I awoke at 7:15 AM at Ensenada del Los Muertos and listened to Geary’s weather on the Sonrisa Net. The weather for the next few days should make the crossing to Mazatlán relatively easy.
I raised the anchor and was underway for Bahia Frailes at 8:30.
The conditions were good. The wind built to about 10 to 15 knots but it blew from the south so I was only able to carry sail for two or three hours. Despite this I was able to motor or motor sail at between 5.8 and 6.3 knots for the entire day. The skies were sunny and the temperatures were in the mid-eighties all day.
The autopilot again worked properly all day.
I finished a second reading of Reza Aslan’s book “Zealot” today. It is a history of Jesus, the Roman occupation of Palestine, the Jewish revolts against Roman rule, and the early history of the Christian church. It is a summary of the life of the historic Jesus and the times in which he lived. It explains that Jesus was only one of many messianic figures that arose and were crucified between the Roman conquest of Jerusalem in 63 BCE and the total destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE. It places Jesus, his followers, and their beliefs in the context of the Jewish religious, social, and political upheavals of that time. It describes how Rome worked to control the Jews and to suppress the religious and political threats to Roman domination. It describes how a Jewish temple elite conspired with the Roman rulers to maintain power and amass wealth. It describes the religious zealots who attempted to overturn Roman rule, reestablish a Jewish king to rule Israel, and cleanse and restore the Jewish temple. It describes Jesus’ ministry beginning with his baptism by John the Baptist, his preaching to the Galileans. It describes the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, his arrest, crucifixion, and the impact of his crucifixion on his followers. It goes on to describe the history of the early church including Paul’s critical role in redefining Christianity among the Hellenic Jews, and the gentiles of the Roman Empire. It describes the impact of the deaths of the original disciples and their followers when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and killed all of its inhabitants in 70 CE. This event laid the groundwork for Paul’s version of Christianity to prevail and become the dominant Christianity theology. I found the book enlightening and extremely interesting.
I arrived at Bahia Frailes at 4:30 PM and set the anchor in 27 feet of water. There were two other yachts in the anchorage when I arrived. A commercial Mexican fishing boat arrived shortly after I did. The anchorage is calm this evening.
As I was preparing dinner at about 5:30 PM, a kayaker from shore stopped by the boat. He is from Portland Oregon, and asked if I was from Portland since the hailing port on my stern says “Portland”. I explained that the boat was from Portland but that I was from Redmond Washington. He and his wife have spent the past three months travelling the Baja Peninsula in their SUV. They sleep in a tent on an inflatable air mattress. They store their food in an ice chest which they refill with ice every three or four days. They carry water in five gallon plastic jugs. They explore in their small plastic kayaks. They swim and snorkel. They prefer small towns and villages to large cities.
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