Calm weather again...

The Norther has finally blown itself out and we are back down to more normal wind levels. It was nice when the winds finally dropped down to be consistently in the 30s, though normally we consider the 20's high wind for an anchorage. Everything on the boat came though fine. The boat is completely filthy right now, everything is coated with a mixture of dust and salt. The high winds made the skies hazy with blowing dust and sand, and a good portion of it seems to be stuck to our boat. With little
chance of rain and limited fresh water on board, the boat will stay dirty till we get to a dock with water. We are now resting up and getting the boat back in shape for travel again.

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!

Migrating south again...

We left Puerto Refugio a few days ago and sailed south, back to Bahia de Los Angeles. The weather has been changing, getting cooler and the prevailing southerly winds of summer have been replaced by the winter northerlies. This weather pattern makes it easy to sail up into the Sea of Cortez for the summer and then back down toward Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta in the winter. Quite convenient if you are patient and not in a hurry.

 

Puerto Refugio was nice though we ended up re-anchoring several times. The west bay was protected from the north and east, and the east bay is protected from the south and west. The wind would change every few days bring wind waves along, this would make the anchorage uncomfortable so we would up anchor and move to the other side. Normally this is no big deal, but one day it turned at four in the morning and we had to wait till dawn to safely move the boat.

I did some trolling in the dinghy after Michael from Cambria caught some Yellowtail. I tried the next day but had no luck till Michael showed me his spot. Then I caught a large Yellowtail (24”) and 2 more small ones as well. The large one made a nice dinner for both us and the crew of Momo. We had not had this type of fish before but it is now one of our favorites.

 

We have been playing with the underwater camera (Canon S60 with underwater housing). Getting pictures of non-moving creatures is fairly easy, moving (and shy) fish are tough. It is difficult to hold the camera still and you cannot use the view finder. We can also make short movies, which we have found takes practice. The first few tries made the “Blair Witch project” look like it was made with a steady-cam. Camera movement was way too quick and jerky, watching could induce motion sickness. We are getting better and may get a few movies posted soon.

 

We are back at the village of Bahia de Los Angeles, getting some provisions and placing some online orders on the internet. My parents are going to come and visit us at the end of the month so they get to courier down some supplies for us. So we get both a visit and goodies! The only downside is that we now have a schedule. However it should be no problem getting to Santa Rosalia in 2 weeks time.