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103
The Sun Sets on the Sea (November 6-January 6, 2004)
Change of Plans
 Don returned to Tackless II the morning of November 6. I was waiting for him on the beach when the taxi brought him and all his loot from the Mulege bus station. We were both mighty glad to be reunited!
By the time we were done reuniting and getting all that loot installed or put away, most all the other boats that had been in Concepcion Bay had moved on. We found ourselves in the pleasant situation of cruising
south virtually alone! With winds now settling into the north
quarter, we were able to sail almost every leg southward. It was so
glorious that we skipped many stops we'd planned, simply to continue
the joy of sailing along without the engine. When a strong norther was
forecast, we'd stop and tuck away a few days. Temperatures--both air
and water--started to drop, and in-water activities became less and
less appealing. This was a disappointment for Don, who'd spent his
nights in Indiana dreaming of stalking groupers with his speargun. But it was a relatively minor disappointment, especially after he landed a big dorado.
We did have good stopovers in San Juanico, Aguaverde and Los Gatos,
all of which were old favorites and we spent Thanksgiving turkey-less
in Isla San Francisco where our summer had begun. After the holiday
we dragged our feet the last few miles before getting into La Paz by
gunk-holing our way down the western shores of Islas Partida and
Espiritu Santo. These two islands outside La Paz are a big attraction
for the day trippers and bareboats coming out of that city. Having
only visited them previously last year in the early summer when the
southwesterly Corumuels made all the anchorages uncomfortable if not
untenable, we had never grasped their allure. But with winter's winds
out of the north, all those coves were now protected, and after a
heavy rainy season, many were quite green! We could have spent a
month there when we'd only left ourselves a week!
The rush to get into La Paz stemmed from a planned rendezvous with my
old friend Mike, who, as chief engineer aboard the mv Double Haven,
had spent the past seven years in the Far East. This past year,
Double Haven had crossed from Hong Kong to Alaska for the summer
season and was due into Cabo San Lucas the first of December. This
brought us within a couple hundred kilometers of each other for the
first time in ages! With the owner due in for the holiday season
mid-month, we were obliged to fit any visits in early.
 Which is how it came to be that on our first wedding anniversary, Don
and I rented a car and drove to Cabo for a "weekend." I have toured
Double Haven on three occasions - once while it was being constructed
in Holland, once on its maiden voyage in the Virgin Islands, and once
in Seattle when it was four years old and had all-but circumnavigated
the globe. Don had only seen pictures. As we walked from the parking lot through the building to the marina, Don wondered aloud how we
would find it, but the moment the docks were in sight, the question
evaporated. Even I had forgotten how big Double Haven is! At 56
meters, it dominated not just the marina but the entire basin! And
that is with other big yachts on the same dock!
We were made welcome by the new captain Steve, and soon after Don got
his tour. Believe me it is awesome with three decks for the owners
and their guests, crew quarters and an enviable galley. What
impressed me in particular was that everything looked as good at ten
years as it had in its first year. The highlight of the tour for Don,
of course, was Mike's territory - the engine room, and Mike clearly
enjoyed having someone truly appreciate every piece of machinery. For
small yacht folks like us, the space, the spotlessness, the
organization, and the redundancies are quite simply mind-boggling.
 We found a nice inexpensive room nearby and pretty much spent the next day and a half schmoozing over cold beers and leisurely meals with
Mike and other crewmembers who came and went. It was a great visit,
and the chef Karl - who keeps a sailboat similar to Tackless in
Indonesia - sent us home with a box full of frozen halibut and salmon
from Alaska!
We spent the next week at the dock on boat projects, most particularly on getting and installing the new batteries for which Tackless had been crying for nearly a year. Then we rented yet another car and
drove back to Los Cabos in the wee hours of the morning to catch the
first flight north for Christmas. We divided the holidays between
Don's family in Indiana - where, of course, we had to check on Don's
Dad's continued recovery from his knee replacement surgery -- and
mine, where my sister was hosting the first Christmas in their new
home in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
 Back in La Paz, Don gave a seminar on Spectra watermakers and spent
many days helping a few people who had problems. He put together a
terrific handout on all the Spectra care and maintenance issues that
real cruisers need to know, and I'm proud to say that the guys back in
the plant were enough impressed they plan to post it on their website
and include it with their manuals!
We left La Paz right after New Year's, once again traveling in the
company of our friends Dennis and Lisa of Lady Galadriel, and after a
couple of nights back in the islands waiting for a weather window, we
were rewarded with an absolutely perfect crossing. Who knew the wind
could blow a steady 12-18 knots for two whole consecutive days in the
Sea!? We shut down our engine as we exiting the San Lorenzo channel
and didn't start it again until a mile or two out of Mazatlán! With
the full moon and our new MP3 player, even the night watches were a
breeze.
After spending six months in Mazatlán last year, pulling into Mazatlán
Marina felt very much like coming home. But we didn't relax back for
long. Within days, the Two Captains and the two Lady Galadriels were
packed up and on the road on our long planned inland trip to Colonial
Mexico.
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