Espiritu Santo

I decided on an anchorge called Puerto Balena because there were two small islands nearby to snorkel around. I tucked up near the North end and went for a snorkel

N24.28.384
W110.22.777

in 22ft of water over sand

The sunset was spectacular and nothing like the night to follow. That evening proved a bit uncomfortable as the wind shifted to the west blowing straight into the anchorage. Now I was full exposed to wind and waves that were trying to push me ashore (bad). The wind wasn’t too bad (10-15kts) and the anchor was well set so i decided to stay as long as conditions stayed the same. It made for a restless sleep but it was better than trying to move in the middle of the night. In the morning I decided to move to Caleta Pardita which is the most protected anchorage on the island. As I was preparing to go another cruiser gave me a weather update. A "Norther" with winds from 40 - 50 kts was expected to arrive the next day. It was good that I was moving!!

I settled in Caleta Pardita in 23 ft of water in sand. I got my little cockpit nook set up and I was in cruising heaven.

N24.31.384
W110.22.656

NOTE for sailors. If you ever anchor here be advised that there is some odd metal debris very close to this that could possibly foul your anchor. I discovered this on a random snorkel around my boat... The rest of the area is clear and just nice sand.

THE STORM

I settled in and started putting things away in preparation, but to be honest I really underestimated this storm. Thankfully the wind built up rather gradually allowing me to keep up with things I needed to do. Because of my underestimation I ended doing things in the middle of the night in a storm rather than during a nice calm day..

In the end I had to completely strip all the canvas off the back of the boat, including the bimini. I had to take the window covers off because they were flapping so hard that they were undoing the snaps. One thing I didn't expect was that the wind would be strong enough to pick up my dingy with the engine on it. Unfortunately for me, one of the bigger gusts picked up my dingy, flipped it upside down and dropped it in the water. CRAP!! My outboard was now underwater. Thankfully I saw it happen and was able to use another gust to flip it back over. I tried to tie it to the side of Symphony but that was worse. The next big gust picked up the dingy and smashed the outboard against the big boat!! Finally I lashed it right tight against the back of the big boat. That worked ok I just had to watch for chafing every so often. The storm lasted 2 days.

When everything calmed down I took stock of what broke. My anchor light was out, my spreader lights were out, my steaming light was out, and my dingy outboard got dunked. Bummer.

First the outboard. A nice fresh water rinse to clean her up. Next, an oil change showed no water in the oil. That was good.. I pulled the plugs and only one cylinder had any water in it. I cranked the engine a bunch of times to blow that out. I squirted some oil in there and put her all back together. After a bunch of tries she finally sputtered and coughed and was up and running!!

Next the work up the mast. Working up the mast in an anchorage is rarely that much fun. There is always some wind or wave action to get the boat rolling around while you are up top. Whatever. It needed to be done. The spreader lights were just a bad connection. The anchor light was a burnt out bulb. (Thankfully I had a spare) but the steaming light was and still is a problem. The wire inside the mast broke off the back of the connection and has disappeared back inside. I'll have to think about what to do on that one....

Everything else worked fine. I am guessing the peak winds were in the 40 knot range. My wind generator has an auto shutoff at 40 to 50 mph that was activated several times during the storm.

The next evening I hung out with Luke and Jason from Emeryville and Truckee on their 34 foot O’Day. Judy Teams.. I brought over some wine and lemon poppy seed cake and we proceeded to have a grand evening of Rummy and stories.

Now back to La Paz