We are in Old Bahama Bay Marina, at the West End of Grand Bahama. We have been here three weeks, but will soon move around the corner across The Little Bahama Bank to the Sea of Abaco. This is a two day crossing for us. We spend the first night at Great Sale Cay. The second night will be at Allans-Pencola Cay. We enjoyed this same trip last year. The first big shocker over here and in fact, all over the the area, is that 10 ft. is considered deep water. It takes some getting used to!

Jan and Tom will join us in Marsh Harbor and we will cruise the many little spots and end up back here in Old Bahama Bay where they will fly out of Freeport and we will cross back over. The crossing means crossing the Gulf Stream. This is a critical item in planning the trip. It flows north and if the winds are blowing strong out of the North (a Northerlie) a huge wave is the result. It is an 8 hour crossing for us.

What about Hurricanes? Our regular marina, Lauderdale Marine Center, is five miles up the New River in Ft. Lauderdale. It is basically a working yard/Marina and we have made good use of the haul-out and the many other services. Chuck picked the location because of the new, floating docks and its location up river. This proved to be a good choice last year as the Hurricane Wilma passed right over us. We could watch the eye cause the Barometer to drop to new levels as it passed over us. We had secured the boat for Hurricane, but decided to stay on board because of Wilma's direction and it was predicted to be a 1 or 2. You all know it was higher and caused a lot of damage. All of the boats in the Marina were safe and we were shocked to see the damage in roofs and trees when we went up on land. We will leave the boat there again this year, with fingers crossed.

We will leave our boat and go to our cabin and then on to the SF Bay Area. Hurricane Season ends officially Dec. 1, so we will be back before that to get the boat ready to cruise once again.

For those of you who have asked, What happened to the trip across the Atlantic? Several things actually! Jeanette felt rushed and basically tired. The Idaho cabin and the wildflowers were much more appealing!!

We had watched the weather and consulted with Walt for nearly 3 weeks. Friday or Saturday through Sunday appeared to be the break we were looking for. Another front was due on Monday and the question was how much should we push it? The seas were to be from the south and the wind was also coming around 15 from the south. We were waiting as long as possible for the swells to settle from the last front. The Sport Fishers going in and out of Isla Mujeres reported rough conditions on Thursday, getting across the reef going out of the Harbor. We made the decision to wait & leave on Saturday. It was still choppy going across the reef and the Yucatan Channel had a good size swell, but on our stern quarter. In twelve hours we were at the point off of Cuba and getting reports from boats that once around that point and into the Gulf of Mexico, everythng settled down. We arrived in Key West just before daylight on Monday morning and by slowing down were able to enter the Harbor as the sun was coming up. The front as predicted came through Monday, but not until evening. We stayed in Key West that night, moved on to Marathon the next day and then the final jump to Ft. Lauderdale. We entered the harbor after dark and stayed at the fuel dock just beyond the 17th St. Bridge and the next morning went up the New River to the Lauderdale Marine Center.

We are sorry Casey could not make the crossing, but we thoroughly enjoyed his week stay in Isla Mujeres! We also enjoyed Isla with Joe and Lisa and our thanks to them for making the crossing with us.

We plan to do some boat work here. La Vagabunda has not seen the U.S for five years, so a little Stateside maintenance is in order!

Our friends, Joe and Lisa, and our son, Casey, plan to join us for the crossing to Florida. We made arrangements with a Marina and boat yard in Florida and set up several contractors for the work to be accomplished. We are quite behind in our time schedule and looking for the first available weather window to make the crossing.

We also attended the Miami boat show and had a meeting with PAE concerning the Atlantic Rally. We are officially a member boat taking part in this Rally in May. We are still under pressure to get to Florida in time to haul out and do things that are needed after cruising out of the US for five years. The Nordhavn Atlantic Rally (NAR) date of departure is fast approaching!

We are in the Puerto Isla Mujeres Marina along with the Sport Fishing Fleet a couple of sailboats and a megayacht or two. The Marina is a part of the Villa Vera Resort with a restaurant, bar and swimming pool. Isla Mujeres is a Mexican resort town and is connected to Cancun by ferry. The big mode of transportation among visitors here on the island is a golf cart and they are lined up all around the docks. There are motorcycles and scooters, lots of taxis and some trucks and cars out on the streets.

