After spending a few very windy days on a mooring bouy in Puerto Escondido, we've learned that the port's reputation as a 'Hurricane Hole' may be somewhat overblown (pun intended!). The more worrying thing about this revelation is the discovery that the field of moorings have not (it appears) been properly maintained over the last few years.
One of our fellow cruisers found this out the hard way. After moving from one side of the bay to another for greater protection from the forecasted Northly, and after having spent one blustery night on the new buoy, he left to spend a night onshore with his wife who was leaving to return to Canada. That evening the winds were even stronger (maximum gust recorded on Shannon was 37.9 knots) and many of us spent a sleepless night on 'anchor watch', keeping an eye on our own boats as well as our friend's boat, making sure that her lights stayed in the same position. Sometime around 6 in the morning, we looked out to find those lights were no longer there. As we found out later, the shackle attaching the mooring line pennant to the bouy had broken off, leaving the sailboat to drift clear across the harbour. She stopped gently when her keel slid into the sandy shoal that fronts the mangrove in 'Cocktail Cove'. Fortunately, she miss most of the forty-odd boats that were also moored throughout the bay. Lesson for the day: next time we'll rely on our own anchor!
Once the winds had settled down, we were able to join our friends (Bruce & Judy "S/V Juce" and Bill & Linda "S/V Tanque de Tiberon") ashore that evening for well deserved drinks and a much appreciated meal in the marina restaurant. The next day, we moved to spend a night at the dock and had a surprise visit and lunch onshore with our RVing friends Gareth and Carol, from Maple Bay. After this, we took some time to do laundry, reprovision and top up our water tanks in preparation for leaving at first light on Tuesday morning. That evening, we had dinner with our new friends Penny and Franz of S/V Paramita. Imagine coming all this way to meet the owners of the dockside Palapa restaurant (Penny's Palapa) in Nanaimo Harbour!. The next day, we headed south and motor-sailed for 9 hours before putting the hook down into Puerto Los Gatos around 4 in the afternoon. Los Gatos is a unique bay surrounded by strikingly beautiful red rock formations and we plan to spend some longer time there on future visits. There were two other sailboats, families with very little kids who enjoyed an evening campfire on the sandy beach. We had plans to leave again early the next morning, so didn't go to the trouble of taking our dinghy off the foredeck to make the trip ashore.
We enjoyed a peaceful night at anchor and got underway again at dawn this morning. We are currently halfway to Isla San Francisco, to spend the next few days in the ancient volcanic bay, enjoying some beach time of our own. There is yet another Norther in the forecast, so San Francisco will be the perfect place to hang out and await the next weather window. Speaking of weather windows.... we have heard that this year's weather is unseasonably windy and that the Northers have typically calmed down (in strength and frequency) by now. Hopefully next year's cruising experience will be calmer and warmer for us but, in the meantime, we are enjoying the ruggedly beautiful scenery, the friendship of other cruisers, the adventure of discovering new places and learning about the Mexican culture.
We'll be out of internet / cell phone range for the next couple of weeks so, in the meantime, know that we are safe and sound and will try to provide updates over the SSB radio whenever we get the chance.
'til next time, Kathy
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