Perfect Crew

We have just finished up a week of travel with the perfect crew. We might be biased, and we might have made this claim before. Regardless, our son Sam and his wife Kate seem like the perfect crew on Indigo. They are continually cheerful and enthusiastic, they fit in the rather small forward veeberth, and they are undaunted by wind and heavy seas.

With them, we sailed from La Paz on New Year's Eve, traveling to Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida.  Fair weather and light winds made great conditions for hiking to the high, eastern ridge of the island.

Calm mornings allowed kayaking in the shallow water, which was an amazing green color.

The true mettle of all four crew members was tested by our passage down the East Cape of the Baja Peninsula, with stops at Bahia de los Muertos and Los Frailes. We were blessed with northerly winds at our backs, but the seas were boisterous, and the wind stayed in the 15 to 20 knot range. We made good speed using only the jib.

The high point of the trip was off Punta Colorado, when we hooked a big fish. The Captain has been taking advice from trusted cruising friends, and has geared up for open ocean fishing. This was our first trip with fishing gear out, so it was a learning experience to hook and bring in the fish....made more difficult by the brisk 18 knot breeze over the stern, so that we couldn't slow the boat below 4 knots. Mac and Sam persisted, and netted the beautiful fish - a twenty inch tuna we identified as a Mexican bonito, which is not great to eat, so the guys released it. From that point, the excitement abated, as we sailed to the anchorage at Los Frailes, and then on to Los Cabos, where we had to say goodbye to our perfect crew.



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