I am, once again, in Bahia San Francisquito where it is blowing 25 knots out of the NNW. This anchorage is completely sheltered from any wind EXCEPT from the NNW to NNE. This is the 3rd anchorage in a row, and the 4th in the last week in which the wind has been directly into the anchorage, making them uncomfortable, and in one case dangerous.
Here is a picture of Kathy and Paul from Ryakosh
that was taken at Isla Ventana an hour before the Elephante drove
us out of the anchorage. The last update told you about having to
leave Isla Ventana when the wind went from nothing to 25 knots
directly onshore in just a few minutes.
I spent several peaceful days in Puerto Don Juan where everything was almost perfect. After the Elephantes blew themselves out the temperature dropped 15 degrees and the nights became cool and comfortable. My body had really adapted to the heat so when the early morning cabin temperature plummeted to 78 degrees I had to get out a blanket to stay warm.
The clamming in Don Juan was spectacular. I found a small sandy cove in which the water was less than three feet deep. I could kneel in the water with my mask and snorkel on and my face in the water. Each time I put my hands into the sand I would dig up three to eight clams. They are the small white ones that are very sweet and tasty when cooked.
Here is a picture of Jerry being really lazy amongst the Ocotillo plants in the dessert above Puerto Don Juan:
On September 29 I decided to start south for the winter. The hurricane birthing grounds SW of Mexico were quiet and the tides were very helpful for heading south. I left Puerto Don Juan at about 2 PM and caught a nice south going tide as I rounded Punta Don Juan. The wind was eight to 12 knots out of the North and I had a great sail 11 mile south to Punta Las Animas (Point of the Souls). My intention was to spend the night in Puertocitos del Enmedio (Little Port in the Middle) which is just south of Las Animas. That would have placed me just 28 miles Northwest of Bahia San Francisquito, my next stop on the way south.
I cautiously entered del Enmedio about an hour before sunset and found a nasty, worthless anchorage for anything except a West or Northwest wind. The two to three foot swell was rolling directly into the cove which might have been OK if I could have found somewhere to drop the anchor. But, 20 yards from shore the water was still over 50' deep and the bottom looked rocky. This was somewhat annoying since the Cunningham cruising guide said the bottom was sand and less than 20 feet deep.
I had been warned, by Lonestar who is boat out of Texas, that Enmedio was a worthless anchorage. They had tried to stay there two nights earlier but decided it was not safe. After driving around Enmedio for 10 minutes I decided they were correct and headed Southeast for Isla Salsipuedes which was the next closest anchorage that was safe in a North wind.
The north wind slowly died to less than four knots by sunset and I motored the 13 miles to Salsipuedes where Ryakosha was anchored in the South Slot. They told me to look for the bright lights on an 85' dive boat that was anchored behind them. I was about three miles from the South Slot anchorage when I saw the lights of the dive boat. However, those lights were a few degrees south of the waypoint I was using to find the South Slot. I changed course and headed for the lights. When I was only two miles from the anchorage, as measured by radar, I saw that I was headed 20 degrees south of the anchorage as I tried to approach the well lit dive boat.
I then called Ryakosha to confirm the GPS lat/lon I was using for the waypoint. I told them that the lights on the dive boat were way south of the GPS lat/lon and what the radar showed to be the South Slot anchorage. At that point Kat on Ryakosha went on deck and noticed that the dive boat had pulled anchor and was 3 miles south of the anchorage, motoring briskly toward the Southeast.
The South Slot is a narrow cove, about 1/4 mile long that extends north into the island with steep cliffs on both sides. With Ryakoshas help I dropped anchor, in the dark, in 38' of water. The wind was out of the NW and the anchorage was fairly quiet so I made a big pot of clams and linguine, drank a beer, and went to bed.
I was rolled out of bed a little before 1 AM by what I thought was an unusual wave. I turned on the wind instrument and was shocked to see that we had 15 knots out of the SSW. That meant the wind was blowing directly into the cove. Worse yet was the swell that was quickly building and rolling into the cove where it bounced off the cliffs that were now just 30 yards astern of Mirador. I thought that we were just experiencing a short term land breeze that was coming off the Baja mountains that were nine miles to our Southwest.
However, the wind built a little more, the swell built a lot more, and there was little hope of sleep since the boat was soon pitching up and down enough that the bowsprit went underwater every couple of minutes. I let out another 50' of anchor rode and decided to try to sleep in the cockpit where I could keep an eye on the rocks, just 25 yards to my stern.
Ryakosha had even more problems since they had arrived first and anchored in the spot most protected from the predicted NW wind and swell. The SSW wind pushed them to within 5 yards of the rocks and they were really getting knocked around by the swells hitting the rocks and bouncing back to get them.
About 3 AM the three boats in the anchorage, Fluid Motion being the third, discussed pulling anchor and heading out to sea. We didn't really want to do that since the four foot tide was ebbing which meant it would be flowing right into the wind and probably making nasty steep swells.
We agreed to try to wait for daylight before leaving. The wind did not increase any more from the high teen range it reached around 3 AM and the swell didn't increase much either. Sunrise at 6:25AM let us see just how confused the seas were in our not so protected anchorage. Both Ryakosha and Fluid Motion were rocking enough that I could see 1/3 of their keels as they pitched up and down.
The 6:45 AM and 7:45 weather reports predicted a continuation of the SSW wind for at least another eight hours and other boats south of us were reporting SSW winds in the 10 to 20 knot range. So - it was time to get out there!
I did manage to get Miradors 70' of nylon anchor rode and 150' of chain back into the anchor locker and Mirador headed out to sea without touching the rocks that were just yards astern of me. But it was closer than I ever what to come again.
