ANOTHER NORTHER

We are anchored in beautiful Bahia San Gabriel (Thursday January 24) on the SW tip of Isla Espiritu Santo (Spirit of the Saints) which is about 15 miles NNE of La Paz. We arrived here Tuesday afternoon in bright warm sunshine and little or no wind. We originally anchored in 9' of water that was so clear it felt like Mirador was suspended in the air above a bright sand beach. Every starfish and shell on the bottom was still clearly visible at 9 PM with a half moon shining.

Well that was then, now (11 AM) it is 70 degrees and blowing 20 - 35 knots out of the north. One of the infamous Baja Northers that plague winter sailors in the Sea of Cortez began last evening about midnight and has been slowly building in strength. The steady wind is in the 15 knot range but we get sustained gusts over 30 knots. The sky is crystal clear and the sun is quite warm, despite the cool air temp. At least by our revised Baja standards, an air temp of 70 is cool. I am wearing a sweatshirt with my shorts, that means it is cold.

This norther is only forecast to last about 24 hours as opposed to some that continue for many days. The strong north wind in the Sea of Cortez is caused by the same weather pattern that brings the Santa Ana winds to Southern California. There is currently a 1036 Mb high pressure system situated just south of the Four Corners area (the spot where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah all meet).

The pressure here was 1016 Mb at 10 AM.That 20 Mb pressure difference allows the cool dense air from the high pressure system north of us to rush southward over the Sea of Cortez. The wind is funneled and intensified by the Baja mountain ranges to the west and the mainland Mexico mountain ranges to the east.

Skip the following paragraph if you aren not interested in weather theory.

It is about 650 miles to the center of the high from here so we have an average pressure gradient of 3 Mb per 97 miles. Weather theory says that a 3 Mb pressure difference over 90 miles will produce a gale. The most exact predictor of wind speed is degrees latitude separating the 4 Mb Isobars at a particular lattitue. This distance is then used to look up the prediced wind speed for a given latitude. In the case of todays weather pattern, there are about 2 degrees latitude per 4 Mb difference. At 20 dgrees North that would yield 39 knots gusting to 58 and at 30 degrees it would be 27 gusting to 40 knots, or just about what we are experienceing.

The good news is that we are snuggled right up near a 400 foot hill that covers the area from NW to NE. We are only 300 yards from shore in 15' of water. The wind is blowing straight off shore so there is no room for any waves to build up. Our 44 pound Bruce anchor is dug in nicely and is attached to Mirador with 110' of 3/8" chain and 30' of 5/8" nylon rode. The bottom is mixed hard coral covered by thin sand and patches of deep sand. We dropped the anchor in a deep sand patch, more about that later.

We always attach a white float to the anchor so we can keep an eye on it's location relative to the boat, can determine if we are dragging, and most importantly, we can always find the anchor again if the rode parts or we have to leave in a big hurry by detaching the bitter end of the rode from the boat. Even the 40 knot gusts don't cause more than half the chain to be brought up off the bottom. The anchor never feels the load of the boat with 110 feet of chain that weighs 187 pounds.

This confirms a test I did about five years ago. We anchored Mirador in 20' of water with 150' of chain and NO anchor. We sat that way for 24 hours in winds gusting to 25 knots. The boat never moved an inch.

We are anxiously watching the Mexican navy patrol boat that is anchored about 1/2 mile from us. It looks like a moderate version of a WWII PT boat. They are out here for training and to inspect fishing and cruising boats. We did not check out of La Paz with the port captain and could have some minor problems with the Navy if they choose to hassle us. The worse that can happen is that they will tow us back to La Paz.

Bahia San Gabriel is spectacular. It is about one mile wide and 3/4 mile deep. The NW corner is formed by Prieta Punta, (Dark Point). The hills along the north and northeast are 200' to 400' high. The eastern most portion of the bay is a low valley that opens to the Sea of Cortez. The southern part of the bay is rimmed by lower hills and Punta Colorado which has 1/4 mile of 50' cliffs formed by reddish and pinkish sandstone.

The water of the bay meets white sand beaches, mangroves, and sandstone cliffs. Much of the sand beach is backed by green shrubs or giant cactus forests. I would post a picture but this update is being sent by HAM e-mail so picture would be too slow.

Now for the sad story of our anchoring adventures yesterday.

