To all our friends at sea, Thank You.  Another sailing season has come to an end but with that comes the fond memories of sharing wine, meals and stories with old friends and new friends.  We look forward to next season when hopefully many of our paths may cross again, if only for a short time it will be valued time.
Our plans so far are to head to La Cruz for an extended stay and then on down the coast leaving Mexico and venturing off to visit new countries.  Euphoria will stay further south next year but not sure just where yet.  So until then we will be travelling on land in Euphoria ll and continue the blog from there.  A glass of wine is waiting somewhere I am sure.  So goodbye to the sea for now, Land Ho!!

Off to the work yard to get ready for the storage yard
The two Euphoria's in a rare photo opp.

Euphoria is all ready for the storage yard, they will haul her over this afternoon and first thing in the morning we will depart Mexico and start our land travels.

Here we are anchored out at Punta Chivato.   This is where we set up for our crossing over to the mainland to get the boat ready for the summer.  Just north there is a beach known as Shell Beach, and for good reason, as far as you can see down the beach all you see is shells.  We searched for a few unique ones for our collection.

We were expecting 10 - 13 kts of wind for the crossing but as we rounded the point the winds were 18 gusting to 22. With a reef in the mainsail and 2/3 of the genoa out Euphoria was perfectly balanced and she took off like a rocket.  Normally this crossing takes about 13 hrs but not today.  Euphoria cut through the 6 - 8 ft seas with ease as she settled in at a little over 8 kts and 9 1/2 hrs later we were dropping the hook in Algadones Bay.

The next day we went ashore to sit in the lounge chairs, drink a few beers, contemplate the last sail of the season and admire our beautiful little Euphoria anchored in the bay.

After leaving La Paz and heading north we knew that we only had about ten days before we hauled out for the summer in San Carlos.  One of our favorite spots is San Juanico so we decided to stay there for a few days just to chill out a bit.  These dolphins have welcomed us before to this beautiful anchorage and we never pass up a chance for a photo or two.

          Contemplating the end of a season                                   Close game of Bocci Ball

After a few walks on the beach, a few dinghy rides around the bay and some relaxing on the deck, what could be next on our last few days, a game of bocci ball on the beach of course.

This magical little bay never seems to disappoint us. On our final evening  as we sat on our back deck sipping a glass of wine, this was our view.  When we return in the fall for our journey south this will be one of our first stops, to the little protected bay known as San Juanico by some but to us it's just Magic.

Week two of our stay in La Paz turns Euphoria into a cruise ship.  From the Great White North the tourists flock in. Shorts, sandals, sunglasses and cameras, let the fun begin.  Actually we had been looking forward to this week all winter long, as this was the week that some of the family arrived for their vacation.  This group has been travelling together for many years and go on many trips throughout the year.  While sitting around a camp fire one evening last summer the conversation turned to where are we going for this winters vacation.  La Paz for a week and then San Jose del Cabo for a week, as in true pirate fashion an accord had been established and the plan was in action.

     Tourists settle in on deck                     There was dancing                          There was swimming                                        

      There was sightseeing                       There was relaxing                   There was a turn at the helm

                There was beach time                       and then                 There was a Mutiny

                            They came as tourists and they leave as Euphoria crew.

What a great time we had with this fun group of family. The week was spent sightseeing around La Paz, lunches out on the town and wonderful dinners, team cooked. We sat pool side, saw some beautiful sunsets, and enjoyed the hot tub fiasco (hehe).
Thank you all for choosing a vacation spot so close to where we were and including us in your holiday plans.  We enjoyed the ride...  

Sometimes while out at sea on a night crossing you think you see something strange and can't quite figure out just what it is that you are looking at.  We had a wonderful crossing from Mazatlan with no sightings of strange things in the night but we did make it to La Paz in time for Carnival.  This years theme was an Alien one and as usual the parade was very entertaining.

We also made it back in time to help celebrate our good friend "Swags" birthday.  It was a full house at la Bartola's for Swags 65th.

We pulled into Mazatlan and topped off the fuel tanks and headed right back out to start our 2 night crossing to La Paz.

Good thing we fueled up as the wind that was supposed to be from the north was coming out of the west and yup, right on the nose.  We motor sailed almost all the way across.

                                                           Another beautiful sunset at sea.

Between Mazatlan and San Blas is where the fishing fleet sets up shop.  During the day you have to watch for the pangas and their long trail of nets only visible by the plastic coke bottle floats and maybe a few bleach bottles.  What you have to do is look for the panga and head toward it, the fisherman will then direct you to a spot at which they want you to cross the net.  Our practice is to get up a head of steam and just before we are going to cross over the net we slide into neutral and glide over the nets. We figure that this way our prop is not turning so if we do catch a net we won't foul to bad.  We then watch to see if any of the bottles quickly start following us, if not we are cleared and back into gear we go and start watching for the next group of fishermen.

As the sun starts setting we start looking for the line of the larger fishing boats.  They are all lined up as far as the eye can see.  What we do here is find the line and wait for a gap and cross to the outside of the fleet and head out to give us a good 5 mile distance.  We then set our new course and keep an eye on the radar for any stray fishing vessels.  It has always been very interesting on this leg of our journey.