We are sitting here at Cabo for another day for the weather was not predicted to be the best and it advised that we wait and see what develops before heading over to Mazatlan.  It is Sunday, the 12^th so it is sort of a down day when you consider that we have been on the Ha-ha since the 30^th.  Here is how it went, we left Ensenada in choppy seas and strong winds but that soon turned to lighter winds and calmer seas.  When the wind drops down to less than 4 we start the engine and continue on, while others in the group sit it out.  We sailed for two nights and three days before we got to Turtle Bay.  Turtle Bay is a town of about 4 thousand people, school, church, etc and dirt streets.  The rally is the biggest thing to hit the town and they are ready for the opportunity to make a little extra cash.  When coming into the bay a pango, small fishing boat, met us and wanted to know if we wanted any lobster.  Always cautious, we asked cuanto? And they replied Halloween candy, tapes, or something else to trade.  I quickly got into my goodie locker that we use for treats for night watch, and brought out a can of cookies and a can of peanuts both of which had come from the dollar store.  Using my fishing net, they passed us two live lobsters and we put in the cans.  We all thought that maybe I should find something else for it did look a little skimpy, but obviously not to them for they put another two lobsters into the net.  Now if you didn’t get that high level trading, it was 4 live lobsters for $2.  I but them into the galley sink and when we had anchored and had stowed all the sailing gear, out came my big pot and the crab boil.  We cooked them and then I broke off their heads, chilling the tails.  Later we had lobster tacos and then lobster egg Benedict.

  I had found these little tortilla like English muffin type cups called sopes.  They were perfect to pile on some lobster, top with an egg and smother with salsa.  Great!  We also had fished on that first leg and caught a nice yellow fin tuna.  The fishing pole is mounted on the rail and Hank had just let out the lure and gone down below to use the SSB radio.  When he does that, the auto pilot must be off so I was hand steering.  No sooner had he left when I started yelling for him.  I am sure he was a slight bit miffed for he wondered what now!  I yelled you have caught a fish.  We put it back into auto pilot and started the Chinese fire drill.  Now that we have a fish, what were we going to do with it, this was not exactly a fishing boat with deck hands?  Hank started to reel in the fish and I tethered him in, got my tether on, clipped onto the boat and got the gaff.  How do you gaff a flipping fish when the boat is rolling and lurching to and fro?

 Now picture this, I am standing on the sugar scoop, which is the aft part of the boat that has three small steps to the water line, gaff in one hand and the other hand on a boat rail.  I swing the gaff aiming at the gill line, while it is swinging and leaping on the line.  On the second try I succeed in connecting and now the fish is on the gaff.  Passing it to Hank he pulls it into the cockpit of the boat.  Luckily there were no lines or anything else to get too bloody for when he started to slit the fish, it started to flop around spurting blood all over everywhere.  Hank was able to filet the fish and I took it below to chill.  Thank goodness we have a fresh water wash hose at the back of the boat, for it took some time to get the blood and scales off of everything.  I knew right then and there that if we were going to continue to fish that we had to come up with a better way to bring the fish on board.  Since that time, after talking to many other experienced cruisers we have devised our own method of attack and we are quite good at it.  That beautiful fish was cooked the first night at Turtle Bay with a balsamic, marmalade sauce, risotto and zucchini.  We again used more of it to have some wonderful fish tacos made on harina integral tortillas that I had gotten at the tortillaria in Ensenada.  We gave the rest of the fish away to a wonderful man Tom who came over and spent about an hour or more helping to correctly program our SSB radio.  Tom is a retired dot com genius who very graciously helped so many of us with our radios.  I am sure it would have been very expensive with out him and the manual is one of those that was probably translated from Japanese or by a Japanese speaking person, for it was clear as mud about the programming capabilities of the new radio.  When things are done incorrectly in the commissioning process, it is hard to check, for they appear correct at the time.  It is only when out in the real world that you discover that things are not what they should be.

 Well back to turtle bay, we went into town by dingy to visit a small water front café for lunch.  We didn’t go to the place where most of the cruisers were for there were about 640 of us and we did want to eat.  I forgot to say that when we reached the dingy dock, several local boys were there to watch you dingy and help you up the ladder.  That service cost 10 pesos, $1.   Our lunch for the three of us consisted of two fish tacos each, beans, chips and guacamole, and 5 beers for 150 pesos.  There were activities planned for the two days that we would be at anchor.  These included a lobster dinner at the Hotel Veracruz, and a beach party pot luck the following day.  Now since we had just had a nice late lunch we went to the Vera Cruz but mainly to meet people.  We took a panga back to our boat and slept soundly.  The next day was to be the big pot luck beach party and I made a corn, black bean, tomato, cilantro salad that I had found in a magazine.  Not having a large salad bowl, I put the salad in my crab pot and secured the lid for the boat ride.  We had wonderful time talking to other cruisers and milling around. The local town’s people also sold food and beer so there was no shortage of things to eat.  The entertainment was a very loud DJ and boom box, playing all sorts of old favorites.  We didn’t wait till the last dog to get a panga back to the boat for it is difficult to do once it gets dark.  Luckily we had purchase a battery operated light that looks like something the police would quickly slap on top of their car except our led lights are purple and they rotate.  This is wonderful for we can always spot our boat no matter how dark it becomes.

