My friends, it is time for a confession. A confession straight from this millennial that I’d probably not believe unless it was permanently recorded on our blog. As I write this we are in the calmest of seas, motoring back to civilization in Santa Rosalia. And as we do this, my mind is feeling a bit sentimental. As much as I love the internet, there is something to be said about having minimal access to it for nearly two months. In that time we were more connected to each other, our surroundings and our newly made friends. Even the boat got a little extra love during that time. So as we approach the land of internet I am feeling anxious. Anxious to catch up on the blog. Anxious to see what’s been happening with friends and family on social media. Anxious to talk to family members on the phone. But a major part of me is dreading negative news and stories which makes this internet/civilization thing so bittersweet. While we were away and “disconnected” there was none of the negative news. Instead it was an exchange of silly experiences shared amongst cruisers such as radio nets, parties for any occasion, fishing, provisioning, passage planning and lots of talk about weather. So before I get swept away in the land of the internet and all of its joys/perils, lets talk about our time in Bahia de Los Ángeles aka BLA!
BLA is a small village with a population of around 700 people. And in this town all the cruisers dinghy up to Guillermo’s Restaurant. This is the place to go for internet and a cold beverage, and most likely it will lead to a conversation with another cruiser doing the exact same thing. The internet was typically slow as a snail, enough to make you wish they didn’t have it. At one point it stopped working for days. Rumor has it that they had to send someone up a mountain on a donkey to complete the repairs. True story!
After the restaurant experience, the most likely place to find us would be the markets getting fresh food and veggies, preparing ourselves to be away from town for days at a time. We learned that BLA is very expensive to provision, so next season we will stock up on our favorite staples before arriving. Sometimes provisioning meant going to every store in town trying to track down fresh produce. Thankfully the town lacked a tasty restaurant so we were able to save money on dining out.
Since leaving San Carlos and heading to the Baja side we haves visited 9 different anchorages.
Waited out 2 named hurricanes- Rosa and Sergio.
Celebrated 3 birthday parties, 2 survivor parties, a full moon party, sushi party, net controller party and a margarita party. Whew!
Photos from the full moon party in La Gringa…where everyone is equipped with a floatation device, preferably a cold beverage and if you’re really sneaky, a super soaker to nail your buddies with. The full moon causes the tides to be larger than usual which fills up a beautiful lagoon. At the end of high tide the water rushes out of the lagoon and you float right out into the bay. You repeat this until the water is too shallow to continue. It was such a great time in such a simple way!
We spent many days hunkered down in Puerto Don Juan, a natural hurricane hole waiting for weather to pass. The scenery was so lovely at times! Pretty much the entire fleet of boats would anchor here, roughly 15-20 boats at a time. 
Brad speared his largest catch yet, a 10 pound cabrilla!
I had my first experience being stalked, by a bullseye pufferfish. These creeps followed us everywhere!
Set a record for having 18 guests on board Perspective for Brad’s Birthday.
Got chased out of an anchorage by hundreds of bees.
Threw countless sticks for Sydney on multiple beaches (she is forever ruined). Sydney also got confined to the boat while we waited out bad weather, she wasn’t too happy about that. 
We combed beaches looking for beautiful shells.
Anchored next to a dormant volcano, and got ourselves bit by the infamous “Jejenes” aka no-see-ums.
I learned the hard way about strong currents, thankfully Brad came to my rescue and picked me up. We set our new high speed record of 10 knots while surfing down a wave with a wing on wing sail configuration.
We swam and played with a juvenile sea lion in Refugio.
We said goodbye to our friends in Ensenada el Quemado as they headed south, but not before taking a hike together to take in the scenic views.
We witnessed the SpaceX Rocket launch into space on Brad’s Birthday.
Another accomplishment to note is Brad became a net controller twice a week on the SSB Amigo net. The net meets daily at 7:10am and Brad provides weather updates to listeners, gathers their check-ins, and coordinates announcements to fellow cruisers. He was suckered in to this by another cruiser after being plied with numerous tequila shots. Well done Kirk! Since Brad agreed to do the net we’ve met and become friends with numerous boats that check in to the Amigo net, or are controllers themselves. It’s been such a positive thing and I know Brad is loving it too!
All in all I think it is safe to say that we had an excellent experience in the BLA area and would happily do it again. The only regret we have is not getting up there a few weeks earlier to enjoy the cooler water temperatures and lower humidity. There’s so much more for us to explore up and we really had a beautiful time in BLA!
So what is next for Perspective? We will be slowly heading south with a goal of getting back to Banderas Bay by early December. We are once again excited to spend the holidays with family and are thankful for their willingness to come back down to see us.
And I will leave you with this lovely dorado (mahi mahi) that we caught just before we arrived to Santa Rosalia. Our largest yet at 42 inches. Just look at that big smile on Brad’s face! ❤️
