky is gradually lightening, we can start to make out the shoreline.  There is our destination, a small cluster of lights.  As it get brighter we see about a dozen boast anchored there.  We drop anchor about 7am and tumble into bed.

We spend a lazy day, sleeping and swimming and straightening up form the overnight sail.  Listening to radio chatter.  There is a party tonight on one of the other boats.  Someone has made a huge bowl of ceviche that they want to share.  During the afternoon other Haha boats start to arrive and by party time there are 20 or more boats in the little bay.  Everyone crowds on to the party boat, a beautiful catamaran.  Stories of the sail up are exchanged and everyone talks about where they are going next.


Back at the boat, we get out our charts and plot our course for La Paz.  We will spend one more day here and then sail straight through to La Paz.  We have to get there by Tuesday so that I can catch my flight home on Wednesday.  Alan is gong to stay with the boat and work on all of those projects that never got done.  I have to go back and have 28 days of radiation for an enlarged blood vessel in my neck right by my ear.  We found out about this a couple of months before we left.  At first the doctors said that it would be fine to just watch it and not treat it right away, but they wanted me to come in for an MRI every 6 months.  After several more discussions, CAT scans and doctor visits, we decided that we might as well get it taken care of now and then we would not have to worry about it any more.  It is not malignant, although it is called a glomus tumor, and it is not causing any problems now.  But if it suddenly starts to grow fast I could loose my hearing and lots of other bad stuff.  So I will be home for the holidays after all and all alone.  Invite me to all of your parties