ON THE HOOK IN AN OPEN ROADSTEAD

In the previous WEB update I told you how we ran aground while trying to anchor at Punta Cobre. Today is Friday, June 28, and we have been here at Punta Cobre since Wednesday evening. This section of the east coast of the Baja pennisula is remote, desolate, and has few well protected anchorages.

We are anchored in what I suppose you would call an open roadstead. We are about 400 yards off a nice sand beach and are well protected from the SSE around to the NW. From the NW all the way to the SE we look right out into the Sea of Cortez with no protection from any swells or winds.

The picture to the left is looking NW from the top of Punta Cobre (Copper Point).

San Evaristo is the next well protected anchorage south of us, 25 miles, and Aqua Verde is 25 miles to the north of us.

The low, but persistent, swell comes in from almost due east or north of east while the 5 to 15 knot wind is almost always out of the SE. We have the Magma flopper stopper deployed as well as a stern anchor to keep our bow into the swell.

We are on the NW side of Punta Cobre. The reef we ran onto is about a half mile south of us, on the other side the point. We decided to anchor on the north side to get some protection from the SE winds that are common in this area.

We left La Paz on June 20 and had a nice non-stop 42-mile trip to the Hook at Isla San Francisco. We were able to sail only about three hours of that trip.

We had NE 10 to 15 knots as we broad reached across the west side of the San Lorenzo channel. As we got north of the channel the wind moved more to the South and SE and diminished to about eight knots. That led me to put up the spinnaker, which takes about five minutes. As soon as I raised the spinnaker the wind went from SE six knots to NW four knots and wrapped the sail around the headstay. OH Well!

We really like the Hook at Isla San Francisco. It is a secure anchorage with lots of neat stuff to do. One of the big things is fishing which we did almost every evening. We also snorkeled to chase fish for a couple hours each afternoon. The water is still very cold and quite green. In places the visibility is less than 15'. I swim with just a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. After 30 minutes in the water I am shaking. The long time Sea of Cortez cruisers say that our weather and water temperature are more like early May than late June.

Everyone is hoping that the cold water will delay the start of hurricane season by a month. Historically- only three hurricanes have entered the Sea of Cortez during July.

While I was diving off the point at The Hook I saw huge quantities of great dinner fish. There were big groupers and Jacks or Pompano. I also several other big things swimming around that I didn't recognize. But, they were all down at about 15'. Every time I would try to dive down there they would swim away, just far enough to be out of spear range. The current was flowing out of the bay and around the point. I would just allow myself to drift on the surface until I was over the fish. I shot about 15 times and hit a couple but they were so far away the spear had no effect.

I would swim back into the current, about 100 yards, to my starting point so I could drift again. When I'd get back to my starting point I'd turn around and find all the fish, thousands, just 10' behind me. Apparently they would follow me back into the bay and then drift out again, just like me. But never within spear range.

Arlene had a wrestling match with a 3' squid while at the Hook. It was swimming in 2' of water, about 10' from the beach and she was walking along the beach looking for clams. She grabbed the squid but it darted away. She then jumped on to it, landing on her belly, trying to pin the squid down. She got both hands around it but couldn't hold on. Lots of thrashing and splashing. After about 10 seconds the squid took off for deep water. I don't know what she thought she would do with the squid. I wouldn't eat it.

One of my evening fishing trips was very succesful when I caught a nice 11 pound Black Skipjack Tuna while trolling, a half hour before sunset, in the dinghy about a 1/2 mile east of Isla San Francisco. I was using one of the light spinning rods while I was towing a double squid lure (orange inside green).

The tuna put up quite a struggle and I had to chase it with the dinghy after it struck. It just started pulling line off the reel and I was afraid to put too much drag on the 20-pound test line. I followed the tuna for several minutes while I let it tire. I kept a lite drag on the reel and made the poor fish work pretty hard. I couldn't begin to retrieve line for the first five minutes. After that it took another ten minutes to get it to the dinghy. The tuna was almost dead when I finally got it in the boat. Forty five minutes later we were eating a fresh tuna dinner.

The picture to the right is looking SW from the sand dunes on the east side of the hook. That is Mirador with the Hook light tower just beyond her. The Sierra Giganta Mountains are visible on the far side of the San Jose Channel.

The trouble with the Hook is that all the Moorings charter boats stop there. I know cruisers are not supposed to talk about charter boat folks 'cause someday we might want to charter a boat. But ... some of the things they do are astounding!

While at the Hook two Moorings boats, 51' and 46' anchored 20 yards from us just before sunset. One boat had six teenage girls and two female chaperones, the other boat, did you guess already?, had six teenage boys and two adults. They were a Marine Biology field trip from the San Francisco Bay area. Not a very quiet night. The two boats were anchored so that there was only 8' between their sterns. They wanted to be able to talk from one cockpit to the other.

I went fishing (where I caught a big tasty Mexican Barracuda) just after they anchored. While I was gone the chaperone lady talked to Arlene who said we had 110' of chain out and they could see our anchor float out there, just under our bow. Arlene also told the lady that we had been having 30-knot gusts in the nightly winds and boats were swinging all over. The lady got annoyed with Arlene and told her that "she had been anchoring in the Hook for eight years and she did know how to anchor a boat."

