Puerto Refugio

Masquerade is now up at Puerto Refugio, a group of bays at the north end of Isla Angel de la Guarda. There are a bunch of anchorages here, each with advantages and disadvantages. Some are exposed to strong currents, others to swells from one direction or another. We will check out a few while we are here. This is most likely as far north as we will get this season. It is pretty quite as only a few boats are up here now. We made an easy trip up using the strong currents to help us along (especially
since the wind was not helping). On the way up we had a close up siting of a pair of finback whales, these were quite large and only about 60 ft away from the boat. Quite exciting for a few minutes. Our luck held up and we later landed a nice size dorado (our favorite fish) large enough for several meals.
We plan to explore the cove we are now in, as there is some history here. A few years ago we bought a used Monitor windvane. This windvane was salvaged off a boat named "Spirit Healer" that was blown ashore here during Hurricane Marty. We had heard that the sailboat hull is now gone but there is supposedly still some evidence (old gear) from the wreck on shore. The boat was a total loss, but the owner pulled off any equipment that they could salvage and sell to other cruisers. While talking to another
boat here (Tao 8) they told us about a sailboat wreck and pointed out where to find it. We dinghied over and saw the hull underwater. Tomorrow at low tide we will try and snorkel down to it. We have tempted fate by naming the windvane "Marty", but we won't be spending any hurricanes here!

It has been getting noticeably cooler recently, the best part is that it has been comfortable for sleeping inside. Everyone here has been so acclimatized to the heat that we have been talking about needing to grab a blanket when the temperature gets below 80 degrees! Nobody is complaining though. Pretty funny since high 70's would have been a hot day back in Seattle.

The Fuel Run

We decided that we would get some fuel to keep us going for a while. In Bahia de los Angeles there are no docks, and therefore no fuel docks. This means that we need to transfer the fuel in jerry jugs using the dinghy. Another complication is that the gas station is about a mile from where we land the dinghy on the beach. Carrying the jugs is not feasible as each jug(5 gallons) weighs about 40 lbs when full, we have a folding cart but that can carry only 2 jugs at a time. We had talked to some friends
from "Hooligan" (Tim & Paula) about getting a taxi to carry the full jugs back (the town has one taxi). Another boat "Came to Believe" (Rich and Annette) had made friends with a local named Jose, and arranged to have him help us. So all three boats brought our jugs to the beach, we had 4 diesel and 2 gas, and the others had about the same number, plus a few water jugs. Jose arrived in his older minivan which we loaded up with the jugs. He then said (in spanish) that he wanted to use his panga. We
were confused till we understood that the panga was on a trailer and that it would be used as a storage trailer for the fuel jugs. We left the women to do some shopping as we could not all fit, and drove out to the edge of town to Jose's house. Once we arrived we moved the jugs to the panga. The panga was attached to an old Bronco, and there would be no room for the 4 of us, so Jose's wife and daughter came along to drive the minivan. After topping off the radiator we headed for the Pemex station.
On the way the Bronco ran out of gas. Luckily we had a bit of gas in a partially full jug, this was enough to get us to the gas station. Once at the station we started to fill the jugs. They did not want to fill each boats jugs separately, so they filled all the diesel together, and all the gasoline together. Since we all have different numbers of jugs we cannot just split it evenly. We have no calculator, or paper or pen, we also fail to do the math mentally. We borrow a pen and Tim from Hooligan
starts to use a $20 bill for his calculations, but the attendant cringes in dismay. In Mexico most businesses will not accept a bill that has been defaced or has the slightest tear or rip (though they are likely to give you one as change). I dig in my wallet and find an old receipt and am therefore elected to do the math. Being a bit out of practice this takes a few minutes. We each dig through our bills and change and manage to get close to what we each owe. We all load up into the cars and head
to the next stop, one of the small stores. Rich needs to get water, you can get filtered drinking water at the store placed in your own containers or rent garafons (5 gallon sparklets bottles). Rich goes in and starts loading up about 30 gallons of water which gets ferried out to the panga. Inside the store is even hotter than outside, which is in the 90's. Once the water is loaded we again load up the family and the cruisers and drive the minivan and the bronco over to the launch ramp. We gather
up the wives into the dinghies, and the family into the panga. We lead the panga out to the sailboats, quickly put out a few fenders, and lift the jugs from the panga up to the deck. We thank Jose and his wife and daughter and pay him for his help. Now all that is left is pouring each 5 gallon jug through the filter and into the tank. By this time several hours have passed and we have drank about a 1/2 gallon of water and sweated out about the same. We are wiped out for the rest of the day and it
is time to go for a swim. While out cruising, one job a day is quite an accomplishment; getting fuel is one job. Just think if we'd had to jerry jug a full tank of 100 gallons (2-3 days of work as we only have four jugs, 20 gallons)!

It was a dark and stormy night...

Actually not. Hurricane Henriette passed south east of us and onto the mainland coast about 150 miles away. We felt no significant winds from the storm. Everyone here breathed a sign of relief, and had a swim (Noodle party) off the stern of Adios. It seems a bit anti-climactic after all the waiting, tension, and preparations, but we are glad to have missed any significant weather.

Just wanted to let every know that we are OK. We figure that this was a good practice run in case any more hurricanes threaten the Baja. We now need to put the boat back into sailing shape, and head back out to the islands.

Hurricane watch

We are anchored in Puerto Don Juan in the Bahia de Los Angeles area. We are here with the 25 boats of our cruising friends, and preparing for possible high winds. This is the best Hurricane hole in the area so there are lots of boats here. The bay we are in is small and protected so that we will not get any strong storm swell. The wind is not what normally causes damage, it is the waves that can be dangerous.

We came in yesterday when we heard that the storm may get close. We have been spending our time preparing the boat. This means getting out our heavy anchors, and gear for a secondary anchor, and preparing chafe gear. We are also removed our furling headsail and are clearing the deck so that there is less windage. So the kayak is put away, as are the sunshades and other gear. We still have a little more work to do but still have a day or so before expecting high winds.

There is a lot of weather information for hurricanes. We get updates over the HAM/SSB radio usually twice a day. There are text files that we can download from NOAA that are updated 4 times a day. The hurricanes are unpredictable as far as the path that they take. Henriette was originally predicted to go along the coast, but that changed and now it is predicted to go over Cabo San Lucas then over the Sea of Cortez then on into the mainland near San Carlos. This puts the center 100 miles south of
us, which would be good. However with the changing paths we are still going to get ready just in case. All the excitement should be over by Thursday or so.