After a quiet night at anchor a few hundred feet from the Loreto marina, the wind gradually built from the north giving us some waves and rolling seas. We waited for Matt, the captain who had been away visiting friends, to land in Loreto so that we could move south to Escondido, our original port. Marcel and Evan took the dinghy in to pick up Matt. The port authorities told them that the port was closed due to high winds. Matt was already at the dock. Apparently they were able to negotiate to pick him up and leave. They returned to the boat slowly navigating the waves.
Matt had planned to bring the dinghy up on davits for the trip, something we had not been doing. However there was a missing strap to hold the dinghy up. He tied it to a cleat since that was the next best alternative. We took off sailing downwind in about 20 knots. Downwind is and was a very comfortable sail. We had an 18 mile trip to Escondido.
As we had about 5 miles left to go, Marcel noticed that the dinghy was missing. Several of us had felt some jerking and bumping a bit before which we realized must have been the dinghy parting from the tow rope. We turned around to retrace our path for a bit reasoning that the dinghy was being pushed along downwind with waves pushing it towards the shore. Whitecaps from the wind made it very difficult to search. As we turned back again towards Escondido, we moved closer to shore where we thought we might find the dinghy. Garet stood at the mast and scanned the shore. Luckily the wind was also dropping a bit. She spotted it!
Matt put on his wetsuit as we slowly circled the dinghy. As we passed near it, he jumped off the aft platform, swam to the dinghy, hopped in and started the motor. Luckily we had filled the gas tank in Mulegé so that his trip of several miles into port would not be a problem. I followed him visually until he made the turn into the slot for Escondido. He stopped outside the port entrance and was doing silly stuff waiting for us to arrive. Of course he zoomed off and was able to meet us on the dock as we came in.
We tied up at the dock and had celebratory drinks and dinner to end our trip. Quite an impressive end to our adventure. At least it wasn’t dark when we arrived. Jupiter rose over the mountains and the wind continued to blow while we enjoyed our last Mexican dinner.
The Adventures of Anne 