V-Cove. One of those places that fits in a special little niche in your psyche, and lives as a huge memory, even if you only saw it once. A place that feels like jewels. We were there just one night, and I feel lucky for that.

On Isla Carmen, off the coast of Loreto in Baja California, V-Cove, (aka El Refugio,) is, as it's nickname suggests, a narrow, v-shaped cove with room for just a few boats. We shared it for a few hours with a day-boat, who was deep in the cove against the beach. A few hours later he left, and it was just s/v's Juliet and Fly Aweigh. Hours later, a big gray yacht with it's matching tender showed up, sent it's large dinghy ashore to set up a tent and chairs on the sparkling white sand beach, and ferried guests in for a catered cocktail and dinner hour. We know, because we have binoculars. We try not to spy, but we were mostly curious how this dinner party was faring with the gusty winds and sand blowing on the beach, but they all seemed quite content. They were a respectful group, quiet, and ultimately left around 10pm, leaving s/v's Juliet and Fly Aweigh once again the sole occupants of the cove.

When we first got in, around noon, I was already in love. I have a latent geologist living somewhere inside me, and I love rocks. I love the strata, color, texture, and variety of rocks and anything stone-like. I want to climb them, touch them, put them in my house and talk to them. V-Cove was a subtle explosion of rock color, not so much the kind that screams at you but the kind that sits quietly in wait until you notice. You might at first see how the steep, stratified cliffs around the cove have creamy-colored layers of whites and subtle orange-browns. But it takes a closer look to notice the burgundy, olive, celedon, gold and black. The contours of the cove are rugged and filled with little nooks, crannies, and caves, while the tops of the cliffs are stark and fascinating against the clear sky.

We dropped anchor, had lunch, took our beloved 20-minute micro-nap, and suited up for a snorkel. The water in the Sea is cooler than normal, we hear, and 72 degrees is a chilly swim. Allan and got our exercise stuffing ourselves into our 4 mil wetsuits, but LeeAnne was going to be brave, and only had on her swimsuit and rash guard, but one jump in the water and she was out like a wet cat, donning her wetsuit as well.

It was a gorgeous snorkel, unique. The caves and little cavelets were filled with fun things. LeeAnne and I explored a big cave with our high-powered dive lights, and saw lots of fish and some vivid orange and yellow coral I've never seen before. We spotted two brilliantly colored lobsters with turquoise and orange spots and stripes, shyly hovering under a ledge. Long trumpet (or coronet) fish hung in a small gang at the back of the cave. The walls above the water were where I saw the most intense colors, and I could have just floated there marveling if I weren't getting a bit chilly.

Back on the boat Allan, who had been doing some underwater inspections on the prop had a troubling announcement: our starboard prop was loose. The Gori propellers on this boat are pricey little devils which fold and twist and are really fun to play with when you're at a boat show in the Gori Prop Booth and they have one on display. We have two of them, and we'd like to keep them - stories of loose props falling off in the middle of the Pacific Ocean were not encouraging.

So, we made a plan: in the morning, we'd move Fly Aweigh into shallow water near the beach, and Allan would go down with his dive tanks and try to fix the prop. We dropped the big bow anchor and LeeAnne and Charlie, in their dinghy, helped by setting a stern anchor near the shore, and we tightened up both anchors to keep Fly Aweigh snugly in position in the narrowest part of the V. Allan suited up and got to work, but 45 minutes into the attempt he had to cede to physics. Doing anything underwater is challenging. He couldn't get the backing plate separated from the prop assembly, and trying to bang it loose with a hammer underwater was just not working ... he needed a bigger hammer, and less water, preferable no water. It was going to be a short-term fix anyhow, as the Loctite he had wasn't the underwater kind. So it would only have bought us a little time. We decided instead to cut our stay in V-Cove short, and reluctantly yielded our spot to an incoming trawler and headed for Puerto Escondido to investigate hauling the boat out and doing the fix properly.

All of that is for another blog, since we haven't done it yet - for now, we're going to rely on the one good engine we still have, and go have a little fun on the West Coast Multihulls Rally, which starts tonight. The extra-special cherry on top is we have Chris French aboard, the former owner Fly Aweigh, nee Strikhedonia, and he's lending his intelligence and experience with the boat to help us plan our fix in a few days. Two smarty-pants brains are better than one, and it's great to hear he and Allan knock the problem around.

Meanwhile, we go play.

Photos: None! I was so busy goggling in V-Cove I forgot to take pictures. So here are Allan and Chris instead.

Here we are:
https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV_FlyAweigh/