Friday, March 10, 2016

I guess we didn't do so well sitting still. We left Tenacatita the day after the storm with predictions of 12-16 knot winds from the NW and swells 6-9 feet with 15 seconds in between. Not so bad if we were going any other direction than straight into the wind and waves. Normally, we would have waited one more day and leave Friday as we had planned. But we were ready to move on. And so we went.

It wasn't the fact that it was dangerous. It was just a bit uncomfortable. So Mate Stan was right on in his predictions and we saw a steady 12-knot wind for a few hours. Then a steady 15-knot win for a few hours. And finally, just before arriving at Chamela, the winds were as high as 22-knots with no signs of letting up.

No one predicted that. And the seas were a good ten feet more often than not. It was a bit of a roller coaster ride, but I actually enjoyed it. The sky was a bright blue and the air was so clear. It was a picturesque day. Still, we were glad when we rolled into the anchorage at 1800. It took us eight hours to go 30 miles averaging about 3.4 knots on a motor sail. Needless to say, we were tucked in and asleep by 2000 hrs.

Today, it is a much calmer morning. There is only one other sailboat in the anchorage. They arrived late last night. I wonder where they came from.

Yesterday, when we arrived there were eight large fishing boats that we had passed on the way up. You know the weather is not conducive to boating when the fishing vessels tuck in. Five have already left this morning.