Chamela & Cabo Corrientes 2.13.10

That was a bash! And no, that’s not a good thing. We left Tenacatita and rounded the corner for the quick trip up to Chamela and were met with winds on the nose and a swell that was pushing us backward! It wasn’t awful and wasn’t good, it just was. Outrider decided to stay for one more day in Barra and Slacker turned into Tenacatita but Pacific Jade and us hung in there and made it to Chamela with no issues. The boat was salty from the spray we took but that’ll wash off. Michael and I tucked up super close to the mainland side of the anchorage as the winds were still blowing 15-20 knots but luckily the swell was coming from the same general direction and was pleasant enough. There were only 3 other boats in the anchorage when we arrived and Pacific Jade decided to anchor between the two islands for the night. We were rewarded with a beautiful sunset that evening.



We settled down for the night, listened to any weather we could get, and made a plan for the following day….snorkel around, enjoy some refreshments, and enjoy Joe & Deb’s company since we will need to part ways here pretty soon (boo hoo!!). That sounds like a grand plan! Only one thing can stop us…..and did!

Weather.

That darn mother nature sure is putting a crinkle in our plans with her wild and wily weather this season. Not that I’m complaining – I know she’s in charge, but I’d sure like here to let us play with our friends now and again! Is that too much to ask for?! Haha…

We woke the next morning to more wind & swells, this time from a different direction. We upped anchor and went over in between the two islands and finally managed to get a good hold on the anchor (after 3 attempts! It’s a rocky surface and is hard to find a good hold). We were rocking and rolling but felt that the weather would lay down a bit as the morning unfolded so we stayed. There were several boats that were intent on making the crossing – Harmony, Outrider, Slacker, & Mulan – but they were reporting the seas to be lumpy and uncomfortable. We were planning to wait it out, talking to each other to make up our minds, ‘Should I stay or should I go now?’. C’mon….sing it with me! Lord knows we sung it over and over and over and over!! Michael claims he has never been so indecisive! If we left, we would face lumpy seas and winds coming from behind us. Uncomfortable but do-able. If we stayed, it could be just as uncomfortable at anchor. But what about those mixed seas at Cabo Corrientes? Argh…the list goes on and on and it was a difficult decision but we finally decided to pull anchor and follow the rest of the pack around Corrientes.



We left the anchorage around 3pm or so and stuck out nose outside the protected islands. It was lumpy, but the winds and seas were behind us, pushing us out and around. We had a single reef in the main and a single reef in the headsail and full mizzen and were scooting!! At times when we were surfing down a wave, we saw 9.5 knots! Whew!! It was a fun ride. There were large swells but they were well spread out and no problem. We went around Cabo Corrientes around midnight and the seas were fine. We had about 15-20 knots of wind and after we went around Ipala it started to get lumpy & bumpy but it was still fine. We finally pulled into the La Cruz anchorage around 5am and it was still pitch black. I absolutely HATE pulling into an anchorage when it’s dark. The anchor lights on the boat blend in with the lights on land, there were two extremely large commercial boats with their lights blaring and it’s just hard to judge distance. We were tired and didn’t care at that point so we motored over to the anchorage, watched closely on radar for other boats, found a spot that had no other boats around us and dropped anchor. Whew! We were exhausted and went down for some much needed rest.

More to follow…
Rene