Journal Entry – October 29, 2004 - Turtle Bay 27° 41N 114° 52W

Author: Pam

At 5:30 am we were six miles from Turtle Bay, yeah!!! We were struggling to steer and gearing up to anchor under sail, not our usual practice. But we had a plan. Just after 5:30 our wind died and it took us almost six hours to round the point at Turtle Bay. Ok, we are here, now we just have to get in close enough to anchor. Still barely no wind, as we were struggling to stay far enough away of the rocks to starboard a call came over the radio to Tournesol from Eleytheria asking if we would like them give us a tow with their dinghy. This was the best thing we had heard in days. Moments later a guy in a Panga showed up to give us a tow. Abe had intended to come with him, but he took off before he could jump in the boat. Anchored, exhausted, but thrilled to be in Turtle Bay we radioed our engine and steering issues and asked if there might be someone who could take a look. Bill from Siesta responded and was over shortly after we arrived. He had owned a boat yard, this was great news. He bled the fuel injectors which seemed to help, but we couldn’t find out for sure because our batteries were completely dead. Another radio request produced a generator from the boat Dr. John. Once connected to the generator the boat started, much to our relief. Bill also oiled the steering, but this time with WD40, this helped and it seemed as though it would work well enough so we reach Cabo. Ok, time for some fun. Pam made couscous to bring to the Pot Luck beach party that was already in progress. We called a water taxi and headed to shore for the first time in five days. We were greeted by a number of people who had been keeping their eye out for us, it was a really nice feeling. The party ended, but we were not ready to go back to the boat, so off to town in another water taxi to have dinner at Maria’s restarante. There we met up with our friend Jan from the Bay Area and had dinner together. It was nice to hear abut others trip from San Diego. She was not finding it very serene on Serenity, the boat on which she was crew. We climbed down the ladder on the scariest pier we have ever seen back into a water taxi and went back to the boat to collapse into our first full night’s sleep in days. We went to sleep with excitement to get back out there with an engine that starts and a wheel that moved without using all of your body weight to make it budge.