The weather is surprisingly cool, to the point of being chilly at night. The weather fronts are still passing every four or five days. We made the decision to leave the boat here and fly over to Florida. We had hoped to be there on the boat by now.

Our route was to take us to Espiritu Santo, Mx. skipping Belize altogether. Check-in with authorities in Belize is cumbersome and would take time that we did not have.

The swells were rolly and uncomfortable from the East out of Roatan and after 4 hours, we changed our route toward Turneff. The swells were more on our stern quarter and when we reached Turneff at midnight, we turned and had protection from the East. We arrived near Xcalac, Mx at daybreak and decided to keep going to Banco Chinchorro We spent Wed. night, January 14, behind the reef at Cayo Norte, Chinchorro.

A note on entering and anchoring behind these reefs: First of all, it is surprising the protection these reefs actually provide. It is however, nerve-racking to enter and find the anchorage. The charts are off by a good bit. We carry two excellent guidebooks, Nigel Calder's Northwest Caribbean and John Raines, Cruising Ports. They both have drawings and headings and descriptions. Many times, we were traveling right along side of the reef that was not visible, on a heading aimed for a point on shore, keeping a sharp eye on the bottom. We are beginning to get a feel for this Caribbean! Travel through a reef and anchor in 8 ft. of water in a rocky bottom with a thin covering of sand. We often felt our pile of chain on the bottom is what held us! Chuck dives on our anchor to check it, in nearly every anchorage.

Jan 15, 2004 We moved on to Espiritu Santo, Mexico on. Wed. morning. This is a reef off of the mainland Mexico coast. After 8 hours of travel, we entered with the sun giving us good light to see the depths and avoid the coral heads. We spent a comfortable night.

Jan 16, 2004 We had decided on a short 4 hour journey on Thurs. to Bahia Ascension. Mileages were such that we needed to do this in order to leave and arrive in daylight. Our plan was to do another relatively short run to Aventura the next day and then an 8 hour run to Isla Mujeres.

Jan 17, 2004 The southerly wind and swell was picking up and we read in both of our books that the entrance into Aventura was not good in a large swell. So instead of leaving at daybreak for Aventura, we waited and left the Ascension anchorage late afternoon, while visibility was still good and headed directly for Isla Mujeres. An earlier start would have us arriving before daylight. Our weather faxes were still indicating that the Northerly would not arrive in Isla until late Sunday or early Monday and we would arrive Sunday morning.

Jan 18, 2004 On to Isla Muheres, Mexico Again, we were fighting a big swell. We adjusted our route to tack, but the rogue wave or two that passed in the night threw items that had never moved before. One such wave at 3 a.m. caused our navigation computer to break its tie down and then tip within its cupboard, thereby shutting down the power. Attempts to recover it proved futile and we switched to paper charts and within a short time, Chuck had the hand held GPS hooked into the other computer and had loaded all of the Cap'n charts. Murphy was with us, as this all happened as we were coming back to our course and traveling between Cozumel and the mainland. We arrived just after daybreak Sunday, Jan 18. We anchored in the harbor and on Monday morning moved over to Puerto Isla Mujeres Marina. The Northerly was beginning to blow as we moved.

Notes: There is wonderful water and reefs all through this area from Roatan to Isla Mujeres. We hurried through, but fully intend to come back! We are certainly more experienced! Next time, we will not have a schedule and we will travel in a different season!

We are enjoying Roatan. The place is beautiful and the diving and snorkeling excellent and controlled. There is no anchoring near the reefs. Mooring balls have been placed at strategic points. The dive boats all use them and we tied our dingy to two different ones while Chuck did the Wreck and the wall - both off of French Harbor. The rules are very strict about not touching the coral. The dive operation at Fantasy Harbor Resort is well run. It appears that there are other operations on the island that are also well run. We checked out the Yacht Club. It has a nice office and restaurant and a very pleasant staff. The docks seem good. The water quality in that Bay is really poor. It is possible to leave your boat there and travel inland.

