4/21/2011 - Rough night

In spite of the idyllic look of Bahia Falsa and Playa Tecolote, we had a less than idyllic night. In the summer, they have a south/southwest wind that comes up most evenings and blows all night. They're called "coromuels" and are nice for cooling things off. But, they can make for rolly anchorages if you're exposed in that direction. Well, pretty much EVERY anchorage from La Paz to the northern tip of Isla Espiritu Santo is exposed to the south or southwest. We expected winds but really hadn't given a lot of thought to what they might do to the sea state inside the bay. Well, last night we found out.

The winds and seas started picking up about 9:00 or so. At first it didn't seem like much of anything but, after awhile, the boat was bucking up and down like a pickanoid bull. Not since the big norther that ripped through La Paz and kept us confined to the boat in either January or February have we seen this much action at anchor. We're fairly seasoned when it comes to weathering rockin' rollin' anchorages but, as we were reading e-mail about 11:00 or so, we both started to feel kind of queasy. Finally, we threw in the towel, took some meclizine, and hit the rack. Once our eyes were closed the lurching and hobby-horsing were much easier to take. Before we turned in, I let out more anchor chain (increased the scope) just in case. The anchor was holding like iron, but still, why take a chance? A couple times during the night, I got up to check on things and we were always right where we should be.

I don't know if it was the drugs or what, but I slept until 8:30 this morning and Lulu went until 9:30. It was still rockin' and rollin' when we got up but it eventually abated. We discussed whether or not to move on but decided that, as long as we know what's coming, we'll just weather the effects of the coromuels. If we let them influence where we go, we'd have to skip Isla Espiritu Santo altogether until we were on our way back to La Paz next fall. Maybe the heavy sea action will keep the anchorages uncrowded.

Here's why we decided to go ahead and stay here another day:

If you look REALLY close between Lulu and that white umbrella, you may be able to see Siempre Sabado anchored out in deeper water.

While we were ashore enjoying the ambiance, I started watching a couple of kids(?) who were swimming out in the deep water. I was just watching to make sure they weren't headed towards our boat. But, after a little while, we saw that they not only were swimming towards our boat but they actually climbed on board! Lulu had swum in although I had brought the dinghy. While I was waiting for the check so we could pay up and leave, she decided to swim back out to the boat immediately. Ultimately, she arrived about a minute before I did. By the time either of us got there, the trespassers had left. After checking the boat to be sure nothing obvious was missing (it wasn't) I followed them with binoculars for awhile just to see where they went. I suspect that they were just resting and satisfying their curiosity but still, it's kind of upsetting to see people who aren't supposed to be there climbing aboard your boat. But, I guess all's well that end's well. We'll probably be a lot more vigilant in the future.

Tomorrow we're off. Our next stop will probably be Bahia San Gabriel, the southernmost anchorage on Isla Espiritu Santo's western side. Wide open to the south and southwest so I expect we'll have an uncomfortable night or two.