Once out of the anchorage and headed SSE toward Bahia San Francisquito we encountered very confused seas. There were four to five foot mounds of water coming from every direction. The chaotic sea was caused by the strong current rushing thru the 1/2 mile wide channel between Isla Salsipuedes and Isla Las Animas to the Southeast. Mirador was pitching up and down 20 degrees while she was rolling 30 degrees side to side and the wind was still blowing at up to 20 knots. About a mile offshore the sea calmed a little but the wind stayed in the high teen range from the SSW.
Cruisers hate to sail to windward but it was a beautiful warm day and there were still nine hours of daylight so I decided to sail, close hauled, the 18 miles to Bahia San Francisquito. I put a double reef in the mainsail and rolled out a full genoa. By the time I had accomplished those two tasks the wind had dropped to the 12 to 15 knot range which is just perfect for Mirador to sail hard to windward. I set the autopilot to hold a course of 154 degrees magnetic which would take me directly to the lighthouse marking the entrance to the inner harbor at Francisquito.
Mirador heeled to 15 degrees, accelerated to 6.5 knots, and was making 5.8 knots toward the waypoint. We were being slowed a little by the north going flood tide that was supposed to last until after noon. Everything was just about perfect so at 10 AM I made a light breakfast and settled back in the cockpit to eat breakfast, read a book, and tend the sails as the ST6000 kept us headed for San Francisquito.
The further we got from Isla Salsipuedes the lighter the wind got. Within an hour I had taken out the 2nd reef and then the first reef while the wind kept shifting more to the south. By 11:00 AM the wind was down to 5 knots and was coming directly from San Francisquito. So I rolled up the genoa and fired up the Yanmar which promptly caused the wind to shift back to the SW and increase to 12 knots again.
I rolled out the genoa, set the sail, killed the motor and got us on course for Francisquito. Within 10 minutes the wind died again and... so forth. I was determined to sail as much as possible so I ended up rolling and unrolling the genoa three more times. Finally, when I got to within 2 miles of the inner harbor entrance, the wind settled down to a steady 15 knots, blowing directly out of the harbor toward me. I capitulated to the winds perverse nature, rolled the genoa, dropped the main, and motored into the anchorage.
Please Note - at no time during any of my trip from Puerto Don Juan to San Francisquito did I mention Portabote problems. I put the dinghy on the foredeck before I left Don Juan and I am so glad I did. I would surely have lost it off of Salsipuedes. And - my hatches and portlights were closed at all times. I guess I am learning a little bit.
This is a wonderful anchorage. The snorkeling/fish hunting is great and there are lots of nice trails to hike. Even with the 20+ knot wind having been blowing directly into the anchorage for over 12 hours, there is no swell and almost no wind chop to disturb the boat. The weather has reached near perfection again, the sun is hot, the NW wind is cool, the air temp stays between 78 and 84 and there is not a cloud in the sky.
I am puzzling over a perplexing tire inflation problem and have been doing so since February of this year. The Portabote wheels that we use to roll the dinghy around on the beach have 4.10x6 inner tubes in them. One of the tubes goes flat within hours of being installed in the tire. When I inflate it to 35 pounds outside the tire and then hold it underwater there is no indication of any kind of leak. No amount of wiggling the valve or squeezing the tube will cause it lose air when it is not in the tire. But, put it in the tire and it immediately goes flat. I and several other cruisers have worked on this problem for months and can find no solution.
Mirage, a 50' trawler, Ryakosha, and Music, a Benateau 40 with another singlehander on board, are all in the anchorage with me. We are having great 4-handed (team) cribbage games each afternoon.
I am also having to deal with boat insurance renewal problems. Blue Water Insurance sent me a number of requests for information about us and Mirador in June. They said it was needed to renew our insurance. When I pointed out to them our insurance was paid up thru October they finally, have several more e-mails, realized that I was not Jerry A. King and I did not live in Las Vegas. Now, when our renewal date is less than three weeks away, I can't get them to tell me what I need to do to renew our insurance.
My concern is that I don't know how much the renewal premium will be so I can't send them a check and I hate to wait any longer since a letter mailed from Santa Rosalia can take as long as three weeks to reach San Diego.
This is the third major problem we have had with Blue Water. Last fall we purchased Cruisers medical insurance thru their Florida office. Somehow after we received a verbal commitment from Blue Water to provide the insurance, in early October, they lost the application form and check that paid a year's premium, for three weeks. We had to leave the Chula Vista Marina no later than November 16 and it was not until November 14 that we received a faxed confirmation of the policy being in affect.
However, two weeks after leaving the United States, we received an e-mail stating that we had to send Blue Water a statement with our notorized signatures to keep the policy in effect. It is almost impossible to get a signature notorized in Mexico. The entire document has to be translated into Spanish before the notary, who has to be a practising lawyer with at least 20 years experience, will notarize the signature. Such a process would have cost us over $500. Eventually I found a way to provide the information that Blue Water wanted without the notary.
We provided Blue Water with all the paperwork and the check to pay the boat insurance premiums six weeks before we left San Diego. Despite my repeated requests, they never provided me with a written copy of the policy while Mirador was in San Diego. In order to get our 10 year Mexican boat import permit once we reached La Paz we had to prove the boat was insured. So, we had to have the policy sent, via a $36 Fed Ex package, to us in La Paz.
I am sure Blue Water provides decent insurance but they sure have an inefficient customer service department.
I will probably stay here here in San Francisquito a few more days until I see if this NNW wind is a long term norther or just a temporary thing. The local weather experts predicted the wind would die by early afternoon but it is now 4 PM and the wind is still blowing over 20. The next leg of my journey south is 84 miles long on a course of 153 degrees true. There are NO anchorages anywhere along the way that are safe in a north wind so I want to make sure that I have a decent weather window for heading SE to Santa Rosalia.