A power boaters day
16 March 2018 | 24 33.998N:-110 24.440W
Bill
It's been blowing about all day, out of the of the north to north east making it hard for sailboats to make their way north in the Sea of Cortez. Power boats have been the boat of choice to make any headway today unless you are going south and then that's a different matter. We've seen many sailboats pass our bay heading south along the coast and a few stopped in. One did in the late afternoon and headed for the south cove here in Ensenada Grande only to see how many boats there were already anchored and promptly turned around and headed farther south for a different cove. The sailboat, True Love that came in late last night sat here all day, even launching their dinghy this afternoon. With the forecast for the next 48 hours continuing to be out of the north and with speeds of 15-20 knots, we figured they would be here for several day but I just went out to check our anchor and lighting only to find they are gone. It's calmed down a bit over the last few hours and I guess they decided it was a good time to take off father north in the sea. By early this morning,we had 6 big power boats(up to 118 feet long)anchored in the middle cove pulling out their assorted toys to play in the water as more and more tour boats full of tourists that had been taken to Los Islotes to snorkel with the sea lions came in for an afternoon at the beach in the center cove. Being Sunday, there were lots but all in all, a quiet bunch of people that unless you knew they were there, you wouldn't know. Fine by us but I'm sort of glad True Love has moved on. Having then about 75 yards away from our stern after enjoying the peace and quiet of having the place to our selves just didn't sit well with me. We had tons of people when we were in the Caribbean that parked their boats close by and we got used to that as there really wasn't a choice and the anchorages were normally small and the population of boats was huge. Here, not so much. At least tomorrow, if we are lucky, we will have the north cove to ourselves The winds that are forecast to be here tomorrow through Wednesday are set to be in the 20 to 25 knot range and as close as we are to the tall cliffs to the north and east of us, most of the winds go over us yet give us enough so our wind generator spins well. We will see what tomorrow brings. Earlier today, I found the solar powered sidewalk light that we found in the US Virgin Islands. I put it out to charge and then attached it to the stern end of the boom so boats that might come in at night will see the flashing light right down at water line and not have to look at the top of our mast to see that we are here. We also have two flashing lights that put out a blue light that we bought in Thailand. No navigation lights glow blue so anyone coming in will know it's a boat of some kind and not a navigation light.