We are monitoring the weather carefully. The weather windows (between Northerlies) are short. We are monitoring Faxes several times each day and Walt Hack, of OMNI weather service is giving us a long term outlook.

We left Vivorillos on Tuesday, Dec. 23. at 7 a.m. The weather faxes said NE winds 15, seas 4-6 ft. also from the NE. We decided this would be on our starboard quarter and would be good. We also decided to go on to La Ceiba, a port on mainland Honduras beyond the Bay Islands, a 30 hour run. We talked to the Marina at La Ceiba. We were told to enter before noon in order to cross the bar to get in.

Four hours of travel in predicted conditions brought us to a squall front and the winds switched to the West, the seas picked up and the wind to 25/30 and we were now in a pounding short chop. We kept cutting speed to try to control the shudder when the boat hit. We traveled at 4 and 5 knots. We still pounded, but the shudder was less and we had rain and squalls. We went through the night with the same conditions. We also decided the mountains on this coastline affect the weather a great deal. It became apparent that we would not make La Ceiba. We headed for the Bay Island of Guanaja. We, however, arrived before daylight and decided 30 more miles would put us in Roatan.

We arrived in Roatan around 9:30 a.m. with waypoints on how to get through the surrounding reef. It was still raining hard and visibility was poor. Our radar was cluttered due to the rain. After running back and forth and making one false start (not all waypoints are correct), we spotted a dive boat that told us to call Fantasy Island Resort/Marina and have them send out a boat to guide us in. This worked well and we tied to their dock. An agent met us at the dock and took care of our paperwork. What a relief to be in port and tied to a dock where we could get off and walk. Simple pleasures! We had spent 7 days aboard waiting out the Northerly at Vivorillos Cayes and did nightly anchor watches during 5 of those.

We decided it is time for R & R in Roatan.

A note: We called La Ceiba Marina to tell them our change of plans and were told the bar was closed and had been all day!

The weather was due to hit us Dec. 17. We moved the boat on Wed. the 17th, over to a spot where we felt more comfortable. We needed more swinging room when the winds came out of the North. Chuck went down and looked at the anchor after the change. We feel comfortable with it and have readied our other anchor, line and chain in case we get a real blow. It is only predicted to max. 25, which we have anchored in many times, but the swell is predicted to be quite large. We are protected by some of the Cay and the reef. The morning of the 18th was actually lovely, 10 knts of wind out of ENE and mostly sunny sky. Then in the afternoon, it clouded over and the front arrived at 3p.m. with winds 20+ from WNW . The wind then turned NW and the swells began rolling in on us, so we moved again. We went over in the protective lee of the other Cay and set our anchor. The sailboat also moved, as well as, the Cayman Island boat. This spot is rolly in an Easterly, but obviously the place to be in these conditions. The wind howled and we had torrential rain all night. We stood watches during the night to monitor our anchor and conditions. The wind was 30 to 35. This morning, another larger fishing boat came in and anchored with us. Today the wind is blowing 25 to 30, but the rain has stopped and the swells are not as bad. We are in for a couple of days of this, as the weather fax this morning shows the front is stalled.

We have had a lot of contact with others here in Vivorillos. Yesterday, a powerboat came in from Roatan with 3 fellows on board and then a sailboat with a couple. Peter off of the sailboat came over today looking for movies and information about Bocas del Toro, as they are headed south. This morning a small fishing boat, carrying Inter-island goods came in. They came by and talked to us and asked for ice, cigarettes and weather info. We gave him all the ice we had made, 3 cokes and what we knew on weather. They were from the Cayman Islands headed for Roatan. The first day in here, a fisherman came by asking for something to help indigestion and we gave him a half bottle of Tums. Just a minute ago, two more fisherman came out from shore and we gave them 2 cokes and talked awhile over the side of our boat. They are shark fin fisherman and they smoke the fins and deliver them to La Ceiba-over on the coast to be shipped to the Orient. He said it takes 15 or 20 hours for his boat to get to La Ceiba. Almost all of the fisherman speak a form of English and Spanish. The fisherman told of his wife and son on the mainland. He said she was studying to be a teacher and had one more year and he has a sister living in Canada..a nice young man. Talking with the local fisherman and other cruisers adds to the pleasure of cruising. This is a good thing because when this weather roars in, it makes one think that sitting by a pool somewhere would be nice!

