We arrived to Bahia Santa Maria (Nov 5, 2018 9:15pm) by Shelly

November 5, 2018, Monday @ 2115
 N 24 46.85 W 112 15.225
 
We arrived to Bahia Santa Maria after a wonderful day/evening of sailing off and on. Late afternoon/early evening we got at least 10 knots of wind so, we took advantage of that and got in some great sailing, getting Celtic Song up to 6.5 knots. Needless to say, there were some issues along the way with fishing vessels, nets and other boats, that made us stay on our toes throughout the leg. We heard some of our fleet caught shark, tuna and marlin, while others saw dolphins, whales and turtles. Lots of activity!
 
We arrived and dropped anchor around 0445 this morning. We stayed in the cockpit and starred at the beautiful sky - Mars twinkled at us in green and red, the Milky Way was gorgeous, all the various constellations looking so brilliant and with the falling and shooting stars, it seemed like someone was giving us the show of our lives. We finally dragged ourselves away to nap the early morning hours until we awoke to our morning 0900 check-in on the "Baja Net" (where we hear the location of everyone in the fleet and discuss any issues/needs and activities for the day). We had breakfast before easing into the ocean and going for a swim. Diane swam to another boat to make new friends, while we had thoughts of her abandoning us.
 
We had extra practice putting the motor off and on the dinghy due to the surf at shore and it not being safe to use. Diane and Roxy rowed to shore with Sophia (the dog) and found gorgeous sand dollars and spoke to other members of our fleet, while Shelly and Anna took naps and John listened to his audio book. Just a mellow day all around, of course we did our chores to keep the boat shipshape. We were invited to happy hour by Arctic Loon and went over for a fabulous time with the all women crew who made us zucchini fritters and made us feel so welcome.
 
Another day on the sea...just living the life, an amazing one at that!
 Shelly