The wind only gusted to 25 that night but we did notice that after a few big swings the Moorings boat pulled anchor and moved about 100 yards further west of us. I guess they figured out they were kinda close to their friends and us.

Earlier in the week, at about 10:30 PM, the wind went from NNE 5 knots to SSW 20 knots in about 10 minutes. The 38' Moorings catamaran that was anchored about 50 yards from us took off headed NNE across the bay-dragging their anchor behind them when the wind came up. I had been over there talking to them at about sunset. There were three older guys from San Diego on the boat and two younger women that they had picked up somewhere. There was also lots of Tequila and laughter. While I was there they mentioned that they didn't think the anchor was very well set and thought that was hilarious. I guess it wasn't (set or funny). It took them three tries between 11 PM and 2 AM to get the anchor to dig in. They were gone when I got up at 7:30 the next morning. They bumped one of the other Moorings boats during the dragging.

Arlene couldn't sleep 'cause they kept motoring up near us and would then try to set the anchor. I slept thru most of it. We were as close to the beach as possible and there was no way anyone could get upwind of us so I had no worries. But, she still worries when they get within 20 yards and try to anchor with the motor roaring, voices shouting, and anchor chain clanging. During all this the wind was steady from 20 to 25 knots. But, it was almost a full moon so we could keep a close eye on them.

How can you have trouble setting a 35# CQR in deep white sand in 10' of crystal clear water? There is no grass, no rocks, no coral, no nothing on the bottom to keep the anchor from digging in the first try. They did mention that last year, while chartering out of Puerto Vallarta, they hit "the submerged rock at Punta de Mita" - whatever that means.

It's not just the Moorings charter boats that are annoying.

Friday afternoon we had the bay to ourselves when a 75' powerboat slowly motored into the far side and dropped anchor about 1/2 mile from us. Within 1/2 hour they were buzzing us with a Jetski and shortly after that a 20' skiboat with a 150 HP outboard towing a skier was using Mirador as a turning mark. They were doing circles around us, the Jetski passing within 10 yards. WHY? The bay is 1/2 mile wide and deep and surrounded by beautiful white beaches. We were anchored in the far SW corner, inside a hook formed by the point -they were in the far NE corner. They had to come all the way across the bay to annoy us. Gringos - almost got the flare gun out.

To keep things in perspective - If other boats annoying us while at anchor is our only problem I will feel blessed and give thanks.

Our 32 mile sail up here from the Hook was very pleasant, except for running onto the reef! We had three hours of nice downwind spinnaker sailing in bright warm sunshine and 10 to 15 knots of wind with a two knot following current as we headed north in the six mile wide San Jose channel. As we came to the north end of the channel the wind moved more to the SSW and we needed to gype the spinnaker. We do it the cruisers way, we douse the chute by pulling the turtle bag down over the spinnaker. We then move bagged but still raised, spinnaker to the other side of the boat.

At that point I noticed that the wind was gusting over 20 and the white caps were building. The ST50 wind guage reported gusts into the high 20s. We decided that we had had enough spinnaker fun for the day.

A poled out 120% genoa kept us moving straight downwind at 6 or more knots until the wind dropped back to the low teens at which time we raised the main and went wing and wing until it was time for the anchoring fiasco.

Arlene has now decided that the spinnaker is her favorite sail since it is so easy to put up and take down and usually causes little or no heel.

Here is a picture from the El Cobre anchorage looking WSW toward the Sierra Giganta Mountains:

Yesterday I spent an hour diving on the reef at the point. I am finally finding Lobsters, big lobsters, but they are very quick to duck under rocks and back into caves where I can't reach them with a spear.

I literally ran into a 15 pound 2' Giant Hawkfish (Cirrhitus rivulatus) while snorkeling. It was calm enough that I could reach out and touch it. They are beautiful fish, greenish with lots of bright blue markings that look a little like Chinese writing. They are called Chinese Bass (Chino Mero) by the local fisherman.

I couldn't bring myself to spear it because it was so docile and I had read that they have been speared to extinction in lots of areas because they are so docile.

Then I had a run-in with a huge sea turtle. I was snorkeling along on the surface in about 8' of fairly clear water, right on the edge of the reef. There were lots of big cream colored rocks strewn on the bottom. As I approached one of the rocks it suddenly exploded up toward me and then swam by in a flash. As it was swimming away I realized it was a turtle whose shell was about two feet in diameter. I guess it had been sleeping or resting on the rock and I startled it. But, I'm sure I was far more startled than it was.

Our weather is still darn near perfect. The air temp gets into the low to mid-90s each day with a very warm sun. There is almost always a three to six knot breeze blowing off the sea to keep things cool and the daytime humidity stays below 50%. By midnight the temperature drops to the mid-70s as the humidity rises. I can't imagine nicer weather.

If we do get too warm a short dip in the Sea will take your breath away and raise goose bumps. But it will be cool and refreshing.

We'll probably stay here for another day or so and then move on north to the anchorage at Los Gatos which, is supposed to be spectacular.