At 4 in the morning, I huddled under the dodger in our cockpit - keeping watch while facing aft. The boat gently swayed as she plodded westward across the Sea of Cortez. I'd already done some stargazing and was reading 'Mere Christianity' when I happened to glance up and was startled to see a large boat astern. I grabbed the iPad and switched to the radar view of the Garmin Helm app. When I didn't see anyone for miles on the radar screen, I glanced back up to see that the orange light I thought was a large boat was now a sliver of an orange, crescent moon. Silly me.
The stargazing has been quite a treat. I have happily seen some constellations too far south for the Bay Area such as the Southern Cross, Centaur and Wolf. There was one particular evening at anchor where all four of us lay on the foredeck and passed around the binoculars. I was able to show the kids the Andromeda galaxy that night. Our son is particularly keen to find the North Star whenever he's out at night. Surprisingly, our daughter isn't as interested. Perhaps after she does some more cross-country back-packing, knowing which way is north will matter more.... Then again, it isn't fair to assume the kids will take after our interests - no matter how much that would please me.
We are now in Bahia Ballandra after anchoring a couple nights at Ensenada de los Muertos. Bahia Ballandra is known for its "mushroom rock" formation. I'll try to get a decent picture and update the blog. Its also a great place to snorkel and is about 10 miles from La Paz.
"Mushroom Rock" in Bahia Balandra
Another view of Mushroom Rock
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