Pegasus Adventure: Ensenada to Asunción

We left Ensenada about noon on December 26th. We motored sailed all the way down the Baja coast. Saw fish farms and plenty of dolphins, sails and birds following schools of fish. We had already decided to skip Turtle Bay, which is the only place to get fuel between Ensenada and Cabo. We had just filled up in San Diego. We hold 160 gallons of fuel and from San Diego it was only 60 miles so we did not use much. We burn a little less than a gallon of diesel an hour. This was going to be out longest trip by ourselves. We were headed to Asuncion, 362 nautical miles away.

We thought a 3 night cruise would be about our limit for our current experience level. We set up shifts of four hours. The first night is always rough because we are not tired enough to sleep after our shifts yet. I listened to music the first night and then I remembered I had some series on my phone to watch. The next 2 nights I watched my shows and could stay up for 6-8 hours and let Mark sleep through much of the night. As long as the instruments are working and the wind is under 20 knots, I can watch the radar and the course and not have to wake Mark. It the wind gets high, instruments fail or some boat looks like it is coming for us, then I wake Mark up. We were good for this trip, no problems.

On the last night we saw a boat that we had met in Ensenada. They were close to the shore almost stopped. We were listening to channel 16 in VHF and heard talk of their encounter with a lobster pot. It was wrapped around their propeller so they were sailing. Mark called to see if they would like some help and they decided to just travel slow and arrive at Asunción' later than they would have if motoring. We said we would be looking for them.

We arrived on Dec. 29th. after 78 hours. The anchorage was good and the harbor was calm. The other boat did arrive several hours after us and Mark went over on the dinghy ( AliJay) to see if he could help. The captain had already dived down and cut the line. The prop was fine after that.

This was our first time to get the dinghy down and take her out. We learned just how the davit arm would help us in lowering and raising the motor off of AliJay. The gas can and the battery need to be added each time we deploy her.

Got (AliJay) out again the next day. We went to shore by ourselves. There were other boats in the harbor. One had a row boat they were taking to the beach.

We walked to the gas station and bought some drinks and chips. We asked about a place for lunch and found one place open. He had fresh fish. I cannot remember the kind. Mark had the fish grilled with beans and rice. I had the fish as ceviche with chips and beans. We found a grocery but did not need any food yet. A Canadian couple came in the order some pizzas from the owner for a New Year's Eve party they were having. They invited all of us in the cafe to come.

Mark had talked to another boat and told them he would take them ashore the next day to get fuel so they could make it to Turtle Bay. They would fuel there and head on toSan Diego. We had them over to our boat that night. She brought homemade bread and 2 containers of frozen vegetable stock she had made. I made some dip and had cheese and veggies. We decided to all go out on New Year's Eve to shore and get some dinner.

They had been traveling for 6 years. They started in Florida where they purchased the boat and spent time in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. They had managed several places along the way, one being a sail loft in Panama for 2 years. Their boat was 40 years old and needed a lot of work. It was an Irwin 52 which is still a very popular boat.

On New Year's Eve we went over to their boat to see it and she was going to load some movies on our hard drive for us. She had also been a social director in a marina so she had hundreds of movies and shows. We planned to eat early since we were both leaving the next day. We went ashore and the place we had lunch the day before was closed. We walked towards downtown and asked everyone we met if they knew a place open. It turned out we did not find anything open. We landed at a 50th birthday party for a man that invited us to stay. The party was small because it really was not going to get started until 10pm. They gave us some cold vegetable soup that was good and we had a few drinks. We decided to get groceries and call it a night. We had a good time hearing about some of their adventures, like surviving a tsunami last June in Guatemala.

We stayed a total of 3 nights which we needed to rest up from the 78 hour passage we had made. We went to shore 2 days. It was my first time in a small fishing village. It was very quite, clean and friendly. We started our next sail about 7 am on Jan. 1st toward Abreojos.

One of the sunsets on our 3 days trip.

Mark preparing to install a prevernter on our boom. A line to help hold the boom to one side while sailing.

Mark has on his life jacket since he is out of the cockpit and working on the lines.

Mark is standing on a steel cockpit arch that is part of the boat. It provides the rigidity for the rear of the boat. It has rungs on it like a ladder so it can be used to climb up to the boom.

Another full moon over the Pacific Ocean.

Could not get this to rotate. This is my temporary dryer vent. We did use the washer/dryer one day under way. We decide it was OK for the drying but the washer spinning cycle was not good when we swayed back and forward. The vent is coming out of my bathroom window. On subsequent wash days, we hung laundry out to dry on lines we put up temporarily from the mast to the stays on the sides.

This was our first trip out in the "AliJay" (named after our grandchildren, Alison and Jaycen). We had lowered the motor and Mark attached it on the boat, now he is looking for the gas can.

We made it ashore. No wheels on the dingy yet so we pulled it up. A truck came by and said he would watch it for us. By the time we came back he had pulled it up some.

See the black water tanks. All of the water has to be trucked into this little village. Most of the streets were just sand.

Here is another water tank on above the roof of this house.

A Canadian woman owns this house rental. She also has a bed and breakfast downtown. She named her daughter Sierena.

This car asked Mark to take their picture. It was Dec 30th so people were starting to celebrate.

They had some sidewalks and sand streets.

This is some art. I think it is some kind of whale bone.

There was only one restaurant in town open and this is the owner with his first grandchild. He had a guest book that he asked us to sign. Another couple were eating also. She was Irish and he was Swiss. They were both on dual sport motorcycles and had met the day before. They were both traveling alone and headed in different directions.