Bahia Santa Maria

We are anchored in Bahia Santa Maria on the outside of the Baja (near Magdalena Bay) after a series of daytime and overnight passages from Ensenada. Our initial run from Ensenada was downwind and overnight with boisterous north winds. We ran under reefed main and the autopilot handled the helm but ran down the batteries.

Meal time on Raven

After a rest day we departed for Turtle Bay on another rolly downwind passage this time under jib with the new Monitor wind vane steering. In Turtle Bay we had a day in the town and met a few cruisers off other sailing boats who are mostly headed south. Steve on a 70+ foot schooner was single handing and bound for the Marshall Islands. We wished him luck but hope he is able to find crew to help with handling such a formidable boat. We had false killer whales visit us in the anchorage here as well as Brant's geese.

Bouncy panga ride from the boat to the lagoon

From Turtle Bay we made a day trip to Asuncion and then on to Abreojos where we hoped to arrange whale watching in the San Ignacio lagoon. We had to wait a couple more days to do this and moved the boat over to near the lagoon entrance. We arranged for a panga to come out to the boat with a guide and take us to the lagoon where we had the most wonderful morning surrounded by Gray Whales including a mother and calf who cam so close we could touch them.

Gray whale alongside

Baby gray whale - attracted to Rani pouring water from a bailer

Gray whale poking ts head up

Our next passage was an overnight run to Bahia Santa Maria where we anchored off the fishing village. We sailed most of the way with main and jib drawing us along in light northerly airs. We had a day ashore today on the amazing beach that stretches for many miles.

Beach - Raven is anchored in the distance.

Doug on a dune

More dunes

Dunes with the hills around Bahia Magdalena

If anyone lost a foot on the beach at Bahia Santa Maria please let us know

Road Trip to Ensenada

We flew back from the UK on Jan 26 and began our car trip south on Jan 28, arriving in Ensenada on Feb 8. We visited with friends and relatives along the way and enjoyed spectacular (if somewhat wet) coastal scenery on the drive down the 101 coast highway. Many thanks to our gracious hosts en route!

Out for a hike in southern Washington with Bob and Ann - our friends from the sailboat Charisma

View from the deck of Bob and Ann's new home in southern Washington

Bob cuts up his patented sour dough breakfast pancake

We next visited with Marv and Ardy - sailors whom we spent time with in Mexico ten years ago. They live in Portland and took us for a great tour of the city following the 4T route.

Oregon coast in the mist

California coast near sunset

Rani is amazed by the redwoods

More giants

We spent an afternoon in Jedediah Smith park enjoying these magnificent ancient trees

Rani tried to duplicate Bob's patented pancakes and on the 2nd try achieved a pretty good version. Captain Kurt and Chris enjoy a good feed.

Nancy loading bags for the trip south. They have a lovely house in the woods on the edge of the Sierra Nevada

It was snowy up in the hills at 4000 feet

Rani's LA cousins - Sher, Dara, Reggie, and Sita

We dropped in to see Rani's cousin Tanya Chahal at the California Welcome Center where she works in Oceanside

Pit stop north of Ensenada. The Subaru is way down at the back with all our gear and that roof box is packed

Water lights at Ensenada malecon. These are synched with music and are very near where Kurt's boat is moored.

Chris and Doug (our additional crew) in drag

Malta Day 5 - Victoria Lines

The weather on our last full day was very windy with occasional showers, but we decided to brave the elements and walk a section of the Victoria Lines - a British built fortification system that crosses Malta. We drove to a technical school close to Fort Mosta and Rani found a custodian who showed us how to access the remains of the fortified wall through the school property. Normally the walls could be accessed through public gardens, but these were closed for renovations.

We walked several kilometers of the wall toward the west after first heading east to the edge of the Fort (now closed to the public because it is used for ammunition storage). The wall walk is a bit rough in places and nicely paved in others. People have built their houses into the wall requiring detours to avoid dogs and private property signs. We found the most interesting part of the walk to be at the Bingemma Gap (this also seems to be the most photographed part of the wall). Here we saw a chapel dating from 1670 and catacombs (small interconnected caves in the limestone rock) that are most likely 1500 years old.

Typical tourist information sign - note the walled town of Mdina in the distance

Rani walking a section of the wall - we are outside the moat here and had to walk for a couple of kilometers before we were able to climb the wall and get on the right side of things again

A stone structure viewed from the wall - near the Bingemma Gap

Fields provide a foreground for Rabat and Mdina

Panorama looking northwest from the all near Bingemma

More useful tourist signage - to be fair we did find one sign that had some barely legible text on it still but most signage is in this state

Limestone quarry - the quarrying work was done to less than a meter from the road we were walking on with a 100 foot hole immediately beside the road and the historic wall a few meters away,

View West showing the Victoria Lines in the distance

Not sure what these structures or wall workings are here at the Bingemma Gap

Loop holes

Much photographed section of the wall at Bingemma is the most impressive part that we walked - below and to the right and left are catacombs carved into the rock

Hiding from the wind, we had lunch in this shelter that was presumably once higher walled and roofed.

Catacombs and wall

Another catacomb - chambers are interconnected and each would have contained one or more burials

The opening would have been closed originally and probably plastered over - vandals likely robbed these many hundreds of years ago

We ran into these sheep and goats within the fortifications near Bingemma

Malta Day 4 - Mdina and Rabat

Today we set out to walk along a portion of the Victoria Lines, a fortified wall that follows a fault line across the island of Malta. Rain and high winds drove us from this goal and instead we visited the walled town of Mdina and its neighbor, Rabat. Mdina was once the capitol of Malta and a place of great religious significance. It is surrounded by impressive walls and consists of a warren of high walled streets, churches, residences, museums, and a few restaurants and stores.

We walked most of the streets and visited the excellent Cathedral and related museum.

Mdina from a nearby road - showing the dome of the cathedral

Main gate - detail. Horse drawn carriage rides are available and cars are allowed in Mdina, although only on some streets

Gate detail

About half the streets are this narrow and suitable for pedestrians or horses only

Cathedral dome

The main square has some lovely buildings

Architectural detail

The museum admission is 5 euros and well worth it. The collection of silver religious artifacts is impressive and the museum building itself is stunning.

Silver hanging lamp detail - lamps like this were in use in the cathedral

Silver filigree monstrance for the display of objects of piety. Filigree worked jewelry is a common tourist item still

Reliquary containing saintly bones

A book reliquary - yet another way to house bones

Detail of a large reliquary containing a skull

The museum had a collection of teapots and related vessels with butterfly adornments

This fellow reminded me of our friend Kurt with whom we will soon be sailing

Saint Agatha appears a bit annoyed in this painting - for obvious reasons. Agatha is the patron saint of Malta and also (according to Wikipedia) ...of breast cancer patients, martyrs, wet nurses, bell-founders, bakers, fire, earthquakes, and eruptions of Mount Etna

The museum floors were inlaid with beautiful marbles

Colourful inlaid grave marker in the cathedral floor

The cathedral was decorated in scarlet cloth for Christmas

Altar displaying the apostles in silver with baby Jesus

It is not possible to do justice with a photo to the impressive dome and its wonderful paintings

Neighbouring Rabat is similar to Mdina in its narrow streets and architecture - but is a lively and vibrant place in comparison to the frozen museum quality of  its neighbour