We will add more as this weather condition plays out and we decide when we can move on to Roatan.

We will take this opportunity to wish our many friends and family HAPPY HOLIDAY. Enjoy!! We intend to string our one set of lights over the door at the stern, play Christmas music and toast another Christmas season! We will miss all of you at the CS party and all of our individual families that are beginning to establish their own customs and the rituals that are so important for family unity. We are indeed fortunate that we can all get together from time to time for some of the holidays to share. God Bless.

The weather and seas were pretty much as predicted. Winds 15-20 NE and sea swell 6 with an occasional 8. We took the swell pretty much on the beam until after midnight and it became a following sea. We switched our course from NW to W just before we passed by Reef Media Luna and by 3 a.m. the seas had flattened considerably and travel was comfortable. The sky was clear and the moon came up about 10 p.m.

Vivarillos is actually 2 Cays with low shrubs and palm trees. When we arrived, another boat that we knew, was anchored behind the reef of one of the Cays. We entered through a narrow and shallow opening in the reef and joined them to anchor in 7 ft. of water. While searching for a sandy spot, we initiated our tough keel with its first scratch. There is also a shrimper anchored by the other Cay and some fisherman living on the shore. The water here is beautiful and clear, with dark blues and light blues sparkling in the sunshine. The reef runs all around the outside. It is beautiful here.

Our next stop is the Bay Islands in Honduras.

The entrance to Providencia is marked with a sea buoy. We made a turn there and came in and followed the harbor red and green markers. These get you straight in, but run no further. It is necessary to find your way about the harbor and it is relatively shallow to very shallow. We felt our way toward the pier. We finally decided to anchor where we were in 6 ft. of water and use the dingy to meet our agent. Chuck picked up the agent, immigration and the port secretary. We all had coffee and cookies and checked in on the boat. This morning, we watched a small converted fishing boat coming in to deliver supplies and fresh fruits & veggies. He was heavily loaded. When we first started watching, he was stopped and obviously aground, running his engines hard to power off. In a bit, he broke clear and ran back out a way, turned around and made another run for it. This time, he made it, with a few obvious slow spots along the way. We hope to go ashore and partake of some of his veggies, but the wind and swells have kicked up and we are hanging out, taking it easy and watching & waiting. The agent, Bush, also told us of two good places to eat. One at the beach and one at the end of the floating foot bridge. He also offers tours.

Providencia, Coumbia, but off the coast of Honduras,is an island of relatively high, sharp peaks. No central commercial area. There is an area called old town. It appears everything runs down a frontage street. The buildings and homes are basically from the 18th century, bungalow style, made with pine. These are similar to those found in Bocas. It is said, the early settlers were British and Dutch and mostly pirates. It is said, the next to arrive were the English puritans. The Spanish then landed 1646 and tried to remove everyone else, The British puritans hired pirates Morgan and Mansuelt to help against the Spanish, but they were unsuccessful. The puritans survived and with slaves grew cotton for export and finally in 1818, an American, Aury, with French crew arrived to help Bolivar attack the Spanish ships and secure the island.

We will await the next weather window.

We had started tracking the weather when we arrived back in Bocas after a two-week trip home to visit family and friends and do Jeanette's Conference in San Diego. We arrived back to the boat from our trip to find a Northerly winter wind blowing. Our date for departing changed several times while we awaited a weather window.

