After discovering the dinghy was missing, I immediately got Matt up and we pulled the anchor. The wind was still 20 Knots, so we headed down wind. We were pretty sure that it was there at 5:00 AM so we estimated that it was not far away. It was open all the way across the Sea of Cortez so 100 miles of open sea.
Fortunately, we found it only 4 miles directly down wind and complete intact, minus the handle in the front. I think from here on out I will take the dinghy out of the water on rough nights. We took the dinghy in tow back to a protected cove on the island and put it away. I was very relieved that we recovered it.
We decided to circumnavigate the island and see what the east side of the island had for us to see. It looked very interesting on the chart. We went to the north end and came around the point to discover 12-foot waves and 30 Knot winds. We just turned back behind the island and continued to La Paz through the narrow channel. The wind had died by the time we arrived, so we headed to the fuel dock to take on some fuel.
We were unable to get moorage in any of the marinas in La Paz so we stayed in Bahia Falso for the night. There was a beach club there and it was a very protected anchorage.
A good night sleep was just the thing we needed. All was calm and we slept in.
This is a shot of the bay first thing in the morning. Just to the left of the picture is the beach club. It will play an amazing role in the next few entries! (A bit of foreshadowing)
Technical Data:
Time: 7 h 34 m ( 05:54 to 13:29 ) Distance: 46.69 nm
Fuel: 11.50 Gallons Fuel Rate: 1.52 GPH Fuel Economy: 4.06 NM/G
Avg Speed: 6.83 kn Max Speed: 8.30 kn
Engine Runtime Start: 3319.35 Hours Runtime End: 3326.25 Hours Fuel: 11.50 Gallons Fuel Rate: 1.52 GPH Fuel Rate Max: 6.58 GPH Avg RPM: 1120.70 Max RPM: 1363.75 Avg Oil Pressure: 51.39 Low Oil Pressure: 1.16 Avg Temperature: 189.70 Max Temperature: 192.20
