Newport Beach anchorage - revisited

After 8 days anchored at Catalina I sailed back to Newport beach to the spot I was at a few weeks back. The weather was out of the south and made my cove at Catalina very uncomfortable as it was now fully exposed. Ive also been thinking of flying home for a few days to help Ali with some chores at home so being back on the mainland made sense. You are only meant to use the anchorage 5 days a month and I was here just 8 days ago, but it is a new month now! So far the harbor patrol guys haven't said anything so I guess I'm fine for now.

Its a ghost town here compared to just a week ago. After labor day this place just shuts down! I really like it a lot now its quieter. Ive been unplugged from the grid for nearly a month now, I'm feeling quite confident in the boat systems working well once I'm in Mexico. In fact I could use much more water/electric than I have been rationing myself as I appear to have plenty in reserve. Also the food stores last a long time with just one person on the boat.

I was chatting about 'dropping out of the system' with a sailor who returned from the sea of Cortez last year and he mentioned that when your out in the wilds of Mexico a interesting goal is to try for a whole month not to spend any money or use the internet. It seems simple at first, but when you think about it for a while you realize that it will be challenging and require some major adjustments in behavior. Normally that challenge would be hard to do for one day while in the US!

Time is running out fast now before I can cross the border into Mexican waters. I have a few more places I want to visit on the way down and I need to time in San Diego to get all my paperwork and visas in order. I need to stay above latitude 24 until November, but that still gives me over 500 miles of Baja coastline to explore before I get that far south.