Cruising by Isla Espritu Santu, no fish on but a beautiful view. We spent a nice quiet few days at Ensenada Grande anchorage on Isla Partida.

Ensenada Grande on isla Partida, so quiet there. The island is part of a chain above La Paz that are an ecological reserve.

Our Icom 706 II G SSB/Ham (shortwave, HF) transceiver allows us to check in with the morning safety nets and get a weather forecast every morning, as there is no cell or NOAA here in remote areas. We checked in to both the Ham and non ham SSB nets and they were amazed that at how clear our signal was with a whip antenna all up and down Mexico. (My ground plane install might be over the top but it really works)

Replacing the failed year old Rule 1500 with a Rule \"Gold\" 5 year warranty one that just snapped in and is a 2000. Gotta love La Paz, walked across the street to a little marine store and they had a stack of pumps, easier than at home! Glad I have wiring stuff on board but I\'m sure they also have all that. .

The start of a great sunset as the shrimp are on the barby. A couple of big superyachts anchored farther out and the mountains of Baja in the background.

I love how the cactus grows right down to the waterline here.

On the beach
The Zodiac 230 roll up at 49# is just light enough to load up on top of Sierra. The yellow Bouycoat is holding up well.

Sea and flora, this is a lush desert.

(I just got on wifi so I can upload the photos from my good camera instead of from my phone)

Bird watching

Sailors sunset sail.

Dana loves to Paddle board, this is her new downsized C-dory sized board

A while ago someone asked how common Suzuki\'s are in Mexico, they are a large part of the market here especially on the pangas. Yamaha must be pricing themselves out of the market as I am seeing mostly older ones along with a mix of Hondas. The Sea is very salty and after a run huge salt crystals encrust anything recieving spray.

The most common style of boat in Mexico the pangas are the fast, seaworthy workhorses of the sea.

How lucky is it that we are tied up ahead of a big boat with a tender on a floating platform! Changed out the 15×19 for the 15×21...we will see if it works out better. (Update, nope changed back!) One note of caution the newest Suzuki props need a different spacer!!!!!

Mexicans can have such a simple but amazing creativity, a palm frond wind vane done for the city malacon.

Dana has her Spectra watermaker up and running making 8 gallons an hour from the sea only using half the solar output midday!

Early morning coffee time on a calm morning in Ensenada el Cardonal

Lots of coral and tropical fish on the rocks along the shore of Ensenada de Cardonal

Cardonal, Sierra reflections.

Cardonal dawn reflections

Gas dock, some boats are bigger than others!
There have to be dozens of 100' up to 300' foot super yachts just in La Paz, including Mark Zuckerberg's giant one, more of a ship. A big change from our trip down 10 years ago when there were only a few, a lot more rich people I guess.

It is quite entertaining to watch the pelicans dive bombing for fish, not elegant at all just a big crash and splash! This trip we saw sea turtles, colorful tropical reef fish, an osprey in her nest. And some frigate birds.

An Osprey in her nest atop a rock spire.

Dana paddeling in el Cardonal with a forest of Cardon cactus in the background behind the beach.