11 July 2006
Mitlan anchorage, Isla Smith, Bahia de los Angeles (BLA)
29 04' N 113 31' W
Well, it would have been eight miles if we'd come directly here from Ensenada Alcatraz instead of trying to sail. You'd think between two boats and four sailors that one of us would have realized we'd burn less diesel by putting the pedal to the metal as soon as we left the anchorage. We all knew that we were soon going to be bucking an eight foot flood tide, and the reason we were leaving in the first place was to find a better refuge from the strong south easterlies that came up by mid-morning for the past two days.
But instead, intrepid sailors that we are, we sailed out of the anchorage hoping for more wind to take us south. Two hours later we had the engine on at low RPMs and 20 minutes after that we cranked it up to full cruising throttle after we realized we'd never make the new anchorage if we didn't beat feet. Even so our best hourly average speed over ground was only 3.0 knots, and we ended up covering 15.5 nautical miles.
But the new anchorage is calmer, though still windier than I'd like for swimming. At least there's not much in the way of wind waves so we'll be able to get out in the dinghy. Yesterday we didn't leave the boat at all. Instead John made a new wind scoop to replace the old nylon one that finally ripped in the previous night's high winds. And we watched a movie in the afternoon. He was able to go fishing before we left this morning and caught his first yellow tail jack of the season. He caught a second one but we already had enough for dinner so that one got thrown back in.
The weather had been hot and dry after a humid period, but this morning we woke up to soaking wet decks and 77 degrees in the cabin (was usually about 83). We've been doing a lot of hiking in the mornings with Stan and MJ from SolMate, and I got one nice warm snorkel (water was about 84 degrees on the surface) in at a place called Esta Ton at Isla Angel de la Guardia. That was a beautiful little anchorage (both boats had to bow and stern anchor - it would make a better one boat anchorage), but we got chased out by the no-see-ums. All of the anchorages on this island are notorious for the no-see-ums which is a shame since the places at the north end are supposed to be very pretty. But John is very susceptible to bug bites and we've already had a bad report of bugs up there, so we're probably going to give it a pass.
It was fun to visit the village of BLA again after being away for almost a year, and not much has changed. Laundry is still exorbitant (they wanted 250p for three regular loads - wash, line dry, and fold - but we talked them down to 200p which is still higher than anywhere else in Mexico). There's one additional tienda to add to our list when it's time to search for vegetables, and it's still easy to find most of what you need.
So it should be a good summer, and we're looking forward to seeing the rest of our friends up here soon.
Linda and John