Liebling in San Jose del Cabo waiting for weather window

Birthday adventure 2013 As I haven’t written in the blog for a while I think I should tell you that we have been to Zihuatanejo and back up to Barra and then Puerto Vallarta. We made the decision that we are going to bash back up to San Diego and Los Angeles for the hurricane season July to November this year. But first before heading around the bottom of the Baha Peninsula we decided to go up into the Sea of Cortez for a month and experience some parts of the Sea on the east side of the Baha that we had not seen yet. We did get up as far as Lorato which is only about a third of the way up the sea. We have met so many wonderful people along the way that we would never have met otherwise. One family that we met had a 2 month old baby and a 2 year old. They are staying in LaPaz for the hurricane season, what a wonderful family and great adventure for them all. I think that they have the youngest children on board that we have met. We met them just after crossing the Sea from Puerto Vallarta to Cabo. We came into Bahia Muertos (Bay of the Dead) at 11pm. They hailed us and wanted to know if we need any guidance coming in. We didn’t need help but this is the way our fellow cruisers are always willing to help out. We invited them over the next day for sundowners not knowing that they had small, small children. When they came over in their dinghy and passed their little one up over the rail with waves crashing I was amazed. Their boat name is Rebel Heart so if you are interested in following them their blog is svRebelHeart.blogspot.com. It seems that among the boating community I have become famous for my margaritas because on several occasions when we have anchored in bays and talked to other boaters they say so you are Linda of Liebling making of the famous Margaritas. Unfortunately on my birthday June 12th we didn’t have a pleasant experience. I wanted to have a peaceful evening and a great dinner on board but when we tried to anchor at a bay called Frailes on the east side of the southern tip of the Baha peninsula the wind was blowing at 25 + knots towards shore and had the potential to run us into shore if the anchor did not hold. We decided to go out to sea for a couple hours but when we came back the wind and waves were still too high to safely anchor so we had to go back out to sea and spend the rest of the evening and all night sailing and motoring till the next morning when we reached our next anchorage and the wind subsided. Needless to say my birthday wasn’t what I wanted it to be but the restful following days were great. At the current time we are in San Jose del Cabo and Liebling is on the hard out of the water in a boat yard. We had a salt water leak in the propeller shaft gears and needed to replace the seals and bearings. In order to do this we had to haul out. So with that being said we decided as long as we were out of the water we would also have the hull and keel below the water line painted with a fresh coat of antifouling paint and also do a few other tasks that are done when the boat is out of the water. Hopefully the improvements will increase our hull speed on the trip north. We are now waiting for a favorable weather window to begin the trip north. If you leave at the wrong time from Cabo your progress will be so slow and grueling that you will just wind up turning around and waiting again. Anthony and Nathan, two of our grandchildren are flying down to Cabo on Tuesday June 18th to help us bash back up. They will help us do night watches as we will be traveling day and night most of the time during the trip. They really wanted to come and experience this adventure. I told them that it may be more than they are bargaining for but they seem up for it. I do have to admit that it will be great to have them for the watches at night. We figure that it will take 10-14 days to get up the coast. The distance is about 800 miles and we will have to fight the wind and waves going the wrong way into our face. We will stop in Magdalena Bay and Turtle Bay to hole up for a weather window. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I will try to write a short blog while we are in passage. You can check out where we are by going to www.Yotreps.com and typing in KE7MYT or look down the list for Liebling. Hope all is well is your part of the world. Love Linda and Jim