Sailing La Paz to Pichilingue

We met a Dutch couple, Sophie and Sander, at an early morning Netherlands vs. USA game. Instead of bitterballen we ate chilaquiles, but the Netherlands won regardless. We learned Sophie has a lot of sailing experience, so we invited them out for a sail a few days later.

Pulled up anchor in La Paz at 09:42, anchored in Pichilingue at 14:51.

We met them at the dinghy dock at 8:30 a.m. Total pros, they brought snacks for everybody. Sophie wanted to do everything, and had Sander as her “gorilla’ to do the heavy lifting. She did the bulk of the sailing, leaving us and Sander to concentrate on first – watching Morocco play Spain – then fishing!

We caught a couple of fish, not huge but big enough to eat, and definitely big enough to make a mess in the cockpit. We got them cleaned, had a round of iced tea to clear the slight seasickness, and finished the sail.

Sophie kept the helm during anchoring, which went well until she absolutely exploded the snubber flying in reverse. Our fault for not telling her to go steadily back then give a big shot in reverse, but oh well, we needed to replace it anyway. Charles and Sander went for a swim, I tidied up the deck and got Sophie acquainted with the galley, and Sophie put together a big, beautiful charcuterie plate. Later, she cooked up the fish, and eventually we used the dinghy to drop them back on shore. They left to pack for their next stop, and Charles and I stayed in Pichilingue for a week!