Nov 18, 2012 Sunday, Puerto Pichilingue, Bahia de la Paz


The rest of the night is just as beautiful.  Typically,  we arrive at the entrance to the bay in the dark and need to stall until dawn.  So here we go, up and down beside Isla Spiritos Santos in the dark.  There are lights but it is still very dark and we are pretty close to shore.  I have it all figured out, exactly how far I need to go until I can turn around  and arrive the channel entrance in the daylight.  And then, just as I make the turn to head back for the last time, the wind changes from a gentle 7 knots to 16 knots and once again we are flying along.  My watch is over and I turn the tiller over to Alan to deal with and crawl into bed.  When I get up, the engine is on, the radar is on and we are carefully steering up the channel into the bay.


Once inside, we pick up a light wind and are able to turn the engine off again.  We have no reservation for a slip in La Paz and we understand that everything is full so the plan is to drop anchor at one of the outlying coves and send a few emails to see if we can get anything.  We want to be close to the center of town so I can get to the airport on Wednesday.  We settle on a little place called Pichilingue and drop anchor in crystal clear water around noon.  We have the place all to ourselves, except for a few fishermen. Turns out my shy quiet husband is a closet nudist.  Off come the clothes at the first hint of warm weather.  I had noticed that every time he dove into the ocean from the boat his swim trunks seemed to come off but I had put it down to the fact that he is losing weight.  Now the truth is out, he does it on purpose.  If there were no one around, he would not even bother to put a swimsuit on.  As soon as we are anchored we both dive in.  We have not had a shower since we left San Diego but somehow we don’t feel the need for one.  I did take a washcloth full of soap into the water with me in Cabo, but other than that, a swim seems to do the trick. 

It looks like a restaurant on the beach and there is not much left to eat on board  and I have not caught any fish since the giant dorado on the way down, so we unfold the dingy and row ashore.  Sure enough, a charming cabana restaurant with friendly staff and cold beer. I am dying for ceviche.  The waitress says they don’t have any but the tostado de mixos de mariscos turns out to be almost the same thing.  Alan has tacos de pulpos.  Both are delicious and now we know we are in paradise. There are a couple of other families on the beach but it is surprisingly quiet for a Sunday afternoon.

Eventually we head back to the boat where Alan settles down to study the charts of La Paz harbor.  It is a narrow channel with lots of shallow spots.  I am realizing that we were spoiled by 3 years in San Pedro harbor with it’s lovely deep water.  We never had to worry about following a channel to get in and out.  Since we were surrounded by ocean going tankers, we knew the water was deep.  While he is dong that I get on the radio to see if i can contact anyone.  I get and answer and find out that the English speaking sailing community has a radio net at 8am where we can get answers to lots of our questions.