San Andreas, although surrounded by a reef, has a pretty straight forward entrance, once passing the sea buoy, the channel is well marked. San Andreas is a Columbian Island although not located off of Columbia. It appears to be quite a nice island with hotels and other amenities. There are local fishing boats and several tour type boats. There are a lot of dive sites listed around the island. There is a small commercial dock that looks as if it would accommodate small freighters. It appears the only Americans visiting are boaters. This is a good fuel stop for the Sport Fishers as well as the cruising sail & power boats traveling between Gulf of Mexico, Florida and Panama. The tourists appear to be Central & South American and European. We haven't really toured the town, other than checking in with Immigration and Port Captain through an agent. They all met us at Nenes Marina (a wooden dock that is well known in the boating community. We are anchored off of Club Nautico and it is short dingy ride to leave the dingy at the Club. We plan to do this tomorrow while we walk the town and do a bit of grocery shopping.

We will wait for the next weather window to move on to Provedencia, another Columbian Island, 70 miles from here.

There are two Marinas, the one we are in is Bocas Marina, which is new and the older one is Marina Carenero. Although, Bocas Marina is part of the island, there are no roads through the mangroves to town. We all travel in our dingys around the corner and tie up somewhere along the waterfront. At the moment, there is a fuel dock under construction here in the Marina. Marina Carenero is on another island and these boaters travel by dingy, or hire a panga, as well. Many cruisers leave their boats here and travel home. Both of these Marinas are secure and below the hurricane area. There is a real shortage of places that cruisers can do this.

Chuck and I stayed in Colon a short time and then traveled 12 miles up to the Chagres River. The entrance is a bit tricky with a couple of reefs, but once past that point, the channel opens up and is navigable five plus miles almost to the Dam. (Use the Zydler, Green Book, for reference). We went that far and anchored with the parrots and Howler Monkeys ! A beautiful, truly jungle area and we very much enjoyed the stop and would certainly return.

Leaving Chagres River, our destination was Bocas del Toro, Panama. We stopped at the anchorage at Escudo de Veraguas, a small island on the way. We stayed only one night as the anchorage was not very protected from the West wind that we were experiencing. Good, clear water. We will visit again, it is only 46 miles from Bocas.

In February of 2003, we once again left Banana Bay Marina in Golfito, Costa Rica. We had called this home since the mid 2000''s and had returned several times. We felt sad to leave Bruce, Peggy and the marvelous staff. We spent a month traveling and fishing through the Northern Islands of Panama. These include Parida, The Secas, Brincanco, Coiba, Jicaron and Cebaco. These are a fantastic group of islands missed by many cruisers. In the 2 ½ years that we have been in and around Costa Rica and Panama, we have enjoyed these islands several times. We arrived at Benao, on the mainland of Panama, March 15 and settled in to wait for a weather window to cross the Bay of Panama to the Perlas Islands. The Perlas Islands are quite affected by the Humboldt Current and some years, the water is warm and clear and others it is cool and cloudy. Our other daughter Cris, husband. Jeff and three young ones, Trent, Jessie and Nicky, enjoyed the Perlas Islands and Panama City with us. It was such a thrill to have the young family on board for snorkeling, kayaking and looking for shells in the warm water! We would eventually go to Balboa, Panama to enjoy the anchorage right under the Bridge of the Americas, say goodbye to one family and prepare for the next two families who will help and enjoy the trip through the Panama Canal.

In February of 2003, we once again left Banana Bay Marina in Golfito, Costa Rica. We had called this home since the mid 2000''s and had returned several times. We felt sad to leave Bruce, Peggy and the marvelous staff. We spent a month traveling and fishing through the Northern Islands of Panama. These include Parida, The Secas, Brincanco, Coiba, Jicaron and Cebaco. These are a fantastic group of islands missed by many cruisers. In the 2 ½ years that we have been in and around Costa Rica and Panama, we have enjoyed these islands several times. We arrived at Benao, on the mainland of Panama, March 15 and settled in to wait for a weather window to cross the Bay of Panama to the Perlas Islands. The Perlas Islands are quite affected by the Humboldt Current and some years, the water is warm and clear and others it is cool and cloudy. Our other daughter Cris, husband. Jeff and three young ones, Trent, Jessie and Nicky, enjoyed the Perlas Islands and Panama City with us. It was such a thrill to have the young family on board for snorkeling, kayaking and looking for shells in the warm water! We would eventually go to Balboa, Panama to enjoy the anchorage right under the Bridge of the Americas, say goodbye to one family and prepare for the next two families who will help and enjoy the trip through the Panama Canal.

