with a story from the blog about a very different anchorage; with dear friends Sue and John on board.
" Friday, January 20, 2017: A little wind…To keep you young :-). Ensenada Grande
It's 2230 hrs (1030PM) and the swells have finally calmed down enough I can hold my old IPad on my lap… What an evening we've had. We woke (at Ensenada Raza) to a beautiful, sunny, calm day. Left right after breakfast so we could get to our next stop early enough to have some fun exploring a bit. We were heading to Ensenada Grande as it is the closest anchorage to Los Islotes (the small rocky bits, housing a sea lion colony) about 4 nautical miles north of Isla Espiritu Santo. Swimming with sea lions is very cool and Kathy managed two dives with them when we were here last in 2012. Our goal is for the both of us to dive with them this time.
Anyway, first things first … we really enjoyed our afternoon anchorage at Ensenada Grande. Even though the water was a wee bit cool by Mexican standards, we hardy BC types (well, most of us) jumped in for a swim after lunch. Then Kathy took the kayak and John, Sue and I fired up Donny the dinghy to explore our anchorage. This place is beautiful, complete with water as green as our lime green kayak (I kid you not) and beautiful geological formations all along the shore… really amazing architecture created by Mother Nature and her forces. Back on board it was siesta and book reading time…for a bit, and then it was Happy Hour which, of coarse, led into dinner time.
Now we re back where my story began. When we first arrived we chose our anchoring spot very carefully. After all we'd studied numerous weather forecasts (none of which agreed) and selected a spot that would be, hopefully, fairly protected from whatever might come our way. Well, you guessed it, just as I was firing up the BBQ for the chicken portion of the meal, the wind piped up… followed closely by an increase of swell size. Oh, I should have mentioned it was dark by then and the direction the wind came in was neither forecast nor pleasant as it put us on a lee shore. Not to be starved to death, we continued with the cooking, at one point using the ships umbrella to divert the wind away from the BBQ so it would stay lit (which it did) :-). Unfortunately,by the time the chuck was cooked, the wind and waves were so strong, dinner at the table was nigh impossible and folks ate as they could and where they could.
By now (about 1940 hrs) we were all thanking Kathy heartily for her prowess on the foredeck (she's in charge of discharging the anchor from where it lives, sending it to the bottom of the sea, to a precise location selected by the crew in advance and the amended by the wind and current at will), and for her diligent 'setting' of the anchor, a process that requires experience and patience. As we watched two catamarans not far from us, climbing up and down the seas and worrying about their anchors, we patted Kathy on the back for 'sticking' the hook well, at the same time as we discussed the need for an anchor watch until things settled down.
Just to give you a sense of how it felt… on several occasions I went forward to check the anchor chain and snubber and had to crouch on the foredeck , hanging on to the pulpit with both hands as the nose of the boat… almost…buried itself in each swell. Yup, we were doing a pretty good imitation of a rocking horse ! It wasn't too unlike parts of our journey down the coast in 2011. And so it continued…
It's now 2330 hrs. I drew first watch (2100-0000) and I'm happy to report the wind and seas have started to calm down. If they stay calm we'll be able to call off the formal anchor watches and all get some sleep. I gotta say though, there's nothing like a little unplanned chaos to draw a crew together. Hurray for good friends and sailors to boot!
PS. The photo is from our current journey… of another beautiful anchorage at sunset.
Hope all your journeys end well and your anchors stay 'set'. CJ
