Our First Norther

Masquerade is anchored in the Inner harbor at San Francisquito sitting out the first Norther of the winter. These are strong winds that blow from the north in the winter months down here in the Sea of Cortez. The same high pressure system that causes the Santa Ana winds in Southern California causes these winds. The Northers can blow for several days and sometimes get wind up to 60 knots, but on the positive side they are predictable. Unfortunately this one is predicted to blow for a couple of days.

San Francisquito is a hurricane hole so is a protected anchorage, we still get the wind but are protected from the swell that builds up in the open water. We have now probably been averaging winds in the low 40 knot range for the last 36 hours with gusts in the high 50s. No sleep when that is going on! The ride is not too bad but the wind in the rigging is quite loud. The anchor is well set but we need to continuously check the chafe gear. The chafe gear we use is old firehose that is used to prevent
the ropes from rubbing against the edges on the boat. Without this the line can wear through and break. To help us keep an eye on things we have several tools. We can set alarms to tell us if the wind speed increases above a set speed, and also if the depth of water changes. We also have a GPS unit that shows where we are and can sound an alarm if we move too far from a set location. Not too difficult, but we just need to keep a watch to be safe.

On a more pleasant note, we have been seeing quite a few whales and dolphins that last few days when sailing. Some of the whales have been quite close. We saw what we think was a pod of orcas (killer whales) the other day. We did not get too close, but they were not dolphins (you could see them spout), and not the fin or grey whales (too small and we could see their pointed dorsal fins). Wish we could have gotten closer to them. Other wildlife seen recently were a few sea turtles, and a whale shark.
These are the largest sharks but are filter feeders and only eat krill and such. The one we saw was small as it was only about 20ft long!