A few days of crankiness
We thought we would be done with these full-day jumps once we reached Mexico, but the lack of anchorages way down by the tip of Baja is still forcing us into very long days at sail. 
The next two legs would fall into that category, with full-on sunrise to sunset days on the water. Heck, it isn’t like we are new to it or something. Alaska brought many a 12+ hour day on the water.
So when we set out from Frailes the sun was just peaking above the horizon, at 7am. There was not much an expectation that we were going to sail much, but we actually got straight to it. Unfortunately, we were still beating against the wind which meant we could not do this all day and make it to the next anchorage. After two hours we were motoring again, but two hours after that the wind had shifted in our favor and we were able to sail the rest of the day to our destination of Bahia de los Muertos. We dropped the anchor at 6pm after 52 miles of travel, just minutes before the sunset.
Bahia de los Muertos is a beautiful anchorage, but the real big deal of Muertos is the full service restaurant located right on the beach. You can’t help but see it as all boats anchored here anchor directly in front of it. This plays nicely in reverse too, as dining at the restaurant comes with a view of our own boat at anchor.
On the other side of the bay Kerri found a trail that she wanted to hike so we set out on our second day. The path led us up to the top of a hill overlooking our bay. The view reminded us of our time in the van, adventuring down random dirt roads until we found a place like this where we would call home for a few days or a week. Parts of us miss it, but other parts acknowledge the need for change from that norm. We took a short detour on our return hike to sight see the local resort area before returning to Meriwether to build up some hunger for another trip to the restaurant.
These days would be the end of my tobacco, with my final pipe’s worth after a hearty dinner of mole chicken. It is a much needed break from my vice, after a full year of continually smoking again. Kerri hates it when I stop, mostly because of the few days of crankiness from me that follows. But I am happy to quit/stop every few months (or year in this case) to keep it in check, to show it who is really the boss, and recover a little before the next supply of tobacco comes in to take control again. Surely I wish we had loaded up the boat full of sacks of tobacco before coming down to Mexico but we did the responsible thing and limited myself to what was legally allowed through customs – about 12 ounces. I find it easier and easier to stop each time, and this one the easiest to me, although Kerri would be sure to argue that it wasn’t crank-free.
After a three night stay we decided to ride the wind north as it was the only day in the forecast we would have the chance to sail. 
All other days were clearly going to require motoring dead into the wind. Of course, out of the eight hours of travel that day, only two were under sail. It is our luck – I blame it on the PNW still. It was the final hours that we got to sail, as the afternoon winds are fairly reliable in the Sea of Cortez.
Our plan was to hang a left and squeeze through the channel between Isla Espiritu Santa and the La Paz Area, but with the wind was blowing from the West and all the anchorages down there exposed to westerlies, we threw in the towel early and pointed Meriwether to the south east tip of the island. There awaited an empty anchorage for us to call it a day, and it happened to be the only one in the area with protection from west winds. We took it, happily ending yet another long day at sea early.
