Friday May 2nd

Time to make our way to the Loreto Fest anchorage at Puerto Escondido. It’s 38 miles south and the wind is back and on our nose from the S at 12. The temp is a little cooler today and no one is ready for a morning swim. SeaEsta has left a little earlier and plans on stopping in Loreto on their way south. Cubo Lista, having not been the area before, will spend another day sailing and join us on Saturday. They will probably split the leg in half and anchor overnight at Isla Coronodo 6 miles north of Loreto. Mark, our friend from Crusing World, moved from SeaEsta to Cubo Lista to enjoy another day sailing. He is based out of Boston and is lovin the scenery and his Seawind Rally company. As we pass the north end of Coronodo, we get a glimpse of the rock formation “Cat & Mouse” pictured above. Mid-Island another huge pod of dolphins turn east before we can reach them.

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As we approach Puerto Escondido our radio cracks “Gato Loco, Gato Loco”.. It’s a familiar voice. Steve and Cindy were planning on being in the area and Steve is on his portable and waiting for us on the docks in Puerto Escondido. They’ve bought a truck with camper from a local Loreto man who will also store it so they can fly in and travel Baja. They will be with us tonight and then off to the East Cape for some sightseeing tomorrow..

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Loreto Fest has moved to the Singlar Marina area using the palm lined entrance to set shades for activities. There appears to be more than 100 boats scattered in the outer and inner anchorages.

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Another special treat this year is the restaurant Porto Bello and their small Tienda store in the Singlar marina building.

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Loreto Fest has various informative discussions. Right, we’re learning about lesser known anchorages in the area and what weather conditions might effect them. We will try some that are not in our guide book later this week hopefully.

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Geary, the Sunrisa Ham net weather guy (left), takes questions after describing how he researches weather each day for his weather report.

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Saturday night was the traditional spaghetti dinner and then a 50’s dance competition. As you might have guessed, we were NOTt competing however Ralph & Helen (2nd & 3rd) from the left went to the finals.

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Seawind Rally crews watching the 50’s action.

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Our new mystery crew member for Leg 4 has arrived and is hiding behind her perfect bubble in the bubble blowing contest.

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Kerry tells a wonderful story about her first Seawind delivery in the US. She and Richard her mate and owner of Seawind in Australia contracted a delivery skipper that she was to sail with while Richard sailed the second boat they were delivering on the east coast. The delivery skipper was little rough around the edges with a tooth missing and hair down to his waist and this describes an Ax Murderer in Kerry’s eye’s perfectly.. Now she has to crew with him for 2 days sailing day & night. She shared the fact that he looked like an Axe Murderer with him which amused him immensely. Each time he went done to his cabin at night he would say.. “I going down to sharpen my ax”. Meet Ralph “the axe murderer” and his wife Arlene in the photo right. They’re now great friends. Ralph and Arlene will be delivering Cubo Lista back to San Diego over the next two weeks.

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Sunday May 3rd – The Cubo Lista crew is readying to hand over the boat to Ralph. Mark came by to sort out snorkel equipment. He was up early getting sunrise photos of the mountains that jet from the Puerto Escondido anchorage and collecting last minute information hopefully to put together a story. He says he’s seems to always be working but its usually in interesting locations.

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Our mystery crew unveiled. Chris arrived early yesterday and got to enjoy Loreto Fest with us. Poor Bob was sick with the flu (type unknown) when it was time to head to Gato Loco and spared us an outbreak on Gato Loco. We made Chris drink lots to Tequila on Saturday to kill any germs she might be carrying. Welcome aboard Chris. Sorry Bob & thank you for thinking of us.

We’re off to some island anchorage tonight.

Until the next Update… The GatoLoco Crew