Day 12    Wednesday, December 24, 1997

Ensenada - Fishing Cove

Christmas Eve. Today, we say adios to Ensenada after having waited in vain for our last crew member, David, who was supposed to have joined us here yesterday. Before casting off, I call home, send 13 Christmas postcards, and buy a leather jacket (USD 150), leather vest (USD 20), and five Cuban Montechristo No 4 cigars (USD 40).

South, we steer, until we reach the same cove we were at a few days earlier. Here, we anchor up for the evening and have pasta with clam sauce for dinner. Ray eventually manages to contact his office back home and finds out that David's father suddenly had fallen ill, which explained his absence. That's too bad, but at least we know he's not lost somewhere in Mexico.

After dinner, Ray declares that we are to have anchor watches throughout the night. We have two anchors out, but he feels that we still need it because the wind is pretty strong. Andy protests, but it shot down with "this is not a democracy, you know."