Jumping Ship

Hi all. The last week was pretty eventful. Our crew
jumped from 3 to 6 in the space of a few hours. Last
week we were at the island of Cedros (didn't even get
it on the yotreps it was so crazy) moving our boat and
trying to make sure that the onshore wind wasn't going
to blow us on land. Luckily we speak Spanish enough to
get permission to anchor in the fishing harbor in
between crab pots and protected from wind waves (still
windy). We got situated in the harbor and had another
sailboat tied up to us since it was such tight
quarters and they had less experience. It was a
polish couple that windsurf, conscientious and
friendly. We ended up getting tacos with them in town
(our first restaurant in Mexico) and coming back to
bed around 9pm. Right around midnight we heard a
commotion and looked out to see another sailboat
directly next to us and I heard a woman's voice
yelling "Deyess it's Grace" I recognized the voice as
a friend of Deyess' that we'd met about a month ago.
What was she doing on Cedros in the middle of the
night? Next thing we heard is a man's voice
announcing to us that he was going to raft up (tie up)
on our Other side. This is a tricky maneuver any
time, especially in the middle of the night. It was
clear very quickly that they were not in good control
of the boat and at one point as I went to fend them
off, Grace leaned over the side of her boat and
whispered, "they've been drinking, we need to get off
this boat!!" Not what we wanted to hear since it was
being driven by one of the drinkers at the moment.
The short version of the story is that despite the
fact that they drove directly at our boat and drove
over our anchor line several times they only bent a
stanchion which will only need minor repairs and they
ended up anchoring 30 feet away and not tying up to
us. Deyess went and got Grace (a ucsc grad that is
levelheaded and outgoing) to visit our boat. Turns
out there were two other people that wanted to abandon
the ship because the captain and his friend were
angry, violent drunks. All three (including the
captain's girlfriend Erica were scared) We got them
off of the boat throughout the night and after Erica
made over, we left the anchorage at 4am so as to avoid
any interactions with the captain when he woke up with
a giant hangover and only one crew member.We had
perfect escape weather and all were relieved and
smiling again. It was truly a storybook story. What
are the odds Grace would be on the boat and recognize
us? She only knew we were somewhere in Mexico! The
amazing coincidences that ended up having us be there
are too numerous to go in to right now, but it truly
is a miracle. For example, the captain thought they
were pulling in to a bay on the west coast of Baja
when really he was pulling in to a harbor on the south
east side of an island over 50 miles to the north
west.So we had Grace, Erica (the captain's now
ex-girlfriend), and Joe, a father of twin boys who was
crewing to get some experience so that he could take
his family sailing someday. WE had them aboard and
then on land at Ron and Ruth's house in Abreojos.
They have all left for either home or other adventures
leaving us with some mellow time with Ron and Ruth and
Genevieve. We'll be leaving the boat securely attached
to the bottom of the bay here (the fishermen will help
us strategically lay down 3 anchors tomorrow) and
under the watchful eyes of some locals that are
friends. In the next few days we'll head north in a
car (gonna rent one) toward Santa Cruz. Brian and Megan