Los Frailles to San Carlos

We left Cabo and its Scottsdale-like atmosphere and prices, for Los Frailles (the Friars) if you look closely the mountains resemble 4 friars in their garb (sorry no photo) We beat into the wind and seas for several hours, leaving around 7 and arriving around 4. We anchored with several other cruisers from the Ha ha including 2 other Cals. We arrived on the 9th and a "Blue Norther" (strong Northerly winds) started to blow that night and for the next several days. We arrived on the 9th of November and left on the 12th for La Paz with Snowgoose and Relax. We stopped overnight at Los Muertos arrived in La Paz on the 13th. This is still one of our favorite Mexican cities. Little tourism, no time share or condo sales people, great diving and friendly people, with 4 marinas and a large cruising community. We enjoyed riding our bikes from Marina Palmira down the newly finished Malecon along the ocean, and rediscovering the area. We were meeting Jon, Carey, Hamilton, Edwin and my sister Carol and her boys Matt and Jim in San Carlos, Mexico for Thanksgiving. I had hoped to spend more time at the great anchorages along the east coast of Baja and the islands, unfortunately we had 400 miles to go and only a few days to make the passage. We stopped in Isla (island) San Francisco the first night. It is a classic island with a comma shaped cove and white sand beach. We caught 2 large dorado leaving La Paz so I quit fishing (we still had several tuna and dorado in the freezer). We stopped the 2d night at Bahia Agua Verde, a favorite with most cruisers. It reminds me of Lake Powell, with a large solitary rock island inside the entrance and large mountains forming the cove. We had dolphins surf the bow wake on the dingy here, the only time that has happened. We used our new Ham licenses to get weather and talk to old and new friends on the Sonrisa Net. We stopped the 3d night in beautiful San Juanico, where I lost my second pair of glasses when I rigged the flopper stopper. Linda was mad. No problem, I said, I'll get them in the morning when I dive the anchor. "I'll kiss your ass if you do!" she said. The next morning I dove and moved the anchor and chain and just as I was finishing the dive I saw a glint of sun on the glasses! I am still waiting for the kiss. We left San Juanico earlier than planned as the wind was up although it died around 20 miles off shore and we motored most of the day with too little wind to even motor sail. A small breeze came up around sunset but before we could decide whether to sail, a full on Norther with 45 knot gusts and steep 15 foot seas began, throwing Linda to the opposite side of the cockpit. This uncomfortable motion continued until our arrival in San Carlos at 2 am. We anchored in complete darkness, and had to re- anchor as we were only in 7 feet of water. We crashed for the rest of the night. The anchorage was quite beautiful the next day with new green desert grasses contrasting with the red rocks on the surrounding mountains. We could not get a slip in San Carlos Marina so we arranged to go to Marina Real a few miles away. We enjoyed diving with Jon and Carol and took everyone out to sail, unfortunately the wind was mostly nonexistent. We enjoyed thanksgiving dinner with 9 of us on board.