We changed anchor spots four times yesterday and ended up less than 300 yards from where we started. Tuesday night at 9 PM, while we were watching Longitude on tape, the South wind started blowing (probably a Coromuel caused by the Baja landmass cooling faster than the water). By midnight it was up to 15 knots and the waves were breaking at 3'. The wind was dead onshore for us with a 15 mile fetch. We were anchored in 8' of water about 400 yards from shore. The wind kept increasing until about 3 AM when it reached 18 - 20 out of the SSE. I couldn't begin to sleep with the boat pitching up and down so much that it was hard to stand up. We had 70' of chain out but we were still banging hard on the bow when the big swells hit us head on. Miserable!

Wouldn't you know the forecast had been for NE 10 - 20! When we arrived here on Tuesday afternoon we had gone to the SE part of the bay to anchor but decided that would be the wrong side in a NE wind. So we anchored on the NE side which then turned out to be just the wrong place for the SSE wind!

The SSE wind seemed to be the La Paz Coromuel. That is the evening land breeze that blows every night during the summer. Well this ain't summer and Coromuel's are supposed to be much less frequent. But, we've experienced S or SW all three nights we anchored in this area. See our description of Estero Ballandra (December 18 2001). Every anchorage on Espiritu Santo is exposed to the Coromuel.

The picture to the left is looking South towards the mountains just to the SE of La Paz. The Coromuel comes from the mountains.

The wind started to settle down at about 4 AM and I finally fell asleep, but it did blow 9 to 12 knots out of the South until about noon yesterday. When the tide went out at about 11 AM the depth guage showed we were in less than seven feet of water. The waves were still at a couple of feet. Every minute or so the boat would lurch and shudder like it was hitting bottom. I got out in the dinghy and hand measured less than 6' of water so I think our 5' 3" keel was hitting bottom in the wave troughs.

We moved the boat about 200 yards NW to get into 10' of water. We set the anchor and 40' of chain but it would not hold more than 1400 RPM in reverse. We kept trying to set it and eventually dragged ourselves far enough toward shore that we went quietly aground again. (Arlenes editorial comment - she claims she tried to tell me we were going aground but you know how this captain seldom listens to anyone) It took some serious engine work and windlass hauling to pull us back into deep, 7', water.

We then went into 14' of water and anchored again. That time it would hold 1600 RPM with 50' of chain. I let the engine run at 1500 in reverse for 3' and finally got it to hold at 1900 RPM in reverse. Later I swam out and dove on the anchor. Only about 1/4 of the Bruce flukes were dug in. The bottom was 3" of sand over rock and coral. I couldn't dig into it with a 2" putty knive. Why did I have a putty knive? I had been scrapping the barnacles off the knotmeter transducer.

But it was neat diving. I got six nice scallops that Arlene had for a late lunch. Lots of interesting stuff on the bottom, including big brain corals.

About 5 PM yesterday Arlene decided the Coromuel was again going to blow out of the SSE so we moved to the other side of the bay, 1/2 mile or so. By then I had learned how to read the bottom and we really sunk the 'ole Bruce into the clear sand. It held 3200 RPM for 30 seconds in reverse. When we left for this new spot it was dead calm. By 5:30 PM the clouds were black and it was blowing 15 - 18 out of the NW which again put us on a lee shore with a 20 mile fetch for the waves to build.

So, it was again off to the other side. This time I snugged us right up under a 400' hill that covered the area from NW to NE. The only concern was that the anchor couldn't hold at 2000 RPM, I think this whole area is just little sand over coral. But with all that chain and being only 300 yards from shore we thought we would be OK in any wind with a north component.

The NW wind turned out to be a temporary thing. By 7 PM it was again dead calm and the clouds had all blown away. But, we resisted the temptation to move yet again.

We went to bed about midnight with the wind still less than five knots out of the North. About 2 AM the first big gust shook us out of bed. The wind went from 5 knots to 20 knots in a few minutes and stayed in the 20 - 35 knot range until after 11 AM.

The anchor did hold all night and the wind is now starting to drop off.

I think we'll take the Portabote out for a rock fishing expedition this afternoon. We are also going to explore the SE corner of the bay where there is an artificial rock causeway that creates a 2 or 3 acre saltwater pond. There used to be a pearl farming venture that used the pond but now the mangroves are starting to take over.

It is now 1 PM and the Navy PT boat is pulling up next to us. They have dropped anchor about 20 yards from us but have made no attempt to contact us. Check back here in a few days and see how this little thing turned out.

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Thats the Navy sitting right next to us.

Here is a closeup of the boat.