Turn around point

The cold wind is blowing, temperatures are dropping, we are digging out all the warm clothing  we can find ( which isn't much) and coming to the decision that it is time for us to head south again.

Ok,  when I say the temperatures are dropping I mean all the way down to the 50's at night. I will pause while you in the northern climes quit guffawing. I know, to you that would be a heat wave, but to those of us whose blood has gone thin, who don't have proper cold weather gear and were just recently complaining of temperatures over 100, this feels mighty cold! Two things of note: 1) The black sweat pants that I am wearing are meant to be material  for a project that will be put off until I am warmer and and willing to cut them up. 2) I may be cold, but I am still barefoot.

Santa Rosalia is slightly less than halfway up the eastern coast of the Baja peninsula. It was a company town for a French copper mining operation from 1884 to 1954. There  is evidence of that all over town, from the abandoned machinery,

to the French street names,

and old locomotives and mining equipment scattered throughout the town. The Mexican government took over and ran the mine until the 1980s but the facilities were never dismantled.

Not quite sure what this structure was, but apparently it is marked as an historic monument.

We are taking advantage of the government run marina here. It is the least expensive marina we have ever been to. In the Caribbean we were used to paying $1 a foot a night, or $49 for us. In Mexico the prices range between 50-75¢ a foot, but here in Santa Rosalia we are paying the weekly rate of 6 pesos/ foot/ night, or less than $17 a night.

Hanging the dinghy from the davits and pulling it over to the dock gives access to the transom. 

In addition to the usual laundry and showers, we are completing some chores that are more easily done at a dock, One of the jobs was installing removable wheels on the dinghy so it will be easier to roll her up above the waves when landing on a beach . Dinghy wheels are not a necessity in the Caribbean because there are dinghy docks in so many of the places we went. Not the case once we crossed through the Canal and into the Pacific. Now that we have dinghy wheels we are ready to get to shore more easily.

Today we spent 5 hours trying to get our water system running smoothly. It turned out that the main problem was plastic in the lines, clogging the flow.

Not much water can flow through this!

Now it is time to turn south in search of warmer weather. The length of time we will spend exploring the Sea of Cortez is in direct proportion to the temperature.