sailing to La Paz, Mexico

i´m back. we left Ensenada on jan 29 and have been harbor hopping for 2 weeks. right now we are in bahia santa maria. about 10 miles north of magdelina bay, where we will go tomorrow or the next day for fuel and provisions. this bay is so sweet, nobody really wants to leave. nice calm anchorage and very little wind. the temp right now is about 78 degrees and kinda overcast, but has been absolutely beautiful for the two days we´ve been here. our next jaunt is an overnighter around the tip of baja sur and past cabo san lucas. we probably won´t stop for long there, since the moorage and anchorage fees are so pricey. we have been in all kinds of weather so far and stopped in some really cool places and a few that we don´t need to go back to. our first stop was bahia san jose and it was nice, but a little choppy for sleeping. our next stop was at colonet. not too bad. saw my first whale today. when we left, it looked like it was going to rain so we made a mad dash to get underway. have had dolphins with us most of the way down, so far. they are so lovely and friendly. good luck, too, i think. got into colonet early afternoon with just a smidgen of rain so we were happy campers. this bay was horrible. we rocked and rolled all night long, got very little sleep and were glad to get underway again..next stop san quinten (keen teen). one of the best anchorages we were in so far. got a great nights sleep, even the dogs rested well. the winds picked up in the afternoon, but settled right down at sunset. and the stars, omg, the stars are so bright and feel so close like you could reach up and pick one out. awesome. from here we had an overnighter to turtle bay. it started out with a beautiful day sail and a perfectly wonderful night until about 4:30 am. the winds came up and the seas turned ugly. we had confused seas and almost gale force winds, not cool, but manageable. none of got much rest even when it wasn´t our turn on watch. when the sun came up and we finally got to the entrance of turtle bay, we had to head into the wind and have water coming over the bow and washing the decks all the way to the stern. we all got plenty wet. it took us almost two hours to get into anchorage fighting all the way. we had to hand steer most of the way, the waves kept turning the auto pilot and it couldn´t keep up. finally got anchored and went down below to relax. Pioniero was here and noticed that we were drifting a bit, so we had to go up on deck and re-anchor. what a chore, but got it solid and stayed below as much as possible. we had 40+ winds for 4 days. got in on wednesday and didn´t leave the boat until sunday. then went into town and had lunch and a tour of this little community. what a great town and the people are so nice. everyone greets you with a smile and a hola. (hello). we stayed in bahia tortugas til tuesday and headed to ascension bay. just spent the night there and headed to bahia abreojos. battery on this is too low, so i´ll continue as soon as i can. hugs