We got up had our breakfast, did our devotions and checked out our life ring (pulled it out of the bag to see exactly what it looked like. We have been thinking about that for a really long time (like as in back to our first boat, Make Me Laugh, NOT again). It looked exactly like what we thought it would, so no surprises. From there, we got underway.
Water maker going at 9:30. Plan is to take our time to get to La Paz. At 20 GPH, we should have 100 gallons made by the time we head in, or if we get water out of the overflow that will be the sign the tank is full. Currently the indicator shows 70%, the tank is 260 gallons, so if it is accurate, there is only 75 gallons worth of space. So, 3 hours or less to fill the tank. We will see.
Renee’ is going to fish, and see if we can have fish for dinner.
As a reminder, you can see where we are physically at, and what our track has been since we left San Diego October 30, 2019 here:
The night was a bit rolly off and on. We did not move much from the spot we stopped in last night, but there were some periods of pretty solid rolling.
After breakfast, we read for a bit, then around 10 am got the kayak down, locked up the boat and went ashore. We planned to hike the “trail” to the other side Bahia San Gabriel. Somewhere we read that there was a trail across. Well it is desert, and there is not much in the way of undergrowth. So, not incredibly hard to walk across. But, lots of thistles and burrs. We walked for a couple of hours had lunch in the middle somewhere and then walked back to the kayak, had another snake and went back to the boat. We took some good pictures of the boat from all four sides. Once aboard, we started the generator and got showers.
Tomorrow we will be heading back to La Paz. Hopefully, there will be a slip or at least a dock available for us to tie up to. With the outboard not working, we would have to take the kayak ashore if we were going to go. This means wet butts, and having to take shoes ashore in the dry bag etc.
As a reminder, you can see where we are physically at, and what our track has been since we left San Diego October 30, 2019 here:
Just another selfiePart of what we saw on our hikeThere be thorns and stickers hereLooking back at our boatAnother view of our boatAnother view of our boatA view of our boatOne more sunset
We got up did our devotions, and read for a bit. By 10 am, most of the overcast had burned off, and we got the kayak out and went to the beach between the two islands. There is a fish camp there. The beach stretches from Isla Partida towards Isla Espiritu Santo with a gap of 50-100 feet between the two islands. Deep enough for a dinghy, but not a sailboat. We then kayaked out to the entrance to the cove and snorkeled. Finally headed back to the boat, put the kayak away, and then pulled anchor and headed out to go to our next anchorage.
We went out and dumped the holding tank, and started the water maker, we motor/sailed around the island to the north, and pulled into Playa Bonanza about 5:30 or so.
We dropped anchor in 15 feet of water. There is a slight swell here, but not too bad. There is another sailboat here, and a very small cruise (?) ship here. It is 200 feet long (based on AIS information), has a 9’ draft, and I can see that it has about 3 decks. There are a number of dinghy’s associated with it, probably to get passengers ashore. This beach is a couple of miles long, white sandy beaches!
I called my Uncle to check in via satellite, and we spoke for about 15 minutes or so. One of the longest sat phone calls I have been able to make. It is significant that it connected on the first try, and stayed connected until we were done and I hung up. Both of those are firsts as well!
When we rounded the point coming into this beach from the north, we were about 3/4’s of a mile off shore and the depth got down to 15 feet. We slowed way down and turned out to sea, and waited for the depth to get back in to the 40’s before we headed south again, and then turned into the beach. The charts do say to be careful, due to rocks off the point, it is just hard to figure out just how far off we need to be. It looked like we were quite a ways out, but apparently not far enough.
We watched another movie, The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart. A really good movie. The big boat left before we went to bed, so there was only one other boat here.
As a reminder, you can see where we are physically at, and what our track has been since we left San Diego October 30, 2019 here:
We had quite a bit of wind last night, and not much in the way of waves. The wind is coming over the island in front of us, so there is not much room for the waves to get bigger here. I don’t know how fast the wind was, as the wind meter is not working. But it sure pushed the boat around. Our anchor held firm and we did not drag.
When we got up, it was near high tide, I don’t remember the exact time for high tide, but it was very high when we looked. This little cove had a very large beach yesterday, with the high tide, there is no beach left. We heard on the net the other day, that this was supposed to be the biggest tide swing in a while, a total of about 5 feet. We were aware of this and it figured into how much anchor rode we put out when we dropped our anchor. Since we were expecting the high winds, and the high tide, we anchored a bit further from shore than we normally would have, (still in about 20 feet of water) and put out 150 feet of rode. If you consider 20 feet of water, 5 feet of tide swing and 5 feet from surface of the water to our bow, that is 30 feet and to get 5 to 1 scope we needed 150 feet of rode. If we had waves to consider as well, we should probably have put out another 25 feet of rode.
I have checked the weather again, and it is currently 7:45 am and we are supposed to have about 18 knots of wind and it is supposed to increase to about 25 knots by noon, then drop off to about 12 knots by 7 pm tonight, and then down to basically nothing until Tuesday morning where it starts back up again.
Thinking back on all of my blog posts, I have made quite a few comments about high wind. Making it sound like it really always blows here. Well, consider that anytime I was not commenting on high wind, there was no wind to speak of and instead we just had a beautiful day. Today, even with the high wind this is still a beautiful anchorage.
As a reminder, you can see where we are physically at, and what our track has been since we left San Diego October 30, 2019 here:
We got up and had breakfast and did our devotions. The wind is blowing pretty good, which makes our boat move around the anchor pretty good. We watched a catamaran pull in and anchor not far from us, then not too much later they upped anchor and left, and almost immediately a cutter pulled in and anchored in almost the same spot. Shortly after that one of the catamarans that had been here last night moved their anchor. There are currently 6 boats, here. A very large cutter (60+ feet?), a smaller cutter (40’?), two catamarans, a smaller sloop and us. There is still a lot of room for anchorage. The sun is shining, there are a few clouds in the sky and the temp is high 60 (guessing). The only issue is that there is a bit too much wind.
Renee’ says, if we can’t snorkel, or swim or kayak, it must be a work day. So, she will work on polishing stainless steel and I will work on the wind speed indicator.
We looked at the weather for the coming week. We think that we will stay here tonight and tomorrow, probably snorkel on Sunday morning, then head back to La Paz and get the outboard fixed. Renee’ was in the water the other day and says that we need to get the bottom cleaned again. Last time was by Josh in Cabo San Lucas on Dec 17. So, it is time to get it done again.
I have communicated with Josh and Cozette on Merry Lee about the bottom cleaning. We will be back in La Paz by Monday to get the outboard working again, and Josh will clean the bottom assuming we are in a marina. (Which, since the outboard is not working is pretty much a given).
I have been dealing with a headache all day, allergies of some sort. Sinus pain, I can’t sleep with it, and I really don’t want to do anything. Renee’ got the stainless steel on the arch and the bathrooms cleaned, I read some and relaxed.
We watched part of a movie, until we no longer wanted to and stopped it and put it in the pile of movies to trade. Money Train with Woody Harelson. Just not interested.
As a reminder, you can see where we are physically at, and what our track has been since we left San Diego October 30, 2019 here:
