At first light, Merry Lee announced that they were heading to Cedros (the city), and had their anchor up and were moving by about 6:15 or so. We decided that we too would leave by 7 am, and Lost Pearl thought that they would follow along to much later.
Lost Pearl got underway first, then we were along behind at about 7:15. The wind is directly on the nose, at about 20 knots, so we are not even putting a sail up. We are only going about 15 miles, to the city of Cedros. So, we are meandering at a leisurely 3 to 4 knots, fairly close to the island but in 300 feet of water. This lets us have a pretty good view of the island with out having to worry about rocks or changing course much.
This island is very rugged, the mountains, they may not be 1000s of feet tall, but they are very steep and raw. Apparently there were trees here at one time, but they are gone now. The name of the island comes from the Spanish who first visited and thought the trees were cedars (actually pine). There is a salt mine at the south end, and a fishing village at the north (where we were anchored) it is very small, and we did not get a picture, but Renee’ counted 5 buildings. Unlike most of the villages we have seen this one had a generator and several lights were on last night.
We had our breakfast on deck this morning, Banana & Beer pancakes and sausage. Followed by our morning devotions. This morning we used the book Jesus Calling. As we still have no internet.
We do have Sirius XM radio, this is a great product, yes it costs a bit but no commercials, just what we want to listen to. We have been listening to country, but Renee’ also wants to listen to the news periodically, today we are listening to the message, Christian music. A nice change of pace.
So, we found out why Merry Lee was ready to go at first light. They had a rough night. Their anchor alarm was going off all night, neither of them got much sleep. Cozette was ready to up anchor and move at midnight. They waited until 6 am to go. We all got safely to Cedros, and anchored in about 35 feet of water. Just north of the breakwater. We tried to check in, as it is required in this particular location (it is a port of entry), but today is a holiday celebrating the revolution.
We tried to take our dinghy ashore, we had decided to have lunch on board, the other two boats were ready for someone else’s cooking, so they went ashore to a restaurant. We were supposed to meet them in an hour or so. But, the lock on our outboard was stuck, and we could not get it off. So, after about an hour, we gave up and took the kayak ashore. Found them in a restaurant and went looking for the port captain, when we ran into the Port Captain as he was coming down to the party on the beach, we asked about checking in and he asked us to all check in at 8:30 tomorrow. This is Ok, as we had already decided to stay at least two days here. We managed to explain our problem with the lock, and I commented that one thing I had intended to buy was a set of bolt cutters. Joshua said they sell a set next door. I looked and they were the small size (18”) suitable for a regular lock or something small, but the lock I needed to cut was a Kryptonite brand heavy duty lock. Jeff said I have some that are a bit bigger, and since we had bought some beer he said he would bring them over later, along with our beer (much easier to take it in a dinghy than a kayak).
In any case, Jeff came over with our beer, the bolt cutters and got some water. We managed to cut the lock, but it took both of us with his bigger cutters to get through it. Renee’ and I decided to stay in tonight, run the generator charge the battery on the laptop (so we can watch a movie later) and run a load of clothes, to get rid of some oil stains. Here we are, we have cell service for voice and text, but no internet on the boat. We could go ashore and have slow internet with a connection that is on par with our satellite but not limited to just a few apps, so we elected to just skip it. We will go ashore in the morning, check in and buy some groceries.
The three boats at Cedros village on Cedros island.