We arrived at Bahia de Tortugas around 4am. It took us about 2 hours to motor from the official finish line of this first leg to the anchorage. There were already about 60 boats who had arrived–mostly those who had not stopped at Bahia San Quintan.
Turtle Bay is a small-sized fishing port with a little city behind it. There are some basic amenities there: petrol, water (that must be purified), a few grocery stores varying in size from tiny to small, two hotels where you could order “ducha solamente” (shower only), and a handful of restaurants and taco stands.
There were also general town services, a small hospital, pharmacies, internet cafes, a zocalo, and complete neighborhoods, as well. The trappings of significant industry lay rotting and unused in the corrosive marine air–we thought the signs on the wall of the big rusted warehouse on the waterfront read “Sardines.”
Towards the end of this leg, our watches got a bit crazy. At some point, too many of us had gone too long without a proper amount of sleep. This is important because when you are on-watch, you are working.
During the daytime, you catch up on maintenance for the boat mostly because you can see what you are doing (maintenance IS a non-stop battle on every boat). But, at night you do a different kind of work. Your job is to watch for ships (and, if you see do anything in your power to ensure that they see you) and keep your own ship out of danger. Honestly, I feel that keeping the ship out of trouble at night is more strenuous than doing the chores of the daytime shifts. Fortunately, everyone gets to do both.
We slowly rounded the tip of the bay and eeked our way into the anchorage. When we found a suitable spot for our boat, we dropped anchor, meeted out enough rode, shut down the boat systems, did a quick once-over of the entire ship, and everyone was alseep within minutes.