We worked our way down the coast of Mexico, stayed a short while in Acapulco and then stopped over in Huatulco. This is the jumping off spot to cross the dreaded Tehauntepec. Several boats gathered in here and we all took off within days of each other. We had a nice crossing and arrived in Puerto Madero, Mex. Again, we moved on pretty quickly as we felt time was short! We went to Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. We met several of the other boats there. We were beginning to breath a bit easier, but still moved on to El Salvadore.

There is a new Marina at Bahia de Jiquilisco, El Salvadore. The cruisers have passed these Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvadore and Nicaragua for many years due to political strife within the countries. In the past couple of years, the boats have discovered Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. This year the first boat went into Barillas Marina at Bahia de Jiquilisco, El Salvadore at the end of January. The treatment was royal! These boats spread the word by radio and e-mail.

The owners, Juan and Carolina Wright, along with other energetic business Salvadorians are working hard to develop tourism in El Salvadore. They are working with the President and Minister of Tourism. The business people have been making their way into the country, but tourism is zero!

Crossing the bar to get into Bahia de Jiquilisco is a bit tricky, but the shrimp boats do it all of the time. The Marina sent out a panga to lead us across the entrance and then to follow the panga, the 1-1/2 hours it takes to reach the marina up through the Bay. Customs and immigration met the boat when we tied onto a mooring and cleared us in on the spot. We were boat #42 to arrive since the marina opened in January. They are quite surprised by the response that word of mouth has created. The treatment is still royal!

First of all, there is no charge for the first 100 boats. The marina has a free shuttle to get cruisers to a near-by town, Usulatan, for supplies. There is a small restaurant for breakfast and lunch in a beautiful setting. Diesel and gasoline are both available at a dock. Juan and Carolina Wright will have a telephone and an Internet connection by next season. Juan flies in everyday from his home in San Salvadore. Carolina comes several times a week. Actually their whole family often fly in. He has a 6 passenger plane, so will take anyone either direction. It is about a 20 minute flight. We left the boat and toured inland several days. We stayed in a hotel in San Salvadore with another couple. Juan and his wife came by and took us to dinner and , of course, flew us back and forth to the capitol. While at the marina, we met several of the other business men, one owns some supermarkets. We shopped at one of his in Usulatan. It was a nice, clean, modern store. We met the owner of a towel factory. (Hilasal towels-look in K-Mart for these.) Some cruisers visited the factory and the working conditions were great and included medical.

Six of us took a guide to Periquin, which was the guerrilla stronghold during the war. It is high in the mountains by the Nicaragua border. A lodge has opened there. We met the American owner and his wife, who was a commander in the FLMN. He had been with the Peace mission. We had lunch and viewed the rebel Museum which has been put together in the past few years. The lodge is mainly used for UN meetings and Ecological study groups, but he would like the word to get out that he is open for business.

Feeling safe from hurricanes, we ended up staying nearly a month at Barillas Marina! There were 10 other boats in there with us. We all feel that the Marina may get swamped with boats next season and some of these early priviledges will not be possible.

The marina sets on a bay surrounded by sugar cane and cocoa plants. The road to the highway is rough and takes 30 minutes. On our trips to town, we had a security guard ride with us and stay with the van in town. There are armed guards at the market and all of the banks. (Just as there are in Guatemala) One of our guides told us, that part of the peace plan was to form a security force made up of a percentage of FLMN (guerilla) which is now a political party, the regular armed forces and a percentage of civilians. He said also a reason for this was to provide jobs for hundreds of former soldiers who have been carrying guns since they were very young. San Salvadore has a guard at banks and at most stores, however we shopped in the capitol, without a guard and even went to Periquin without one. Our hotel, however, was in a nice district called the gold zone. I would recommend this... We did have the guards at the Marina and when in the van. Juan says he wants everyone to feel secure. He also sent along Francisco, who spoke English to help us when we were shopping.

