Winds headed our way 1.17.08

We're still in Turtle Bay - after my last post, we checked into our evening net and Don reported that there were some extremely high winds coming down the coast - 25-40 knots and they would hit our area around Thursday evening. We were headed down the coast, but the anchorages were not good ones to be in during a blow, so we decided to stay here, as did Bob & Louise on Easy Lady. In fact, we've seen several more boats in the anchorage lately and they're all staying until it passes too. Don Anderson
is a man who lives on his boat, Summer Passage, in Channel Islands Harbor and gives several weather reports every day. I think at last count he has about 10 reports he gives, at all hours of the day, and even to Naval ships in the area. He provides a much needed service to the entire boating/cruising community and we're grateful for his reports! We had looked at weather in the afternoon and all looked good, but he was able to forecast 48 hours to 5 days later….which was a huge help. There are
two high pressure systems causing this wind. One is sitting just off the Oregon coast, the other is in the New Mexico area. I'm still learning how to interpret the weather faxes but with the help of Don, who explains exactly what is happening, and the weather faxes in front of me, it makes sense! Again, we're very grateful that he provides this service…all volunteer!!

And so it goes - just when we thought we were outta here….NOT! J No problem… That's the wonderful part of cruising - we don't HAVE to be in a hurry! Our option was either to high-tail it down the coast to another safe secure anchorage, missing entirely the San Ignacio Lagoon, which I'm sure will be a highlight of the trip for me, or we would have had to backtrack, which Michael wasn't up to….or just stay here! We chose to stay. So yesterday Michael did projects - fiddled with the dinghy engine
spark plugs since it isn't running very smooth since it went swimming and read, Chad made a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs & scalloped potatoes then went over to Easy Lady & helped them re-anchor & help with some other of their boat projects. I keep telling him he's a handy person to have along! He could make some serious money helping all of the yachtista's in the harbor with their projects! He's not interested though… haha. I slept in - I haven't been feeling very well the last couple
days.

We showered up and went into town with Bob & Louise - and their boat dog - Scuppers (I don't think I've mentioned him before!), finding the panaderia (the bakery for fresh bread, cookies, & pastries…yum!), some camarones (shrimp), & bistek (steak) for fajitas tonight. I've been practicing my espanol (Spanish) as much as I can with each of the locals who will tolerate me. Unfortunately for me, I can understand them a whole lot better than I can speak it. But no one seems to mind when I whip out
my English/Spanish dictionary and find a word I'm struggling with. We walked around town a lot yesterday and found a paved road leading out of town - with street lamps and all - wow! We stopped at a local bar for a beer and I was able to spend about an hour talking to JoAnn, behind the bar. It was a cute place - had a little pool table that leaned significantly to the left, so watch out if the cue ball got even close to the pocket! It was fun talking to JoAnn - I told her where we came from,
where we were going, she spent lots of time telling me about her family who has owned the bar for 40 years and this year it will be remodeled, making it a two story bar/restaurant, then they hope to sell it. She also told me she had just gone out on Sunday to Punta de Eugenia (Eugenia Point) where she saw several ballenas (whales). I told her I can't WAIT to see them….but I don't think that translates…so I said I was very excited to see them, which she understood. She said the closest town was
500meters from here. We left there and went to the internet café, but it was closed again. We headed back to the panaderia as when we first visited, they were just cooking the bread and would be done in 2 hours, then went to the market just around the corner to pick up the steak, then back to Enrique's restaurant where we had arranged with Enrique to purchase some shrimp. Enrique was there with several other family members bbq'ing and so we were able to spend about an hour talking to him as well.

Enrique owns the pier, two gas stations in town, the restaurant, & the fuel/taxi panga service. He said his dad, Gordo, had run the business before and he only wants to make his father proud that he's providing a good service to the visiting boats. When you're pulling into the harbor, you can hail the fuel dock and a panga will greet you at the entrance of the harbor and direct you to safe anchorages & help you as needed. His sister is Dolores, who has been taking good care of us at the restaurant
and offers a laundry service as well. He's a wonderful person and we enjoyed, very much, visiting with him. So when you come to Turtle Bay, be sure to say HI to Enrique and be sure to eat or drink at the restaurant and say hi to Dolores.

We headed back to the boat since it was FREEZING outside again…it's back down in the 60's, although still sunny. Michael made Rice bowls for dinner and we all listened to the evening net and watched a movie - Zodiak. I even checked into the evening net without a relay this time! This morning the wind piped up to about 20-25 already. It's mid morning and Chad is cleaning & deveining the 1 kilo of shrimp we picked up yesterday and Michael's working adjusting the time on the GPS. They've let out
another 50 feet or so of chain, preparing for tonight's blow into the 40's. I've been nice & lazy so far…haven't done anything more than sleep in, eat breakfast, & write this blog - in fact I'm still in my PJ's. But shortly we'll be getting cleaned up to go into town for more groceries. We might not be able to get into town tomorrow and are running out of eggs again, hope to find a green pepper for fajitas, & hope to get into the Internet café again.

Our plan is to ride out these winds so we can enjoy the trip down the coast & visit whale bay, as we have nicknamed it. It's looking like we'll be leaving early Saturday morning. But I'll report if that plan changes again. Until then, we will enjoy the town more.

More to follow…
Rene