As Good as it gets

It’s Friday AM, somewhere between 9:00 and 11:00. Sojourner is southbound having just left a magnificent anchorage where we spent last night with friends on two other boats. Sal & Gloria on the floating suburban home “Friendship”, and Mitch & Laura from “Hanali”, a boat very much like our own Bristol 32. The sea is flat, as blue as the sky, and there’s just enough wind to keep our sails full and to move us gently along our way at 3 knots – about the speed of a brisk walk – with about 15 miles to go to our marina. The windvane is steering so there’s nothing we have to do, Caudia is getting her dose of sun, I’m reclined at the helm in the shade of the sails just looking at the beautiful day and listening to the clear water gurgle by as I write. Life is good. This must be what we came here for; the same vision that likely prompted the many folks who “wished we could do that!” when told of our plan to make this trip. Wow! I just got a flash of how Jimmy Buffet might feel. You know people actually pay him to do things like this. To do things that they can’t, and go places that they can’t, and it helps them to imagine that they are there, doing them in some vicarious sort of way. Food for thought. For some reason, I’m just reminded of something that has needed to be said for some time. A very large thank you to those readers who have made comments to this blog. It is so helpful to get ideas of what you like to read about. Really, the writing is fairly easy. It’s figuring out what to write about that’s difficult. So please, just click on the word comments after any post and say a few words. Aside from the weather, which turns out to be almost perfect, we came here to the Sea of Cortez for what we hoped would be excellent sailing. And, we have recently experienced some of that as described above. About 12 – 15 miles up the coast from our marina are Isla Espiritu Santo and Isla Partida two islands that together offer about a dozen good/safe anchorages in their many inlets and small bays. We have made two three day trips up there recently and been largely rewarded for it. The sailing is like being on a large lake. No swells and no huge waves. We’ve had dead calm to motor in, an amazing afternoon doing 6 knots with wind on the beam, and everything in between. What a joy!! I’ll include here some pics from the islands, but again I apologize for my inability to get more into the lens. They are desert, volcanic, and richly colored. Also check out the many cacti, something we’re getting used to seeing but that still seems totally foreign. There are also many smaller islands and rocks and reefs in the area. We have been able to float the dinghy near and over reefs and see the fishes as in an aquarium. Really neat! And as always, the birds – pelicans especially – provide unlimited entertainment. I’ve tried and tried to get a couple pics of these ungainly creatures, and one day I’ll get one worthy of posting.
Some folks have asked us for what we plan this spring et al. So here it is. We will stay here in Marina Palmira , La Paz through February – carnival is the 19th thru 24th here. Then we plan to sail North into the Sea from one anchorage to another to visit some places we’ve heard about, taking our time to reach Guaymas and San Carlos by mid April where we’ll explore a bit before having Sojourner hauled out of the water and put up on land for the summer. We think we’ll take a bus from there to somewhere in Arizona where we’ll rent a car and make our way home to Grants Pass sometime mid May. E