Some people love heights

Some people love heights, I am not one of them!  When Jay and I were putting the sail cover on the main sail shortly after arriving in San Evaristo a small cotter pin fell to the deck.  As everyone knows this is cause for alarm, where did it come from?  I checked every place on deck that I knew would need a cotter pin and there were none missing.  So the only other place to look is up the mast.  And it must be checked, a lost cotter pin can mean a lost mast, so up I went.  Luckily for me it was flat calm in San Evaristo and so my trip to the top was without incident.  I carefully checked every single connection from the top to the bottom.  There was nothing amiss and all cotter pins were where they should be.  So the loose cotter pin remains a mystery, but a good inspection of the rigging is never a bad thing.
Jay and I slowly worked our way towards La Paz, we had some lovely sailing, endured a rain storm (see photo below) and some flat calm motoring.  We checked out the huge mangrove lagoon at Amortajada, had a brief stop at Los Islotes and enjoyed more good snorkeling on the way.

The dodger nearly got wet in the rainstorm!

Just one of the birds that call Amortajada home.

One of the rocks at Los Islotes.  These rocks are home to a large
sea lion colony, many of them are young and curious and approach
people who come to snorkel with them.  It is quite a thrill to be
in such close proximity with these beautiful wild animals.

As much as I love being in the water with the sea lions I do find them a little intimidating and prefer to have someone in the water with me.  Since one of us had to stay on Kialoa as she drifted in proximity, I did not join Jay in the water this time.



We arrived in La Paz in early Dec and spent three days shopping for groceries, doing laundry and picking up some of the things that are easiest found in cities.  As the plan included heading south to the mainland coast, a place Kialoa has not been before I also needed to pick up the appropriate cruising guide.  It is always good to find out about where you are going before you get there!
Jay and I departed La Paz Dec 3, motored north into light but slowly building winds.  As we approached the San Lorenzo channel and our turn east and then south the winds built enough that we ended up having a beautiful downwind overnight sail to Los Frailes, a large bay on the southeast corner of the Baja Peninsula.  This bay has fantastic snorkeling and is just around the corner from Cabo Pulmo Marine park which is a large shallow bay that has extensive coral reefs and is completely protected from fishing and gathering.  It was a hot hike over a dusty road to the beach at Cabo Pulmo but very worth it. The snorkeling was great and the water temperature was becoming much warmer as we got further south.  It was so nice to be snorkeling without a wet suit on!

These funny looking fish are called Mexican lookdowns.

Just one of the sea turtles we spotted while snorkeling.

and one of the beautiful and bright parrot fish.