After watching and listening to the forecasts, we finally got a good weather window for a crossing over to the Baja. Earlier this morning, we had the bottom of the boat cleaned and finally left Marina Mazatlan at 10:10 am heading for La Paz. We had waited a couple of days for the sea to settle and we had fine sailing after clearing the harbor entrance for most of the day with our bow pointed just north of Isla Cerralvo. During the late afternoon we spotted a thick fog bank to the west of us which finally descended upon us just before nightfall.

We had the RADAR on, using a three mile range when suddenly in the fog and dark we heard voices and then strong beams of light. With visibility of about 250 yards, we had run right into the middle of a group of Pangas that were actively fishing about 17 miles offshore. We had earlier noticed the waves were somewhat confused which appeared to be the demarcation point for the Sea of Cortez hitting the Pacific. The group of Pangas was spread out over more than a square mile and even on very short range RADAR, they were not showing up too well. We finally managed to extricate ourselves and avoided entangling their fishing lines. I think they were as surprised as us but they were in good humor and appeared grateful for our care in avoiding their lines.

We pressed on during the night under the engine as the wind had died. By 11:00 pm, the fog had lifted to a hazy night but with much better visibility. Early on Tuesday morning, we picked up some nice wind which was on the bow so we altered course to take advantage of it. It gave us a nice sail for most of the afternoon and evening until it petered out about 11:00 pm shortly after we had tacked to the north. We turned the engine on to a loud squeal so we either had a loose drive belt or needed to replace one. It took an hour or so to fix this issue; head down in an engine compartment in the middle of the night in a wallowing boat is not my favorite pastime but you do what you have to. After all, cursing and cruising is all about being self-sufficient!