(via satellite)
We made our entrance into Bahia Santa Maria as the sun was rising. I have a great picture that I will post, along with others taken along the way, when we get broadband access in Cabo and I get my computer sorted out.
Bahia Santa Maria is a big, spacious bay. The shoreline is about one-third arid mountain, one-third mangrove and one-third sandy barrier beach. It is a more diverse landscape than what we have seen so far along this coast. The water is warm and it looks like there are a lot of interesting places to explore by dinghy, kayak, swimming and on foot. I think we're going to be pretty active during this rest stop
After the "Baja Bumper Boats" experience two nights ago, we settled into a long period of very peaceful sailing, with occaisional motoring when the wind died down to far. Yesterday afternoon I made special rum punches and the three of us sat down to enjoy them. The wind was blowing 10 knots, the sea amazingly flat, the Code 0 steadily pulling us along on autopilot. We were all sitting around the table outside in the cockpit, talking and laughing like we were on the back deck of our house instead of 50 miles out in the ocean with maybe one or two boats visible on the distant horizon. I think we are all feeling very comfortable and secure in our little nautical space capsule.
The sky was completely clear when the sun went down and with absolutely no light pollution, we were treated to an amazing night sky. You know the sky is clear and it's truly dark when the Milky Way looks like a long, distinct cloud that stretches across the sky. Several shooting stars caught my eye as I mostly watched the boat sail itself during my watches. The sea was so calm that I was able to turn the autopilot to its minimum responsiveness setting, which makes our sailing mechanically silent, save for a few chronic squeeks as the boom sways gently.
A very nice finish to Leg 2 of the Baja Ha-Ha.
