Reuinion Rendez-Vous

Caleta Partida, BCS, Mexico
November 14, 2009

Caleta Partida

After 15 years in the making, the Baker family and the Gifford family have redndez-vous'd on their boats in Mexico. We have been saying, "Tahiti 2010!" for so many years that it hasn't really sunk in that we are now cruising together. We spent two beautiful days (and windy nights) in Caleta Partida which is an anchorage between two islands (Isla Partida and Isla Espirtu Santos) that make up a National Park just north of La Paz.
Shortly after arriving and just beyond the hugs and greetings, we all went for a snorkel. Austin has seen the light, and after the outgoing snorkel with Brad in deeper water, he snorkeled back in fairly shallow water with me and saw "about 10 times as many fish". It was the cutest thing ever to have him go from just wanting to get back to the dinghies to chasing fish and stopping and hovering above rocks excitedly pointing at his "finds". It is really exciting to watch him become a stronger and stronger swimmer everyday.
Totem and Capaz were joined by Blackdragon in the early evening. The hills looked very inviting, so we planned a hike for the morning before it got too hot. The wind from the Corumel (the local unpredictable wind), were still pretty strong which we looked forward to keeping us cool as we explored. However, they made our beach landing a challenge. We didn't realize that we could have gone around and landed in the lagoon, but the ranger (a couple of fisherman that he recruited) took pity on the ladies and their dinghy and carried the 30 yards over to calm of the lagoon. The going was pretty tough, steep and no real trail, so we didn't get very far but did get a great view of the bay, the lagoon and the shallow bite on the other side of it. After an entire year and then some of looking out for rattlesnakes, Behan saw her first one. I saw it too and I am hoping that means I won't "get" to see any more while we are here in Mexico.
There was a big group dinner on Capaz last night, followed by at least one of the kids not making it back his boat (Niall slept over). We are currently following Totem into La Paz where we will be doing some serious provisioning to get us through to Thanksgiving and our trip across the Sea of Cortez to Banderas Bay where we will be staying through the holidays.

The Giffords wouldn't even let us put our engine on our dinghy, instead they gave us a quick tow to the the snorkeling spot

Austin jumping off the cabin top

The only rattlesnake I hope to see here in Mexico

Capaz at anchor at sunrise

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