Weather change.
31 January 2010 | Posada Concepcion, Bahia Concepcion
Bill Hudson
Here we sit at anchor amidst a weather change that has rolled through. Yesterday, and for quite a while, it has been beautiful and sunny. Today dawned cloudy and overcast. This morning it got down to a cool 60 degrees and may not hit 70 with the cloud cover. Now for those of you farther North, suffering in the REAL Winter, that is cold down here. We routinely see folks walking around in coats and scarfs talking about how cold it is. They have never even seen snow let along felt it's chill. Oh well, everyday can't be sunny and bright.
We put Puff and Dragon in the water yesterday morning and took off around the local coves. We went back over to Santispac to see the mangrove area on the West side of the cove and then along the beach to see all the motor homes that have rolled in over the past few days. We saw a good dozen roll in late Sunday afternoon from the South off Coast Highway 1(it runs right along the beach). They pull in and find an available spot and set up camp. There are dozens of them all along the beach. In the Summer, it is packed here.
We putt putted over to some of the other boats at anchor to visit as two of them are from Colorado and one from New Mexico(our old home years ago), We got the lay of the land from one sail boater and then stopped by a boat "Lovely Rita" from Denver. The two guys on board just arrived a day or so ago from San Carlos. They are going to be making their way South along the coast to Escondido and then to La Paz as they need to have parts of their standing riggings(the wires that hold up the mast) replaced. They just recently bought her and on the trip over, they almost lost their back stay as the turnbuckles that hold it together broke due to metal fatigue. They're on the hunt for a rigger to get it fixed. We discussed up coming weather and the front that we expected to come through.
Boats, especially sailors live and die by the weather. Winds, rain and even sunshine play a big part on our lives. Wether we leave on a journey or stay put many times depends on what is coming. We download our information from several sources to see what it coming. Each day, I get on the SSB radio and download weather reports from a company called Buoy Weather as well as what are called GRIB files that show maps and where the fronts are currently located and their projected course for the next 24/48/96 hours. We also listen to the Amigo Net every morning to hear the weather from Don Anderson out of Oxnard, CA. He started giving weather forecasts years ago over the net for the entire Pacific coast from California coast clear down the Panama with quite good accuracy. Without his forecasts, it would be a lot harder out here. There is also another net out here called the Sonrisa net that broadcasts the weather at 0745 on the SSB radio. If that was not enough, I can download weather faxes from the National Weather Service out of San Francisco, CA several times a day. They cover the entire Pacific Ocean from Japan to Panama. I can download these faxes for many different area of the US. A handy thing to have aboard. I just have to learn how to read them though(yes we have book on it, like everything else). If we plan on leaving a port or making another journey, we consult each source and then take what they say with a grain of salt. Just because they have pretty computers and nice satellites, doesn't mean they are accurate. We've seen them WAY OFF, but with them being the only sources of information, you have to go with the flow.
Anyhow, when we heard from the two guys aboard "Lovely Rita" that they were leaving and had to motor South, we took them the latest weather and wind forecasts we had from Buoy Weather. We get specialized information for any area we choose. You can get a two day forecast for free by just going to Buoyweather.com and choosing what area you want the forecast for. We pay for our information so we get a 5 day forecast instead of two and they send it each day via email to us. It makes it much better when you're out at anchor and need the latest information.
We had lunch at "Bertha" in Playa El Burro a few miles Southwest of here in another cove. Tracy had the special of Fish(locally caught) and chips while I had the Carne Asada(thin steak with beans and rice). Along with a beer and DIet Coke, the bill came to $15.00. Not too bad considering everything has to be trucked in to this out of the way anchorage. We had planned on heading for a local secluded beach (only accessible by boat) for the afternoon, but instead spent it reading and napping since the wind had come up a bit and it got a little chilly(68 degrees).
So that's the way yesterday went. Today, as I said above, is overcast and it has already sprinkled a little so I expect we will stay aboard and I will try my hand at baking bread. I downloaded a good(guess we will see) recipe from another sailors blog(s/v Hello World). Tracy has just finished reorganizing our supplies behind the port settee cushions. As we use things, more space opens up for reorganization. I'll let you know how the bread turns out. Our new oven isn't that accurate in maintaining an even heat.