We reluctantly said, "Good-bye to Juan and Carolina and their wonderful staff and headed toward Costa Rica. We intended to by-pass Nicaragua, but ended up pulling into Corinto in the middle of the night to rest from some rough weather! This is a commercial port that has good navigation lights but has had a reputation for giving pleasure boats the run around and excessive charges for checking in and out. Not so! We ran up into the Bay and anchored near some shrimp boats and the next morning, a panga appeared with the Port Capitan, Immigration and Customs. They couldn''t have been nicer and the fees were reasonable! They stayed and had coffee and cookies with us while we all struggled with the languages! Maybe they have learned about El Salvadore!!

To end this long story, we are now nicely settled in the bay of Santa Elena, Costa Rica. It is really pretty. It is part of the Santa Rosa National Park.

It is now time to re-group as we need to stay below the Hurricane Belt until the end of November before we can move up into the Caribbean. We hope to find a place to leave our boat for a while so we can journey to Florida and California to visit family! There is a lot to see and enjoy both in Costa Rica and Panama.

We look forward to hearing from each of you. I do not miss home quite so much, when you each tell me bits and pieces of what you are doing!

Fondly,

Jeanette and Chuck

The moon tonight is spectacular. This is some special occasion for the moon. It is extra bright and this condition will not occur again for 100+ years. My information on this is sketchy, but we heard it on the Chubasco Net. We should have this moon for quite awhile tonight. The moon came up this afternoon and was directly overhead when it turned dark.

We talked to Marina Mazatlan and hopefully they will have a slip for us in a couple of days. In the meantime, we will anchor in the main harbor. This is where we spent the Christmas of 1995 anchored! We will call for airline reservations as soon as we are sure we have a secure spot for the boat. Time certainly is passing swiftly. I can''t believe it is almost Christmas. We have all of our gifts that you all so thoughtfully provided and we will put up a string of lights on our Satelite Dome!

Do hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, each with your own families.

We plan to wait for better conditions before heading over to Mazatlan. It is good to hear from all of you. I will write to each of you in response to your mail! Take care and have a good week. The crew aboard La Vagabunda del Mar

In both bays, the fisherman have approached us to trade for lobster. Today, we traded two frozen chickens for a number of various size lobsters. We cooked them up and had some for dinner and will have the rest cold. Bill caught a couple of Dorado, so we also cooked up some of that and froze the rest. Bill and Chuck caught bass the other day. Chuck''s favorite fishing! We have had bass fresh and froze the rest. We ran into Marlin yesterday and finally had to leave them and move on. These are all catch and release.

We spent the day as a lay-over here in Santa Maria. It was such a nice day and very calm in here in the anchorage!. Tomorrow, we plan to go out and fish nearby and then will come back in here tomorrow night. I did more laundry today.I also played with the cameras. I have been taking pictures with the digital and some with our old Nikon with the zoom. Chuck suited up in his dive gear and checked the bottom of the boat. Bill messed about with fishing gear.

There is a lot of seaweed growing around the islands and the seal lions and seals use the Central Island as a breeding ground. Chuck had two fishing goals this trip down, #1 to fish bottom fish at Colnett (spelled in various places as Colnet and Colonett. It is actually a big rounded bluff on the Baja side and the anchorage does not have a lot of protection.) Number 2 goal was to fish around the Islas San Benitos.

Fortunately, the weather is supurb, with the exception yesterday with banks of fog here and there. We ran last night with the fog horn for several hours. Right now Bill and Chuck are out in the dingy checking out all of the kelp patches for fish and when they come in Chuck and I will take a tour and look at the breeding grounds of the seals and whatever else we can find. We then plan to move on over to South anchorage at Cedros and then tomorrow on to Turtle Bay, listed on some maps as Bahia San Bartolome and others the points on each side of the entrance as Cabo Tortola or Punta Sargasso. Mt. Belcher and Thurloe Head is just south. This is of course, a spot to regroup and go into the village. It is a well protected anchorage.

I will end this travel log and move on to daily chores! Hope this finds everyone doing well. We think of all of you! Lots of Love, La Vagabunda travellers