First Day at Puerto Balandra

Today went as planned.  Brenda and I overloaded ourselves with baggage and made the walk to the boat at mid morning (mostly down hill, thank heavens).  After arranging things in the boat I went to the office and asked for someone to meet us at the fuel dock.  Brenda and I got the boat off the slip with no problem, helped immensely by the fact that the boat was bow on to the fairway.  The tie up to the fuel dock was uneventful and the tanks took an amazingly little 23.85 liters of diesel.  This represents the fuel consumption of the short trip that Arnold and I did that culminated in that frantic and smoky 8-hour lunge from San Evaristo to La Paz with one cracked engine head.  I recorded full tanks against the engine odometer of 2.8 hours.  Our departure from the fuel dock was not exactly picture perfect but we managed to get off OK with the help of a fellow yachtie who did a lot of pushing.

We had a sunny and pleasant 12 mile ride along the La Paz Channel past the Pemex oil terminal at the entrance to the channel, then past Bahia Pichilinque and the tiny Isla Lobos.  I ran the engine at about 1800 RPM, varying the speed at times as part of the break-in process.  In the smooth seas against an apparant head wind of 11 knots we were steaming along at 6-6.5 knots over the ground.  The engine temperature held  steady at about 195F.

We arrived at Puerto Balandra to find a very large motor cruiser and another sailboat at the northern side of the bay.  Arnold and I had spent a night at anchor here on our way to La Paz last spring.  The description in the cruising guide states that "Puerto Balandra is a picture perfect anchorage with its brilliant white sand and sparkling blue waters."  The bay has another attraction: a Telcel tower on a nearby hill which gives us access to the internet.  We dropped anchor in 6.1 meters of water over a sand bottom and soon found ourselves living in the scene of a yachting magazine.  But it was hot.  Everything that we touched on the boat seemed to be hot.  I hydrated myself with a couple of quick beers and soon I had the ladder over the side and Brenda and I had refreshing swims in the very warm - probably close to 80F - water. 

Puerto Balandra

Tomorrow we'll take the Zodiac to visit the "famous Mushroom Rock' and enjoy the beach.

The photo is a panoramic 180 degree shot of the bay.