Up at 5:30am for a 6:00am departure to Bahia Asuncion. Smooth departure in the dark using our tracks from coming in, plus Jack and Vicki on the bow looking out for floats that we avoided yesterday. Reaching open water the wind allow the screecher to be unfurled and we moved along at a good clip while fighting a knot plus current against us. Why is that so frequently the case… A few hours later the wind had clocked around, Vicki and Jack raised the main while I was cooking breakfast. Bellies filled, the wind had clocked around to our nose, so in came the screecher and we motored our way south. It was a nice day on the water with no drama, always appreciated! The fishing lines were busy landing an even number of ten bonita – I’m not a fan and we tossed them all back but it kept us busy and made the passage cruise on by. On the approach we gave the spit of islands protecting Bahia Asuncion plenty of room, we rounded the corner and pointed into the bay where the wind was now about 30 degrees off our bow and 18 knots apparent, not bad but there was some crashing into the wind waves. A straight forward anchoring and life was good. I sent a text to Lery, the fuel guy, letting him know we arrived. Jack and I rinsed the boat with lots of fresh water before we sat down for a passage beer. A bit before five Lery arrived and after grabbing our jerry cans and y credit card was off. It was impressive seeing his loaded down, small dinghy get past the breaking beach waves on the way back and soon we had full fuel tanks and full jerry cans for the trip to Cabo. Jack whipped up a great spaghetti dinner and we watch a bit of TV before calling it a night.
We pumped up the paddleboard and along with the kayaks headed to shore. The beach waves were not as big as yesterday and everyone made it mostly dry (our butts got wet). Shoes on we began exploring, and first stop was a cute beach side restaurant. It was a really well kept, clean place on the inside but we still opted for toes in the sand and views of Strikhedonia. A ham, cheese, quesadilla for Vicki and Jack, a torta for me along with a beer. Feeling good, we continued down the main street. A sign for a bistro and boutique hotel drew our attention so down the road we went, good thing as that was where the “Malecon” and the Bahia Asuncion sign were. I put Malecon in parenthesis because it was more of a street with a beach below the break wall. Back to the main road we wander to the gas station and checked out the baseball field with a nice astroturf surface. Wandering through the small streets many, well behaved dogs barked but stayed in their yards and turning off the road and on to a small foot path we explored the small church. It had nice stained glass panels and setup for a large musical group, bummer it was Saturday.
I headed back to the boat while Jack and Vicki walked down to see Shari – a woman who owns a hotel at the la bufadora and runs a whale watching company too. Jack and his wife Theresa along with some other friend took the tour in Guerrero Negro a few years ago with her. They had a great visit while I cleaned the bottom and took care of a few other boat projects that needed attending before our departure.
Everyone back aboard, I laid down for a rest before thinking about our evening departure and the floats on the lobster pots blocking out exit. Deciding it was best we depart before sunset I let everyone know the new plan and set about finishing dinner prep. Around 5pm we started lifting the anchor, in the 20 knot winds it was a bit more work keeping the boat pointed toward the anchor but we got it out of the water only to have the breaker trip. Vicki took the helm and after going back and forth we had the issue resolved (jam going into the chain stripper) and locked down for the passage.
Dinner was a chicken, black bean, corn enchiladas I made along with guac that Vicki put together. It was a great meal on a very rolly, occasionally slammy start to the passage. Definitely the roughest conditions thus far but still only a 3 or 4 out of ten. As I had hoped, a few hours into the passage after getting out into open ocean conditions mellowed a bit more and it was just the dutch roll of waves off our star board stern to deal with.
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