Racing the Moon
16 April 2016 | Isla Coronados Southern Anchorage
We made a midnight run from our cozy anchorage at V Cove 11 miles west to the southern anchorage off Isla Coronados. It wasn't a middle of the night emergency -- it was a planned trip -- we had a weather forecast that told us we would need to leave V Cove early this morning.
We'd known about the changing weather for a couple days, but it was a perplexing forecast. Our buoy weather reports that we receive through our Winlink email display the wind and sea forecasts in 6 hour increments. We'd been having southerly winds for a couple days making V Cove the perfect place to be, but the forecast showed that at midnight last night we'd continue with WSW winds in the mid teens but by 6 am it would would switch to NW and still in the mid to high teens. Usually there is a lull in the winds when the directions change that much, but this didn't show one. It also showed that by noon it would be in the high teens to twenties -- a real Norther.
With the forecast changing between midnight and 6 am -- but not knowing when in there it would really change. And being a forecast it might not even happen or the winds could be stronger. So yesterday evening the question was do we sit in V Cove and wait for the change and head out in the early am -- or should we go somewhere better to wait for the change. The problem was there wasn't a good spot for protection from both the southwest and the northwest. And as always here in the sea it isn't the wind itself that is the worry but the swell and wind waves that accompany it that can make an anchorage very uncomfortable.
So we set an alarm for 5:30 am to wake up for an early start for our favorite place to be in a norther: Isla Coronados.
We stowed and prepared the boat for the short passage before we went to bed so that when it was time to leave there wouldn't be much to be done other than start the engine and hoist the anchor.
About midnight Terry awoke and we sensed some slight changes in the wind (which was very light in the protection of the cove). The question was do we go now or wait until it really makes up its mind? With a bright moon overhead and the seas smooth to make anchor retrieval easy, we thought we should go for it. Waiting could only make the conditions worse.
So off we set for the 3 hour trip -- with light winds and smooth seas and great visibility! It was a beautiful night! But when we got out from the protection of Isla Carmen about an hour later we were disheartened to have the swell and wind pick up from the WSW! We may have left too early and would suffer an uncomfortable anchorage for a few hours till the weather really swung around..
But Mother Nature was kind and Buoy Weather was once again spot on as within minutes the wind and seas started clocking around as forecast and by 3:00 am, just as the moon was setting, we were in the quiet lee side of Isla Coronados ready for any north winds to come our way. By 3:30 we were sound asleep in our comfortable new backyard.