We arrived at the entrance to the Canal de San Lorenzo about 11:30 pm. This is a particularly nasty, narrow and shallow stretch of water that should be taken with a favorable tide. It forms a slot between the mainland and the Isla Espiritu Santo. The water depth either side of the canal is over 300 feet and as the central part of the canal is just over 50 feet, the flow of water builds considerable waves either side of the entrance. All of the water to and from the La Paz Bay has to get through this narrow gap.

To add to our misery we were going to have to fight our way through this channel against the tide. There are only two lights and because of our oblique angle of approach I made a direct line for one light. This was to avoid a shoal close to our port.  By 12:30 am we were in the middle of the channel fighting the strong current.  Running the engine at 2000 RPM we sometimes were only making two knots or less. We continued fighting the current and the waves for another hour and a half before we were finally clear of the effects of the canal.

We had heard over the radio that all of the sheltered anchorages on the way to La Paz were full of boats as it was the weekend. Because of the change to the buoys making the La Paz Channel we chose to stand-off and began our runs back and forth until daylight. We added diesel to our main tank and by 3:30 am we began our stand-off runs which were to continue until 6:30 am when we finally turned towards the entrance to La Paz.

By then I was not feeling too well and as we passed the Oil Terminal we turned left and entered the channel leading to the Marina Costabaja. We finally tied up at their fuel dock as the office was not open until 9:00 am.

We had done about 120 miles since leaving Los Frailes at 2:30 am on Saturday morning so we had been travelling for over 30 hours much of it in poor conditions and we were both very tired, it had been quite an ordeal. I had come down with something and had a fever. I went below and told Anita they would have to pry me off the dock if they wanted me to move Hilbre! I had a fever of 103.

The Marina told us we could stay on the dock as long as we wanted so I slept for a number of hours. In the meantime, Anita checked us into the marina and received an assigned slip in the inner harbor. Sometime later, when I was rested we moved Hilbre to the slip in the inner harbor, tied up, connected ourselves to power and I went below to sleep until Monday morning.

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