20 September 2006
Ensenada Quemado (28 56' N 113 25' W)
After a couple of "last flings" Nakia has officially departed Bahia de los Angeles for the year. It's very hard to have to be one of the first boats to say goodbye but John is anxious to get over to San Carlos to begin working on the boat projects he has planned for this winter. We are buddy boating as usual with SolMate and we will take our time making day trips across the Sea of Cortez. Local fishermen are still reporting floating debris from hurricane John, so we want to avoid having to make any overnight passages.
Fortunately before we left we were able to spend time with our favorite boats. We went down to SoBLA for a birthday party, and had three days in a row of pleasant weather and competitive dart games. Our last morning there we had sunrise temps of 72 F in the cabin and 65.5 F outside, making it our coolest morning of the season so far. Maybe that was a sign that something was up because the wind built to 25-30 kt gusts out of the northwest, and we waited too long to bail out of the exposed anchorage. We raised anchor mid-afternoon and took spray across the entire boat during the three mile voyage to La Mona where we could get out of the worst of the wind waves. So much for our fresh water boat wash from the remnants of hurricane John...
The next morning we returned to the village anchorage for two more days and nights of shopping and eating out on the town with friends. I got my chilaquile breakfast fix for the summer at Costa del Sol; we had one last Sunday birria and taco night with the gang at China's; I bought my BLA souvenir T-shirt from the excellent little museo in town; I got my last dog fix on the beach with Rocky of Milagro; and we had killer margaritas and botanas at Costa del Sol for our final farewell to our friends. It is just too hard to say goodbye, so instead we say "see you down the road." As John told a friend on the Sonrisa net this morning, summers in the Sea are our favorite part of the year in Mexico, and it almost (almost!) makes us wish hurricane season was a little longer.
As a final wrap, here's a list of the BLA summer class of 2006. Hasta luego!
Adios (Ray and Jayne)
Aquarius (Jerry and Sally)
Caravan (Gene, Vicky, and six year old Fiona)
Catherine Estelle (Ricardo and Linda)
Cat 'n' About (Rob and Linda)
Ceilidh (Jay and Janice)
Elusive (Dick and Carol)
Endeavor (David and Candy)
Esmeralda (Jim and Sandy)
Java (John and Mary)
Joyeux (Rob and Sue)
Liberty (Larry and Jackie)
Maitairoa (Alex and Sue)
Milagro (Lance and Jo)
Nakia (John and Linda)
Nuestra Isla (Bob and Jennifer)
OverHeated (Darrell and Rita)
Que Tal (Dave and Carolyn)
Rhythmic Breeze (Kalen, Mimi, and six month old baby boy Taave)
SolMate (Stan and MJ)
Soul Searcher (Ray and Peggy)
Trick (John and Patricia)
V'ger (Casey and Ann)
Linda and John