  The next stop was Bahia Santa Maria which is right near Magdalena Bay.  It is a beautiful large bay that could easily accommodate many boats.  There is a fishing camp there that the people of La Paz used to put on a fish dinner for us. It was a great party and to think that the people drive all that ways across the desert.

 It was such a beautiful anchorage that many people wish that we were staying longer than two days.   It was great because we were able to relax and enjoy ourselves. The fleet left early the next morning to do the day and a half sail down to Cabo San Lucas.  It was a light wind sail so we tried out our new spinnaker in the light air.

   We know another boat got a picture of it flying but we were not able to contact them yet.  When we get it I will pass it on to all.  Richard who organizes the Ha-Ha does a wonderful job of discouraging folks from getting a slip in the marina at Cabo.  He is assigned so many that he gives out by order of registration.  The problem with the marina is that it is really for large, expensive fishing boats and cruisers so when the sail boats come in they have to raft up, three deep, at a dock.  Now rafting up for $160 US is very pricy. The alternative is to anchor out in the bay and put up with the rented water craft, waves and cruise line traffic. 

 The last night in Cabo the anchorage was terrible, I thought that I would have to put up the lea clothes to keep from falling out of bed.  You would have thought that we were still making an ocean passage! So needless to say I really wanted to get out of there.  We did have fun in Cabo, we went to Squid Row and I was picked to have my birthday celebrated and then given a jello shot to swallow.

  Since the shot was the size of a cupcake with two shots of tequila in it, I was not sure that it was going to go down.  The place was one of those fun types where there was always something happening.  They tried to haul us off to a chair and pour more tequila down my throat, but I adamantly declined.  The other activity was the following day at Mangos on the Beach.  We all arrived and the place was jumping.  When not doing things with the Baja fleet we walked around town and went to the port captain to do our check in and out papers.  Since we had already cleared into the country in Ensenada it was a lot easier for us. 

 We sailed off in the early morning, Monday, having stayed one extra day, due to bad weather ahead.  We watched the radar and saw that we needed to alter our course or we would be heading right into a squall.  We sailed and motored across to Mazatlan and arriving at 1:00 pm.  We were told that you had to contact El Cid hotel to see what was happening with the dredge in the channel in front of the hotel.  We were told that they would stop at 2:15 and that we should wait.  Well, we started doing circles around and then watched a fishing boat enter the channel.  So, we decided to do it too.

  We approached the channel with waves all around us, just as we got close we felt there was not room and started to turn around in the surf.  The dredge operator waved us forward, so we finished our turn and slowed inched forward.  It was very close with the dredge on one side and rocks and surf on the other side.  Thank goodness this boat is so much easier to maneuver than our last boat.  We made it and easily got our dock assignment and tied up at Marina Mazatlan.  This is a beautiful circle harbor that they will be building houses and condos around the circle of the channel.  That first night we invited several Ha-Ha cruisers to our boat for margaritas.  It turned out that some invited others and we ended up with about 15 on the boat till the tequila ran out.  We slept and cleaned the boat that next day and at 4, eleven of us got on the bus to go out to eat.  We topped off a wonderful dinner by stopping to have an ice cream cone at an ice cream shop.  Our trip back was by truck that has seats set up in the back.  That is not quite as dangerous as it sounds, but it was a quick ride.  Last night we had a pot luck dinner at a catamaran that was in the Ha-Ha and who had sailed from Kauai to do the rally.  We have connected to the net here in the marina or people who are around the area.  They plan activities and it is like a community that keeps in touch thru radio.  Tomorrow night is a gathering at the Panama restaurant for a margarita party.  On Thanksgiving we are signed up for the dinner and there is a blessing of the boats in the morning.  There is also a race on Dec 1 and 2 that many of the cruisers are doing.  It can be a 10K, half marathon, or a marathon.  They say that there will be thousands of people and that it only costs $10 to enter.  Some say they enter just for the goodies and don’t always run. 

            I guess this is enough for now, we are having fun and meeting some neat people.  Oh, yes, the vegetable man comes three times a week here and has wonderful fruit and veggies.  I think that some of the people here are here permanently since it is so nice.